The Gospel never grows old. Hear Billy Graham explain how the Good News applies to every generation in this 1981 message from San Jose, California.
from our archives the billy graham
classics
to you that are watching by television
this great stadium here at
san jose university
in the southern area of san francisco
bay in san jose
is filled to overflowing there are few
empty seats here and there but if you
took the people on the ground that are
sitting all over the ground it more than
fill
this
great stadium where the spartans play
tonight i want you to turn with me to
the old testament to joshua the 24th
chapter
to joshua the 24th chapter now you that
are watching on television are going to
see a telephone number across the screen
you call
anytime during this program or after the
program and their counselor is standing
by to talk with you about your spiritual
problems and your spiritual needs
and so pick up the phone and call if you
call and it’s busy call again
now the 24th chapter of joshua
joshua as you know was a great military
leader
and he took the place of moses when
moses
went to be with the
and the 15th verse
now he had called all the leaders of
israel together at a place called
shechem
and he’s getting ready to die and this
is his farewell address
and during this address he warns the
people about their idolatry he warns
them that the judgments of god will fall
upon them unless they live
for the lord and here’s what he says
and if it seems evil unto you to serve
the lord
choose you this day whom you will serve
if you want to serve the devil serve him
but make a choice
whether the gods which your father
served that were on the other side of
the flood are the gods of the amorites
in whose land you dwell
but then he says
as for me and my house
we will serve the lord
joshua said if every one of you serves
other idols and other gods
makes no difference
as for me and my house we’ve already
made a decision
we are going to serve the lord
and that’s a decision that every single
person here tonight
has to make
you either have to decide that you’re
going to serve the gods
of materialism all around us
or
the true and the living god
and joshua was warning the people
to choose god to follow him
instead of these other gods
and so
we have to make a choice
moses had warned israel much earlier
generation earlier when he was dying he
said i call heaven and earth to record
this day against you that i’ve set
before you life and death blessing and
cursing therefore choose life that both
thou and thy seed may live
moses had said the same thing that
joshua is saying
separated by many years
and every generation has to hear it
over and over and over again and that’s
why the gospel never grows old
it applies to every generation alike
we have to make a choice
alexander the great was asked how he
conquered the world he said by not
wavering
and james says in the first chapter he
that wavereth is like a wave of the sea
driven with the wind and tossed
he said a double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways
are you unstable about your relationship
to christ do you waver in your
relationship to christ
or are you totally committed to christ
as savior and law
why do you waver about it
many of you wave over the way you live
and jesus warned the hypocrites people
who pretend one thing and live another
this was his great battle with the
hypocrites in the church
we have old proverbs that are familiar
to us all
he who hesitates is lost
procrastination is the thief of time a
stitch in time saves nine
a bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush
don’t waver make a decision do it now
that’s what joshua was saying
and joshua the great military hero that
had led them from victory to victory
reminded them of all the victories that
god had given
and he said serve god and live
serve these other gods and you’ll die
and come under the judgment of god and
the message has not changed
now the wars were over
but joshua found that the people were
going toward idolatry and many times the
problems of peace are greater than the
problems of war
and he had called all these leaders to
shechem now shechem was a
place the most historical place in all
of israel at that time and still is
today it was where abraham had first
settled when he left ur of the chaldees
it is where jacob had purchased his
parcel of land it was where the bones of
joseph had been buried when they were
brought up from egypt
and so he has their two mountains there
i’ve stood there
and on one mountain he put six of the
tribes and on the other mountain he put
the other six and joshua spoke with a
mighty voice even though he was an old
man
and he reviews the history of israel and
how god had blessed them and how they
had won their victories not by their own
power and their own strategies and their
own ingenuity and their own strength but
by the power of god
and the people should have been grateful
to god but instead they were now going
to other gods
and we in america
should be grateful to god for the
blessings he’s given us
but what do we find
we find that we’re worshiping other gods
the gods of pleasure
the gods of lust and greed and hate
the gods of materialism
even the gods of war
and joshua tells them that such a
condition cannot continue
they must decide whether they want to
serve the idols or to serve the living
god
and he will not allow any neutrality
neither does jesus christ and joshua
said you have to decide immediately now
choose you this day not tomorrow this
day
whom you’re going to serve and many of
you are going to have to decide tonight
what is the number one priority in your
life
is the priority
christ
or is the prior to something else
christ demands first place
there’s no room
on the throne of your heart
for two gods
it’s either christ
or it’s
the other god
because i believe the emphasis must we
must lay it out straight that you cannot
serve
god and mammon you must make a choice
and i found that the harder the
challenge is the greater the response
young people today want a challenge
they want something tough and hard all
right give your life to christ
he’ll challenge you because he says you
must deny self and take up a cross
he says i’m going to a place of
execution come and go with me
deny your own selfish ambitions and lust
and turn to me
and go to the cross with me
now paul taught that a christian is
someone who has turned to god from idols
to serve the living and the true god
there’s a film showing throughout the
world this year called the idol maker
but a christian is an idol breaker
and regardless of their decision joshua
said it’s for me and my house we’re
going to serve the lord
you know adam and eve had to make a
choice in the garden of eden
god said if you
want to build a wonderful world
we’ll build it together
but i’m going to test you because i’ve
given to you
the ability to choose
i haven’t made you a robot in which i
could punch a button and you would obey
me
i’ve made you in my image
you have the right to choose
so when adam and eve
face that choice
they chose
wrongly
they broke the law of god and god said
in the day that you do you will suffer
and die
and man has been suffering ever since
and it’s all because of that first sin
in the garden of eden
and man has been inheriting that
tendency to sin
ever since the seed of sin is in us when
we’re born
david said in sin did my mother conceive
me
think of it now at conception
sin
was already planted
and then comes the age of accountability
moral accountability maybe eight or nine
or ten years of age when you
are held accountable by god for your
actions and you choose to sin and then
the rest of your life you practice sin
you’re born towards sin
you choose to sin at a certain point
and then you practice it and the bible
says we have all sin
and we’re all idolaters
now adam had to make a choice and he
made the wrong choice
you have to make a choice many of you
that are watching by television i hope
that you’ll use that telephone number
right now and call in and make the
choice for christ and say to that
counselor as for me in my house i choose
the lord
and then
many choices like the rich young ruler
remember he came to jesus
and he was filled with questions and
he wanted eternal life and he said
sir what must i do to find eternal life
and jesus said looked at him and loved
him and
said go sell all that you have
give it to the poor
take up the cross
follow me
the young man was grieved
he wept
he wanted christ
but he wanted his money more
now if he had said all right i’ll do it
lord i’m sure the lord would have said
no it’s not your money i want i want
your heart
it’s our attitude toward these idols and
toward the these things the television
itself can become an idol when we walk
into the room all conversation stops and
we sort of sit there and reverence
watching that box
to see if j.r is going to be shot again
now the bible says we must choose two
ways of life
jeremiah had written thus saith the lord
behold i set before you the way of life
and the way of death there’s a way of
life there’s a way of death which way
are you on
jesus said i am the one
i am the one i’m the only one
i’m the only way to permanent peace i’m
the only way to
permanent joy i’m the only way to
eternal life i’m the only way to
forgiveness of sin i’m the only way to
the father
you have to come by me
and that eliminates a lot of people when
jesus began to talk about dying on the
cross
a lot of his followers left him
they said lord we thought you were going
to sit up on a big throne and we were
going to drive in cadillacs
and we were going to have beautiful
swimming pools and lovely ladies and all
the rest of it we didn’t really know
that you
were going to die and wanted us to go
with you we thought this was going to be
a kingdom and we were going to overthrow
rome and we were going to rule the world
and that is going to happen someday
but not now the cross before the crown
some of us want the crown before the
cross
the bible says there is a way
that seemeth right unto a man but the
end thereof are the ways of death
what are some of the ways well some
people say i’m going to follow my
conscience but you don’t follow your
conscience
many of us have dead consciences your
conscience is no longer a safe guide
you’ve hardened it you’ve deadened it
and then other people say well
i try to be sincere in everything i do
we’re here on a football
stadium right here
and many years ago i saw a man pick up a
football
and he ran 65 yards the wrong way
now he was one of the most sincere
fellas you ever saw
lost the game
and then there are many people that say
well you know i do a lot of good works
and
i give money to charitable causes and i
do all that i’m sure god will understand
the bible says for by grace are ye saved
through faith not not that not of
yourselves but the gift of god not of
works lest any man should boast
see if you could work your way to heaven
and
pay your way to heaven you’d get up and
say look what i did i got myself here by
my own good works
the only way you’re ever going to make
it is to come to that cross
where christ took our sins and our
judgment and our hell and identify
ourselves with him
and then there’s some people that say
well
i’ll reform i’ll do better i know people
that are always
saying i’m going to do better
but they never do better they don’t have
any power within them to do better until
they come to christ and when you come to
christ an explosion takes place
of power
that he gives you to live a new life
i can’t live the christian life
i have no power within me to live the
christian life the holy spirit has to
live in me
and christ has to live through me
i cannot live the christian life i’m a
total flop in failure
jesus said enter yen at the straight
gate for wide is the gate and broad is
the way that leadeth to destruction and
many
there be which go in there because
straight is the gate and narrows the way
that leadeth unto life and few there be
that find him
phew he said only a few are going to
find
that narrow gate in that narrow way as i
said last evening
are you among that few
you not only choose between two ways of
life but you choose between two masters
jesus said no man can serve two masters
father he will hate the one and love the
other or else he will hold to the one
and despise the other you cannot serve
god and materialism he says in matthew
the sixth chapter in the sermon on the
mount you have to make a choice
all the way through the bible choices
choices choices choices choices
not only between two ways of life and
two masters but you’re going to have to
choose between two fathers
two spiritual fathers
he said in john 8 a very shocking
statement
the 44th verse
he said you are of your father the devil
and the lust of your father you will do
now he says for many of you the devil is
your spiritual father
now you’re not aware of it
you wouldn’t admit it
but that’s the way god looks at it
there’s either god your spiritual father
the true and the living god christ
or
there is the devil
and then you have to choose not only
between two ways of life and two masters
and two fathers but you have to choose
between two destinies heaven or hell
solomon wrote about the way to hell in
proverbs 7 27.
c.s lewis the great cambridge and oxford
professor he taught at both universities
he used to emphasize he said no one ever
had so much to say about the way to hell
as did jesus christ
on the other hand no one ever spoke of
heaven with more clarity and authority
as jesus christ
and one of the most played pop songs is
the led zeppelin stairway to heaven
jesus christ is the stairway to heaven
he is the way to heaven
come to him
and if you want to come to him pick up
that telephone if you’re watching
and call that counselor who’s waiting to
talk to you about the way to heaven and
how you can find christ
he said in my father’s house on many
mansions if it were not so i would have
told you
yes jesus
is in heaven preparing your estate right
now
waiting for you
there is a future life
and eternal life does not begin when you
die and go to heaven it begins here and
now when you make this choice for christ
because eternity eternal life comes to
dwell in your heart tonight jesus christ
is the gateway to heaven
now this choice also you must make
yourself
joshua said it’s for me and my house we
will serve the lord
your father can’t make it for you your
mother can’t make it for you
your children can’t make it for you
this is where you must choose yourself
he knew that he could not choose for the
tribes of israel they must choose for
themselves man is a social being
however there’s an inner sanctuary
within ourselves where we retire from
all other fellowships
comradeships
and influences and there’s a lonely
arena where the greatest battles of life
must be fought alone
and this is a decision that you have to
make alone
moses said
i call heaven and earth to record this
day
that i have set before you life and
death blessing and cursing therefore
choose life
that thou and thy seed may live forever
notice it says thy seed
this has something to do with your
children and your grandchildren and your
children’s children my son and i were
talking tonight about how it passes on
from generation to generation
this faith that we have in christ
the writer to hebrews recounts how moses
esteeming the reproach of christ greater
riches in the treasures of egypt
choosing rather to suffer the affliction
with the people of god than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season he made a
choice moses could have probably been
the pharaoh of egypt
he was the son of pharaoh’s daughter
heir to all the riches and power of
egypt
and he made a choice
to suffer persecution
and the reproach
with the people of god he didn’t know
that his name would be in history he
didn’t know that someday he would lead
all of israel he didn’t know that
someday he would be considered one of
the greatest men that ever lived
when he made that choice
he made it on the basis of simple faith
in god
some think that guy lafla
is the world’s greatest hockey player
and he said a month ago that each of us
has only one past
but there are many futures
you see you can’t change your past
but you can determine your destiny by
deciding for christ and when you do that
christ changes your past he wipes out
all the sins of the past
because you see the blood of jesus
christ his son cleanses from all sin
without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness when he died on that
cross he forgave all the past
you
tonight are reminded
of the many sins in your life the holy
spirits bring them to your mind right
now
and you know they stand against you at
the judgment where every secret thing
will be brought out
but jesus tonight offers forgiveness
but he offers more than forgiveness he
offers justification just as though you
had never committed a sin
what a wonderful thing to go to bed
tonight and know that the past is gone
forgiven
cleansed
and god no longer remembers your sins
yes
and this choice is very urgent
to delay makes the right decision harder
indecision is itself a choice not to
decide is to decide not to
choose now
nowhere in the bible does it promise a
tomorrow
come while you can
time itself makes the decision for you
if you don’t you say but what do i have
to do
three things
you must be willing to repent of your
sin that means to change your way of
thinking
about your sins and realize how bad they
are in the sight of god
change your way you’re thinking about
god and say i love him and i’m going to
love him with all my heart mind and soul
i’m going to make him the priority of my
life
i’m going to put him first from now on
he’s going to be not only my savior but
my lord you may be a member of the
church you may not be a member of any
church
you may be a officer in the church but
you’re not sure about your relationship
with christ and you want to be sure
and you must be willing to repent and
secondly by faith receive christ into
your heart that means you put your whole
weight on him and trust him and him
alone
and thirdly you follow and serve him as
his disciple and follower and obey him
that means a big change for many of you
if you make this choice
i’m going to ask you to make it now
and i’m going to ask you to do it
publicly as we’ve seen
thousands of people this week already
come to christ i’m going to ask you to
get up from your seat if you start from
that top stand up there it’ll take you
two minutes so start now
and come and stand in front of this
platform as you all stand here in front
of the platform i’m going to say a word
to you and have a prayer with you
and give you some literature and you can
go back and join your friends you’re
making that choice by coming and
standing here
and the reason i do it publicly is
because every person that jesus called
he called publicly
joshua called upon the people publicly
moses called upon the people publicly
to inscribe
their commitment
that would be seen publicly for
generations to come
i’m asking you tonight to publicly and
openly come
and say tonight
christ is going to be priority in my
life i want to know that i have eternal
life
and you that have been watching by
television pick up the telephone and
call that number
there are people standing by to talk to
you right now
[Music]
[Applause]
as hundreds are responding to mr
graham’s invitation to make a public
commitment to jesus christ you can make
that same commitment right where you are
just pick up the phone and call the
number you see on your screen
special friends are waiting to talk with
you and pray with you about this most
important decision
[Music]
you that are watching by television can
see that here
in this stadium at san jose university
in california
that hundreds of people are coming to
make their commitment to christ pick up
the
phone you see on your screen you dial
that number
and if you don’t get in right away
keep calling they’ll be there all
evening
and make your commitment to christ over
the telephone or ask the counselor to
ask answer your questions
god help you to make that commitment and
please go to church next sunday
if you just prayed that prayer with my
father or if you have any questions
about a relationship with jesus christ
i’ll just call that number that is on
the screen
there’ll be someone there to talk with
you pray with you and answer those
questions and remember
god loves you
[Music]
if you would like to commit your life to
jesus christ please call us right now
toll-free at 1-877-772-4559
that’s 1-877-772-4559
or you can write to us at billy graham
one billy graham parkway department c
charlotte north carolina 28201
or you can contact us on the web 24 7 at
peacewithgod.com
we’ll get the same helps to you that we
give to everyone who responds at the
invitation
on behalf of franklin graham and the
billy graham evangelistic association
thank you for watching and thank you for
your prayers
[Music]
[Applause]
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billy graham library
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