You can’t say “no” without Christ. Billy Graham preaches on temptation in this 1987 message from Fargo, North Dakota.
From our archives…
The Billy Graham Classics.
Now I want you
to turn with me
to First Corinthians,
the ninth chapter
beginning at verse 24.
“Know ye not that
they which run a race run all,
“but only one receives
the prize?
“So run,
that ye may obtain.
“And every man that striveth
for the mastery is temperate
“in all things.
“Now, they do it to obtain
a corruptible crown;
“but we an eternal
incorruptible crown.
“I therefore so run,
not as uncertainly;
“so fight I, not as one
that beateth the air:
“But I keep my body
under subjection,
“lest that by any means
when I preach to others,
“I myself should be
disapproved.”
Then the 12th verse
of the next chapter.
“Wherefore let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed
“lest he fail.”
“There hath no trial or
temptation or trouble taken you
“but such as is common to
all men.
“But God is faithtul, who will
not allow you to suffer
“to be tempted above that
ye are able;
“but will with the temptation
or the trial
“also make a way to escape, that
ye may be able to bear it.”
Young people today are faced
with so many problems,
especially peer pressure.
And the hardest word that young
people have to say today is
the little word no.
Whether it’s drugs.
Whether it’s picking up
a cigarette.
Whether it’s illicit sex.
Whatever it is,
it’s the hardest word.
Do you say no
when the peer pressure comes?
When the hormones begin to rise?
When the excitement is there?
Yes, we’re all tempted,
but there’s no temptation
taken you,
but what everybody else has had.
You say, “Well, did Jesus have
temptations like that?”
Of course He did.
It says, “He was tempted in
every point like as we are,
“yet without sin.”
Because the moment
you are tempted,
God provides
a way to escape.
There is a way out.
He provides it,
but you have to make
the decision to go that way
and when make that decision
the Holy Spirit is there
to help you,
and give you strength
and courage.
And then another man,
another person in the Bible,
a young person,
was named Daniel.
In Daniel 1:8 it says,
“And Daniel purposed
in his heart
“that he would not
defile himself
“with the portion of
the king’s meat,
“nor the wine
which he drank.”
Daniel was a young man
with a purpose.
His motivation to serve God
had come early,
because Nebuchadnezzar,
the great king of Babylon
had come over to Jerusalem
and captured Jerusalem.
Captured the king and captured
a few young Jewish men
that he wanted to
take back to Babylon
and train them in
the language of Babylon
and all ways of Babylon
so that they could be of help
to him in running his empire.
And one of them was Daniel.
And he wanted young men with
whom there was no blemish,
well favored, and
skillful in all wisdom,
and cunning in knowledge,
and understanding science.
He wanted him to be
proficient in physics
and all the scientific studies
of that day.
And during
the period of training
they brought the finest foods
for Daniel to eat.
But Daniel wanted
the simple lifestyle.
He wanted to eat
ordinary food.
He didn’t want the rich food
off the kings table.
And he asked the head of
their training program,
his professor,
if he could do it.
and the professor hesitated.
He said, “If the king finds out
about it, I’ll loose my head.”
So Daniel said, “Well,
why don’t you give us ten days
“and let’s try it out.”
And so in ten days they fed them
just beans and water
and the things that Daniel was
used to eating.
Simple food.
And when the ten days were
finished,
Daniel and his friends were
stronger and better looking
than all the others that
they’d been feeding
all those fine foods to
from the king’s table.
How different from
those who can’t wait until
they get away from home
to live it up,
because Daniel had been taken
1500 miles.
Who would know?
Who would care if he drank
the wine and got drunk,
and ate the finest and
lived a soft lifestyle?
Daniel was far away
from home,
but he lived the life
he had learned to live
as a young man of God.
He could have gained popularity
by indulging.
And this early no in his youth
prepared him for the big no
when he had to face
the den of lions,
when he had to face
Belshazzar, the king.
He said no, because he’d learned
in the very beginning.
We defile ourselves by
over eating.
Eleven times we’re told about
overindulgence of food
in the Bible.
Over drinking alcohol,
drug taking,
too much television.
Jesus said,
in Luke 21:34,
“And take heed to yourselves
lest at any time your hearts be
“overcharged with surfeiting,
and drunkenness,
“and the cares of this life,
“so that the day of death comes
upon you unawares.”
Or the day of His coming comes
upon you unawares.
Paul said, “Make not provision
for the flesh,
“to fulfill the lusts thereof.”
Peter said, “For the time past
we walked in lasciviousness,
“lusts, excess of wine,
revellings, banquetings
“and abominable idolatries.”
What about you?
Do you live
a disciplined life?
Do you live
an organized life?
Have you got your life organized
and disciplined to the point
that you can say no
to those things that you know
that are hurting your body?
You see the BIble teaches that
your body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit.
God doesn’t live in
a church building.
God lives in you.
And a group of us called
the church an assembly
make up the church.
And we use the building
and its facilities to meet in
and so it’s a sacred building,
it’s a holy building,
as the Temple was
in Jesus’ day,
or the synagogues were
considered.
But the real temple of God is
your body,
and yet you harm your body
by the way you treat it.
And then another man in the
Bible, a young man that said no,
that changed history,
was Joseph.
He was the boy that his father
loved the best, apparently.
And the other children became
jealous and envious of him.
And so they said,
“Let’s kill him.”
And Reuben said,
his oldest brother said,
“No, let’s put him
in a pit
“and we’ll just leave him
to die there
“and father will not know
the difference.”
But then some
Ishmaelites came along.
and they said, “Let’s sell him
and make some money
“and then his blood won’t be
on our hands.
“We’ll let
the Ishmaelites take him.”
So they sold him into slavery
to these Ishmaelites.
and they took him
on to Egypt.
and they sold him to a man
by the name of Potiphar
that was in
the cabinet of Pharaoh.
And he became a slave,
strong, handsome.
And Genesis 39 tells us of
the temptation of Joseph.
And he said no.
Because Potiphar’s wife was
a beautiful woman,
and a sexy woman.
And she came to him
and she said,
“Joseph, come and lie with me.
Go to bed with me.
“I’ve been wanting you
ever since you’ve been here
“and now all the men are gone,
my husband’s away.
“Come with me.”
And he said, “No, I will not do
this great wickedness.
“Your husband has
treated me well
“and I would sin against my God
if I did that.”
And she begged him and
finally, she became angry.
And he rushed out of the house
and left his coat behind.
And she began to
scream and yell.
She yelled, “Rape,
he tried to rape me.”
and when her husband came home
he had Joseph thrown
into prison.
Joseph said, “No.”
But then God was with Joseph
in the prison.
and you all know the story of
how God used Joseph
and made him the prime minister
of all of Egypt.
And helped save, again,
his family later on.
A long story which I don’t have
time to tell tonight.
but most of you know it,
I’m sure.
Now the Bible teaches that
sex is not a sin.
God gave it,
it’s a gift from God.
It’s the wrong use of sex
that’s the sin.
God gave you the ability
to make love,
but within the bonds of
matrimony, not outside.
Adultery’s wrong.
That’s when two people
who are married;
and then fornication,
unmarried people.
It’s wrong.
It’s a sin.
and I know that
the tremendous urge
especially when you see it
at every counter
where they sell books
and magazines.
You see it
on the television.
You see it in the movies,
you see it everywhere.
And the whole atmosphere
saturated with the idea of sex.
How do you say no?
I don’t believe young people
today can say no without Christ.
With Christ and with
the Holy Spirit
giving you supernatural power,
you can say no.
But I’ll tell you
it’s tough.
But the marks of
a Christian are
self-control and
self-discipline.
Paul wrote to Timothy and said,
“Keep thyself pure.”
He said, “Flee,
flee youthful lust, run.”
When that temptation comes run.
He also said, “But I keep
my own body under
“and I bring it
into subjection.”
What about you?
Do you do that?
Joseph did and God greatly used
and blessed Joseph.
And he’ll use and bless you
if you’ll say no.
But suppose you say yes
to any of these things?
What are you going to do?
All right, we’re all born with
the seed of sin in our hearts.
“In sin did my mother conceive
me,” said David.
But you see these people made
their decisions
when they were young.
And God gave them
the power to say no
to the things
that were wrong.
Whether it’s a lie,
whether it’s jealousy,
whatever it is.
And we’re all sinners.
We’ve all broken God’s law.
We all deserve judgment
and we deserve hell,
but that’s why
Jesus Christ came.
Do you know why He came?
Because the Bible teaches
God is love.
God loves you.
and if were the only person
in the whole world
God would love you.
And He would love you so much
that He would give his Son
to die on the cross for you
even if you were the only person
that had sinned against Him.
In spite of our sins,
in spite of our bad things
God loves us.
And that word love is a love
far beyond human love.
Agape love, God’s love,
supernatural love.
Love beyond anything that
you have ever known.
God loves you.
Don’t ever doubt it.
and if you don’t get anything
out of these three days
I hope you’ll get one thing,
that God loves you.
And God is willing
to forgive you of all your sins.
He’s willing to wipe
the slate clean.
He’s willing to fix it so
just as if you had never sinned.
That’s what the word
justification means.
Just as if
you had never sinned.
That’s what
the blood of Christ does.
When the blood was shed
on the cross
that blood cleanses
from all sin.
I deserve judgment
and I deserve hell,
but my sins are gone.
My judgment has passed.
It was taken on the cross
for Christ when God
“laid on Him
the sins of us all.”
I’m not going
to go to hell.
I know that;
I’m going to heaven.
If I died right now,
I know I’m going to heaven
because of the promise of
the word of God that,
“If we confess with our mouth
the Lord Jesus
“and believe in our hearts that
God raised him from the dead
“we shall be saved.”
I’ve done that,
I know that I’m saved.
“But as many as received Him
“to them gave He the power
to become the sons of God
“even to them that
put their faith in Him.”
Then there was another person
who made a decision to say no
when he was young
and that was Moses.
It says, “By faith Moses
when he was come to years
“refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”
“He chose,” notice,
“He chose rather
to suffer affliction
“with the people of God
“than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season.”
Yes, you can have
pleasure in sin.
You can have
a good time
in getting drunk on drugs
at a sex orgy.
You can have pleasure.
But it’s short.
It’s for a season.
It’s soon gone.
And Moses decided that
he would rather choose
God’s way.
We think of Moses sometimes
as an old man with a beard,
but it was in his youth that
he made the decisions
that brought him
to greatness.
And there’s a difference
in the Bible
between pleasure on the one hand
and joy on the other.
“He that loveth pleasure is
a poor man,”
said the writer of Proverbs.
Paul wrote to Timothy and said,
“But she that liveth in pleasure
“is dead while she lives.”
You’re living physically
but dead spiritually.
Your heart is dead toward God.
You can be a dead man.
I’ve just written
a book on death,
called Facing Death.
It’ll come out this fall.
And I’ve gone into
some of these things.
I’ve gone into such things
as euthanasia, suicide,
and all of these things that
people are talking about today.
What’s right
and what’s wrong
and how do we get
through these things.
The Bible says in
II Timothy, Paul wrote,
“We’re lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God.”
Pleasure, the things that appeal
to our flesh and our lust.
Joy is something else.
It runs deep and no matter
what the weather,
what the climate,
what the troubles,
what the difficulties are,
there’s a joy
because the joy is produced
by the Holy Spirit
supernaturally in you.
So that the whole world can
fall in on you and
there’s a joy
that’s always there.
We have about 15 or 20 springs
on our place at home.
And all of our springs seemed
to go dry,
but there’s one that
never wavered.
And that’s the way
with joy.
No matter what happens and
how the drought may come
it’s always there produced by
the Spirit of God.
But pleasure is different.
That’s temporary.
It only lasts
a short season.
What about you?
“Blessed are you,” said Jesus,
“when men shall hate you
“and when they shall separate
you from their company
“and shall reproach you and
cast out your name as evil
“for the Son of man’s sake.
“Rejoice ye in that day
and leap for joy
“for behold your reward is
great in heaven
“for in like manner did they
the Son of man.
“and they did
the same thing
“to the fathers
and the prophets.”
He’s says when you have
suffering for Jesus’ sake
and somebody makes fun of you
at school leap for joy!
Be joyful about it.
You’re doing it
for Jesus’ sake.
“but rather rejoice because
“your names are written
in heaven.”
Is your name written
in heaven?
If it is,
rejoice.
If it’s not, you better weep
until you do find Christ.
“These things have I spoken
unto you
“that my joy
might remain in you
“and that your joy
might be full.”
You can have Christ’s joy.
Do you have His joy?
“My brethren count it all joy
“when you fall into different
temptations and trials.”
Moses chose the joy of
following God
rather than all the pleasures
of Egypt,
because Moses was heir to
the throne of Egypt.
Many great things Moses did
in Egypt, a mighty man.
He gave it all up to follow God
out into the desert,
and to go with
the despised people
that were
the slaves in Egypt.
Then there’s Jesus.
The Bible says, “Tempted in
all points like as we are
“yet without sin.”
The devil took him
into the wilderness
and tempted him
three times.
and Jesus was hungry.
He hadn’t eaten forty days
and forty nights.
He was tired,
he was thirsty.
Yes, but you said he was God,
he was different.
Oh, no,
he had divested himself
of all those supernatural powers
at that moment.
He met the devil
just like you do as a man.
And the devil said,
“If you’re the Son of God
“command these stones
and turn them into bread.”
You can feed
the whole world
and there’ll no hunger
in the world.
You can solve all
the social problems
in the world right now,
Jesus.
You do that.
And did you know that
Jesus never argued with him.
He never debated him.
All He did was quote scripture.
He said,
“It is written, man shall
not live by bread alone,
“but by every word
that proceedeth
“out of the mouth of God.”
And then the second temptation
came when he said,
“If thou be the Son of God cast
thyself down, for it is written
“He shall give his angels charge
concerning thee
“and in their hands,
they shall bear Thee up.”
You see the devil had said,
“Jump out!
“Make a big spectacle
and people will believe.
“You don’t have to go
to the cross.
“You don’t have to die
on the cross
“as you’re planning to do
to save the world.
“You can do it and
they’ll all believe
“when they see the angels
catching you in mid-air.”
But Jesus said,
“It is written again
“Thou shall not tempt
the Lord thy God.”
and then
the third temptation was,
“All these things
will I give you
“if you’ll fall down
and worship me.”
He said, “Look at the world,
all the world,
“all the oil,
all the gold,
“all the power in the world
is yours.”
and Jesus didn’t dispute
with him
that he didn’t have
the power to offer it,
because he’s called
the god of this world,
the prince and power of the air,
the prince of this world.
The devil has tremendous power,
tremendous authority
and tremendous wealth.
And he can offer you
everything there is
if you just worship him
a little bit.
Just nod your head and say,
“all right, devil,
“I’ll go with you a little way,
anyway.”
Jesus didn’t do that.
He said,
“Get behind me Satan!
“It’s written thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God
“and Him only shalt thou serve.”
So the Bible says after
those three temptations
the devil left Him, and
the angels came
and helped Him.
Note those three things.
Jesus quoted scripture.
He was filled
with the Spirit.
He was in
the will of God.
Are you willing
to say tonight
no to the temptations
of the devil?
and yes to the call of Christ
who tells you,
“Repent of your sins.”
That means change
your way of living.
“Follow me.”
Oh, but you say, “Billy, I’m
a member of the church
“and I’ve been baptized,
and I’ve been confirmed.”
Yes, that’s a wonderful thing,
but it would wonderful
if would reconfirm
your confirmation.
It would be wonderful if
you would rededicate yourself
to the things that were promised
at baptism and at confirmation.
It would be wonderful
to come and say,
“I want to rededicate myself
to you Lord.”
Or for some of you
as thirty-some percent did
last night will say,
“I’m receiving You
for the first time.
“I really want to come
to Christ now.
“I want my sins forgiven.
“I don’t want to take a chance
of dying without God.”
Do you know Christ?
Have you received him?
You say, Billy,
what do I have to do?
Three things.
First, be willing to
change your ways.
Change your mind.
That’s called repentance
in the Bible.
The second, is by faith
you receive Christ.
You don’t work for it.
You don’t buy it.
It’s a free gift
and you receive it.
And thirdly, you’re willing
to follow him;
Bible reading, prayer,
witnessing, living,
letting love shine
through your life.
That’s what it means
to follow Christ.
That’s what it means
to say no
to the things the devil would
like for you to follow.
I’m going to ask you
to make that choice tonight.
I’m going to ask you
to do something
we saw hundreds of people do
last night.
and we’ve seen people
on every continent
in over 60 countries.
I’m going to ask you
to get up out of your seat
and come in front of
this platform and say tonight,
“I want Christ
in my heart.
“I want to know;
I want to be sure.
“I want to rededicate
my life to Him.
“I want a new power
in my life.
“A new joy
in my life.
“I want forgiveness of
my past mistakes and failures.
“I want to start on
a new road tonight.”
I’m going to ask you
to get up out of your seat
hundreds of you,
young and old alike.
Whatever your background.
You may be a member of
the best church in town
or you may not be
a member of any church,
but God has spoken to you
tonight.
There’s a little voice inside
speaking to you,
maybe making you
feel uncomfortable;
that’s the voice of
the Holy Spirit.
and without His drawing
and speaking and convicting
you’ll never come to Christ.
So you get up and come
right now, hundreds of you.
Just get up
out of your seat
and come and stand here
quietly and reverently.
We’re going to wait on you.
(Voice Over)
As many are responding
here at Dakota Field in Fargo,
so you can make your decision
for Christ where you are.
Just call the number on
your television screen
right now.
♪ To rid my soul
of one dark blot ♪
♪ To Thee whose blood
can cleanse each spot ♪
♪ O Lamb of God,
I come, I come. ♪
To you that have been watching
by television
God has been speaking to you.
and you see here scores and
even perhaps hundreds of people
that are coming to make
their commitment to Christ
here in North Dakota
and Minnesota.
You can come to Christ
right where you are,
in your room, at a bar, or
wherever you happen to be.
Say yes to Christ.
If you just prayed that prayer
with my father,
or if you have any questions
about a relationship
with Jesus Christ,
why don’t you call
the number on the screen.
There will be someone there
to talk with you, pray with you
and answer those questions.
And remember,
God loves you!
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
1 Billy Graham Parkway
Department C
Charlotte, NC 28201
Or you can contact us on the web
24/7 at PeaceWithGod.tv.
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.
(Billy Graham)
There’s only one way,
only one hope.
♪ Hear the sound of
a brand new day ♪
♪ Witness the story
that never fa-a-ades ♪
♪ Come, come with me ♪
♪ To the Billy Graham Library ♪