Full text of Billy Graham’s Message To America And The World……
TRANSCRIPT:
Billy Graham – Evangelist
The most important moment of your life may be in the next 30 minutes.
You may never have another moment like this. Almost everyone that I’m talking to tonight has problems and burdens and sins, lonelinessemptiness, fear.
This will be an hour of decision and you will never be the same today. Even if you refuse Christ, you’ll never be the same. Once you’ve faced Him, once you’ve heard the gospel and rejected it, you can never be the same.
It says when a rich young ruler rejected Christ, he turned away grieved, emotionally disturbed. Because when you reject the claims of Christ, that’s a very serious thing. It will be an hour of decision for many of you who receive Him today. Your life will never be the same, your home will never be the same.
So let’s listen carefully and prayerfully today and reverently to the message of the word of God.
And almost everyone is searching for something. And some of you don’t know what you’re searching for. Jesus said, I am the truth. I’m the embodiment of all truth. The thing that you’re really searching for that you think you could find in another marital experience or drugs, the thing you’re really searching for is Jesus Christ. He meets the deepest needs of every life, and He can meet your needs.
But you know, the whole Bible is a love story. It’s God’s love affair with the human race. You see, God has all those billions of planets out there, all those hundreds of billions of stars, and it’s all God’s. But of all the planets in the whole universe, the whole universe stands in awe at the love that God showers on this little planet called the earth.
And I imagine the people who live on other planets wonder why God doesn’t sweep this planet of rebellion out into oblivion. We’re the only planet in so far as I know that are in rebellion against God and yet in spite of our rebellion, in spite of our disobedience, in spite of our sins, God loves us. That’s the thrilling thing about it.
And God loves every person in the whole world with a love that is beyond our comprehension. And God proved His love by giving His Son on the cross. If you ever doubt that God loves, look at the cross, because God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:19) That’s the greatest illustration of love in the whole world is the cross.
Because God is saying from the cross, I love you, I love you, I love you. You and I were saved by the cross. Our Lord loved us so much that He gave His only Son to die on that cross.
Now love is not feeling, you say I feel I love him. It’s not feeling; love is doing, love is a verb. God did something, God gave His love: God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
The Apostle John looking at that cross said, ‘Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us.’(1 John 3:1)
And when you look at that cross and think about it, that the Romans used the instrument of execution on a colossal scale, and they put nails in the hands and spikes in the feet and spat on the people and mutilated the bodies, broke their legs to help them die quicker and all sorts of terrible things. The most cruel death in the whole world is the death of the cross. And our Lord was hanging there with the mocking crowd making fun of Him. And He hung there for you, and you, and you.
And God was saying, I love you. Who could doubt the love of God after an act like that?
I’ve heard about — I read about in the paper, I think yesterday about a father that gave a kidney for his daughter, and he died.
‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13) Jesus laid down His life for us. And that’s the reason the Scripture says there’s no other way to heaven. You can’t be saved any other way. You cannot find life with a capital L any other way. You cannot gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven without coming to the cross because if God could have found another way, He would have found it.
Now ancient Israel wanted Jesus to do something sensational to prove that He was really the Son of God. But Jesus is saying in this passage, you’re speaking for a sign. All right, I’ll give you a sign. I am the sign.
And Jesus would say that the people of Jonah’s day listened to the message of God and repented. And they’re going to rise up at the judgment as witnesses against the people of Jesus’ day that rejected Him. He said the queen of the south recognized the wisdom of Solomon, but He said, in Me, you have a greater wisdom than all the wisdom of Solomon. He said, you’re blind. You cannot see the truth, you’re deaf, and you cannot hear the truth.
He said, I’m the truth, I’m the light of the world, I’m the sign.
Now when you face Jesus, what is your reaction? When you’re confronted with Jesus Christ, what is your reaction? The reaction of the Scribes and the Pharisees was one of hostility. The people of Nineveh’s day were humbled and repented when they faced and confronted God. And the question that we all ask today is this question, what think ye of Christ? Who is He? Who is this Jesus? We cannot escape.
You remember that day when Saul, who was persecuting Christians, was on the road to Damascus and a blinding light came and he fell down and the first question he asked was, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’
The question that our generation of young people on the campus are asking today is, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’
Who is Jesus?
Why cannot we escape Him? Is He just a revolutionary hero? Why is He something more? He only lived 33 years. He never traveled more than 100 miles. He never had any formal education.
And yet 2000 years later, an entire generation is talking about Jesus Christ. Some say that He was a mad man. Some of the people of His day said He was mad, said He was a maniac. Was He?
There were others that said He was revolutionary. He’s come to lead a revolution. Was He a revolutionary? In the sense that He changed men’s lives, He was, but He never led a revolution against Rome. He never led a revolution against the existing authorities. As a matter of fact, some of them tried to get Him — some of them thought He was going to.
And when they found out that He was building a spiritual kingdom, they were no longer interested in Him. And when they tried to tempt Him about that, He said, bring me a coin. And he said, whose picture is on that coin? They said, Caesar’s.
He said, ‘All right, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.’ And the Scripture says they quit asking Him questions. They didn’t know how to answer that.
Or was Jesus an establishment man? Some people say that He represented the status quo. You know, actually, we don’t know what He looked like. We don’t know whether He had a long beard or not. Those are just pictures that artists have painted.
We don’t know whether He had long hair or not. He probably did because the people of that day, that was the style. But we don’t know. We don’t have a picture of Jesus and God did that purposely so that we would not be worshiping an image.
Because God is a Spirit and must be worshiped in spirit. (John 4:24)
What was He? That’s the question. Jesus Christ, who are You?
Who is Jesus?
We can’t escape Him. We try to run from Him, but there He is. He keeps popping up everywhere. Our greatest philosophers write about Him. Our greatest historians write about Him. Our greatest poems and plays are about Him. Our greatest architecture is about Him. And it’s all filled with paintings and pictures about Jesus.
You go anywhere and you’ll see images and art and much of the music has to do with Jesus. I can’t escape Him.
Well we know some things about Him. We know He was a Man. Jesus was completely human. He was representative of man because the Bible says he was identified — He was numbered with the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12)
We know that He was hungry, we know He got thirsty, we know He got tired, we know that He had the joys of friendship, we know that He wept at the tomb of a dead loved one. We know that He had all the characteristics of a man and yet very interestingly the Bible says that He never committed a sin. In fact He stood in front of the people of His generation and He said, I’ve never committed a sin.
But if any of you, My neighbors, ever seen Me commit a sin, they couldn’t say a thing. Wouldn’t that be something for a man to come along, 33 years of age and say, who of you have ever seen Me commit a sin?
Well I’ll tell you if I said that all my team would jump straight up and say, I have. My wife’s here. All of us are sinners but Jesus was tempted in every point like as we are. He went through every temptation you’ve ever been through. There isn’t a trial or a testing or a temptation that Jesus has not been through before you and He resisted them and overcame them all.
Every one, He was a man, just like you, but He was more than that. He claimed to be the unique, only Begotten, incarnate Son of God. In fact He claimed preexistence. The Scripture says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. (John 1:1) Before time began, He existed.
He said before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58) I am in eternal existence. No wonder they got angry. No wonder they threw stones at Him. No wonder they tried to kill Him. No wonder they eventually did crucify Him. He stood and said, I am God. Was He?
Was He who He claimed to be, the Son of the living God?
One day He asked His disciples, who do men say that I am?
And Peter answered and said, well, some of them say you’re John the Baptist come back or you’re Jeremiah or you’re Elijah.
He said, I’m really not interested in what the people say. I’m interested, Peter, in what you say. What do you say?
Peter said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’(Matthew 16:16)
And Jesus said, Peter, you’ve done well. You’ve passed your examination, but Peter, those are not your thoughts. Those thoughts came from God. It has been revealed to you by God.
Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of the living God. You know, at His incarnation or His birth, that was not His birth or that wasn’t the beginning. That wasn’t the origin of Jesus. That was the beginning of His incarnation because He has always existed from everlasting to everlasting. He is God, the Bible says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. In other words, the Logos, the Word of God, the eternal God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and lived like a man among us. That’s what the Bible teaches. And when you come to Jesus Christ, you have to accept that.
He wasn’t just another revolutionary. He wasn’t just another hippie. He was not just another great man. He was God in the flesh. And all the ethics that He taught, never a man spake like that man.
When you get hit on one side, He says, turn the other cheek. Jesus taught that we are to forgive. He taught a revolution in the way we are to live. He taught us that it wasn’t just our outward actions that God judges, but it’s the inward thoughts and intents.
He said, Moses said that in the Ten Commandments, thou shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that if you even look on a woman to lust after, you’ve already committed it.
He said, Moses said, thou shall not murder, but I tell you, if you have hate in your heart against your brother without cause, you’re already guilty.
He lifted man’s ethics to the highest claim and demanded that we live that kind of a life. He Himself lived that kind of a life.
Was He the Son of God?
Look at His authority. Jesus came unto them and spake unto them, saying, all authority has been given to Me. I know one thing, He forgave sin and no prophet ever did that. Jesus Himself forgave sin. He said, thy sins are forgiven thee.
I know that He had authority over nature. One night, He was in a storm. The lightning was flashing, the thunder was roaring, the sea was raging, the wind was blowing, the disciples were afraid, and Jesus was asleep in the boat, and He stood up in the boat and said, peace be still. The lightning quit its flashing and the thunder quit its roaring, and the rain ceased to fall, and the wind quieted down, and the sea quieted down, and nature obeyed Him.
And our young people believe that today because one of their top tunes at the moment is, put your hand in the hand of the one who calmed the sea.
He calmed the sea. He had power over nature.
I was flying, Cliff Barrows and some of us were flying some time ago. I think we were leaving, we’re in a typhoon leaving the Philippines. And just before we got out of the typhoon, I was the captain of the plane that invited me to sit up front with him, and it was fairly smooth. We had a lot of rain and all, it wasn’t too rough, but all of a sudden the plane hit something it seemed to me as though it had hit a wall. It jolted and jerked and quivered and went up and down for about two minutes, and then all of a sudden we plunged out into brilliant sunshine, into smooth air.
And the captain turned to me with the perspiration coming down his face. He said, you know, he said that was God telling us there’s something up here more powerful than this airplane. But Jesus could take a storm like that and turn it around. He could take the lightning and throw it back in the clouds. He has power over nature.
Why? Because He’s the God of nature. Those are His laws, they’re obeying Him.
He had authority over disease, but Jesus did make the blind to see. He made the deaf to hear. He made the dumb to talk. He raised the dead according to the record. He had authority over demons.
You say, Billy, do you believe in demons? I surely do. And Jesus confronted demons time after time and He could cast them out. And people that were insane under the powers of demons would regain their sanity.
And then look at the death He died. Did ever a man die like Jesus? The lightning flashed and the thunder roared and the earth began to shake. And even the soldiers confessed that this must be the Son of God. Anyone that can see Jesus on that cross and not be touched has a heart of stone.
They first took off His clothes, then they took long leather thongs with steel pellets or lead pellets on the end and beat Him across the back until He could hardly stand up.
Then they put a crown of thorns on His brow and His face was bleeding. And they laughed at Him and they spit on Him and they mocked Him. And with one snap of his finger, 72,000 angels had already drawn their swords ready to come to His rescue and wiped this planet out of existence in the universe. And Jesus said, no, to this end was I born.
And He dragged and lifted and hauled that cross. And don’t you black people ever forget one thing, the man that helped Jesus carry that cross was a black man. And don’t ever forget another thing, Jesus belongs to Africa as much as He does to Europe and Asia. He was born in that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe and Jesus was not a white man like me, nor was He as black as some of you. We don’t know what the color of His skin, but it must have been a dark color like the people of His day, because He was a man like them.
Don’t ever say it’s a white man’s religion or a black man’s religion, it’s a world religion. He belongs to the world.
On the cross He said, ‘My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ And then He dropped His head and said, it’s finished. What did He mean?
He meant ‘Your plan of salvation is finished.’ God can now forgive you of all your sins because Jesus had finished God’s plan for your salvation. Because you see, God knows every one of you by name, He has the hairs of your head numbered. God looks upon you as though you were the only person in the whole universe. He sees you and you alone, and on that cross Jesus had the capacity to think of you. And He loved you enough to stay on the cross.
Was there ever such a love as that? When He could have been rescued and taken back to heaven and to sit on his throne, but He didn’t. He said, no, I’m doing it for the joy that is set before Me, because He saw that He would be raised from the dead. He saw that there would be a gathering in the generations to come of a people for His name that would make up His body. He saw the day when we will reign with Him in His kingdom, the resurrection.
And if you don’t have the resurrection, you don’t have any gospel. Jesus Christ is alive. And when they went out to the tomb that morning, they heard the greatest news the world has ever known. He is not here, He is risen.
He is alive today. And the thing that inspired the disciples to turn the world upside down in their day was the resurrection. They went everywhere declaring that Jesus is alive.
You know, some of us Christians live as though Jesus is dead. He’s not dead. He’s alive. Oh, you’re going through your troubles and your trials and your temptations and your testings and your pressures. And you’re under satanic attack all the time constantly.
You know, I think in many ways, in some ways, it’s easier not to be a Christian in this world because the devil may leave you alone. The moment you receive Christ as Savior, you’re in for it unless you live on your knees and live in the Scriptures and keep your guard up and have your spiritual armor on at all times.
Because if you let down even one day as a Christian, you’re in trouble. The moment you receive Christ, you see all the world is going this way, you turn around and start against the tide as a Christian. And that’s hard.
You know, if I had, if I had no proof whatsoever, no scientific proof that Jesus ever lived, I still would trust Him because of what He’s done for me, the joy and the peace and the security and the love that He’s given to me, His grace, that is mine today.
And then the satisfaction that He gives to those who trusted Him, who art thou Lord?
Jesus Christ, are You who You say You are? This is the question that every one of you today are going to have to answer. Who is Jesus?
If Jesus claimed to be God, knowing He wasn’t God, then He’s a liar. And we will have to say, Jesus, You’re a liar. You’re a fraud and a hoax and You’re the biggest fraud in the history of the human race.
Or, if Jesus thought He was God and did not know the difference, then He desperately needed mental help. He needed several psychiatrists.
The third alternative is that He was who He claims to be, God in the flesh. I believe that the evidence is overwhelming that He is who He claims to be, the Son of the living God. But I cannot prove it scientifically. But I can prove it by the lives that He transforms every day.
I can prove it because in my heart I don’t say, I think, I hope, I say, I know.
And you know, there’s another element in our lives that we don’t think much about and that’s the element of faith. You think of the faith that you have to have every day. You have to have faith that your wife didn’t put poison in your coffee this morning. You have to have faith in her. She might have felt like it, but she didn’t.
You have to have faith in the bank. When you write a check and sign it and you have money in the bank, you have to have faith that the bank’s going to pay it.
You have to have faith in the government. When you pull out a dollar bill, now I know it’s shrinking, but you have faith that back of it is a dollar, that people will accept it as money. Everything we do is by faith.
Now, for example, when I come up on a hill and I live in the mountains of North Carolina and we have a lot of hills, I don’t stop my car before I get to the crest of the hill and get out and walk over and see if somebody’s coming up the other side on the wrong side. I have faith to believe that the drivers are going to stay on their side. Faith, faith, faith, everything.
When you sat in that chair, had you ever sat in that chair before? I bet you didn’t pick it up and examine it and put your hands on it to see if it’d hold you. By faith, you just sat down in it. You had faith that people wouldn’t build a chair that wouldn’t hold you. Everything we do is by faith.
All right, take the same faith, put it in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you will know who Jesus is. You accept Him by faith, and He comes into your life and into your heart, and you know that He’s who He claims to be.
On that Damascus road that I referred to a moment ago, the apostle Paul said, Who art thou, Lord?
And then Paul asked Him another question. Paul said, What do You want me to do, Lord?
And Jesus said, Arise and go. I’m asking you today to arise and come to Him.
Now some of you can ridicule. Some of you can reject Him. Some can just put it off and say, I’m going to wait till another time, or you can accept Him as your Lord and your Savior and your Master and the Son of God, and He will come into your heart and forgive your sin and change your life.
