Choices | Billy Graham Classic Sermon

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

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