Billy Graham - Will the World Survive?
Now I want you to turn with me to the 24th chapter of Matthew. The 24th chapter of Matthew, beginning at verse 36. The 24th chapter of Matthew, beginning at verse 36. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only. But as the days of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, for as the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be". Now the question that I want to ask tonight is this, and I want to answer it from the Bible. Is the world coming to an end? Is the world going to come to an end?
There are some people that feel that some of you young people that are here tonight will see that moment. We may see it in our own lifetime. Half of all Americans surveyed just two months ago, believe that a nuclear war will happen in their lifetime. A month ago, just after the hijacking of that TWA 847 flight, a conference of world experts was assembled in Washington to discuss the terrible and real threat of nuclear terrorism. A terrorist organization getting a hold of nuclear bombs and starting a chain reaction that could destroy much of the world. Could it happen? Dr. Carl Sagan, on network television, his current consensus of opinion of nuclear physicists, he says, that it would take only one hundred of the existing bombs to plunge the northern hemisphere into the nuclear winter, having burned up a third of the human race and leaving the earth covered with a blanket of darkness.
One of Hollywood's biggest hits this summer has been Clint Eastwood's The Pale Rider which has as its subtitle a quotation taken right out of the Revelation of Jesus Christ: "And hell followed with him". A German scientist said the other day, "It's now possible to depopulate the earth". Historians like William Volk say, "The Day of Judgment is at hand". And then comes something startling to me. Shocking. There is a strange silence from the church about what the Bible teaches. We have church leaders like myself that are calling for the reduction and the destruction of all weapons of mass destruction.
I am not a pacifist. I'm not for unilateral disarmament. But I do believe that we can reach accommodation to destroy all weapons of mass destruction if our hearts were right. But that's where Jesus said, "You must be born again". "Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, how can know them?", said Jeremiah. But you know, the Bible does not teach that the world is going to come to an end. The Bible teaches that there will be an end to an age, the age of the Holy Spirit, the age that we're now in, and that a new age is going to be ushered in. In other words, like you trade in an old car and get a new car, God is going to trade in this present system of evil that we call cosmos, or world system, trade it in for a new age, and that new age will be the Kingdom of God. And that new age is going to prevail.
Now let's turn to the Bible. In the New Testament, the new birth is mentioned nine times. Repentance is mentioned seventy times. Baptism, twenty times. Someone has said, I have not counted them, and I don't know whether this is exaggerated or not, but somebody has said that the second coming of Jesus Christ is mentioned over 380 times. Certainly it's mentioned many times. Christ said, "As the days of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be". Now the story of Noah has become popular again in fiction and in cartoons. As a matter of fact, in the Los Angeles times TV log this past week in the program advertising, it talked about Noah's animals.
Now the picture of civilization in Noah's day runs like this: it's listed in Genesis the sixth chapter. It says that they were filled with wickedness, evil imagination, corruption, violence, every imagination of man's thought was evil. Does that sound like our day? We can't help but imagine evil when we watch enough television and see so much violence and crime, and read about the crime in our newspapers. Every day people that are being raped and murdered and mugged and all the rest that's going on. We can't help but think about it. Our minds are there, and many of us have become afraid. It was a world in which marriage was abused. Sex perversion prevailed. It was a world in which violence prevailed.
Again and again in the United Nations' sponsored World Conference for Women in Nairobi, the matter of violence against women came up for discussion. Violence against children. People who abuse their children. Crimes of violence continue to escalate. It's a world with a decadent religion. I'm not talking about Christianity, because almost everybody in the world is religious. Everybody. But it's a decadent type of religion. It's not true faith in God. Now it's also, it was also a world threatened by the judgment of God. God said, "I'm going to judge this generation".
And some of you that are watching by television, you'll see a number on that screen (1-877-772-4559). Pick up your phone and call someone. They're waiting to talk to you now. And they'll answer your questions and help you. Now God said, "I'm going to judge the world. I'm going to make it rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and I'm going to destroy man whom I created. He's gotten too evil, and I'm going to start the human race over again". But then God saw one man in all of the filth and the dirt and the violence and the perversions, he saw one man living for him. His name was Noah. Noah dared to walk with God. He believed in God. And true belief determines how you live. He lived a disciplined life. He was a man of moral integrity. He worshipped God. He dared to stand alone. He was a non-conformist.
They laughed at him at the place that he worked. Or they laughed at him in the social events that he went to. His neighbors and friends couldn't understand him. They called him strange, because he talked about God and he prayed and he believed in God that God somehow was in control. The Bible says, "By faith, Noah..." "By faith," notice. "By faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear, prepared a ship". God said, "I'm going to send the flood, but I've got to save Noah and his family. Noah lives for me". And God cannot judge a person that is living for him. A person that has come to Christ at the cross and had his sins forgiven, and is living a life for Christ cannot be judged. "There is therefore now no judgment to them that are in Christ Jesus". You'll never stand at the great Judgment Day, if you're in Christ. That's the one place of refuge.
Now Noah could not be judged, so God said, "I've got to find a way to save Noah and his family". So God came to Noah one day and said, "Noah, I'm going to destroy the world. I'm going to start over. I want you to build a big ship. I want you to make it of gopher wood. Pitch it within and without with pitch. 450 feet long, 45 feet high, 75 feet wide, three stories. Put one window in it, and put one door in it. And start building now".
Now, can you imagine how people laughed? To build a big ship, as big as a modern ocean liner, in the middle of the desert where there was no water. But Noah, I suppose, paid union wages, so he was able to get people to work for him. And they started building that ship. And I imagine it became a big tourist attraction, like Disneyland. People came from everywhere to see the crazy people. To see this crazy man building this ship out in the middle of the desert. And all he had to go on was God's word, that's all! Now today, you and I have God's word that predicts the future judgment upon the world, but we also have all the scientific evidence that it can happen, and may happen, and probably will happen according to many of our scientists and political leaders. And people all over the world in the capitals of the world are frightened.
When I was in the Soviet Union the one thing almost everybody wanted to talk about was peace. How can we get peace? They even took me to the Kremlin to meet with some of the leaders in the Kremlin. Members of the politburo, and there are only fourteen members. And they talked about peace. How can we achieve peace? And our people meeting in Washington with the president. And people meeting in Geneva that have been appointed, trying to find a way to peace, and if ever man's hearts are failing them for fear, and wringing their hands and nobody seems to have the answer, it's now. And if they don't find an answer, goodbye. Unless God intervenes, and that's exactly what's going to happen, God will intervene. Christ is going to come back. And that's the glorious hope that every one of us has in our hearts.
Now during all this time, Noah preached. He worked and preached. It says that he was a preacher of righteousness and repentance. And he would call upon the people, "Repent of your sins! Turn to God! A flood is coming"! Now, they'd never heard of a flood. They'd never had a flood before. And uh, the meteorologists disputed him all the time. There's no sign of any rain, there's no sign of a flood. He's a fool, he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's not scientific. So he was scoffed at. And the carpenters that helped him build the ark, or the ship, they didn't believe. They were working for their wages. Even some of Noah's family had a difficult time believing. But he just went right on. And he hadn't heard from God in a hundred and twenty years.
Think of it now. He had that one message from the Lord, and he believed it, he accepted it by faith. That's what a man of faith Noah was, and a hundred and twenty years later he was still working on that ship and one day, he finished it, and when he finished it, God came to him and said, "Noah, I'm going to give the world seven more days. Seven more days to repent. And if they don't, the judgment is going to come". The Bible warns that the world is in for judgment. And the bright spot on the horizon is the resurrection of Christ and his promised return. It's the hope of the prophets. Isaiah 66, it tells that the Lord is coming with fire and chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger and fury. In the New Testament, there are so many passages that I could take an hour reading them to you. Christ said, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself and where I am, there ye may be also".
One of the T.V. Programs to top the Nielsen ratings last week was Highway to Heaven. The only highway to heaven in this Bible is Jesus Christ. He provided a way to heaven. He provided a way of salvation. He said, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life". Can you imagine somebody standing up and saying, "I am the way and no man can come to God except through me"? Can you imagine somebody saying, "I am the embodiment of all truth"? All scientific truth, psychological truth. I am the embodiment of all religious truth, moral truth. Why, the man's crazy. He's either a liar or he's crazy or he's who he claims to be. And that's the decision you have to make.
If Jesus Christ is who he claims to be, the Son of God and the only way of salvation, the only way to escape the coming judgment, then you better make your way to Christ fast, tonight. Don't wait because we never know when our hour is coming. Because, you see, the end of the world for you could be tonight. The moment you die, the moment you die, that is the end of the world for you. And that could come at any moment. But for the whole population of the world, it's not going to come the way some scientists think, because they don't take into account God. God is a God of love and mercy. He's a God of planning, yes. He's a God of judgment, yes. But there are going to be people that are going to be saved out of all this mess and God is going to build a new world and a new kingdom. That day is going to come as sure as I'm standing here.
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven"? When these disciples saw Jesus ascending into heaven, and tears were in their eyes, and they saw their master going, and two men stood by them in white apparel, and said, "You men of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing into heaven? This same Jesus that's taken up from you is going to come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven". He's going to come back. When is Christ going to come? We don't know. He said, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only". Christ said, "Be ye ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh". Are you ready? Are you ready? Be quiet and still a moment and think about that. Are you ready?
In Amos 4 it says, "Prepare to meet thy God". Are you prepared? You say, "Billy, what do I have to do to be prepared? I've already been baptized, I belong to a church". That's not what I'm talking about. That's fine, you ought to be, but have you really received Christ into your heart as Lord and master? Have you repented? Have you repented of your sins? Repentance means to turn, to change. Change your mind. Change your attitude about God, about yourself, about your neighbors. It means that you have a different lifestyle under the Lordship of Christ. It means that you love the oppressed. It means that God will give you a new power to love people of another race. It means that God is going to come into your life in the person of the Holy Spirit, and give you the power to love and to have peace that you've never found, and to have purpose and meaning to your life. It means heaven in this life, as well as heaven to come. It means that God will come in and help you in your marriage. It means that God will help some of you young people to choose the right person to marry.
There's so many things that will happen to you when you come to Christ. That's repentance. It means a change. And a lot of the old things that are wrong in your life, you've got to turn loose of. You've got to quit. You have to pay a price. It's not easy. And we're not offering a cheap grace and a cheap conversionism, and a cheap following Christ. Jesus said, "If you come after me, you've got to deny self and take up a cross". He said it's not going to be easy and he said, "All that live godly in Christ Jesus", Paul said, "Shall suffer persecution". They'll laugh at you like they laughed at Noah. And your faith must be in Christ. Your faith doesn't have to be strong, it doesn't have to be big. Just the faith of a mustard seed. A little seed that you can hardly see. If it's centered in Christ, it's enough.
So you repent, and you put your faith and your commitment in Christ. Are you ready? Have you prepared? You've come to this meeting tonight. Probably expecting to live many more years, but you don't know! Don't wait! Make your commitment now! We'll never see another site like this maybe in southern California. We'll never have another moment when you're so close to the Kingdom of God as you are tonight. In our crusade in England last month, I heard of a man that was killed in a car crash after committing his life to Christ earlier in the day, or, earlier in the week. I'm certain that he was glad and thankful today that he made that commitment to Christ.
There was a 5-year-old girl who was going to visit her grandparents and she was flying alone on an airplane for the first time. And her mother had arranged for the child's grandfather to meet her at the airport when she arrived. And throughout the days of anticipation and preparation the mother assured her daughter that she doesn't have to worry, her granddaddy would be there to meet her when she arrived. When the mother put her daughter on the plane, and a tear rolled down both their cheeks as they said goodbye, the mother asked, "Darling, are you scared"? The little girl replied, "No, maybe a little, but whenever I get worried I just think about who's going to meet me on the other end and everything's all right". When we get worried, we think about who's going to meet us on the other end. I'll tell you who it is. Jesus is going to meet you on the other end!
A woman here came for rededication, wanting God to help her with her anger toward her husband, who had left her, and then came back without even an apology. And as she was being counseled, she looked past the counselor's shoulder, right here in this stadium and gasped! She said, "There's my husband"! He had been in the stands, heard the message and was making a first-time commitment to Christ, and they left the stadium with their arms around each other. That's what Christ can do. A 32-year-old technician at McDonnell Douglas came to accept Christ the other night. He said, "Money has been getting in the way of my relationship with Christ and I want to turn over my love for money to him. I want him to be the Lord of my life". A student at Cal Tech said, "I saw all these Christians who seemed to be so happy," I thought, "There's something missing in my life. I'm going out to the stadium and see what it is". And he came, and found it in Jesus Christ as his Savior and his Lord.
There was a 20-year-old man, said he was born in China, he grew up in Korea, and this week he came to Anaheim Stadium and gave his live to Christ, and he said, "I should have done this years ago, but I didn't know". I could tell you story after story. We have stacks of them that counselors have turned in of what's happening here now that could happen to you tonight. You say, "Well, Billy, you've been calling people to come forward and make their commitment. You couldn't do that with all these people back here, what are you gonna do"? I'll tell you what we're going to do. We've got it all planned. I'm going to ask that no one leave the stadium now. This is very important. And everyone be quiet, very quiet.
I ask people to come forward publicly because every person that Jesus called he called publicly. He said, "If you're not willing to acknowledge me before men, I'll not acknowledge you before my father which is heaven". The only exception to that would have been Nicodemus, and we're not sure that that was the night he made his commitment, because he came to see Jesus by night. But all the others that Jesus dealt with he did it publicly, in the open. I'm going to ask you to make your commitment to Christ in the open. Tonight. I'm not going to ask you to come forward and stand as we've done every night since we've been here. There's no room. But I am going to ask you to do something that may be even harder, and I hope it is harder. The tougher it is the more you'll mean it.
I'm going to ask that we bow our heads and have silent prayer... Pray for the person to the right of you, and left of you, and back of you and front of you. Then I'm going to ask every person here tonight, you're not sure you're ready to meet God, you're not sure your sins are forgiven, you're not sure if you died, you're going to heaven, you want to be sure, you want to open your heart and let Christ come in and you're ready to repent of your sins and receive him by faith as Savior and Lord. He said, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name". "If we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God hath raised him from the dead, we shall be saved".
I'm going to ask you to stand where you are, as a silent witness. Just stand up and stand there for a while, and then we'll all have prayer together in a few minutes. In a few minutes, I'm going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you, and then you can sit back down. But I'm going to ask you to stand up where you are, hundreds of you, thousands of you, just stand up right where you are. Up in that upper place, all over. Don't applaud now please. Let people take their time, think about it, and just stand where you are.
And you that have been watching on television, you can make the same commitment that you see many hundreds of people here making. You can say yes to Christ in your hotel room, in your living room, in your bedroom, wherever you are. God help you to make that commitment, and be sure and go to church next Sunday.