Billy Graham’s Message to New York

from our archives the Billy Graham classics now I want to talk a little bit to people that are watching by television and say a word about New York City because a lot of people don't know everything about New York I've been coming to New York City since 1939 and when I came here to the World's Fair it was the first time I ever saw a demonstration of what they call television well of course I knew it would never work but they showed it how it could work anyway and it's a joy and a privilege for me and my colleagues to be back here in New York I want to thank more than 900 churches that have cooperated and work together in dr. Turner who spoke to your moment ago whose chairman of all this and Ford and southern in his group that have worked and prayed hear and believe God in Sterling Houston who's sitting on the platform who was their boss and all across the city we want to thank you for all you have done I come in and out of New York on my way to and from other cities or to speak at luncheons or dinners to go to a party or to attend a conference and for some time I've seen signs that says I Love New York and that's true of me I developed a love of New York years ago when I was playing baseball for a high school team in North Carolina the New York Yankees came through to play an exhibition game and I had the privilege of shaking hands with Babe Ruth and from that moment on I wanted to be a major-league player and I wanted to be like Babe Ruth but I found I couldn't hit and I found I couldn't pitch but because of that I was thinking of asking stump Merrill if he didn't think it might be a good idea to let me play this last week of the schedule for the Yankees perhaps prayer perhaps prayer and religion could improve their standings this year perhaps we could be of help to the mints anyway I've always loved New York and I've been here many times at Christmas walking up and down the streets and looking at the lights like any fella from the country would and smelling the roasting of the chestnuts in 1957 we held a crusade in Madison Square Garden for 16 weeks every night we only had empty seats on one night and that was the second night but every night with some nights we would have more people on 8th Avenue standing out there than we did inside the garden that was an unforgettable experience for us I never dreamed that we would be back here in 1991 now for the last three years we've been going throughout New York State and had been having week-long meetings in Buffalo Rochester Syracuse Albany Hamilton the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island a year ago and earlier this month in the Meadowlands across the Hudson in New Jersey and for those of you who are visiting New York are watching by television or listening by radio you should know why some of us have such a fun this and love for New York where we are here is Central Park is an 840 acre beauty spot in the middle of Manhattan which is an island Manhattan is an island 2 miles wide and 13 miles long if you try to walk it it seems 10 times that far and if you go by taxi you can be there in a minute or two when Henry hurt Hudson first explored and claimed Manhattan for the Dutch it was known by its Indian name is mannahatta which means heavenly land and 4 million since that's what it's then it's been a heavenly land for the seven and a half million people for whom New York is home one third today our emigrants who were born in another country and another third of 2nd generation Americans and we Americans have long been proud of the fact that we're the melting pot of the world and New York is the melting pot of America and that process more than anywhere else began in New York where a quarter of the people our afro-american where there are more Irish than in Dublin more Hispanics than there are in Barcelona more Jews than there are in Jerusalem and more Italians and they are in Florence I'm told that on a normal Sunday afternoon here in Central Park and last Sunday afternoon we walked all over this place and the way I was dressed nobody recognized me in fact I was almost arrested but I'm told that on a Sunday afternoon you can hear a hundred languages spoken right here in Central Park New York was our first capital this was where George Washington was inaugurated our first president most Americans don't know that and New York today as the capital of the world because the United Nations is here and New York may not be the political capital even of New York State but it certainly as we've already heard the financial capital with the money that has been generated and managed here during the last century and a half New Yorkers have erected the most magnificent skyline of skyscrapers in the history of man it boggles the imagination there's the Empire State Building did you know that it's celebrating its 60th year this year I remember when they finished it I was a boy rather old boy tuba at that time there's the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Chrysler Building and of course Rockefeller Center where hundred and sixty thousand people work every day a city within a city New York's wealth and splendor has attracted many of the world's cultural Giants as well as producing some of the foremost scientists philosophers poets artists and musicians three-quarters of all the books that have published in America are published here in New York the Metropolitan Museum of Art has perhaps the most priceless collection in the whole world Greenwich Village is a legendary home for an endless array of writers and musicians and artists whose creations are closely watched and copied by their contemporaries throughout the world and New York sets the fashion for the nation it is certainly the tainment capital of the world on and off-broadway of 500 theaters where the plays and stars of tomorrow make their debut but with all of this overload of vitality and variety being played out by the pace centers of world society who have clawed and climbed their way to the top of the heap New York City is a place in desperate spiritual need it snows it's no secret that in New York during the last 30 years there's been a tragic exodus from the churches into materialism secularism and humanism when we were here 37 years ago the judeo-christian value system provided the standard by which more lives were lived many were out of bounds but they knew where the boundaries were today the boundaries of what is right and wrong have been blurred in a race and they need to be returned and it can only be returned in a spiritual awakening and revival New Yorkers are paying a terrible price for getting away from God psychiatrists almost unanimous that New Yorkers in the 1990s of the world's most stressed people anywhere and you're also the most lonely people in all the world millions are running after dollars and dreams in a rat race without realizing it you're running away from God and in doing so you're running away from yourselves and too often from your families and your wives and your husband's yes New York is in trouble 60% of New York's adults are singles chronically alone under pressure they reach for the bottle or for the needle or for short-lived sexual relationship that can only end up in disillusionment it starts with the children over half of New York school children are living with a single parent usually one who works on welfare twenty percent of the teenagers are pardon me the 20 percent of the teenage AIDS cases in America are here in New York crack is the drug of the street cocaine of the yuppies all of them trying to cope with a concrete jungle that is New York murder rape and crime dominate the tabloids and television news programs the 25,000 strong police force was the most overworked and stressed in the country as were the other 225 thousand employees of the city I told mayor Dinkins week before last when I visited him that he and the leaders of this city would always be in my prayers that God would be with them and help them to solve the problems of this city but they can't solve it without your help and they can't solve it without God's help we're going to have to turn to God we've turned everywhere else and we failed now let's turn to God some churches and synagogues as they ponder the agonizing needs of the people have abandoned the proclamation of our relationship with God or with Christ and we've adopted instead a political and social agenda which if out of balance can leave both souls in pews empty everybody I talked to it seems agrees that New York is the loneliest place in the world and people get increasingly irritable and pushy in the effort to guard their own turf there's little space for others let alone God to be without God in New York is to be terribly lonely and this leads to a feeling that life is futile a few weeks ago the New York Times stated that the bestseller of its class was Derek Humphreys final exit a manual on how to commit suicide is that the way to terminate your life suicide many people want to turn their backs on New York they see New York City's problems is incurable I think we ought to stay in New York and let's do something about it to change New York and I believe we can do it and if New York would change that would touch London in Paris and all the other great cities of the world I don't see that wave that way with about New York God loves New York and he has not given up on this city because he does not give up on people as big and grandest New York buildings are they are not New York as wide and famous as New York City avenues they are not New York as great as the place in musicals and art and concerts off they are not New York New Yorkers are what make up New York New York is a place where people live and it's the people that God is interested in and I'm going to speak on what I believe is the answer to the problems of your problems and the problems of New York there is a better way there is a way out of all this I'm going to make my message today short and I know that'll please you I never did like to hear long sermons and I still like to hear short ones I heard about a man one time that was introduced to speak for 20 minutes and he spoke for an hour and 10 minutes and he was still speaking and the man that introduced him through a Gavilan it missed him and hit a woman on the front row and she said hit me again I can still hear him and I don't want that to happen to me today I want you to turn with me to the 16th verse of the 3rd chapter of John John the 3rd chapter for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life how many of us can say it together let's try all together for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life now that is the gospel in a nutshell that's a miniature Bible everything you need to know about Redemption and salvation is in that one verse of scripture 25 wonderful words that my mother taught me when she was giving me a bath on a Saturday night on a farm in North Carolina she said I want you to learn this passage from the Bible and she taught me that passage for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life many people ask me well if God loves the world why does he allow so much suffering in the world war disease poverty hate loneliness boredom emptiness psychological problems unemployment violence tension all of these things why doesn't God just come and stop it all that's the question many people asking some people here in New Yorker saying I can't take it anymore and they're committing suicide the pressures of life are too great they can't take it quiet if there is a God why doesn't he ended some people say why has God abandoned us but God has not abandoned us we've abandoned him many of you young people here have heard the song on last year's edge of the century album by Styx however did you ever listen to the words the lyrics here are the lyrics listen every night I say a prayer in the hopes that there's a heaven but every day I'm more confused the Saints turn into sinners all the heroes and legends I knew as a child have fallenness idols of clay and I feel this empty place inside so afraid that I've lost my faith show me the way show me the way bring me tonight to the mountain and take my confusion away and show me the way and if I see a light should I believe tell me how I will know show me the way show me the way take me tonight to the river and wash my illusions away show me the way show me the way give me the strength and the courage to believe that I'll get there someday and please show me the way and every night I say a prayer in the hopes that there's a heaven and this passage says for God for God do you believe in God yes I can't prove God I can't take you to a scientific laboratory and proved to you that there is a God but the Bible teaches us about him he is the creator in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth all those stars at night that you see if you can see them in New York God created them and started them he is also a spirit the Bible says God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth he doesn't have a body like you and I he could only be one place at one time if he had a body like yours but God is a spirit he can be everywhere at the same time he can be in Russia he can be in China he can be in America he can be in Africa he can be in Latin America he can be everywhere at the same time God is also unchanging I am the Lord God I changed not says the Bible in him is no variableness neither shadow of turning says James the Bible teaches that God is a holy God absolutely holy he cannot even look upon sin the Bible also tells us that he's a God of judgment God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing think of it every secret thing you ever did all your secret thoughts things that you thought nobody knew about us someday gonna be brought into the open and you're going to be judged the Bible says that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world think of it he's appointed a day a moment in which he's going to judge the world and you'll be their God but God also is a God of love my mother loved me but she didn't love me near as much as God loves men that seems impossible to believe my wife loves me I love her I have five children I love them I have 19 grandchildren I love them and I hope they love me I have three great-grandchildren I think they love me and I love them and I know that they all love the Lord but nothing is to be compared to the love of God they had to invent a whole word in the Greek language to tell us something about the love of God God is a God of love he loves you and if there's one thing I want you to take from this great park when you leave here today it's this God loves you God loves you God loves you and God is interested in you and he has the has of your head numbered he sees the sparrow fall he knows all about you and he loves you no matter how many sins you've committed or whatever you've done you may have gone as low as Nicky Cruz described a moment ago his life was but God loves you and if God could change Nicky Cruz and change Johnny Cash God can change you if you were let him and he can do it today beginning right now yes God is a God of judgment he'll bring every work into judgment and he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world but God is also the God of love nothing compared to the love of God the Bible says God is love yeah I'd lovely with a love that's everlasting says Jeremiah and for this reason God created man if you ever wondered why you're here why God created the human race and what's the purpose of the human race God created you because he's a God of love and he wanted some other creatures in the universe that could choose to love him in return and so he created man Adam and Eve he put them in a perfect paradise and we believe that that was located in the country that's now called Iraq at the head of the Persian Gulf much of the Bible was written in Iraq Nineveh Babylon or the Cal DS waiver ham came from and Abraham is the father of the Jews and the Christians and the Islamic people Abraham is the one we all look to as the beginning he came from Iraq and that's the reason there was so much interest in Iraq during the Gulf War that's why the so many books were written from the Bible about the Gulf and God created man and put him in that Garden of Eden that perfect environment that perfect paradise and God gave man a choice and God said akka I want you to have all the fruit of the garden except one tree you can t to that one tree God was testing man and God said if you eat at that tree you are going to break my law you're going to suffer and you're going to die and man broke God's law God gave him a free will to choose and man chose to rebel against God I heard a TV talk show the other day you can listen to nearly all of them and they're discussing what's wrong with human nature why do people do the things they do why do people commit the crimes they do why do people tell the lies they tell why is there so much jealousy why are there so many problems in the world it's because man has a disease and the disease is called sin what's the basic cause of war and crime and deceit and fraud why do we have to have hospitals and jails with bars and winters and police forces and military forces now social problems are basically moral and spiritual problems and the moral problems require a religious solution all these problems indicate that something is wrong with human nature people have been looking to technology or political force to save us but God says your problem is in your hearts the first sin ever committed was committed in a paradise it's a heart problem jesus said for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and adulteries and fornications and murders and thefts and blasphemy the Bible says in Romans 6 for the wages of sin is death the Bible says sin is a breaking of the law what law the law of conscience have you ever gone against your conscience then you've committed a sin have you ever broken one of the Ten Commandments then you're a sinner have you ever failed to keep the requirements of the Sermon on the Mount then you're a sinner we've come short of what God requires and we're sinners before God and comes between you and God and comes between you and peace between you and happiness between you and joy and between you and the assurance that if you died you're going to heaven Solomon the great king of Israel once said there is no man that sinneth not we are alienated from God let's remember that we're separated from God but in spite of that he still loves us yes there is a hell there's a hell in this life but there's also a hell in the life to come if we keep if you is separated from God the Bible teaches that death has three dimensions there's natural death when you die you're going to be buried or you're going to be cremated I have you they're going to handle you we disappear from this earth but this also spiritual death you living inside of you as your solar your spirit that's the part of you that lives forever that's the part of you that can have fellowship with God and you have broken God's law and as a result of it you're spiritually dead you're dead toward God and that death will continue throughout eternity after you're dead and you're not going to be out there with thousands of people having a good time as many people describe hell you're going to be all alone you're going to be there'll be a terrible loneliness to it all and that's what hell is and we can have hell in this life and hell in the life to come and that's called eternal death words in the New Testament used by Christ to describe the penalty of sin is lost perish condemned punishment hell God saw all this confusion and saw a stumbling and darkness we didn't know what to do with ourselves we were either bored on the one hand or we were physically dying on the other so God decided to do something about it because of his love God couldn't just forgive us or he would break his own word he wouldn't be God he had said that if you sin you're going to die if you sin you're going to suffer we had to suffer we had to die so God's Word could be kept one day I was walking with one of my sons along a road in North Carolina we stepped on an anthill and we looked down and we saw those ants dying and suffering and saw their little house destroyed and my son said to me dad wouldn't it be great if we could help those ants rebuild our house take them to their hospitals I said yes the Rif too big and they're too little then I thought what a wonderful illustration God looked down from heaven and saw us with all about darkness with all of our stumbling and all about problems and Fighting's and bickerings and difficulties and Wars but God was too big we were too small we looked like little ants crawling on this planet what could God do God decided to do something about it God became a man God became a man and that man was the Lord Jesus Christ he was born of the Virgin Mary and he came for one purpose he came to save you and to save me and to save the world and he came to die he's the only man that was ever born just for the purpose of dying he took our sins on the cross they took him outside of Jerusalem and nailed him the Romans did not the Jews the Romans took him outside the walls of Jerusalem and nailed him on a cross and He shed his blood and in that terrible moment when he was hanging there he said my God my God why hast thou forsaken me and in that terrible moment he made seven agonizing expressions and in those expressions he was telling us that he had taken our sins he was made to be sin for us think I believe is made to be sin he became guilty of your adultery he became guilty of all the six sins that you've committed he became guilty of all the envy jealousy in the fighting and the killing and the murders that you read about in the newspapers almost every day he has made him to be sin for us the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all think of him he took our sins now what do we have to do we have to repent of our sins all through the Old Testament the Old Testament prophets said prepend the first sermon Jesus ever preached was repent and alter the New Testament they wrote repent repent repent repent what does the word repentance mean it means that you confess to God I have sinned against your Lord I'll admit it it means that you turn from your sins you're willing to let God have his way in your life and you're ready to follow him and serve Him from now on that's repentance a few days ago in our daily bread entitled take me to the cross cliff barrows gave me this wonderful little story a policeman an officer was patrolling on night duty in a town in northern Great Britain when he heard a quivering sob he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep tears rolling down his cheeks the child said I'm lost please take me home the policeman began naming Street after Street trying to help the boy remember where he lived he named the shops and the hotels in the area but all without success then he remembered in the center of the town was a church with a large white cross towering high above the surrounding city he pointed to it and said do you live anywhere near that the boy's face immediately brightened yes sir take me to the cross I can find my way home from there and if you come to the cross today there is a way if you come by the way of the cross if you're lost the only way home is to come to the cross the cross of Christ directs lost people to their eternal home but Jesus didn't on the cross he rose from the dead God raised him from the dead and I'm not speaking to you about a dead Christ I'm speaking to you about a Living Christ and this living Christ is going to can come into your heart today by the Holy Spirit and make you a new person give you a new outlook on life take away that loneliness take away all those sins that you've committed and wiped them away so that when God sees you he never sees your sins you are justified in his sight as though you had never sinned and then the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is coming back again someday I was in Jerusalem and I was talking one day to the chief rabbi and I asked him I said sir do you believe that Messiah is coming back he said oh yes I said I do too but I said I believe when he comes you're going to notice that he's Jesus Christ he laughed for a moment over his cup of coffee and he said he didn't laugh he just smiled he said of course that's our difference we're both looking for Messiah but we believe that it's going to be Jesus Christ and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of glory with power and great glory he's coming back and he's going to set up his kingdom yes communism did not win no ISM is going to win only Christ is going to win and someday someday he's going to rule the world but tonight he wants to rule your heart he wants to come into your home into your family into your neighborhood he wants to come into our country and he wants to be king of kings and Lord of lords now what does God require of you I've already told you about one thing repentance during this past week we've been celebrating the holiest days of the Jewish year Yom Kippur which is celebrated on Wednesday is intensely personal the Jewish holidays ask three questions what have we done a lot what have we done with our life during the past year where are we now in our life what do we plan to do with our life in the coming year and one reason that Yom Kippur exercises such an enormous grip upon the Jewish people is because the holiday theme is so personal and contemporary there's not a person among the people that can say my life is complete and spiritually filled we all fall short and we have to say with everyone else I too am a sinner I'm separated from God I'm lost I need to find my way home it's not an option it's a command in acts 17 the Apostle in his sermon says God commands all men everywhere to repent think of it God commands it it's a command for you to repent have you repented are you sure of it if you haven't repented of your sins you'll never see the inside of the kingdom of heaven and then you come by faith for by grace are you saved through faith and not of works lest any man should boast you'll never be able to work your way to heaven you have to come back faith in Christ and you come by the grace of God grace means it's something you don't deserve you can't work for you come by faith in him that's how I came by simple childlike faith you say Billy those are such simple things that Jesus spoke with such simplicity about spiritual things that the children heard him gladly and we're where to make it simple it's a profound truth but it's to be proclaimed in simplicity and all of you today that are willing to say I will repent of my sins I received Christ as Savior I want to follow him and serve him well I want to rededicate myself you might want to renew your vows that you took at confirmation or a baptismal whenever it was and you want to say Lord I want to come back to you I've wondered away from you and I've gotten confused and lost and I want Christ to be first in my life I want him to forgive my sins I want to come to the cross and I want to follow him from now on hold up your hand yes there are many people with hands up and there's so many people standing I can't ask you to stand because you wouldn't stand out and therefore things from now on that are very important first read the Bible every day the Bible is food for your soul secondly pray perhaps you cannot pray like a clergyman but you can say Lord help me I'm in need of help he'll come and help you he'll answer your prayer pray it in Christ's name say Lord Jesus I need you and then the third thing witness for Christ you ought to tell some people when you go home tonight or tell people tomorrow you know at that great long meeting I made a commitment to Christ and I mean to keep it with God's help that'll help you to win other people to Christ and then the fourth thing is getting to the church into a church where Christ is proclaimed and follow him and serve him as best you can because you see when you leave here you won't leave alone the Spirit of God goes with you and I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me pray it out loud Oh God I am a sinner I'm sorry for my sin I'm willing to turn from my sin I received Christ as Savior I confess him his law from this moment on I want to follow him and serve him in the Fellowship of his church in Christ's name Amen [Music] you

Channel: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Views: 102,257

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Id: 4XBWtwf2FPA

Length: 35min 2sec (2102 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020