This is Yankee Stadium, New York.
This is an historic hour you’re attending by television, the largest evangelistic gathering together in American history.
The climactic meeting of the Billy Graham, New York crusade by nine this morning, the parking lots adjacent to this ballpark were filling up by mid afternoon.
They were overflowing tonight. Not a seat remains unoccupied in a stadium that can hold 80,000 and others line the infield and outfield to a point of saturation.
It beggars belief that one other individual can be crowded into these premises.
All of the gates of Yankee Stadium have clothes.
Thousands of others are milling about out on the extra perimeter of Yankee Stadium beyond the confines of the stadium itself.
And those will be served by loudspeakers that have been placed there for their convenience. Up until this moment.
The greatest crowd ever to attend.
One evangelistic meeting in the United States was in the Cotton Bowl, Dallas 1953 75,000, were there?
More than 100,000 are here and now we have a very special guest this evening and we’re going to ask Mr Billy Graham to come and introduce that guest for us.
I think the man that I’m going to introduce is probably one of the hardest working men in the United States.
He has certainly brought new luster to the office of vice President.
He has become America’s number one ambassador of goodwill.
It’s been my privilege to follow in some of his footsteps in other parts of the world and found his popularity tremendous overseas wherever he has gone.
He’s a young man with vision and I found him to be a man of humility and integrity and courage.
And we invited him here tonight and I think that whatever your party affiliation and I’m sure that there are Democrats as well as Republicans here that we all admire as a great vice president and as a loyal American, he came from a Christian home.
He has a Christian heritage and we appreciate his taking time out of his busy schedule to be with us here at Yankee Stadium tonight, Vice President Nixon, Doctor Graham, distinguished guests on the platform behind me and ladies and gentlemen, may I first bring to this great audience here in Yankee Stadium and those who are listening on television and radio, a message from one who is a very good friend of Billy Graham and one whom I know would like to have been here, his duties would have allowed him the greetings and best wishes, wishes of the president of the United States Dwight D Eisenhower.
Now, Billy has given me permission to, as he says, say a few words, I preside over a body in which nobody says a few words.
But in any event, I know that all of you as well as I are looking forward to hearing Billy Graham tonight and not hearing me.
But I do welcome the privilege of saying just a word to this great audience on this occasion.
One cannot stand as I do in the center of the baseball diamond at Yankee Stadium with this tremendous crowd all around us without thinking of what this meeting means and what it represents as many of you.
Perhaps all of you are aware, this is a very significant year in the history of America.
It was just 350 years ago that the first settlers landed at Jamestown and just 13 years after that, the Mayflower came to Plymouth Rock.
My friends in Virginia incidentally, tell me that the only reason the Mayflower came to Massachusetts was that it was blown off its course on the way to Virginia.
But in any event, when we think of the landing at Jamestown, when we think of those hardy people who crossed the Atlantic in the Mayflower, we inevitably think of why America has enjoyed the tremendous progress that we have.
There are some who will tell you that America has become today the most powerful nation in the world, producing almost half the world’s goods, the strongest militarily and economically that the world has ever seen that all this has happened because of the great resources with which we have been blessed by.
And it is true that all of us should be thankful for the fact that we have enjoyed and have been blessed by the tremendous natural resources which we found in this land.
But we know that other people’s have had similar advantages and have not enjoyed the progress that we’ve had.
There are others who will credit America’s progress to another factor.
They will say that America is a great nation today because Americans are a great people.
But if you ever stop to think who the people of America are, ours is no master race in the Nazi or fascist sense.
Americans came from all the continents, from all the races, from all the nations of the world.
No, when you examine the reasons for America’s greatness, I think we must go further.
There are others.
One of which certainly is the fact that we have enjoyed here, the blessings of liberty, another of which is the fact that each individual American should have the opportunity to make his own contribution in his own way to the nation’s greatness.
But certainly on such an evening as this, I’m sure we all realize that one of the most basic reasons for America’s progress in the past and for our strength today is that from the time of our foundation, we have had a deep and abiding faith in God and that is why this crusade culminating in this meeting tonight means so much, not just to New York, not just to the Atlantic seaboard, but to all of America and perhaps to the world as well.
Because it serves to remind us all of the fact that we as a people can be only as great as we have real faith and the creator to whom we owe everything that we enjoy.
And so with that, may I say that I appreciate the opportunity to express as a citizen as a government official, appreciation to Billy Graham for the work that he has done and in expressing appreciation to him.
May I add a word also to those who have worked with it?
I realize as you realize that for such a crusade to be successful, it took the work of literally thousands of people, thousands that I or you will never meet but thousands who have spent as much time as anyone up here in front of you has spent in order to see that this crusade would be successful and to all of them.
I know we express appreciation.
And thanks to tonight, I think for example of the music, we’ve just been hearing this magnificent choir, the organ, the piano, the leader.
I have never heard music, which was more inspiring.
I might say incidentally that some of you might wonder why I singled out the music.
I wouldn’t mention this fact if this were a political meeting.
But for five years, I played the piano in the East what year? Friend Sunday school in California.
And then finally, the man who just introduced me, Billy Graham.
If you read Stanley High’s book, you will get one estimate of why Billy Graham has had the tremendous success that he’s had.
I think I know him pretty well.
I played golf with him and incidentally, he isn’t a very good golfer.
He can’t even beat me. But in addition to that, I have seen him in Washington, I have talked to him in my office before and after his trips abroad.
And I think I know something of why he has had the great impact here in the United States and in all the countries he has visited.
Yes, he’s a very eloquent speaker.
You have seen him and you’ve heard him tonight and we’ll hear him again.
But that isn’t the major reason in my opinion because others can be eloquent speakers and not be as effective as he has been.
He also is a great organizer.
This meeting is the best indication of that, but that alone by itself would not be enough for his success.
I think there are other qualities many perhaps, but just two that I would like to mention.
And one is that here is a man who believes here is a man who is sincere.
Here is a man who when he speaks, you feel that he is talking about something that he knows that he believes and that he feels deeply.
And then there is another quality, a quality which, you know, as well as I for a man to walk into the stadium as he did to see this tremendous crowd and still retain humility.
Such a man is indeed a remarkable person.
And as we walked across this stadium and came up to this platform, I remarked about this crowd and I said, Billy, you can be proud that such a wonderful crowd has come tonight.
Why? As a matter of fact, I just occurred to me that on October 23rd, 4th and 5th, the Yankees will play the White Sox here at Yankee Stadium, 18 of the best ball players in the world and they will have a hard time getting this stadium filled.
And so Billy Graham, one man filling, it should feel pretty proud of himself.
But you know what he said, you know what he said?
His reaction was I didn’t fill this stadium, God.
So with that, may I say, I’ve appreciated the opportunity to be with you to pay my respects and my tribute to Billy Graham, but most of all to what he stands for.
And may I wish for all of you and for Him that God will be with you all the days of your life.
Thank you. The love of God.
God is great are then come up and oh, it goes beyond that.
Oh yes. And Oh, could we so and were the skies of Hemi for every but who and every man of stride by truth.
Yeah, of the one from, yes, sir.
Home stretch from um oh man.
Yeah, the I say I’m going to ask that we bow our heads for prayer and while our heads bowed for prayer, I’m going to ask that there be no moving around from this point on, please.
No whispering, no talking, one person moving or one person walking, disturbs thousands of people.
And I’m going to ask you to give absolute attention.
There are thousands of people here tonight that have burdens that need to be lifted, problems that need to be solved sin that needs to be forgiven.
Many of you are searching for a new way of life.
You are searching for joy, peace, happiness, security assurance, assurance that if you died, you’d go to heaven.
Well, I want to tell you before you leave this stadium tonight, you can find an answer to the dilemmas and the problems and the perplexities of life.
Your life can be changed, it can be transformed.
You can become a new person from this moment on by surrendering your life to Jesus Christ.
And I’m going to ask you tonight to listen, not only with your physical ears, but I’m going to ask you to listen with the ears of your soul.
The Bible teaches that your heart your soul has is listen, as you’ve never listened tune in those ears to the God.
He has a message for you tonight.
Our father and our God, we pray that thy Holy Spirit shall bring upon this vast congregation of holy hush.
And we pray that thy spirit shall draw and convince and convict and bring men to the savior for.
We ask it in his name. Amen.
I do not feel that I can read my text until I say my word of appreciation to all of you that have sacrificed and worked and prayed for this great and historic day and all of those gracious and thoughtful words that the vice president has said, I want to hand over to the ones of whom it belongs all the credit to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Tonight, I want you to turn with me to Exodus.
The 32nd chapter, the 32nd chapter of the book of Exodus and the 26th verse, night after night, I’ve asked people to bring their Bibles.
I hope that many of you have brought your Bibles tonight.
Exodus, the 32nd verse and the 26th chapter for our first scripture. Here it is here.
We have a picture of Moses standing before a great crowd of people, something like this.
And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord’s side?
Let him come under me and all the sons of Levi gather themselves together under him.
Then I want you to turn with me to the book of Joshua and the 24th chapter in the 15th verse.
And we read these words and if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day, whom you will serve.
Whether the gods, which your father served that war on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amor rights in his land, he dwells.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.
In these two passages of scripture, we find two of the greatest leaders of the Old Testament.
Moses and Joshua. On both occasions, the people had wandered into idolatry on both occasions, Moses and Joshua preached to the people on both occasions, Moses and Joshua said, choose you whom you shall serve, whether the gods of the other nations or whether you will serve the true and the living God.
Tonight, I want to tell you before you leave Yankee Stadium, you too shall have to choose because there is no neutral ground concerning Jesus Christ.
You will have to choose whether you’re going to serve God or whether you’re going to serve the gods of materialism and secularism and the other gods of America.
Julius Caesar once ordered by Pompeii to disband his legions in Gaul.
He passed at the river that divided Gall in Italy and said, if I pass, not this river immediately, it will be the beginning of all misfortune that die his chance.
And then he drove his chariot into the river and stood on the Italian side, ready for battle and ready for destiny.
I tell you tonight, you will have to make a choice.
Alexander, the great was once asked how he conquered the world.
He said by not wavering tonight, I’m going to ask that you not waiver that you not be indecisive, but that you make a clear cut choice and choose Jesus Christ as your Lord and master and Savior.
Joshua was one of the greatest military heroes of all time.
If you remember, he led the spies into the promised land and with Caleb, he made the minority report, he led Israel across Jordan’s river.
He led Israel into the battle of Jericho and defeated the hostile tribes of Canon.
He was a man of guilty and obedience.
He was courageous and faithful and above all, he was a man of decision and action.
But now the war was over and Joshua found that the people were declining toward idolatry and many times the problems of peace are greater than the problems of war and the great sin of America.
Tonight is idolatry. The first commandment says, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
And God says, if you break that commandment, if you break any of the 10 commandments, ye shall die.
And that’s what sin is the word sin means transgressor.
A breaker of God’s law, a breaker of the 10 commandments or a coming short of God’s standards and God’s requirements.
And God said, we’ve all come short, we’ve all broken his laws.
And one of the laws that every person in this stadium tonight has broken is the first commandment thou shalt have no other gods before me.
You say, well, Billy, I don’t have any gods that I make with my hands that I go out in the backyard of my home or in my apartment and worship.
Ah, yes, but we have American gods, the gods of lust, the gods of secularism, the gods of indifference, the gods of amusement, the gods of all types of materialism that are rampant throughout America tonight.
And God says, you’ll have to make a choice.
He said, if you want to continue in your lust, continue in your sin, continue in your materialism without giving regards to God.
He said, go ahead because when God created you, he gave to you an ability that He did not give to any of his other creatures.
He gave you the ability to choose. You can live any kind of life you want to.
And I say this reverently there is nothing God can do about it because you have a will of your own.
You can choose to serve God or reject God.
You can choose to serve God if you like or you can choose to serve other gods.
If you like, you have the right to choose.
And thousands of people listening to my voice tonight have chosen other gods.
You have chosen the other gods of America.
And I tell you tonight, the message of the Lord God, tell the American people tonight is this, choose you this day, whom you’ll serve, choose whose side you’re going to be on.
Moses stood before the people of his day and said, choose.
Joshua said before the people of his day and said, choose Christ stood before the people of his day and said, choose the people of Israel had gone into idolatry outwardly.
They were followers of God. They believed in God. I think most Americans believe in God.
The Catholic digest recently said that 99% of the American people now believe in a supreme being.
We believe in God, but that’s not enough. We believe in God.
We are not against God. We are not antagonistic to God. We just don’t have time for God.
We are too busy, too busy with our money making, too busy with our pleasures, too busy with our amusement, too busy with all the other things of life.
We don’t have time for God. We don’t have time for Bible reading. We don’t have time for prayer.
We don’t have time for church attendance.
We don’t have time for the things of God and for the things of the soul.
The Bible teaches that you have a buddy with eyes and ears and nose and hands and feet.
And that body of yours is soon going to the grave.
Every heartbeat is a heartbeat near a death and every one of us are headed toward death and your body goes to the grave.
But you live on your soul, that part of you that thinks and that part of you that is called personality lives forever.
And the Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death.
The results of your idolatry, the results of your sins mean spiritual death.
It means separation from God, it means destruction, it means hell and thousands of us tonight are on the broad road that leads to destruction.
And tonight I would stay with Moses, I would stay with Joshua, turn repent, choose God serve him live for Him.
That is the message of God tonight to this great audience of people at Yankee Stadium.
They must decide and you must decide whether you want to serve other gods or whether you will serve the true and the living God.
And Joshua said, you must decide. Now, not tomorrow.
He said now immediately I believe that this meeting tonight is not by accident.
There is no organization that we could have had that would have brought this great crowd.
There is no man that could have brought this cloud.
This cloud has been brought together, I believe by the spirit of God using all of us working together.
And I don’t believe anybody is here by accident. I believe you are here by divine appointment.
I believe this is your night with Almighty God. And it may never come again like this.
You stand face to face with a decision with a choice to choose either the broad road that leads to destruction or the narrow road that leads to eternal life.
And when you walk out of Yankee Stadium tonight, you will be walking one of those two roads, Joshua said, regardless of your decision, if I’m the only one in Israel, if I’m the only one left, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And I say tonight, if I know my own heart, if I’m the only one in New York, but thank God, I’m not, there are thousands and multiplied thousands in this city have said I am not going to serve other gods.
I’m going to serve the truth in the living God.
And during the past few weeks, we’ve seen thousands of all walks of life as they’ve moved out of those great stands at Madison Square Garden and come to stand on the Lord’s side by receiving Jesus Christ into their hearts and their lives.
The Bible teaches that we must make a choice.
Adam had to make a choice when he stood before the forbidden tree.
God had created Adam and Eve in his own image because God is a God of love and together they had walked in the garden of Eden in friendship.
But that friendship was broken. A wall was built between man and God.
When man deliberately rebelled against God, deliberately disobeyed God and every Son of Adam since that day has disobeyed God.
And we are all sinners. We are sinners by birth, we are sinners by choice. We are sinners by practice.
And now the Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
And when you look on the churches of this city, you will see a cross lost.
That cross signifies that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost, that God commanded his love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for and on that cross, Christ died and shed his blood, that our sins might be forgiven and that we might bring God and man back together again.
But you must choose, you must choose whether you’re going to serve Christ, whether you’re going to give your life to Christ, or whether you’re going to serve your own gods and the gods of your own making and the gods of your own devices, the rich young ruler had deserved.
Moses had deserved. And when Moses choose when Moses made his choice, the scripture says these words by faith, Moses, when he would come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people. Of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Thus seeming the reproach of Christ’s greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for had respect under the recompense of the reward by faith.
He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured is seeing him who is invisible.
Yes, we must choose between two ways of life as Moses did as Joshua did in Proverbs 14 12.
The Bible says, there is a way which see meth right unto a man.
But the end, there are the ways of death.
There are many people that come to me and say, well, Mr Graham, I’m following my conscience.
Won’t that get me to heaven? Won’t that save my soul? Isn’t that enough?
The Bible says, no, the Bible talks about a dead conscience. The Bible talks about a seared conscience.
The Bible talks about a hard conscience.
Your conscience is no longer a safe guide when you have committed one sin after another and gone against your conscience, don’t follow your conscience.
Your conscience can lead you to hell because your conscience is no longer a safe guide.
And then there are other people that say, well, if I’m sincere, isn’t that enough?
No sincerity alone will not take you to heaven.
I think I told you one night about a man who picked up a football at the Rose Bowl.
He ran 65 yards and 90,000 people cheered and we had our glasses right on him.
And he was the most determined, sincere man I’ve ever seen, but he ran the wrong way and lost the game.
And it’s possible to be sincere and be wrong.
There are others that say, well, Billy, I’ve done great works. I’m a great moral person.
I’ve lived a good life. Isn’t that enough? I’ve treated my neighbors myself. Isn’t that enough? That’s not enough.
The Bible says for that grace that you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of work less than him and should, but you cannot reform your way to heaven.
You cannot rationalize your way to heaven. You cannot moralize your way to heaven.
You cannot work your way to heaven. There is nothing for the saving of your soul except one thing.
And that is the fact that Christ died and rose again and you must come and repent of your sins and receive Him as your Lord and Savior.
The Bible says, you have to choose between two masters.
Christ made that quite clear when he said no man can serve two masters.
Either 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 in man.
Jesus demands that you make a choice either between serv serving yourself or Christ.
It’s a definite clear cut choice that you must make if you are to get to heaven, if your sins are to be forgiven, and if you are to have a full orbed life here, if you are to have peace and joy here in the midst of all your troubles and all of your difficulties, if you are to have peace and joy and stability, if life is to be all that, it was meant to be for you.
And if your soul is to go to heaven, then you must make a clear cut choice by receiving Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and self denial that Jesus said you cannot come after me unless you’re willing to deny self, take up the cross and follow me.
What did he mean? He means that you crucify ego, that selfishness, that pride inside of you, that is to be crucified and then we are to take up the cross.
What does that mean? That doesn’t mean that you take up a beautiful cross that you see around the person’s neck.
That means that you take up a place of execution that you take your place at Christ’s side.
Wherever you are, no matter how unpopular it may be.
It means to go back to the office, back to the shop, back to the community and witness for Jesus Christ.
Even though it’s unpopular, it means to go back into your community, go back to your job, go back wherever you are and live for Christ.
Oh, we have thousands of people in America that go to church on Sunday, they have a little halo on their head and they sit down in the pew and they have a saintly smile on.
And as soon as the service is over, they go home and pick up the pitch fork and the horns begin to grow again and they get angry and they have prejudice and they have pride and they have jealousy and they have all of these evil things.
Jesus talked about those people that serve me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
And we have thousands of people that serve God with lips, but they don’t live it and the way they live it gives a lie to what they believe.
And I tell you, you not only have to believe it but you must live it and when you live it, the Holy Spirit gives you the power to live it.
Oh, I can hear a lot of you saying, but I don’t have the strength.
I don’t have the power to live the Christian life. I can’t live the Christian life. I’ve tried.
Oh, of course, you can’t live.
There’s not a man or a woman or a young person in this crowd that can live the Christian life tonight in your own strength.
But the moment you give your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in to live, he gives you the power, the resources, the dynamics to live the Christian life.
The Bible says you become a new creation, a new moral nature, you become a new person.
When you give your life to Jesus Christ, he puts a spring in your step and a joy in your soul and a peace in your heart.
He gives you that stability and strength. He gives you a new dynamic.
You have a new moral nature, you have an assurance that if you died, you’d go to heaven.
The Bible says these things that believe these things, I write unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Yes. The Bible teaches that you have to choose between two destinies, heaven or hell.
Many people ask me, do you believe in heaven? I certainly do. The Bible teaches it.
Do you believe in hell? I certainly do. The Bible teaches it.
The Bible teaches that hell is separation from God and the Bible teaches that any person that dies outside of Christ is loss is separated from God.
And I warn you that it is for eternity. That is the reason that you must choose God.
You must choose Christ, you must give your life to Christ so that you can live it here.
And so you can go to heaven Yoda. And then Joshua made it quite clear.
He said, the choice is a choice you have to make yourself.
He said it for me and my house. We will serve the Lord.
He knew that he could not choose for the tribes of Israel. They must choose for themselves.
Your father cannot choose for you. Your parents cannot choose for you. Your wife cannot choose for you.
Your husband cannot choose. Your Children cannot choose. You have to choose for yourself.
It’s a decision that every individual has to make. Man is a social being.
However, there is an inner sanctuary within ourselves where we retire from all of the fellowship, comradeship or influence.
There’s a lonely arena where the greatest battle of life must be fought alone.
And that arena, you are fighting a battle alone tonight.
You are deciding whether you’re going to live for selfishness and yourself or whether you’re going to give your life to Christ and live for him.
But you must make the choice, you must make it, you must make it.
No one can make it for you alone as you sit or stand in your place tonight.
It is a choice that you have to make. What will be your answer?
What will be your choice? The people of Israel in Moses Day came over to Moses side.
The people in Joshua’s Day said we will choose the Lord.
I ask you people of America, will you choose the Lord tonight? Will you choose Christ?
Now, I want to warn you something. The choice involves a price.
It involves a price, it will cost you something. It’ll cost you your sins.
It may cost you other things to some people.
It may cost their jobs to some people.
It may cost money because if you’re making a dishonest dollar, you’ll have to credit.
I know a man that told me last week that he was converted at Madison Square Garden the second week and he said, Billy, he said last week I lost $22,000 on a deal because it had a, it was a little bit shady.
But he said before my conversion, I would have made it. It may cost you something.
Yes, it will cost you your sins that, oh, everything God takes away.
He brings peace and joy. Now it’s not easy to be a Christian.
I want to make that clear. It’s not easy to be a Christian.
Oh, I know it’s easy in America to call ourselves Christians.
But I tell you, it’s not easy to be a Christian. It’s not easy to read your Bible every day.
Many times. It’s not easy to spend time in prayer every day that the Christian life requires many times.
It’s not easy to go faithful at a church. But the Christian life requires it.
It’s not easy to say no to temptations.
It’s not easy to stand up for moral right in our community. It’s not easy.
Many times, the Christian life is the most difficult of all because you’re going against the whole trend of what may be popular many times to stand for what is right and truth and honesty and integrity.
It costs Paul his head.
It costs all the apostles their lives to stand for Christ. Paul suffered 1000 times.
I ask you tonight if you suffered for Christ.
Well, I want to tell you, don’t you come to Jesus Christ?
Unless you are willing to deny yourself and take up the cross, don’t come to Christ unless you are willing to suffer if necessary to follow him.
Jesus demands a cross, demands that you carry a cross. Are you willing tonight?
Are you willing to choose God? Are you willing to pay the price of repenting of sin?
You say, well, Billy, what is repentance, repentance means that you acknowledge that you failed God, that you’ve sinned against God and you’re willing to renounce your sins.
You’re willing to give up your sins. And it means something else.
It means that by faith, you must receive Christ as your Lord and Savior.
You must come to the foot of the cross and by an act of your will choose Christ say I will receive Him.
I will give my life to Him. I will surrender to him.
I will receive him as my Lord and savior master.
And then last of all, Joshua indicated that there could be no delay.
That choice is urgent to delay, makes the decision harder.
And some of you will say, well, I’m not going to choose tonight.
I’m not going to give my life to Christ tonight. I’m going to wait.
Indecision is in itself a choice time, decides for the man who will not decide for himself.
If you have a ticket for the Queen Mary and it sails tomorrow, you may be indecisive as to whether you are going to Great Britain or not.
But if you wait past the sailing time, that choice will have already been made for you.
And some of you may wait beyond the time when the spirit of God speaks to you because you see, you cannot come to Christ any time you want to, you can only come when the spirit of God is drawing you and pulling you and speaking to you.
And the spirit of God is speaking to you tonight. The spirit of God is speaking to thousands of you.
And that’s the only time you can come to Christ when the spirit of God draws you to the cross.
Don’t you hesitate. Don’t you wait? You may never be this close to the kingdom of God again.
You may never be this close to Christ again. You may never have such an opportunity as this again.
Millions of people have prayed in hundreds of languages around the world for this meeting tonight.
God is speaking, He’s speaking to you.
You need God in your home, you need Christ, in your community, you need Christ in your soul, in your own life.
I tell you tonight, give your life to him, yield to him, choose Christ and say with Joshua as for me in my house, we will choose the Lord.
The Bible says now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation not tomorrow.
Today, give your life to Christ. Now blind bars would have never had his eyes healed.
Had he not called upon Jesus when Jesus was passing by the thief on the cross, took the one moment he had and said, Lord, remember me when thou comet into thy kingdom?
And Jesus said, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.
You say, well, Billy, what do I have to do?
All you have to do is today decide for Christ a choice of your intellect.
Yes, of your emotions. Yes, of your will. Yes. Your total personality yielded to Christ.
Determined that from this day on you’re going to live for him on the rugged wave beaten cliffs of the west coast of Scotland, our man was once gathering the eggs of the seabirds which nest there.
He’d been let down from the top of the cliff by a rope to the ledge where the nests were.
But in a moment of carelessness had let the rope slip from his hand.
He knew that the first swing of the rope would be his only chance.
And with all the powers of his body and mind, he jumped for the rope, seized it and was saved.
Joshua said, choose you this day, choose you this day America.
Who will you serve to, to this day?
Whoever you are listening to me, who will you serve? Will you come on God’s side?
Will you receive Christ? Will you determine to live for Him from this moment on?
Will you start reading your Bible daily?
Will you spend time every day in prayer, in communion with God?
Will you live a disciplined Christian life? Will you stand up for Christ?
Whenever the occasion calls, will you go to church tomorrow?
Will you be in your church tomorrow?
Indicating that you are ready to take your place in the fellowship of the great body of Christ in a church where Christ is preached.
Will you take your stand for Christ?
The message I’ve given to you this evening is not a new message. It’s an ancient message.
It is the message of Moses. It is the message of Joshua.
It is the message of God through them and all the prophets and all the apostles and all the evangelists.
It’s the message of the Old and the New Testament.
It’s the message centered in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I call you tonight in his name to him. I call you to Christ.
I ask you to choose. It is impossible tonight for me to give an invitation.
The way we normally do for you to take your stand for Christ.
I cannot call you out on this field.
The authorities say that the crowd is too dense and too thick, every aisle is jammed.
There is no way that anybody could get forward in this greatest crowd in the history of this great stadium.
But I am going to ask you to do this, those of you that will receive Christ, those of you that will accept him, those of you that will trust him, those of you that promise to live for him from now on.
You’re receiving him as your Lord and Savior.
You’re making sure that if you died, you’d go to heaven by an act of repentance and faith.
You are giving your life to Christ tonight.
I’m going to ask that not a person leave Yankee Stadium.
Now, this is a holy moment and I’m going to ask that all of you that will receive him as savior and trust him as Lord.
I want you to stand up quietly and reverently where you are all in the stands, stand up and all of you that are already standing.
I want you to hold your hand up and leave it there as an indication that you’re giving your life and your heart to Jesus Christ tonight and trusting him as your Lord and Savior, stand up wherever you are right now quietly in your place.
That’s all I’m going to ask you to do tonight.
I cannot ask you to come forward and stand down here.
But I want you to stand everywhere quietly and reverently, just stand up hundreds of you that God is speaking to.
Yes. Yes. Many people are standing everywhere to stand up everywhere.
We are going to wait a moment right now that you stand quietly and say tonight, I choose God, I choose Christ.
I give my life to him from this moment on. I’m going to trust you as my Lord and saint.
I want to give my life to him.
Keep standing wherever you are all over the place. Yeah.
Hundreds of people are standing up in those balconies.
We have mostly Christian people in this lower level, but up in those balconies, hundreds of standards, all down here, hundreds of people are lifting their hands, stand up back here, all back in here, just stand up where you are and say tonight, I give my life to Christ.
I choose Christ. I give myself to him.