“There’s a way of life. There’s a way of death. Which way are you on?” Billy Graham talks about the power in our choices—and the one decision that matters over all we do. Watch and share this classic sermon from 1981 in San Jose, California.
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 council 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 law 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 in 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 are you totally committed to
christ
as savior-in-law or 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 there are 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 sin 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 in 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 way
i am the way i’m the only way 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 cadillac’s 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 it
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 cleanseth 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
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 will 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
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
billy graham library