Without the Holy Spirit, Billy Graham’s ministry wouldn’t have been possible. In this 1983 message from Sacramento, California, hear how the Spirit can help you live for Christ. Watch more #MondayNightClassics weekly at 8 p.m. Eastern.
from our archives the billy graham
classics
and now tonight i want you to turn to
that passage that ralph bell
read to us a moment ago he talked about
the comforter
and that comes from a greek word and i’m
not a greek scholar please don’t get me
wrong i’m not trying to show off how
much or how little i know
but it means advocate or one who helps
alongside that word comforter
and that is what the lord jesus christ
was promising
just before he was to die on the cross
and
be resurrected and ascend into heaven
that he was going to send a comforter
someone
to help alongside now the apostle paul
wrote and said now concerning matters
pertaining to the spirit
i would not have you ignorant now we’ve
all been aware that in the past few
years we’ve had a movement
called the charismatic movement it
hasn’t been limited just to certain
denominations
it’s been in all denominations whether
it’s episcopal
or roman catholic or wherever for
example down in southern poland where
the pope comes from
we held a crusade down there in a great
uh
cathedral and there was a great
charismatic movement in southern poland
and
across the border into germany and we
sensed that god was working
in those people in a new way now some
people interpret it one way and some
interpret it another way and some people
mean that we’re having a renewal or
revival in our churches or
among our people and they call that
charismatic and others may have
certain gifts that they call evidences
of the charismatic movement
and so forth i’m not going to try to get
into all of those differences tonight
because i would be here all night and
i’d be here all week and
all month and for a year because there
are some differences of interpretation
but i think you know what i’m trying to
say but it’s impossible
to understand the bible christian living
or the structure of the church without
understanding
something of the person and the work of
the law
of the holy spirit timothy leary
the former harvard professor was on a
network uh program
just a few days ago and he said that he
believed
in the use of drugs as a route to tune
into god and to turn onto god
well the route is the holy spirit not
drugs
the scripture teaches that he’s a person
he’s not an agent or an influence he’s
god
and we’re never to refer to the holy
spirit is it
now there are some mistranslations in
the authorized version
because in those days when this was
translated several hundred years ago
they referred
to certain things about the holy spirit
is it
because it was a nuda but he is not
something but he’s someone and holy
indicates that he’s holy within himself
holy
spirit now some places in the authorized
it’s
translated ghost as it was in those days
the word spirit was called
ghost but it didn’t mean ghost in the
sense that we mean ghosts today
some film out of hollywood in which a
ghost comes along
the spirit is used in contrast to that
which is flesh and material
now the bible teaches that the holy
spirit is co-equal with god the father
and god the son there is a trinity god
the father god the son god the holy
spirit
and no one can explain it’s like the
little boy
that all the little girl that was in her
classroom and she was about
the third or fourth grade and they asked
how many of you can explain electricity
and
one little girl lifted up my hand and
the teacher said all right well what is
electricity
and the little girl thought for a moment
bit her lip and she said i forgot
and she and the teacher said well that’s
too bad because you’re the only one that
ever knew
now the bible teaches that the holy
spirit is omnipotent
the word omnipotent means all-powerful
in micah 3 8 it says i’m full of power
by the spirit of the lord and then the
bible says that the holy spirit is
present everywhere at the same time
whether shall i go from thy spirit or
whether shall i flee from thy presence
said the psalmist in 139 7. you can’t go
anywhere
and get away from the holy spirit the
holy spirit is everywhere
and that’s the reason when you have a
sense of guilt put there by the holy
spirit
many times that guilt will go with you
even if you travel to a far away island
trying to get rid of it
the holy spirit convicting you of sin
the holy spirit bears witness to jesus
christ
who is the truth one young man
remarked who had been converted to
christ to induce
spirituality by taking drugs is like
trying to turn on your tv
set by kicking it and many people do
that i’ve found out that it’ll work
sometimes
so that’s not a very good illustration
but there are those that think that
because of drugs or some trance or some
hypnotism that they can have this same
experience that you have with the holy
spirit
is wrong it’s false you cannot
oh yes there’s a meditation and there
are all kinds of things that
can give you a high but the real
permanent high comes from the holy
spirit
and he gives you a high even in your low
moments
and some of you that are watching by
television have been convicted by the
holy spirit
and you need christ he’s trying to draw
you tonight to crawl to the cross of
christ
where that sin can be forgiven and
there’s a telephone number
on your screen now that you can call and
a counselor is standing by now to answer
your questions and to help you to make
that commitment to christ or to talk to
you about whatever problems
you may have in your life now the holy
spirit not only convicts but
he gives new life the bible says that
we’re
dead in sins do you realize that you’re
a walking dead person
you’re dead toward god you’re
spiritually dead
your soul is dead your spirit is dead
your body is alive
but you’re dead the real you is dead
now what needs to be done for a dead
person
he needs to be made alive and that’s the
work of the holy spirit
to make you alive jesus said you must be
born again
and that word actually means to be made
born
from above born from above
born by the spirit of god you see man
without god is dead
and life is at best a bore except a man
be born again
he cannot see the kingdom of god have
you been born again
has that happened to you we’ve got that
expression born again
born again born again and people are
getting a little bit tired of it
because people are saying i’m a
born-again christian or
he’s a born-again christian i’m not so
sure but what it hasn’t become a
a phrase that really doesn’t mean what
we really mean biblically about being
born again
back when mr carter was president and
running for president
they called him a born-again christian
and he certainly was a born-again
christian
but then they began to use that word
born again describing automobiles
and they had an ad on television said
this is a born-again automobile
and then they said this was born again
and that was born again until it became
a phrase it was used
out of its context it means born from
above
and jesus said it to a religious leader
a person who’s more religious than most
anyone here tonight
nicodemus a professor of theology and he
said you need to be born again nicodemus
and i will put my spirit within you and
cause you to walk in my statutes and you
shall keep my judgments and do them
god says through ezekiel he dwelleth
with you and shall be
in you jesus said in this 14th chapter
of john
know ye not that you’re the temple of
god and that the spirit of god dwelleth
in you
the holy spirit comes to live within you
and when you receive christ tonight the
holy spirit will come to live in you
to help live the christian life in you
and through you
he also empowers us for service but ye
shall receive
power after that the holy ghost has come
upon you and you shall be witnesses unto
me
power supernatural power
and i want to tell you and i’m not going
to boast
i say it with all humility
i believe that my preaching and i’m not
a great preacher
by preaching standards if you took a
group of theological students and they
studied my preaching they wouldn’t pit
me as a great preacher
but i believe that god has given me
power in preaching
and there’s the power of the holy spirit
when you lift up jesus christ
and when you present him there’s a power
there
there’s a power in the cross there’s a
built-in
power in the gospel the power of the
holy spirit
and then he produces the fruit of the
spirit
when you receive jesus christ you want
to be a person of love and joy and peace
and long-suffering and gentleness and
goodness and faith and meekness
and temperance self-control
that’s produced by the holy spirit
those are attributes of jesus christ
himself
love joy longsuffering gentleness
goodness faith meekness and self-control
he had it all you can have it all but it
has to be done by the holy spirit
through you
you cannot of yourself live the
christian life
you’ll be a total flop in failure it has
to be the holy spirit living it through
you
and producing it in you and he will do
that
you see if you take up romans the
seventh chapter
that’s a chapter of defeat but then you
pick up the next chapter
romans 8 and you’ll find the holy spirit
is mentioned eight times
and it’s a chapter of victory you can
have victory
in the holy spirit we’re told to walk in
the spirit
it all the bible also teaches that the
holy spirit opens and shuts doors
and i found that true in our ministry
that he opens some doors he closes
others and
one of the greatest tasks that we have
is deciding where to go which city to go
to next because we have invitations from
many parts of the world and where should
we go next
where should we put our emphasis and
then as we see all these computers
coming and we see new channels opening
up on television
and we see new mediums of communication
opening up
we ask ourselves just how can we use
this
effectively for spreading the gospel of
christ
and this is where the holy spirit comes
in to help us and to lead us and to
guide us and direct us
and we constantly are concerned about it
and on our knees about it
for the holy spirit shall teach you in
the same hour what you ought to say
he comes to teach us and to guide us and
open and shut the doors
and then he magnifies and glorifies and
exalts the lord jesus christ
he shall not speak of himself if you
find a person coming along saying the
holy spirit the holy spirit the holy
spirit the holy spirit the holy spirit
the holy spirit
never talking about jesus christ you can
know that that man is not speaking from
the holy spirit
the holy spirit exalts christ
he exalts the lord jesus christ he did
not come to talk of himself
and then he fills us the scripture says
be not drunk with wine
but be filled with the spirit
and that means to be continually filled
with the spirit
you have to be emptied of your
selfishness and your own desires and
your own
gratifications so you can be filled with
the holy spirit
and that’s a command be filled
with the holy spirit are you filled with
the holy spirit
you can be by faith
you can say all the every known sin in
my life
has been forgiven i’ve confessed every
known sin
by faith i believe i’m filled with the
holy spirit
but also you can sin against the holy
spirit and the worst of
all sins are the sins against the holy
spirit
you can anger the spirit as i pick up
the bible i do discover the wrath of the
spirit
the translation from the septuagint as
we
read in the in in psalm how often they
rebelled and grieved him in the desert
the translation is they disobeyed and
made angry
the spirit of god they rebelled and
angered his holy spirit therefore he
turned
to be their enemy and himself fought
against them
wouldn’t it be terrible to have the holy
spirit as your enemy
because you’d angered him
the word grieve means to make very angry
and i would urge every one of you
to be very careful lest you rouse the
wrath of the spirit
my spirit shall not always strive with
man
god said way back in genesis 6 in the
days of noah
and the spirit of god ceased striving
and the flood came
and the world was destroyed except for
eight people
the holy spirit can be lied against in
acts 5
ananias and sapphira thou hast not lied
unto men but unto god
said peter they acted alive they
pretended to be what they were not they
were hypocrites
and they acted out a lie
the holy spirit can be tempted how is it
that you’ve agreed together to tempt the
spirit of the lord
many times sinners say well if god is
god let him strike me dead
there was a fellow years ago down in
tampa florida where i was
and he stood out there with a watch and
he said all right
he was an atheist he said if god is god
i’m going to give him one minute and let
him strike me dead
nothing happened and some old brother on
the front row
said you cannot exhaust the patience of
god in one minute
but it is like the story of the old
eagle that i heard about on an
iceberg on niagara river and he had
landed there to eat on the carcass of a
sheep
and uh as he was floating down he was
getting closer and closer to the falls
and as he got closer to the fall
somebody from the shore yelled off and
said watch out old eagle watch out
you’re near the falls but the eagle
thought to himself with my strong wings
i can get up off this in a second
but just as he came to the falls and he
lifted those wings he found that his
feet
were frozen in the ice and he couldn’t
and he went screaming over the falls
you can tempt god
thou shall not tempt the lord thy god
you can wait too long
you can tempt god too long
and the day of the time will come when
it’s no longer possible
and then the holy spirit can be resisted
ye do always resist the holy spirit
as your fathers did so do ye you can
resist the holy spirit
and some of you tonight know that you
need christ but you’ve been resisting
the holy spirit
that’s a sin against the spirit a solemn
thing to resist the holy spirit
you detect his voice and yet you
deliberately do nothing about it
it’s a dangerous thing he that despised
moses law
died without mercy unto two or three
witnesses of how much sore
punishment suppose ye shall be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the
son of god
and it counted the blood of the covenant
wherein thou
he was sanctified an unholy thing and it
done despite
unto the spirit of grace
resisting the holy spirit tonight you’re
going to have an opportunity to receive
christ into your heart and to make sure
of your relationship with him
the bible says because there is wrath
beware lest he take thee away with his
stroke
when a great ransom cannot deliver thee
my spirit shall not always strive there
comes a time
when you go beyond a certain point and
your heart gets so hard that even if the
holy spirit speaks to you
you can no longer hear the reason the
bible says come to christ in your youth
before the evil days come not when your
heart is tender
come to christ any time you hear the
voice of the spirit of god
saying come you better come then and now
you may never have that moment again
he that hardened his heart being often
reproved shall suddenly be cut off and
that without remedy
a friend of ours this morning was
driving
and he came up over a hill and he was
going very slowly and he had his
wife and his daughter with him and a man
wasn’t familiar with that particular
territory and he came over the hill
and he hit the side of their car
and by the time she got to the hospital
she was dead
never dreaming this morning when they
got up a happy little family that
she would be gone before noon
how quickly it all happens come when you
can
come to christ when you have a chance
you have that tonight
he that being often reproved shall
suddenly be destroyed and that without
remedy
boasts not thyself of tomorrow for thou
knowest not what a day may bring forth
we don’t know that we’ll be alive
tomorrow you don’t know that if you’re
alive you’ll have another chance like
this come while you can
you’re voting tonight every one of you
are going to cast a vote
this is election day you’re going to
vote either for jesus christ or you’re
going to vote for the devil
jesus
with you the holy spirit in you
you say what do i have to do three
things
first you must repent of sin and the
holy spirit has to help you in your
repenting
and then the second thing is by faith
you receive jesus christ who died for
you on the cross
by faith as your savior and lord
and master
and then thirdly you are willing to obey
him
in all the little things that he’ll
speak to you about and teach you out of
his word
you must be willing to say yes to all
that you must be willing to turn your
life
over to him and he becomes the master he
becomes the pilot of your boat or the
captain of your airline of your airliner
you’re like a plane going through the
sky and all of a sudden the bomb
will come the destruction will come
unless you let jesus in the cockpit
and become the pilot he knows all the
instruments he’s been over
the route before he knows all the
dangers
you turn your life over to him he’ll
help you in your marriage
as you heard johnny and ken a moment ago
tell so beautifully
turn your life over to him as master and
lord and savior
if you have a doubt of your relationship
to god tonight you make sure
or you might be like that priest you may
be in the church but
not sure of your relationship to god
make sure tonight
i’m going to ask hundreds of you to do
what we’ve seen hundreds every night do
here in sacramento
i’m going to ask you to get up out of
your seat right now and come and stand
in front of this platform
symbolically and say i do want to
receive him i do want to know
that my sins have forgiven that i have
eternal life that i am ready to meet god
why do i ask you to come because every
person jesus called in the new testament
he called
in public every person think of it in in
public there’s something about coming
forward
openly like when i got married i got
married in front of witnesses
you come to christ in front of witnesses
and give you a life to him if there’s a
doubt in your heart about your
relationship
you come and settle it tonight hundreds
of you thousands of you that god is
speaking to the holy spirit
do not resist the holy spirit do not say
no
to the holy spirit tonight you come
he’s drawing you to the cross we’re
going to wait and after you’ve all come
i’m going to say a word to you and have
a prayer with you
and give you some literature that you
can take home and help you in your
christian life
it’s very important that you do this and
it’s important that you come
and after you’ve come you can go back
and join your friends
and they’ll wait if you’ve come in a
bustle with a group they’ll wait but
come and make this
and settle this tonight don’t wait
another minute
they may not be any other time for you
time may be running out
young or old man or woman catholic
protestant jewish whatever your
background
the door is open for you you get up and
come we’re going to wait on
now from everywhere from way back here
and over there
and i’m going to ask that people not
leave the service at this
holy moment it disturbs so many people
but you come quickly you may be in the
choir god has spoken to you you get up
and come
[Music]
the number on your television screen is
a number that you can call for spiritual
help
and counsel please write the number down
if the line is busy wait a few moments
and call again
people will be there to help you as long
as the calls keep coming in
[Music]
you that have been watching by
television can see that here in
sacramento california
hundreds of people have been coming to
make their commitment to christ tonight
drawn we believe by the holy spirit god
the holy spirit has been speaking to you
i’m going to ask you to pick up your
telephone and call the number that you
see on your screen and make that
commitment over the telephone
if it’s busy call back again or and
again
the counselors will be there all evening
may god help you to make that commitment
and be sure and go to church next sunday
god bless you
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]
oh
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
now
[Music]
again this evening as you can see on
your television screen
many are making their commitment to
jesus christ
it is also a time of commitment for you
we’d like to help you
and as mr graham has just told you the
same helps we are giving these tonight
he will send to you if you would just
write for them
if you just prayed that prayer with my
father or if you have any questions
about a relationship with jesus christ
i would 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.tv
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
jesus christ promised that he is going
to return to the earth
and ladies and gentlemen jesus christ is
going to keep
that problem are you ready the hope of
the coming of christ ought to make us
walk as disciples of the lord jesus
christ we are to be
salt and we are to be light in the world
and we are to work as though christ may
not come for a thousand years
but we’re to live as though he may come
tonight