Are You a Follower of Jesus Christ?

by Billy Graham

There are a thousand things you can do with your life...but how many of them will enable you to say at the end of your life "no reserve, no retreat, no regrets?"

The Sixth Chapter of the book of Isaiah tells about a dramatic event which not only profoundly affected the life of Isaiah, but through him eventually influenced the life of the entire nation.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

"Woe to me!" I cried "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

He said, "Go and tell this people."

(Isaiah 6:1-9)

A Crisis Situation

"Go and tell this people." As I think of all of you, I cannot help thinking of those 17,000 hidden people groups throughout the world. But the message I want to bring you tonight is personal.

Many of you are faced with personal crises. For some of you it may be in your family; for some of you it may be the divorce of your parents or the lingering illness of someone you love. Others of you may be facing a crisis in your own personal life. It could be that a very important relationship is being broken, or perhaps a door has been closed on an opportunity that seemed to be a fulfillment of your dreams. Now you're not sure what lies ahead.

For some of you the crisis tonight is spiritual. You're struggling with a decision that will determine the direction of your life. And like Jacob, you're wrestling with God. The outcome is still in doubt. You're hoping to find the answer at Urbana this week.

Some of you are searching for that certain something that will make your life complete. You have never really committed your life totally and completely to Christ. You don't have the assurance that if you died tonight you would go to heaven. You aren't sure that your sins are forgiven. You aren't certain that you have a relationship with Christ.

Whatever your problem, I want to encourage you by saying that it can become a doorway to a new and deeper relationship with God. And it's often in a crisis of life that disappointment and pain cause us to turn our eyes toward God. In times of difficulty the scales are stripped from our eyes, and we are motivated to focus our attention on him.

Isaiah went to the temple because there was a crisis in Israel: King Uzziah had just died. For fifty-two years he had been the ruler of Judah, longer than any other king up to that time. His reign had been marked by peace and unparalleled prosperity, the greatest prosperity in Judah's history. But now the nation was facing a series of crises.

There was a political crisis. From the east there were rumors of a hostile and aggressive new king on the throne of Judah's archenemy, Assyria. There was an economic crisis. Would the material prosperity continue under Uzziah's inexperienced son? There was social crisis. Material prosperity had brought about not only great wealth, but great poverty and social injustice. And there was a spiritual crisis. In his early years Uzziah had been a godly king, but as the years went by and he became more and more successful, he became less and less interested in God's will.

The Bible says, "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God" (2 Chronicles 26:16). You and I live in a world of great uncertainty and upheaval. No matter where we look, we see signs of turmoil – political, social, economic and spiritual. Right now many of our major magazines and newspapers are running articles that look forward to the coming year. What will 1988 bring? Without exception, the ones I have read so far have been pessimistic about the new year.

Tonight there are people all over our country that are fearful of what the future might hold. We have just signed the INF treaty, but that is only one foot of progress in the hundred-yard distance between us and disarmament. As the Secretary of State said, "We still have enough bombs to blow up this planet in thirty minutes." And many nations besides the United States and the Soviet Union have nuclear weapons. Does the human race have the moral and spiritual fortitude to stop this mad race toward destruction?

Isaiah was a young man living in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty. He lived in the great city of Jerusalem, and ancient Jewish tradition says that he was related to the royal family. Maybe he had been dazzled by success and riches. Maybe he was the first Yuppie. But suddenly Isaiah realized the world would never be the same. It was going to change.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune carried this headline: "Yuppies Abandoning the Finer Things in Life for a Finer Life." The article went on to say that yuppies are dissatisfied and disillusioned. They have quality kitchens, quality cars, quality video systems, but they have not wound up with quality lives. A great disillusionment has set in among the yuppies.

Wherever I travel around the world I find people asking the same questions: What is the meaning and purpose of life? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? Why is it all happening the way it is?

The world's best minds have offered a bewildering array of answers. Freud says that in order for you to change, you must resolve your unconscious conflicts. Karl Marx says in order for you to change, you must help establish a classless society. Carl Jung says that in order for you to change, you must undergo the mystery of the transformation process. Carl Rogers says that in order for you to change, you must be free to be self-actualized. B. F. Skinner says that in order for you to change, you must alter your stimulus-response mechanisms.

Isaiah discovered that the most transforming thing in life is knowing God personally and doing His will. Isaiah gives us a personal and intimate account of his experience with God – an experience that in many ways can be your experience as you meet Christ and respond to His call. Let me summarize this experience in six words.

Comprehension

First there was comprehension. Isaiah comprehended who God is. We don't know how deep Isaiah's belief and commitment to God was before this, but now he comes to comprehend God in a new way. He comes to realize who God really is and what He is like. He has a vision of the Lord, high and lifted up, emphasizing his majesty and glory.

Then he sees the seraphs who were angelic beings: "And they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory'" (v.3). Their threefold praise underlines the holiness and the righteousness of God, emphasizing how important it is for us to understand that God is absolutely holy, pure and righteous.

The prophet Habakkuk said of God, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong' (Hab 1:13). The Scripture tells us that unless we have that same righteousness and that same holiness, we will never get to heaven.

We have lost sight of the holiness of God today. Some of you have become involved in habits or relationships that are wrong, and you have excused them and justified them because you have lost sight of the holiness of God. But the Bible warns, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life" (Gal 6:7-5).

Christ died on the cross to provide for you the righteousness and holiness that you cannot have apart from Him. When you trust in Christ for salvation, you are clothed in the righteousness of God. When God sees you, He sees the righteousness of Christ and He doesn't condemn you. What a wonderful thing!

Have you comprehended who God really is and what He is like? We can see glimpses of Him in creation and in our own conscience and sometimes in the things that other people do. But we do not really see God as He is until we see Him in his Word, the Bible. We know God through the Scriptures. That's the reason it's important to study the Scriptures, to meditate on them night and day. But we spend too much time watching TV or reading magazines, entertaining ourselves when we ought to be in the Scriptures.

There we comprehend God in all of his holiness and righteousness.

Conviction

The second word that I want to mention is conviction. As soon as Isaiah saw who God really is, his immediate response was a deep conviction of his own sinfulness: "'Woe to me!' I cried 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips'" (v. 5).

Society around me is sick. I'm sick. Oh, God, help me! Everyone who's ever seen a true reflection of God is deeply convicted of his own sins.

When Peter saw the Lord, he said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (Lk 5:8 KJV). When Job saw the glory and holiness of God, he said, "I abhor myself" (Job 42:6 KJV). The closer you get to Christ, the more sinful you're going to feel. The closer you get to Christ, the more unworthy you're going to be. The fact that you're aware of your sin and feel guilty about it is a sign of spiritual light.

The most dangerous condition is one in which you can no longer sense that you have drifted away from God. A lot of what goes on today in Christian circles indicates that we've not really comprehended and experienced God as Isaiah did. We've got to the point where we have become flippant about God. We tell jokes about him. God's name is used so often in profanity in the entertainment world today, it's almost embarrassing to turn on the television set.

We do not realize how this offends a holy and righteous God. We act as if it doesn't really matter how we live or what we think or say because we think God will forgive us anyway. We forget that we are on holy ground. The Bible says we all need God's forgiveness, because "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

I came to my first Urbana in 1948, the first one they had here (they had one in Toronto before). One of the other speakers was Donald Grey Barnhouse. He was a giant of a preacher from Philadelphia, and he preached one message on hell and another on separation from the world. I'll never forget his messages on separation from the world.

We have gotten away from that. We have moved in with the world and allowed the world to penetrate the way we live. So the things we used to call sin are no longer sin. Things that we would have abhorred a few years ago, we accept as a matter of fact today, not realizing that they offend a holy God.

I try to go walking or swimming every day, and as I'm walking or swimming, I find myself praying. I don't have to pray too long before I am confessing things that the Holy Spirit points out in my life that I didn't realize were there.

Did you ever have that experience? Do you realize you need God's forgiveness, and you need to be reconciled to him?

Confession

Isaiah's comprehension of God and his conviction of his own sin leads to the third word that I would like to mention, and that is confession. In verse five he says, "I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." He was not only convicted of his sin, but he confessed it openly.

Sometimes we can feel guilty, very guilty, and yet we never do anything about it because we are afraid to face it and repent of it. But God cannot use us in the way He wants to use us if we refuse to confess our sin and seek His cleansing. The Psalmist declared, "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" (Psalm 66:18).

There have been times in my life when I have been overwhelmed with conviction of my own failure and sin and have gone out alone, confessing every sin I could think of, asking God to forgive me and cleanse me so He could use me. The Bible says, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy' " ( I Peter 1:15-16).

Tonight I am going to ask you to turn from whatever it is that is keeping you from Christ and to give your life without reserve to him.

Cleansing

After comprehension, conviction and confession, there was cleansing. Verse six says, "Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'"

Notice that God provided the answer for Isaiah's sins, for a coal is taken from of the altar. All his goodness, all his heritage, all his intentions and resolutions about the future could not bring cleansing. Only God can forgive us and cleanse us, and he has provided the way. The angel took the live coal from the altar to cleanse him from sin.

When we turn to the New Testament, we understand more fully what God has done and what was foreshadowed here. The Bible says you cannot save yourself and that you and I deserve only the judgment of a holy God. But the Bible also tells us something else about God. The Bible tells us that God loves us, and the ultimate proof of His love is that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die as a perfect and fatal sacrifice for sin.

I don't understand how God could allow His Son, His only begotten Son, to be nailed to a Roman cross. I don't understand how God in that mysterious moment took your sins and my sins and laid them on His Son Jesus Christ had never committed immorality. He had never told a lie. He had never stolen anything. He had never had evil thoughts.

All of a sudden He was guilty of it all: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (II Corinthians 5:21). Just think of Christ becoming sin, your sin, the things you've done, the things you've thought about, the things that are on record. Wouldn't it be wonderful to go to bed tonight and know that every sin you have ever committed has been taken care of and that you are right with the Lord?

In a great audience like this there are some of you who have never committed your lives to Jesus Christ. You cannot honestly say that you are a follower of Him. Maybe you have assumed that you were, but down inside tonight you are uncertain about your relationship with God, and you know you need to make your commitment firm. Or maybe you came here for some other reason – just because someone talked you into coming, or to be with your girlfriend or boyfriend. Or perhaps you came because deep down inside of you there is an emptiness and a loneliness, and you are on a spiritual search for God.

Whatever your reason, tonight Christ wants to come into your life. He wants to forgive you and cleanse you, and He wants to make you his child forever. He wants you to become His disciple, and He wants to give you a new meaning and purpose in life.

Challenge

After Isaiah's cleansing came the challenge. Verse eight reads, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'"

Why did God ask that question? There are two reasons. The first reason God asked that question is because He wants men and women to come to know Him. But they will never come to know Him if they do not hear the gospel.

God looks out on this world that is in rebellion against Him, and it breaks His heart. He is not content to stand back and allow the world to continue on its way to a Christ-less eternity. God has done everything possible to bring a lost humanity back to Himself, and He yearns to have men and women from every race and nation on earth to turn to Him and come to know Him.

He is already speaking to people in China. He is already speaking to people in the Soviet Union. He is already speaking to people in the Middle East in ways that would amaze us if we knew about them. About three weeks ago we received a letter from a woman who is teaching school in China. She wrote us this little story:

The other day I went out with two Japanese teachers. They asked me to join them on a trip to a mountain, a two-day journey away. On the way we passed by an old beggar sitting by the road. Something about him touched my heart and it seemed that God whispered to me, 'Go speak to him.' But I didn't do it. I decided to wait until I came back. And sure enough, on our return he was still there. I went over and I spoke to him and told him about Jesus Christ and tears came to his eyes. He said, 'You know, I've been talking to Him all my life, but I didn't know his name.'"

You see, the Lord is revealing himself to people in ways you may never have dreamed of. I meet people in many parts of the world where the gospel cannot be proclaimed outside of a church, or in some cases only under severe restrictions. They tell me they listen to Transworld Radio or Far East Broadcasting. Or they have read a tract.

I know a man who is the surgeon general of his country. He was walking down a street, and a piece of paper stuck to his shoe and when he got home he pulled it off in disgust. But it was about the gospel. He read it and became a Christian and has become a great Bible teacher in his country. Somebody had left a tract.

It is estimated that in China today there are between 30 and 50 million Christians. When the missionaries left in the late forties, there were estimated to be 700,000 Chinese Christians. Where did they come from? What happened in China – this massive growth of the church that has taken place in the past few decades with no public preaching, no literature, no radio, no television, no nothing?

The Holy Spirit began to work. People would live the Christian life before their fellow workers and people would come and ask them, "What is the difference in your life?" Little house groups began to meet. Small groups sprang up here and there. When the Cultural Revolution came, they went to prison and suffered for their faith. They stood for God. And now today we see evidence of the power of the gospel.

I don't believe we should all get on the plane and rush over to China as missionaries. They have already proved that by God's power they can evangelize China. Oh, we can help. We can go out as teachers and engineers. We can be supportive of the church in China either by our presence or by our prayers. But for now, let's let the Chinese build their own church.

Maybe the day will come when they can send some missionaries to us, and we can send some to China. But for the present, let's not even use the word missionary when we're talking about China.

The second reason God asked the question "Who will go?" is that God's message demands messengers. The Bible says, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"

God looks upon our world today, in all of its spiritual lostness and need, and says, "Who will go for us?" Who will go to the teeming urban centers of our world? Who will go to the small villages, to the hidden peoples, to the universities, to the difficult places, to our own country? Who will declare – by word and deed – the love of Christ to those who do not know Him?

The challenge is to you and to me, as God would lead us and call us. You cannot remain the same once you have seen the world as God sees it, and once you have seen your life as God sees it. Isaiah responded, "Here am I. Send me!" God had not promised Isaiah that it would be easy or glamorous or romantic or that people would praise him.

I know it's great to think that we might get on a boat, or a plane, and arrive in some distant place where God will somehow fill us with his Spirit, and we will be totally different. But if you are not winning people to Christ here, if you're not serving Christ here, He can't use you there. You must witness for Him here first – on your campus, in your place of work.

God is calling us to do something unique in our generation. Marcel Marceau said this, "If you want to make an impact on America, you have to do something unique." He was referring to the entertainment world. But God is calling us to do something unique, to deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him out among the masses that need Christ.

He is calling us to consider his call before our careers, to wrestle in prayer over the mission he has for us in life. God is calling us to look at the world and see it as he sees it and answer the question, "Who will go for us?"

Just before World War I a young man arrived in Cairo, Egypt. He was 25 years old, a graduate of Yale University and Princeton Seminary. He was tall, handsome, athletic, intelligent, single and very rich. His name was William Borden, and he was the heir to one of America's great fortunes. But he had turned his back on all the privilege and all the luxury and all the money that could have been his, and was on his way to China as a missionary.

But shortly after arriving in Cairo, he became critically ill with cerebral meningitis, and in a matter of days he was dead. Many students back in America asked, "Was it worth it?" Later his biographer wrote that Borden had said, "No reserve, no retreat, no regrets." There was no hesitation in his dedication to the Lord.

What about you? No reserve, no holding anything back. No regrets – never turning back from the path God has set before you. No regrets – joyously knowing that God's way is always best. There are a thousand things you can do with your life; a thousand ways you can spend it. But how many of them will enable you to say at the end of your life "no reserve, no retreat, no regrets?"

There is only one way you can truly say that, and that is to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Billy Graham, author and internationally known evangelist, has preached the gospel to millions throughout the world.

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December 27-31, 2009