Billy Graham S Regret

Some years ago, I was at a preacher's conference in Memphis, Tennessee, where the late evangelist Jim Wilson was speaking. Jim Wilson was Billy Graham's nephew, and this was about four years before Billy Graham died and went to glory. And Jim Wilson shared a story with us about Billy Graham.

He said he was visiting Billy Graham at his home in North Carolina one time, and as they sat outside on the porch, he asked the great evangelist a question. He said, Uncle Billy, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do different? And Billy Graham got a faraway look in his eye as his mind traced back over his ministry. And after a long pause, Billy Graham answered him and said, I would have preached repentance more.

That was Billy Graham's regret that he didn't preach repentance enough. When I read my Bible, I see man's duty of repentance was prominently preached in those days. Came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And we see clearly that the first public sermon of Jesus was on repentance. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And repentance was his theme.

I tell you, nay, but except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. We see that Jesus' disciples were instructed to go preach repentance as well. And that was the main mission of the twelve.

And they went out and preached that man should repent. And that repentance was part of the great commission. And that repentance in remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

We see man's duty of repentance was the doctrine of the apostle Paul. In the times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And that was the theme of Paul's preaching, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God in faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

And the last word Jesus had for his church in the book of Revelation is repent. To the church in Laodicea, he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.

In the book of Acts, we see the message of the early church was repentance. We come across Peter in the book of Acts, standing bold as a lion in the streets of Jerusalem. And he tells his crowd they killed Jesus, but he denied the holy one and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you and killed the prince of life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.

Then he goes on to tell them, repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Billy Graham's regret was that he wished he had preached repentance more. If you study his ministry, you will find that when he was a young evangelist, he preached hard on the doctrine of repentance.

But as he got older, that doctrine fell to the wayside of his message. But the doctrine of repentance has never fallen out of my Bible, friends. It's there all throughout the pages of my Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

Brother Pastor, let me ask you a question. If you could look back over your ministry for Christ and the gospel, what would you do different? Would you have preached repentance more? Are you preaching repentance now? Or do you omit it from your gospel presentation? Look, we will all stand one day at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account to him who has eyes of fire. Oh, what will be our regret on that day?