Introduction
THE LAST MESSAGE: Jimmy Swaggart’s Final Camp Meeting Sermon Focused on Sanctification — “If This Is My Last, Let It Be About the Cross and the Blood…”
Baton Rouge, Louisiana — Newly released footage from the 2023 Camp Meeting has revealed what is now understood to be Jimmy Swaggart’s final full sermon, and its focus has stunned even longtime followers of the legendary evangelist. In a moment that feels almost prophetic, Swaggart chose to preach not on legacy, revival, or endurance—but on sanctification, the Cross, and the blood of Christ.
The sermon, recorded months before his death and only now made public, shows a visibly weakened but resolute Swaggart standing at the pulpit he had occupied for decades. His voice, softer than in years past, carried a gravity that listeners now recognize as farewell. Early in the message, he paused, looked out over the congregation, and said quietly, “If this is my last time to stand here, let it be about the Cross and the blood.”
For those who knew his ministry, the choice was deeply symbolic. Swaggart spent much of his later years emphasizing sanctification—not as a doctrine of human effort, but as a life sustained moment by moment by faith in Christ’s finished work. In the sermon, he warned against replacing grace with performance and against drifting from the simplicity of the Gospel.
“This is not about how strong you are,” he said in the message. “It’s about what Jesus did—and what only He can do.”
There was no dramatic buildup, no extended altar call. Instead, the sermon unfolded like a final teaching, carefully returning listeners to what Swaggart often called “the central truth” of Christianity. He spoke of the Cross not as a symbol, but as a living reality. Of the blood not as metaphor, but as the source of redemption, cleansing, and daily victory.
Those who were present at the 2023 Camp Meeting recall a stillness in the room that day. Many now say it felt different, though no one knew why at the time. “It wasn’t loud,” one attendee recalled. “It was heavy. Like he was giving us something he knew we’d need later.”
Since the release of the sermon, pastors, theologians, and longtime viewers have described it as a fitting final message—stripped of spectacle and centered entirely on Christ. Social media reactions have poured in, with many calling it “his truest sermon” and “a full-circle moment.”
In the end, Jimmy Swaggart did not use his last pulpit to speak about himself. He pointed, as he always insisted mattered most, to the Cross.
And for many, that choice has made his final message his most enduring one.