# Jesus Paid It All

Key Passage: John 9
Date: June 7, 2024

Once you open your Bibles to John. We’re going to go to John chapter 9. I have the privilege to be here and see what God has done, how He’s blessed the hard work that’s gone here. I have great memories, of course, of both Tammy and Paul’s families. I believe they met in our church, and I was the one to tie the knot.

But a pretty good knot. It’s still tied, looks like, very well. And they’ve made a great team for the Lord, and God has really used them. We praise the Lord for that.

I was talking with Tammy just a little bit here before service started. She was talking about her family. She’s got a couple of brothers. I know you probably know Jay and Walt, but they’re pastors and doing a great job. And our church is proud that we had a little part in some of that in the early beginning.

The Lord is, He’s just able. That’s all there is to it. You trust Him, you believe Him, you work for Him. Somebody said, “Don’t pay to serve God.” Well, it might not pay in what you count as pay down here, but, brother, the heavenly benefits are going to be something else. They surely are.

Won’t you open your Bibles to the book of John? We’re just going to be… I don’t know that I could be anything but simple. I was telling the PA man back there, “I’m technologically retarded.” So what that means is he’ll have to control the PA. I asked if I don’t have to turn on anything, plug in anything. No, we’ll take care of it all. I have to get my grandkids to help me with the remote to make the TV work. I think it’s born into them nowadays, don’t you? Just comes automatically wired. They already know that, it seems like.

We are thrilled to be here with you and looking at the plans out there, seeing the new building. Boy, that’s going to be fabulous. But also I was thrilled to talk with Pastor Paul. The church is about to get into maybe starting a radio station. We’ve had one for a long time, and I remember the early years starting very small.

We’ve had it probably close to 30 years now. And that radio station that started out, we were glad if we could reach the city limits. Now it reaches worldwide. We hear from all over the world, places like Cambodia and even Russia, some places that you would not believe it would ever get. But technology, see, has moved and changed so much now.

And God has used that thing. Hardly a week goes by but what somebody—I hear testimony from somebody—that they first heard about the church or heard the gospel or got saved because of the radio station.

I think I told you, Brother Paul, a fellow came in church, oh, just two or three years back. Never met him before. He wasn’t quite as old as me. He moved his own up there. And he walked in and said, “My name’s Carter, too.” I said, “Are we related?” He said, “I don’t know. But I know this: I got saved listening to you preach on the radio, and I came to church to get baptized.”

And he and his wife came in and were very faithful for about three years. The Lord called him on home. She’s still there. But the radio station was where the gospel got out. And so I don’t know what God’s going to do here, but it’s a worthwhile effort, Pastor. I’ll tell you that. I don’t think there’s a week before we have visitors somewhere that heard us first on the radio.

Open your Bibles to John chapter 9. Familiar story. I’m not going to even read all the verses for the sake of time this morning. Let’s start off here in verse 1. I’m going to preach to you a little bit on “What Do You Know?” Somebody said that what you don’t know can’t hurt you. I disagree with that.

I heard about the fellow sitting in the barber chair. And he got to notice the manicurist over there, and finally he called over to do his fingernails, and he said, “You know,” said, “you’re cute,” said, “what about a date?” She said, “Oh, no,” said, “I’m married.” He said, “Well, tell the bomb you need a night off.” She said, “You tell him he’s shaving you.”

What you don’t know can hurt you. We’ll see that here in the scripture.

It says, “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.” I think you know the story. And the disciples asked him, saying, “Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest.”

Jesus knew what He was going to do. He goes on and He heals the man, but He did it on the Sabbath. That caused the strict Pharisees to think He’d done wrong. Listen, there’s nothing wrong with doing something good on the Sabbath, amen? But even under the Old Testament law here, they were fussing because He did this on the Sabbath. So they called it into question.

And some of them even doubted whether the man had ever been blind to start with. So it says in verse 9, “Some said, ‘This is he.’ Others said, ‘He is like him.’” But he said, “I am he.”

Well, they called the parents in. Asked the parents, “Was this your son? Was he born blind?” And the parents were a little bit afraid. They were afraid they’d get kicked out of the synagogue by the Pharisees. And so they were a little cautious about it.

We pick it up in about verse 20. His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. He is of age; ask him; he shall speak for himself.” And they did that because they feared getting put out of the synagogue. And down in verse 24,

“Then again called they the man that was blind and said unto him, ‘Give God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner,’” speaking of Jesus. And he answered and said, “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know: that whereas I was blind, now I see.”

I want to talk to you a little bit about one thing we know. One thing we know.

You know, we live in a day of knowledge. Knowledge is bought and sold today. It’s a commodity on the market. And yet the Bible warns us about this time. The book of Daniel said in the last days that knowledge would increase. Many would run to and fro and knowledge would be increased. I thought about that last night. I got on the plane about there in the Orlando area. And, you know, it would have taken me 12 hours—even with my background with cars—at least 12 hours in this traffic today to drive here. But I got on that plane, and in less than two hours, I was here. That’s the day Daniel was talking about. That’s common now. We just say, “Except that, there’s nothing to it.” But yes, that’s the day in age that the prophet was talking about. And that’s what he was saying here to us.

We live in a crazy day today, though, where what we used to call values seems to be cast aside anymore. I saw a stat that may be kind of sad. I saw where a lot of young people believe socialism would be better than capitalism. Let me tell you this: socialism, you have no freedom. Capitalism, you do. Folks that think that communism is better ought to go down to Cuba for a week. See what Mr. Castro did down there with the folks.

I’ve made at least two or three trips to Russia. I’ve been in Romania and some other places that suffered under communism. I want to tell you, you don’t want that, folks. And yet America is losing its freedom. And even as we’ve got an election coming and everything, listen, the candidate that gives you the most is not the best for you.

We’ve lost the old value of earning your way. We’ve lost the old value in the old character that people used to have to not have a free ride, not want somebody else to pay for it. And it’s killing our country. In fact, I don’t want to get off on that; it’d be really easy to do that.

We live in a crazy day today. We’ve got this green religion. You know what I’m talking about? Tree huggers. Don’t get mad at me. I’m going to leave, and you’re not here for me probably anymore. But I can’t believe the folks that think this earth is all we’ve got. You see, the attitude is we’ve got to save it. We’re polluting the earth. Listen, oh, Thomas Edison, they said a comet’s coming, and it’s going to destroy the earth. He said, “That’s okay. We can do without it.” Yes, we can.

The truth of the matter is, they’ve got a green God; they don’t have the real God. And all this foolishness that’s going on right now.

We were driving to the airport, Brother Paul, and one of my college boys—he’s working for us now, but a good young man—we passed a lot of cars. They passing you, you passing them. I mean, it’s thick in Florida now. But we went by a $100,000 Tesla. And it looked pretty nice. I said, “That’s okay. We’re going further than he is. He’s got to stop and charge somewhere, amen?” I don’t trust that business, I’ll tell you the truth.

Anyway, we’re living a crazy age. There’s no doubt about it. And this thing of green religion, worship the tree, worship and get rid of the fossil fuel, so-called, and all of that. Listen, I got a theory that God put everything on this earth we need until He’s through with it. Don’t you believe that? I certainly do. Amen? They’re going to run out of water, not before Jesus comes. Amen? We’re going to run out of air. The air is polluted. Oh, listen. Oh, I’m going to get off on that, but this is crazy. Listen, you know if they’re fussing about the carbon dioxide, you’ve got to have that for life on this earth. And God’s got it going in a cycle, the trees and the green and all that. This is reproducing the best stuff we need. Hey, God’s still in charge. He’s the Creator. He put it all here. He knows what we need. We trust Him all the way, amen?

I tell you what. But I’m glad there’s some things I know. I mean, I don’t know it all, but I know the things that are most important. I want to say a few things about that here just for a few minutes this morning.

To begin with, I know that I have God’s Word. No doubt about it, God’s Word. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Psalms 12 says God’s preserved it, preserved the very words. And it’s from God. This book is from God.

I don’t know if I invented this little saying—I’ve used it a few times and I think of it right now, talking about the Bible: Do you know man couldn’t have written it if he would? If you study it, you’ll find out the phenomena of the Bible; man couldn’t put it together. Man couldn’t have written it if he would, and man wouldn’t have written it if he could. You know why? Because it tells the truth on our depravity, tells the truth on our failures. And the truth is, we like to speak well of ourselves. You know that? The truth is, God knows who we are. Jesus said He needed not that any should testify of man; He knew what was in man. And the truth is, God wrote His word that tells us the truth. You may not like what it tells you, but you better believe what God says about you is true. Amen? It’s inspired of the Lord. It’s from… from God. God is the one that gave it.

You know, I think about the phenomena, and of course I believe the King James Bible is the word that God has blessed for over 400 years, proved it to be His Word. And even in the English, there are so many times in the Word of God that phenomena takes place. Somebody said, “I’ll give you a nugget out of the Greek.” Well, I don’t preach to Greeks or to—I preach to English-speaking people, so I want to know what it says in the English, amen?

Do you know this Bible claims to be the Bread of Life? Jesus said it was the Bread of Life. Let me give you—now, you don’t have to pay this too much attention—but these little nuggets all the way through the Word of God. Do you know the Bible is the Bread of Life? Jesus said the Word of God was the Bread of Life three times in the Bible: Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4, Luke 4. It says that man shall live, not live by bread alone, but by every word, every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Is that what Jesus told the devil on the Mount of Temptation? Remember? But now you take the references: Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4, and Luke 4. Add them up, comes to 111. Where’s God’s Word? Here it is.

Walk into the tabernacle. Remember the tabernacle, the brazen altar and all of that? You walk in and you’ve got the Table of Showbread. The bread is lined up in two columns of sixes, six, six. How many books in the King James? 66. Oh, you say, “That’s just…” Yeah, but I like to do those things. It just kind of enforces what I believe, that I have the very Word of God in my hand. Amen? I believe it’s God’s Word.

The Bible says over here in John chapter 6, in verse 63: “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” You know a preacher would be a fool to be up with a dead book trying to preach dead men to life. Amen? But he’s got a live book. He’s got the living Word. He’s got the living God, the living Spirit. That’s why this Bible is different than any other book.

Pastor Paul wants me tonight to tell a little bit of my testimony. I was saved from hot-rodding, race cars. Tell a little bit of the story. You know, one thing I knew way back when I was driving on the racetrack—I still had a strange—knew there was something different about the Bible. My grandma was a Bible believer in our home. Nobody else was probably a Christian. And I might say this in telling the story, but she’d stand by the door as I’d get ready for a weekend of racing. And she’d be reading that old King James Bible with no cover on the back of it. And I knew when Grandma read, she murmured with her lips. You know what I’m talking about? The closer I got to her, Paul, the louder she murmured. I knew she was reading that book at me. Amen? And I’d say stupid stuff. I didn’t have any sense. “Oh, Grandma, some man wrote that book.” I was dumb as a brick, see.

When I got on a racetrack and we’re going around getting ready for the flag and getting ready to start, you know what I’d see in my mind? I’d see Grandma sat at the door with that old Bible. And I’d say, “Why in the world does that book bother me?” But it did. It did. It bothered me. And thank God it did, because the day came I got to say it. I’ll tell you maybe a little more about that, possibly tonight. But the truth is, this is God’s Word. I’m glad I know that. I’ve tested it. I’ve seen it now. I used to preach that in theory; now I preach it by experience. I know what the book has done for me, and I’ve seen it do for others.

I know I have God’s Word. You know, because I have God’s Word, I know I’m saved. Say, “How do you know you’re saved?” Because God said so.

The Bible says, “I have written these things unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you what? May guess? No, that you may know” (1 John 5:13), “that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Now, thank God, I know that. There’s a lot of ways you know. I mean, man, when I got saved, I didn’t understand what was happening. I couldn’t quote you John 3:16, but when I got saved, I knew something changed on the inside. I mean, something flip-flopped on me when I stepped up to the preacher and received Christ as my Savior.

I remember, of course, Paul Tavidot was my wife. She was a fine Christian young lady, and she wouldn’t go anywhere with me but to church. That’s why I heard the gospel. Thank God for young ladies that stick by the stuff. Anyway, I remember when I got out that night and got to the car, so I driving home, she said, “What happened?” I said, “Well, I got saved.” She said, “Oh, that’s great. They all been praying for you.” I said, “But what’s it going to be now? I worked out in the work day world. I still at that time was driving my race car, and I had a crew of buddies that hung around, and hey, we lived a pretty rough life. I said, ‘Tomorrow when the sun gets hot and things get to going wrong, I’ll probably start using God’s name in vain again.’ And I said, ‘What difference is it going to make?’” She said, “If you really got saved, it’s going to make a lot of difference.”

Boy, she was right. The difference was, I did take God’s name again a time or two, but just a few. And every time it’d stab me. It stabbed me. Something happened on the inside, renewal of the Spirit on the inside. When you get born again, there’s a difference from the inside out, and the inside will affect the outside. It will make a difference there. Oh, yeah, I knew I was saved because now I wanted to go to church, where I didn’t want to go before. I mean, a lot of things changed and changed in a hurry.

You know, I wanted to keep God’s commandments. The Bible says in 1 John 2:3, “Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” Now, I’m not talking about keeping the law and the Ten Commandments. Nobody’s perfect in the flesh, but I want to tell you, my desire changed. Now I wanted to do the things that pleased the Lord more than the things that pleased me. Did you notice that difference? And other people around you will notice that difference.

I know I’m saved because my spirit changed and I wanted to do what pleased the Lord. One of the ways you know you’re saved. Over in 1 John 3:14, it says we know we’ve passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.

Now, when I came to church, I did not love the brethren. I came because the girl wouldn’t go with me anywhere else. And I remember—oh, I sometimes I wish I could forget some of these things—I remember coming in, sitting on the back row. If there had been a back row, I’d have got further back, but anyway, as far as I could. And I nitpicked everything I saw. I thought the lady playing the piano was going to break the bench. Critical. I saw the choir, and the choir leader was up there singing—the song leader—and I thought, “Look at that guy showing off in front of the women.” I did pick at everything, really did.

But then I got saved, and you know what? That song leader became one of the best friends I ever had. I fell in love with those folks in the choir. You know, something flipped. They didn’t change. They were still the same good folks they were. I changed. Something happened with me on the inside, and I began to love the brethren that I criticized before. Hey, if you love the brethren, you won’t gossip about them; you’ll pray for them. Big difference. Big difference.

I heard about one lady said she was going to trade her vacuum cleaner in for a telephone because she could pick up more dirt that way. Well, let’s don’t be guilty of that. Amen? The truth is, none of us are perfect. And if someone is overtaken in a fault, we—the book of Galatians tells us—we that are spiritual are supposed to pray for them, lest we also be overtaken. And that’s a mark of God’s church. A mark is that we love the brethren.

And I know I’m saved because I saw a change on the inside. And the biggest change: I saw the witness of God’s Spirit on the inside. Romans 8:16: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”

Ever hear a gospel song and it just gets you? Sure. Ever be reading the Word of God and it just jumps off the page at you? Sure. His Spirit witnessing with your spirit that you are a child of God. Have you ever met a stranger—you didn’t know him before—and in a few words, you have a feeling of kinship?

I remember when I first got saved, there was a little wall beginning to build up between my family—my brother, my mom and dad. They said, “Something’s wrong. That’s that girl he started dating, you know.” But you know what? By the grace of God, that wall came down when they also got saved. But I’ve seen the time, and I’ve seen it in so many families as a pastor, where one would get saved in the family, and for a while there would be a real tension there. But thankfully, if a man really gets saved and he keeps going after those he loves, pretty soon they’ll get saved. I’ve seen one in a family get saved through the years, and then the whole family, one by one, keep coming to Christ. That’s the way it ought to be. That’s God’s plan. We ought to care for those that we love and those that are our families, certainly. And we have that Spirit of witness within us.

But the best way I know I’m saved is that Jesus paid the price for my sins. Oh, yes. He did pay a debt that I couldn’t pay. I owed it, but I couldn’t pay it, but He paid it. We sang that song, “Jesus Paid It All.” Thank God He paid it all. Amen?

And the truth is, He didn’t just make a down payment on it; He paid it all. “It is finished,” He said, on the cross. And thank God, that’s true. And to know the truth that He paid for my sins—I couldn’t pay for them.

Now, before I was saved, I knew I had sins. I dreaded it. I had a plan in my mind: “One day I’m going to settle down. One day I’m going to do better.” See, I had a thought like this, and this was wrong—a lot of people think this. Little kids, we mislead them sometimes. Parents, be careful. Don’t say to your kids, “Be good, and God will love you.” God loves you anyhow. He loves us while we were yet sinners, did He? Amen? Don’t let them think they’re going to earn their way to heaven. Jesus had to die for them. He had to pay for their sins, just like me and you.

And the way we know we’re saved: He paid it all. All. The Bible says that He hath laid on Him all those sins. All those sins. He that knew no sin became sin for us and took our place on the cross. And the greatest—when the devil gets on your shoulder and says, “You just think you’re saved”—He said, “Oh no, He paid it all.”

The story is told of old Martin Luther of medieval days. He had discovered the truth. He was studying in the monastery, but he discovered the truth that the just shall live by faith, and he had received Christ, and of course there’s a big turmoil because he brought about the Protestant movement out of the Catholic Church, and so all of that. But old Martin Luther said the devil would argue with him about it. Said one night he woke up and thought he saw the devil standing at the foot of his bed with a great big scroll, a big roll. And he said, “Martin, look here, I’ve got a list of all your sins,” and he let the scroll roll down. What do you say to that?

Martin says, “I looked at him and said, right at the bottom, put down there: Paid in full by Jesus.” And that’s the truth. Paid in full, brother, all of them, all of them. Every bad thought I ever had, Jesus paid for it. Every bad word I ever said, every deed I wish I’d not done, Jesus paid for it. Paid it all, all to Him I owe. Thank God, I know I’m saved because He paid that price.

And then, you know, I thank God, I’m saved, and I know He answers prayer. Now, I was talking about age a while ago. I got saved when I was 22 years old. You do the arithmetic if you have a computer. The truth of the matter is, that’s a long time. That’s a long time. And during that time, I’ve seen the Lord answer prayer, not just for me but other people, miraculously so.

Don’t He promise to do that? He tells us we have not because we ask not. He tells us to pray. He tells us to pray in faith. No, a lot of folks pray amiss—I have, you have—but the truth is He does answer prayer. And I can tell you more stories than time would allow.

Listen, folks, it’s natural to pray. I prayed before I got saved. I didn’t know to pray in Jesus’ name. I didn’t have a—I did not have a channel to God. I was not saved.

I remember one time, in one of the longer car races that I was in, we had to make a lot of pit stops, and I was on a racing team, and three of us—three cars on our team. And I remember that Memorial Day or some big Fourth of July or some kind of race. And I had worked my way all the way up to second place. And there was only about four laps to go, and I was easily catching the leader. He was having some troubles, and I knew in another two laps, I had that race. I was tired, I remember, so tired when I’d come out of the turns and go down the straightaway. I’d try to—I’d try to relax just a second to get my strength back in my arm. The older cars didn’t have all the power stuff they got on now, by the way.

But anyway, my partner had a flat tire, and he’d gone out, made a pit stop, got a new tire, and he was coming in. He was driving like a maniac trying to make up his time. And even though he was not ahead of me, I was about to lap him again, and I saw him go into the turn, and he lost it. And he bumped the fence, and his radiator burst. And the water came down on that pitch track, and I’m coming right at it. Boy, I knew what was fixing to happen. There’s no way you can go through a corner at that centrifugal force and not spin. So when I hit the water, my car went shoo-shoo, round and round, and finally went out in the infield. Didn’t hit another car, but I was out. Four laps to go, two laps to go, right at the end. I was fixing to pass the guy, and my own partner took me out with a burst radiator.

I crawled out of the window of that car, just so tired I couldn’t hardly stand up and lean on it. And I remember saying out loud, “God, this is about all I’d take of this.” And no, God, not in a real way. I had never been saved. I’d never even heard the gospel clear. But you know, we all pray. We all pray. I don’t care what the atheist says, he prays. You let the doctor shake his head and say it’s terminal, he’ll pray. Put him in the foxhole, he’ll pray. Everybody prays. It’s a natural thing to pray.

But it’s something else to know when you’ve had answered prayer that only God could have brought that about. Couldn’t happen no other way. Man, that increases your faith to know it’s God. I would like to tell you a lot of stories.

I start off: the girl got me to go to church. I got saved. A few months later, we were still going to church, and I thought, “I’m going to ask that girl to marry me.” I mean, she’s the reason I got saved. And so I prayed about it. And Saturday afternoon, I got off from work and got my little old paycheck, and I headed for the big city, Orlando—still is, but now our city is about caught up in growth. But I drove up there that afternoon, Saturday afternoon. Went on Orange Avenue, right down the middle of town, parked my car somewhere, and I got out, and I started going down the street, every jewelry store, every jewelry store, this side of the street, this side of the street. And I was still in my work clothes. And nobody seemed to be paying me much mind. No salesman grabbed me. I walked in this store, walked in that store. I thought, “Well, I’ve got to go. I got to buy a ring today because I told her sister I was going to do it. I’ve got to.”

So I’m getting desperate. So help me, this is not a lie. I’m not embellishing this; this is exactly what happened. I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk on Orange Avenue in the middle of Orlando. There’s still a busy place today.

I’d heard the preacher say, “God can do anything. Nothing’s too small for Him.” That’s what I heard the preacher say, so I just believed what the preacher said. So I stopped right in the middle of the street, bowed my head, started praying out loud. Now, when I looked up, I had worn a hole out in the crowd. They were just kind of circled around me.

I said, “Lord, I would have never got saved. I would have never heard about Jesus except for that girl. And I’ve told her sister that I’m going to get a ring, and I’ve got to get a ring today.” And I’m just telling God my problems, like there wasn’t nobody in the world but He and I.

And I’m not kidding you to this day. I’m not sure exactly what happened. I thought I’d been in every jewelry store on both sides of the road, but I looked up. When I looked up, I looked across the street, and I saw a jewelry store I had not been in. I walked across, right? I walked in the front door of that store. And when I walked in, nobody was in there but one man in the middle aisle about like this, and a counter back then. I saw one fairly tall man—I’m still not sure he was a human being; I think he was. I walked in, and as I came in the door, right in the glass, I saw this set of rings. Let me talk to the ladies a minute. They had this velvet-type heart full of diamonds.

I said, “That’s it. That’s what I want, just like that.” I came walking on the end, and before I ever got to the counter, I was hollering at the guy, “All right! I don’t know stuff now. I’ve been at other stores. Nobody wants to talk to me. I’ve got to have a ring. I told that sister I was getting a ring.” I’m talking to him. He’s saying, “Hold it, young man. Settle down a little bit.” So help me, I did it. His hands—and I walked up. He said, “Now tell me again.” I said, “I’ve got to take back an engagement ring, ask that girl to marry me.” He said, “You’re not getting married tonight, are you?” I said, “No.” I said, “But I’m going to ask her.” He said, “Well, look, you’d already found out I had—that was a big price.” Now, I’m going to tell you something: it was almost $400. Now, listen to me, that was bigger dollars than they are now, much, much, much bigger. I didn’t have $400; probably my family didn’t. Nobody did. But he said, “What have you got?” I said, “Well, I got my paycheck here.” And I had a little more money, but I had less than $100.

He said, “Then you’re not getting married tonight.” I said, “No.” He said, “Well, you don’t really need both of these rings.” I said, “No, I guess not.” He said, “You just needed the engagement ring.” He said, “I don’t know you, and it’s Saturday, and I can’t check your credit. But he said, ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I’m going to let you take this engagement ring.’” I gave him my money and took the ring, and he set it up on payments come Monday. I went that afternoon, though, and I gave her the ring, and she said yes. And then when we got married, I gave her the payment book.

Truth, so help me, but you know what? I still think about it. New Christian, hadn’t been saved very long. God answered prayer in such a real, real way. Oh, I thank God, I know He answers prayer. I could go on and tell you so many other stories. But folks, the truth of the matter is that He still answers prayer.

Oh, I hope of our country today would be if we’d repent and turn to God in prayer. It would be a wonderful thing if we did. He would still hear, I believe. I can tell you other stories, but prophetically we know we’re in the last days, don’t we? Folks, it’s not only perilous times, but it is the last days.

Somebody says, “What are the signs of the Lord’s coming?” Too many to talk about. We’re not even watching for the signs; we’re listening for the shout. Amen? We believe the Lord is coming soon.

I think about it so many ways. Every time I—my wife says, “Well, the whole news is discouraging.” It is, but it tells me one thing: Jesus is about to come. All the bad stuff—I wish it wasn’t happening—all the issues that are wrong, all the morals that have been dropped, all the ridiculous things. Would you ever think you’d see mobs going into the stores and just stealing without even being interrupted, just getting a cart and pushing it out? Then you see all the murder that is taking place and all that. That’s not old America at all. It is amazing the bad stuff that is going on.

But all of that is what Jesus and what the Bible says: “In the last days, evil men will wax worse and worse.” The last days, perilous times shall come. We’re there. We’re certainly there, no doubt, no doubt about it.

Then you look on the political scene and see how awful it is, and then the wars. I heard ex-President Trump say not long ago, he said, “America’s in more danger than ever before.” I agree with him. He said, “We’re facing World War III.” Well, I got news for you: the Bible predicted that, predicted that.

I won’t have time to open it up to you, but if you want to study Ezekiel 36 through 38, you’ll find out the nation that heads the list over there is Persia, and Persia is Iran. Iran’s name was changed less than 100 years ago. Persia’s name was changed to Iran. You know that? We are—somebody says, “We don’t want to go to war with Iran.” Well, they are at war with us. They’re shooting our ships. They’re sending the missiles at us. It’s going to happen because the Bible says it was going to happen. It’s going to happen. I don’t know if somebody got elected, they might could kick the can down the road and buy some more time, but I fear we’ve already run out of time. We better use the time today that we have. We don’t know how much it is, but it looks like some major, major things are about to happen wherever we look.

I think—I don’t know if it made the news, but we heard it locally there in Florida—had an earthquake the other day about 100 miles off of our coastline on the east over there. Jesus said they would increase. They don’t hardly even put them in the news anymore; they’re so common. They’re just happening all the time, everywhere you look.

A lot of ways we know that Jesus has come. One of the biggest signs ever was in 1948 when the Jews came back to the Holy Land. And then in 1967 when they got the Temple Mount back. And now what’s happening is—Bible, what’s going on now? The anti-Semitism, all the stuff that you’ve seen on your TV and the news, the universities, and all that. Listen, you read Zechariah chapter 13 and 14, and you find out all the nations gather against Israel, right? How do they get saved? Only with Jesus coming back. He’s coming back at what we call the Second Advent. He’s coming back. The Jews will be almost annihilated by the time He comes back, but He’s coming back as a Savior. Oh, the truth is, He’s coming back at the Battle of Armageddon, set up His kingdom following that.

In the meantime, we believe He’s getting ready to come for the church. I say the church, I’m talking about genuine saved people. I believe with all my heart, He’s getting very close to coming back for His own. All the signs we could talk about, all of that stuff we read—much of that is in the Tribulation period, in the book of Revelation. Daniel’s seventieth week, the day of Jacob’s trouble, Jeremiah said. That’s the seven-year tribulation period.

And a lot of the things we see happening now, for instance—and I just don’t touch on this, I won’t turn to it—but in Revelation chapter 8, it tells us there’s a mountain burning with fire that comes down and hits the earth. It burns up the grass and everything. You read over there how that it’s coming; it’s called Wormwood, poison, makes everything bitter, the waters bitter and all that. I find it—and I don’t get into all that—but I find it interesting that NASA, where my house is, Brother Paul, they shoot the rockets off. Like the bird flies from my back door, across the woods, over to the sea, about 60 miles to where they’re shooting the rockets up. So when the shuttle would come back into land—not so much when it left, but when it would come back into land—it’d come right over my house. Now, I was a thousand feet up, but I want to tell you, if you didn’t know it was coming, you’d jump out of your skin. That thing would shake every window and every door in every house.

But right over there, NASA—and they’re not talking about it much in the news—they’ve changed the date on it two or three times, but NASA says there’s an asteroid coming toward the earth. They even gave it a name; it’s Apophis. They first predicted it would arrive in 2012, then they changed the prediction to 2029. So that’d be five years, right? Now they don’t talk about it much because their plan is that if it doesn’t change course—and they’ve already been practicing this, you’ve seen this on your TV news—they’re going to shoot some missiles into it and try to make it miss planet Earth. Well, if it’s the one in Revelation chapter 8, they’re not going to be able to make it miss; it’s going to hit.

Say, what’s the answer? The answer is be ready yourself. You see, I’m not worried about it because I believe Jesus is coming for the saved before that. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to be forever with the Lord. Isn’t that what the Bible says?

Do you know we’re in a good time for the rapture to take place? Could be any day. We see the young people, “Oh, we want 20 years. We want to get married.” The Lord could save you from some of those bad things in those 20 years, too. The truth is, we ought to be expecting Jesus to come.

Now, Sister Shepherd was singing about it a while ago. It’s going to be too late for some. You need to receive Christ now. Let me ask you: Do you have peace in your heart that you’ve received Jesus Christ, that your name’s written in heaven, that if you died today, you’d go with Him, but if He comes, you’d meet Him in the air? You belong to Him? You belong to Him?

Listen, no matter how young or how old, I don’t know what else you think you know, but if you don’t know you’re saved, that’s the most important thing. These parents said, “One thing we know: he was blind.” The man himself said, “I was blind, but now I see. I know.” I’m talking to you as a fellow that knows today that I’ve been born again. My name’s written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. If Jesus comes today, it’ll be a victory time for me. I’ve been wearing this old body out pretty good, and I realize the doctors can’t fix it, but Jesus is going to fix it. Amen, because He’s coming. He’s coming soon.

You know, if He doesn’t come before I die, death does not hold the fear for me that it did like when I was on the racetrack and other times and thought, “This is it.” Death doesn’t hold that fear anymore.

As a young preacher, the first church I pastored was out in the country, and on a Sunday morning, a dear, faithful grandma, about four rows in front, and as I was preaching, she started shaking. She fell over an old slatted pew, and the men took her out. To shorten up the story, the doctor sent her home. She didn’t have any insurance. He said she’d had a stroke. She’ll die.

She revived up for just a few days. She loved the Lord, and we kept up prayer for her at church. Then I got a call: “Granny’s dying. Will you come?” I came, and I walked into a little shack of a house that had no ceiling or unsealed in Florida, August, hot as it could be. I was a brand new young preacher, and I thought I had to wear my coat because it was an official visit.

I remember going to the foot of the bed. Instead of there—the neighbor lady was in, another man I did not know was on the other side, her daughter I knew, and a neighbor lady. I walked to the foot of the bed. Granny was in a coma, is what we’d call her. They had piled—hot weather, but she’d gotten so cold they’d piled covers on her. When I went in, I felt—could feel no pulse. The daughter said, “We’ve called the funeral home, and they said they’re sure that she’s gone. Call her back. The county was going to have to bury her; she didn’t have any insurance or anything.”

So I walked to the foot of the bed, and the neighboring lady—now, some of you older ladies might remember when the old country folks would do this—the neighboring lady would pull the covers up and put her hand under her, and she’d tell the folks, “The cold is going up. It’s up to her knee now,” and so forth, going to declare her dead. That’s the way they were going to declare when she was dead. So the neighboring lady did that. I’m just standing there as a young preacher, didn’t know hardly what to do, what I was supposed to do.

And about the time—I still cry about this, folks; it’s been 54, five years ago, Paul—she said, “She’s gone,” and Granny sat up in the bed. The covers kind of fell a little way. Granny sat up and looked over my head. I was standing at the foot of the bed, looked up into those open rafters of that old house. And she said, “Y’all hear the music?” And then she looked at me, recognized me, and said, “Preacher, I know you can hear them. I know you can see them. Tell the others.” I couldn’t see them, and I couldn’t hear them, but I knew in my heart the angels came for Granny. I knew that for sure. She fell back; she was gone.

The man, I didn’t know who he was, but was sitting in a chair at the other side of the bed, old hardwood floor. I heard him when his knees hit the floor, and he started hollering, “God, have mercy on me! Have mercy on me!” Turned out it was a wayward son. I didn’t know that. They had a bad reputation; wouldn’t let preachers talk to him or in his house. But, brother, when he saw Granny go to heaven, he changed his mind. I don’t know for sure the man got saved that day. I don’t know for sure. I hope he did. And I tell you one thing: death has never been the big booger it was to me before. I saw God come for one of His saints.

Truth is, the most important thing you know is: Are you saved? Is Jesus your Savior? Did you let Him pay for your sins? Did you trust Him? If so, all the bad stuff happening in the world takes second place. No knowledge greater than knowing Jesus.

I ask you today, would you look in your heart and say, “That old preacher came and preached, and he warned me about being ready to meet Jesus”? That’s exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m saying to you what was real to me when I was 22 years old is even more real to me now at almost 89 years old. Jesus—He’s the best thing I know. Amen?

Original File: Dr. Mickey Carter - Jesus paid it all - Sunday AM 03032024