Sermons on Religious People
In The Church I Grew Up In, Everything Had to be Earned (18 min)
J.R. Andujar grew up going to church, but he didn’t understand biblical salvation. All he was hearing was that acceptance with God is something that has to be earned; it was something HE had to do. Then he finally heard the truth: though he was a lost sinner, he could be saved by grace, through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Readings: Eph 2:8-9, Rom 5:6, 8. (Recorded in Barrington Gospel Hall, NJ, USA, 6th…
Could I Have Been Taught Wrong for 33 Years? (20 min)
Bill Van Morsel tells the story of how he was saved at the age of 33, after being “taught wrong” all of his life. He always believed forgiveness and heaven were gained by something he had to do, but he learned from the Bible that salvation is “through faith alone, not by works”. Readings John 3:1-7, Acts 16:30-31. (Testimony given in London, Ontario, Canada, 9th July 2023)
I Ran Away from a Hutterite Colony (37 min)
Derek Hofer was raised on a Hutterite Colony in Manitoba, Canada. He ran away from the Colony in his teens to enjoy the pleasures of the world, but the Lord intervened in his life to bring him to salvation. Derek grew up believing a person can never truly know they are saved – but he learned differently through the preaching of the gospel from the Bible. Reading: John 19:30. (Message preached in Chalfont St Peter Gospel Hall, 7th Jan 2024)
I Was Taught That God Didn’t Love the Whole World (10 min)
Jim Bergsma grew up in a Christian church. Going through Catechism at the age of 12, he was taught that Christ did not die for the whole world, and God did not love the whole world. For years he was stumbled by this teaching, until Jim Beattie showed him from the Bible that Christ did indeed die for the whole world. Listen to find out how that truth led to Jim’s salvation. (Testimony given in Ontario, Canada, 19th May 2020)
How a Head Choir Boy Was Saved (15 min)
Malcolm Stanley grew up in Birmingham, England, in a devoutly religious home. At his church he became a head choir boy and a server to the priest. He thought he was going to heaven. However, one day at a Christian youth meeting in a nondescript Nissen hut, he learned for the first time, from Romans 3:23, that he was a sinner. Malcolm was shocked. Listen to find out how he found forgiveness through Jesus Christ. (Testimony given in Manitoba, Canada,…
From the Confessional to Salvation in Christ (15 min)
Denis LaVallee grew up in a devoutly religious family. The rosary was said daily in his home, and he was expected to go to confession regularly. He always believed he was in the only right religion, but in a remarkable turn of events in his life, in his mid-thirties, Dennis was brought face to face with his sin and his need for salvation through Christ alone, not through a priest or a church. Listen to find out how he came…
How Would YOU Answer This Question? (25 min)
John Tolsma was born into a religious home in the Netherlands in 1947. Emigrating as a young lad to British Columbia, Canada, John continued his respectable ‘Christian’ lifestyle. Then one day a preacher by the name of Lou Swaan asked him if he had ever been born again. John said “Yes”, and related a story from his life where God had healed him in answer to prayer. Lou Swaan followed up with a devastating question that completely stunned good-living Mr…
How a Zealous Hutterite Man Found Peace in Christ (14 min)
Cody Waldner grew up on a Hutterite colony in Manitoba, Canada. He kept all the rules, went to church regularly, got sprinkled, took communion, and even studied the Bible in German – but he could find no peace. His sins troubled him and his efforts to make himself acceptable to God weren’t working. At one point he even turned to alcohol just to soothe his pain. Listen to find out how Cody finally found true and lasting peace in Jesus…
“I’m sure of heaven, no matter what!” (10 min)
John Selesnic grew up going to church and trusting in his religion to get him to heaven. But he never felt sure he would make it. What if he got hit in a traffic accident and died before the priest arrived to give him the last rites? Listen to find out how John discovered he could be “sure of heaven no matter what”. (Story told in Brampton Gospel Hall, Ontario, Canada 2022)
Saved through a verse on a pen! (19 min)
Jonas Miller tells of his Amish upbringing in Pennsylvania, USA, with household chores, animals and attending the Amish Church. When he was 12 years old, his Dad, John Miller, got saved (in 2005) and the gospel, and a Bible in English, entered the home. In 2009, the Miller family attended a Bible Conference in Matoaca, and a few days later Jonas was saved…through a verse on a pen. (Message preached in Crandon Gospel Hall, USA, 2021)
“I know exactly what to do: I have to believe. Now I’m going to do this” (17 min)
Ammon Miller grew up on a farm in an Amish family, believing that the way to heaven was by being baptised and being good. Then in 2005, his Dad, John Miller, got saved. Then his brothers Henry and Reuben in 2006. Then in 2009 his brother Jonas. A baptism was planned for these 4…but just before it took place God moved again, and Ammon and his mum were saved – so, 6 were baptised on one day from one family!…
“Finally I was honest…no, I’m not saved!” (31 min)
Chris Schwartz grew up in an Amish family in the USA. He believed the Bible was the Word of God, and attended church all his young life among the Amish, but his trust was always in good works and baptism. He thought being born again was by living a good life. Then his wife got saved, and Chris began to search. He visited various churches until finally he finally found his way, through contact with the Miller family, into a…
“My Amish religion never gave me any peace” (24 min)
John Miller grew up in an Amish family and community in Pennsylvania, USA. He was baptised and made a commitment to try his hardest to keep the rules of the Amish, but he could never find peace. God brought some people who knew the gospel of the grace of God into John’s life. Through them he obtained a Bible in English. Listen to hear how God revealed Himself to John through the Scriptures and saved a “proud, religious 37 year…
“My sins were taken care of at Calvary!” (28 min)
Marcel Lasalle grew up in a devout Roman Catholic family in the 1950’s in Montreal, Canada. The Mass, the rosary, confession; Marcel did it all. But he had no peace. Eventually he settled down into an ungodly life of nominal adherence to religion on the one hand, but the pleasures of sin on the other. Then God intervened in his life to bring the light of the gospel to him, and he discovered, in January 1978, that the work of…
Unforgettable Stories (50 min)
Matthew Brescia (1938- ) from Connecticut, USA, relates the thrilling story of how God worked in his family in the first half of the 20th Century as the gospel flourished among the Italian immigrant community in New England through the preaching of men like Luigi Rosania and Cesare Patrizio. You will be gripped from the beginning to the end of this recording (made in the UK in 2009) as Matt Brescia relates the story of God’s grace in the conversion…
What my Presbyterian Catechism Taught Me (9 min)
At the annual conference meetings in the Gospel Hall in Manchester, Iowa, USA, in 1957, evangelist William Warke (1898-1974) stood to announce a hymn. Before it was sung he took nine minutes to relate his testimony of conversion. Raised as a Presbyterian in Ireland, he learned he was a sinner through his church’s catechism. However, not until 1916 did he hear and understand the way of salvation, being saved during a series of Tent meetings taken by evangelist Tom Campbell…
Escape from a Cult – Clive Barber’s testimony (62 min)
Clive Barber’s testimony Born in the UK, baptised as an 8 day old baby and given communion from 6 months old, Clive Barber spent the first 17 years of his life in “the Exclusive Brethren”*, a legalistic religious cult that holds meetings every day of the year. However, during that whole time, Clive never learned he was a lost sinner in need of God’s salvation. Excommunicated and told to leave his home at age 17 (for infringing the Exclusive Brethren’s…
I wished I was as Godly as Pope John Paul II (7 min)
Raised a Roman Catholic in Poland, Kamil Golebiewski grew up wishing he was as godly as Pope John Paul II. However, after coming to the UK at the age of 20, Kamil stopped going to church. He later took up attending another church and was even baptised, but had still never been born again. After attending a series of gospel meetings in a Gospel Tent in 2017 Kamil finally understood he was a lost and helpless sinner – but that…
“I was the son of a Pastor but I didn’t know I needed to be saved” (6 min)
Though raised in a Christian family, the son of a Pastor, and a faithful tithe-paying member of a Presbyterian Church, Mr Seongmin Jeon did not know he needed to be saved if he was ever going to be in heaven. He learned his need, as a lost sinner, through the witness of his wife, and found salvation in Christ and assurance of salvation through Hebrews 9:12, a verse which speaks of eternal redemption obtained once for all by the Lord…
Is it “Him” or “Me”? (15 min)
Once an atheistic scientist, but now a scientist who believes in Christ, Geoffrey Guile has a story to tell of the providence of God in his conversion. Raised as a Roman Catholic and expected to regularly go to confession and the Mass, Geoffrey’s belief in God crumbled at Secondary School and University as he learnt about and imbibed Darwin’s theory of evolution. By the time he left University with a science degree he was a thorough-going atheist. However, God worked…
“I wanted to be a Priest” (9 min)
Raised in a Roman Catholic orphanage in Bombay, India, Michael Martin harboured aspirations after the Priesthood. However, his life took a different turn and he ended up hearing the gospel preached by the late evangelist Michael Browne, of Bath, England. After a struggle, Michael Martin finally understood that Scripture is inspired and authoritative, while “Church tradition” is just man-made. Convicted of his sin, Michael came to trust in Christ alone for salvation (Testimony given 6th Mar 2016)
A Nurse Pointed Me to the Great Physician (23 min)
Wyn Williams was raised in a Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in South Wales until he was 18 years of age, but never once heard the gospel there. However, by the gracious providence of God his employment took him to Scotland where a nurse witnessed to him and brought him to gospel meetings. Wyn realised he was a sinner and trusted in Christ for salvation. (Recorded 12th Jan 2014)
H.A.T.H. spells “Hath” (30 min)
Robert Armstrong, from Northern Ireland, relates the touching story of his father’s conversion under the preaching of the well-known Irish evangelist Frank Knox. H-A-T-H spells “hath”, everlasting life. (Message preached 6th July 2008) (Photo: Belfast, Northern Ireland)
“I wanted to be a Priest” (38 min)
Terry Topley was born in 1961 in Co Down, Northern Ireland. As a child he had ambitions to become a Priest. Faithful to the Mass and Confession, Terry believed in the sacraments and all his church taught him. When “the troubles” began in 1969 his life was threatened and he had to move house. In his new location he got to know a Christian lady whose life and testimony made a deep impression on him. Listen to hear how Terry…
Religious But Lost (34 min)
Marvin Derksen relates the story of his religious upbringing in the Mennonite church and how he was saved after a long struggle with self-righteousness. Born in Ontario, Canada, Marvin grew up to go to church, read the Bible at home, and give thanks for his food. He made a commitment, got baptised, joined his church, took communion, sang in the choir, and engaged in “church work”, but he knew nothing of God’s salvation. Then in 1967, Marvin’s brother got saved.…
I Wanted to Become a Vicar (23 min)
In 2004, in his 90th year, Eddie Geary told old how God had saved him 70 years previously as a self-righteous young man who wanted to be a minister in the Church of England (Episcopal/Anglican) but knew nothing of the Lord’s words in John 3, “Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”. Mr Geary’s accent isn’t the easiest to understand, but stick with him…this is a great story that will warm your heart! (Testimony…
