Sermon Video: Religious vs. True Worship – Part 2

Sermon Text: John 4:23-24; Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-19 (Other Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16)

Delivered on January 18, 2026, at the Lord’s Day worship service of Resurrection Hope Congregation in Hartley, IA

There was a long gap between part 1 and part 2 of this 2-part sermon in the series of messages from the Gospel of John. This was due to the fact that it was necessary that I focus on caring for my wife, Heidi, during her final days in this world. Since her death on January 3, 2026, I have been going through a period of grieving with great mixed emotions missing my beloved wife, who faithfully served with me in the ministry in supporting me and encouraging me through some very troublesome times, and many hardships. I know it would be her desire for me to continue on in the ministry as God has called me to do. So, beginning on January 18th, I began to hold a morning worship service to continue on ministering God’s word to a very small gathering of saints in Jesus Christ. I will be slowly and gradually adding other labors as time progresses and as God give me grace to do so. The video of the message below, I pray, will be the restarting of my labors in the ministry to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and minister to the saints, encouraging them to do likewise, wherever they are at and to whom God bring to them to hear the gospel of the salvation of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior – the only savior of sinners sent by God. (By the way, even on her death bed Heidi would give testimony to the nurses, aids and doctors of the goodness and grace of God, proclaiming to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, our only hope and comfort in life and in death.)

I pray the message will be an encouragement and a challenge for all who hear it as we learn from God’s word to distinguish between mere religious worship and true worship – worshipping our Father in heaven in spirit and in truth.

The following is beginning of the introduction to the sermon to give you a “feel” for the direction the sermon is going:

A few months ago we noted that there are many people who worship in ignorance. Today, we are seeing a movement toward an ecumenicalism no different than what was practiced in the Old Testament, as we read in 2 Kings 17. To a great extent modern day Christianity has become Samaritan; only this time it has fallen under the influence of the Talmudic Satanists (Revelation 2:9; 3:9) and their pagan form of mysticism and Gnostic teachings; and sadly, many of the professing Christians don’t even have a clue that that is what they are doing – they worship what they do not know, because they either don’t read the Bible, as they follow after the humanist doctrine of false teachers and preachers; or, they read modern translations or should I say paraphrases of the Bible that have so changed what was passed down to us through the Textus Receptus or Received Text and accurately translated in the 1611 King James and Geneva Bibles, the teachings revealed to us by God have been altered to reflect the thoughts of wicked men, rather than God, our Creator and Savior. The changes made are so great it is no longer a revelation from God but philosophical opinions from men whose hearts are far from YHWH Elohim; who serve their flesh and their self-serving, self-glorifying interests.

I pray the Lord will bless in the hearing of the word preached. Click below to begin listening to the message after the Scripture Reading:

Soli Deo Gloria!