“ Tremendous sermon ” As always, this strengthening and encouraging sermon full of clarity is not anything I ever have heard nor would expect to hear in the superficial spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs and least of all from the cold, mechanical, academically detached "Orthodox" Presbyterian country club. Pastor Green is a rare treasure and a throwback to an age of preaching that has largely passed and been replaced by emotionally manipulative entertainment.
“ Not a sermon I would ever expect to hear anywhere else ” I'm not aware of any church in the spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs, and certainly not the "Orthodox" Presbyterian country club, that ever preaches to the discouraged, downtrodden, and suffering--everyone in either these rock-concert venues or cold lecture-halls seems happy and superficial. This preaching is why I love Don Green's pulpit and this church.
“ A sermon like no other I've ever heard before ” I have never in my life heard any church anywhere here in the spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs preach this gospel message, and certainly not from the pulpit of the cold, legalistic, works-oriented OPC, no matter how nominally "Reformed" it claims to be. This sermon is why I love Don Green's preaching and this church and why I would move to Cincinnati or across the river to Kentucky in a heartbeat if I were in a position to do so.
“ A sermon unlike any you will hear in the spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs ” I can't imagine hearing a sermon such as this anywhere in the superficial spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs and certainly not in the cold, academically detached OPC. This sermon is just one of numerous reasons I love and cherish the sober but heartfelt preaching of Don Green.
“ Here is something I have never heard from any other pulpit ” "There are many reasons to love the Bible, the 66 books of the Bible. There are many reasons to love God's word. One of the many reasons, in my opinion, to love God's word is because it deals with reality. It tells us the way things really are rather than flattering us and telling us that we are good people by nature, it deals with the reality of sin and James, for example, says that we all stumble in many ways; and so the Bible confronts us with our sin and gives us a means to deal with it and yet it tells us that we stumble in many many ways."
“ "Gratitude and earnestness" says it all ” "I'm not what I used to be": I have not met a soul in the spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs who attests to this reality, and certainly not in the "Orthodox" Presbyterian social club of Crystal Lake, Illinois, where an arrogant nominal believer who openly professed that he did not "need" God' Word was warmly embraced by that congregation as one of its nominal but "orthodox" own before they coddled him to hell.
“ I so appreciated hearing this sermon again ” What Pastor Green preaches here is not anything I have ever heard preached or even articulated anywhere else in the spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs: that being a Christian is not about what YOU do or have done but rather what Christ has done TO you. It is about spiritual TRANSFORMATION, and I saw no evidence of it whatsoever in the spiritually dead "Orthodox" Presbyterian social club in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
“ When was the last time you heard the gospel preached with POWER? ” I certainly never have in the spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs, and certainly not at the so-called "Orthodox" Presbyterian social club in Crystal Lake, Illinois, nor at any other local so-called "Orthodox" Presbyterian social club. This sermon is why I so love Truth Community Church and would move to Cincinnati in a heartbeat if I were in a position to do so.
“ "Do you know the POWER of the gospel?" ” "To be a Christian is not a mere matter of knowledge or intellectual assent," and there you have all the difference in the world between the spiritually dead and indifferent "Orthodox" Presbyterian social club in Crystal Lake, Illinois and this powerful pulpit.
“ This is such an important sermon and series ” The only key piece missing from this important sermon which unfortunately is only touched upon is WHY the gospel is good news and from WHAT we need to be saved, because the gospel has been twisted by too many pseudo-churches into a vague and sentimental, fuzzy message of "love," as though all this unloved world needs is love, like some hippie song. Roman Catholics believe the crucifixion was real, but WHY was the crucifixion even NECESSARY?
“ Preaches the truth about the "implicit contract" ” Pastor Green says that he cannot "prove" that many if not most churches seem to have a tacit, unspoken agreement that "as long as you continue to show up, I won't say anything to offend you," but that was certainly the case at the "Orthodox" Presbyterian social club in Crystal Lake, Illinois, where all one had to do was show up, and he was "orthodox" and "in."
“ These are not questions I have ever heard asked ANYWHERE ” I know of no other pulpit save John MacArthur's that actually has the audacity to ask: are you a Christian? I have had to turn on my own to Anthony Burgess, Asahel Nettleton, and the Puritans to ask such probing questions of self-examination, because they are non-existent in the soothing, coddling, inoffensive modern pulpit, including the so-called "Orthodox" Presbyterian social club.
“ The opening salvo of a seminal series ” As so many of Pastor Green's series are--I have yet to hear one that has caused me to yawn. And hearing this sermon for the second time around hits me even more forcefully. Pastor Green articulates the deep uneasiness I began to sense as a new Christian among the Stepford wives in the ostensibly "Orthodox" but spiritually lifeless Presbyterian "Church." This is not preaching I hear from any other pulpit.
“ Such a seminal series ” This is such a seminal series, and how I wish I had heard it when I was converted from a lifetime of Roman Catholicism to Christ just at the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. This sermon is so typical of Pastor Green and so worth hearing repeatedly until its words and themes are burned into your mind and soul.
“ Without sin there is no grace ” Pastor Green preaches a truth I have never heard preached in the spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs: that without the doctrine of total depravity, there is no grace. As a new Christian, I heard the words of TULIP and the five solas mouthed at the OPC in Crystal Lake, Illinois, but the WTS lecturer there was too polite and inoffensive to connect grace with sin. There is no preaching like Pastor Green's here in Chicago.
“ This sermon is HUGE ” This sermon is HUGE and represents all the difference in the world between the Reformed Confessional Baptist Church and the empty-suit, whited-sepulchre OPC which stares at its own navel as astutely observed by John MacArthur.
“ So very true as always ” The "tension" of which Pastor Green speaks articulates my own increasing spiritual state of mind, even though I myself am not a pastor or preacher, and no such "tension" seems to exist here in the superficial, shallow spiritual wasteland of the Chicago suburbs, and certainly not in the cold, spiritually dead, academically detached and indifferent OPC, which couldn't care less whether or not anyone is trapped in the snares of the pervasive Roman Catholicism here.
“ Wonderful balm for the souls of struggling wives ” Been helped by this pastor’s sermons on marriage very much… Marriage was made workable when I was first converted but over the years bitterness has crept in ...😓there is much here to help! thank you
“ Great Sermon! ” This series has been seminal for me, and this sermon in particular--I can't recommend this particular sermon as well as the entire series highly enough--I NEVER heard preaching such as this in the OPC in Crystal Lake, Illinois when I was newly converted after a lifetime of Roman Catholicism, where the words "saved" and "converted" weren't even uttered, for fear of "offending" anyone.
“ Great Sermon! ” my mother who almost became a nun but left the convent before her final vows had an answer for Jesus's siblings, she said they were Josephs from a previous marriage and that hid wife died and then he was betrothed to Mary, so there are many stories they use get around Jesus's siblings
9/25/2024 4:40 AM
