Interview with Paul Washer

brother poke could you just sell describe the gospel in a simple way and I could you comment on what are the implications of the gospel for life what does it mean to live God's personal life every day there are many people today talking about Christianity almost everywhere you go you hear someone mentioned that word the question is what does it really mean what is true Christianity and when we mean true Christianity the Christianity of the Bible and and not just really our interpretation of the Bible but when we look through the 2,000 years of Christian history and the people who have had a high view of the Bible what is Christianity really about well the answer can come down to one word gospel the gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ now what is the gospel well first of all the word comes from a greek word which means good news the gospel is good news to man now when we look around the world today I think all of us would have to admit that we need some good news but something that's very important for something to be good news it must be true news and the gospel is that it comes from the inspired inerrant infallible Word of God the good news of God to man now what is the content of that good news well it starts with understanding something about our situation and understanding who God is God is holy he's righteous he has an ethic to him there is a right and a wrong and there are absolutes in the mind of God and they are according to what God says to what God thinks now often times when we hear about the holiness of God I know the images that come up in your mind images of legalism or law being placed upon people and being put in bondage with regard to a certain type of ethic or rule but I want you to understand something first when we talk about God we're talking about someone who is omnipotent and omniscient now let me ask you a question would you really want a God who was omnipotent and omniscient all-powerful knowing all things who was not holy who was not righteous because if that were the case then we have something of a cosmic all-powerful Hitler and I don't think anyone would want that if there is and there is an omnipotent God who knows everything about us then we would most certainly want him to be righteous to love all that is good and to not be neutral with regard to that which is evil but to actually be against it well the Bible says that God is that way and that's good news for us isn't it but also it's bad news you see here's the problem the Bible also points out something that we want to deny but we can't deny and matter of fact even our own newspapers testify against us god is good god is righteous god is holy but here's the problem we're not we're not I mean you may react in an adverse manner to what I've just said that you're not good and I'm not good but just look at human history look at the newspaper today or just look inside your own heart have you lied have you been selfish have you been self-centered have you looked at other people as though they were a thing to be used I think all of us would have to answer that question yes and even infinitely beyond that you see if I could take out your heart right now and I could put it on a DVD and I could show the content of everything you've ever thought to all the people that are closest to you you'd run out of the room and never show your face there again what the Bible testifies against us is true all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God we have and there's no way to deny it now that presents a problem if God is good if God is good and righteous and holy and gives to every man according to what he deserves then what is God going to do with us you ever thought about that what will he do with you and you say well that shouldn't really be a big problem well let's just take that to a court of law let's say that someone murdered your family and they stood before the judge guilty with all the evidence proven and the judge said I'm compassionate and slow to anger forgiving therefore you're free to go would you believe that was just would you believe that was even merciful you wouldn't you would demand justice as a matter of fact you would say that the judge is more corrupt than the one he just let go wouldn't you so see that's a problem throughout all the scriptures if God is good and man is not then how does a or what does a good God do with people like us well the Bible says that since God is just and he hates evil and loves all that is loving and beautiful and righteous that God must deal with us and that dealing with us is through a strict standard of the law he has revealed to men and not only in the scriptures but in our own heart the Bible says he has written his law and our conscience lets us know when we've disobeyed that law well the Bible says this God is going to judge all of humanity and if he judges us according to the strictness of his righteousness there's no hope for us he must punish because he is good now the great question of the Scriptures is how can God be a just God and yet justify forgive declare right those who have broken his law well the answers found only in the person of Jesus Christ God in His righteousness condemns the world condemns you and me but then God in His love does something absolutely spectacular God becomes a man and lives the perfect life that you and I could not live and then on the cross of Calvary what does he do he bears the sins of his people and then all the righteous judgment of God that should fall upon people like us fell upon him and right after he had finished suffering all that had to be suffered he cried out it is finished he extinguished justice every drop of Wrath that should be labeled against us he took and he paid for and he put an end to it on the third day he rose again from the dead giving evidence that he was the son of God and not only that that his sacrifice satisfied God's demands of justice and made it possible for him to be reconciled to us now the Bible says that men might be reconciled to God and they may know something of the life of God not through some religion of theirs not through some good work but through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ for myself I can testify this if I died right now I would stand in the presence of God fully accepted not because I'm religious not because I'm a minister not because I've done more good things than you have done no I would stand fully accepted before God because 2,000 years ago the Son of God died for me now in me saying that you may ask this question well then you believe in Jesus and continue on in this same wicked lifestyle no absolutely not those who believe in Jesus have been born again the Bible says now I know that terminology is used in many ways today and is often mocked but what it really means is this those who believe in Jesus God changes their heart he gives them a new heart with new and righteous affections and those affections cause us to no longer love the sin we once loved but to love the righteousness that God loves and so those who believe in Christ are saved not by their own works or their own good deeds but by what God has done for them in Jesus Christ and yet those who believe are also transformed and being more transformed every day to live a life that is pleasing to God beneficial to them and for the good of all men that's the gospel of Jesus Christ that outside of Christ there is no life there is no pardon there is no reconciliation with God but in Christ there is all of that and more than any human mind could comprehend or any tongue could tell that's the gospel of Jesus Christ it is my great privilege at this moment to to talk to my brothers and sisters in Christ Polish and Czech those who have come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and want to be pleasing to him and obedient to him in this world one of the things that I would like to share with you is this as Christians no matter how long we've walked with Christ or what kind of maturity we might think we have we still live in a fallen world and at the same time we must still deal with what is known to be the flesh in our own persons it's a great battle we can have victory we can walk in victory we can walk in the power of God defeating sin yet at the same time that battle never goes away and sometimes it seems like it's three steps forward and two steps back now what are some of the great enemies of the Christian faith the things that distract us from walking with Christ well first of all know this you're living in a world most of us are awake about sixteen hours a day in a world that is constantly bombarding us with that which is not true not only that but mom barding us with distractions not just evil things but even good things that are used at times to take us away from the most excellent things and what is the most excellent thing our growth in the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the deepening of our love for God in him now so there's distractions constant distractions and there are things pulling on us and then we must also realize that the bible does teach that there is a person called the devil and that there are fallen angels called demons and yes they are also constantly laboring to get the Christian off track now when we think about getting the Christian off track we may be thinking about that the Christian falls into some gross sin and that happen but the way in which the devil most works against our soul is to make us apathetic to get us looking in the wrong direction to get us thinking about things that aren't the most important eternal things and the question is how can we avoid this well if I'm in the world 16 hours a day awake and for 16 hours a day the world is bombarding me with its distractions and its falsehoods and I'm in the Word of God no time at all of course I'm going to lose the battle of the mind so what must I do you must come to the conviction that you can not walk with God apart from renewing your mind in the Word of God in prayer I've been a preacher for many many years and yet I'm only as spiritual as my devotional life today this morning before I came to make this film or the other busy activities I had to do I had to be in the word and I had to pray because I know that apart from having my mind renewed in the Word of God apart from being strengthened by the Holy Spirit through prayer I'm simply not going to be able to walk with Him now another thing that is very important when we study the scriptures that we might be pleasing to God it's not just a sense of I need to learn some principles or rules I study the Scriptures primarily to see him to see Christ because you see the more I see of Jesus Christ in the scriptures the more my affections are going to be drawn out and given to him and the more he has my affections the more he has my heart and the more he has my heart the less I'm going to be distracted with the things of this world now many preachers would tell you this you need to love God more and you would probably say yes but the question is how how do we grow in our love for God well let me give you an illustration I love my wife now more than when I met her 22 years ago and why do I love her more because over these 22 years I've seen more of her virtue more of the good that is in her that God has put in her I see the beauty of her spirituality I see the beauty of her virtue now so that beauty that I see those virtues that I see they draw out my affections and make me more devoted to her now let's apply this to the Christian life how can I love God more so that I'm not apathetic so that I'm not drawn into the world I love him more by seeing more about him one of the greatest needs in the church today is for preachers to preach on who is God to put before God's people the beauty and the power of his attributes one of the greatest needs you have as a Christian is to get into the Word of God to discover who is this God and I can assure you that the more you see of him the less you will desire to see of the world a lot of times when Christians are having trouble growing or having trouble with apathy they'll read a book on five ways to free themselves from apathy or ten principles to live the Christian life most of that doesn't help what you need is a greater knowledge of God through the study of the scriptures and that will propel you into a more devoted lifestyle why do you think preaching is so important for the church because there is a common saying in English that practice makes perfect and that's simply not true because bad practice will never lead to perfection good practice makes perfect now I want to apply that for just a moment to what we know about preachers and preaching some people will say preaching is very very important but we have to qualify that good preaching is important biblical preaching is important many of you probably know about you know something about preachers you've heard about preachers maybe you've seen preachers on TV maybe you've heard jokes about preachers and they're basically put before society has something of a not a very intelligent man a social dinosaur someone who's out a step with reality and not relevant someone who maybe couldn't get a job in a normal setting so he turned to preaching well that may be true in some cases but you need to understand something in the scriptures and in God's economy the preacher the man speaking forth the Word of God is the most important person in society the most important person on this planet now all preachers I'm not talking about them because many preachers stand in a pulpit every Sunday and do not preach the Word of God they preach things that are inventions of men they preach things maybe from their own inflated minds they preach things that they think are brilliant expressions of who they are that's not what we need and that's not preaching what is preaching a man who has spent hours and hours and hours every week studying the scriptures that he might stand before people on Sunday or winds dear whenever he does it and he might speak forth the Word of God that's the greatest need in the church today preachers just study the Bible itself there there are so many commands in both the Old and New Testament prophesied preach but it's not preached the words of men it's not preached the imaginations of our heart it is preached what God has written in the word and then look just in the narratives of the scriptures who always stands at the forefront it is the man who is truly speaking forth God's Word to God's people if you look at societies if you look at cultures if you look at kingdoms in the Word of God they rise and fall with the people's knowledge and submission to the Word of God it's just the truth the Bible says my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge in Proverbs it says where there is no vision the people perish now what that really means in its context is this where there is no revelation of God's the people run unrestrained what is the great need for the church in your area in my area in any area our great need is for men to spend countless hours in their studies exegete studying the text that they might stand before you and proclaim what is your greatest need is someone sitting in the pew and listening your greatest need is to pray for the one that is preaching also to discipline yourself to learn to listen we're a society of people who watch media presentations in bite-size portions of 5 and 10 minutes we're not as intellectual as we would think ourselves to be therefore we must recognize from the Scriptures the importance of preaching and we must discipline ourselves to listen to preaching if that preacher is preaching something other than the word of God it has no hold on you whatsoever you don't have to worry about it but if that man is preaching the Word of God then know this on the day of judgment you'll be held accountable for the things you've heard preaching is dangerous the preacher who doesn't preach correctly will be judged by God listening to preaching good preaching is dangerous because you'll be held accountable for it if you have a pastor or if you're looking for a church you should look for a church where the people are serious about knowing what God's Word is said you should look for a church where the pastor or the elders are serious men who consider it their great task to speak forth what God has said in his word

Channel: Reformed Orthodoxy

Views: 3,008

Rating: 4.9245281 out of 5

Keywords: Interview, Paul Washer, Gospel, Jesus Christ, Sin

Id: FvVu00nIoBQ

Length: 19min 34sec (1174 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 28 2017