Paul David Washer Quotes

Why is Jesus' saying, "I am!" so important? Because, you're not!

Any honest evaluation of contemporary evangelicalism will acknowledge that there are many people walking the streets and sitting in pews who have "obtained like precious faith with us" as the demons (2 Peter 1:1).11 They know something of the person and work of Christ, and they will make something of a confession when it is convenient. However, there is little evidence of an ongoing reality of the saving work of Christ in their lives. Their hope of eternal salvation is founded upon a decision they made long ago, which they believed was sincere, to "accept Christ" by means of a simple prayer. Ministers of the gospel who should have known better confirmed their hope. Like demons, they are lost. Yet, unlike demons, they do not know it.

We don't have a lot of churches in America; we have a lot of really nice brick buildings on finely manicured lawns! Just because someone says they are of the Church or they are Christian, doesn't make it so.

God does not call men to make Jesus Lord (as though they had such power), but to live in absolute submission to the Lord He has made.

The goal of the Christian life is the pursuit of an intimate knowledge of God that leads to a greater estimation of His worth, a greater satisfaction and joy in His person, and a greater giving of oneself for His glory. As

Christ's lordship is a blessed hope for some & a terrifying nightmare for others. Regardless of our response, it is an unalterable reality.

Avoid trivial pursuits. You are a child of God, destined for glory, and called to do great things in His Name. Do not waste your life on hobbies, sports, and other recreational pursuits. Do not throw away the precious moments of your life on entertainment, movies, and video games. Though some of these things can properly have a 'small place' in the Christian's life, we must be careful not to give undue attention to temporal and fruitless activities. Do not waste your life. Employ the time of your youth in developing the character and skills necessary to be a useful servant of God.

There is no such thing as a great man of God, only weak, pitiful, faithless men of a great and merciful God.

You cannot learn doctrine well until you follow the doctrine you learn!

Men and women who are used of GOD, if I had only a few words to describe them, they are the passionate-weak, they are the violently-desperate.

One of the greatest crimes committed by this present Christian generation is its neglect of the gospel, and it is from this neglect that all our other maladies spring forth. The lost world is not so much gospel hardened as it is gospel ignorant because many of those who proclaim the gospel are also ignorant of its most basic truths. The essential themes that make up the very core of the gospel - the justice of God, the radical depravity of man, the blood atonement, the nature of true conversion, and the biblical basis of assurance - are absent from too many pulpits. Churches reduce the gospel message to a few creedal statements, teach that conversion is a mere human decision, and pronounce assurance of salvation over anyone who prays the sinner's prayer.

As a rich man sees no reason for rejoicing in a meager gift of bread until a turn of events leaves him impoverished, so the sinner finds no joy in salvation until the horrid nature of his sin is revealed and he sees himself as wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

The proof or validation of genuine conversion is that the one who professes faith in Christ perseveres in that faith and grows in sanctification throughout the full course of his life. If a person professes faith in Christ and yet falls away or makes no progress in godliness, it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. It reveals that he was never truly converted.

Listen to yourself speak, saying, "The knowledge of God has no practical application." Do you know why all your Christian bookstores are filled up with self-help books, and five ways to do this or that, and six ways to be godly, and 10 ways not to fall? - because people don't know God! And so they have to be given all sorts of trivial little devices of the flesh to keep them walking as sheep ought to walk! "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame" (1Co 15:34). Why the rampant sinning even among God's people? It is a lack of the knowledge of God!

We rob men of a greater vision of God because we will not give them a lower vision of themselves.

I used to tell young preachers, in order to preach you've got to have the power of God on your life. Now I tell them, in order to tie your shoes you've got to have the power of God on your life.

The terrible sticky thing about truth is if it exists, it's coming for you.

The most dangerous prayer a human being could every pray, "Lord, make me like Christ. I don't care if you have to dethrone me, I don't care if you have to tear apart my ministry, I don't care if you have to destroy me, I don't care what happens - make me like Jesus Christ!" It's practically calling a death sentence upon yourself. But then again, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abideth alone, but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit.

When will we realize that one of the greatest mission fields in the West is the pews of our churches every Sunday morning?

There is something worse than holding our silence while the lost of this world run headlong into hell: the crime of preaching to a different gospel than the one passed down to the saints. For this reason, we must shun the gospel of contemporary evangelicalism, for it is a watered-down, culturally carved, truncated gospel that allows men to hold to a form of godliness while denying its power, to profess to know God while denying Him with their deeds, and to call Jesus "Lord, Lord," while not doing the Father's will.15 Woe to us if we do not preach the gospel, but even greater woe is due us if we preach it incorrectly!16

In the gospel of Jesus, God is love. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous alike.3 At the fullness of time, He gave His greatest demonstration of love by sending His beloved Son so that men might not perish but have eternal life through Him.4

When we realize what we were before Christ and what we deserved in that state, it further magnifies the enormity of the gospel for us.

The doctrine of the carnal Christian[32] has destroyed more lives and sent more people to hell than you can imagine! Do Christians struggle with sin? Yes. Can a Christian fall into sin? Absolutely. Can a Christian live in a continuous state of carnality all the days of his life, not bearing fruit, and truly be Christian? Absolutely not ! - or every promise in the Old Testament regarding the New Testament covenant of preservation has failed, and everything God said about discipline in Hebrews is a lie (Heb 12:6)! "A tree is known by its fruit" (Luk 6:44).

That I preached them: to be free from their burden. Like Jeremiah, if I do not speak forth this message, "then ... in my heart [it becomes] like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I was weary of holding it back, and I could not."6 As the apostle Paul exclaimed, "Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!"7

Why would we want fame, when God promises us glory? Why would we be seeking the wealth of the world when the wealth of heaven is ours? Why would we run for a crown that will perish with time, when we're called to win a crown that is imperishable?

You cannot see the beauty of the stars in the midday sky because the light of the sun ecliples them. However, after the sun sets and the sky becomes black as pitch, you see the stars in the full force of their splender. So it is with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can only see its true beauty against the backdrop of our sin. The darker man appears, the brighter the gospel shines.