Thread: Paul Washer question

I am guy like many of you who can listen to coutless hours of sermons during a week. I just can't make out this one preacher, he is Paul Washer?

Who is this guy? Is he biblical? Reformed? Anyone question this guy? The guy has audacity to put it at best, and not like by many Christians. I'm on the fence with this guy. I like his boldness and his zeal.

(Please don't bash the guy if you hate him, stay to facts.)

Paul Washer.

He's got some good things to say and I believe he is completely dedicated to God. I think he likes to talk about the law more than grace during his sermons tho. I believe he does that bc he is over reacting to the preachers who only preach about God's love and not God's wrath and law. It's not like he doesn't preach about God's grace....it's just not there as much as it should be. Also, he's is way to emotional for me....but that's just me.

He is Southern Baptist and Reformed.
He has a ministry called Heartcry.

He I very much focused on godly living and evangelism, both in word and deed!

He has been here in Denmark a couple of months ago and will be back to help us make a churchplant.

I will grant you that he has zeal and can come of very strong, and since I am a more "get scared in front of people guy" he can scare me at times.
And some of his Ideas I do not agree with, but alround I think he is a good man.
Just my

-----Added 9/27/2009 at 05:25:03 EST-----

Originally Posted by OPC'n

He's got some good things to say and I believe he is completely dedicated to God. I think he likes to talk about the law more than grace during his sermons tho. I believe he does that bc he is over reacting to the preachers who only preach about God's love and not God's wrath and law. It's not like he doesn't preach about God's grace....it's just not there as much as it should be. Also, he's is way to emotional for me....but that's just me.

That is not excactly true, the simple fact is that the sermons that are put on the web and youtube, are only the fire and brimstone ones and therefor "the Law sermons"
Like you say the grace ones people "know" already (no they do not really, but they think they do)

He preaches more about grace than law, and his emotion is simply dedication to truth, and since when is emotion about people being lost bad?

Originally Posted by Re4mdant

He is Southern Baptist and Reformed.
He has a ministry called Heartcry.

He I very much focused on godly living and evangelism, both in word and deed!

He has been here in Denmark a couple of months ago and will be back to help us make a churchplant.

I will grant you that he has zeal and can come of very strong, and since I am a more "get scared in front of people guy" he can scare me at times.
And some of his Ideas I do not agree with, but alround I think he is a good man.
Just my

-----Added 9/27/2009 at 05:25:03 EST-----

Originally Posted by OPC'n

He's got some good things to say and I believe he is completely dedicated to God. I think he likes to talk about the law more than grace during his sermons tho. I believe he does that bc he is over reacting to the preachers who only preach about God's love and not God's wrath and law. It's not like he doesn't preach about God's grace....it's just not there as much as it should be. Also, he's is way to emotional for me....but that's just me.

That is not excactly true, the simple fact is that the sermons that are put on the web and youtube, are only the fire and brimstone ones and therefor "the Law sermons"
Like you say the grace ones people "know" already (no they do not really, but they think they do)

He preaches more about grace than law, and his emotion is simply dedication to truth, and since when is emotion about people being lost bad?

I didn't say what he was being emotional about. I also said he is way to emotional for me but that was just me. I didn't say that it was bad.....just my preference. However, now that you mention it....getting a crowd worked up in the emotional factor does little for them in the long run. One needs to be convicted by the Holy Spirit (not through emotional appeal) about the law and then taught that the only way to keep the law is through Christ. However, again that is just my take on his sermons. I use to listen to his sermons all the time and the only thing they did for me was whip me up into an emotional state of being a Pharisee and then worrying that I wasn't saved bc I wasn't living up to the law. It wasn't until I found my church/pastor that I found the balance between law and grace and went back to listening to Sproul. I'm not saying Paul Washer is a bad preacher!

Paul is a fine preacher and much more balanced that the internet would have you believe. He doesn't major on Law. If you have ever been under his preaching you might be amazed out the non emotionalism of the reaction of the listeners. He doesn't work people up at all.

His missions ministry is a model that the church at large would be well served to emulate.

His home church is in Muscle Shoals. It is a fine church. There pastor, Jeff Noblit, is not slouch in the pulpit either.

I have been greatly blessed by the preaching of Paul Washer. Of course a disagreement might come up at some point but I listen to Calvinists in all sorts of theological circles so that can easily be expected from many of the folks I listen to.

He can preach very hard at times, but he also has several sermons that are 'easy' one could say. I've met him personally and he is incredibly humble and a normal man. He reminds me of the Baptist b/c he hunts bears and could probably be a pretty decent lumber-jack. And survive off locust and honey.

I recommend him all the time and have benefited greatly from listening to him.

I too have been blessed by Paul Washer's very powerful (at times) preaching. As riceman (above) says, he is very down-to-earth. If you'd like to follow his bear hunting, check in on his Twitter tweets. https://twitter.com/paulwasher

I love Paul Washer. His sermons are one of the main sources that God used to bring me to belief in the doctrines of Grace.

His strong attacks against decisional Regeneration are just what the SBC needs today. Those with an SBC background seem to enjoy his preaching more than those who have never been this situation. In the SBC we have seen the false doctrine of the "carnal Christian" run rampant. This has led to the destruction of church discipline, and lackadaisical attitude toward holiness.

If the only sermons by Paul Washer you have ever heard are his more fiery ones, you may benefit from his sermons on Song of Solomon... "Accepted in the Beloved" and "Dearly Loved by God".

This is interesting. The only sermons I've heard have been on youtube and, as Sarah said, seemed to emphasize the law and neglect grace. It seems that I've only heard one side of his preaching, (which is good to know) but I worry a bit that he does have these sermons that are so one sided. A very wise minister told me once that if a sermon does not point to Christ, then its missed the point. Although I certainly understand that different sermons will have different emphases, I think I'd like to see a little more pointing to Christ from Pastor Washer - even in his sermons that focus on the law.

I don't remember a sermon of Paul's that did not point to Christ.

Love him. Sorry. His preaching convicted me of my sins at a time when I was completely blind to them.

What is the chief end of preaching? . . . To give men and women a sense of God and His presence. . . . I can forgive a man for a bad sermon, I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul, if he gives me the sense that, though he is inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ my Saviour, and the magnificence of the Gospel. If he does that I am his debtor, and I am profoundly grateful to him.\"
--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

I haven't heard of Paul Washer before today. So I listened to this sermon (which was posted by Matthias in the other Paul Washer thread), and he gave me a great sense of God and his majesty and glory. If first impressions matter, I think he's a good man.

I love Paul Washer's ministry and preaching. I can't get enough of him and wish I could find a pastor with his boldness and zeal. I'd sit at his feet every day. Here is his testimony (I've posted this in the past).

Originally Posted by AThornquist

I don't remember a sermon of Paul's that did not point to Christ.

I'll have to watch one again when I get a chance. Like I said, I've only seen a few that were posted on youtube, but the ones I saw didn't seem to discuss grace - just depravity and man's sinfulness. All topics that need to be addressed, surely, but at the end, things felt rather hopeless.

It has been a while though, so I do need to go back and refresh my memory.

Originally Posted by Montanablue

Originally Posted by AThornquist

I don't remember a sermon of Paul's that did not point to Christ.

I'll have to watch one again when I get a chance. Like I said, I've only seen a few that were posted on youtube, but the ones I saw didn't seem to discuss grace - just depravity and man's sinfulness. All topics that need to be addressed, surely, but at the end, things felt rather hopeless.

It has been a while though, so I do need to go back and refresh my memory.

In those sermons he's calling listeners to be like Christ and often telling them why, or how they are not.

Another thing that should be pointed out is many of Paul Washers sermons are not delivered in a Lord's Day corporate worship setting. There are many conference messages and other such series that he is preaching like 4 times in 3 days on a certain topic. In this setting it is often that we will see 1 sermon heavy with Gospel then the next that afternoon heavy with Law but light on Gospel.

This is really something that should be remembered about most online sermons is that they are delivered at a certain place to a certain situation, when they are then taken out of their context and played all over the internet these messages at times can appear quite different to us than they would to hearers in the building it is delivered.

(EDIT: My Slow connection caused a double post)

A post so nice I read it twice.

Originally Posted by riceman

He reminds me of the Baptist b/c he hunts bears and could probably be a pretty decent lumber-jack. And survive off locust and honey.

Hehe!

I have listened to many of his sermons on sermonaudio (that's all I use to listen for months and months before I found a good church). I don't know if they only list on sermonaudio the ones where he speaks more of the law than grace and neglect to post more balanced ones or if now his sermons are more balanced than when I use to listen to him, but every one of his sermons that I have heard on sermonaudio (I never listened to the ones on utube etc) he's been less balanced than he should. On many of his of sermons he'll say, "I would like to talk about God's love but it will take about two days of preaching law before I can tell you about His love"....that's not a word for word quote but it's close. Again, just my two cents and who knows he might be more balanced now.

He does come off a bit more shock and awe then I prefer in a preacher, but I suspect it is as many of you have stated in that I am only getting the internet circulations.
I do like him however and have turned several men I had been discipling before leaving my last church for the PCA, on to him, and he is all they ever talk about.

This is a little out of left field, but can one of the redemptive-historical preaching defenders critique Paul Washer? I tend to hold to R-H preaching but I've never heard Washer before and don't intend to listen to him so as to critique his method myself (if I were able, which I am not).

I've always considered Paul Washer's preaching in light of the fact that he is an evangelist. Not so much a Pastor. That's just been my take. Now I will say, I attended the Legacy Conference in Chicago a few months ago and Brother Washer did the morning devotional each day and the theme was the Gospel. It was a phenomenal set of messages over the course of the 3 days, and he really exalted Christ and the centrality of the Gospel in a way that had an impact on me; but more importantly to this thread, it was sans all shock and awe. Just expounding on the Gospel the Gospel the Gospel. After each session, he graciously stood and held court for A LONG TIME fielding questions and really extending himself to those who had concerns of different types. Gracious man, and really accessible, if there should be such a thing as a preacher who isnt.

Paul recently (within a few weeks) said at a men's training conference that he understands people see the fiery one side of him. He said "Young men meet me and are shocked I'm not all fire and brimstone. What you need to realize is many of those sermons where I am quite frank and pointed are preached to men of the pulpit who aren't doing what they are supposed to be." This sermon directly addresses the misconceptions about him voiced on this thread. It is located here: SermonAudio.com - Grace Community Church

Hope that helps. Next to Piper, Washer is the next on my IPOD as far as amount of material.