什么是福音？福音就是好消息，福音只对需要的人来说才算是好消息。当你迈出地狱之门的第一步的那一刻，你会听到的是所有的受造物都站在脚下，鼓掌赞美上帝，因为上帝已经把你从地球上赶走了。这就是你的不善。
保罗·华许 – 福音只对有需要的人是好消息
什么是福音？福音就是好消息。 是非常好的消息。
但这只是对恐惧的人来说才是好消息。
福音只对需要的人来说才算是好消息。
你看，你要理解的是…让我这么说。
那我就看门见山。
让我来告诉你,我所能告诉你的最恐惧的事情。
我现在告诉你的是最恐惧的真理。
你准备好了吗？
这就是，我能告诉一个男人，女人或小孩的最恐惧的事情就是：
神是好的。
我在几年前在欧洲讲道的时候，
在一所非基督教大学，我说，“如果你想挖到底，
对人来说，最恐惧的事就是：神是好的。”
然后有人似乎笑着说：
“难道这又什么问题吗？”
问题就是你不够好。
现在问题是…这位好的神跟不好的你有什么关系呢？
这是圣经中最重要的神学和哲学问题。
神是好的。这使人感到很恐怖。
有一个在位一些犯罪组织的工作的惯犯，
如果他去法院之前有人告诉他
那是一个腐败的法官，他会满心欢喜。
另人恐惧的事是当你告诉一个犯罪分子法官不腐败， 他是好的。
看，这就是人类最大的问题。
人类最大的问题就是神是好的！你看到了吗？
因为你不好！
这就是现今传道福音所隐藏的潜藏的问题。
上帝真的是谁，没有人告诉你！
他们说的只是陈词滥调。
你看那些传教士可以告诉你，上帝是好的，你走出去感觉像是
你完全释放了，没有责任。
我要告诉你的是：神是好的，而且你应当感到畏惧，因为你是不好的！
这个问题的下半截就是
也没有人告诉你这意味着什么。
「你不好！」意味着什么？
你有多么的不好？
让我这么说：如果你拒绝基督，
那么在你踏入通往地狱之门的第一步时，
你唯一能听见的就是世界万物都站在神的脚下
称赞歌颂神，因为神把你从世上消除了。
你就是这么的不好。
可你说，“我的罪没有坏到那个程度。”
亚当一次犯罪就把整个宇宙都丢向混乱和罪恶。
你不知道这是怎样的一位神。
他真的是好的；但你不是。
他真的是爱；你却是其相反的。
那么，他怎能与邪恶无情的人建立关系呢？
为什么他不能简单的原谅呢？
因为他是公义的。
你看，你所生长下的环境是一个没有公义的地方。
没有牧师写像《雷克斯雷克斯》一样的书籍——王的律法 。
没有人根据圣经来讲公义。
你看，上帝是公正是，在圣经中最大的神学问题是：
如果神是公义的，他不能原谅你。
你听到我了吗？如果神是公义的，他不能原谅你。
除非首先让他的公义得到满足。
这就是发生在十字架上的。
这就是为什么十字架就是一切！
这是完完全全的一切！
在树上，神唯一的仆人就挂在那里。
一个完美的人。
神子民的罪都投向了他。
神所有的忿怒，神圣洁的仇恨，恨邪恶、恨罪，
这一切本当永远落在你头上的，
却落在神所喜爱的独生子的头上！
每年复活节的星期日，我听到有人传讲说，
你知道的. . .钉子，长矛和那荆棘的王冠，
用医学检验员的解释来解释十字架的道理
这些都是重要的事，因为那本是血淋淋的死，
但他们不明白的是，他从这样不是传福音。
如果你被救，不是因为罗马人痛打了耶稣。
如果你被救，是因为他自己的父亲在愤怒之下
用他全部的力量压碎了耶稣！
因为必须有人为你赎罪！
就是耶稣！
有人告诉我，他们说，
“哦，你今天晚上要宣讲福音吗？”“是的。”
（“但我们明白福音是什么。”“不，你不明白。”）
如果伊恩·穆雷现在就在这里，
如果我能把乔纳森·爱德华兹从死中抬起来;
如果司布真从门中走过来，
他们不会说他们明白福音完全的奥秘。
而我们已经把福音减少到「四灵法律
或「五件上帝想让你知道的事
而且你们都认为你们知道他。
你们将要用永生来学习这福音
你们甚至还没有沾到那极其荣耀之事的边。
那就是福音！
神用自己与世界和好！
上帝是公义的，不能就单单转过头去，忽视罪！
神必须处理他子民的罪以满足他的正义
来安抚他的愤怒！
他所做的是用他独生子的死来平息神的愤怒 ！
而且在第三天让他从死里复活！
那复活不是要让他成为神的儿子，
而是神要公开声明几件事。
第一件事是，这是我的亲爱儿子，他是我所喜爱的。（罗马书1）
这把你带到罗马书第四章。
这是什么意思呢？
这复活是神借着基督的死（为神子民的罪）
而使上帝与他子民和好的标志，
使他们能称义。
后來彼得告诉所有愤怒的犹太民族的领导：
“故此，以色列全家当确实的知道
你们钉在十字架上的这位耶稣，神已经立他为主为基督了。”（使徒行传2：36）
而且使徒所宣布的，
请你到基督那里来的邀请， 並不是：
“你愿意跟我一祷告这个祷告文，让耶稣进到你心里吗？”
使徒宣布的是：
世人蒙昧无知的时候、 神并不监察、
如今却吩咐各处的人都要悔改。（使徒行传17：30）
可是传教士会告诉我，“如果你只是告诉他们这些，
如果你不给他们做一些什么事,
你怎么知道他们被救了没有？”
“因为他们的生命会改变！”
今晚，我可以去这附近的每个酒店，其中大多数的人，
而且有些人真的是教会的好成员，
我会走过去问他们“你被救了吗？”，
然后他们会说“是的。”
我可以去多所南部浸会大学
那里的学生沉溺于啤酒中， 我问“你被救了吗？”
然后他们会说，“那当然！”
为什么？
因曾有一位本來就不该传道的传教士
带他们祷告了一个罪人祈祷文，并宣布他们改信了基督教。
在两三分钟的时间内就把他们的灵魂处理好了。
不，我亲爱的朋友，不。
你被救靠的是你从罪中悔改过来。
你被救靠的是相信福音。
你因悔改而得到救赎的证据
和你因信而被救(的证据)
就是你继续悔改和继续相信。
Paul Washer – The Gospel Is Only Good News to A Needy Man
What is the gospel? It’s good news. It’s very good news.
But it’s only very good news to a terrified man.
It’s only very good news to a needy man.
You see, what you need to understand… Let me put it this way.
Just to cut straight to the chase.
Let me tell you the most terrifying thing that I can possibly tell you.
The most terrifying truth that I can speak to you.
Are you ready?
Here it is. The most terrifying thing I can tell a man, a woman, a child is this:
God is good.
I said that a few years ago over in Europe when I was preaching;
secular university. I said “If you want to get down to it,
the most terrifying news for man is this: God is good!”
And someone kind of laughed and said basically:
“And what’s the problem with that?”
The problem with that is you’re not good.
Now… What does a good God do with someone like you?
That’s the greatest theological and philosophical problem in the scriptures.
God is good, and that is terrifying.
A hardened criminal working for some crime organization,
if before he goes to court he is told that the judge is corrupt he is full of joy.
The most terrifying thing you can tell that criminal is the judge is not corrupt, he’s good.
And see this is the greatest problem of mankind.
The greatest problem of mankind is God is good! Don’t you see that?
Because you’re not!
And therein lies the problem with modern day evangelical preaching.
No one tells you who God really is!
They just speak in clichés.
You see the other preachers can tell you God is good and you walk out feeling like
you’re totally released from any responsibility.
I want to tell you that God is good and you ought to be terrified because you are not good!
And there’s the second half of the problem.
No one’s telling you what that means either.
What does it mean that you’re not good?
How non-good or un-good are you?
Let me put it this way: if you reject Christ,
then the moment you take your first step through the gates of hell,
the only thing you will hear is all of creation standing to its feet
and applauding and praising God because God has rid the Earth of you.
That’s how not good you are.
You say, “But my sin, I’m not that big of a sinner.”
Adam sinned once and threw the entire universe into total chaos and condemnation.
You do not understand who this God is.
He really is good; you are not.
He really is love; you are the very opposite of that.
So, how can he let evil, loveless people into fellowship with him?
Why can’t He simply forgive?
Because he’s just.
You see, you were grown up in a culture where there is no justice.
There’s no pastor writing books like ‘Lex Rex’ – The Law of the King.
There’s no one speaking about justice biblically.
You see, God is just and the greatest theological problem in the Bible is this:
If God is just He cannot forgive you.
You hear me? If He’s just He cannot forgive you.
Unless first His justice is satisfied.
And that is what happened on the cross.
This is why the cross is everything!
It is absolutely everything!
On that tree, the only Servant that Yahweh has ever had hung there.
A perfect man.
And the sins of God’s people were cast upon Him.
And all the wrath, God’s holy hatred for evil, for sin, for the wicked,
everything that should fall down upon your head throughout all of eternity
fell down upon the head of God’s only beloved Son!
Every Easter Sunday I hear people preach about,
you know, nails and spears and crowns of thorns and
go through the medical examiners’ interpretation of the cross
and all that is important, it had to be a bloody death,
but what they don’t understand is they haven’t preached the gospel.
You are not saved, if you’re saved, because the Romans beat up Jesus.
If you’re saved it’s because His own Father crushed Him under the full force of His wrath!
Because someone had to pay for you!
It was Him!
People tell me, they say,
“Well, you’re going to preach the gospel tonight?” “Yes.”
“But we understand that.” “No, you don’t.”
If Iain Murray was here right now; if I could raise Jonathan Edwards from the dead;
if Charles Spurgeon were to walk through the door,
they would not profess to know the gospel in its fullness.
And yet we’ve reduced the gospel down to four spiritual laws or five things God wants you to know
and you all think you know it.
You will spend an eternity studying the gospel
and you will not even have reached the foothills of the glory of the thing.
It’s the gospel!
God reconciling the world to Himself!
God being just and not simply being able to turn his back or look over sin!
God who must deal with the sin of his people, He must satisfy His justice
in order to appease His wrath!
and He does that by the death of His only Son having suffered the wrath of God!
And on the third day rising again from the dead!
And that resurrection did not make Him the Son of God,
but it was God’s public declaration of several things.
First of all, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Romans 1).
Then you make your way over to Romans 4.
What does it mean?
That resurrection was God’s sign that He had accepted Christ’s death as atonement for the sins of His people,
whereby they could be justified.
Then Peter tells all the outraged leaders of the Jewish nation:
“This resurrection from the dead
proves that this Jesus whom you crucified is both Lord and Christ.” [Acts 2:36]
And the apostolic proclamation,
the invitation for you to come to Christ, is not:
“Would you like to pray this prayer and ask Jesus to come in?”
The apostolic proclamation is this:
God commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. [Acts 17:30]
And preachers will tell me “Well if you just tell them that
and if you don’t give them something to do
then how will you know that they are saved?”
“Because their life will change!”
I can go to most people in every tavern around this place tonight,
and some of them really good church members,
I can go there and ask them “Are you saved?” and they will say “Yes.”
I can go to most Southern Baptist colleges
where the kids are beer bonging and go “Are you saved?”
and they’ll say “Most certainly we are!”
Why?
Because one time some preacher who should not be preaching the gospel
led them in a sinner’s prayer and pronounced over them that they were converted.
Dealt with their soul possibly two or three minutes.
No, my dear friend, no.
You are saved by repenting of your sins.
You are saved by believing the gospel.
And the evidence that you have repented unto salvation
and that you have believed unto salvation
is that you continue repenting and continue believing.
Paul Washer’s Bio
保罗-大卫-华许（Paul David Washer，1961年出生），美国新教基督教传道人，加尔文主义神学，隶属于南方浸信会。
保罗华许在德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校学习成为一名石油和天然气律师时皈依了基督教。他搬到秘鲁，在那里当了10年传教士。 1988年，在秘鲁期间，Washer 成立了 HeartCry 传教协会，以支持土著传教士向本民族文化的人作见证。Washer 后来回到美国，自2010年起居住在弗吉尼亚州的拉德福德，继续担任 HeartCry 的传教主任。
