Home » John Owen » Page 4

Tag: John Owen

How Should Pastors Pray for Their Flocks? (John Owen) SERVE

John Owen summarizes the biblical ‘job-description’ of a pastor in chapter 5 of The True Nature of a Gospel Church. Among the duties of the pastor is prayer for those under his care. What then should his supplications in behalf of his flock regularly consist of?

He should pray, Owen says,

1. Unto the success of the [preached] word, unto all the blessed ends of it, among them…

2. Unto the temptations that the church is generally exposed unto. These vary greatly, according unto the outward circumstances of things…

3. Unto the especial state and condition of all the members, so far as it is known unto them…

4. Unto the presence of Christ in the assemblies of the church, with all the blessed evidences and testimonies of it…and they will do so who understand that all the success of their labours, and all the acceptance of the church with God in their duties, do depend hereon…

5. To their preservation in faith, love, and fruitfulness, with all the duties that belong unto them, etc.

(Works of John Owen, Vol. 16, p. 78).

If you change the order a bit, you could remember these points by the acronym SERVE

Pray for (1) their present
Situation or state, (2) that they would
Experience Christ’s presence, (3)
Receive the Word, (4) have
Victory over temptation, and (5) that they would
Endure to the end

I might also add that this is a helpful paradigm to use in praying for your own children as well. As a matter of fact, I may post separately to relate Owen’s points to parent-prayer.

John Owen: Being Convinced Of Your Position Before God

One of my former pastors used to refer to this quote occasionally. I always found it helpful, so I finally dug around and found the reference. The kind of convincing Christians need to be engaged in:

1. To convince those in whom sin evidently hath the dominion that such indeed is their state and condition…

2. To satisfy some that sin hath not the dominion over them, notwithstanding its restless acting itself in them and warring against their souls…(Works of John Owen, Volume 7, p. 517).

This is the great chore for anyone who would win the lost and encourage the sanctification of Christians: convincing non-believers that they are under the dominion of sin and convincing Christians that they are free from that dominion.

  • Romans 8:9 ¶ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

The Puritans and their Heirs on the Sensible Presence of God, the Immediate Work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit’s Work of Assurance

I’ve been compiling these quotes for a while now. I plan to add to the list:

Puritan William Guthrie speaks of the shedding abroad of God’s love in the heart and the sensible presence of God to the soul:

I speak with the experience of many saints, and, I hope, according to Scripture, if I say there is a communication of the Spirit of God which is sometimes vouchsafed to some of His people that is somewhat besides, if not beyond, that witnessing of a sonship spoken of before. It is a glorious divine manifestation of God unto the soul, shedding abroad God’s love in the heart; it is a thing better felt than spoken of: it is no audible voice, but it is a ray of glory filling the soul with God, as He is life, light, love, and liberty, corresponding to that audible voice, ‘O man, greatly beloved’ (Dan. 9: 23); putting a man in a transport with this on his heart, ‘It is good to be here.’ (Matt. 17: 4.) It is that which went out from Christ to Mary, when He but mentioned her name– ‘Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master.’ (John 20: 16.) He had spoken some words to her before, and she understood not that it was He: but when He uttereth this one word “Mary”, there was some admirable divine conveyance and manifestation made out unto her heart, by which she was so satisfyingly filled, that there was no place for arguing and disputing whether or no that was Christ, and if she had any interest in Him. That manifestation wrought faith to itself, and did purchase credit and trust to itself, and was equivalent with, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ This is such a glance of glory, that it may in the highest sense be called ‘the earnest,’ or first-fruits ‘of the inheritance’ (Eph. 1: 14); for it is a present, and, as it were, sensible discovery of the holy God, almost wholly conforming the man unto His likeness; so swallowing him up, that he forgetteth all things except the present manifestation. O how glorious is this manifestation of the Spirit! Faith here riseth to so full an assurance, that it resolveth wholly into the sensible presence of God. This is the thing which does best deserve the title of sensible presence; and is not given unto all believers, some whereof ‘are all their days under bondage, and in fear’ (Heb. 2: 15); but here ‘love, almost perfect, casteth out fear.’ (1 John 4: 18.) This is so absolutely let out upon the Master’s pleasure, and so transient or passing, or quickly gone when it is, that no man may bring his gracious state into debate for want of it. (from Scottish Presbyterian William Guthrie, The Christian’s Great Interest, available online HERE)

John Owen distinguishes between faith and spiritual sense. Faith alone justifies. Spiritual sense comes and goes, but there is no denying its reality:

Learn to distinguish between faith and spiritual sense. This rule the apostle gives us in 2 Cor v. 7, ‘We walk by faith, and not by sight.’ It is the sight of glory that is especially here intended. But faith and sense in any kind are clearly distinguished. That may be believed which is not felt; yea, it is the will and command of God that faith should stand and do its work where sense fails…And if we will believe no more of God, of his loved, of his grace, of our acceptance with him, than we have a spiritual affecting sense of, we shall be many times at a loss (John Owen, Works vol. 6, pp. 561-562).

John Owen describes the teaching of the Spirit, which is a part of his anointing (1 John 2: 20, 27). There is an unction of the Spirit which brings joy:

A teaching by the Spirit of consolation; – making sweet, useful, and joyful to the soul, the discoveries that are made of the mind and will of God in the light of the Spirit of sanctification. Here the oil of the Spirit is called the ‘oil of gladness,’ – that which brings joy and gladness with it; and the name of Christ thereby discovered is a sweet ‘ointment poured forth,’ that causeth souls to run after him with joy and delight [Song of Solomon 1:3]. We see it by daily experience, that very many have little taste and sweetness and relish in their souls of those truths which yet they savingly know and believe; but when we are taught by this unction, oh, how sweet is every thing we know of God!…When we find any of the good truths of the gospel come home to our souls with life, vigour, and power, giving us gladness of heart, transforming us into the image and likeness of it, – the Holy Ghost is then at work, is pouring out of his oil (Communion with God, from Works vol. 2, p. 248).

One way (not the only way, or primary way) in which the Spirit of God brings a believer joy is by his immediate work to and upon the soul. I find the example of John the Baptist leaping for joy in the womb of his mother quite compelling and helpful:

He doth it immediately by himself; without the consideration of any other acts or works of his, or the interposition of any reasonings, or deductions and conclusions. As in sanctification he is a well of water springing up in the soul, immediately exerting his efficacy and refreshment; so in consolation, he immediately works the soul and minds of men to a joyful, rejoicing, and spiritual frame, filling them with exultation and gladness; – not that this arises from our reflex consideration of the love of God, but rather gives occasion thereunto. When he so sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, and so fills them with gladness by an immediate act and operation (as he caused John [the] Baptist to leap for joy in the womb upon the approach of the mother of Jesus), – then doth the soul, even from hence, raise itself to a consideration of the love of God, whence joy and rejoicing doth also flow. Of this joy there is no account to be given, but that the Spirit worketh it when and how he will. He secretly infuseth and distills it into the soul, prevailing against all fears and sorrows, filling it with gladness, exultations; and sometimes with unspeakable raptures of mind (Communion with God, pp. 252-253).

The Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts in order to give us an ‘overflowing sense’ of the mercy and love of God in Christ:

He ‘sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts,’ Rom. v. 5. That is the love of God to us, not our love to God, which is here intended, the context is so clear as nothing can be added thereunto. Now, the love of God is either of ordination or of acceptation, – the love of his purpose to do us good, or the love of acceptation and approbation with him. Both these are called the love of God frequently in Scripture, as I have declared. Now, how can these be shed abroad in our hearts? Not in themselves, but in a sense of them, – in a spiritual apprehension of them. ἐκκέχυται, is ‘shed abroad;’ the same word that is used concerning the Comforter being given to us, Tit. iii.6. God sheds him abundantly, or pours him on us; so he sheds abroad, or pours out the love of God in our hearts. Not to insist on the expression, which is metaphorical, the business is, that the Comforter gives us sweet and plentiful evidence and persuasion of the love of God to us, such as the soul is taken, delighted, satiated withal. This is his work, and he doeth it effectually. To give a poor sinful soul a comfortable persuasion, affecting it throughout, in all its faculties and affections, that God in Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is pleased with him, hath thoughts of tenderness and kindness towards him; to give, I say, a soul an overflowing sense hereof, is an inexpressible mercy (John Owen, Works vol. 2, p. 240)

The Spirit stills the storms of the soul with a word, and thereby we rejoice in his presence:

The soul knows the [the Holy Spirit’s] voice when he speaks…There is something too great in it to be the effect of a created power. When the Lord Jesus Christ at one word stilled the raging of the sea and wind, all that were with him knew there was divine power at hand, Matt. viii.25-27. And when the Holy Ghost by one word stills the tumults and storms that are raised in the soul, giving it an immediate calm and security, it knows his divine power, and rejoices in his presence (John Owen, Works vol. 2, p. 242).

Octavius Winslow on hiding from the presence of Christ and delighting in the presence of Christ:

There is a hiding from his presence; there are misty views of his character, misinterpretations of his dealings and a lessening of holy desire for him: but where the heart is right in its affections, warm in its love, fixed in its desires, God is glorious in his perfections, and communion with him the highest bliss on earth (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and the Revival of Religion in the Soul, pp. 50-51)

The sensible presence of God, and his absence, can be sensed in the soul:

He who knows God, who, with faith’s eye, has discovered some of his glory, and by the power of the Spirit has felt something of his love, will not be at a loss to distinguish between God’s sensible presence and absence in the soul. Some professing people walk so much without communion, without fellowship, without daily filial and close intercourse with God; they are so immersed in the cares, and so lost in the fogs and mists of the world; the fine edge of their spiritual affection is so blunted, and their love so frozen by contact with worldly influences and occupations, – and no less so, with cold, formal professors, – that the Sun of righteousness may cease to shine upon their soul, and they not know it! God may cease to visit them, and his absence not be felt! He may cease to speak, and the stillness of his voice not awaken an emotion of alarm! Yea, a more strange thing would happen to them if the Lord were suddenly to break in upon their soul, with a visit of love, than were he to leave them for weeks and months without any token of his presence (Personal Declension, pp. 52-53).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones used an illustration from Puritan Thomas Goodwin for the special manifestations of God in the Spirit. The idea is that there are times when God especially manifests his fatherly love by workings of the Spirit in the soul. I have not been able to track down the original source for Goodwin’s exact illustration, but here it is in the words of the Doctor:

A man and his little child are walking down the road and they are walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is the child of his father, and he knows that his father loves him, and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it. There is no uncertainty about it all, but suddenly the father, moved by some impulse, takes hold of the child and picks him up, fondles him in his arms, kisses him, embraces him, showers his love upon him, and then he puts him down again and they go on walking together (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable, pp. 95-96).

Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon called ‘The Former and the Latter Rain‘ insisted on the need for the reviving work of the Holy Spirit. He stressed that there are spiritual heights available that most believers do not see, and therefore should all the more desire and seek:

My Brothers and Sisters, there is a point in Grace as much above the ordinary Christian, as the ordinary Christian is
above the worldling. Believe me, the life of Divine Grace is no dead level, it is not a low country, a vast flat. There are
mountains and there are valleys. There are tribes of Christians who live in the valleys, like the poor Swiss of the Valais,
who live in the midst of the mist, where fever has its lair and the frame is languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the
lowlands of unbelief are forever doubting, fearing, troubled about their interest in Christ and tossed to and fro. But
there are other Believers, who, by God’s Grace, have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion. Their
place is with the eagle in his eyrie, high aloft.

The Westminster Confession speaks of an assurance (who can doubt this is the work of the Spirit?) which is not the same as saving faith:

I. Although hypocrites, and other unregenerate men, may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions: of being in the favor of God and estate of salvation; which hope of theirs shall perish: yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God: which hope shall never make them ashamed.

II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probably persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God; which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.

III. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto. And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure; that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance: so far is it from inclining men to looseness.

IV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it; by falling into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience, and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation; by God’s withdrawing the light of his countenance and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light: yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair (WCF, chapter 18).

He that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayer

I came across this little piece of gold from John Owen while reading volume 6 of his works:

He that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayer. This calls in the suitable help and succour that is laid up in Christ for us, Heb. iv. 16. This casteth our souls into a frame of opposition to every temptation. (p. 126).

  • Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Demanding the Sanctification of the Lost

In my meditations on Romans 8, I remembered an old thought, somewhere deep in my mind, that I first heard expressed clearly by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I had to do some digging to find the source. I’d heard him say it before but I was sure I had read it as well. And, after said digging, I now share it:

The problem of life, my friends, is not individual sins but Sin itself, the whole background – the thing itself, the desire process which is the cause of all these local and minor manifestations and eruptions.  And that is our problem.  We are not here to teach and lecture men and women about individual sins you may control and conquer.  You are still a sinner, your nature is still evil and will remain so, until by the death of Christ and the resurrection you are born again and receive a new nature.  Our trouble is that our nature is evil; it really does not matter how it may manifest itself.

What is our duty then?  Well, it is this.  Before we talk to anyone we must find out first whether he believes in Christ or not.  Is he a new man?  If he is not, then he is still struggling with flesh and blood.  Are we to lecture him on his sins and to preach morality to him?  No, we are to preach Christ to him and do all we can to convert him, for what he needs is a new nature, a new outlook, a new mind.  It is no use our expecting to find figs on a thorn bush, however much we may treat and tend and care for it.  The trouble is the root.  We are wasting our time and neglecting our duty by preaching morality to a lost world.  For what the world needs is life, new life, and it can be found in Christ alone.

For purity, as I say, is something for Christians only, it is impossible to anyone else. Sanctification is impossible without conversion… (Iain Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, pp. 159-160).

From my perspective this is a major issue for the church in the U.S. presently. We have spent so much time hammering on particular sins and all the while the doctrine of Original Sin, the teaching of the sinful nature and condition of man, has languished. We are constantly attacking the fruit while neglecting to attack the root.

The Doctor was indeed a doctor after all. He knew that in the medical field it was not good practice to simply treat symptoms. This is what we do when we spend all of our time lambasting particular sins without getting to the deeper issue of the sinful nature – we’re diagnosing and attacking the particular manifestations, the symptoms, without addressing its cause – that our souls are jacked up. The problem is not simply my sin, the problem is me, the sinner.

Therefore the great issue we face is not simply convincing folks that such and such particular action is wrong, but convincing them that they are sinners by nature, rebels against God, in need of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, in need of a new nature. And thus the great pastoral dilemma according to John Owen – that the two great problems we face are convincing non-believers that they are sinners, and convincing Christians that sin no longer has dominion over them, stands true.

My job therefore is a lot harder than convincing my gay co-worker, or the abortion doctor, or the wife-beater, or the shoplifter, or the porn addict, that his particular action is wrong. I have to convince him that his whole soul is wrong, that his self is wrong, that his nature is wrong and that he therefore needs a new one.

To focus solely on particular sins, and the need for obedience, rather than the need of a new nature through new birth is to promote false religion and self-righteousness. As John Owen puts it,

This is the work of the Spirit; by him alone is it to be wrought, and by no other power is it to be brought about. Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world (Mortification of Sin in Believers, ch. 1).

Again, Owen says, believers alone are able to mortify sin because of the work of the Spirit in them:

The pressing of this duty immediately on any other [i.e. non-believers] is a notable fruit of that superstition and self-righteousness that the world is full of, — the great work and design of devout men ignorant of the gospel (Ibid).

So our job is not simply to call for repentance concerning specific sins. Rather we must call for a repentance from/of self, for a complete denial of self: that is, for complete rebirth – a putting to death of the old man, which is the root of those sins. For only as they are born anew and united to Christ will they find power to put sin to death. In bypassing justification and demanding sanctification from the world we are, if not denying the gospel, surely forfeiting its promises and power (perhaps that is a denial).

Someone might object to this line of thought: ‘God demands holiness from everyone, we must demand it too.’ I do not deny this, but I would add the following: Why is it that we demand holiness from the homosexual but not from the wealthy business man who lives a fairly upright life but has never prayed in his life and cares for nothing but his own private kingdom? His sin isn’t public enough I guess. Both the homosexual and the self-absorbed upper middle class non-believer who isn’t bothering anyone have this in common: they need to be born again. They both have  a sinful nature – that’s the issue. Their particular sins are just manifestations of a common problem – spiritual death.