My Year with Owen #30

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The third book I'll be reading is The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin. 

• Promises of growth and improvement are many and precious, the means excellent and effectual, the benefits great and unspeakable; yet it often falls out, that instead hereof decays and declensions are found upon professors, yea, in and upon many of the saints of God. ~ John Owen
• God suffers us not to be unmindful of this assistance he has afforded us, but is continually calling upon us to make use of the means appointed for the attaining of the end proposed. ~ John Owen
• Indwelling sin oftentimes prevails to the stopping of these springs of gospel obedience, by false and foolish opinions corrupting the simplicity of the gospel. ~ John Owen
• False opinions are the work of the flesh. ~ John Owen
• Growing in notions of truth without answerable practice is another thing that indwelling sin makes use of to bring the souls of believers unto a decay. ~ John Owen
• Surely it is a pleasant thing to be brought out of darkness into light— out of a dungeon unto a throne— from captivity and slavery to Satan and cursed lusts, to the glorious liberty of the children of God, with a thousand heavenly sweetnesses not now to be mentioned. ~ John Owen
• The law gives the soul to know the filth and guilt of this indwelling sin— how great they are, how vile it is, what an abomination, what an enmity to God, how hated of him. The soul shall never more look upon it as a small matter, whatsoever thoughts it had of it before, whereby it is greatly surprised. ~ John Owen
• The whole work of the law does only provoke and enrage sin, and cause it, as it has opportunity, to put out its strength with more power, and vigor, and force than formerly. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #29

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The third book I'll be reading is The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin. 

• Our progress in obedience is our edification or building. ~ John Owen
• It is particular actions wherein we express and exercise our faith and obedience; ~ John Owen
• There are sundry things in and about every sin that the mind of a believer, by virtue of its office and duty, is obliged to attend diligently unto, for the preservation of the soul from it. ~ John Owen
• The receiving of the promises ought to be effectual, as to stir us up unto all holiness, so to work and effect an abstinence from all sin. And what promises are these?— namely, that “God will be a Father unto us, and receive us” (2 Cor. 6: 17-18); which comprises the whole of all the love of God toward us here and to eternity. ~ John Owen
• Now, the heart may have a settled, fixed detestation of sin; but yet if a man find that the imagination of the mind is frequently solicited by it and exercised about it, such a one may know that his affections are secretly enticed and entangled. This entanglement is heightened when the imagination can prevail with the mind to lodge vain thoughts in it, with secret delight and complacency. ~ John Owen
• When the soul is willing, as it were, to be tempted, to be courted by sin, to hearken to its dalliances and solicitations, it has lost its conjugal affections unto Christ and is entangled. ~ John Owen
• It is not, indeed, possible that sin should utterly deprive the soul of the knowledge of the danger of it. It cannot dispossess it of its notion or persuasion that “the wages of sin is death” [Rom. 6: 23], and that it is the “judgment of God that they that commit sin are worthy of death” [Rom. 1: 32]. But this it will do— it will so take up and possess the mind and affections with the baits and desirableness of sin, that it shall divert them from an actual and practical contemplation of the danger of it. ~ John Owen
• Meditate on the vileness, the demerit, and punishment of sin as represented in the cross, the blood, the death of Christ. Is Christ crucified for sin, and shall not our hearts be crucified with him unto sin? Shall we give entertainment unto that, or hearken unto its dalliances, which wounded, which pierced, which slew our dear Lord Jesus? God forbid! ~ John Owen
• Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, that there may be no room for sin. The world once put him out of the house into a stable, when he came to save us; let him now turn the world out of doors, when he is come to sanctify us. ~ John Owen
• Grace has the rule and dominion, and not sin, in the will of every believer. ~ John Owen
• Temptation is the representation of a thing as a present good, a particular good, which is a real evil, a general evil. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #28

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The third book I'll be reading is The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin. 

• If sin-entanglements get hold in any one thing, they will put themselves upon the soul in everything. ~ John Owen
• There is harmony in obedience: break but one part, and you interrupt the whole. ~ John Owen
• When fire does anything it burns, and when the law of sin does anything it lusts. ~ John Owen
• No man is made a captive but against his will. ~ John Owen
• Captivity is misery and trouble, and no man willingly puts himself into trouble. ~ John Owen
• To fear sin is to fear the Lord; so the holy man tells us that they are the same. (Job 28:28) ~ John Owen
• This is one design of prayer, one end of the soul in it— namely, to draw forth sin, to set it in order, to present it unto itself in its vileness, abomination, and aggravating circumstances, that it may be loathed, abhorred, and cast away as a filthy thing (as Isa. 30: 22). He that pleads with God for sin’s remission, pleads also with his own heart for its detestation (Hos. 14: 3). ~ John Owen
• Prayer is the way of obtaining from God by Christ a supply of all our wants, assistance against all opposition, especially that which is made against us by sin. ~ John Owen
• Faith in prayer countermines all the workings of the deceit of sin; and that because the soul does therein constantly engage itself unto God to oppose all sin whatsoever. ~ John Owen
• Sin puts forth its deceit in its own defense. ~ John Owen
• I may add here that which has place in all the workings of sin by deceit— namely, its feeding the soul with promises and purposes of a more diligent attendance unto this duty when occasions will permit. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #27

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The third book I'll be reading is The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin. 

• We fight with an enemy whose secret strength we cannot discover, whom we cannot follow into its retirements. ~ John Owen
• Hence, oftentimes, when we are ready to think sin quite ruined, after a while we find it was but out of sight. ~ John Owen
• The soul may persuade itself all is well, when sin may be safe in the hidden darkness of the mind, which it is impossible that he should look into; for whatever makes manifest is light. ~ John Owen
• Never let us reckon that our work in contending against sin, in crucifying, mortifying, and subduing of it, is at an end. ~ John Owen
• Commit the whole matter with all care and diligence unto him who can search the heart to the uttermost, and knows how to prevent all its treacheries and deceits. ~ John Owen
• As every drop of poison is poison, and will infect, and every spark of fire is fire, and will burn, so is every thing of the law of sin, the last, the least of it--it is enmity, it will poison, it will burn. ~ John Owen
• Grace changes the nature of man, but nothing can change the nature of sin. ~ John Owen
• Every act of sin is a fruit of being weary of God. John Owen. 
• The giving way to the law of sin in the least is the giving strength unto it. ~ John Owen
• To let it alone is to let it grow; not to conquer it is to be conquered by it. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #26

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The third book I'll be reading is The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin. 

• And for this reason does the apostle here call indwelling sin a law. It is a powerful and effectual indwelling principle, inclining and pressing unto actions agreeable and suitable unto its own nature. ~ John Owen
• There is an exceeding efficacy and power in the remainders of indwelling sin in believers, with a constant working toward evil. ~ John Owen
• Awake, therefore, all of you in whose hearts is anything of the ways of God! Your enemy is not only upon you, as on Samson of old, but is in you also. ~ John Owen
• The pleasures of sin are the rewards of sin; a reward that most men lose their souls to obtain. ~ John Owen
• Wherever you are, whatever you are about, this law of sin is always in you; in the best that you do, and in the worst. ~ John Owen
• Men little consider what a dangerous companion is always at home with them. When they are in company, when alone, by night or by day, all is one, sin is with them. ~ John Owen
• There is a living coal continually in their houses; which, if it be not looked unto, will fire them, and it may be consume them. ~ John Owen
• Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before. ~ John Owen
• The more men sin, the more they are inclined unto sin. ~ John Owen
• Every sin increases the principle, and fortifies the habit of sinning. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #25

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

• The word of Christ is the word of the gospel; the word by him revealed from the bosom of the Father; the word of the Word; the word spoken in time of the eternal Word. ~ John Owen
• Now this word is called “the word of Christ’s patience,” or tolerance and forbearance, upon the account of that patience and longsuffering which, in the dispensation of it, the Lord Christ exercises toward the whole, and to all persons in it; and that both actively and passively, in his bearing with men and enduring from them. He is patient toward his saints— he bears with them, suffers from them. He is “patient toward us” (2 Pet. 3: 9)— that is, that believe. The gospel is the word of Christ’s patience even to believers.  ~ John Owen
• He that knows not the word of Christ’s patience as a sanctifying, cleansing word, in the power of it upon his own soul, neither knows it nor keeps it. The empty profession of our days knows not one step toward this duty; and thence it is that the most are so overborne under the power of temptations. Men full of self, of the world, of fury, ambition, and almost all unclean lusts, do yet talk of keeping the word of Christ! (See 1 Peter 1: 2; 2 Timothy 2: 19.) ~ John Owen
• We have arrived, then, to the sum of this safeguarding duty, of this condition of freedom from the power of temptation: He that, having a due acquaintance with the gospel in its excellencies, as to him a word of mercy, holiness, liberty, and consolation, values it, in all its concerns, as his choicest and only treasure— makes it his business and the work of his life to give himself up unto it in universal obedience, then especially when opposition and apostasy put the patience of Christ to the utmost— he shall be preserved from the hour of temptation. ~ John Owen
• He that keeps close to Christ is crucified with him and is dead to all the desires of the flesh and the world (as more fully: Gal. 6: 14). Here the match is broken, and all love, entangling love, dissolved. The heart is crucified to the world and all things in it. ~ John Owen
• If liking and love of the things proposed, insinuated, commended in the temptation be living and active in us, we shall not be able to resist and stand. ~ John Owen
• He that makes it his business to eat daily of the tree of life will have no appetite unto other fruit, though the tree that bear them seem to stand in the midst of paradise. ~ John Owen
• “Let a soul exercise itself to a communion with Christ in the good things of the gospel— pardon of sin, fruits of holiness, hope of glory, peace with God, joy in the Holy Ghost, dominion over sin— and he shall have a mighty preservative against all temptations.” ~ John Owen
• Consider that you are always under the eye of Christ, the great captain of our salvation, who has enjoined us to watch thus, and pray that we enter not into temptation. What do you think are the thoughts and the heart of Christ when he sees a temptation hastening toward us, a storm rising about us, and we are fast asleep? Does it not grieve him to see us expose ourselves so to danger, after he has given us warning upon warning? ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #24

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

Meet your temptation in its entrance with thoughts of faith concerning Christ on the cross; this will make it sink before you. Entertain no parley, no dispute with it, if you would not enter into it. ~ John Owen

Say, “‘ It is Christ that died’— that died for such sins as these.” This is called “taking the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of Satan” (Eph. 6: 16). Faith does it by laying hold on Christ crucified, his love therein, and what from thence he suffered for sin. Let your temptation be what it will— be it unto sin, to fear or doubting for sin, or about your state and condition— it is not able to stand before faith lifting up the standard of the cross. ~ John Owen

Suppose the soul has been surprised by temptation, and entangled at unawares, so that now it is too late to resist the first entrances of it. What shall such a soul do that it be not plunged into it, and carried away with the power thereof? First, do as Paul did: beseech God again and again that it may “depart from you” (2 Cor. 12: 8). And if you abide therein, you shall certainly either be speedily delivered out of it, or receive a sufficiency of grace [so as] not to be foiled utterly by it. ~ John Owen

Second, fly to Christ, in a peculiar manner, as he was tempted, and beg of him to give you succor in this “needful time of trouble.” ~ John Owen

Third, look to him who has promised deliverance. Consider that he is faithful and will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able. Consider that he has promised a comfortable issue of these trials and temptations. Call all the promises to mind of assistance and deliverance that he has made; ponder them in your heart. And rest upon it, that God has innumerable ways that you know not of to give you in deliverance; ~ John Owen

Fourth, consider where the temptation, wherewith you are surprised, has made its entrance, and by what means and with all speed make up the breach. ~ John Owen

And, therefore, I shall show: (1) What it is to “keep the word of Christ’s patience,” that we may know how to perform our duty; and (2) How this will be a means of our preservation, which will establish us in the faith of Christ’s promise. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #23

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

You will say, “What provision is intended, and where is it to be laid up?” Our hearts, as our Savior speaks, are our treasury. There we lay up whatsoever we have, good or bad; and thence do we draw it for our use (Matt. 12: 35). It is the heart, then, wherein provision is to be laid up against temptation. ~ John Owen

If Satan, the prince of this world, come and find our hearts fortified against his batteries, and provided to hold out, he not only departs, but, as James says, he flees: “He will flee from us” (James 4:7). For the provision to be laid up it is that which is provided in the gospel for us. Gospel provisions will do this work; that is, keep the heart full of a sense of the love of God in Christ. This is the greatest preservative against the power of temptation in the world. ~ John Owen

“The love of Christ constrains us,” says the apostle, “to live to him” (2 Cor. 5:14); and so, consequently, to withstand temptation. A man may, nay, he ought to lay in provisions of the law also— fear of death, hell, punishment, with the terror of the Lord in them. But these are far more easily conquered than the other; nay, they will never stand alone against a vigorous assault. They are conquered in convinced persons every day; hearts stored with them will struggle for a while, but quickly give over. But store the heart with a sense of the love of God in Christ, and his love in the shedding of it; get a relish of the privileges we have thereby— our adoption, justification, acceptance with God; fill the heart with thoughts of the beauty of his death— and you will, in an ordinary course of walking with God, have great peace and security as to the disturbance of temptations. When men can live and plod on in their profession, and not be able to say when they had any living sense of the love of God or of the privileges which we have in the blood of Christ, I know not what they can have to keep them from falling into snares. ~ John Owen

It is so with our souls; they are exposed to temptations, assaulted continually; but if there be a garrison in them, or if they be kept as in a garrison, temptation shall not enter, and consequently we shall not enter into temptation. Now, how is this done? Says he, “The peace of God shall do it.” What is this “peace of God”? A sense of his love and favor in Jesus Christ. Let this abide in you, and it shall garrison you against all assaults whatsoever. ~ John Owen

Lay in store of gospel provisions that may make the soul a defensed place against all the assaults thereof. ~ John Owen

Be always awake, that you may have an early discovery of your temptation, that you may know it so to be. Most men perceive not their enemy until they are wounded by him. ~ John Owen

Consider the aim and tendency of the temptation, whatsoever it be, and of all that are concerned in it. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #22

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

Watching or keeping of the heart, which above all keepings we are obliged unto, comes within the compass of this duty also; for the right performance whereof take these ensuing directions: Let him that would not enter into temptations labor to know his own heart, to be acquainted with his own spirit, his natural frame and temper, his lusts and corruptions, his natural, sinful, or spiritual weaknesses, that, finding where his weakness lies, he may be careful to keep at a distance from all occasions of sin. ~ John Owen

Labor to know your own frame and temper; what spirit you are of; what associates in your heart Satan has; where corruption is strong, where grace is weak; what stronghold lust has in your natural constitution, and the like. ~ John Owen

Be acquainted, then, with your own heart: though it be deep, search it; though it be dark, inquire into it; though it give all its distempers other names than what are their due, believe it not. Were not men utter strangers to themselves— did they not give flattering titles to their natural distempers— did they not strive rather to justify, palliate, 31 or excuse the evils of their hearts that are suited to their natural tempers and constitutions, than to destroy them, and by these means keep themselves off from taking a clear and distinct view of them— it were impossible that they should all their days hang in the same briers without attempt for deliverance. ~ John Owen

When you know the state and condition of your heart as to the particulars mentioned, watch against all such occasions and opportunities, employments, societies, retirements, businesses, as are apt to entangle your natural temper or provoke your corruption. ~ John Owen

Be sure to lay in provision in store against the approaching of any temptation. This also belongs to our watchfulness over our hearts. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #21

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

Sin will not long seem great or heavy unto any to whom temptations seem light or small. ~ John Owen

The daily exercise of our thoughts with an apprehension of the great danger that lies in entering into temptation, is required of us. ~ John Owen

Temptation despised will conquer; and if the heart be made tender and watchful here, half the work of securing a good conversation is over. ~ John Owen

Therefore are we to pray that we may be preserved from it, because we cannot save ourselves. ~ John Owen

This is another means of preservation. As we have no strength to resist a temptation when it does come, when we are entered into it, but shall fall under it, without a supply of sufficiency of grace from God; so to reckon that we have no power or wisdom to keep ourselves from entering into temptation, but must be kept by the power and wisdom of God, is a preserving principle (1 Pet. 1: 5). ~ John Owen

The first beginnings of temptation [are] insensible and plausible, so that, left unto myself, I shall not know I am ensnared, until my bonds be made strong, and sin has got ground in my heart. ~ John Owen

This will make the soul be always committing itself to the care of God, resting itself on him, and to do nothing, undertake nothing, etc, without asking counsel of him. ~ John Owen

We are to pray for what God has promised. Our requests are to be regulated by his promises and commands, which are of the same extent. ~ John Owen

To pray that we enter not into temptation is a means to preserve us from it. ~ John Owen

It is not my business to speak of it [prayer] in general; but this I say as to my present purpose— he that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayer. This calls in the suitable help and succor that is laid up in Christ for us (Heb. 4: 16). This casts our souls into a frame of opposition to every temptation. ~ John Owen

The other part of our Savior’s direction— namely, to “watch”— is more general, and extends itself to many particulars. I shall fix on some things that are contained therein. ~ John Owen

Watch the seasons wherein men usually do “enter into temptations.” ~ John Owen

A season of unusual outward prosperity is usually accompanied with an hour of temptation. John Owen

A time of the slumber of grace, of neglect in communion with God, of formality in duty, is a season to be watched in, as that which certainly [has] some other temptation attending it. ~ John Owen

A season of great spiritual enjoyments is often, by the malice of Satan and the weakness of our hearts, turned into a season of danger as to this business of temptation. ~ John Owen

A fourth season is a season of self-confidence; then usually temptation is at hand. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #20

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

It may be inquired: (1) How a man may know when he is entered into temptation; (2) What directions are to be given for the preventing of our entering into temptation; (3) What seasons there are wherein a man may and ought to fear that an hour of temptation is at hand. ~ John Owen

When a man is drawn into any sin, he may be sure that he has entered into temptation. All sin is from temptation (James 1: 14). Sin is a fruit that comes only from that root. ~ John Owen

When they are overtaken with a sin they set themselves to repent of that sin, but do not consider the temptation that was the cause of it, to set themselves against that also to take care that they enter no more into it. Hence are they quickly again entangled by it, though they have the greatest detestation of the sin itself that can be expressed. He that would indeed get the conquest over any sin must consider his temptations to it, and strike at that root; without deliverance from thence, he will not be healed. ~ John Owen

Men’s lusts will infallibly (if not mortified in the death of Christ) carry them into eternal ruin, but oftentimes without much noise, according to the course of the stream of their corruptions; but let the wind of strong temptations befall them, they are hurried into innumerable scandalous sins, and so, broken upon all accounts, are swallowed up in eternity. ~ John Owen

Entering into temptation may be seen in the lesser degrees of it; as, for instance, when the heart begins secretly to like the matter of the temptation, and is content to feed it and increase it by any ways that it may without downright sin. ~ John Owen

I told you before that to enter into temptation is not merely to be tempted, but so to be under the power of it as to be entangled by it. Now, it is impossible almost for a man to have opportunities, occasions, advantages, suited to his lust and corruption, but he will be entangled. ~ John Owen

When a man is weakened, made negligent or formal in duty, when he can omit duties or content himself with a careless, lifeless performance of them, without delight, joy, or satisfaction to his soul, who had another frame formerly; let him know, that though he may not be acquainted with the particular distemper wherein it consists, yet in something or other he is entered into temptation, which at the length he will find evident, to his trouble and peril. ~ John Owen

What general directions may be given to preserve a soul from that condition that has been spoken of? And we see our Savior’s direction in the place spoken of before (Matt. 26: 41). He sums up all in these two words: “watch and pray.” I shall a little labor to unfold them and show what is enwrapped and contained in them; and that both jointly and severally. There is included in them a clear, abiding apprehension of great evil that there is in entering into temptation. That which a man watches and prays against, he looks upon as evil to him, and by all means to be avoided. ~ John Owen

Always bear in mind the great danger that it is for any soul to enter into temptation. ~ John Owen

Let no man, then, pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation to it. They are too nearly allied to be separated. Satan has put them so together that it is very hard for any man to put them asunder. He hates not the fruit who delights in the root. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #19

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

It is the great duty of all believers to use all diligence in the ways of Christ’s appointment, that they fall not into temptation. ~ John Owen

If we are led into temptation, evil will befall us, more or less. ~ John Owen

“ So deal with us that we may be powerfully delivered from that evil which attends our entering into temptation.” Our blessed Savior knows full well our state and condition; he knows the power of temptations, having had experience of it (Heb. 2: 18); he knows our vain confidence, and the reserves we have concerning our ability to deal with temptations, as he found it in Peter; but he knows our weakness and folly, and how soon we are cast to the ground, and therefore does he lay in this provision for instruction at the entrance of his ministry, to make us heedful, if possible, in that which is of so great concern to us. If, then, we will repose2 any confidence in the wisdom, love, and care of Jesus Christ toward us, we must grant the truth pleaded for. ~ John Owen

Christ promises this freedom and deliverance as a great reward of most acceptable obedience (Rev. 3: 10). ~ John Owen

Let us consider ourselves— what our weakness is; and what temptation is— its power and efficacy, with what it leads unto. For ourselves, we are weakness itself. We have no strength, no power to withstand. Confidence of any strength in us is one great part of our weakness; ~ John Owen

There are traitors in our hearts, ready to take part, to close and side with every temptation, and to give up all to them; yea, to solicit and bribe temptations to do the work, as traitors incite an enemy. Do not flatter yourselves that you should hold out; there are secret lusts that lie lurking in your hearts, which perhaps now stir not, which, as soon as any temptation befalls you, will rise, tumultuate, cry, disquiet, seduce, and never give over until they are either killed or satisfied. He that promises himself that the frame of his heart will be the same under a temptation as it is before will be woefully mistaken. ~ John Owen

Now, withstanding of temptation is heartwork; and when it comes like a flood, can such a rotten trifle as a wicked man’s heart stand before it? ~ John Owen

Consider the particular ways and means that such a heart has or can use to safeguard itself in the hour of temptation, and their insufficiency to that purpose will quickly appear. ~ John Owen

It is true, a little armor would serve to defend a man if he might choose there his enemy should strike him; but we are commanded to take the “whole armor of God” if we intend to resist and stand (Ephesians 6). This we speak of is but one piece; and when our eye is only to that, temptation may enter and prevail twenty other ways. ~ John Owen

Consider the power of temptation, partly from what was showed before, from the effects and fruits of it in the saints of old, partly from such other effects in general as we find ascribed to it; as— It will darken the mind, that a man shall not be able to make a right judgment of things, so as he did before he entered into it. ~ John Owen

By fixing the imagination and the thoughts upon the object whereunto it tends, so that the mind shall be diverted from the consideration of the things that would relieve and succor17 it in the state wherein it is. A man is tempted to apprehend that he is forsaken of God, that he is an object of his hatred, that he has no interest18 in Christ. By the craft of Satan the mind shall be so fixed to the consideration of this state and condition, with the distress of it, that he shall not be able to manage any of the reliefs suggested and tendered to him against it; but, following the fullness of his own thoughts, shall walk on in darkness and have no light. ~ John Owen

I say, a temptation will so possess and fill the mind with thoughtfulness of itself and the matter of it, that it will take off from that clear consideration of things which otherwise it might and would have. ~ John Owen

By woeful entangling of the affections; which, when they are engaged, what influence they have in blinding the mind and darkening the understanding is known. ~ John Owen

It has an efficacy in respect of God, who sends it to revenge the neglect and contempt of the gospel on the one hand, and treachery of false professors on the other. Hence it will certainly accomplish what it receives commission from him to do. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #18

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

Temptation in general is comprehensive of our whole warfare; as our Savior calls the time of his ministry the time of his “temptations” (Luke 22: 28). We have no promise that we shall not be tempted at all; nor are to pray for an absolute freedom from temptations, because we have no such promise of being heard therein. The direction we have for our prayers is, “Lead us not into temptation” (Matt. 6: 13); it is “entering into temptation” that we are to pray against. We may be tempted, yet not enter into temptation. ~ John Owen

Something more is intended by this expression than the ordinary work of Satan and our own lusts, which will be sure to tempt us every day. There is something signal in this entering into temptation, that is not the saints’ every day’s work. ~ John Owen

It is not to be conquered by a temptation, to fall down under it, to commit the sin or evil that we are tempted to, or to omit the duties that are opposed. A man may “enter into temptation” and yet not fall under temptation. God can make a way for a man to escape, when he is in; he can break the snare, tread down Satan, and make the soul more than a conqueror, though it have entered into temptation. ~ John Owen

It is, as the apostle expresses it, “to fall into temptation” (1 Tim. 6: 9), as a man falls into a pit or deep place where [there] are gins or snares, wherewith he is entangled; the man is not presently killed and destroyed, but he is entangled and detained— he knows not how to get free or be at liberty. ~ John Owen

When we suffer a temptation to enter into us, then we “enter into temptation.” While it knocks at the door we are at liberty; but when any temptation comes in and parleys with the heart, reasons with the mind, entices and allures the affections, be it a long or a short time, do it thus insensibly and imperceptibly, or do the soul take notice of it, we “enter into temptation.” ~ John Owen

Every great and pressing temptation has its hour, a season wherein it grows to a head, wherein it is most vigorous, active, operative, and prevalent. It may be long in rising, it may be long urging, more or less; but it has a season wherein, from the conjunction of other occurrences, such as those mentioned, outward or inward, it has a dangerous hour; and then, for the most part, men enter into it. Hence that very temptation, which at one time has little or no power on a man— he can despise it, scorn the motions of it, easily resist it— at another, bears him away quite before it. ~ John Owen

How Temptation Generally Attains Its Hour It does the first by several ways: By long solicitations, causing the mind frequently to converse with the evil solicited unto, it begets extenuating thoughts of it. ~ John Owen

When it has prevailed on others, and the soul is not filled with dislike and abhorrency of them and their ways, nor with pity and prayer for their deliverance. This proves an advantage unto it, and raises it toward its height. When that temptation sets upon any one which, at the same time, has possessed and prevailed with many, it has so great and so many advantages thereby, that it is surely growing toward its hour. Its prevailing with others is a means to give it its hour against us. ~ John Owen

By complicating itself with many considerations that, perhaps, are not absolutely evil. ~ John Owen

How We May Know When Temptation Has Attained Its High Noon For the second, it may be known— By its restless urgency and arguing. When a temptation is in its hour it is restless; it is the time of battle, and it gives the soul no rest. ~ John Owen

There is [a] means of prevention prescribed by our Savior; they are two: (1) “watch”; (2) “pray.” ~ John Owen

To watch is as much as to be on our guard, to take heed, to consider all ways and means as to be on our guard, to take heed, to consider all ways and means whereby an enemy may approach to us: so the apostle (1 Cor. 16: 13). This it is to “watch” in this business, to “stand fast in the faith” [1 Cor. 16: 3] as good soldiers, to “quit ourselves like men” [1 Sam. 4: 9]. It is as much as to “take heed,” or look to ourselves, as the same thing is by our Savior often expressed (so Rev. 3: 2). A universal carefulness and diligence, exercising itself in and by all ways and means prescribed by God, over our hearts and ways, the baits and methods of Satan, the occasions and advantages of sin in the world, that we be not entangled, is that which in this word is pressed on us. ~ John Owen

For the second direction, of prayer, I need not speak to it. The duty and its concerns are known to all. I shall only add that these two comprise the whole endeavor of faith for the soul’s preservation from temptation. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #17

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The second book I'll be reading is Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It.

“Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation” (Matt. 26: 41). These words of our Savior are repeated with very little alteration in three evangelists; only, whereas Matthew and Mark have recorded them as above written, Luke reports them thus: “Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation” [Luke 22: 46]; so that the whole of his caution seems to have been, “Arise, watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation.” ~ John Owen

All our own strength is weakness, and all our wisdom folly. ~ John Owen

There are three things in the words: (1) The evil cautioned against— temptation; (2) the means of its prevalency— by our entering into it; (3) the way of preventing it— watch and pray. ~ John Owen

So temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction. ~ John Owen

Now, as to God’s tempting of any, two things are to be considered: (1) The end why he does it; (2) The way whereby he does it. ~ John Owen

Grace and corruption lie deep in the heart; men oftentimes deceive themselves in the search after the one or the other of them. ~ John Owen

God does it to show himself unto man, and that— In a way of preventing grace. A man shall see that it is God alone who keeps from all sin. Until we are tempted, we think we live on our own strength. Though all men do this or that, we will not [cf. Matt. 26: 35]. When the trial comes, we quickly see whence is our preservation, by standing or falling. ~ John Owen

God does it to show himself unto man, and that—In a way of renewing grace. He would have the temptation continue with St. Paul, that he might reveal himself to him in the sufficiency of his renewing grace (2 Cor. 12: 9). We know not the power and strength that God puts forth in our behalf, nor what is the sufficiency of his grace, until, comparing the temptation with our own weakness, it appears unto us. ~ John Owen

The efficacy of an antidote is found when poison has been taken; and the preciousness of medicines is made known by diseases. We shall never know what strength there is in grace if we know not what strength there is in temptation. We must be tried, that we may be made sensible of being preserved. ~ John Owen

Many men know not what is in them, or rather what is ready for them, until they are put upon what seems utterly above their strength, indeed, upon what is really above their strength. ~ John Owen

The duties that God, in an ordinary way, requires at our hands are not proportioned to what strength we have in ourselves, but to what help and relief is laid up for us in Christ; and we are to address ourselves to the greatest performances with a settled persuasion that we have not ability for the least. This is the law of grace; but yet, when any duty is required that is extraordinary, that is a secret not often discovered. In the yoke of Christ it is a trial, a temptation. ~ John Owen

Now, they are not properly the temptations of God, as coming from him, with his end upon them, that are here intended; and therefore I shall set these apart from our present consideration. ~ John Owen

In this sense temptation may proceed either singly from Satan, or the world, or other men in the world, or from ourselves, or jointly from all or some of them, in their several combinations ~ John Owen

Temptation, then, in general, is any thing, state, way, or condition that, upon any account whatsoever, has a force or efficacy to seduce, to draw the mind and heart of a man from its obedience, which God requires of him, into any sin, in any degree of it whatsoever. In particular, that is a temptation to any man which causes or occasions him to sin, or in anything to go off from his duty, either by bringing evil into his heart, or drawing out that evil that is in his heart, or any other way diverting him from communion with God and that constant, equal, universal obedience, in matter and manner, that is required of him. ~ John Owen

Be it what it will, that from anything whatsoever, within us or without us, has advantage to hinder in duty, or to provoke unto or in any way to occasion sin— that is a temptation, and so to be looked on. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #16

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The first book I'll be reading is Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656).

• The way whereby and the means wherein Christ communicates himself is, and are, his ordinances ordinarily; he that expects anything from him must attend upon him therein. It is the expectation of faith that sets the heart on work. It is not an idle, groundless hope that I speak of. If now there be any vigor, efficacy, and power in prayer or sacrament to this end of mortifying sin, a man will assuredly be interested in it all by this expectation of relief from Christ. On this account I reduce all particular actings, by prayer, meditation, and the like, to this head; and so shall not farther insist on them, when they are grounded on this bottom and spring from this root. ~ John Owen
• Mortification of sin is peculiarly from the death of Christ. It is one peculiar, yea, eminent end of the death of Christ, which shall assuredly be accomplished by it. He died to destroy the works of the devil [1 John 3: 8]. ~ John Owen
• He alone clearly and fully convinces the heart of the evil and guilt and danger of the corruption, lust, or sin to be mortified. Without this conviction, or while it is so faint that the heart can wrestle with it or digest it, there will be no thorough work made. ~ John Owen
• And this is the first thing that the Spirit does in order to the mortification of any lust whatsoever— it convinces the soul of all the evil of it, cuts off all its pleas, discovers all its deceits, stops all its evasions, answers its pretenses, makes the soul own its abomination and lie down under the sense of it. Unless this be done all that follows is in vain. ~ John Owen
• The Spirit alone reveals unto us the fullness of Christ for our relief; which is the consideration that stays the heart from false ways and from despairing despondency (Col. 2: 8). ~ John Owen
• The Spirit alone establishes the heart in expectation of relief from Christ; which is the great sovereign means of mortification, as has been discovered (2 Cor. 1: 21). ~ John Owen
• The Spirit alone brings the cross of Christ into our hearts with its sin-killing power; for by the Spirit are we baptized into the death of Christ [Rom. 6: 3; 1 Cor. 12: 13]. ~ John Owen
• The Spirit is the author and finisher of our sanctification; gives new supplies and influences of grace for holiness and sanctification, when the contrary principle is weakened and abated (Eph. 3: 16-18). ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #15

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The first book I'll be reading is Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656).

• By faith fill your soul with a due consideration of that provision which is laid up in Jesus Christ for this end and purpose, that all your lusts, this very lust wherewith you are entangled, may be mortified. ~ John Owen
• By faith ponder on this, that though you are no way able in or by yourself to get the conquest over your distemper, though you are even weary of contending, and are utterly ready to faint, yet that there is enough in Jesus Christ to yield you relief (Phil. 4:13). ~ John Owen
• In your greatest distress and anguish, consider that fullness of grace, those riches, those treasures of strength, might, and help [Isa. 40: 28-31], that are laid up in him for our support (John 1: 16; Col. 1: 19). Let them come into and abide in your mind. Consider that he is “exalted and made a Prince and a Savior to give repentance unto Israel” (Acts 5: 31); and if to give repentance, to give mortification, without which the other is not, nor can be. Christ tells us that we obtain purging grace by abiding in him (John 15: 3). To act faith upon the fullness that is in Christ for our supply is an eminent way of abiding in Christ, for both our insition2 and abode is by faith (Rom. 11: 19-20). ~ John Owen
• Raise up your heart by faith to an expectation of relief from Christ. ~ John Owen
• Consider his mercifulness, tenderness, and kindness, as he is our great High Priest at the right hand of God. ~ John Owen
• Consider his faithfulness who has promised; which may raise you up and confirm you in this waiting in an expectation of relief. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #14

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The first book I'll be reading is Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656).

• Do not speak peace to yourself before God speaks it, but hearken to what God says to your soul. ~ John Owen
• When we look for peace, his chastisements must be in our eye. ~ John Owen
• Whoever speaks peace to himself upon any one account, and at the same time has another evil of no less importance lying upon his spirit, about which has had no dealing with God, that man cries "peace" when there is none. [Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11] ~ John Owen
• Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of your sin. ~ John Owen 
• His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. ~ John Owen 
• Live in this, and you will be a conqueror. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #13

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The first book I'll be reading is Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656).

• Use and exercise yourself to such meditations as may serve to fill you at all times with self-abasement and thoughts of your own vileness. ~ John Owen
• Be much in thoughtfulness of the excellency of the majesty of God and your infinite, inconceivable distance from him. ~ John Owen
• Think greatly of the greatness of God. ~ John Owen
• Think much of your unacquaintedness with him. ~ John Owen
• We speak much of God, can talk of him, his ways, his works, his counsels, all the day long; the truth is, we know very little of him. ~ John Owen
• Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of him are low, many of them unworthy of his glory, none of them reaching his perfections. ~ John Owen
• We know him rather by what he does than by what he is--by his doing us good than by his essential goodness. ~ John Owen
• We know little of God, because it is faith alone whereby here we know him. ~ John Owen
• The truth is, we all of us know enough of him to love him more than we do, to delight in him and serve him, believe him, obey him, put our trust in him, above all that we have hitherto attained. Our darkness and weakness is no plea for our negligence and disobedience. Who is it that has walked up to the knowledge that he has had of the perfections, excellencies, and will of God? God’s end in giving us any knowledge of himself here is that we may “glorify him as God” [Rom. 1: 21], that is, love him, serve him, believe and obey him— give him all the honor and glory that is due from poor sinful creatures to a sin-pardoning God and Creator. We must all acknowledge that we were never thoroughly transformed into the image of that knowledge which we have had. And had we used our talents well, we might have been trusted with more. ~ John Owen
• The intention of all gospel revelation is not to unveil God’s essential glory that we should see him as he is, but merely to declare so much of him as he knows sufficient to be a bottom of our faith, love, obedience, and coming to him— that is, of the faith which here he expects from us; such services as beseem67 poor creatures in the midst of temptations. But when he calls us to eternal admiration and contemplation, without interruption, he will make a new manner of discovery of himself, and the whole shape of things, as it now lies before us, will depart as a shadow. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #12

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The first book I'll be reading is Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656).

Bring your lust to the gospel--not for relief, but for further conviction of its guilt. ~ John Owen

Consider the infinite patience and forbearance of God toward you in particular. ~ John Owen

Get a constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the power of it. Suffer not your heart one moment to be contented with your present frame and condition. ~ John Owen

Longing, breathing, and panting after deliverance is a grace in itself, that has a mighty power to conform the soul into the likeness of the thing longed after. ~ John Owen

Assure yourself, unless you long for deliverance you shall not have it. ~ John Owen

Consider whether the distemper with which you are perplexed be not rooted in your nature, and cherished, fomented, and heightened from your constitution. ~ John Owen

Consider what occasions, what advantages your distemper has taken to exert and put forth itself, and watch against them all. ~ John Owen

Know that he that dares to dally with occasions of sin will dare to sin. He that will venture upon temptations unto wickedness will venture upon wickedness. ~ John Owen

Rise mightily against the first actings of your distemper, its first conceptions; suffer it not to get the least ground. ~ John Owen

If it have allowance for one step, it will take another. It is impossible to fix bounds to sin. It is like water in a channel--if it once breaks out, it will have its course. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Owen #11

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The first book I'll be reading is Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656).

Slight thoughts of grace, of mercy, of the blood of Christ, of the law, heaven, and hell, come all in at the same season. ~ John Owen

To have peace with God, to have strength to walk before God, is the sum of the great promises of the covenant of grace. ~ John Owen

Consider who and what you are; who the Spirit is that is grieved, what he has done for you, what he comes to your soul about, what he has already done in you; and be ashamed. ~ John Owen

Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive unto universal holiness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits in all purity and cleanness, than this, that the blessed Spirit, who has undertaken to dwell in them, is continually considering what they give entertainment in their hearts unto, and rejoices when his temple is kept undefiled. ~ John Owen

Load your conscience with the guilt of it. Not only consider that it has a guilt, but load your conscience with the guilt of its actual eruptions and disturbances. ~ John Owen

Bring the holy law of God into your conscience, lay your corruption to it, pray that you may be affected with it. Consider the holiness, spirituality, fiery severity, inwardness, absoluteness of the law, and see how you can stand before it. ~ John Owen

If ever you will mortify your corruptions, you must tie up your conscience to the law, shut it from all shifts and exceptions, until it owns its guilt with a clear and thorough apprehension. ~ John Owen© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible