Grace (Hear His Voice)

Now a word to you that are young, who are full of health and strength and who are chasing after some beloved ambition or some beloved pleasure. Stop and consider. What are all your beloveds compared to Christ the true beloved? What satisfaction and happiness have your beloveds brought you? Show us the peace, quietness and assurance of everlasting blessedness that they have brought you. Their paths are crooked. Whoever walks in them shall not know peace. So look and see that there is a fit object for your highest love, one in whom you may find rest to your soul, one in whom you will find nothing to grieve and trouble you to eternity. Behold, he stands at the door of your souls and knocks. Do not reject him, lest you seek for him and do not find him. Why do you spend your time in idleness and foolishness, wasting your precious time? Why associate with those who scoff at religion and the things of God? You only do this because you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. When he whom you have slighted and refused, how it will break your hearts and fill you with sorrow and remorse because you have neglected him. If you never come to know him, then it would have been better if you had never been born. 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.'

John Owen, Communion With God, P.52

Sin

Sin brought infinite punishment because it was committed against an infinite God. Chris, being the infinite God in human nature, could suffer the infinite punishment that the sinner deserved. And so, by this personal union in Christ we are saved.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 50

Grace

Grace is a word which has various meanings. But chiefly it means three things:

(1) Grace can mean grace of personal presence and beauty. So we say, 'He or she is a graceful and beautiful person'. The Song of Solomon deals mainly with the grace and beauty of Christ's person. See also Psalm 45:2.
(2) Grace can mean grace of free favour and acceptance. 'By grace you are saved'. That is, we are saved by the free favour and merciful acceptance of God in Christ. So the expression "If I have found grace in your sight' is often used. The person using this expression hopes that he will be freely and favourably accepted. So God 'gives grace', that is, favour, to the humble (james 4:6, Gen. 39:21, 41:37; Acts 4:10; 1 Sam. 2:26; 2 Kings 25:27).
(3) Grace can mean the fruit of the Spirit sanctifying and renewing our natures, enabling us to do those good things which God has purposed and planned for us to do, and holding us back from evil. 'My grace is sufficient for you,' say the Lord Christ. That is, the help which God gave was sufficient for Paul (2 Cor. 12:9; 8:6, 7; Col. 6:16; Heb. 12:28).

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 46-47

Holiness

Communion with God is wholly inconsistent with loose walking (1 John 1:6; 2:4). The one who claims to have fellowship with the Father and who does not keep his commandments is a liar. The love of the world and of the Father cannot dwell together.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 37

The Father's Love

And what a safe place the saints have to retreat to when they suffer the scorn, reproaches, scandals and misrepresentations of the world. When a child is bullied and hurt in the streets by strangers, he quickly runs home to the love and protection of his father. There he tells everything and is comforted. In all the hard words and slanders which the saints meet with in the streets of the world, they may come home to their Father and tell him all their troubles and sorrows and be comforted. 'As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you,' says the Lord (Isa. 66:13). And the soul may say, 'If I am hated in the world, I will go where I know I am loved. Though all others hate me, yet my Father is tender and full of compassion. I will go to him and find happiness in him. In the world I am considered vile. I am frowned on and rejected. But I have honour and love with the Father whose kindness is better than life itself. There I shall have all things in their fulness, which others have only in dribs and drabs. There is in my Father's love everything I desire. There I find the sweetness of all his infinite mercies.'

John Owen, Communion With God, P.35

God, Love of

...the more we see of God's love, so much more shall we delight in him. All that we learn of God will only frighten us away from him if we do not see him as loving and merciful to us. But if your heart is taken up with the Father's love as the chief property of his nature, it cannot help but choose to be overpowered, conquered and embraced by him. This, if anything, will arouse our desire to make our eternal home with God. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will? So do this: set your thoughts on the eternal love of the Father and see if your heart is not aroused to delight in him. Sit down for a while at this delightful spring of living water and you will soon find its streams sweet and delightful. You who used to run form God will not now be able, even for a second, to keep at any distance from him.

John Owen, Communion With God, P.32-33

God, Grace of

'I knew that you were a hard man', said the evil servant in the gospel. Now, there is nothing more grievous to the Lord, nothing that serves the purposes of Satan more than such thoughts as these. Satan rejoices when he can fill your heart with such hard thoughts of God. Satan's purpose from the beginning was to fill mankind with lies about God. The first blood that murderer shed was by this means. He led our first parents into hard thoughts about God. 'Has God said so? Has he threatened you with death? He knows well enough that if you eat of this fruit, it will by much better for you.' With these lies he succeeded in overthrowing all mankind at once. And remembering this great victory, he readily uses the same method with us. Now it is exceedingly grievous of the Spirit of God to be so slandered in the hearts of those whom he dearly loves.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 31

God, Love of

There was, there is, nothing in us to give God any reason why he should love us. If we deserved God's love, we would not value it so highly. Things which are owed to us are seljdom gratefully received.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 29

God, Kindness of

Let us see the Father as one who from eternity has always had kind thoughts towards us. It is a complete misunderstanding of the Father that makes us want to run away and hide from him.

John Owen, Communion With God, P.27

Love For God

God's love comes down to us freely and richly. Our love ascends to him in duty and gratitude. God adds to us by his love. We add nothing to him by our love. Though our love is fixed directly on the Father, yet no actual fruit of our love reaches him direct from us, but only through Christ. Though the Father requires our love, he is not benefited by it.

John Owen, Communion With God, P.22

Love - God

The Father's love powerfully beautifies the object on which his love is poured, infusing into and creating goodness in the persons loved. He that loves desires only to do good to the object of his love.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 22

Love of God

The mutual love of God and the saints are similar also in that their communion of love is in Christ and through Christ. The Father communicates all his love to us through Christ and we pour out our love to the Father only through Christ.
...as the Son is our Mediator and the means by which the Father's love is conveyed to us.

John Owen, Communion With God, P.20

Love, God Of

To rest with contentment is expressed by being silent, that is, without grumbling and complaining. Because God's love is so full, so perfect and so absolute, it will not allow him to complain of anything in those whom he loves. So he is silent. When God is said to 'rest in his love,' it means he is satisfied with the object of his love and will no seek for a more satisfying object to love. His love will make its home in the soul on which it is fixed for ever.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 18

Love

Love is a feeling or emotion of union and delight and desire to be near to the object loved.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 18

God, Love of

The cheif way by which the saints have communion with the Father is love - free, undeserved, eternal love. This love the Father pours on the saints. Saints are to see God as full of love to them. They are to receive him as the One who loves them, and are to be full of praise and thanksgiving to God for his love. They are to show gratitude for his love by living a life which pleases him.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 12

Communication

The Father communicates with us on the basis of his being the origin of all authority. The Son communicates with us out of a purchased treasury. The Holy Spirit communicates with us by direct personal working in us.

John Owen, Communion With God, P.10

Sin, The Effect Of

Because of sin, no man in his natural state has fellowship with God. God is light, and we are darkness. What communion has light with darkness? God is life; we are dead. God is love; we are enmity. So what agreement can there be between God and man? Men, in such a condition, do not have Christ, and so they are without hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). They are 'alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them' (Eph. 4:18). Two cannot walk together unless they agree with each other (Amons 3:3). Whilst there is this great distance between God and man, there can be no walking together in fellowship or communion. Our first relationship with God was so lost by sin that there was no possibility in ourselves of any return of God.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 1-2

Fellowship With God

Christians in those days were poor and despised. Christian leaders were treated as the filth of the world. So to invite people to become Christians, to join in their fellowship and to enjoy the precious things they enjoyed, seemed to be the height of fololishness.

John Owen, Communion With God, p. 1

Apostolic Ministry, Gifts

"If we are going to say that the apostolic ministry sets the standard by which we should judge the gifts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, we might be forced to conclude that no gifts, miraculous or non-miraculous, have been given since the days of the apostles! For who has measured up to the apostles in any respect?"

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 67

Gifts of the Spirit

"We should, of course, expect the healing ministry of the apostles to be greater than that of others in the body of Christ. They were specially chosen by the Lord to be his handpicked representatives, and they were given authority and power over all demons and over all disease (Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:13-15; Luke 9:1). They received a special promise to be "clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49, cf. Acts 1:8). They possessed an authority that no one else in the body of Christ possessed. Paul, for example, actually had the authority to turn someone over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh (1 Cor. 5:1-5)."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 67

Gifts of the Spirit

"Therefore, since no one has arisen with the gift of teaching that is equal to the apostle Paul's, should we conclude that the gift of teaching was withdrawn from the church?"

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 67

Gifts

"There is abundant evidence for this widespread distribution of gifts. Prophecy, for example, is found in the church at Thessalonica ( 1 Thess. 5:20), in Rome (Rom. 12:6), In Ephesus (Eph. 4:11), and in other locations throughout the book of Acts (11:27; 13:1; 15:32; 19:6; 21:9). Likewise, the gift of tougues is found in Jerusalem (Acts 2), Samaria (Acts 8:5ff.), Caearea (Acts 10:46), Ephesus (Acts 19:6), as well as Corinth. Miracles were being done in the churches of Galatia (Gal. 3:5)."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg.64

Gifts

"It is common for charismatics to be accused of building their theology on experience. However, all cessationists ultimately build their theology of the miraculous gifts on their lack of experience. Even the appeal to contemporary abuse is an argument based on negative experience with the gifts.

What I am saying, therefore, is that the real reasons for disbelieving in the gifts of the Spirit today are not at all based on Scripture; they are based on experience."

Jack Deere, Surprised to the Power to the Spirit, Pg. 56

Gifts of the Spirit

"Let me repeat: Christians do not disbelieve in the raculous gifts of the Spirit because the Scriptures teach these gifts have passed away. Rather they disbelieve in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit because they have not experienced them."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, PG. 55

Gifts of the Spirit

"There is one basic reason why Bible-believing Christians do not believe in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit today. It is simply this: they have not seen them."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 55

Gifts

"If you were to lock a brand-new Christian in a room with a Bible and tell him to study what Scripture has to say about healing and miracles, he would never come out of the room a cessationist. "

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 54

Hermeneutics

"Employing these rules will assist us in determining the true sense of Scripture. If Christians would constantly unite a thorough investigation with these simple rules, differences of interpretation would practically disappear."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 54

Hermeneutical

"Next, he cites three hermeneutical rules summarized by Charles Hodge to the effect that Scripture is to be interpreted in its grammatical historical sense, Scripture must interpret Scripture and cannot contradict itself, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit must be sought to interpret Scripture."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg.54

Tradition

"All Christians are at once beneficiaries and victims of tradition-beneficiaries, who receive nurturing truth and wisdom from God's faithfulness in past generations' victims, who now take for granted things that need to be questioned, thus treating as divine absolutes patterns of belief and behavior that should be seen as human, provisional, and relative. We are all beneficiaries of good, wise, and sound tradition and victims of poor, unwise, and unsound traditions."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 53

Tradition & Scriptures

"J.I. Packer writes, "Nobody can claim to be detached from traditions. In fact, one sure way to be swallowed up y traditionalism is to think that one is immune to it... The question, then, is not whether our traditions conflict with only absolute standard in these matters: Holy Scripture."

Jack Deere, Surprised and the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 52-53

Infulence

"Over the years, I have observed that the majority of what Christians believe is not derived from their own patient and careful study of the Scriptures. The majority of Christians believe what they believe because godly and respected teachers told them it was correct."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 47

Infulence

"Our environment, our theological traditions, and our teachers have much more to do with what we believe than we realize. In some cases they have much more influence over what we believe than the Bible itself."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 47

Influence

"The idea that fallen humanity, even redeemed fallen humanity, can arrive at pure biblical objectivity in determining all their practices and beliefs is an illusion. We are all significantly influenced by our circumstances: the culture in which we live, the family in which we grew up, the church we attend, our teachers, our desires, our goals, our disappointments, our tragedies and traumas. Our experience determines much of what we believe and do, and often it determines much more than we are aware of or would admit."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 46

Arrogance

" I was one of those Christians who loved to tell themselves that they do not live by their experience but by the Word of God. My practice and my beliefs were determined by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures-or so I thought. Only in recent years has the arrogance of that kind of talk become apparent to me."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 46

Humility

"Not only do we have to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3), but we have to continue in the humility of a little child if we want to progress in the kingdom (Matt. 18:4)."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 29

Healing

"He then told me about a young child in Malaysia who was covered from head to toe in eczema. The eczema was raw in some places and oozing. The child was in such discomfort that he had kept his parents up for the previous thirty-six hours. The child was behaving so wildly that they had to catch him in order to pray for him.

As soon as Dr. White and his wife, Lorrie, laid their hands on the child, he fell fast asleep. Within twenty minutes or so of their prayer, the oozing stopped and the redness began to fade. By the next morning the child's skin had returned to normal and was completely healed. Dr. White told me a second spectacular story of bone actually changing under his hands while he prayed for someone with a deformity."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 20

Complacency, No need for God

"I certainly didn't need God to speak to me with any of those subjective methods he used with the people of the Bible. After all, I had the Bible now, and I was one of those few people who also had exceptionally good theology. No, neither I nor my circle of friends were looking for "something more" from God. If I had any problems at all, it was just figuring out how to give more of myself to God."

- Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 15