Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: John Owen, Part 1

Now Lord, I believe with all my heart that you have ordained for us to have heroes

To imitate their faith consider the outcome of their lives

And there is one possible one. We're about to talk about it. I pray that his life will not have been lived in vain even this morning and That my labors to read him and think about him would not be in vain, but that it would build faith

That we would be made a holy company of shepherds here Because of the model the inspiration of this great man

John Owen So come Lord and free my tongue with these two or three

Gift hours of preparation early this morning enable me to make plain the truth

In Jesus name I thank you and pray Amen till this year there have been six speakers keynote speakers at the

Bethlehem conference and Three of them that's half of them have said

John Owen is the most important theologian in their lives

Now that's a remarkable thing For a man who's been dead three hundred and eleven years and whose style of writing was so bad

That he himself Doubted that people would read it For example in the death of death

In the death of Christ perhaps his most famous work on limited atonement

He wrote in the preface something that today no marketing agent would allow him to write reader if thou art as many in this pretending age a sign or title gazer and Cummest into books as Cato into the theater to go out again thou hast had thine entertainment farewell

Well J. I. Packer Sinclair Ferguson and Roger Nicole did not say farewell they lingered and They bear witness today in their writings in their life that this man is worth

Reading Packer says that it's worth every effort to get through this kind of weighty convoluted unnecessarily prolix

Diction that's his kind of word He says J.

I. Packer The Puritans this book right here is worth all the money you could spend for it.

This is his tribute to the Puritans He says that in this book that the

Puritans are the Redwoods in the forest of theology I see some of you've read it and John Owen is the greatest of the

Redwoods Now you translate that into? Superiority and it means he's the greatest

That there is in Packer's mind Roger Nicole doesn't write much.

I don't know of any book Roger Nicole's written. There probably is one He's contributed essays all over the place, but when he was here, and I've heard it on tape as well

He said the greatest theologian in the English language. I guess that's to set him off from Calvin Luther the greatest

Theologian and Augustine in the English language is John Owen and then with a little smile

Looking toward me even Jonathan Edwards I don't have

Owen hanging on the wall in my study yet But I do have Edwards and Dan Fuller who by the way looked at it the other day and asked my secretary who it was

Reinhold Niebuhr, they said no, that's you Wouldn't occur to dr.

Fuller to look into a mirror. This is a great. That's why I love him so much

We're looking elsewhere Well Sinclair Ferguson, where's that book now these we have a bunch of this is worth buying

It's expensive for a little book, but all of them are today Sinclair Ferguson John Owen on the

Christian life. This is Ferguson's reading. I think he's read all the 23 volumes or at least 16

I don't know if he's read the Hebrews commentary and he's distilled it into a book So if you want to get an introduction to Owen that's faithful to Owen by a contemporary

Owen Then read Sinclair Ferguson He said my personal interest in Owen as a teacher and theologian began in my late teenage years

You know, he's not normal person. I mean, I have a couple of teenagers and that's just Incredible unthinkable impossible, but he said it

I believe it when I first read some of his writings Like others before and since I found that they dealt with issues

Which contemporary evangelical literature rarely if ever touched

I Think that's true. Just last night. It was one o 'clock But I was my brain was just zinging like this so I had to read myself to sleep

So I opened communion with God by John Owen. I thought that's a good way to get ready How many of you have ever read anything written in the last hundred years on How to distinctly have fellowship with and commune with each

Independent person of the Trinity and not the whole of the Godhead at one time

How do you distinctly discern the actions of the Spirit so that there is a distinct praise and a distinct love and a distinct?

Trust and a sweetness of communion with that distinct person. I felt like I was almost meeting the

Holy Spirit at one o 'clock this morning Where Well that so my experience at 40

I'm 8 now 48 now, but I first read Owen 12 years ago as a pastor trying to solve the

L in tulip From volume 10. This is the best book that's ever been written on the

L in tulip Everybody admits that this is the most significant work That's ever been written on the

L in tulip if you're struggling with being a four -pointer instead of a five or a seven Pointer you you should you should buy volume 10 and read it

It'll take a long time and you can't read it fast and it'll be hard, but it's worth it and was persuasive

For me now the reason I linger over these tributes here Things like the

Calvin of England one person writes and another the Atlas and patriarch of independency

Charles Bridges, I love Charles Bridges book on the Christian ministry. I recommend it highly he says

Upon the whole for luminous exposition powerful defense of scriptural doctrine determined enforcement of practical obligation skillful anatomy of the self deceitfulness of the heart and For a detailed and wise treatment of the diversified exercises of the

Christians heart. He stands probably Unrivaled the reason I linger over these tributes is because like I said in my prayer

I believe in heroes because the Bible Says to have heroes namely

Hebrews 13 7 remember those who led you who spoke the

Word of God to you and Considering the result of their conduct Imitate their faith

Remember them Consider them Imitate them. That's a hero. The Bible says you should have heroes and As I look around the scene today for living heroes for myself, there are so few and The ones that I have are the ones who have heroes

Packer Ferguson Nicole The people that seem to be heroic and worthy of emulating today are people who have heroes

Most of them are dead in their lives, but they have them And so I linger over them just to get you started get you going to say maybe this man is worth

Imitating or considering Let me turn now to an overview of his life

Most people don't know anything about John Owen. There are a couple of reasons for that one is That he's so hard to read that hardly anybody reads him.

There's been a little Renaissance with banner of truth trust Producing the volumes is the way they looked when

I bought them I don't know if there's the same color now or not But there's 16 these white volumes and then there's seven more which are orange in my cabinet which are

Hebrews So 23 volumes of the collected works and that's all there is as far as I know

Except this little this little thing which is published in 1970 The correspondence of John Owen there aren't many of his letters in here

Most of these are letters to him rather than from him all of his diaries were destroyed we have almost nothing on the personal life of John Owen, which when

I discovered made me panic that I Planned to lecture on him because I thought this is going to be very boring because it's the personal touch that makes these lectures worth listening to I think but I found enough

I hope to Interest me and I hope it will interest you No diaries a few letters the collected works and that's it

And it's very very frustrating when you find out certain things about him that you would desperately like to know

More about one of his biographers says so Owen must remain hidden as It were behind a veil his secret thoughts remain his own and I wrote

Maybe not because when you read mortification of sin and the glories of Christ and on communion with God and you discern a heart in tune with and exalting into God you you don't need a diary anymore

You've got the man right there in front of you He was born in England in 1616 same year

William Shakespeare died and four years before the pilgrims set sail That was smack in the middle of the

Puritan century Where does it stop and start? I've heard a lecture from Packer that says the easiest way to remember it is 1560 to 1660 that's the easiest way just roughly 1560 to 1660 the great

Puritan century where all these pastors were preaching these profoundly heart -searching messages and unpacking the scriptures with exaltation

Packer says this about the Puritan movement the goal of the Puritan movement was to complete what

England's Reformation began to finish reshaping Anglican worship to introduce effective church discipline into the

Anglican parishes to establish righteousness in the political domestic and socioeconomic fields and to convert all

Englishmen to vigorous evangelical Faith he was plopped right in the middle of that by the providence of God and it ended virtually at the same time

He did He said 1660 because that was the year 1662 was the act of uniformity which tossed 2 ,000 period ministers out of their parishes

And then you had that long period of persecution up until the act of toleration 1689

Owen died in 1683 So 1616 to 1683 the middle and a little beyond the end of the classic

Puritan Era his father was a pastor He had a mother he had four

Siblings we know zero about them He never mentioned them and he never mentioned his mother in all of his writings

He mentioned his father one time and he said I was bred up From my infancy under the care of my father

Who was a non -conformist all his days and a painful laborer in the vineyard of the

Lord? So there's one connection because Owen if anything was a painful laborer in the vineyard of the

Lord ten years old He goes to grammar school in Oxford to get ready to go to the University at 12

He enters Queens College you say whoa Wow 12 University everybody was doing that in those days

It wasn't that unusual to go to Queens College at age 12 got his bachelor's at 16 his master's at 19 entered the

Bachelor of Divinity which was the theological degree then I'm glad I still got one I didn't cash it in didn't pay my $20 to get an

MD of I still got the BD Which is the great historic degree and he dropped out boom because he couldn't stand the high church

William Laud Kind of Anglicanism that so dominated Oxford in those days.

He never got his degree He was awarded a DD honorary degree later on But never did do any serious academic degree work after his

MA 1642 The Civil War broke out

Oliver Cromwell in the House of Commons against the House of Lords which disappeared for 20 years in that period called the interregnum and Charles first was executed and there was no

King until his son Prince Charles the second returns in 1660 and that's the golden era of Protestant era those

Protestantism those I mean Puritanism those 20 years and he lived right through those

Years he went to London in 1643 or two three

I believe and five events happened in those first Early years now.

What is how old is he now? 1616 to 1642 is 26 years old.

Okay, the first and most important event in those early years in London where he was

Had a little parish Was his conversion at least some biographers say it was conversion.

Another one would say it was a awakening Assurance thing and you can't really tell but what's so remarkable about it?

Is that it's almost identical to Spurgeon's, you know, the Spurgeon story is 16 years old

He's on his way to a well -known Chapel snow is so bad. He can't go he stops a little

Methodist Chapel a No name the pastor isn't even there a no -name layman stands up takes

Isaiah 45 22 look To me all the ends of the earth and be saved.

He says it over and over again 20 times Spurgeon says he's so stupid He doesn't have anything to say but the scriptures and God That's what

Spurgeon calls him stupid and then God saves Charles Spurgeon and he never even finds out

Who the man is that's exactly the way it happened with John Owen He's on his way to Hear Edmund Callamy at st.

Mary's Church Aldermanbury with his cousin because this is a great preacher in those days evidently

I never heard of him and He's not there Callamy didn't show up and his cousin said let's go down the street to forget what other big -name church and Owen for some reason says let's not let's just stay and A simple preacher took the text

Matthew 8 26. Why are you fearful? Oh? you of little faith and It was

God's appointed word and a point in time and there was like Wesley says a strange

Warming and all of his doubts vanish all of his fears disappeared

He had the assurance that he was born of God and that stamped the rest of his life

Now let me just put in a parenthesis here. I've often wondered when I talk on these big shots

Whether it can cast a pall of discouragement as well as encouragement because we all know that we're not a

John Owen Absolutely no way is anybody in this room Nobody absolutely no exceptions

Dan Fuller or anybody is gonna be a John Owen and produce This quantity of work and have it last 300 and some years

So here we hold him up, and you all go out. You know like this Now here's the lesson you can hear it coming

Charles Spurgeon and John Owen came into being By two people that history never even named

Okay, so we're not gonna be John Owens, but I'll tell you every Sunday. I stand in this pulpit.

I believe I might create one Or something a little less or a thousand a little less or somewhere in there

I'd be real happy if history forgot me and one person came out of my ministry like Billy Graham There's another no name

Billy Graham did remember that evangelist, but he was nobody virtually in history So don't don't hear all this is saying

I'll never be a John Owen, so why should I listen to all that stuff There are all kinds of reasons to listen besides that But I thought that was an encouraging one for me second thing that happened conversion was number one second thing was marriage to marry

Rook Married 31 years to this woman, then she died before he did

We know absolutely nothing about her But this stunning fact

They had 11 children and they all died 10 of them in infancy or childhood

One daughter lived to marry as a young adult the marriage broke up. She came home.

She died of consumption He outlived 11 children and a wife. That's one child born and dead every three years of his adult life

That's all we know we don't hear one echo in his writings of that now, that's what

I call frustrating That's when I want a diary. That's when I want to get inside his heart and say how did you survive?

Knowing what I know about what's coming in his life When I read that fact years ago

I just I kind of put it over John Owen said anybody that just goes on ministering Losing a child every three years.

I don't know if they all died of that conveniently, you know spaced out or whether they I know two sons died in the 55 plague two little boys

But how anybody just goes on ministering with glory? Like you read in his latter -day works of meditations on the glory of Christ Something's going on in that man's heart.

I want to know about just with that fact alone Something is going on that I want to know about Number three event that happened in those early years in London in his late 20s the publishing of his first book

He lived just a few years after the big hubbub in Holland between the remonstrance the

Armenians and the Calvinists with the production of the five points and then the the

Synod of dorks and he studied all of that and that was hot on his agenda, and so he wrote a book with this preface like title a display of Arminianism Being a discovery of the old

Pelagian idol free will with the new goddess Contingency advancing themselves into the throne of God in heaven to the prejudice of his grace

Providence and supreme dominion over the children of men. That's the title of the book And and and you don't need to read it, you know exactly what he he thinks

Accepted that Owen is one of the most exegetical of the Puritans and therefore if you care about biblical

Foundations which you ought to do then you will want to read that or another

So that launched him into his public career. He was now a controversialist and a well -known

Puritan Pastor so the fourth thing that happened that was the third the fourth thing that happened in those days was he became a pastor

He got a little church a small parish in Fordham, Essex July 16 1643 27 years old he gets his first parish.

He had been making money by being chaplains and tutors until that time

Now that's important because he was a pastor all of his life essentially he's gonna be more than that But these books that you read here most of them

I don't know if that's true the practical ones anyway came out of his pastoral preaching ministry

He was a pastor, especially of the last 20 years of his life. Keep that in mind

He's not a professional theologian making money by teaching in a university.

He is a Pastor and the fifth thing that happened in those days Was the invitation to speak in Parliament in 1646 he's now 30 years old an

Extraordinary honor to be asked to address the House of Commons. There was no House of Lords in that period and He well, maybe there was something of another period at 1646 at any rate.

He's addressing Parliament and he was catapulted then not only into a controversialist role

Theologically, but a political role and he was a political animal for the next 14

Years, he was known in the political Circles Oliver Cromwell the protector the substitute for the king during those 20 years or so Made John Owen his chaplain as he went up and slaughtered this

Gots and went over and slaughtered the the Irish and He took along Cromwell to preach to his troops and to give theological

Justification for what he was doing which Owen was happy to do He believed very much that God's hand was on Oliver Cromwell and that what was happening

Against the Presbyterianism of England and the protectorate was of the devil and therefore he interpreted all of those

Military victories as divine victories and Maybe they were

He even was asked to preach The day after Parliament executed

Charles first And he did and he called it just retribution from God because of the sins of Charles The verse so you can see how entangled this man was in the contemporary politics of his day

Then Cromwell made him the Dean of Christ Church Oxford that's both a college and a cathedral and from 1651 to 1660 he was the

Dean of this school and About let's see four of those years.

I believe or five. He was elevated also simultaneously to the vice chancellorship of Oxford Now when

I began to read this stuff about chaplain military entanglements

Speaking to Parliament traveling to Scotland and Ireland a dean of a school a vice chancellor of a university

Said and this man is studying theology and writing the likes of the death of death in the death of Christ when

When does he do that I Just the question

I began to pose is how do you even be a Christian in that atmosphere?

Let alone study let alone write let alone write stuff that lasts 300 years