Posts by Joel Beeke

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Cautions About Signs of Grace

Joel Beeke
Aug 5, 2016
L et me close this series on assurance (parts 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) with some cautions about using the "signs of grace" to gain assurance. First , be careful how you define the marks of grace . On the one hand, do not require such signs of yourself as no Christian has in this life. A true Christian...

Using Signs of Saving Grace

Joel Beeke
Jul 22, 2016
Every born again child of God who places true faith in Jesus Christ will struggle with assurance in various degrees over the course of their lives. It's in this context that what we call "the signs of grace" are so helpful to the soul. These sign are means by which we may know whether we are in a...

Assurance versus Presumption

Joel Beeke
Jun 24, 2016
In discussing the practical doctrine of assuance (see parts 1 , 2 , and 3 in this series), one careful distinction we must make is between assurance and presumption . The reason is that a false assurance is the worst delusion and spiritual insanity, but too many people bless themselves even while...

Four Details About Assurance

Joel Beeke
Jun 10, 2016
As we continue our series ( part 1 , part 2 ) on assurance, we come to four basic details about it that are so important to consider. It is possible for a Christian to have an assurance of his salvation. We see in Scripture that God’s people have enjoyed it. David called God his God and his portion...

Sources of Assurance

Joel Beeke
May 6, 2016
We continue our series on the blessed but difficult subject of assurance of salvation (see part 1 ). Assurance or certainty about a truth in general may come in various ways, such as seeing or hearing something with your eyes and ears, knowing a first principle and making logical deductions from it...

Assurance of Salvation

Joel Beeke
Apr 22, 2016
Paul commands us, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2 Cor. 13:5). It is a responsibility of great importance for the people of God to be assured that there is a true and...

The Practice of Christian Zeal

Joel Beeke
Apr 8, 2016
In concluding our series on the Puritan vision for Christian zeal ( part 1 , part 2 , part 3 , part 4 ), we now take up come practical ways in which we can put it into practice. We must pray for grace to put Christian zeal into action, whatever our calling in life may be. Let us look briefly at...

The Means of Christian Zeal

Joel Beeke
Mar 18, 2016
In our continuing series on the Puritan vision for Christian zeal ( part 1 , part 2 , part 3 ), we now take up its means. When you look around and see few people who are zealous for the Lord, you may be tempted to dismiss the call to be zealous. Such a response would be grievous because the church...

The Characteristics of Christian Zeal

Joel Beeke
Mar 4, 2016
In our continuing series on the Puritan vision for Christian zeal ( part 1 , part 2 ), we now take up how they described its characteristics. False Zeal First, they described authentic zeal over against false zeal. Oliver Bowles (d. 1674) exhorted to be diligent that zeal has the right stamp since...

What Is Zeal?

Joel Beeke
Feb 19, 2016
We all have some idea of what zeal is, for to a certain degree we are all zealots. The question is not whether we are zealous but what we are zealous for. Zeal runs in our veins for what we love and against what we hate. We so passionately love some things, such as family, careers, and houses, that...

Puritan Zeal

Joel Beeke
Feb 5, 2016
Christian zeal [is] indeed a flame, but a sweet one; or rather it is the heat and fervor of a sweet flame. For the flame of which it is the heat, is no other than that of divine love. — The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 2: Religious Affections , ed. John E. Smith (New Haven: Yale University...

Chapter 25.6

Joel Beeke
Jul 5, 2013
vi. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ; nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalts himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God. The biblical doctrine of the...

Chapter 25.4, 5

Joel Beeke
Jul 4, 2013
iv. This catholic Church has been sometimes more, sometimes less visible. And particular Churches, which are members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them. v...

Chapter 25.3

Joel Beeke
Jul 3, 2013
iii. Unto this catholic visible Church Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and does, by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto. Some people...

Chapter 25.2

Joel Beeke
Jul 2, 2013
ii. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of...

Chapter 25.1

Joel Beeke
Jul 1, 2013
i. The catholic or universal Church which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all. After Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ...

Chapter 17.3

Joel Beeke
May 8, 2013
iii. Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins; and, for a time, continue therein: whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve His Holy...

Chapter 17.2

Joel Beeke
May 7, 2013
ii. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ; the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of...

Chapter 17.1

Joel Beeke
May 6, 2013
i. They, whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally, nor finally, fall away from the state of grace: but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved. Someone has said that a half-truth is often a great lie...

Chapter 10.4

Joel Beeke
Mar 22, 2013
iv. Others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved: much less can men, not professing the Christian religion, be saved in any other way whatsoever,...

Chapter 10.3

Joel Beeke
Mar 21, 2013
iii. Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how He pleaseth: so also, are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. God has wrapped some things in a cloud of...

Chapter 10.2

Joel Beeke
Mar 20, 2013
ii. This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it...

Chapter 10.1

Joel Beeke
Mar 18, 2013
i. All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds...

Chapter 3

Joel Beeke
Jan 31, 2013
i. God from all eternity did, by the most wise (Rom. 11:33) and holy counsel of His own will, freely (Rom. 9:15, 18), and unchangeably (Heb. 6:17) ordain whatsoever comes to pass (Eph. 1:11): yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin (James 1:13, 17; 1 John 1:5), nor is violence offered...