Quotes from Joel R. Beeke

The New England divine Cotton Mather puts it this way: "Exhibit as much as you can of a glorious Christ. Yea, let the motto upon your whole ministry be: Christ is all. Let others develop the pulpit fads that come and go. Let us specialize in preaching our Lord Jesus Christ.

An important mark of saving faith, then, is that a convert not only wants to be delivered from the corruption of sin, but that he also hungers and thirsts after righteousness and holiness.

The regenerate man loves God, loves holiness, loves the Bible, loves the godly, and loves the thought of going to heaven to commune with God and to leave sin behind forever.

When we are saved by grace, we do not leave behind the commandments of God. On the contrary, we find the power to keep them in love.

The discrepancies between Puritan and modern evangelism should prompt us to revert back to the older message where the whole of Scripture is addressed to the whole man.

A true friend is one with whom you can be playful and serious at the same time. The Bible teaches that God has appointed "a time to weep, and a time to laugh

The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying," wrote John Flavel.

Long and personal familiarity with the application of Scripture was a key element in the Puritan ministerial makeup," Sinclair Ferguson writes. "They pondered the riches of revealed truth the way a gemologist patiently examines the many faces of a diamond."[11] They used Scripture wisely, bringing cited texts to bear on the doctrine or case of conscience[12] at hand, all based on sound hermeneutical principles.

What happens too often when we criticize someone is that we accompany it with strong, negative feelings. We criticize without ever mentioning how many other things we appreciate about our spouse.

First, the Puritans showed a profound dependence upon the Holy Spirit in everything they said and did. They felt keenly their inability to bring anyone to Christ as well as the magnitude of conversion.

Suspicion kills friendship.

Prayer is thus a means ordained to receive what God has planned to bestow.[22]

el pecado es el veneno que nos hace sentir cómodos con el mundo impío y con Satanás.

In Christ's first coming, He implemented a rescue plan conceived in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. He did not come to promote holiday cheer, boost end-of-year sales, or serve as the central figure in a Nativity scene. He came to save sinners. To save sinners, Christ had to put away what makes people sinners–namely, sin.

El Concilio de Nicea (325) y Constantinopla (381) afirmaron que Cristo es "Hijo único de Dios, nacido del Padre antes de todos los siglos: Dios de Dios, Luz de Luz, Dios verdadero de Dios verdadero, engendrado, no creado, de la misma naturaleza del Padre, por quien todo fue hecho

A pregação experimental enfatiza a necessidade de conhecermos as grandes verdades da Palavra de Deus por experiência pessoal. Também testa a nossa experiência pessoal pelas doutrinas da Bíblia. Leva a verdade ao coração para mostrar o que nós somos, onde estamos em nosso relacionamento com Deus, como precisamos ser curados e onde precisamos

Some of us have little spiritual vitality because we fail to feed on Christ day by day. Over time, we become spiritually anorexic.

Jesus calls all sinners to repent. True repentance is not a nebulous response of sorrow; it requires definite actions. Repentance so transforms the mind that it results in a changed life. Repentance does not merely say "I'm sorry" (similar to what we say when we accidentally step on someone's foot). Rather, true repentance says from the heart, "I've been wrong and grieve over my sin, but now I see the truth, and I will change my ways accordingly.

The Puritans understood that the doctrines of atonement, justification, and reconciliation are meaningless apart from a true understanding of God who condemns sin, and atones for sinners, justifies them, and reconciles them to Himself.

listen to these words of Ann Griffiths, a humble Welsh Calvinistic Methodist who was a farmer's wife and who died in 1805 at the age of 29 when giving birth to her first child: Gladly

Gospel optimism leads to kingdom prayer. This psalm should move us to pray—and to pray with great hope and expectation—that the kingdom of Christ will prevail against the powers of evil and that all His elect will be brought in and made holy.

Thus the covenant of grace forms the heart of salvation itself. Perkins wrote, "We are to know God, not as he is in himself, but as he hath revealed himself unto us in the covenant of grace; and therefore we must acknowledge the Father to be our Father, the Son to be our Redeemer, the holy Ghost to be our comforter, and seek to grow in the knowledge and experience of this.

Para estos y otros puritanos, la evangelización era una tarea de la iglesia, en particular de sus ministros, centrada en la Palabra. Ellos entendieron adecuadamente la centralidad de la predicación, el rol del pastor, y la necesidad de la oración en la evangelización

Listening to a sermon that does not reform your life will never save your soul.