Quotes from Joel R. Beeke

Pss. 34:11–14; 90:16; 105:5–6; 118:15).

In damnation, the sinner receives what he deserves; in salvation, the saved sinner receives what he does not deserve. Judgment is all of merit; salvation is all of grace.

Los predicadores puritanos en general tenían un buen cimiento en los idiomas bíblicos y la enseñanza clásica.

Si alguna vez estamos inclinados a enorgullecernos de nuestro conocimiento bíblico, debemos abrir cualquier volumen de John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, o Thomas Brooks, observar cómo se cita algún pasaje desconocido de Nahum seguido de un pasaje conocido de Juan —donde ambos ilustran perfectamente el punto que está planteando el escritor—, luego comparar nuestro conocimiento con el de ellos.

Time taken from family activity and business to seek God's blessing is never wasted.

Ellos recalcaban que el problema de los pecadores era doble: un mal prontuario, que es un problema legal; y un corazón malo, que es un problema moral.

Los puritanos quedarían espantados ante la actual tendencia de la evangelización moderna que pretende meramente rescatar a los pecadores del infierno pero posterga la sumisión de estos al señorío soberano de Cristo para más tarde.

To read the Bible experientially simply means to read it with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is how the Bible is intended to be read.

Assurance that does not lead to a more holy walk is a false assurance. The person whose assurance is well-founded, who experiences tru peace and joy, who is busy in the Lord's service and lives in close fellowship with Him, will lead a holy life. A believer cannot persist in high levels of assurance while he continues in low levels of holiness.

Assurance that does not lead to a more holy walk is a false assurance. The person whose assurance is well-founded, who experiences true peace and joy, who is busy in the Lord's service and lives in close fellowship with Him, will lead a holy life. A believer cannot persist in high levels of assurance while he continues in low levels of holiness.

Holy expectation cannot coexist with worldliness, unbelief, indifference, and ignorance. It abhors backsliding and seeks the honor of God, the conversion of sinners, and the welfare of the church.

10. You must believe the promises and not merely assent to them. They will be as a meadow of flowers to you and you as a lazy bee to them if you do not really believe in them and apply them. Just as the industry of the bee extracts the honey, so the industry of your faith extracts comfort from God's promises.

How can we live to God in public when we so seldom meet Him in private?

Conviction—or the killing work of the law—is the way that leads to Christ, not a condition for receiving Christ.

afflictions are sovereign medicines to kill spiritual diseases, look to the Lord to purge your sin, to refine you as silver in a crucible, and comfort yourself that you will lose nothing but the dross (Isa. 1:25–26).[18]

Para los puritanos, el sermón no solo gira en torno a la Escritura, sino que literalmente existe dentro de la Palabra de Dios; el texto no está en el sermón, sino que el sermón está en el texto… En pocas palabras, escuchar un sermón es estar en la Biblia»

Christ will receive all who come to Him, but Christ will not be sweet to them until sin is first bitter in them.

Faith is not bare knowledge or passive persuasion but the embrace of Christ by the heart, resulting in personal knowledge of God. The heart must therefore be prepared by the law awakening the sinner to his need of Christ. The law beats on the stony heart as a hammer to smooth its surface before God writes His Word upon it. Though some men called this repentance, Calvin preferred to think of it as preparation for faith, which in turn leads to true repentance.

The love of Christ is insatiable. The more you experience His redeeming love, the more you desire it. The more you desire it, the more you want to dwell on it. The more you dwell on it, the more you cherish it and are satisfied by it. You can never 'mind' Christ's love too often, since his love knows no bounds.

You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed, John Bunyan writes. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.24

In short, doctrinally, Puritanism was a kind of vigorous Calvinism; experientially, it was warm and contagious; evangelistically, it was aggressive, yet tender; ecclesiastically, it was theocentric and worshipful; and politically, it aimed to be scriptural and balanced.

Give yourself-not just your time-to prayer. Remember that prayer is not an appendix to your life and your work, it is your life your real, spiritual life-and your work. Prayer is the thermometer of your soul.

the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, once completed, became for the church the "only external means of divine supernatural illumination.

The conferring and comparing of Scriptures is an excellent means of coming to an acquaintance with the mind and will of God in them. —JOHN OWEN