Salvation

Why We Work – DL Moody

We work because we are saved. We do not work to be saved. We work from the cross, but not toward it. (see Ephesians 2:8-10)

– DL Moody –
from his book The Way to God 

Build Upon the Work Within You – George Whitefield

My dear friends beware of resting on your first conversion. You that are young believers in Christ, you should be looking out for fresh discovering of the Lord Jesus Christ every moment; you must not build upon your past experiences, you must not build upon a work within you, but always come out of yourselves to the righteousness of Jesus Christ without you; you must be always coming as poor sinners to draw water out of the wells of salvation; you must be forgetting the things that are behind, and be continually pressing forward to the things that are before. My dear friends, you must keep up a tender, close walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

– George Whitefield –
from Select Sermons of George Whitefield

The Sweeter Are Our Reliefs – John Flavel

The more prayers and searchings of heart come between our needs and supplies, our afflictions and reliefs, the sweeter are our reliefs and supplies thereby made to us. “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will rejoice and be glad in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9).

– John Flavel –
from The Mystery of Providence, 1678

Great Heights Are Always Opposite Great Depths – Samuel Brengle

Oh the rapture mingled with reverential, holy fear — for it is a rapturous, yet divinely fearful thing — to be indwelt by the Holy Ghost, to be a temple of the Living God! Great heights are always opposite great depths, and from the heights of this blessed experience many have plunged into the dark depths of fanaticism.

– Samuel Brengle –

The Most Amazing Event – Jonathan Edwards

[The] resurrection of Christ is the most joyful event that ever came to pass; because hereby Christ rested from the great and difficult work of purchasing redemption, and received God’s testimony, that it was finished. The death of Christ was the greatest and most wonderful event that ever came to pass; but that has a great deal in it that is sorrowful. But by the resurrection of Christ, that sorrow is turned into joy. The Head of the church, in that great event, enters on the possession of eternal life; and the whole church is, as it were, begotten again to a lively hope, 1 Peter 1:3. Weeping had continued for a night, but now joy cometh in the morning.

– Jonathan Edwards –