"Free Grace" - John Wesley, Sermon, Summary

1. "How freely does God love the world!"
2. "The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is free in all, and free for all."
3. "It is free in all to whom  it is given." 
4. "It is free for all, as well as in all."
5. Wesley notes the predestination controversy brewing and particularly those who he hears saying "This is not the predestination which i hold." "God...did elect a certain number of me to be justified, sanctified, and glorified. Now all these will be saved, and none else."
6. But Wesley argues if you believe that "God ordained them to this very thing." then "you hold predestination in the full sense, which has been above described." 
7. Some do not believe "even this." Some think that God would not decree "any man to be damned."
8. "Is not this what you main by 'the election of grace'?"
9. "It comes in the end to the same thing....one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly are elected."
10. "But if this is so, then is all preaching in vain." 
11. "This then is a plan proof that the doctrine of predestination is not a doctrine of God." 
12. This doctrine of predestination "tend to destroy several particular branches of holiness. Such are meekness and love...."
13. This doctrine "tends to destroy the comfort of religion."
14. The 'full assurance of faith' is the "true ground of a Christian's happiness. And it does indeed imply a full assurance that all your past sins are forgiven, and that you are now a child of God. But it does not necessarily imply a full assurance of our future perseverance." 
15. This "witness of the Spirit experience shows to be much obstructed" by the doctrine of predestination. 
16. The "assurance of faith which these enjoy excludes all doubt and fear." 
17. Wesley finds predestination an "uncomfortable thought." 
18. Predestination "directly tends to destroy our zeal for good works." 
19. Predestination also has "a direct and manifest tendency to overthrow the whole Christian revelation." 
20. In the same way, it makes the revelation "contradict itself."
21. Christ died not only for those to be saved , "but also for them that perish." 
22. "Why then are not all men saved?" "Whatever be the cause of their perishing it cannot be his will." 
23. Predestination is a doctrine full of "blasphemy."
24. The doctrine represents Christ as a "hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, a man void of common sincerity." 
25. The doctrine "destroys all" God's "attributes at once. It overturns both his justice, mercy, and truth."
26. Wesley connects those who ascribe to predestination with those who "represent God as worse than the devil--more false, more cruel, more unjust." 
27. Though Wesley claims to "love the persons who assert it," he abhors "the doctrine of predestination." 
28. The devil would rejoice if this doctrine were true. 
29. "The decree is past. And so it was before the foundation of the world."
30. "Ye cannot charge your death upon him."