"Salvation By Faith" - John Wesley, Sermon, Summary

Introduction:

1. It was "free grace that 'formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into him a living soul'.""The Same free grace continues to us, at this day, life, and breath, and all things."
2. Where will man find atonement? "Only corrupt fruit grows on a corrupt tree." "Therefore having nothing, neither righteousness nor works, to plead, his 'mouth is utterly stopped before God'."
3. "If then sinful man find favor with God, it is 'grace upon grace." "Grace is the source, faith the condition, of salvation." 

I. What Faith It Is Through Which We Are Saved. 

1. Not "barely the faith of a heathen." 
2. Not "barely" the "faith of a devil" 
3. Not "barely that which the apostles themselves had while Christ was upon earth."
4. It is "faith in Christ--Christ, and God through Christ, are the proper object of it." 
5. "Christian faith is then not only an assent to the whole gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ, a trust in the merits of his life, death, and resurrection."

II. What Is The Salvation Which Is Through Faith

1. A "present salvation." It is "actually attained on earth, by those what are partakers of this faith."
2. You are saved "from sin." 
3. You are saved from "the guilt of all past sin." 
4. "And being saved from guilt, they are saved from fear." 
5. You are saved "from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of it." 
6. "He that is by faith born of God sinneth not:
1. "by any habitual sin, for all habitual sin is sin reigning"
2. "by any willful sin" 
3. "by any sinful desire" 
4. "nor doth he sin by infirmities"
7. "This then is the salvation which is through faith, even in the present world: a salvation from sin and the consequences of sin, both often expressed in the word 'justification,' which, taken in the largest sense, implies a deliverance from guilt and punishment, by the atonement of Christ actually applied to the sould of sinner now believing on him...."

III. How We May Answer Some Objections

1. Typical objection is "that to preach salvation or justification by faith only is to preach against holiness and good works." Wesley's retort, "it would be so if we spake, as some do, of a faith which was separate from these."
2. Not new objection but "as old as St. Paul's time, for even then it was asked, 'Do we not make void the law through faith?"
3. "But does not preaching this faith lead men into pride? We answer, accidentally it may." 
4. "May not the speaking thus of mercy of God, as saving or justifying freely by faith only, encourage men in sin? Indeed it may and will...their blood is upon their own head." 
5. "'If a man cannot be saved by all that he can do, this will drive men to despair.'"
6. "But this, it is said, is an uncomfortable doctrine."
7. "When no more objections occur, then we are simply told that salvation by faith only ought to be preached as the first doctrine, or at least not to be preached at all."
8. "At this time more especially will we speak, that 'by grace ye are saved through faith': because never was the maintaining this doctrine more seasonable than it is at this day." 
9. "For this reason the adversary so rages whenever 'salvation by faith' is declared to the world. For this reason did he stir up earth and hell to destroy those who first preached it, And for the same reason, knowing that faith alone could overturn the foundations of his kingdom, did he call forth all his forces...."