The Standard Sermons of John Wesley

Intended to provide patterns of preaching and teaching for the people called Methodists, John Wesley published several editions of his sermons, beginning in 1746, to set down what he found as “the way to heaven, with a view to distinguish this way of God from all those which are the inventions of men.” The compilation of forty-four of those sermons were intended to provide a “model deed” promulgated in 1763 for what was preached from a Methodist pulpit in the ongoing life of the church. These particular sermons were regarded by Wesley as being of distinct value, and intended to serve as “standards” for teaching Christian doctrine in the church.

1. Salvation by Faith
2. The Almost Christian
3. Awake, Thou That Sleepest
4. Scriptural Christianity
5. Justification By Faith
6. The Righteousness of Faith
7. The Way to the Kingdom
8. The First-Fruits of the Spirit
9. The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption
10. The Witness of the Spirit – Discourse I
11. The Witness of our own Spirit
12. The Means of Grace
13. The Circumcision of the Heart
14. The Marks of the New Birth
15. The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God
16-28. Upon our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (13 Discourses)
29. The Original, Nature, Property and Use of the Law
30-31. The Law Established through Faith Discourse (2 Discourses)
32. The Nature of Enthusiasm
33. A Caution against Bigotry
34. Catholic Spirit
35. Christian Perfection
36. Wondering Thoughts
37. Satan’s Devices
38. Original Sin
39. The New Birth
40. The Wilderness State
41. Heaviness through Manifold Temptations
42. Self-Denial
43. The Cure of Evil Speaking
44. The Use of Money

The 1771 edition of Wesley’s Works included nine additional sermons which helped to clarify the difference between the new birth and entire sanctification (the sermons On Sin in Believers and The Repentance of Believers) as well as to offer a very helpful summation of John Wesley’s practical theology:

45. The Witness of the Spirit, II
46. On Sin in Believers
47. The Repentance of Believers
48. The Great Assize
49. The Lord Our Righteousness
50. The Scripture Way of Salvation
51. The Good Steward
52. The Reformation of Manners
53. On the Death of George Whitefield

The Explanatory Notes of the New Testament

First published in 1755, John Wesley’s New Testament text is based upon the King James Version and Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. The notes were aimed at the average reader and provide historical context for and Wesleyan theological interpretation of the Scriptures, drawing upon work of four earlier commentaries.