We each need our own Aldersgate Experience in which the presence, power and purpose of God are made real and personal. For John Wesley and for his brother Charles, that moment would be the convergence of Failure, Faith and Grace all coming together in one inexplicable moment of spiritual transformation. On May 24, 1738, John Wesley recorded in his journal, “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Wesley’s experience that night was a conversion. He experienced a “conversion” in thinking and understanding about the nature of grace and salvation. That night Wesley realized that forgiveness of sins and acceptance by God (justification) is a free gift. Nothing we can do will every make us worthy or acceptable. God did the work of atonement on the cross in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On May 24, 1738 Wesley’s was awakened to the truth Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Another way of describing Wesley’s experience is to say that at Aldersgate Street he got the order of salvation right. Luther’s Preface to the Roman Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God (cf. John 1). It, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn't do such works is without faith; he gropes and searches about him for faith and good works but doesn't know what faith or good works are. Even so, he chatters on with a great many words about faith and good works.    Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God's grace makes a person joyful, confident, and happy with regard to God and all creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith. Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily; he will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire. Therefore be on guard against your own false ideas and against the chatterers who think they are clever enough to make judgments about faith and good works but who are in reality the biggest fools. Ask God to work faith in you; otherwise you will remain eternally without faith, no matter what you try to do or fabricate. Sermon Notes: Sermon Notes 08.03.14 My Aldersgate Sermon Slides: My Aldersgate Experience 8.3.14 [notice] My Aldersgate Experience 8.3.14E                                  My Aldersgate Experience 8.3.14L[/notice]