The text for the sermon:
“Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter.” Romans 2:29.
Wesley begins by intimating that many people in his day who hear the Gospel actually believe it is new. They say that new doctrines are being set before them but the reality is that they are dead to God and alive to the world.
Hence as Wesley enters into his message he says that the identifying mark of salvation is: “circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter;”—that the distinguishing mark of a true follower of Christ, of one who is in a state of acceptance with God, is not either outward circumcision, or baptism, or any other outward form, but a right state of soul, a mind and spirit renewed after the image of Him that created it.”
