The Essentials: The Way of the Kingdom: Wesley employed the scriptural text of this sermon, “The kingdom of God is at hand: repent . . . and believe the gospel” (Mark 1: 15), “one hundred and ninety times” in a nearly fifty-year span. He specifically linked this text to the fruit of his evangelistic labors since 1738 in noting with its use among the poor of England “the word of God ran as fire among the stubble.” The call to repentance, so prominent in this sermon, entails conviction of sin, self-knowledge, as well as a sense of guilt and helplessness.
