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Donnie Bell

Seven Truths Of Justification

Romans 8
Donnie Bell October, 27 2023 Audio
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The sermon by Don Bell focuses on the doctrine of justification, a foundational element of Reformed theology. He argues that justification is solely the act of God declaring a sinner righteous based on the righteousness of Christ, and is not a process that includes human merit or works. Bell emphasizes several key points, including the necessity of God's initiative in justification, the role of grace, the significance of Christ’s blood, and the assurance it provides. He references Romans 8:30-33, highlighting that justification occurs in heaven and is rooted in God's grace through the blood of Christ (Romans 5:8). The sermon underscores the practical significance of justification as the basis for the believer's assurance—once justified, the believer is always justified and free from condemnation—impacting how they live in light of divine grace.

Key Quotes

“If you don't know anything about justification, then you don't know anything about the gospel.”

“Justification is not to make a man righteous, but to declare a man righteous.”

“It is a legal act of God Almighty. He declares the sinner righteous on the basis of the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Once you're justified, you're always justified. Once you're righteous, you'll always be righteous.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. I want to bring a message this evening, if God would help
me, on justification. Justification. I want to talk
about justification. Quite a most blessed, wonderful
gospel subject to talk about. It's a wonderful truth to believe. In fact, I say justification
is necessary to believe biblical justification, necessary to believe
Absolutely necessary that you believe it. If you don't know
anything about justification, then you don't know anything
about the gospel. The first thing I want to do is I want to define
what justification is. And it's what it amounts to is
God himself, God himself declaring, making a declaration respecting
man. God, the righteous judge of all
the earth, God, the moral governor of the whole earth. He's the
one that has to declare a man righteous. He can't do it by
himself. He can't work up a righteousness.
And what it is, it's the opposite of condemnation. Opposite of
condemnation. It is God not entering into judgment
with a man. or with the sinner, but God Himself
forgiving the sinner. No wonder David said, Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed
is the man who God's sins are covered, and blessed is the man
God imputeth not iniquity. Now you think about that. God
Himself, the Judge of all the earth, the moral governor of
this universe. He looks at a man and He says, I'm not going to
charge sin against that man right there. I'm not going to do it.
I'm not going to charge sins against Him. I'm not going to
do it. And now I want to make this clear. It's not to make
a man righteous, but to declare a man righteous. And I want to
say seven things about justification. And I pray the Holy Spirit would
bless it tonight. But read verse 30 through 33
with me here in Romans chapter 8. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified. Do you see that? Justified. You
know, this is the thing about God. Every time you hear what
God's done, it's always in the past tense. God declared the
end from the beginning. He calls things as if they never
existed, as if they do. And that's what he done, he justified
us, and it says here, glorified us. Now you reckon since he's
justified us, he's predestinated and he's called us, you reckon
that we'll be glorified? You reckon that'll happen? I
mean, as justified before the world ever began in Christ. But
oh my, and then look what else he goes on to say. What shall
we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? With him. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Here it is. It's God that justifies. Two times here it says about
God justifying. And that's where we have to start
with justification. It's God who does the justifying.
Nobody else can justify a person. He's the source of all things.
2 Corinthians 5.18 says all things are of God. And if that says
all things are of God, that excludes everything else that ever could
happen in this world. We're sitting on the back porch
the other day, and I watched a leaf come down off a tree,
and just went, just like this, and I told Shirley, I said, see
that leaf? God ordained the path of that
leaf right there. Now that's how much I believe
in the power and sovereignty of God. And I said this, I said,
if anything's out of the control of God, a leaf or the dust mites
in the air, then God is not control of everything. Right? And that's where we start. God
justifies us. All things are of God. So we
start with justification. We start where justification
starts. It starts with God. It's God
who justifies us. It's God who justifies us. And
I'll tell you, that's what... Oh, what did he say? And what
justification is? It's a legal act of God Almighty. He declares the sinner righteous
on the basis of the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only way He can do it. God made Christ to be sin. And I want to ask you a question.
Do you know, do any of us, do you reckon we have a clue what
sin really is? I mean, you know, I know I'm
one. I know the Bible tells me I'm
one. And my conscience tells me I'm
one. My heart tells me I'm one. But what is it for God to make
Him to be sin? And then turn around and make
us to be the righteousness of God in Christ. That's the only
way God can justify us and make us righteous. And it was a legal
act that took place on the cross of Calvary where God took Christ
in our place and turned around and gave us our place in Christ. And I'll tell you, it's not an
act of renewal. You don't get renewed up on this.
It's not a process and it doesn't happen over a period of time.
And let me give you three blessed facts of justification. Justification,
what it does, it removes the guilt of sin. The guilt of sin. And it restores the sinner to
all the rights of a child of God. And that includes an eternal
inheritance that we have in Christ. Oh my. Removes all the guilt
of sin. Secondly, justification takes
place outside the center. It takes place in heaven, in
God Himself sitting up there. He wants to make... He said God
justifies. God justified us. And that took
place outside of ourselves. And I tell you what, it took
place in the tribunal of God between God and His blessed Son.
And the third thing about it, it takes place once and for all. Once you're justified, you're
always justified. Once you're righteous, you'll
always be righteous. I'll tell you something, when I get into
heaven, when I go to glory, I'll be no more justified there than
I am right here. The fellow said, well, Donnie
lasts too much. I can't help it. I mean, you know, it feels
so good. It's so enjoyable. You know,
but it takes place once and for all, justification does. It is
in a process over time. You start getting justified.
Then you start getting righteous. You get more righteous. You get
more righteous. You get more righteous. That's not the way
it works. It's a once and for all thing. It happens at all.
It's complete all at once at the same time. You know, therefore,
right now, no condemnation to them that are in Christ. God
said that He blotted out our transgressions as a thick cloud. So that's what it takes place.
So, first thing is, justification is by God. He's the source of
it. He's everything else is. Second thing about justification
is, it's by free grace. It's by free grace. Look with
me over here in Romans, chapter 3. in Romans chapter 3. And I love the term free grace.
I love the term free grace. The justification by free grace. Look what it says here in verse
24. Being justified freely by His
grace. I wonder how freely it is. It's
being justified freely by His grace. And you know, when it
talks about justified freely by grace, by His grace, and that's
what it says through the redemption of Christ. And you know, justification
is apart from works. There's no way in the world a
man can work to be justified by God. It has to be free. It
has to be free. It has to be of grace. It cannot
be any other way. It cannot be law. All the law
does is make us to know how sinful we are. How miserable, wretched
we are in the sight of God. And it certainly can't be by
merit. There's four nones in the Bible. Do you know that?
There's none righteous, no not one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh God.
There's none that's good. Four of them. Four nones. And
I tell you what, that's what everybody is. They're a none
until you put Christ in the equation. You know, I've done this one
time. If I had a pen, I'd draw you a bunch of zeros. I'd draw
you a bunch of zeros. First, here's a zero. Here's
a zero. Here's a zero. Here's a zero. Here's a zero.
And you know, when you got all them zeros, you know what you
got? Zero. But you put one to it, and then
you got some numbers then, and that's the way it is with Christ.
Zero, zero, zero, none, none, none, none, until Christ is in
that equation. It is by the free grace of God
that we're justified in Christ. And I tell you, I feel sorry.
I really do feel sorry for people who tries to be justified some
other way. And our justification is so free.
And it's by the grace of Christ that there's no cost ever in
us. There's no payment ever from
us. You say, we don't know how much we owe. We don't owe anything.
We owe nothing. And if we love Him, it's because
He first loved us. We don't owe Him nothing. If
we owed Him anything, what would we pay with? Could we love Him
enough? Could we pray enough? Could we
have enough faith? No, it has to be free. And never,
never, never under any circumstances or for any reason are we regarded
righteous or justified before God, but only through the grace
of God in Christ, only the grace of God in His freely. God said
over in Hosea, He said, I will love them freely. If you're looking
for God to find a reason, just forget it. Because He said, I
do what I do, I do freely. Bless His holy name. And I tell
you what, by His grace, grace means grace. If it's of works,
it ceases to be grace. If it's of grace, it has no works
in it whatsoever. And here's another one. Third
thing of justification is by His blood. by His blood. You know what, when we talk about
the blood of Christ, what we're really talking about is the death
of Christ. You can't have blood without
death. You can't have the blood of Christ without the death of
Christ. And when we talk about the death of Christ, we're talking
about someone who didn't, only reason he died was because he
willed to die and God appointed him to die for a particular people. But all by His blood. Look in
Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. By His blood.
We're justified by His blood. Look what it says in verse 8. What it says in verse 8. That
God commended his love. He said, you want to see how?
Y'all want to commend my love. I want you all to understand.
I want to commend my love towards you all. And this is the way
I commend my love towards you. In that while we were yet sinners,
sinners, Christ died for us. And here Paul says, now, that's
something. But I've got much more to say
about this. And I'll tell you, I want to
tell you much more than being justified by His blood. We're going to be saved from
wrath through Him. Oh, so when we talk about His
blood, we're talking about His death. Oh, my. And I tell you, God, I read this
today and it's coming over the road and it brought tears to
my eyes, is that without the shedding of blood, there is no
remission. But I understand that when Christ died, He satisfied God in every way,
from the day He was born, all the days of His life, every word
He said, every deed He done, every step He took, every look
He gave, every prayer He prayed, everything our Lord Jesus Christ
did, He satisfied God in every single way that God could possibly
be satisfied. And oh my, And I tell you what,
and this especially satisfied Him in two things that's especially
against us. The justice of God, He satisfied
that. God's justice. God took out His
sword, and He took it out, and He said, I'm gonna smite the
shepherd, and the sheep's gonna be scattered. He plunged that
knife into the heart of His blessed Son there on that cross, drew
it out, wiped the blood off, And I tell you what, and He saved
us from the justice of God right then and there. And then the
wrath of God. I can't imagine being under the
wrath of God. You know, I don't even like being
angry, but boy, for God to be angry with you. To God be mad
at you. For God to say, I'm mad at that
fella. I'm really mad at that man. I'm
angry with that man. Oh our Lord Jesus Christ, He
endured, here's the difference, He endured the wrath of God and
He consumed all the wrath of God. Oh my, never ever will God
ever be angry at one for whom Christ died. Because God's anger
and God's wrath, our Lord Jesus was poured out and He consumed
it all. He consumed the wrath of God.
He consumed the fire. He consumed everything that was
against us in His own body on that tree. And He put it away.
He spoiled it. And He done away with it once
and for all for His blessed people. Oh my. And I tell you, when we
talk about the blood, It's the blood that makes atonement. That's
what he said over in Leviticus. The life of the flesh is in the
blood, and it's the blood that makes atonement. This idea that
our Lord Jesus Christ, you're seeing in these pictures, and
I... Here's the thing about it. You know, when you close your
eyes, do you see Jesus on the cross and you see a blonde-headed
fella? I don't. I haven't done that for years.
And I see the Christ of the Bible, and I see the Lord Jesus, I see
a person. I actually see a personality.
I actually see a character. I see a person, and what kind
of person he was. Compassionate, merciful, gracious,
forgiving, tender-hearted, loving, forgiving. And the only people
he was angry at was people that were struck on themselves, self-righteous
people. But when I think about Him, I
think about the Lord Jesus Christ and that blood that makes that
atonement and that life of His flesh. If you had seen Christ
hanging on that cross, you would have seen nothing but a man from
blood from the top of His head to the sole of His foot. Blood
would have been running off that cross. Blood would have been
running off His body. Blood would have been all over the ground. So oh my, when we talk about
the death of Christ and being justified by the blood, and I'll
say this, that the blood of Christ is so precious, has such merit
in it, such worth in it to God Almighty, that if it'd been one
drop, just one drop, God would accept it and it'd been enough
to save everyone for whom Christ died. That's how precious the
blood of Christ is. That's how powerful the blood
of Christ is. And you know, look in Hebrews
9 with me for a moment. I hope I don't take too long,
but I tell you, I wonder what God said. He told the Hebrews,
when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I'm going to pass
over you. And that blood had to be over
that door, that lintel and down them posts. I tell you, that
blood has to be applied to our hearts, sprinkled to our conscience.
But look what it says here, verse 12, Hebrews 9, 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, I love this, but by His own blood, His own blood, entered into the holy place.
You imagine Him taking His own blood. There's an altar in heaven. And it's what it says here, He
entered once with His own blood. Was it in a basin? Was it in
His body? Was it in His hands? What was
it? I don't know, but I do know it
said He entered once into the holy place with His own blood. And when He come back out from
the presence of God, He had eternal redemption for us. That's a long
time to be redeemed. And need I know redeemed our
souls, He redeemed our bodies. He paid for our bodies, and that's
why when we go to the grave, since He's paid for them, He
gonna bring us back out of them. And oh, look what he goes on
to say. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a
heifer sprinkling the unclean purifies the flesh, how much
more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit offered
himself without spot to God to purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. Oh, the blood, the blood. Do
you know what they sang in glory? Thou art worthy, for thou was
slain, and hast redeemed us by thy blood, out of every kindred,
nation, tongue, and people. Here's the first thing it says.
They sung a new song. I know that new song. It's a new song to me. Thou art
worthy. The only one is worthy. Thou
art worthy. That's the first note in that new song. Thou art
worthy. What makes you worthy? You were
slain. And you redeemed us. How? By your blood. From wherever,
kindred, tongue, nation, and people. Huh? I know that new
song. I do. I know every note in it.
And I can't sing it, but I sure can tell it. But oh my, by His
blood. That's the song of redemption.
And let me give you the fourth thing. Now here's the fourth
thing about justification. Look in Romans 4.25. Right there
in chapter 5. So just look over in verse 25. Oh, we're justified by God. Justified freely by grace. Justified
by His blood. And then look what it says here
in Romans 4.25. who was delivered for our offenses.
God sent him up, delivered him up for our offenses, for our
sin. But listen to this, but was raised again for our justification. Now what in the world do you
reckon that means? That means that there's proof, proof that
he satisfied God. Proof that he finished the work.
Proof that the grave couldn't hold him. Proof that he really
was life and the resurrection and the life. Here's proof that God accepted
his works. God never told anybody, come
up here and sit down at my right hand. But Christ, oh my God accepted
his person. God accepted his works. God accepted his words. God accepted
his death. And that resurrection is proof
that the work is finished. That sin is put away and then
his obedience becomes ours. Now let me tell you something.
How in the world can I know I'm justified as a man sitting at
God's right hand? And that's where I look for everything
I get. Everything I got and everything I have and everything that I'll
ever receive, I'll get it from right up yonder. That's my justification,
setting it to the right hand of God. Well, I heard you say
this, I'm justified, right there he is. You shouldn't act that
way, that's my justification. But oh my, the law, the law is
proof of my condemnation. My union with Adam is proof of
my sin nature. And He alone is our justification
before law, before sin, before God, before our conscience, before
the accusations of Satan, who can lay any charge to God's elect. It's God that justified them.
Huh? Oh, listen. Come on, law. Accuse
me. Find something wrong with me. Come on, find something wrong
with me. Sin, come on, tell me what I've done that Christ ain't
already paid for. Conscious, come on, tell me how
guilty I am, what I've done. Come on, see if you can do it.
You can't do it, you know why? He rose again for our justification. Every time you're conscious or
you say something or something you shouldn't say or do something,
remember this. He's your justification. And
he sits at God's right hand. And because he sits there, we're
justified eternally because he sits there. Oh, my. And I tell you, Satan, sometimes
he comes along and tries to make you, you know, feel bad about
something or the other. You know, but God made a covenant.
He said, this is the covenant I'm going to make with my people. Their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. And where remission of these
is, you don't need to pay anymore because they're gone. All right, let me give you the
fifth one. Faith, faith. Can't mention justification
without faith. Faith is the means of our justification. It is the means of our justification. You know, when we talk about
faith, our Lord Jesus Christ, faith has to be perfect. Anything
we have before God has to be perfect. And we don't have perfection
of faith in nothing. So the only way we could ever
be justified for Christ Everything He did to be perfect. So when
I talk about faith, I want you to understand that faith is not
what justified us. Christ justified us. All faith
does is put out an empty hand and takes it. And you know, that's
what we're doing when we're sitting here and preaching. We come in
here, you know, some people, you know, they have what they
call a begging bowl. in some of these Asian countries and
that, and down in Mexico they sit around and beg. But I'll
tell you what, we come in here with nothing but begging bowls.
Lord, fill them up, fill them up. And you know, faith, for
our faith to even be accepted of God, it has to come from God.
So when I talk about faith, what it does, it receives the truth
of the gospel. Huh? He said, how do I know your
election, brethren? Because our word, our gospel
came to you not just in words that we're talking about. But
it came in the Holy Ghost by the Spirit of God and it brought
assurance that what you're hearing is the truth. When you listen
to God, that's right, that's right, that's right. And so faith
receives the truth of the gospel. Faith believes on the merits
of Christ. Faith is the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know Romans 3.28, this
is the answer to something that a lot of folks talk about asking
questions. Here's a question folks ask. Well, what about the law? What
about the law? What are we going to do about the law? I ain't
going to do anything about it. Look what it says here in verse
28. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith. without the deeds of the law.
So what? They justified by faith. Now
look down in verse 31. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. We establish the
law. How do we do that? We look to
Christ who did. We look to Christ who did. And
let me say this. Faith, faith is not its own object. It never can be. If you look
for faith in yourselves, you're looking, it's just a useless,
Christ, here's the thing, I heard some fellas arguing about this
the other day, about works and faith and all that, and I said,
I don't know, I said, the one thing I do know without a shadow
of a doubt, Christ is the object of true faith. How do you know
you got real faith? Is Christ the object of it? Do
you look outside yourself for your salvation entirely, completely? No, my, our whole salvation is
done outside ourselves. You know, I wasn't born yet.
I wasn't, I wasn't. You know, you go back 2,000 years
when Christ was crucified and Christ paid for my sins then.
And Christ stood as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
But when Christ died, everything that I was, is, and would ever
be, Christ took care of it for me back then. And so everything
that was done for me was done outside myself. And what the
gospel does is come and tell me what God did. Ain't that right? We just tell
people what God did. But I'll tell you something else
about faith. Faith is based on knowledge. You can't, it's not
just jump in the dark. No, no, no. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how shall they
call on Him and whom they've not heard and believe and how
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard and
how shall they hear without a preacher? So then faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. Oh, and I tell you, it has to
be based on God's Word, just like you read tonight. He that
is of God heareth us. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
said that when He was in Port Pilate, He said, they that are
of the truth, they that are of the truth, believe me, believe
me. And I tell you, and here's what
I'm trying to say. We don't trust our faith. We trust the Lord. We don't trust
our feelings. And I tell you, I can get down
and I can get up. I can get down and up faster
than anybody you ever seen. I can be down there. and then go up that high. It's
rare for me to be just like that. I'm either up, I'm never even,
I'm always either down or up. There's no middle ground for
me. I hope you're all not that way.
I'd hate for you to be like that. I'd hate for you to be like me.
My sweetheart will tell you, she said, boy, he tried. He said,
boy, he's either up or down. And the gospel, that's what does
it for us. The gospel does. But oh my, we
don't trust our feelings. We trust our master. We don't
trust our intellect. We don't do that. We don't trust,
I don't even trust my knowledge of him. I trust his knowledge
of me. Search me and know me, oh Lord.
If there be any wicked way in me, deliver me. Save me from
that. Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad he knows
me because I know so little about him. And then you talk about
words. Look with me over here in Matthew,
chapter 12, Matthew, chapter 12. This is six. Matthew, chapter 12, this is
people have a hard time with this one. Have a hard time with it, but
look what it says here. Matthew 12, verse 34, down through
verse 37. Our Lord's speaking. And He said,
oh, generation of vipers. That's the kind of snakes people
take up, not these here rattlesnakes and copperheads. You know, man's
the sneakiest thing ever was. Sneaky, deceptive, hiding. Oh my, but watch what He says. How can you, being evil, speak
good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things. And
he goes on to say, now there's two different men here, now they
speak in what they're talking about. And he says, but I say
unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they should
give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Now I've heard
preachers say that, boy, I said, you know if you talk about fishing,
if you talk about the weather, if you talk about how things
are going in your life and you want to talk about getting your
boat out or something like that, they say that's just idle words,
that's just idle talk. That's not what he's talking
about. What he's talking about is what comes out of this heart
and what comes out of this mouth. You know, we was going down the
road the other day and there's a, you remember that old building
we worked, stayed in out there way out in the country, that
old building we was in years ago, that old brick block building? Well, there's a Free Will Baptist
Church in there now. And I'm going to show you what an idle
word is. They call it Safe Harbor Free Will Baptist Church. Now,
how in the world could they call it Safe Harbor When salvation
entirely depends upon them and their will and their choice and
their power. How could that be a safe harbor?
That's an idle word. That's an idle word. And that's
what he's saying when a man starts speaking out of his heart. It's
what he says about God. That's the first thing. That's
the first thing. An evil man is going to say evil
things. He's going to say, listen, God can't save you unless you
let him. Christ loves you and He wants you to love Him. Be
a lady and be a gentleman for Christ. I've heard folks say
that, but oh my, by your words. And they said, then our Lord
Jesus Christ said in verse 37, for by thy words thou shalt be
justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. And what's
He talking about? He's talking about what we say,
I believe, about God, What we believe about Christ? Huh? What
we believe about salvation? I mean, the way most people preach
salvation, it's just idle words. They just will save their breath
to cool their coffee as far as what they're saying. But I tell
you what, that's what we're talking about here. I said, by your words,
you're going to be justified. We're going to talk about God.
We're going to talk about Christ. We're going to talk about how
God saves a sinner. We're going to talk about sin. God high,
man low. God everything, man nothing.
All salvation of Christ, man absolutely contributes nothing
to it, nothing. And oh my, and oh about justification
out of the heart, out of the heart. Here's two fellas, one
of them was speaking out of the words and the other one wasn't.
There's two men went up to the temple to pray, a Pharisee. First
thing it says about him, he spake of himself. Oh, I'm this good, I'm that good,
you know, I don't do this, I don't do that. Everything about him
was negative. But then there's another fellow
right beside him. And he said, God, first word
out of his mouth, God, God. Be merciful to me. I need mercy. Oh, I need mercy. I need mercy
more than I need anything else in this world. I need mercy.
I need mercy. Oh, Lord, would you be merciful
to me? And the scripture says that man
went down to his house justified. Ain't that what it said, David?
And oh my, here's what I'm saying. We can't talk about our righteousness
and the righteousness of Christ out of the same mouth. We can't
talk about our works and the works of Christ come out of the
same mouth. We can't talk about our strength
in light of His omnipotence. We can't talk of sovereignty
and God controlling everything and ruling everything and then
run around murmuring and complaining and griping all the time. Can't
do that. And then the last one is this.
Justified by works. And the works, when I talk about
justified by works, I'm talking about it as a fruit. I'm not
going to turn to James where it says, you know, faith without
works is dead. But he pointed to Abraham. And
he pointed to Rahab. And what he did to show that
their faith, that faith, we're justified before God. Faith justifies
us before God. And here's what happens. Our
works, and I don't know how in the world we could I hate to
even mention that word there. But our works justifies our faith
before men. They said, when Abraham took
Isaac upon the mountain, there was a bunch of men with him and
he said, you fellas stay right here. I and the lad are going
up yonder to worship and we'll be back. And when they come back
off that mountain, they said, that man believes God. And you
know some folks that you look at and say, he believes God.
You know, George Whitfield was preaching one time in Philadelphia.
A big, big, huge crowd was preaching, and Benjamin Franklin liked to
go listen to him. And somebody asked Mr. Franklin,
said, Mr. Franklin, do you believe what
Mr. Whitfield's preaching? No, I
don't, but he sure does. He sure does. That's the way it is, ain't it?
Oh, he believes it. He believes it. That's what matters.
That's what matters. But all I'm saying is this. I hate to use the word works.
I really do. I don't like to use it. But in that context,
faith without works is dead. Now, what works are we talking
about? Well, Well, attending the gospel, being
faithful, loving the brethren, having a forgiving, kind, generous,
tender spirit. That's just fruit of the Spirit.
You can't go around being mean and ill and hateful and having
a chip on your shoulder all the time and make folks see you like
that and they say, boy, that fellow there, I don't know if
he's a believer or not. He says he goes to church over
here and goes over there. I hope he don't. I hope they're
not all like that over there. But I do know this, and I'll
close with this, where there's grace in the heart, there'll
be grace manifested in your life. I've known some of you all for
years and years, decades now. Decades now. And I've seen grace out of you
every single time I've been around you. I've seen love out of you
every time I've been around you. I've seen kindness. I've seen
hugs and kisses on the cheek and words of encouragement. Like you're actually glad to
see one another when you see them. That's what I'm talking
about. And where there's faith in the
heart, there'll be fruit in life. And I don't know about you, but
I really do care of what people think about me. I really do.
I care what people think about me. I care what they think about
my Master. I care what they think about
my Master. And I care about how I treat other people. Don't you? Seven things about justification.
I pray that's a blessing to you. Thank you all. Thank you so much
for having me. I pray it's a blessing to you. Appreciate you very much.
Donnie Bell
About Donnie Bell
Donnie Bell is the current pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN.
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