In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of turning away from sinful deeds and living a righteous life. He references Romans 13:11, which urges believers to wake up from spiritual slumber and recognize that salvation is drawing nearer. The speaker highlights the need to understand the full story of salvation, including the principles of involvement with others and taking responsibility for our actions. He also discusses the ineffective nature of trying to cover up our sins and the importance of genuine love in our actions, even above extreme sacrifices.

Alright, let's go to Hebrews chapter 6. Last week we did an introduction to the first principles and spoke about essentially what they are, why we need to have them, and we'll begin with them, with the actual principles this evening, beginning with the first one, and we'll read from Hebrews chapter 6. I've tried to keep the readings to a minimum, so we're only going to look at some scriptures tonight, about five, but we do need to look at various ones. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. So the first one in the series that he mentions there is repentance from dead works. These principles flow into one another. The one builds on the other. The first two, essentially repentance from dead works, which we'll deal with this evening, basically says that I can do nothing to save myself, or to keep myself saved, because I'm not saved by works, I'm saved by faith. I'm saved by that which Jesus did for me at the cross of Calvary. I continue to be saved by that which He does. Now that on its own would then seem to say, well then God just saves us and we have no part in it whatsoever. But the second principle speaks about faith towards God. And so I must show faith in God. I must have faith in God. So whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So God does everything, but I need to believe. Now you can see that immediately, that if we just looked at the one principle without the other, we would only have half the truth. We'd only have a portion of the truth. Also if we looked at that principle on its own, and did not read that with the one that comes much later, which is the laying on of hands, which speaks about involvement with other people, and my responsibilities, then again we would only have part of the story. Because it would seem that once I'm saved, all I have to do is wait to go to heaven. But that's not the whole story. And so you'll see that the rest of the principles deal with those things. And so all of these principles, if you take one in isolation, you'll end up in error. Any one of these can become error in itself. But when we have them all together, then we have the whole story, and we have everything that we need in order to have a solid foundation. Now the question then of this first principle is, what are these various things? What is repentance, and what is dead works? Repentance and dead works. Now I'm going to leave repentance to last, and I'm going to deal with dead works first of all. Dead works in my understanding are two things. There are two forms of dead works. The first is works that are dead. In other words, works that don't count. Works that are of no value whatsoever. If something is dead, then it just is of no value. It doesn't count. It doesn't fulfill the purpose that it is supposed to be there for. And so if you've got a tree and the tree is dead, well then really it's no longer a valid tree. If you have a person and that person is dead, that person has ceased to exist as far as we're concerned. Not speaking about eternal things in that sense, but as far as life is concerned, they are no longer there. And so works that are dead are works that just don't count. Now this is the sad thing, is that we do many things as people, both as unbelievers and as Christians, that are dead works. Works that, although they are works, they just have no value. God is not interested in them. They don't count. And then the second aspect of dead works, which we'll speak about, is works that lead to death. Works that lead to death. And so there are two aspects to dead works. Now the first form of dead works, of course, is trying to save ourselves. Trying to get ourselves to heaven. This is a problem that many, many people in the world face. Most people who are in the world, certainly those in Christian-type countries, if you say to them, are you going to go to heaven? They'll say, oh, of course I'm going to heaven. You know, stupid question. Then you say, well, why are you going to go to heaven? And they'll say, oh, because I'm a member of the church, or I was baptized, or I was confirmed, or my name's in the church register, or I go to church. Or they'll say, I pray, and God answers my prayers. Or I read my Bible, or I give money to the church. Any of a dozen things. Any of all sorts of things that people say. And so, why are they going to heaven? Because they're doing certain things. And that's the problem. And that's what Paul is writing to the Hebrews in this context. Now the Hebrews were doing many, many things in order to save themselves. They were keeping feasts, and they were sacrificing, and they were keeping the law, and they were doing all sorts of religious things. And the writer to the Hebrews says to them, these things don't count. You can do all of these things, but without Christ, they are of no value whatsoever. And that's the problem, is that there are so many people who are doing things, trying to please God, trying to buy favor with God, trying to buy brownie points with God, trying to get their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds. And so, many people will say to you, but I do so many good things. Or that person who's now died, especially when someone has died, they'll say, you know, but they did so many good things, and they did so few bad things, surely they'll go to heaven. But it's dead works. If it's outside of Christ, if it's not what Jesus has done, and if it's not in the Lord Jesus, and we'll speak about that in a moment, then it doesn't count. God is not interested. Now, the first time we find this principle taught in the Scripture is right back in the book of Genesis. You remember what happened. Adam and Eve sinned. God says, you may not eat of that tree. They ate of the tree, and immediately they became aware of their guilt. And immediately they also became aware that they were naked. And so, what do they do? Adam goes and he puts together some fig leaves, sews them together. How he sewed them, I don't know. You know, put them together with thorns or whatever. But he put them together. And he thought that that will fix the problem, that that would hide their shame, and that it would do away with the sin. And of course, it wasn't a bad idea, because it did work for a short while. But then what happened? The fig leaves would dry up, and they would fall off. And so, he would have to do it again and again. And of course, it wasn't an effective solution. It didn't fix the problem. But you can see the process. The moment we sin, immediately we want to cover up. Immediately we want to hide. Immediately we want to act as though something didn't happen. And this is the problem. But the method that we use to cover doesn't always cover, doesn't deal with the problem. And so, some people say, well, you know, I was bad this week, so I'll pray a little bit longer. Or I'll put a bit more money in the plate. Or I better go to church on Sunday, because I really wasn't a good person this week. As though that is going to fix the problem. As though that's going to hide. That's exactly what Adam did. And so, you can see that it was really a stupid thing that Adam did, because it really wasn't an effective solution. And yet, we do those same things in a religious way. All the time. Trying to cover our sin. Trying to act as though nothing ever happened. And then you remember what God does. God finds Adam and He says, you know, but what you've done just doesn't fix the problem. It doesn't help. And so, you remember, God kills the first animal or animals. We don't know what animal it was, or how many were killed. But the scripture says that animals were killed, and God took the skins of those animals, and He made effective clothing for them. Clothing that would last. Clothing that could hide their shame. But also, in the process, you'll see the shedding of blood. And so, a principle is established. And the scripture says, without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. And so, it doesn't matter how many good deeds I do, they can never cover my sins. The only thing that can hide sin, the only thing that can wash away sin, is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not even the blood of the animals in the Old Testament. They could cover the sin for a while, but they couldn't wash them away. And that's what the writer to the Hebrews is saying here, is he's saying, all the bulls, and all of the calves, and all of the animals that were killed in the Old Testament, was not an effective solution to sin. But there's only one sacrifice, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. That is the only sacrifice that is able to wash away sins. And so, you can see how futile it was for Adam to get involved in that whole process. And yet, we do the same thing today. We think that by doing good things, by doing things for God, that we can somehow remove our sin. We can never remove our sin. The only thing that can remove our sin is the blood of Jesus Christ. And so, the book of Isaiah, chapter 64, says that our righteousnesses, in other words, the right things that we do, the good things that we do, the religious things that we do, are as filthy rags, as far as God is concerned. Now, we can't even speak about what those filthy rags are, because we can't even speak of them in public. They were vile things. They weren't just the dirty, oily rags that come out of your workshop, or out of my workshop. But they were far more vile than that. And God says, even our best deeds, the best things we can do, as far as He's concerned, are as filthy rags. And so, nothing I do is able to save me. But then, of course, there's the other problem. The other problem is works that lead to death. Now, at this point, let's say that the dead works that we spoke about, first of all, is someone who is without Christ, trying to get saved by doing these things. Now, the works that lead to death, they can affect an unbeliever, and they can affect a Christian. These are, in plain language, sins. So, if we say that there's nothing I can do in order to save me, does that then mean that I can just live any old hour, that I can continue in sin? Paul says it in this way, should I continue in sin that grace may abound? Because God has been gracious to me, doesn't mean I can continue in sin. And Paul's reply is, God forbid. There's just no ways we can do that. And so, the deeds, the things that we do that lead to death, those things also we need to turn away from. If we go to Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13 and verse 11, Romans 13 and 11 says, And do this knowing the time, that now is high time to wake out of sleep, and now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Now, that's true at any stage in the history of man, but it's particularly true for us today. Then verse 12 says, The night is fast spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Now, you'll see there that he says that we need to put off the works of darkness, the works of darkness. And then he lists a number of things. And so, we need to put off these works that lead to death, works of death. Paul speaks about it also as the works of the old life or the old man. Now, in Galatians chapter 5, he gives us a very well-known list. And in Galatians 5, we have a list concerning the fruit of the Spirit, but we also have a list of the deeds of the flesh, or the works of the flesh. And verse 19, Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, that's plain. It's very simple. And you know, it's amazing how people will change the word. And there are many people who today believe that you can do those things, and God will just look over them, as though they don't exist. Of course God can forgive, if we repent. And that's the second aspect of this principle, is repentance from dead works. Repentance means to turn away from them. Now, if I continue in these things, I'm not repenting. If I continue in whatever, whether it's part of this list, or part of any of the many lists of these evil things, these works of the flesh, works that lead to death, in the scripture, then I have not repented of them. And so, the works that lead to death are things that we need to stop doing. So the first thing we need to stop doing is stop trying to save ourselves. We can't save ourselves. In the old days they used to speak about pulling yourself up by your own shoelaces. You can pull as hard as you like, you can never pick yourself up by your shoelaces. It's just impossible. But that's exactly what people try and do. They try to save themselves. You can't save yourself the same way you can't pick yourself up by your own shoelaces. But then the second aspect of dead works then is works that lead to death, the deeds of the flesh that we need to stop doing, the works of the flesh. Now, the other problem is that even for Christians, we have this problem because we feel that we can buy favour with God, we can score points with God, we can get blessing from God, we can get God to do things for us if we do good things. And so we do these things so that we can improve our position with God. But as much as I cannot get myself saved by doing works, I can't enhance my relationship as a Christian with God by doing works because there is nothing I can do. Everything has been done for me by the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything continues to be done for me by the Lord Jesus Christ. But the problem is that many of the things that we do are religious things. But we often do them not necessarily to gain favour with God, but we do them for all sorts of wrong motives. Now, the moment I do it for the wrong motive, it's dead works. As far as God is concerned, it's as though it never happened. It could be the best things that I'm doing, but I'm wasting my time. Let's go to Corinthians and just look at 1 Corinthians 13. And you know this passage well, I'm sure, which is the chapter on love. And it's sandwiched in between chapter 12 and chapter 14, which both of them deal with the body and with the church. But look at the things that he says here. He says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I have become as a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. So, what's he saying? I can have the gift of speaking in tongues, but if I don't have love, it's nothing. It's a waste of time. It's dead works. Then, verse 2, he says, Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, not just having some knowledge and some mysteries and some faith, I can have all the faith in the world, he says, so that I could remove mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing. Now, these are religious things. These are not things that the unbelievers do. The unbelievers don't have faith. The unbelievers don't understand mysteries, because when he speaks about mysteries, he's speaking about the hidden things of God. He says, I can have those things, but if I don't have love, it's nothing. Verse 3, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burnt, and I have not love, it profits me nothing. Now, he's emphasizing the teaching on the chapter here is on love, but I'm just using that as an illustration to show you that I can do the most incredible things. Even giving my body as a sacrifice to be burnt. A martyr for the faith. And we say, well, that's the highest form of worship and of sacrifice that you can make, is to be a martyr for the faith. But he says, if I haven't got love, it's nothing. I've wasted my time, I've wasted my life, I've gone through all that pain and all that suffering, for absolutely nothing. It doesn't count. As far as God's concerned, it is dead works. Now, in Matthew chapter 6, the Pharisees were very good at this whole issue of dead works. Doing things, and doing good things and the right things, but doing them for the wrong reasons. And you'll see, well, let's read, um, I don't want to read the whole chapter, but in fact we need to. But let's read from verse 1 to 4. He says, Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in Heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will himself reward you openly. So, he's now speaking about giving money, or giving things. Um, whether that is now to the church, or to the synagogue, or to the poor people, but when I do that, then it must be done in secret. If I do it so that people can see what I'm doing, now these guys in fact would sound a trumpet, they would say, you know, everybody look, you know, I'm giving money to the blind man on the corner. Um, we do it a little bit more differently, you know, we have this pseudo-humble attitude, you know, and we say, well, you know, I don't really want to bust, you know, but you know, the ties in the church last month were so much, you know, and my portion of that was at least 30%, in other words, everybody else isn't giving, I'm the only one who's giving, you know, we do that sort of thing. A very popular thing these days is to write out a cheque for your giving to the church. Now, what you're doing is you're saying to everybody, here's X, Y, Z money that I gave, because I've given a cheque. So everybody knows how much you gave. Now he says, when you do that, and men say, look at that person, look at how charitable they are, look how giving they are, look how gracious they are, he says, you've got your reward. As far as God is concerned, it's as though you never gave, because you gave, you got your reward, which was the praise of men, and as far as God's concerned, that's the end of the matter. It's dead works, you've wasted your time. But he says, when you give, what do you do? He says, your left hand even mustn't know what your right hand's doing. In other words, he says, given such a way that nobody knows what you've given, how you've given, because God who sees in secret will then reward you openly. So you can see the issue of motive. Now he deals with the issue of prayer. Let's just read 5 and 7. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in synagogues, and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. As should thou say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Then he says, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask Him. And so, praying, a very good thing, a very important thing. As Christians, we must be praying. But if we pray for the wrong reason, then again, it's dead works. It doesn't count. Now, these guys were praying long prayers in the public, and there are Christians who do that even today. Who pray these long flowery prayers, so that people can say, look how well he prays. He must be a very spiritual man, because he uses these huge words. Some people pray in King James English, because they think, people think that that's more spiritual, if you pray in King James English. He says, you've got your reward. He says, but when you pray, now he's not against praying in public, because obviously when we come together, we must pray together. We must pray in our prayer meetings, we must pray in all the meetings. And somebody's got to pray, as much as we asked Des to open in prayer this evening. That's good, and that's right. But you know, when I begin to make a display of my prayer, then he says, you're wasting your time. You may as well not even pray. And then, the third thing that he deals with in this passage is the issue of fasting. And I'm not going to read it, but you can read for yourself, verses 16 to 18. And so, again, what these guys were doing, is they were fasting twice a week, as their custom was, and when they fasted, they told everybody, I'm fasting. They put on a long face, and they put on special clothing, and everybody had to know, that I'm fasting. Now, we do it a little bit more subtly as well, you know, same way as we do the giving a little bit more subtly, but at the same time, we want people to know, many people fast and, you know, they just make a little bit of an issue of it, because when we have tea and cake afterwards, I hope we're going to have cake afterwards, when they have tea and cake afterwards, they say, sorry, you know, I can't have, you know, in such a way that people say, well, why aren't you having no fasting today? Now, he says, it's a secret thing, it's between you and God. Nobody needs to know that you're fasting. I often hear people boast about having been on a 20-day fast, or a 40-day fast, or this fast, or that fast, and it becomes an issue of spiritual pride. He says, you're wasting your time, but when you fast, he says, don't appear before men, wash your face, look cheerful, don't look deprived, because again, it's an issue between you and the Lord. It's got nothing to do with anybody else, a display of your spirituality, of your religiosity. Now, we can go on and on, but you begin to get the picture that there are these many, many things that I can be doing, and I'm wasting my time, because I'm doing them for the wrong reasons. You know, the sad thing is that as much as there are thousands and thousands of unbelievers who are going to go to hell, even though they're being religious, even though they're going to church, even though they're paying money, even though they're doing charitable deeds, even though they're praying and reading their Bible, they're doing all of these things, because God is not interested in those works, because those works are dead works. Because all he's interested in, as far as an unbeliever is concerned, is the blood of Jesus Christ. And until the blood of Christ has been applied to the life of that unbeliever, anything he does is of no consequence as far as God is concerned. He is dead, the Scripture says, in his trespasses and sins. Now, if a man is dead, then he cannot do anything. And an unbeliever who is dead in his trespasses and sins, he can do as much religious work as he likes, it is no value, because he is dead. A dead man can produce nothing. And so, the same way with praying, and many unbelievers claim that this is their sign of being saved, because they pray. They say, but God, I pray for protection on the road, and God hears my prayer. But you know, the Scripture says that God doesn't hear the prayer of the sinner. He does not hear the prayers of an unbeliever. And so he can pray as many times as he likes, as much as he likes, God doesn't hear those prayers. The first prayer that God hears is the day that he prays, and he says, God forgive me, I'm a sinner. When he prays that prayer, for the first time God will listen to an unbelieving man. All his other prayers, for protection on the road, and for this and that and the other, those prayers are of no consequence, they are a waste of time, they are dead works, you may as well not even do them. In fact, they are sometimes worse than not doing them. Because they give you, they give that person a feeling of religiosity. They make people feel that they are okay, when in fact they are not okay. Whereas the person who is an outright sinner and just doesn't even try, he knows, because he doesn't even remotely qualify. So the problem of doing works that don't count, doing works that are leading to death, the works of sin, and then finally trying to buy favour with God, whatever that may be, whether I want financial blessing. People give money and many preachers and evangelists go around saying, if you want God to bless you, then give money to God. Now, if you are giving in order to get back from God, it's dead works. It doesn't help. If you are praying and all the people say, look how spiritual you are, it's dead works. It doesn't help. Even if you are preaching, and you are preaching so that people can say, look at that, look how well he preaches, or look how hard he works for God, it's dead works. It doesn't even count. God isn't interested in any of these things. He is looking for those things that are done with a pure heart and with a pure motive. And so obviously the question comes then, what can I do? And we will deal with this in the next few sessions. But what can I do? Is God interested in anything? Yes, He is interested in those things that I do with a pure motive. And what is a pure motive? The only motive that really, and we can speak about many, many motives, but the only motive that really should be the motivator is because I love God. And because I love Him, I do the things that please Him. Because I love Him, I don't do the things that displeases Him. Now, that's the motive. Not because there's a law, not because the church says I must or mustn't, not because it's in the Bible, but because I know that this pleases God and this doesn't please God. And because I love God and I want to do those things that makes Him happy, that's a response of love. And God accepts that. God finds that acceptable. But when I do it in order to get something out of Him, or I do it for any other reason, it's for the wrong reason. And so yes, of course Christians must pray. But we pray because we love God and we want to communicate with Him. We read the Scriptures and we study the Scriptures because we love God and we want to hear what He has to say to us. Yes, we must go to meetings and to fellowship and we must be in fellowship. Why? Because we love God. And the way in which we love God is to associate with His church, with His body. Jesus said anything we do to any of the least of His brethren, we have done to Him. And so when we bless one another, we're blessing God. When we serve one another, we're serving God. And so you can see that everything I do, if it's on this basis, that I love God firstly, and I love my neighbor secondly, then it could be for the right reason. Now again, we've got to be careful because you can then go to the other extreme where we say, well humanitarian work, work of send going over to New York and helping to dig up survivors, you know, and I do this at great expense, surely that shows that I love people and that must be acceptable to God. But if I'm not born again, again, it doesn't help, it doesn't count. So you get the picture. Now, Hebrews 6 says that what I need to do is I need to repent from dead works. Now, that word repentance is not a popular word anymore. It's a word which is very seldom used by preachers anymore. It used to be a word which was preached very often, but these days it is not preached very often because it is not a nice word. It's not nice because it requires a change. It requires a change of mind and a change of heart and a change of lifestyle. And that is very hard for some people because we're comfortable doing the things that we're doing. We don't want people to upset our routine or upset the way that we do things. Now, the word repent means literally to turn around. A change of mind or a change of heart. It's a 180 degrees so. So I've been going in this direction and I turn around and I now go in the other direction. Now, when he says I need to repent from dead works, it means that I first of all need to recognize that what I'm doing is a waste of time. That's the first thing, unless I recognize that. Unless I recognize my sin for someone who's doing deeds of death or deeds leading to death or works leading to death. Unless they recognize that they are sinning. You know, the amazing thing is there are so many people who don't even recognize what they're doing is wrong. Now, without recognizing that I have sinned, I haven't even got the beginning of repentance. Now, remember in the Old Testament there were two kings. Saul who was the first king of Israel and David who followed him, who came after him. Both men sinned at different times. What David did was far worse than what Saul did. But you know, Saul had this terrible problem because when he was confronted he couldn't recognize that he sinned. He said, oh no, but it was this situation and it was the people and it was this and that. He blamed everybody else, but he couldn't recognize that he sinned. But when the prophet comes to David and he says but you've sinned. Immediately David cries out to God and he says, yes I've sinned. He doesn't hide behind it. He recognizes it. That's the first step towards repentance. Now, the other problem here is that in according to Corinthians that many people are sorry for their sin, but in fact it's still not repentance. You see, now that's the other problem. I can be sorry that I'm doing things for the wrong reason but in fact it's not causing a change in me. It's not bringing me to actually turn around. All I'm doing is I'm feeling sorry. Now, feeling sorry is the beginning of the process. But that feeling sorry now and recognizing that I've sinned now needs to lead to the second step which is a change in direction, a change in action. It needs to produce some kind of fruit. And so if I'm saying yes I am sorry, then I need to recognize that what I've been doing or what I've not been doing, whatever it is, what direction I've been going in is the wrong direction. I now need to turn around. I need to actually begin to go in the other direction. And you know, again there are many, many people who when they hear the word preached or when they hear, when they're challenged in some way or the other, they recognize that what they're doing is not right. They feel very sorry about it, but in fact they go out from that service or they go away from the radio, wherever they've heard it and they continue living as though nothing happened. That's not repentance. That's just remorse. That's just feeling sorry. And you can carry on feeling sorry as long as you like. If you don't actually turn around it's of no value. And so as I recognize that what I'm doing, trying to save myself, trying to please God from a human point of view or trying to do things for the wrong reason, then I need to not only be sorry about that, but I need to turn away from that. And I need to go in the other direction. Now obviously when we speak about a change in direction it doesn't simply mean I've come to a standstill and I've just stopped doing anything. Because this is what some people do. They just say, okay, you know, that's it. I'm going to stop being a bad person. They try to stop being a bad person. But unless I actually start walking in the other direction, I haven't actually completed the whole process of repentance. So I recognize my sin. I'm remorseful about that. I turn around and I now begin to walk in a different direction. Now you'll see that the walking in a different direction is the next principle which we'll deal with next week. And that is faith towards God. Now you can begin to see how these two stand against each other. Because the person who is doing dead works has faith in what? He has faith in himself. He has faith in the things that he is doing. That's where his trust is. In his religious deeds or in his religious background or his religious upbringing or his church affiliation. That's where his confidence in his faith is. But he says, no, that's dead works. I need to turn away from that. But I need to turn towards something. And what I need to turn to is towards God. And now I need to, instead of putting my confidence in what I can do, I need to begin to put my confidence in what Christ has done. And that is the complete turning around process. And so it's no good just coming to a realization that in fact I'm doing dead works. I need to turn away from that and I now need to come to a point where I'm putting my trust and my faith and my confidence in the Lord Jesus. Amen.