Repentance From Dead Works (Video)

Hebrews chapter 5, and it's read from Hebrews 5, 12, through chapter 6, verse 3. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12, reading through chapter 6, verse 3. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you've come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to 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 we're in verse 1, but remember that in the previous verses last week we looked at these three different names for the same stuff. He calls it milk, he calls it foundation, and he calls it first principles or fundamentals of the faith. And we're going to spend the next eight weeks looking at these various principles. The first one is in verse 1, and that is repentance from dead works. But just before that, I neglected to point out this word, and I didn't make reference to it a couple of weeks ago. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Now, you remember that in chapter 5 and verse 9, it speaks about Jesus having been perfected. He became the author of salvation to all who obey him. And we said that this word perfected here, it's really a bad translation in the sense that while the word can be translated perfect, our understanding of perfect is not the Greek understanding. And in fact, the two words in chapter 5 verse 9 and in chapter 6 1, same Greek word but different meanings. How do we know they have different meanings? Well, we know because of the context. We have many words in English that are the same, but they may mean different things in a different context. So you need to understand the context to understand what does this word mean. So remember that in verse 9 of chapter 5, when it says that he was perfected, it does not mean that he was not perfect before, but he is complete. He is fully equipped as our high priest. He was not equipped to be our high priest before, even though he himself was perfect, simply because he was not able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses. And so in order for him to sympathize with us, he needed to experience the things that we experience. Now he is perfectly equipped to be a high priest. When we find the word in chapter 6 verse 1, the word really means mature, mature. He is not speaking about perfection. There is a teaching that says that Christians can attain to perfection. Well, I've been chasing that for a long time, and it just seems to be further and further away. No, we will not be perfect until the day we see Jesus. And that day, the day of the resurrection, we will be transformed, and we will be perfected. But in the meantime, there's a need for us to go on to maturity. So the word here really is maturity, and you'll find that that word is used in different places in the New Testament, meaning maturity. So he says that we should be no longer babes in the previous chapter. We now need to go on to maturity. So if we're chasing perfection, well, it really becomes a discouraging thing, because obviously we will never achieve perfection. But can we achieve maturity? Yes, certainly we can achieve maturity. So let's have a look then at the first of these principles, or the first part of the foundation, repentance from dead works, second-last line on the screen. And then next week we'll do faith towards God. Now that seems pretty simple, repentance from dead works. But again, and it should be simple. These are things that we should know and we should understand. But at the same time, the point that he is making is that if we're not able to teach these things to other believers, or to new Christians, young Christians, we need to have them taught to us again. So every Christian must be able to recite and be able to teach these things to someone else. Remember, these are not rules, these are principles by which we live. And I want to highlight those principles this evening. So I'm going to begin as I often do at the end and work my way back. I'm going to begin with the idea of dead works, first of all, dead works. Now, there are two kinds of dead works. The first kind of dead works is works that lead to death, works that lead to death. And in plain English, sin. The things that we do that results in, remember, this is not physical death, this is eternal death. And so, the things that we do that can result in eternal judgment. And there's quite a few scriptures, we're going to look at Galatians 5, 19 through 20. The works of the flesh. So he says, dead works, these are works, the works of the flesh are evident. And this is not a complete list, this is just some of the things. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 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 told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, these things will lead to death. Now, remember that as Christians, it doesn't mean that we stop sinning. I've just said that we don't achieve perfection, we don't believe in what they call sinless perfection. What he is speaking about here is not that occasionally, just taking the first one on the screen, we feel a twinge of envy because of what someone else has, or some blessing that someone else has, or the fact that someone else is used in a particular way. But what he is dealing with here are lifestyles. When this is what defines us, we have a real problem. Christians sin, and there is grace, and there is forgiveness. But when we continue in these things, when this is how we live our lives, we have a real problem. And so, he says we need to turn away from these things. Are we okay, Tatcho? We need to turn away from these things. We need to repent from them. Now, he's talking about repentance here in two senses. I'm going to come back to repentance, but this applies to the unbeliever who needs to come to salvation, and this applies to the believer. Remember when we spoke about the foundation, you don't keep laying the foundation, the effects of the foundation are felt right through. The principles you never get away from. You never get away from ABCD. You never get away from one plus one equals two. Those things, even though you don't have to recite the ABCD after you have a few degrees, you never get away from those principles every time you open a book, because those letters are still there. So, the idea of repentance from dead works is not just something that we do when we first get saved. It is a principle that should permeate the rest of our lives. And so, we should constantly be turning away from these things. And you'll see that there are, in this list, there are some really gross things like murders and drunkenness and so on, if we go back to verse 20, idolatry, sorcery, and yet there are other things which we say, well, you know, these are not a big deal. Things like jealousy, selfish ambition, self-promotion, dissensions, disagreements. Some of these things are on the terrible side of the scale, and others are on the more sort of white collar. Remember, I've spoken about this idea. I've not read this anywhere else. It's just a stupid idea I have. But we have white-collar sins, the same way as we have white-collar crimes. And somehow, a white-collar crime doesn't seem to be as bad as murder or some kind of street crime. It's still crime. You still get to go to jail for the same stuff. And the same with sins. So, there are white-collar sins. There are respectable sins, like selfish ambition, like outbursts of wrath occasionally, dissensions. And we say, well, you know, this is not like murder. No, what he says is that because of all of these things, we don't get into the kingdom. So now, Romans 13, verse 11, and do this knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now salvation is nearer than when we first believed. So, who is he writing to? He's writing to Christians. He's not writing to the world or to unbelievers. He's writing to Christians. And now he goes on. What did I do? The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness. So, Christians do works of darkness, which they need to cast off. So, you know, the problem is, when we see these lists, we say, well, that's the world. No, Christians do these things. But he says, cast them off, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. Verse 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. So, again, you see these dead works, these works that lead to death. And so, when he says we need to put them off, and we need to put on Christ, this is just another way to speak about repentance, turning away from those things, turning towards Christ. In Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1, our text this evening, you'll see that he speaks about repentance from dead works and faith towards God. These two are two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, I need to turn away from dead works. On the other hand, I need to turn towards Christ, towards the Lord. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8. Now, there's another aspect to dead works. So, the one is works that lead to death, but there are also works that are dead because they have no value. When something is dead, it makes no difference. If you open the utility room here, you'll see a dead spider on the door. It felt the wrath of my shoe. That spider has no... it's nothing. It's dead. It doesn't scare anyone. Why is it still there? Well, I'm waiting for it to dry up, and then I can wipe it off without making a bigger mess. But when something is dead, it is dead. If you have a motor car and it is dead, well, it's no good. If you have an animal and it is dead, it is no good. It has no value. It may still be a dog or a cat, but it is dead. It may still be a motor car, but it is dead. And so, there are works that we do that are dead works. Things that we do that are of no value, they don't count. Now, the principle behind this is that we are saved by faith. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So, there's the word works again. So, anything that we do... So, dead works, in the sense of works that are dead, are twofold. On the one hand, on the outside of the cross, there are things that people do in order to save themselves, in order to get saved. Joining the church, getting baptized, giving money to the church, trying to live a good life, all these things. But they are dead because we are not saved, he says in this verse, by works. We are saved by faith, and we'll speak about faith next week. So, you can be the most religious person on the face of the earth, and still go to hell, because we are not saved by works. Those works have no value whatsoever. They are dead. The best thing we can do is to turn away from them, and turn to the Lord. But then there's a second aspect to these dead works, and those are things that we as Christians do to keep our salvation, to earn brownie points with God, to make ourselves look good with other people, to make ourselves feel good because I'm doing these things. And the list, the motive, the reasons why we do these things are endless. But when we do even good things for the wrong reason, it is dead. It doesn't count. And we say, but God, look at everything I've done. And He says, no, it's dead. They are dead works because you did them for the wrong reason, with the wrong motive. We don't have the time to go through 1 Corinthians chapter 13, but you remember that He gives an enormous list of things. I can have all knowledge. I can have every gift. I can give my body to be burnt. I can do all of these things. If I don't have love, it is nothing. It is dead. And the problem is that there are millions of people outside of grace that are trying to get into heaven by the things they are doing, and it doesn't help. And in the same way, there are many Christians, and I guess we all, to some extent or the other, do things in order to get something from God, or in order to solve our conscience. You know, I did something bad, so let me just pray a little bit more, or whatever it is. And we end up in sort of a barter situation, scoring points to try and offset the bad points that I—and in the process, we're totally disregarding the whole gospel, because we are saved by our works. We are saved by faith, because of the grace of God. And so anything that I'm doing in order to get saved and in order to get something, whether it's from other people or whether it's from God, are dead works. They don't count. In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus gives three examples, and I'm going to just look at two. Matthew chapter 6, verse 1. 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. So he's talking, obviously, about the religious people of his day. And remember, these guys that Jesus is ministering to—the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests—they were very religious, incredibly religious. They kept all of the 613 commands in the Old Testament. They kept all of their own rules and laws that they'd added to that. They went to endless lengths. They fasted twice a week, when in fact the law only required them to fast once a year. They did all—they tithed on the herbs in their garden, and the list goes on and on and on, of all the stuff that they did. But Jesus says, if you've done them before men, to be seen by men, you're wasting your time. It's dead works. It doesn't count. Because he says, otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Verse 2. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed—in other words, when you do something good, and obviously here he's particularly thinking of giving money to the poor. That's the immediate reference. But this would include any good deed that I do—helping someone financially, helping someone in some other way, doing something good for someone, doing something good for the Lord or for the work of the Lord. When you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. Now, this sounds ridiculous, and yet this is exactly what they did. They would actually blow a trumpet and say, hey, look, I'm putting a quarter in the beggar's hat. And we say, well, that's ridiculous. No, we do the same thing. I'm amazed when I see the things that people do just to be noticed. And so he says, don't be like them. He says, because they do it that they may have glory from men. That they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. So you see what he's saying? He's saying, why did they do it? What was the motive? The motive was for other people to say, look how charitable he is. His name is up on the library. He says the reason they did it, they got what they wanted. People say, yeah, he's great. He's given us money. But that's not why we do things. We don't do them for the praise of men. We do them that we might receive the praise of the Lord. But when we get the praise of men, well, then God has nothing more to give us because we've already got what we wanted. And so it is dead. It doesn't count. Verse three. So when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Do things in secret. Do things in secret. Because then your charitable deed may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And so again, here's this thing that we've been speaking about a lot recently. And that is, do I want short-term rewards or do I want a long-term investment? If I want short-term rewards and I want people to say, hey, look how religious he is. He prays such long prayers. Or, you know, he does this or he does that or he does the other thing. Well, you've had it. You've received what you wanted. But it's far better to make long-term investments in heaven. And yeah, we have to wait a little while until we get there. But once we get there, he will reward us openly. Remember, Jesus promises that he will acknowledge us before the angels in heaven. And so that's our choice. Do we want instant gratification? Do we want it now? Or are we willing to make an investment in eternity? The other example he uses is prayer. When they pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. Now, this does not preclude praying in public. There used to be a preacher in the city who would not have prayer in the services. They wouldn't open in prayer. They wouldn't close in prayer. They have no prayer meetings, because he says, this says that you mustn't pray in public. This is not the point that this is making. Clearly, Jesus prayed in public. The disciples prayed in public. They would go to the temple at their regular hours, and they would pray. It speaks about Paul, that when he went on a journey, the disciples came with him, and they knelt on the seashore, and they prayed, and he got on the ship, and he went. So the New Testament is full of people praying in public. This is not against praying in public or praying in the context of the body of Christ. This is about praying to be seen to be praying. This is doing prayer to show other people how religious you are. And it's not a problem here, I thank God, but it is a problem in many churches, where you go to the prayer meeting, and there's these folk who will literally pray for 15 minutes, 20 minutes. Sometimes they just go on and on and on and on and on, and they've got all these big words. And what's it all about? God doesn't need big words, first of all, and God doesn't need long prayers. But they're not praying to God. Remember the Pharisee and the tax collector, and it says that the Pharisee came and he prayed. Who did he pray to? He prayed thus with himself, it says. I thank you, God, that I'm not like other people and like this guy. So he wasn't praying to God, he was praying to himself. He was praying so that others could see and hear how religious he is. And so when we pray, we need to pray to the Lord, and we need to pray that he might hear us. And we need to not try and put on a show of how religious we are, how big words we have. In some environments, how fiery we can pray and shout and bring heaven down and all of this sort of nonsense. No, God's not deaf. We don't have to raise our voice for him to hear us. And so don't be like them who pray in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. It's amazing how transparent some people are. Particularly when I travel, I see people pray in the meetings. And it's just like that, I pick it up. This one's putting on a show because there's a visiting preacher here, praying big fancy long prayers. Folks, let's get real with God. God doesn't need special words, these and those. God just needs to hear from our hearts. And so, again, what am I praying for? Am I praying to be seen by men? I should say to you, they have their reward. Their prayer is dead works. It doesn't count. It has no value whatsoever. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you've shut your door, pray to your father who's in secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. As I said, this does not preclude, does not stop us from praying in the meetings or in public. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Now, some of these guys are really expert prayers, and they can pray in circles. So they'll begin A, B, C, D, E, F, and then they've A, B, C, D, E, F, and they go on for 15 minutes, but they're really saying the same thing, just going. And they think that the many words impresses God or impresses Him. No, we are not heard for our many words. We are heard because of the sincerity of our hearts. But these are just two examples. Later on in chapter 6, he speaks about fasting, and there are many, many other examples of dead works. So now we get to the word repentance. So dead works, then, are sins, works that lead to death. And this applies to unbelievers, and it applies to believers. Dead works are also works that don't count. It applies to unbelievers who are doing things to try and get into heaven, and it applies to believers who want to impress other people, or who want to impress God, or whatever else it is. Now he says we need to repent of those things. Now the word repentance, we've dealt with this not so long ago in great detail. You can look up the YouTube. But the word repentance means to turn around. The Greek word, metanoia, means a change of mind, a change of mind. Now many modern preachers and theologians say, well, that's all the word means. It means a change of mind. So you need to change your mind. No, that is not. While that is the secular way the word was used in Greek at the time, that's not the way it was used in the New Testament. In the New Testament and in the Old Testament, it was used for a change of action. So what is it then? Is it a change of mind or a change of behavior? Well, it is both. And you remember that I gave you this formula when we dealt with this a while ago, that it's a change of mind that leads to a change of heart, that leads to a change of behavior. So you can change your mind as many times as you like. It doesn't result in anything. You may even have a change of heart. So you're going down the road, and you realize that you're going in the wrong direction. You should be heading this way, and now you're heading that way. And you change your mind. You say, well, actually, I don't want to go up to Sunland. I actually want to go down to Burbank. Well, that doesn't help very much, does it? Because you're still heading up to Sunland. You may even have a change of heart and say, no, I'm definitely, I've made up my mind. I'm not going to Sunland. I'm going to Burbank. But until you do a U-turn and turn the car around and start going to Burbank, you're never going to get to Burbank. It's really that simple. And there are many Christians who have a change of mind and even have a change of heart, but they don't do anything about it. It results in nothing. And you remember that Paul deals with this in great detail in 1 Corinthians 7, and I'm purposely not going through 1 Corinthians 7, because we'll be there for a few hours. But you remember that he speaks about repentance there, and he says there are different stages in this process. The first is that I feel remorse. I feel sorrow for what I have done. But that doesn't help, he says, because that kind of sorrow still leads to death. So there's a remorse that I can feel over my sin, whether it's sin of omission or commission, but having not done what I should have done or doing what I shouldn't have done, I can feel bad about that until the cows come home. It's not going to change anything. And in fact, he says it leads to death. So there is a form of repentance that is dead works in itself, simply because I'm feeling sorry for my sin, but I'm not doing anything about it. But then he says, I'm glad that you were sorry that you sorrowed, but I'm more glad that your sorrow led to repentance. So you were sorry about your sin, and remember, he's dealing with a really grievous situation in the Church of Corinth, but that you were sorry about your sin, that this led to repentance, to a change in direction. And then he says, the proof of your repentance is in your actions. And then he says, look what it has resulted in. Your attitude to sin has changed, he says, and I'm really paraphrasing a very big chapter. Your attitude to sin has changed. Your attitude to righteousness has changed. Your attitude to the sinner—there was a particular sinful situation which they were condoning—has changed. And so he says, this is the right repentance. You can feel remorse or sorrow for your sin—doesn't help. That sorrow needs to lead to a change of mind. That needs to lead to a change of heart, which needs to lead to a change of action. And he says, that's what I'm happy about writing to the Corinthians, because I can see the fruit—here's a very important word—the fruit of your repentance. The evidence of your repentance in the change in your behavior. Now, of course, the problem here is that people say, well, you know, you don't know what goes on in people's hearts. No, we don't. But we can see the fruit. We can see the evidence on the outside in the way that they act, or the way they don't act. So repentance, then, is a change. It's not a popular idea today. The idea today is that I continue just living my sinful life. I continue doing whatever I want to do, and it doesn't matter. No, the New Testament and the Old Testament requires a change, requires turning away from and turning to—turning away from dead works, turning to faith in God. Now, this is a principle that must apply not just in our first coming to salvation, but we must continue in repentance. You see, the problem is that many Christians say, well, I repented when I first got saved. In fact, I've alluded to that. Let me just stop there for a moment. The problem is that many people get saved and there is no repentance. They continue in their sinful lifestyle, and that simply is not repentance. There is no evidence of your repentance, and there is no evidence of faith. We'll talk about that next week. If you really believe the gospel, you will change your behavior. Your behavior must change. We say, well, now I'm a Christian now, and I don't cuss and chew and run with those who do. I don't do the stuff like that anymore. But, folk, we continually need to repent, because as we've said at the beginning, John says in his epistle, he says that if we say we are without sin, we lie and we make God a liar. So, we all continue to sin, and when we sin, we need to continually be repenting. You see, the idea that, well, there's grace, and Paul deals with that. Shall I continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. Oh, but God's forgiven me, and that's fine. Now I can move on. No, there's a need for repentance. It is a principle that must underscore the rest of my life. I've seen so many situations where people have sinned, sometimes grievously, sometimes maybe not so seriously, but yet they've sinned. But they will not repent. They will not confess this, and they will not admit, I was wrong. You remember, this was the problem with Saul and David, or the difference between Saul and David. Saul, king of Israel. Because when he sins, he doesn't own it. He doesn't say, yes, I spared the stuff that God had cursed. But he says, it was the people. And yeah, I took a few sheep, but I was going to sacrifice them to God. And even though he was speaking to the greatest prophet, one of the greatest prophets of all time, Elijah—sorry, Samuel. Samuel, he at no stage owns his sin, and God rips the kingdom from him, and he loses it all. And you remember, David did something far worse. What Saul did was he spared the king of the Amalekites that he was supposed to annihilate, and he spared some of the sheep and some of the possessions. We'd say, well, that's not so serious. I mean, he was showing mercy to the king. What David did was, in terms of our understanding of the seriousness of sin, was terrible, because he took another man's wife, slept with her, and then to cover his sin, killed the man. You say, well, David didn't kill him. Well, David did kill him, because David sends instructions to the war front, and he says, put your in the front of the battle, and when the battle is on its hottest, you guys retreat, leave him out there, and leave him to dry. And he dies. David killed him. So David steals the man's wife and then kills him for his wife. I mean, how much worse do you have to get? And yet David continues in his kingdom. David continues to be a man after God's own heart. David continues to be the man on whose throne the Messiah will reign. What was the difference? When the prophet came to David and said, you're the guy, David's repentance is complete. And we can read it in Psalm 51. In Psalm 51, he is broken before God as he admits and confesses his sin, and as he turns from it. That was the difference. One man committed a heinous, terrible crime. The other one just did a little thing, but the one repented. The other never did. One's kingdom was restored. The other one lost his kingdom. One will be in the New Jerusalem with us. The other one is in hell. What a difference, just turning on this one issue of repentance. Folk, we must learn to repent. We must learn to turn away from our sin. We must learn to acknowledge our sin. I won't bore you with stories of situations that I've seen, but preachers who've spent their lives preaching the gospel, but when caught in sin, unable to repent because of the pride of their hearts. Folk, there is no room for pride when we're dealing with a holy God, and there's no room for pride when we're dealing with the body of Christ, with one another. If you've sinned against your brothers, go to him as we've seen in Luke a couple of chapters ago, and repent. Say, brother, I've sinned. I did you wrong, that the relationship might be restored and might be healed. And so here's the principle that is the basis of our salvation. Obviously, we're not saved, but we're saved, we understand, by the blood of Christ. But this is the basis on which I come into the gospel, into the kingdom, and this is the basis on which I continue to love and to serve the Lord. It's on the basis of continual repentance. We've spoken before about when you fly internationally and you wake up every few minutes and you hear the plane making corrections, making corrections all the time, because it's drifting, of course, and if it doesn't make those corrections, you will never get to your destination. And folk, as Christians, we need to make those corrections, and we make those corrections in the form of repentance. The plane turns in a different direction because it's going maybe a half a degree off course. We need to be willing to make those course corrections if we want to end in the right place. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your grace, Lord, that you love us, that you've provided for us a means of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, that we're not saved because we're good people. We're saved because Jesus died. Father, we thank you that we come into the kingdom, not because we have earned it, but because of your grace. And Lord, now that we are part of your kingdom, Lord, we pray that we may continue in that grace, and Lord, that we may continue to turn away from the things that displease you. Lord, that we may continue to turn away from our failure to do what you want us to do. Lord, that we may discontinue our involvement in sin, in works that lead to death. But Lord, that we would also not waste our time on doing things that just don't count, that have no value whatsoever. But Lord, that we may do those things that please you. And Lord, that you might be glorified. Lord, forgive us for looking for short-term rewards. Help us, Lord, to have our eyes fixed on eternity, that we might receive our reward in heaven. And Lord, that we may not have the commendation of people. And Lord, while we often long for that, Lord, it's more important that we hear the words of our Savior, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord. Lord, we need your commendation. We need your approval. And we pray that we may chase that with all of our hearts. And so Lord, I pray that you would keep us and protect us as we part and bring us together again safely on Sunday, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.