Good morning. Good to see you
all here. It's good to be back. I've been
out a few weeks, been away, but Sue said that you didn't take
my name off the roll. Although Jim did threaten to
list me as a guest speaker this morning, he said. But actually,
it wasn't too long ago that I brought a message to you from the book
of Job. And I want to make a few comments
about that by way of introduction this morning. Be turning in your
Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6. That'll be where we'll begin
our study. But while you're returning there,
I want you to recall that I focused in the previous message on Job
chapter 42, verses 5 and 6, where we read of Job speaking to God,
and he said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,
but now, mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself and
repent. in dust and ashes. And we reviewed
how Job, as he endured those tragic circumstances that God
had providentially allowed Satan to bring his way to inflict upon
him, how Job had come to harbor thoughts concerning God that
were altogether contrary to the true character of God as Job
had known him. And so, God spoke to Job with
words of correction that brought him back to his spiritual senses,
so to speak. And that resulted in Job's repentance,
as I just read here toward the end of the book. Well, as I pointed
out in that message, Job's repentance can be likened to the repentance
of all who are saved. The repentance that all experience,
even in their regeneration and conversion, when God first gives
a sinner the spiritual senses, the spiritual faculties of the
new birth. That is when they're given eyes
to see him as he is and not as we naturally imagine him to be.
So those who are saved as we set forth in that message, they
in essence change God. Just like Paul wrote of the believers
in Thessalonica saying, He said in 1 Thessalonians 1 9, for they
themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you,
and how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true
God. So in conclusion of that message
on Job, I spent a great deal of time addressing how all sinners
are likewise called to repent of former idolatry. And as I
said during the 10 o'clock hour, we know that the idols of our
day are not typically constructed with wood or stone, but rather
they're often the products of our own sinful imaginations,
as we imagine God to be altogether different from the living and
true God. And so it's an idol, but it's
one constructed in our minds, and this, our idolatry. is exposed when God is pleased
to reveal Christ to us as he is set forth not just in a gospel
but in God's gospel, God's way of salvation in and by Christ
alone. That's a way of grace and sadly
that way of grace is diametrically opposed to what most in our day
refer to as salvation by grace And those of you who heard that
last message, you'll recall that in summarizing those four chapters
of God's correction of Job, we observed how it could be kind
of summarized this way. It could be equated to God basically
confronting Job and you with these two eye-opening questions.
First, he was saying, Job, who do you think I am? And then secondly,
he was saying, Job, who do you think you are? And I want to
suggest to you this morning that godly repentance springs, see,
from the revelation of faith that answers both of those questions. You see, believers are confronted
with a new reality of God as He is, and so they change gods. They repent of former idolatry. But the revelation of faith also
answers that other question. Secondly, who do you think you
are? and as we see ourselves as we
are in reality, that's how God sees us, as depraved sinners
desperately in need of a perfect righteousness that we have no
hope of producing, then we repent of the notion that any work of
our hand, referred to in the scripture as dead works, could
dare rival the accomplished work that Christ as God-man alone
could render and did render by His obedience unto death. What
it really took, you see, His righteousness, not a righteousness
of our own making. So today I want to focus your
attention on this aspect of believer's repentance, the repentance from
dead works. That's the title of the message
and I've taken that title from our primary text in Hebrews 6
where we're going to begin our consideration of that important
subject, repentance from dead works. Leading up to chapter
6, verse 1 of Hebrews, at the close of chapter 5, Paul is writing,
he said in verse 11, he spoke of how they were dull of hearing,
and he's commenting on that. So let's begin our reading back
in verse 12 of chapter 5. He says, For when for the time
ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again,
which be, and underline this, the first principles, the first
principles of the oracles of God. And are become such as have
need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth
milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness. Now that's
the gospel. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed in that gospel. Says, for he is a babe, but strong
meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good
and evil. Now that's what we're doing this
morning. Anytime we gather under the sound
of God's gospel. a free, sovereign, pure, unadulterated
grace. That's what we're doing. We're
having our senses exercise to discern good and evil, for as
God says, the things that we think are good, He calls evil.
And then in verse 1 of chapter 6, continuing, He says, leaving,
and look at this, the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Remember
he had said back in verse 12, the first principles of the oracles
of God. Here he's referring to the principles
of the doctrine of Christ. And he's not saying leaving them
behind. He's rather, as you'll see in the context here, he's
speaking of building upon those first principles. He says, let
us go on unto perfection, not laying again, listen, the foundation
of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God." Now,
I want you to notice here what is that... I want you to see
that repentance from dead works and faith toward God are set
forth in this passage as foundational principles of the doctrine of
Christ. And if it's foundational, then
it means it is vital. It means it is a critical basic
building block of the vital doctrine of Christ. the doctrine of Christ
which speaks to the vital truth of the gospel, that word of righteousness,
that is believed upon by all those who are saved. As we read
in 2 John 9, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. So by this we know
that repentance from dead works is an identifying characteristic
along with God-given faith of all believers as it is foundational
to the vital doctrine of Christ. And so that means it's vital
that you and I both understand and experience repentance from
dead works. Now turn over to Hebrews 9. As
we move on further into the book of Hebrews, we have in Hebrews
9 a comparison being made between the offering of animal sacrifices,
goats and calves, as that nation Israel was commanded to do under
the terms of the Old Covenant, that old ceremonial law. And
that, the offering of those sacrifices is being contrasted with the
supreme offering that these animal sacrifices foreshadowed, that
which they pictured, the sacrificial offering of the blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God. And so picking up in verse 13
of chapter 9, we read, for if the blood of bulls and of goats
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying
of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" First,
I want you to notice what's contrasted. We have the sprinkling, that
is, the application physically of the blood of animals by the
priest, the appointed priest of Israel, whereby that entire
nation, everyone that he represented there, everyone for whom he sprinkled
that blood, you see, they were set apart. That's what it's speaking
of when it speaks of sanctify to the purifying of the flesh.
Now that was a physical application and it was something that was
to have its effect for a temporary time under that old covenant. That is, until Christ, the Lamb
of God, came and sacrificed His own blood so as to abolish that
covenant, not by destroying it, but by fulfilling all that was
typified by it. Isn't that what Christ said on
the Sermon on the Mount? He said, I came not to destroy
the law of the prophets, but to fulfill it. But that physical
sprinkling of animal blood did in fact set that nation apart,
see, from all other nations for that period of time. And in verse
14, you see it set them apart much like circumcision set them
apart, like the putting of the blood over the doorposts at the
Passover set them apart. In verse 14, we see that that
application is contrasted with that which affected much more. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, it reads, that is the spiritual application then
of that blood, by the eternal Holy Spirit of the application
of the shed blood of the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, how much more shall it have its sure effect in setting
apart all those for whom that blood was shed. And the effect
listed here is in the purging of the conscience from dead works. The consciences, see, of everyone
for whom that blood was applied. for whom that blood was shed.
This sanctifying work, you see, this setting apart of them, it's
so much more because it's setting apart what the scripture calls
the Israel of God, spiritual Israel. That is a chosen people,
but a people chosen unto eternal salvation, and so it's not temporary. See, this is a setting apart
of those who possess eternal life. Their consciences are purged
from dead works. Now, I want you to reflect back
on what we just looked at in Hebrews chapter 6, the repentance
from dead works that's shown there to be a foundational principle
of the doctrine of Christ, of the gospel. Well, first let's
just consider the obvious. We only repent, see, of that
which we become convinced was folly, was deadly error, you
see. And here it's pertaining to our
thoughts regarding our own works. And I believe specifically it's
speaking of that which proceeds from us, the sinner, that we
attributed to having some bearing upon removing God's disfavor
in some way, appeasing His wrath, making a difference in us not
being one who would experience His everlasting wrath. or we
presumed it somehow put us in God's favor. Something that we did that contributed
to our getting into heaven, so to speak. So all see who repent
of dead works, we see from this passage, they do so because these
works are purged from their conscience. Now that's their seat of judgment,
you see. And how is that done? It's done
in that they are seen They are revealed to us to be what they
are, dead works. That means no merit to be found
in them whatsoever. Now first notice, I want you
to stay here with me in Hebrews 9 and notice that this purging
of our conscience from dead works, it's a blood work. It's the fruit
and effect of Christ's shed blood. His redemptive work that purges
the conscience concerning what? That second question, who we
are in reality. Depraved sinners with nothing
of merit to offer from our own hands. In other words, our own
works. And we come to see such efforts
as dead works. You see, the scripture says in
Ephesians 2.10, it says, for we are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now what makes our works acceptable
before God? It's not the quality of our works.
You see, for everything we do is tainted with self and sin.
The best prayer I pray has got enough self-love in it that it
would condemn me if God judged me on that basis. So the works
of a saved sinner are only acceptable, you see, because of that sinner's
personal standing. as one who has been accepted
before a holy and a just God, not based on their sinnerhood,
but accepted as Ephesians 1.6 says, in the beloved. Accepted
in their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. As I mentioned
at 10 o'clock, what a great transaction we read about in 2 Corinthians
5.21. We see there it says, Christ
was made sin for us. He who knew no sin in himself
That means the demerit of all the sins of God's elect were
imputed or charged to Christ that he might pay the penalty
due unto God's justice for those sins. And then, in turn, it says
that they might be made the righteousness of God in him. That means having
the very merit of all that he accomplished by His perfect obedience,
even unto death, that is satisfying the law in precept and penalty,
that strict justice of a holy God being satisfied by what He
accomplished for them as their substitute. Now that's the righteousness
of God that is imputed or charged to the account of all those for
whom Christ's blood was shed, all for whom he lived and died."
Now, I've already mentioned that the conscience refers to our
seat of judgment. And I want you to notice there
in Hebrews 9 the definite connection between the purged conscience
and serving the living God. And I think here we can see how
these two aspects of repentance, that is repentance from idolatry
from a false god to the one living and true God, and repentance
from dead works, they're really inseparable, you see. Both are
always manifested by all true believers. So from the language
of verse 14, we can know with a certainty, see, that the purging
of a sinner's conscience from dead works, that blood work as
a result of Christ's shed blood for that sinner, it is necessary. in order for one to serve the
living God. If you serve the living God,
your conscience has been purged from dead works. And I think
the Scripture could not be clearer. So here we see again how God
brings us to see Him aright. We see who He is and we see who
we are. Sinners in desperate need of
God's grace to provide a perfect righteousness whereby we can
be found accepted before a holy God. And that's a saving work
that we sinners cannot produce for ourselves. So let me just
kind of recap and keep everybody up to speed today. Hebrews 6,
we've seen from there that repentance of dead works is a foundational
principle of the doctrine of Christ, of the gospel. And we've
seen from Hebrews 9 that it is a blood work. It's a direct,
and listen, it's a sure, inevitable, certain to happen, fruit and
effect of Christ's accomplishment for His people on the cross.
And so, one who repents of dead works is one whose conscience
has been purged from dead works. With that now, let's go forward
to chapter 10 of Hebrews. And look with me there beginning
in verse 19. We read, having therefore brethren,
he's speaking to the family of God, brethren, boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house
of God, he says, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith." And who are these that can draw near
with a true heart and full assurance of faith? Having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Here we see that one who draws
near in full assurance of faith, he's one whose heart has been
sprinkled from an evil conscience, an evil conscience. Just think
back now in Hebrews 9 is the purifying work of the sprinkling
of that animal blood, the physical application of that being done
on behalf of that chosen nation. You see, set them apart. Likewise,
it says here, the hearts of the brethren who have boldness, see,
to enter into the very presence of God. We're talking about saved
sinners. They're said to have had their
hearts sprinkled That is, this blood work has been spiritually
applied to them, to their hearts, to their inner being, their mind,
their affections, their will, as they're described as having
that heart sprinkled from an evil conscience. So the purging
of the conscience is the purging of an evil conscience. And I
don't want us to gloss over this. That seems to be such a simple
truth. But you know, it's one thing to acknowledge the truth
that salvation is not by works. I know that before my conscience
had ever been purged from dead works, I would have maintained
that salvation is not by works. I called what I believed grace.
But you see, the conscience that has been purged sees the reality
of how evil how awfully sinful that which we before thought
was good, that we brought, how evil it truly was in God's sight.
And I'm going to touch on that some more in closing, but keep
that thought in mind. But I want you to notice before
we leave Hebrews 10 here that it says of these brethren, true
believers, that their bodies are washed with pure water. It's
speaking of their having been made pure in Christ. That is,
having the very perfection that He rendered on behalf of a people,
imputed or accounted to them, to the account of all spiritual
Israel, His chosen people, who all, as Christ said, will come
to Him. Who come to Christ in genuine
God-given faith and in repentance of dead works. And they're set
apart in their own consciences. as that's made known to them,
see, by the sure fruit and effect of Christ's shed blood, spiritual
life, the washing of regeneration, as it's called in Titus 3.5.
So it's made known to these, see, these blood-bought sinners. It's made known that they stand
before God in Christ, as Colossians 1.22 tells us, as I mentioned
earlier, as holy and unblameable. and unreprovable in His sight.
Why would I want to go to face judgment pleading something that
comes from me, a sinner, rather than the impeccable, perfect
righteousness of Christ that finds me standing holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight, the sight of a holy God? As Revelation
1.5 speaks of Christ, you don't have to turn there, but it says
in relation to those, he says, that He loved us and washed us
from our sins in His own blood. You know, we often sing that
song, are you washed in the blood? Well, if so, we can know here
from Hebrews 10 that your heart has been, or it will be, sprinkled
from an evil conscience. the very blood of Christ having
been shed for you so that in time you have or you will have
turned from an evil conscience. That is, that evil conscience
will have been purged from dead works as we saw in Hebrews 9.
And so you will have repented of both former idolatry and dead
works, these two inseparable aspects of true godly initial
repentance that always accompanies true faith. You see, faith and
repentance go hand in hand. It's the turning to serve the
true and living God. So if you're turning, you're
turning away from something to something. And we know that's
so because as we saw in Hebrews 6, Faith and repentance from
dead works are set forth as what? Foundational principles of the
gospel. The doctrine of Christ in which
all true believers are said to abide. So seeing now how the
scriptures set forth clearly that all who are saved washed
in his blood, they have their evil consciences purged from
dead works so as to repent from dead works. Let's just spend
a few moments making sure we understand what is meant by dead
works. Dead works refers to any attempts
of our own to attain or maintain salvation or any of its benefits. It's anything that proceeds from
us, the sinner. done by us and through us that
we imagine makes a difference in our going to heaven, in our
eternal salvation. So dead works refers to anything
other than what actually does get that job done. Anything other
than or in addition to what the one imputed righteousness of
God in Christ and dead works would be anything we imagine
different than that. And you know, it's appropriate
they're called dead works because those who are spiritually dead
perform them. And listen, because the ultimate
end of those who never repent from dead works is eternal death. You see, everyone here has performed
dead works because we start off dead. All who are born again,
they were dead before they were born again. They're made alive
or quickened. And so we start, as Ephesians
2.1 teaches us, as dead men spiritually. It says, and you hath he quickened,
made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. And in that state,
all our works are dead works. As Paul wrote in Romans 7.5,
he said, when we were in the flesh. That
means when we were lost, spiritually dead. He said the motions of
sin which were by the law. In other words, what we were
moved to do, what we were motivated to do in order to satisfy God,
the law's holy demands. He says that did work in our
members to bring forth what? Fruit unto death. Now that fruit unto death can
be equated to dead works. So godly repentance can only
take place when one hears of and submits to that one righteousness.
The only perfect satisfaction ever rendered to God's holy law
and justice. The righteousness of God in Christ,
the merit of His work where we're brought to rest in Christ and
His righteousness, listen, alone for all of our salvation. And
you know, apart from that understanding, even the most sincere religious
efforts on our part are characterized by God as dead works to be repented
of. So we must turn from those things,
see, that we thought were good, that were commendable, that were
meritorious, things that we thought made a difference in our being
admitted even into God's presence in eternity. You know, in repentance,
we forsake that which we formerly valued. This initial repentance
is not speaking of our being just sorry over acts of immorality. or wrong things that we may have
done, but we're talking about forsaking something we formerly
valued and thought made the real difference in our standing before
God. You see, according to our natural
way of thinking, we object to the notion that our standing
before God isn't at least affected in some way, to some degree,
by our actions, our character, our conduct, You know, I've had
friends tell me when things were going well for me, they say,
oh, you must have been living at the foot of the cross, you
see. And that's just our natural mindset. There's something we
must be doing right. And we think we can, and we believe
that by doing whatever our particular denomination prescribes for us,
that there's some doing that we can do that will make a difference. So as self-righteous sinners,
someone comes along with the gospel and we go, wait a minute
now, if what you're telling me is true, there's no reason why
I'd obey God at all. You're saying it won't have anything
to do with my standing before God, what I do or I don't do?
You see, think how that reasoning, and it does, and it will do this
in the 20-20 hindsight of God-given faith, but it should cause us
all to see what sinners we are, how self-centered, how self-consumed
with self-love we all are by nature. We're basically saying,
I don't see any reason why I'll even try to do right if I'm not
going to get something for it. And to us, you see, in that position,
there's just no other valid motive we can conceive of. We say, if
my obedience has no bearing upon my acceptance before God, I have
no valid motive left to try to obey God, I might as well eat,
drink and be merry and live like the devil and have a good time."
You see, the gospel motive of grace and gratitude just totally
escapes us. Because you see, until you've
experienced salvation that is totally conditioned on the doing
and the dying of another and see yourself as that mercy beggar,
an object of God's grace and mercy, you can't come to have
that sort of gratitude that would cause you to want to serve and
obey God from that motive. You know, and listen, that way
of thinking is just reasonable in light of the religion of man,
the popular religion of our day. It's a religion of works. Whether
it goes by the name of grace or not, it's identified this
way. You see, we're typically motivated
to try to do better, to sin less, And it's done by working upon
our fallen natural feelings of guilt and fear of punishment. And listen, that natural mercenary
desire for gain and reward. In other words, what can I do? You know, that's the first question
we all ask when we get serious about religion. Okay, even those
who come up under the gospel You know, it kind of goes in
one ear and out the other, and all of a sudden one day they
wake up and they go, okay, I'm going to get serious about religion.
What do I have to do to be saved? It's just natural. It's taking
our next breath. And religion just preys upon
it, builds upon it. Typical religion. And that kind
of emphasis, see, only serves to strengthen our sinful resolve
I'm going to do better. I'm going to clean up my act.
I'm going to, in essence, establish a righteousness of my own." And
in Romans 7, 5, God calls such widely respected efforts by others,
He calls it evil and fruit unto death. You know, if you'll just pause
and just think what it actually took. What God has engaged in
His way of salvation. the establishment of a perfect
righteousness, the incarnation, the humiliation of God taken
into union with His deity, humanity, walking here on earth and feeling
the very drudgeries of this life, pain, hunger, thirst, all of
that, even the death on the cross. You think of that, the obedience
and death of His Son is what it took. Now, in light of that,
we should see, and if God opens our eyes we will see, that it's
the highest form of pride, it's the highest reproach, and it's
the greatest insult to this holy and just and righteous God. And listen, this is the most
blatant denial of Christ in His work for any sinner to imagine
that God was saving based on anything else. Anything other
than or in addition to that which Christ the Savior accomplished.
The righteousness of God that He established in the room and
in the stead of all those He saved as their representative
and substitute. You see, anytime a person performs
a moral act, which we should do, or a religious act, while
thinking that that in some way recommends them unto God, it
somehow finds them in favor. It contributes to their attaining
or maintaining fellowship in favor with God. He's bringing
forth fruit unto death. evil, dead works. You know, in
Luke chapter 16, 15, it says, that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination unto God. And that's the thing that
I think he's talking about there. You see, that which is highly
esteemed by others, oh, what a good man, when they are presumed
to have some bearing upon our standing before God. Those very
things that are outwardly good are an abomination. They're an
atrocity unto holy God. It took the blood of His Son. I think the clearest example,
as many of you know, of repentance from dead works and former idolatry
is provided by the Apostle Paul in his description of his own
spiritual conversion. And listen, we would do well
to pay attention to that because Paul in 1 Timothy 1.16, he's
described to us as an appropriate pattern to any who would come
to genuine faith and repentance. And I'd encourage you to read
that whole third chapter of Philippians as time permits. But for today,
I just want you to consider this one aspect of that. When Paul
describes that conversion and his repentance, He doesn't describe,
oh, all those immoral, awful things that I now repent of.
He says, that which was gain I now counted loss. Now, that's
no small thing. It takes a work of grace. It's
a work of God. You know, for any sinner to come
to that point, to say the things that they were banking on, that
they were counting on, they now count loss. And you know, but
from our natural perspective, it seems especially hard for
those who are steeped in religion like yours truly in many years
past. You know, when by God's grace,
his gospel of free and sovereign grace, it providentially came
my way, it really turned my world upside down. And so by the power
of the Holy Spirit with the new eyes of God-given faith, I was
confronted with this truth. that up until that point in time
I had openly staked my entire eternal destiny on that which
was now exposed to me to be dead works. And so all my former religious
dedication, the esteem in which I was held by other like-minded
religious folks, the investment of my time and my money and my
energy spent trying to influence others and witness to them. All
those were really obstacles to my objective consideration of
the gospel. Yet the God I came to know through
the gospel was wise enough and was powerful enough and He did
love me enough with an infinite everlasting love to overcome
all those obstacles making what would seem impossible a reality
Think about that. Why would anybody forsake and
denounce all that he stood for in the past while others were
applauding it? Things that were so highly esteemed
by others, why would he forsake that and call it dead works?
You know, you reckon it was because I was just maybe a little more
humble than others, Winston? or maybe it just wasn't quite
as obstinate as others. No, I'm going to tell you something.
I'm full of pride and I'm stubborn as a mule. I came to Christ,
you see, for all of my salvation for the same reason that any
come to Christ, because I was drawn irresistibly by God the
Holy Spirit as, listen, a sure and a certain to occur result
of what my Savior had accomplished for me. You see, I was blood-bought
Remember as we saw in Hebrews 9, this purging of the conscience,
this change in my judgment of things? That's a blood work. And we're talking the precious,
listen, 100% always effectual blood of Christ. And so by God's
grace, I came to see that even my act of faith, my believing,
or any other seemingly honorable act of obedience, If I presumed
it to play, listen, a causal role in my salvation, to make
the difference, it plays a role. But when I presumed it to play
a causal role, you see, I saw that's not an acceptable act
of obedience at all, but it's actually evil. Dead works in
the sight of God. I'm sure many of you have done
things as I have in your lives which you're ashamed, you regret,
you repent of, but I want you to know this. The most evil thing
I've ever done on this earth, it was done in a religious context. Think of it. Placing my act of
faith in rivalry with what it took, the effectual redemption
that is exclusively by the shed blood of Christ. I think I've
said this before. You know, no one who truly believes
God's gospel considers themselves saved because they believed. Now, you see, they repent of
that notion. You see, their faith excludes
that notion. They believe because they're
saved, because Christ paid their sin debt by his shed blood and
he bought them that precious gift of genuine faith and repentance,
a repentance from ever thinking they were saved because they
believed or because of anything else they have ever done or have
been unable to do. See, true believers repent of
such notions. such dead works, they look solely
to the doing and the dying of their substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. So, in summary, just know this. All who are saved manifest those
evidences described in Hebrews 6, remember, as the first principles,
the foundational principles of the gospel, of the doctrine of
Christ. Repentance from dead works and faith towards God. And that is a blood work. It's by virtue of his shed blood
that all them for whom that blood was shed in their respective
lifetimes, you see, they shall be given faith to turn from idols
to serve the living and true God. And as I hope you've seen
today, their evil consciences are all purged from dead works
as evidenced by their repentance from dead works. May God so richly
bless you.