John K. Jenkins Sr - Bible Study, Repentance - Part 2

So I want to pick right up; I have a lot of stuff to cover tonight. What I want you to do is write down two verses that I give you and then read them when you get the opportunity. Thank all three of you for saying amen to that. Last week, we talked about repentance. As a matter of fact, our teaching is from Hebrews chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. The writer of this book is addressing some Jewish Christians who have converted to Christianity and are thinking about going back. He challenges them that by this time in their walk with God, they should have a lot of maturity and knowledge about certain teachings of Scripture, but they didn’t. He said we need to go back and teach you again the elementary principles of the gospel of the kingdom. He lists six things, and this is what we are going to be spending these weeks talking about from Hebrews 6, verses 1 and 2:

«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, the doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgments.»

It is my prayer and hope that by the time we finish talking about these six foundational truths, you will have a clearer understanding of what the Scriptures teach about these matters. Last week, I gave a short message on Sunday, but I am diving deeper into it during the week on Tuesdays. Last Tuesday, we talked about repentance, and we dealt with that. I didn’t get to the second part, which is repentance from dead works, so I want to talk about dead works today and faith toward God. Lord, help me to make it through this.

Let 's talk about dead works because, unfortunately, a lot of what goes on in church constitutes dead works. There is an effort that people make using their own abilities and strengths to please God, which is not based on the truth of what God has done for us. We define dead works as anything we do that does not spring from — I should have put this in capital letters-total dependence on Jesus Christ. Everything we do should be birthed out of and fueled by our total dependence on Christ. Anything you do that is independent from God, relying on your own strengths and abilities, is dead work. The Bible reaffirms this over and over again, and that’s what these three verses highlight. Let me take a moment to read them since I have so much to cover; I’m not going to wait for you all to get there because you ' re too slow.

2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 9 through 10 says, «Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raised the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us, in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.» The key here is that we’re not trusting in ourselves (verse 9) but in God. A lot of the people you witness to trust in their opinions, thoughts, beliefs-what they think is reality-and they are not putting their trust in Christ. That 's what we’re called to do. Anytime you do anything birthed out of dependence on your opinion, your thoughts, or your efforts, thinking that’s going to get you right with God, that’s dead work; it doesn’t work, amen? We have to recognize that that’s a dead work.

2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 4 through 5 says this: «And we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.» We have to totally depend on the Lord. Let me give you this last verse here from John 15: 5; this is a powerful verse as well. It says, «I am the vine,» this is Jesus speaking, " you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.» In your own strength and abilities, it amounts to nothing. If it’s zero, it yields nothing; it’s dead. So anything we do that doesn’t depend totally on Jesus is a dead work. Y’all got that? There’s a difference between accepting God’s grace and depending on dead works. This is probably the hardest thing to get people to understand: Christ has called us to accept the grace He has made available to us. He’s given us a gift; salvation is free-you don’t earn it, you don’t buy it, and you don’t work for it. It’s a free gift.

The difference between accepting God’s grace and depending on your works still yields dead results. So then, what are the differences? Let 's talk about it. Here 's the first part: grace justifies, and works do not. Grace justifies us; we get justified by the grace of God. That word means we are put in the right standing with God, totally by grace and grace alone, not by…