When you come to a difficult verse, don't ignore. - adapted from Zac Poonen
"…not laying again the foundation of dead works…" - Hebrews 6:1
Repentance from dead works by Richard Owen Roberts - See article on SermonIndex here:
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=2708
Excerpts:
The biblical demand for repentance is in two separate and distinct areas: repentance from sin and repentance from dead works.
Accepting Jesus Christ as Savior has become for millions of professing Christians nothing but a dead work. For many of them there has been no turning from sin and self and no yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ. Without genuine repentance there can be no genuine conversion. The true Christian has the life of God in him. This life is received by exchange: a life for a life-His life for my life. When I come to the end of myself and in faith surrender to Him, casting all upon Him, He replaces my broken and ruined life with His own life. Christ does not give life to those already satisfied with the life they have. It is impossible to have Christ as Saviour but not as Lord. One cannot be saved from hell without being saved from sin and self. To pretend otherwise is hypocrisy. To teach otherwise is heresy.
An excellent illustration of what it means to follow Christ as a dead work is found in chapter six of the Gospel of John. The passage opens with the declaration that Christ went over the Sea of Galilee and a crowd followed Him because they saw His miracles and were impressed. Jesus went up into a mountain with His disciples to teach, but in glancing up, He saw the great crowd coming once more. Jesus asked Philip about feeding the multitude and by a wonderful miracle did so with five barley loaves and two small fishes brought by a mere lad. Jesus then perceived that the crowd planned to take Him by force and make Him a king, so He slipped away to Capernaum, The crowd eagerly followed Him there also.
Many obviously followed Jesus for what they hoped to get out of Him. These poor Jews loved free bread and were ready to receive it all the time, but they did not love the truth and were not willing to have it laid on them continually. As long as they got what they wanted without price and obligation, they were greatly interested. When the demands of faith and submission were laid down, however, their enthusiasm for Jesus fled rapidly.
The great truth the coming revival must emphasize is repentance from both sins and from dead works. No dead work is more prominent in religious circles today than the formal, empty, false, legal acceptance of Christ without yielding to His Lordship in genuine faith. When a wave of God-sent repentance sweeps over the Church and false professors become genuine converts, the world will be forced to sit up and take notice.
The empty formality of accepting Christ, however, is not the only dead work being relied upon for merit with God. Church attendance and participation can be a dead work. Anyone supposing he has gained merit by attending religious services is in obvious trouble with God. Worship is always a dead work if it is not acceptable to God. Jesus told the frequently married Samaritan woman, God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth John 4:24). God cannot be worshiped with mere human voices raised in songs of praise. Uttered prayers may not constitute worship either. If God is Spirit, how can He be worshiped by mere physical means? Men truly worship Him only when they worship Him in ways He commands. Men worship God only when they worship Him in spirit. It is possible to be in a physical sanctuary, singing from a hymnbook made of physical things, uttering praise with a physical tongue and listening to a sermon delivered by a physical man, while the inner spirit is miles away on the golf course or at home fussing over the Sunday dinner. If you do not worship God in spirit and in truth, all your worship is dead work. Do you need to repent of this?
Any work which has no capacity to be made alive by the Spirit of God is a dead work.
If a professing Christian insists on sharing the Gospel at all times, in all places, and with all men, but without regard to their immediate attitudes or to the prompting of the Spirit of God, he may well be engaging in a work that will not be quickened by the Spirit and which must then be correctly labeled dead. Jesus Himself instructed us, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you (Matthew 7:6). To fail to heed this biblical instruction is to risk engaging in work which is contrary to the will of God and which is thus a dead work requiring repentance.
And if men and women outside the church are not fooled by hypocrites engaged in dead works, why should unrepentant religious workers suppose God cannot see through their thin veneer?
Personal witnessing can be, indeed often is, nothing more than dead work. It is possible to witness to another without any feelings of love toward them, without any deep concern for their lostness and without significant reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Indeed, some appear to witness more for the purpose of adding up converts than for the glory of God and the good of men.
All church work-the eldership, ushering, Sunday school teaching, choir singing, solo work, or any other of a host of good and needed services-can be performed in the power of the flesh and not in the power of the Spirit. In fact, it is easier and simpler to do one's religious duty in the flesh rather than in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
Waiting on God is part of working in the Spirit. God's timetable is not usually the same as man's. We want to get things done when we are ready. Accomplishing them in the power of the Spirit will require us to wait for God and not rush ahead of Him. Wading into a task is usually much easier than praying hour by hour until the Spirit of God is ready to move. But if we insist on acting ahead of the Spirit, we should at least have the grace to admit we cherish the flesh more than we cherish the Spirit and find no great problem with dead works.
Putting it bluntly, it seems easier to do the work ourselves than to wait upon God for the enduement of power from on high. Thus, much of the work conducted in the name of Jesus Christ is doomed to eternal failure because it is nothing more than dead work.
Revival must emphasize repentance from every known form of dead works.