Simple Statement of Principle: Heavenly Father is not a fan of hypocrites.
Titus 1: 15-16
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

I had a very interesting experience with this scripture this weekend. Yesterday, I went to the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference. When I came back to my car, there was a postcard of anti-Mormon literature tucked under my windshield proclaiming this scripture. On the anti-Mormon literature, the basic message was that because Mormons believe that they can do good works and they can repent, they are going to hell because according to Titus, all men are inherently defiled and to deny that is enough to send us to hell. This definitely struck me as odd logic, because I understood it to mean that if works count for nothing, then as long as a murderer and a priest confess that Christ's atonement saves them, they have the same fate even if the murderer has not gone through the process of repentance. Very strange. Anyway, this post is not to Bible bash, but after I read the postcard, I went to the scriptures. These verses appear when Paul is discussing the qualifications for a bishop, saying that he needs to be "blameless, not self-willed, not angry, etc." Because of that context, I believe that the scripture talks about how one cannot profess to be a believer in God and not take upon righteous characteristics, because that is not allowing the power of the gospel to change one's heart. David A. Bednar, in his talk "Clean Hands and Pure Heart," writes, "Our spiritual purpose is to overcome both sin and the desire to sin, both the taint and the tyranny of sin." I have a testimony that our works do have merit and that as we continuously try to become more like Christ we can become, through repentance, more pure in heart.