DEAD FAITH
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. ...
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? ...
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2: 18-26, King James Version [KJV], Concerning respect of persons).
Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus Yahshuah,
My sisters and brothers, you laid the guilt at the table of brotherhood when in fact the guilt lies in your heart for the acts of truth that are not in your heart betray you, one to another [Colossians 3: 9-1O, King James Version (KJV), “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”]. In furtherance, The General Epistle Of James 3: 13, KJV] speaks to true wisdom is peaceable: “Who is a wise man and ensued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” Howbeit, James [1: 21, KJV] dealt with Christian Ethics, in his letter written in the most Jewish style, addressed to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, insisted that works, not words, are a mark of a disciple, for he introduced himself as James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wrote, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” Let us say, in The Epistle Of Paul The Apostle To The Colossians [3: 8, KJV], a letter well-known for its doctrine and brevity that Apostle Paul insisted upon Lordship of Christ, when he wrote, “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, out of your mouth.’ Accordingly Peter describes himself as “Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ “ in The First Epistle General Of Peter [2: 1-12, KJV] and spoke to Christian Ethics when he wrote:
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
My sisters how confusing is it for you to profane your sister to gain power and authority over her, to curse her out-loud and in your heart with all the filthiness that you hold in your heart to compete with her, to inquire about her well-being to spy her out in order to destroy her, for the writing on the wall of your contentious heart clearly speaks to the shame of your dishonorable acts, for you know you are still holding the guilt of whoredom, aspiring to be the biggest whore is not honorable, no matter how under-handed, low-down sneaky snake in the grass tactics used to achieve such a disgraceful position, is undertaken, for your lies condemn your heart and is not a mark of a follower of Christ Jesus. Contentiously speaking, disbelief leads you astray, for your dead faith binds you in condemnation and strife: always at war with yourself blaming others for the misfortunes you welcome, for it was you who sowed the seeds of hate in your heart and in your works, standing against good faith. Why did God call Babylon a whore?
[en.m.wikipedia.org, “A depiction of the Whore of Babylon riding the seven-headed beast. The Whore of Babylon or Babylon the Great is a symbolic female figure and also place of evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Revelation 17 describes the judgment of the whore: “... And on her forehead a name was written:
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.”]. In The Revelation Of St. John The Divine [17: 1-18, KJV], in the Vision of the great whore, the author was described as his servant John, wrote:
“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
My sisters, in Christ Jesus, the victory is the LORD GOD’S, the glory is the LORD GOD’S. What you thought you had taken, is not yours for the taking? The prize does not belong to you. According to Apostle Paul in a message of joy in his letter to the Philippians [3: 14, KJV] for their love and material assistance, Paul wrote: “ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Do not think that your ambitious climb to the high calling goes unnoticed by GOD, for your works of good faith are for GOD. We go back to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, in the presence of God, yet Eve seeks out the words of the serpent to guide her to truth. In Genesis [3: 4-20, KJV], we find the Words of the LORD GOD:
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.”51
We find Eve left in the care of Adam, for righteousness sake, as they leave the Garden of Eden. Woman continuously strives for approval of man and her God but makes poor choices under the influences of the weakness of man’s flesh that keeps leading her astray for the greed of man and the wanton lusts of man will not loose her to truly seek truth in God’s love, for without man she is nothing but the dust that man was made of and the rib of man that God made her of. In Genesis [2: 22-24, KJV], we find truth:
“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
What is a woman under the rule of an evil man, a corrupt man, a man with no redeeming virtues but the rib of dust, without substance.
In Hebrews [11: 1-8, KJV]:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
In closing, we continually think of the whore, Rahab, who with a scarlet thread helped Israel, for it was the will and power of GOD that brought the walls of Jericho down, for the generations of Abraham, for righteousness sake. Thanks to GOD the whore, Rahab who became a whore to get money to feed her family did leave her people and become one people in Israel, under one God Yahweh. God is a great God. By and far, the story of Rahab is a story of the goodness of the LORD GOD, for Rahab once a whore is always a whore is not necessarily truth for Rahab is a story of redemption did not remain a whore but is in the genealogy of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus [womenintheBible.net
“Rahab the prostitute hid three Hebrew spies sent by Joshua to see how strong the walls of Jericho were.(Joshua 2: 1-7) In doing so, she saved their lives.
She then helped them escape. (Joshua 2: 15-24) In return, they promised that when the city was attacked, Rahab and her family would be spared. Jericho was captured, the walls ‘came tumbling down’, and there was wholesale slaughter. (Joshua 6: 12-25) But Rahab and her family were spared.]. This is not just another faith story but a story of faith under a living God. We find inJoshua [2: 1-24, KJV], the conversation and wisdom of faith:
“And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were:
And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token:
And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way.
And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear.
Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee. And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear.
And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window. And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not. So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them: And they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.”
Let not the substance of your faith be of dead works, for faith without works, is dead. The Words of the LORD. Christ be with you. God be with you. Walk with God. Amen.
