Sardis was a dead church -Revelation 3-1-. The city was fabulously wealthy and enormously secure, being built on a hill with steep sides.--Sardis' most famous ruler was the legendary King Croesus, who mastered the art of separating gold from silver and produced the first genuine gold and silver coins in history. He ruled Sardis until 546 B.C., when Cyrus the Great defeated him. That is the same Persian ruler who allowed the Jewish people to return from their Babylonian captivity in 539.--As we reflect on dead churches, we see that there are two kinds. The first is unorthodox and rejects the message of the New Testament -2 Timothy 3-1-7-.--James describes another kind of dead church, one that appears to be sound doctrinally, but its faith is dead -James 2-17-.--Such a church shows favoritism to the rich and humiliates the poor -James 2-1-3-. --God demands absolute perfection -James 2-10-11-, so none of us can ever measure up. We need the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to be put to our account.--We receive that righteousness by faith in Christ alone, but true faith is never alone. Mere intellectual assent to truth is the faith of demons -James 2-19-.--We are declared righteous by faith alone, but our faith is declared genuine by means of our actions alone. In effect, We are justified by faith alone, but our faith is justified by our works alone -James 2-14-18-.