Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter two. Joshua chapter two. Tonight I want to take a few
minutes and go through an Old Testament story and look at many
of the things that the Lord Jesus Christ does for His people. And
in doing so, I'm not going to say anything new. I'm not going
to blow you away with some knowledge or something that you've never
heard. In fact, I'm probably going to be very repetitive and
say a bunch of things that you may have even heard this morning.
But I ask the Lord that He might allow us to enter into these
things. I am smitten by how often things
in this world, or things I watch on TV, emotionally affect me. I'm amazed at how often I see
a movie scene that almost brings me to tears or emotionally gets
me involved. And yet, when I sit in a pew
and hear someone talk about the amazing things the Lord Jesus
Christ has done for His people, that He's done for me, that so
often it just rolls over me as if it's just another thing that
someone's telling me that doesn't matter. And I pray that as we
go through this story, that the Lord would give us just a touch
of the emotion, of the intensity, and almost a celebration that
we should have when we hear and see all these things that He's
done for His children. And the story that we're going
to look at is of Rahab. And I love Rahab. Rahab is one
of those people that when I hear her name, it just makes me smile. There are many reasons for that,
but probably the most important is because when I hear Rahab
the harlot, she's always conjoined with that description of her.
that when we look at the city of Jericho here that's about
to be destroyed, a city of thousands and thousands of people, that
if you would have gone in and asked who's the worst person
in this city, some people would have said Rahab. That if they
would have said who out of all the people in this city definitely
does not deserve any mercy or any grace or any benefits, people
would have said Rahab. And yet, When Rahab is described
in the New Testament three separate times, this is what we hear of
Rahab. In Matthew, it tells us that
she ended up marrying a man named Salmon, a prince of the tribe
of Judah, and was the mother of Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer,
and the great-great-grandmother of King David. And eventually,
through that line, came the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in Hebrews
11, it says this, By faith the walls of Jericho
fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the
harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she
had received the spies with peace." In this chapter here that some
people call Faith's Hall of Fame, Rahab is listed with Abraham
and Isaac and these people. And then in James chapter 2,
it says this about her. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? James gives two examples. He
chooses, out of the whole Bible, two examples of faith. He says,
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he'd offered Isaac
his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with its 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. You 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.
Rahab is listed among these people, yet what we see in this story
of Rahab, there's no way. It doesn't add up. And the only
way that this comes is because the title of my message, which
is By a Scarlet Cord. That's the reason. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only reason a person can go from
who Rahab was to who she is. And in these things, I also love
to notify that Rahab still, despite the change, despite what the
Lord did for her, she still called Rahab the harlot in all these
descriptions. Talking about how wonderful her
faith was, they still gave her that description. And I don't
think we like to think about it, but we all have our own monikers
that go with our name. Everybody has negative thoughts
with each one of us. It's of great comfort when you
see someone like Rahab and you think, if the Lord does something
like this for her, He might do something for me. And you see,
if the Lord is able to do something for someone like her, He's able
to do it for someone like me. To a chief of sinners, it's wonderful
to see another chief of sinners have all the benefits of the
blood of Christ. So looking here in Joshua chapter
2, we'll just go through these verses and again let's try to
let's try to enter into these things that the Lord has done
for Rahab. And remember throughout this
story, Joshua is a picture of Christ. Throughout the Bible,
Joshua is such a wonderful picture of the Lord. And when Joshua
does things, so often we'll interpret those as the Lord doing something.
So in verse 1 of Joshua 2, it says, 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 a
house, a harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. The
Lord Jesus Christ always sends a messenger to his children.
You talk about something I take for granted. I go through every
week, wake up in the morning, go about my business, and I actually
think I consider it a right or something I deserve that I'm
gonna show up to this place and someone's gonna preach the gospel
to me. That is not something that everyone has. It's not something
that everyone always gets. If the Lord tarries long enough,
all of us will go through that. We will all have times where
we don't have a place or a person to preach the gospel to us. We
cannot take that for granted. We must understand that. And
I also love that in this, Joshua sent two spies into Jericho.
I've always been amazed that Joshua sent two spies into Jericho,
because 40 years previously, they sent spies into the land
of Canaan, and Joshua one of them, and they came back, and
10 of the 12 spies said, that land is amazing, but we can't
do it, they're too big, we can't take that. And they spent 40
years in the wilderness. So I always wondered, why in
the world would Joshua send spies again? It didn't go well last
time. He sent two spies in because they had to go see Rahab. They
had to go get Rahab. Look at verse two. And it was
told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither
tonight 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. Something that
always follows the Word of God and the message is the Lord's
going to send trials. Trials just always come. And
a couple things about trials are important that we remember.
First off, the Lord easily could have hid His spies. He easily
could have turned the eyes of the king and everyone, and no
one ever knew that they were there. It was Him, the Lord,
sent the trials. He sent the trial to Rahab here. Though we struggle through trials
and we don't like them and we get so frustrated with them,
the trial that the Lord sent Rahab here, thousands and thousands
of years later, this trial is still benefiting his sheep. We
benefit because of this trial that Rahab went through, and
we must keep that in mind. We have no idea why the Lord
is sending a trial to us, or our friends, our family, or whatnot,
but it's good, and it's right, and it's for His sheep. I am
so thankful he made Rahab go through this so we could see
what he does for his sheep. Look at verse 4. 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. Rahab took the men and hid them. The Lord opened her eyes. Rahab was a woman who had an
inn. She had this place that people
stayed. How in the world did she decide, based off these men
coming in here, to defy her king? Think about what she's going
through right here. She just got confronted by the people
of her city, and she's going to tell them a lie. The Lord
has opened her eyes to who they were. He also will give us strength
in these times of fear. Rahab here had to have been scared. She's saying something. She's
basically giving herself a death sentence by lying to them. She's
choosing to go against the king here. But the Lord will give
us strength in these times of fear. And finally in this verse,
the Lord will make us choose the correct side. I often think
that, or I give myself credit for believing the gospel. Now,
I know it's not me. I know it's not of me. I know
I didn't do it. The Lord gets all the glory in every way. But
for some reason, I just act like, and I make the presumption that
I am the person, have somehow chosen what I believe. We will
100% of the time choose the wrong side. It is our nature to go
against God in everything. That's just who we are and what
we do. But thankfully, the Lord makes His sheep choose Him. Because He chose us, we choose
Him. We get no glory in it, it's all
of the Lord. Look in verse five. 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 want
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. Thankfully, the Lord will give
us the right words. The Lord will show us what to
say and how to protect us from our enemies. Rahab was protected
here from these people. The Lord gave her what she needed
to say and exactly what she needed to do to protect her. Look at
verse 8. And before they were laid, I'm
sorry, verse seven, 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. I love that
the moment these people were gone out of Rahab, she ran straight
up to the roof to check on them. The Lord makes us care for his
messengers. We, again, take it such for granted
that we have someone who will take all the time, the effort,
and the burden of preaching the gospel to us. We need to, and
thankfully the Lord makes us to care for those who preach
his word. It is a burden that We just,
we can't comprehend. To be a pastor and preach the
gospel is something that I can't comprehend. And we need the Lord
to make us to understand and to care for his messengers. Look
in verse nine. And she said unto them, I know
that the Lord hath given you the land. The Lord made Rahab
to see him. She made Rahab to understand
who the Lord Jesus Christ was. She said, 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. The Lord will reveal his power
and his authority to all his sheep. Rahab here didn't have
any special information. Rahab was in that city, and these
men came to her, and somehow, and we'll see in the next couple
of verses, she understood who they were messengers of. She
understood who had sent them, and she understood that the one
who had sent them, the Lord, that He had the power. And then
look at verse 10, The Lord dried up the water of
the Red Sea for you when He 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." She says, we all,
everyone in this city, has heard of Him. Verse 11, she says, 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. The Lord Jesus Christ
makes all, everyone, to hear of Him. But the Lord makes His
children to hear Him and to see who He is. and the Lord Jesus
Christ makes them to believe. These two verses, Rahab says,
everyone in this city has seen what your Lord has done. We saw
how you parted the Red Sea and destroyed all the Egyptian army
for you." He says, we see what you did to those kings of the
Amorites when they all joined forces and came against you and
you destroyed all of them. We've seen all these amazing
things you've done. And as we heard these things,
as everyone heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did
there remain any more courage in any man because of you. That's
what everyone in this city thought. But Rahab says, This is what
I thought when I heard those things, for the Lord your God,
He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. The Lord Jesus
Christ shows His children who He is and that He is God. This city, all these people,
think about the thousands and thousands of people in this city,
all of them had heard the exact same stories and one person got
the truth out of it. We take it for granted that there
are literally billions of people who have heard of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he chose to teach us, to
show us that he is God. I mean, that should slay us.
I mean, billions of people. And he has taken a remnant of
people, and we are among those people. I mean, that is mind-blowing
that he would do that for us. Look here in verse 12. Then Rahab
says, now therefore, I pray you. The Lord Jesus Christ makes his
people to pray. The Lord Jesus Christ gives us
an urgency. Rahab here is not worried about
what's going to happen to her city or any of this stuff. She
knows who the Lord is, and she immediately says, I pray you,
swear unto me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that
you will also show kindness unto my father's house and give me
a true token. We live without urgency. The Lord has given us so many
things and so many privileges and has been so gracious and
merciful to us that we rarely have urgency in anything that
matters. We find ourselves in a position that we feel comfortable
with the way things are. We need to have an urgency that
Rahab has here. She says, we've seen what your
God does. I know he's God, and I need assurance
that he'll do something for me. And even though we believe the
Lord has, this urgency should just course through our veins
on a consistent basis. We should wake up every morning
thinking, Lord, thank you. Thank you. And every moment of
the day, we should. And I promise you, I'm talking
to myself here. I cannot believe that I can go
from a Sunday night service walking out of this door and make it
however many hours it is until I remember it's Wednesday and
we have church tonight before I think of a single thing to
say a word to the Lord. That is embarrassing. It's such an understatement.
The Lord must give us an urgency to worship Him, to pray to Him.
Look at verse 13. Rahab continues, and that you
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. The Lord gives us, as he gives
Rahab here, a sincere desire for the salvation of our families.
It is shameful to say that most of my life I was not that concerned
about the salvation of my family. Now, I'll use the excuse that
I've always felt like I was behind them in this regard, that they
knew the gospel way before I did and all those things. But it's
embarrassing to say I didn't do that. But now that I have
children, there's a different urgency with that. And I'm bringing
this point up because of this. This story we see here and other
stories in the Scripture should give us not just hope or optimism
that the Lord would save our families, but that we see a sinner
like Rahab who says, I pray, swear by the Lord that you will
have mercy on my family. And that's all she does. And
it's done. If we pray to the Lord, He hears
us. We should have hope and optimism that He will do this for us in
the same way that He has done for Rahab. Look at verse 14. And the men answered her. The
spies said, 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. It's not an accident
that this four-word phrase is used here. Our life for yours. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his
life for ours. That's exactly what he did. We
had to die, but he died for us. that there's no greater sacrifice,
there's no greater thing that's ever been done for anyone. He
died so we didn't have to. He gave us His perfect righteousness. He died for us. The center margin
says this could say, our life instead of you to die. The Lord
Jesus Christ gave His life so that we didn't die. He did that
for us. And then something else the Lord
does at the end of this verse, it says that, "...we will deal
kindly and truly with thee." The Lord Jesus Christ will deal
kindly and truly with His children. The kindly part is because of
His love and affection for His sheep. And the Lord loves His
children. He truly does. And He shows kindness
upon them. And the truly part of this, the
Lord deals with everyone truly. Oftentimes, I feel like I'm dealt
with differently. But actually, He just deals with
me because I'm under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
in Him and I'm dealt with because I have His righteousness. That's
why I get the reward I do. Look at verse 15. 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 yourself there three days until the pursuers be returned,
and afterward may you go your way. And the men said unto her,
We will be blameless of this thine oath, which thou hast made
us swear." Rahab just happened to have a red cord in her house. This scarlet cord is such a great
picture of the blood of Christ. We'll see here how that cord
is the only escape for the spies. It's the only protection for
Rahab when the battle starts. The blood of Christ is what we
need to depend on in every situation. It is our defense. It is our
shield. It is our protection. It's everything
for us. We need to find ourselves always
under the blood of Christ. And at the same time, I love
that Rahab didn't know this. Rahab didn't, she didn't realize
what she had in the sense that the child of God always has the
blood of Christ on them. We were saved before the foundation
of the world. Rahab already had the red cord.
She just didn't know what it was. The Lord hadn't revealed
it to her and what it would be used as. But the child of God
is saved from the foundation of the world and how wonderful
that is. Alright, keep going to verse 18. 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. These men said, when
we come back, if the blood, if that cord is in your window,
you'll be safe. And anyone that's under the blood,
anyone in your house is going to be safe. But if there's anybody
who's not in this house, their blood is on their own hands.
That has nothing to do with us. The blood is your protection.
If you are not under the blood, then you will not be spared the
wrath of God. So keep going in verse 20. 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." The Lord Jesus Christ provides His sheep with
salvation. The Lord gives us what we need. He does everything. We don't
have to do anything. The cord that these men were
going out of the window was already there. She didn't need to do
anything. The Lord makes us, and Rahab's answer here when
she says, so be it. That's her answer to them. The
Lord makes us content about the deal He has made with us. The
word content often has a bad connotation to it. People will
say things like, you can't be content with that. You can't
be content with your lot in life. You have to improve yourself.
You've got to get a better job. You've got to do all these things. Content
isn't seen as a word that's a positive. But the child of God is truly
content with what the Lord has done for them. And that's because
we can't get any higher. We can't get any better. What
he has provided for us is perfection. It's everything we need. There's
no reason for us to attain for more because we can't get more.
There is nothing more than that. And not only are we content,
but we're also ecstatic about the deal. We, and I use that
term deal, I don't mean to say what the Lord has given us. We
are ecstatic about it. We understand who we are and
the position we're in. Rahab here, at no point does
she negotiate. She asks, she prays, please save
us. And whatever these men say, she
says, so be it. That's good. Whatever the Lord
says, whatever the deal I'm given, wherever the lot I'm cast, I'm
good with it. They say, just be under the blood
of Christ, and that's all you need. That's all we need. And
the Lord also makes us want to be under the blood of Christ.
When these men were about to leave, they said unto her in
verse 18, Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind
this line of scarlet thread in the window. They tell her, now
when we come back, when the battle starts, you put that cord in
the window, and that's your protection. And we'll see here as this story
goes on, from when they crawl down, we know that they have
to go for three days and hide in the wilderness. Then they'll
make their way back. And then we don't know how long
after that it'll be before the army comes. So Rahab is in a
position here where she has aided and abetted the enemy, which
they will kill her for if anyone finds out. No questions asked.
Even if they think something would have happened. So she lives
on the wall, and she's got a cord, a red rope, and now it's gotta
be big enough that a grown man could use to go down the wall.
She has a red cord on a light-colored wall hanging there. That is a
very obvious sign of something peculiar. You are about to be
attacked by an enemy, and your greatest defense is a wall, but
we're gonna put a rope out there so people could climb in. She
is taking a huge risk at any point putting the rope out there,
okay? So we know it's going to be at least days, if not further
than that. So go down and look in verse
21. And she said, according unto
your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they
departed. What did she do immediately? And she bound the scarlet line
in the window. The moment they climbed down,
she said, I'm under the blood. I don't care if I get caught.
I am not being caught without this rope in this window. And
that's the way we need to be. We don't know when the battle
is going to start. We don't know when danger is
going to present itself. We have to be under the blood
at all times. I say all that knowing that the
Lord puts us under the blood. We just need to have this urgency
and understand that that's where we need to be. We have to be
under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our only hope
for salvation. Verse 22, And they went, and
they came into 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. The Lord hides his
children. The Lord protects his sheep.
Rahab and these spies, they were fine. No matter how this worked
out, the Lord was protecting them, no matter how it ended.
Verse 23, 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. These men told everything to
the Lord, and the Lord knows all things. The Lord sees everything. The Lord understands and knows
and is the doer of all things. And finally, verse 24, it says,
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. These two men came back, and
they gave the report of Rahab. Rahab was the one who they used
to see everything that was going to happen, to see the providence
of God. And they came back and said, everyone is scared of us.
Now, I don't know how all the other people felt, but it didn't
matter. The Lord was going to give them the victory. Now turn
with me to Joshua 6, and let's close this with how this story
ends. The next few chapters, the people of Israel get ready
for the battle. And the Battle of Jericho is one in which the
army gets up and surrounds the city and walks around it. And
Joshua tells everyone, no one say a word, no sounds whatsoever. I don't want to hear anything
from a single person. And they go around and they'll
blow trumpets. And they go around every day, six days in a row.
And then on the seventh day, they go around and look at chapter
6, verse 15. And it came to pass on the seventh
day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and compassed
the city after the same manner seven times. Only on that day
they compassed the city seven times. And it came to pass that
the seventh time when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said
unto the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city."
I love to think about this very moment. These people had wandered
the wilderness for 40 years waiting to take that city. And they got
to the city, and they said, now we're going to do it. And they
encompassed that city seven days in a row, and no one could make
a single noise. And then finally, once they'd
encompassed it seven times, Joshua said, shout, for the Lord has
given you the city. And verse 17, And the city shall
be accursed, even it, and all that are therein. To the Lord
only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her
in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
In this very moment, the entire army of Israel scream at the
top of their lungs. And why did they shout? They
didn't shout to knock down the wall. They didn't shout to get
the victory. They shouted because the Lord
hath given them the city. We celebrate what the Lord has
done. The Lord gets the victory. The
Lord fights the battle. The Lord does everything, and
we just celebrate Him doing it. And it says, Everyone in the
city, except Rahab the harlot, only she shall live, and all
that are in her house. Verse 18, And ye, and any wise,
keep yourselves from the accursed things, lest you make yourselves
accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the
camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. Look at verse 22. But Joshua
said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into
the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman and all
that she hath, as you swear unto her. The Lord keeps his promise. The Lord said, Go get her. Get
her and everyone in the house, and you bring them out. We're
not waiting until the battle's over. We're not going to make
them suffer through any of this. I want you to send someone that
they know, a messenger that they will recognize, and the Lord
takes them out and brings them unto Him. One day, the Lord will
send someone to take His sheep, and they will bring Him, and
because they're under the blood, He'll bring them unto Him. Look
at verse 23. And the young men that were spies
went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother
and her brethren and all that she had. And they brought out
all her kindred and left them without the camp of Israel. The
men went in and everybody, every single person that was under
the blood came out safely. Everybody, we don't know who
it is, we don't know how many people, but every single person that
was in that house that was under the blood got taken out and brought
into the king's fold, brought into Israel. Verse 24, and they
burnt the city with fire and all that was therein, only the
silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and iron they put into
the treasury of the house of the Lord. They destroyed everything.
everything but Rahab and those that run to the blood. And Joshua saved Rahab. The Lord saved Rahab, the harlot,
alive and her father's household and all that she had. We constantly
see here that it says, every single time it says he saved
Rahab, it says, and her father's household, and all that she had.
He saved everybody that's under the blood. And she dwelleth,
Rahab dwelleth in Israel, even unto this day. She dwelled in
Israel forever, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent
to spy out Jericho. The Lord saves his children.
And we will dwell with Him for all our days. And in closing,
let me read these lines from a song we all know so well. Under
the blood of Jesus, safe in the shepherd's fold. Under the blood
of Jesus, safe while the ages roll. Safe though the world may
crumble, safe though the stars grow dim. Under the blood of
Jesus, I am secure in Him.