I had an enjoyable trip to Gabe's
Wednesday and I know I canceled service Thursday. I was tired,
that's true, but Vicki and I had stopped and we ate breakfast
and I hadn't eaten bacon for a long time. And I ate some bacon
and I was nauseated and sick all day. And that was really
the main reason I didn't get thirsty. I felt so bad from eating
that bacon. It got me. We're going to look
here at Joshua in the story of Rahab. But before we do, Ben,
lead us in prayer. Stop. Amen. I'm going to go ahead and read
these 24 verses, then we'll take a look at some of them. But the
title of the lesson, Rahab and the Scarlet Line. 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 the
harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told
the king of Jericho saying, behold, there came men and 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, where 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 wish 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, Whether the men went, I know not, or walk not. Pursue
after them quickly, for you shall overtake them." But she had brought
them up to the roof of her, 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. Here's her expression
of faith. Here it starts. 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," I'll come
back to this, but we have heard, faith comes by hearing, we've
heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you.
when you came out of Egypt and what you did unto the two kings
of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sihon,
and Og, whom you 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, now here's a covenant. Here's an expression of faith
and now here's a covenant. Now therefore I pray you swear
unto me by the Lord since I have showed you kindness that you
will also show kindness unto my father's house and give me
a true token. Here's a token. Here's a covenant. Here's an expression of faith,
a covenant and a token. That's scarlet lime. and that
you will save alive my father, 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 you utter not this our business, and it
shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal
kindly, 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 to her, We will
be blameless of this thine oath, which thou hast made us swear.
Behold, when we come unto the land, and here's that token they're
going to give her, Thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread,
which we know also in verse 15, it was a cord, it wasn't just
a thread. It was a very strong cord, as
the blood of Christ is very strong. It pleads for our forgiveness.
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
house hold home unto thee, and it shall be that whosoever shall
go out 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 to your words, so be it. And
she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet
line in the window. Here's the act of faith. James
said, faith is evidenced by what? Works. Works is evidenced by
obedience. And they went and came into the
mountain in a boat 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 to 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. Rahab the harlot is a very familiar
story, especially to us who believe. It's not only a story to us,
but it's the gospel. It's the gospel. We have the
blood of Christ represented in this story. And we have a sinner
saved and her family because of this story. And you know,
she's mentioned several times in the word of God, this woman. And this is what really stood out to me as I was reading
this story over and over. While this is going on, and this
scarlet cord is put out the window, they're let down by it, this
story is being written for us. They don't realize that this
is written for me and you. This is an example of the blood
of Christ. This is an example of God saving
sinners. This is a harlot. This is a Gentile
harlot. And they don't even realize they're
writing the scriptures. The scriptures, they are right
in the middle of it. And it's for us, us. And she's
mentioned, as I said, she's mentioned several times in the Word of
God. And she's mentioned as the wife of Salmon. You know, after
God saved her, she didn't remain a prostitute. She got married. She married, he was a prince
in Judah, I believe it was. He was a very high-ranking man
in Israel. And not only did she marry him,
but she had Boaz. And not only is she the mother
of Boaz, she's the great-great-grandmother of King David, of whom the Jews
make much of. Not realizing, or if they do,
they won't mention it, that David's great-great-grandmother was a
Gentile prostitute. And she's mentioned in the genealogy
of our Lord in Matthew chapter one. She's mentioned in that
genealogy. Our Lord is not ashamed to call
them brethren. He's not ashamed to call sinners
like me and you, brothers and sisters. Who are my brothers
and my mothers and my sisters? They who do the will of God,
those who believe the gospel. He's not ashamed to be identified
with us. And you know there's only two
women, this is interesting, there's only two women mentioned in that
Hall of Fame of Faith. Sarah, Abraham's wife, and Rahab
the harlot. Only two women mentioned in that
Hall of Fame of Faith. Someone says she went from the,
she went from a house of shame to the Hall of Fame. He went
from prostitution to the Hall of Fame of Faith. It's amazing. The grace of God is amazing,
isn't it? God saves sinners, ones that
you wouldn't even think that God would save. And those are
the ones he saves. He saves sinners. And you know,
in the book of James, When James is speaking about and giving
us examples of faith evidenced by works, he only uses two people,
Abraham and Rahab. In the book of James, the two
people he uses as examples of salvation or of faith evidenced
by their works, it's Abraham and Rahab. He puts her on the
same equal footing of Abraham. Now the story here I read to
you, Israel's on the other side of Jordan, they're getting ready
to cross over. I think it was about three days ago as Biden
were gonna cross over. And before they cross over, Joshua
sends two spies over. Now, not to see if they could
take the land, he did that earlier when they sent 12 over, 10 came
back and melted the heart of the people. They said, the people
are big, they're giants. And the people became afraid.
You know, the size of a man, that doesn't mean that he's to
be feared or somebody that's strong. I like what I heard one
time. It said, it's not how big the
dog is in the fight, it's how big the fight is in the dog. David said, in the Lord, through
the Lord, I have run through a troop and leaped over a wall.
Paul said that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. When Sansom was strong, when he was strong, and he whipped
all his enemies, what happened? What happened right before he
whipped them all? What happened? He says, the spirit
of the Lord came upon him. That's the only time we read
of him ever being strong. It's when the spirit of God was
upon him. And Joshua knew that the Lord was with them. So it
doesn't matter if those men are 15 feet tall. They just make
a louder sound when they hit the ground, that's all. Fear of man bringeth a snare. Those 10 men came back and talked
about the giants there and it just melted the heart of the
people God's bigger than any man. Our God's bigger than any
man. We should never be afraid of
anyone. So here Joshua sent those spies,
and they're going to go over, and they're going to take this
city over. And they come to this house up on the wall. And here's
what's interesting, here's the thought, this came to me when
I was reading it. The wall of Jericho, what happened
when they went around seven times, blew the trumpet, what happened?
The wall fell down, right? Except one section. There's one
section that did not fall because her house is on the top of the
wall. Her house didn't fall. That wall held up her house.
It had that scarlet line, that blood that represented the blood
of Christ. It did not fall. It did not. The rest of it fell, and Israel
went in. They went in. So they go up. They go in to take Jericho. These
spies, they go in. They go in to spy out the land.
And they come to this house. It's a house of prostitution.
It's a house of entertainment. And you know she's spoken of
throughout the scriptures as Rahab the harlot. What this is a picture of here
is this. We are sinners all the way home. I thought this, she's called
Rahab the harlot. What prominent sin It would be
in my life or in your life that we would be identified with throughout
the rest of our lives. Let's say John the thief, John
the drunk, John the hypocrite, or John this, and she's called
Rahab the heartless. And what that is telling us is
that we are just sinners all the way home. There's never a
time we outgrow being sinners. We're sinners all the way. But
now, listen, she's identified as Rahab the harlot throughout
the scriptures, but she didn't continue as one. Paul said, oh wretched man that
I am, but he didn't live like one. You see, grace teaches us
to deny ungodliness. The grace of God is a teaching
grace. It teaches us to deny ungodliness. Now the king of
Jericho heard that the Israelites had come to Rahab's house. So
he sent men up there and said, you turn those men over. You
turn those men over. And she lied. She lied. She just flat out lied to the
king. And she lied to the king because
she actually believed. She believed that the God of
Israel was the one true God. He was going to take over the
land. She believed that. Now, do you want to die? Now,
listen, she put her life in her hands, so to speak, when she
lied to the king. But whose hand do you want to
die at, God's hand or the king's? I'd rather die. I'd rather take
it, you know, the king killing me than God killing me. And so she lied to them. In here,
her faith is evidenced. It's evidenced. God's going to
bring out saving faith. Wherever God works faith, wherever
he gives faith, he's going to bring it out. It's going to come
out. She's going to confess. Everyone
who believes God eventually is going to confess. They're going
to confess Christ. They're going to confess God
as the only true God. And they're going to worship
him and bow down to him. Listen here. Listen, when she
went up on the roof of the house and she spoke to them, in verse
11, look at the latter part of that verse. For the Lord your
God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. They start
with this. God is. And your God is God. Up to this time. Up till this
time, she worshipped, along with the rest of the people there
in Jericho, many gods. Little G, she worshipped many
gods. She was probably one of the temple
prostitutes. Because when they had their worship
services, they had great big orgies. That's what they had.
And they had their temple prostitutes. And she was probably, no doubt,
she was one of them. And she was highly regarded as
one of those prostitutes. But here she says, the Lord your
God, he's God. He's God. The gods we worship
are no gods at all. He's God in heaven above and
in earth beneath. He's God over all. That's where
faith starts. Faith starts with God is and
who he is. That's where it starts. And then after she acknowledged
this, she seeks mercy. She seeks their mercy. And what
she's really seeking is the Lord's mercy. Because she said, God
sent you. I know why you're here. God sent
you to take this place over. The God of heaven and earth sent
you to take this place over. And she asked for mercy, not
only upon herself, but upon her household. Look here in Joshua
12, 13. Now, therefore, I pray you and
here's a covenant, just like that covenant between the father
and son concerning every one of his elect. Now, therefore,
I pray you swear unto me by the Lord. by the Lord, by the self-existing
one, the only God there is, since I have showed you kindness, that
you will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me
a true token, which they will, and they do, and that you will
save a life, my father, my mother, my brother, my sisters, and all
that they have, and deliver our lives from death. That's exactly what Jesus Christ
promised to do in that covenant of grace to save our lives from
death. And he has saved everyone. Now
listen, he has saved every one of our brothers and sisters.
Hasn't he? Are you my brothers and sisters
in Christ? He has saved every one of my brothers and my sisters. Every one of them. He saved him
a life. You are my real brothers and
sisters. You're it. My brothers and sisters, as far
as the flesh goes, it's gonna be dissolved in a little while.
All that's gonna be dissolved. But our relationship in Christ
will never be dissolved. Never. And the men promise, They
promised her this, that they will spare her and her family
if she didn't tell the business. She keep the part of the covenant. She said, you swear to me, and
he said, well, we will, but you swear to us also. You make a
covenant with us. You see, this is her first trial
of faith. Her first trial of faith is,
you don't tell anybody else this. You don't tell what's coming.
And then the second thing she was to do was to hang that scarlet
line, that scarlet cord, out the window, down the wall, so
that when they came, they would identify her house and, of course,
the Army. I mean, it's a big Army. And
so there's no doubt, no doubt. They've told everybody in the
Army, that house with the scarlet line in it, scarlet cord hanging
down by the wall, you don't touch it. That house is safe. You don't touch it. Death is
coming on everyone except where that line is. And those in that
house are gonna be safe. They're gonna be safe. You see
there in verse 18, behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt
bind this line of scarlet thread in the window. And then you and your family
are to remain in the house as we take this city over. As death
comes through the city, You and your family stay in the house. If anybody goes out of the house,
we're free of this oath. If anybody leaves Christ, Paul
said, if you continue to the end, there is no hope for those
who leave Christ and go to another gospel for any other reason.
There's no hope. The hope is in the house. The
hope is in the house. The hope is in Christ. You've
got to stay in the house. Noah stayed in the boat. When the Lord passed through
Egypt, only those who were under the
blood in the house were saved. If any firstborn went outside
that house, I don't care if he's an Israelite, if he walked outside
that house, he's dead. Only under the blood are we safe.
Under the blood of Jesus, safe in the shepherd's fold. And then
she shows another act of faith here when she lets the spies
down out of that window, down the wall, and she lies and tells
the king they're gone. That's an act of faith. They
have an evidence of her faith. But what we have here, is a real
picture of God's grace to sinners. Who would have thought that of
all people, God would have sent those spies to? They didn't just
accidentally stumble into her house. God sent them to her house. She is a child of God in that
whole city, thousands in that city. I don't know how big it
was, but there's thousands in that city. One, just one. One person is his and it's a
harlot, prostitute. Just one. Doesn't that make you,
doesn't that, to think that God has saved you, there's eight
billion people roughly in this world. It's like us, the Lord saving
us, it's like being one compared to that number. It almost doesn't
even register. One. And God saved that one. He sent those two men to that
house, made that covenant, put that line down that window to
save that one sinner. One sinner who was gonna end
up being in the genealogy of our Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. He doesn't save anybody else.
If you're not a sinner, if anybody listens to this, if you're not
a sinner, he didn't come to save you. He came to save sinners.
A bunch of no good, a bunch of no good prostitutes. Then she's an example of God's
electing grace. God chose her. He chose her. She didn't ask for them to come
to her house. She didn't pray and ask God to
send her somebody. God chose her before the foundation
of the world. God sent these spies. There's
two men there. And I'll tell you something else
God sent her. He sent her a word. His word. She said, we have heard. We've heard of the Lord. We've
heard of you. We've heard. Now, listen, everybody
in that city heard because she said we have heard and our hearts
have melted. But only one in the whole city
believed what she heard. Do you believe the gospel you've
heard? Do you believe it? I mean, do you believe it in
your heart? Is it your life? She believed
it. God sent word to her and she
believed the story. She believed that the God of
Israel was the one true only God. That's all she knew, but
she believed it. And she acted on it. She acted
on it. Oh my, faith is a gift of God. It's not the product of, it's
not the product of human thought or logic. You know, faith is
definitely, it's definitely not, it's definitely not from human
logic. Because it sounds, first of all, too good to be, it either
sounds too good to be true or it sounds absolutely foolish.
It's one of the two. Or it sounds true. God's given
you faith to believe. You believe it when you can't
help but believe it. She couldn't help but believe what she heard.
She knew it was so. She heard what God did for them.
Have you heard what God has done for his children? Say, Lord,
I want to be one of them. Let me, oh, I want to be one
of them. Christ died for sinners, that's me. That's me. I'm glad
it doesn't say Christ died for the rich. I'm glad it doesn't
say he died for the overly intelligent. He died for sinners. That opens
the door wide open for someone like me. Someone like me. Why did she believe? Because
she's one of God's elect. My sheep hear my voice. And that scarlet line she put
out the window is a type, it's an emblem of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, that line is just as
clear a type of the blood of Christ as Abel's sacrifice. It's
just as clear a type as the Passover lamb. Just as clear. Just as
powerful. And it's by His blood, the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that sinners are saved, that we have
forgiveness, that we have the atonement. What if she hadn't
put that line out the window? What if she hadn't done that?
Well, first of all, the evidence, she didn't believe what they
said. She didn't believe the word. She didn't believe. She put that line out the window,
that scarlet line. It couldn't be pink. It couldn't
be any other color. It had to be red. It represents
the blood of Christ flowing down from Calvary's tree. It's the blood. Make much of
the blood. Make much of the blood. I tell
you, when you and I seek forgiveness, there's power in the blood. power
in the blood for whatever sin, whatever sin just that's troubling
me, whatever guilt I feel, it's the blood that can put it away.
It can put any sin away, any sin and all sin, all sin. It can put it away. And then
last of all, Rahab and her family were told to go into that house
where the scarlet line was and to stay there. To stay there while they were
killing the young and the old, that's what it says. That's what
it says. Now listen, in the day of judgment,
there's no such thing as mercy. In the day of judgment, there
is no such thing as mercy. It's over with. When judgment
falls, there's no mercy. In that day, there's no mercy. They were told to stay, listen,
remain under the blood. There's our safety. My safety's
not in a decision I made. My safety's not in the life I
live. My safety's under the blood. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Isn't that a beautiful story? That's a beautiful story. That's
our story, isn't it? We're the Gentiles. That's our
story. Bunch of prostitutes. In heart,
I guarantee it. Every one of us has been that
way in heart. But when I see the blood, not
when I see you straightened up, you know, we don't straighten
up and come to Christ, do we? We come to Christ as we are,
just like she did. She came to those spies and talked
to them, expressed her faith just as she was a prostitute. And boy, when they got done killing
that city, there was one family that lived, and it was the family
under the blood. All right.