Alright, we're going to read
from Hebrews chapter 11, verse 31, and then we're going
to also look at Joshua chapter 2. The official title of this sermon
is, by faith, Rahab, because I've been using that same pattern
of title on all the sermons here in the book of Hebrews, and Hebrews
chapter 11, by faith, Rahab. But I have another title that
I actually prefer, which is, Give Me a Token. Give Me a Token. In Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
31, By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed
not, when she had received the spies with peace. Now, In Hebrews
chapter 11, there are many acts of faith that are recorded. All
of them are extraordinary. And when you read them, you probably
think, wow, those men and women, they were people of faith. And
you should, you should think that. In fact, in the same chapter,
Hebrews 11, I think around verse 16, it says, God was not ashamed
to call them His people. He was not ashamed to be called
their God. That is amazing, isn't it? Those who believed, God was
not ashamed to be called their God. And so we see that it was
extraordinary, yet in some sense, everything written in Hebrews
chapter 11 of the Acts of Faith are common to all believers. And that's why it's very comforting
to us We are to therefore run with patience this race that
is set before us. The race is really a race of
faith. And like a runner, we look to
the finish line. We look to the one who is our
forerunner, the one who ran before us, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 12, which follows
this chapter, says, looking unto Jesus, the author, the one who
began, who created this faith in us, and the finisher, the
one who keeps us on the way and completes it, the author and
finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross. despising the shame and is set
down at the right hand of God. So we look to Christ, our forerunner,
who actually completed the race and is set down at the right
hand of God because he lived by faith. He died in faith. And because he lived and died
in faith, he did all that he did for his people. He lived
as a man by faith upon God and he obeyed God in that faith. And so he's the one we look to
because his obedience and his faith actually are our salvation. But like Abel, beginning in Hebrews
chapter 11, all who believe God, like Abel, obtain witness that
they are righteous. So our faith is like Abel's faith.
We believe like Abel did. We look to Christ our Lamb, the
Lamb of God, sacrificed that we might be clothed in the skins
of Christ's righteousness. Enoch also walked by faith. He trusted Christ. Like him,
we are delivered from death. He was translated that he should
not see death because he pleased God in believing Christ and he
walked by faith in Christ. Like Paul said, I live by the
faith of the Son of God. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him. We live the same way as Enoch
then. And then like Noah, all who are born of God are heirs
of righteousness. Hebrews 11 verse 7, we're heirs
of righteousness because Christ is our righteousness and we're
the heirs of everything that his righteousness has earned
for us. And like Abraham, all believers look for an eternal
inheritance. through the justifying righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They confess, like Abraham, that
they are strangers in this world, that they're only pilgrims passing
through, and they receive life from the dead as Abraham and
Sarah received Isaac out of the deadness of their bodies. Because
we receive justification in the resurrection of Christ who died
for us. They believe God, like Abraham,
who justifies the ungodly. They believe God, like Abraham,
who raises the dead. They believe God, who calls those
things which be not as though they were, just like Abraham.
And as Abraham, their faith ultimately always triumphs over their natural
affections. And like Abraham offered up Isaac,
his son, knowing God had given a promise that Christ would come
through him and God would give him all that God promised by
an oath and covenant in Christ, all that he gave to Christ. So
in offering up his son, he saw the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his own resurrection in that son that he offered to
God. That was faith. And so faith keeps the Passover,
like he says, of Moses, the sprinkling of blood. We trust Christ, who
is our Passover, the one the Lamb offered to God for us, so
that God would pass over us and spare us from the wrath we deserved. And like Jacob who leaned upon
his staff, faith worships God leaning upon Christ, taught to
us in the gospel, which is God's rod, the staff, pointing to Christ,
our shepherd. We lean upon Christ through faith.
And faith is patient in trials. So many examples of this are
given in Hebrews 11. And also, like Moses, faith endures
to the end, seeing him who is invisible. We don't see Christ
with our physical eyes, but faith sees him. And faith comes to
God by Him. Faith believes that God has received
us for Christ's sake, and faith therefore expects God to give
us what He promised, not for what He finds in us, but in spite
of what He finds in us, what Christ did to save us from our
sins and earned for us by His own obedience. Faith goes forward
through the judgment of God's Red Sea by faith in Christ who
opened the way through the floods of that judgment. That's what
we do by faith. We walk through in our conscience,
we're at peace with God, knowing that God has judged Christ and
that he will deliver us from the wrath to come. That he's
justified us by his blood. Isn't that true? Don't we hold
confidence in the fact that God said that we are justified by
his blood? That it's not dependent upon
us, that God sees the blood and therefore passes over us? Justifies
us by his righteousness. That's what scripture says, that's
what we hold to. And therefore we have this expectation,
this hope. And so they pass through the
Red Sea by faith, they walk through judgment, the same judgment that
brought death to their enemies and destroyed our enemies brought
salvation to us. Christ was judged and God's judgment
fell on those outside of Christ, but we were spared from judgment
in Christ because it fell upon him. And like when Joshua told
the people to shout, Christ tells us to shout because he earned
the victory for us when he said, it is finished. And so God's
people shout. We shout the triumph of Christ's
victory over our sins and our sinful nature, over Satan and
his kingdom, over this present evil world, over death, over
the grave. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So faith shouts the victory.
And faith receives gospel preachers like Rahab did. Rahab received
these two witnesses, these two messengers, these two spies that
came into Jericho. And like Rahab, we receive the
message of God from Christ sent to us concerning our salvation
and the judgment outside of Christ. We believe them. We receive them.
We don't yield allegiance to the King of Jericho, we yield
allegiance to the God of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose
messengers come to us and tell us of judgment to come, but salvation
in Him." That's what Rahab did. Faith receives these gospel preachers
in peace, believing God's sovereign election of His people Israel
and of His salvation of them from their enemies and their
inheritance in Christ by His covenant and by Joshua's conquest,
by Christ's conquest, just as all believers do. So Hebrews
11 is an account not only of the faith of these people in
the Old Testament in history, but it is an account, a description
of the faith of God's elect. We also believe as they did,
and we receive the same salvation that they did, looking to the
same Savior that they did, trusting the same Lord, our God, as they
did our God and our Savior. So faith is a common faith. It
says in Ephesians 4, there's one faith. One truth, one object
of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saved us from our sins by
his own precious blood. And so faith believes God in
this way, and no matter how great the trials, faith patiently endures
in this present world against all outward appearance to the
contrary. Faith swims upstream, as it were,
Faith doesn't need the help of the world to believe Christ.
In fact, in opposition to the world's claims that it is all
false, faith stands firm on what God has said. Because God has
deposited this faith in us, this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, so I want to go now to, when we consider this from Hebrews
chapter 11, this is an example. Rahab is an example of a believer.
Rahab is an example of one whom God saved out of the city that
was destroyed, the city of destruction. Destined for destruction and
yet here's a woman saved from that city. Do you see? Do you
see this is what God is saying here? And notice that God is
highlighting the faith God gave to her that received these two
spies in peace. And so let's look at this together
in Joshua chapter two. It says in Joshua chapter two,
verse one, that in Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim
two men to spy secretly saying, go view the land, even Jericho. Now why did Joshua send these
two men to spy out the land of Jericho? Did Joshua doubt that
they could conquer the Canaanites? Did he doubt that God was going
to fulfill his word and that he needed an assurance to send
these two men out? Go make sure that what God said
is true. No, it couldn't have been that.
Joshua didn't need the evidence from the spies to know that God
had given them the land. But what he did here was twofold. There was a twofold purpose in
it. Two men were sent out. In, I believe it's Luke chapter
10, Jesus had 70 disciples that he sent out, and he sent them
out two by two. Because in scripture, in Deuteronomy
19 and other places in scripture, God says that let every word
be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. So in scripture, any time two
witnesses, two messengers are sent out together, it's bearing
witness to the testimony of God so that those who hear are receiving
the assurance that this is God's word. And so in the book of Revelation,
in chapter 11, there are two witnesses. And if you read that
chapter, you'll see that these two witnesses are God saying
that throughout the whole New Testament era, God sends his
messengers, Christ sends his messengers, the Lord Jesus Christ,
our God and Savior, sends his messengers, and he sends them
with his gospel message, just like Joshua, whose name means
Jesus, sent these two men to Jericho to spy out the land.
And their message came upon the people of Jericho. These two
spies didn't go around announcing to the people of Jericho that
your city is doomed. The two spies actually only went
to one household, the household of Rahab. And so when we read
this in chapter 2 verse 1 of Joshua, 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 they came
to an harlot's house named Rahab, and they lodged there. They came
to the house of a harlot. God's salvation, according to
this account, is that these two men did not go to every house
in Jericho, but they came to the harlot's house. Now, this
is very instructive, isn't it? Remember what Jesus told the
apostle Paul? Paul, the apostle, was not a
believer at this time. He was going to Damascus to arrest
and imprison men and women who were believers, who were Christians.
He had a commission from the priest in Jerusalem and he went
there to arrest these men and women and put them in prison.
And on the way to do that, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to
him. And this is what he said. Paul himself said this about
the appearance of Christ to him in Acts chapter 26. He's talking
to the King Agrippa in this account, Paul is, and he says to the King
Agrippa, he says, this is what Jesus said to me, I have prepared,
I have appeared unto thee, Christ said this to Paul when he was
on his way, I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make
thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear to
thee. And then he says in verse 17 of Acts 26, delivering thee
from the people, just as God delivered the spies who were
sent to Jericho by Joshua, delivering thee from the people and from
the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee. So Paul was going to go
to the Gentiles, and he did. And the Lord Jesus says, here's
the thing. I'm going to send you to them. For this purpose,
I'm gonna deliver you from the Gentiles that I'm sending you
to." And he says, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness
to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which
are sanctified by faith that is in me. Paul was sent by Christ
to preach to the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus was going to preserve
his life, though he was going to the Gentiles, and he was to
proclaim to the Gentiles the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they
would believe him. And in believing him, they would
be set apart from the rest of the Gentiles, that's what sanctified
means, as holy to God, and that they would be delivered in that
preaching of the gospel from the power of Satan, and that
they would also, to God, from the power of Satan to God, and
they would receive the forgiveness of sins in that faith in Christ. In looking to Christ, they themselves
receive the understanding of their own forgiveness in the
Lord Jesus Christ. They're delivered from Satan.
Their eyes are open. The light shines. And they're
set apart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Exactly why Joshua sent these
two spies to Jericho. Now, it was for this purpose
that they would, that they would, that Christ appeared to them.
But as, but the Lord Jesus Christ, as Joshua did, sent these two
messengers, Joshua sent the two messengers to call Rahab to find
mercy in His free grace by His precious blood. She was therefore
a chosen vessel of God, a chosen vessel of mercy. She was beloved
of the Lord. She was one of the Lord Jesus'
sheep. His Father had given Him for
whom He died and whom He must bring. Those are New Testament
explanations of what happened here in Joshua 2. Christ sends
his gospel by his witnesses, preachers, his ministers, who
proclaim God's sovereign blessing on his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he sends that message to
his elect people. And when they hear that word,
it's attended by the Spirit of God, and God gives them faith
in Christ, and they're set apart as His. This is what happens
here. So, whenever Joshua sent these
two men, it had a gospel, a gospel truth in that. Joshua
is Jesus. The two witnesses are gospel
ministers. The ones they were sent to, Rahab's household. The message they came with, God's
going to destroy this city. She believed God. She had heard
of Israel's God. She had heard that God had delivered
them from Egypt and destroyed their enemies and was going to
give them this inheritance. And so she saw mercy in this
God. And so she goes to them with
that truth in her heart. And so it says in Joshua chapter
two, and they went and they came to the harlot's house named Rahab
and they lodged there. It's amazing, isn't it? That
they came just to this one woman's house who was a harlot. God's
gonna destroy an entire city for their sin and yet God sends
two messengers to the harlot's house. What does that remind
you of? Remember when Jesus was on earth?
the Pharisees hated him because he ate and drank with publicans
and with sinners. And Jesus told them that publicans,
this is what Jesus told them, publicans and harlots will enter
into the kingdom of God before you. Now that had to sting their
pride. I can see their faces just becoming
solemn and red and fixed on killing him. What are you saying? Publicans and harlots will enter
the kingdom of God before you? No way. They are not going to accept
that. And so they set out to kill him. This is exactly what
God did in history. They had the scriptures. Why
didn't they believe this truth? Joshua, Jesus, sent his two witnesses
to Jericho to the woman who was a harlot, and she and her household
were saved, and the rest of Jericho perished. They did not believe,
Rahab did believe, and they perished, she did not. That is grace, isn't
it? That's the gospel. Now Rahab
was a cursed woman. She lived in the city of Jericho
and God sent Joshua to destroy that city. It was a city, an
entire city, destined for destruction and therefore under the curse.
Why did Rahab then obtain mercy? Why? Was there something about
her? Was she more insightful? Did she say, oh, well, I understand
things and these other people don't? No. No, grace never comes
to us because of what it finds in us. This is a principle we
have a hard time with. Grace is in God. It finds no
reason in us to show grace to us. There's never a reason. A rescue is for the ruined, grace
for the guilty. Righteousness is for the sinfully
filthy. The cleansing blood of Christ
is for the foul. The healing of Christ's stripes
are for the plagued and for the sick, the sinfully sick. Everything
about God's salvation finds us in our sin. ungodly, unrighteous,
deserving God's wrath in our minds hostile towards God. Our minds are hostility itself. And we have a hard time thinking
that. We have a hard time understanding that. But we see it when our
pride rebels against the message of free grace. when we think
we're entitled to something from God, that He must consider what
we do. And this is the defense of everyone
who doesn't trust Christ. They always fall back on, well,
yeah, but I, and I'm better than they. This is the defense. This is the arrogance of our
own sinful heart. But when the gospel comes to
us, it utterly humbles us, and it finds us in our pride, and
it brings us down. It has to bring us down before
it can lift us up. The Lord kills and he makes alive. He brings low and he lifts up. Out of the dunghill, he says,
he sets those among princes, beggars. Out of the dunghill,
he sets among princes. That's what we are. In the dunghill
of our own self-righteousness, God gives the gospel to us, bringing
us down in our own proud minds to see that our only hope is
in Christ and that all of our righteousness, all of our acceptance,
our justification, our reconciliation, the remission of our sins, everything
is in Christ. God looks to him only and receives
us for his sake. It was out of God's free grace.
So she was a cursed woman and she did find mercy, but that
mercy sprang from God's heart. Therefore, because it did not
depend upon her, And God can't change. He never repents. He
doesn't turn from the gifts He gives to His people. Therefore,
she would be saved, as all those who find mercy in God's good
will, saved to the uttermost because it depends on Him. And
that's where faith begins, with this humiliation that comes at
the hand of God's word to show us that He has mercy on whom
He will. He finds us as sinners. He has
to save us, or there's no hope. If He left us to ourselves, we'd
be like the entire city of Jericho. So He sends His messengers. She
was a cursed woman, yet she obtained mercy, not for anything in her,
not for anything done by her, just as all of God's people do.
Every saint in glory, just like Rahab, will give glory, all of
it, to the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not even begin to think
of something they did, no. All glory goes to Him. That's
what they'll think, and that's what they will want, because
that's the light of the gospel that enters our soul. When we
see that our salvation is entirely in Christ, we suddenly are at
peace, we are reconciled to God in our minds, and we trust Christ
entirely. We don't want any glory. because
we found no good in us. We want him to be glorified because
he is all of our salvation. And so we can come to God in
truth. Not deceiving. Not deceiving
ourselves, not deceiving others. We can come to God with an open
face, in absolute honesty, because all of our salvation is in Christ.
It's what God has done, what God has received from Him, that
God has rewarded Him and given us the reward of His righteousness. God blesses us in proportion
to His grace and mercy in Christ. Or He won't bless us. Not with
salvation. And so she was a cursed woman
in a cursed land, and she came to understand the truth of the
gospel, because it says in Hebrews 11, by faith. And faith is always
directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, When we read on here in Joshua
2, 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. And the
woman took the two men, the messengers from Joshua, and hid them, and
said thus, There came men to me, she said this to the king's
messengers, There came men to me, but I wist not whence they
were. And it came to pass about the time of shutting the gate,
when it was dark, that the men went out. Whither they went,
I don't know. Pursue after them quickly, for
you 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. So she told a lie to
the king's men, didn't she? Was that right? Was it right
for her to hide these spies? It says, by faith, Rahab received
the spies in peace. She had come to the conclusion,
by God's grace, that the people of her city and the king of that
city were wrong. She had come to the conclusion
that Israel's God was God in heaven and earth, and that the
only hope of salvation from death was in Israel's God. And so she
turned in her allegiance turned from the king of Jericho to the
God of Israel. And so she told this lie in order
to hide the spies from the king. Was that right? She did it by
faith. Have you ever thought about how
God sends men strong delusion that they might believe a lie?
how God sends them a strong delusion to believe a lie because they
did not receive the love of the truth. This is God's sovereignty. God says, I think it's in Ezekiel
16, if there's a prophet among you who tells lies, the Lord
has deceived him. So we know that God uses, God
doesn't lie, but he does bring upon men the consequences of
their own deceitful hearts. You want to believe a lie? Go
ahead. He leaves them in the dark. He
doesn't shine the light. The God of this world, 2 Corinthians
4.4, has blinded the minds of them which believe, not less
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine to them.
And unless God commands the light to shine out of darkness, we'll
remain in the dark, and we won't even know it. The people of Jericho had heard
the same message about Israel's God that Rahab had heard. They did not believe. Hebrews
11.31 says, by faith Rahab the harlot perished not with them
that believed not. And so we see here that that
she did tell a lie, but it was consistent with what she believed,
that the king and the people who believed not were under the
curse, and it was God's purpose to curse them, and so she hid
the spies because she was trying to show them mercy and kindness,
which she herself needed. Because we who have seen our
case before God and need mercy and see our mercy from God in
Christ, What do we become? What happens to the person who
has an infinite debt and is forgiven when we have nothing to pay?
What happens to that person? There's an immediate gratitude
that arises out of that free and frank forgiveness of our
sins. Jesus said, the one who has been
forgiven much loves much. If we've received mercy, then
we are merciful. If we've received grace, then
we're gracious. If we've been loved without cause
in us, but for Christ's sake, then we are loving. This is the
result of grace. So you see in this the way she
hid the spies, the way she was kind, showed mercy to the spies.
All of this is the evidence of the faith that she had that God
had given to her. And so James, in James chapter
2 and verse 25, if you read that, you'll see that God is showing
that by the work of hiding the spies and by the work of receiving
the spies, I call it a work because it was an evidence, It was what
faith produced in her that she showed that she had faith. In
other words, what she did proved what she believed. James chapter
2 and verse 25 says, likewise, just like Abraham. Also was not
Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the
messengers and had sent them out another way? She hid them
and sent them out for their safety, and that showed By what she said
and by what she did, it showed what she believed. And so her
actions and her words justified her claim, or God's claim, that
she believed God. We can't see what people are
really thinking, can we? You can't tell what's in a man's
heart. But you can see what they do. You hear what they say. And
so you know something about, because out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks. And even a child is known by
his doings. So we also are known by the way we respond, because
of what we believe. And that was the point of James,
saying faith without works is dead. If you have faith, then
you're going to act according to that faith. That's the principle. You can't get out of it. The
people of Jericho didn't believe, and they acted accordingly. They
didn't plead for mercy. They didn't send messengers to
Joshua for their own salvation. But Joshua sent messengers to
the city, and they came to Rahab's house according to the purpose
of God. And when they came to her house, she told them about
what she heard and what she believed, and she acted accordingly. She
showed mercy to those who needed mercy and grace and kindness. because she believed that they
were God's people. As she was going to receive that
salvation, the Apostle Peter says in Acts chapter 15, but
we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we're
gonna be saved just like them. That's what she believed. She
believed that through the grace of God, through the mercy of
God, she could be saved just like God saved Israel. If God
saved Israel, out of Egypt when they were utterly weak and sinful
and no different really in themselves and the Egyptians, except that
God had chosen them and made a covenant with Abraham on their
behalf. If God didn't remember his covenant
for them and deliver them, They would have perished too. But
God did set his love upon them. God did make a covenant with
them and God did deliver them. And so she's reasoning according
to the reasoning of the truth of the gospel by the spirit of
God. She's reasoning of these things and she's thinking, yeah,
the God who saved Israel, if he has mercy upon me, he can
save me too and my household. And so we read on in Joshua chapter
two. So she hid the spies, and it
was an act of faith. She sent them out another way,
it was an act of faith. It proved her faith, what she
believed, that she could be saved by Israel's God. And so then, So we see here that the king's
men chased after these two spies sent by Joshua. Of course, they
couldn't find them because Rahab told them to go down by Jordan,
so they followed her suggestion and they went to Jordan. They
couldn't find them. They had gone to the mountains where she had
sent them out another way. And then in verse 8, Joshua 2, verse
8, And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon
the roof, and she said to the men, Now notice in verse nine
of Joshua chapter two, I know that the Lord has given you the
land. So she understood that God had
already promised and was going to give them her land. and that
your terror has 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 you came
out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites
that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you
utterly destroyed." So here we see that there was a report given. a report by God that was given,
and how the report came to the people of Jericho. Everyone knew
this because everyone was terrified. God opened the sea up and led
these people through it on dry land. They had no power against
the Egyptian army, and then God destroyed the entire army of
Egypt. And the king and his people in that sea, that same sea, that
was salvation to Israel, it was judgment upon them. And they knew this. Rahab knew
it. The people of Jericho knew it.
And so we heard this, we heard that report. That's what she's
saying here. And then she goes on, she says,
and as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt,
neither did there remain any more courage in any man because
of you. Everyone was afraid. They were
afraid of Israel. They heard about this throughout
all of Canaan. And this fear gripped them because it was God's
effect. He sent that report to them to
cause them to fear. It weakened them. It made them
utterly helpless because they were terrified of the armies
of Israel, of God's people. And then she says here in the
end of verse 11, for the Lord your God, she calls him Lord,
which means Jehovah, Jehovah your God, And if you were at
the Bible study on Thursday night, I explained what Jehovah means.
It means the one who actually fulfills his covenant promises.
Jehovah means the one who really fulfills. You're gonna see it.
God's gonna fulfill his covenant promises he gave to Abraham.
He's gonna destroy Egypt and bring you out. That's what God
said. And he covenanted with Abraham for that. He swore by
an oath that he was gonna give them the land. You're gonna see
that. His name is Jehovah. And God had made himself known
as El Shaddai, God Almighty, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
but they didn't see the fulfillment of the promises of the one who
could raise from the dead and who could do everything that
he promised. They believed him, but they didn't
see the fulfillment of it. The Israelites did when they
were delivered from Egypt, Jehovah. And so here, Rahab is saying
that Jehovah, your God, is God in heaven above and in earth
beneath. There's no place He doesn't rule.
He rules over everything. He made heaven and earth. He
certainly can conduct all of the business of heaven and earth,
providence and salvation, everything. And we see, Rahab is saying,
we see that God is working all things together for your good.
Those who are the called according to His purpose. And so this is
the gospel. This is what the gospel says.
God does this. There's no condemnation for us
who are in Christ Jesus. That's how we're God's people.
We who are in Christ are the true Israel of God, and the evidence
of that is that God has given us this faith in Christ. So she's
talking about God, the Lord, Jehovah, the one who keeps His
word? And who is it that actually did
what God promised? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
therefore called what? Jehovah our righteousness. Jehovah our shepherd. Jehovah
that healeth thee. Jehovah that sanctifyeth thee.
These are all words from the Old Testament scripture. And
in the New Testament, Matthew 121, Jesus, who shall save his
people from their sins. He's the one who actually did
that. He said on the cross, it is finished. Jehovah, our righteousness. So she heard about Jehovah, your
God, the one who's God of his people. He is God in heaven and
above and in the earth beneath. Now, let me interject this right
now here. Rahab actually believed God,
didn't she? We know it from Hebrews 11, 31,
and we can see it here from this account that she's given to the
spies. She's telling them what she had come to hear and know
and believe. And that's why she hid them.
That's why she sent them out another way to preserve their
lives. That's why she asked them to
save her and her family, because she believed God. But what about
this faith? We want, I hope that you do,
want to believe God, don't you? And yet it says in Romans 3,
verse 10 and following, there's none that understandeth. There's
none that seeketh after God. So none of us by nature do believe
God. All of us by nature hold down
the truth. We suppress the truth God has
made known to us. We don't like it. We don't like
the God of truth. We don't like that God rules
over us. We want to project back onto
God this harsh God who only holds us in judgment. We don't come
to Him for salvation. We don't plead to God for mercy,
just like the people of Jericho. And so, where does this faith
come from then? If all of us by nature do not
believe, which scripture plainly testifies to, where does it come
from? Well, first realize none believe God by nature. We're
all those described as those who do not understand, who do
not seek after God. We've gone our own way. And yet,
some do believe, right? We know that there are those
who do believe. Obviously, Rahab is one of them. If none by nature
believe, and yet there are some who do believe, then what explanation
can we give? Why does anyone believe God? Scripture reveals, faith is the
gift of God. Ephesians 2, by grace you are
saved through faith and that not of yourself because you obviously
by nature don't believe and it doesn't come from you. You don't
generate it. It's not of yourselves. It comes from God. It is the
gift of God. So it's by grace. Motive found
in the character and in the purpose of God to give this faith in
Christ to his people. 2 Thessalonians 3.2 says not
all men have faith. Not everyone believes. Some do. What's the explanation? God gave
it to them. And in Acts 13.48, Acts 13.48
it says as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. So
we come by this gift of faith because of God's grace, and it
comes to all those who were ordained to eternal life. Jesus said,
that you have given me power over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to as many as you have given me, in John
17, verse two and three. And that eternal life is to know
God in Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, that's faith, to know
God in Jesus Christ. So this faith is a gift, a gift
of God's grace. We don't have it by nature. It
doesn't come from us. Not all men have it. Some do,
because of God's grace. And it's given to those God ordained
to eternal life. And how does it come? How does
this faith come? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. Now, Ray had acted according
to what she believed. She spoke, she talked about the
things that she truly believed. It came out of the abundance
of her heart. How did she have this faith? Like Lydia in Acts
16 verse 14, whose heart the Lord opened. God gave it to her. And when he gave it to her, she
did these things out of faith. She spoke this way, she acted
this way. And so when God tells us faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God, what do we do if we believe that?
I want to believe Christ. I want this life. I don't want
to come under condemnation. I want to know Jesus Christ and
God in Him. Don't you? I want this eternal
life. I want the righteousness that
those who believe are clothed in. I want the forgiveness of
my sins. I want all these things. I want
life. I don't want to remain in the city of destruction. What
do I do then? if faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. That faith God has given to us,
the operation of the Spirit of God, Colossians 2, verse 12 and
13, that operation of God's Spirit in us causes us to want to hear
of Christ. So we make it a point in our
lives to listen and to meditate on and to bring God's word to
him in prayer again, because we say, Lord, grant me this mercy
of this faith, this grace that you must give. And I must have
to see that my salvation is in Christ and to trust him, to know
him. That was Paul's in earnest desire,
oh, that I might know Him and be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, not my own personal
obedience, but Christ's obedience. That's what I want. That's all
I need. And having Christ, I have everything. I have all things.
And so she believed God, and this faith came to her as God's
gift of His grace. And notice, in her faith, Notice
this about her faith, because as I said in Hebrews 11, when
it talks about these tremendous acts of faith that these people
did, like for example, Abraham offering up Isaac, or these people
who were sawn asunder, and Moses who forsook Egypt, and who considered
the afflictions of Christ greater treasure than the treasures of
Egypt. These are amazing acts of faith. And so we're given this faith
just like them. But notice how with Rahab, what
was this faith that caused her to do? She acted entirely opposite
to all the other people in Jericho. Like a salmon swimming upstream,
she went against the stream. She went against the current.
Against all the opposition of her countrymen in her city, She
believed the spies. She believed the God of Israel.
No one had to pump up her faith. It was resident in her. Because
the word of God given to her had produced that faith when
it was attended by God's Holy Spirit. The words, Jesus said,
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are life.
Because when the light of God's word, the gospel comes to us,
it's life. Because God put it there, and
no one can take it from us. So that Jesus asked his disciples,
everyone's leaving, you gonna go too? No, who else are we gonna
go to? You have the words of eternal
life, and we are sure, we believe and are sure that you are the
Christ, the son of the living God. That's what faith does in
us. That's what she believed. So
against all of that city that she lived in, those people who
were her people, she was one of them. She was going the opposite
way. That's what faith does. It produces
in us this desire after Christ to know him and to be found in
him. And so let me read these words
to you. I put this in the bulletin, and
I think it's in Luke chapter 14, if I remember correctly,
just to give you an example of this. She received the spies
with peace. She risked her own neck. The
king of the city she lived in was out, he told her, look, cough
it up, tell me where they went. No, not going to, I'm gonna,
the men you seek are not here, they're gone. And by God's grace,
he believed that distraction. But in Luke chapter 14, Jesus
said this, In verse 25, there went great multitudes with him
and he turned and he said to them, if any man come to me and
hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of
you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth
the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it? lest happily, or
by chance, after he had laid the foundation, is not able to
finish it. beheld it begin to mock him.
So if you start something and you don't finish it, everyone's
going to mock you, like the bridge from LA to Fresno or whatever
it goes. Verse 30, saying, this man began to build and was not
able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sits not down first and consulteth whether
he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with
20,000? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sends an ambassador and desireth conditions
of peace. Now, here's the application. So likewise, whoever he be of
you that forsaketh not all that he has cannot be my disciple. Rahab's saying, if I have the
entire city of Jericho, but don't have Christ, I have nothing.
But if I have Christ and I lose the entire city, I have everything. That's what Christ is talking
about here. That's what faith does. I must have Christ or else
I die. If I don't have Him, if I cannot
know in my heart that God accepts me for Christ's sake, I cannot
be at peace. I cannot have joy. I won't be
merciful, I won't be gracious, I cannot forgive others because
I can't know God has forgiven me. If I find some condition
God requires of me in order to have this salvation and this
everlasting life, then I will always be in terror. But Rahab,
though she heard the same news, wasn't in terror. What she was,
was her heart melted in the repentance of faith. The same sun that hardened
the hearts of those in Jericho melted her heart like Lydia.
Her heart was open, so she received the things spoken to her. And
she believed God. And so we go on here. In Joshua
chapter 2, verse 12. Now, therefore, Rahab is continuing
to talk to the two spies. She says, I pray you, This was
a beseeching here, wasn't it? Swear unto me by the Lord, since
I have showed you kindness, and the word kindness is the same
word as merciful, since I've been merciful to you, that you
also will show me kindness, show kindness unto my father's house
and give me a true token. A true token. Be merciful, show
kindness to me and to my father's house. Like I said, when God
has shown us mercy, we want to be merciful, don't we? Oh, what
a wretch I am. God has forgiven me an infinite
debt. How can I hold this one who owes me a pittance around
the neck and choke it out of them? No, that's not the attitude. The attitude of the believer
is, if God has forgiven me when I had nothing to pay, I owe him my life. And this other
person, they also answered to God only. I can't hold them,
their feet to the fire. I can't hold them under judgment.
The Lord is the one who's the judge and he's the one who saves.
I'll direct them. In fact, what she wanted was,
Lord, save my household. That's what her desire was. She
had heard, she had believed, she wanted her household to hear
and believe. If we believe, if we understand that faith comes
by hearing, then we are going to listen to, we're going to
be under the hearing of God's word concerning Christ, and we're
going to be asking God, show me Christ. And we want our children
to also, so we will put them under the same hearing. If faith
comes by hearing and our children need to be saved, which we understand
and we believe that, then we will put them under the hearing
of the gospel. And we want them to hear it as
clearly as it can be spoken. And so we'll talk to them, and
we'll ask God for the ability to explain it to them, from the
heart, the same truth we believe, we want them to believe, because
we know that if God saves them and us, we all have to be saved
the same way, through hearing, and through hearing of Christ,
and through believing Him. And so she asks for this mercy.
She knows that God saved Israel, Lord. It says this in Psalm 106,
and I read this to you often. In Psalm 106, in verse four,
he says this, remember me, oh Lord, with the favor that thou
barest to thy people. Oh, visit me with thy salvation. If God saves his elect, Lord,
Visit me with the same grace you give to your elect and save
my soul and save my children, my family. See, that's the fruit
of faith, is coming to God who alone saves. And so she says
this, give me a true token. What is a token? Well, the word
token here means a miracle or a sign, something that shows
proof of the promise that they made to her. She asked them to
swear, that's giving an oath, to make a promise and give me
a true token of that. Now, in scripture, it says in
1 Corinthians 1 and verse 22, it says that the Jews seek after
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ
and him crucified. Okay? What's he saying there? What
is the sign God gives to his people? Jesus Christ. The one who came as our surety
and substituted himself and answered God's wrath and justice with
himself for our sins in blood and obtained our eternal redemption
and justified us by his blood whose righteousness in doing
so is counted to us. That's the token God gives to
us. That's the sign. That's the miracle.
That's what he says. The evidence of God's oath that
he will save us from death is Christ and him crucified. Jesus
told Nicodemus, when he's in a conundrum, how can anyone be
born again? If you say that being born to
Abraham isn't enough and I have to be born again, how can these
things be? I can't be reborn by my mother. And Jesus said, As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be
lifted up himself. He's talking about himself. Lifted
up on the cross, under the law of God, made a curse that whosoever
believeth, like they looked and found remedy for their sin-bitten
bodies, whoever looks to Christ on the cross, crucified, that
one has eternal life. Because that's what the Spirit
of God does when He births us. He directs us to the one token,
the one sign, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What's the evidence
of the new birth? I see. God has saved me by Christ. My only coming to God is through
Him. And because it's only through Him, then I have full assurance. We have a hard time with that,
don't we? because we want to keep some unbelief so that we
can claim some cause for why we're not fully vested in giving
everything up for Christ. But if God receives us for Christ's
sake alone, then we know that we're accepted because we're
accepted on the account of Him. by God's word. Jesus said, whoever
believes on me has everlasting life. They've already passed
from death to life. They shall not come into condemnation. The whole city of Jericho was
going to be destroyed under the judgment of God. But in Romans
chapter 5 it says, being now justified by his blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him, through Christ. So the token
she wanted in the New Testament is explained as Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. We're saved from wrath through
Him, through Him who died and God raised from the dead and
justified us by His blood. The blood shed to wash our sins
away, the blood shed in obedience to establish our righteousness.
That's our all, it's in Christ. And so that was the true token
she asked for. Give me a true token. So they
had to have something. Now, these men were Israelites. They understood how they escaped
from Egypt. And how was that? Well, it was
the last plague, finally, that got him out. And what was that
last plague? It was the plague of God destroying
the firstborn in Egypt, but preserving all those in the house where
the blood was sprinkled. And God said in Exodus 12, 13,
that the blood on the lintel and on the side posts of the
doors, sprinkled there, would be a token Let me read it to
you so we get the words just right. In Exodus chapter 12 and
verse 13, he says, about the Passover, he says,
and the blood shall be a token. The blood shall be to you for
a token upon the houses where you are, and when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. No question that these two spies
had that principle embedded in their thinking, because that's
what faith does. They understood the only way
God can receive us is through the blood. And so when she says,
give me a true token, we understood now from the New Testament that's
Christ and him crucified. Boing! Immediately these men
are thinking, ha ha, Aha, verse 13, and she continues asking
for the true token. This is what she wants the token
to be a sign of, that you will save alive my father, my mother,
my brethren, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver
our lives from death. That's what she wanted the token
to show her. Show me by this token that you
will save me. And the men answered, Our life
are 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 and truly with you. 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 to them, Get to
the mountains, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves
there three days, until the pursuers be returned, and afterward may
you go your way.' And the men said to her, We will be blameless
of this thine oath, which thou hast made us to swear. Behold,
when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line 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 door of thy house into the street his blood
shall be on 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 thee okay And then he goes on in verse 21,
and she said, according to your word, so be it. And she sent
them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line
to the window, in the window. So what happens here? You want
a token? We know it's gonna be of Christ
and Him crucified. You take this scarlet thread,
you put it in the window, this cord. When they speak of this here
in verse 21, she says, according to your words, she sent them
away and departed and she bound the scarlet line in the way,
a different word. God doesn't use different words
randomly just to make it more interesting. He has a specific
purpose. The word line here means expectation
and hope. It's translated twice, line,
in scripture, but 30 times as hope and expectation. the combination
of those two translations, hope and expectation, 30 times. That's
a lot more than lying. So what we understand is that
she expected mercy by the token they had given her to tie the
line, the scarlet cord, the thread, in the window, the thing that
she let them down by. And again, The token that they
understood, as in the Passover, when God saw the blood, he'll
pass over you. When we see the scarlet thread,
we will not destroy, we will not kill those in your household.
All those in the household where the scarlet thread was tied in
the window were spared the wrath of God, the judgment against
the city. What is this line? What is this
scarlet thread? What is our expectation? What
is our hope? Isn't it Christ's blood? The
blood is everything. It had to be the blood. It had
to be the blood. It had to be the blood for me,
the hymn writer said. One day when I was lost, he died
upon the cross. It had to be the blood for me. That's what faith teaches us.
And so she asked for a token. God points her to Christ and
him crucified, and they say, now you tie this in the window.
This is my expectation. This is my hope that God will
bless me. He will spare my life and give
me this salvation. And as he's given you the inheritance,
he'll give me that blessing you're talking about when you come into
the land God has given you. She was asking, like it says
in Psalm 106, remember me, O Lord, with the favor that Thou barest
unto Thy people. That's what this word line, I
mean the word token also means. Not only a sign, but a remembrance. Token means not only a sign and
a wonder, evidence, but it means a remembrance. And so the token
has to do with God remembering the covenant He made with us
in Christ. God promised, He made an oath,
He gave promises to His Son and all those that were given to
Him that He would spare their lives, He would save them and
give them an eternal inheritance. It's a remembrance. What is a
remembrance? What does God remember? Well, He remembers our sins no
more because He remembers Christ for us. Remember how the thief
on the cross spoke to the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, Lord,
Everyone around the cross were looking at his beaten and mangled
body. There was no strength in him. He was crucified in weakness.
And here the thief on the cross, against the stream of all the
other opinions, said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember
me. Remember the blood. Remember
the token. Look upon the blood and receive
me for Christ's sake." Everything is because of Him, isn't it?
And we plead the same thing. Isaiah 43, verse 25 and 26, the
Lord says, I, even I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions
for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. And then He
says immediately after that, put me in remembrance. Hold forth
the token. Hold forth the expectation and
hope of your life and soul. Put it in the window. So when
the destroyer comes, your house will be spared. That was the
faith of Rahab. She did what she believed. And
that's what our faith does too. We hold to Christ. We confess
we have no hope but Him. We also confess and we come to
God through the blood of Jesus. We come in full assurance of
faith because it doesn't depend on us. If it does, we have no
hope. But because it does depend on him alone, we have the full
assurance of faith. This is what faith teaches us.
Let me read this from Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19. Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus. Isn't that enough? Isn't Christ's
blood... Do we need to add anything to
Christ's blood to have the confidence and assurance of coming to God
by Him? He's our access. He's our acceptance. He's our blessing. He's everything. He's our shield. He's our reward.
He says to Abraham. And so we see this. Lord, give me a true token. Show
me Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, your grace is in him.
We pray for this true token. Put it in our hearts, give us
this faith. We can't produce it. We can't
produce the salvation that we must have. Christ must obtain
it for us, and he did. He said it is finished, and this
is our hope. This is our expectation. Let
us hold this out. that we would trust that when
you see the Lord Jesus Christ, you would receive us for his
sake. We ask, Lord, that you would
remember his blood and you would remember us for Christ's sake.
We would not remember our sins against us, but you would remember
your covenant, your oath to him, the promises you made according
to your purpose to save sinners even harlots from your wrath
by his blood. Give us this peace now and clear
us in the day of judgment, considering Christ only for us. He's all
that we hope for. He's the only one we trust. And
though it be entirely opposed to everything that this world
has to say and offer, we pray, Lord, that we would consider
it no sacrifice to give up everything to have Christ. In his name we
pray, amen.