All right, Joshua chapter two,
a notorious sinner saved by grace. There's something naturally in
us, and I'm talking about even as unregenerate people, when
we were unregenerate, that we are really impressed with a change
of life that comes over one who is what we would label a notorious
sinner. One who even the natural man
can recognize is not doing right. And when there's a change of
habit, a change of character maybe you might say, we're really
impressed with that and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with
that. But here's the problem that we have by nature is to
automatically equate that with salvation is totally wrong. You
know, I hear stories about drug addicts who get off of drugs,
about people who are infamously or outwardly or knowingly immoral,
who change their lives and become responsible citizens. Those are
things that should happen. But to say, well, I know that
person. I mean, I had a man stand up
here one time after we were having a conference. and he heard a
man preach the gospel, he was a visitor, and it upset him.
Preaching about the sovereign grace of God and the mercy of
God, unconditional salvation, imputed righteousness, and it
upset this fella. Because it challenged his ground
of salvation, his ground of hope, because his ground of hope was
based upon his change of character from when he was a teenager to
when he became an adult. And you know what he told me?
He said, I knew, talking about cigarettes, he said, I knew when
I put down those cigarettes that it was of the spirit of God,
that God saved me. And I told him, I said, well,
I'm so thankful that you put down those cigarettes and quit
smoking, because I don't like smoke. But I said, that's not
necessarily the spirit of God. And that's the problem. And when
I was studying for this lesson in Joshua 2, it's about a woman
named Rahab. You know who Rahab is? I think
every time you refer to Rahab in the scripture, what do you
read? Rahab what? Rahab the harlot. You'd think that after she was
converted that maybe they would have dropped that name, that
second part of that name. I don't know. I know she didn't
continue to be a harlot because she was married to a man named
Salmon, who was I think the great, great grandfather of David. But
what's the point that the Lord is trying to make here? Well,
he's talking about a notorious sinner saved by grace. But here's
the point that I want us to remember and to know. In God's sight,
we are all notorious sinners saved by grace. No better than
Rahab the harlot in God's sight now. And yes, she is, you know,
the grace of God in the salvation of any center is an astounding
thing. I mean, I sang amazing grace
even when I was a lost religionist, but when God taught me the true
gospel, boy, that really meant something now, amazing grace. And it's amazing that God could
save a woman like Rahab, but I look at it this way. It's amazing
that God could save a sinner like me out of false religion.
I mean, I was high in religion as far as my thoughts. I was
a second year seminary student when I first heard the gospel
and realized that I was preaching and believing a false gospel.
And you know what? That takes the power of God,
more power than it takes for a guy to stop smoking because
it takes a miracle of God's grace. But here's the point. What does
the Bible say? This is a faithful saying that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save who? Sinners. And that's
what we are. Only two kinds of people on this
earth, sinners lost in their sins and sinners saved by grace. His name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. You remember
when the Lord walked this earth in his earthly sojourn before
he went to the cross, he had the audacity to keep company
with publicans and sinners. And the Pharisees, the unbelieving,
self-righteous Pharisees, they accused him and criticized him. They told his disciples, your
master, look what he's doing. He's sitting down and having
dinner with publicans. Publicans were notorious sinners.
Everybody knew they were sinners. They were cheaters. And publicans
and sinners. And what did the Lord tell them?
He said, well, I'm the great physician. And what does the
physician do? He comes to heal the sick, not
the well. And he said, I came not to call
the righteous, those who are righteous in their own eyes,
but sinners to repentance. Isn't that right? And I've got
posted in your lesson here. Isaiah 118, that's one of my
favorite verses. where he says, come now and let
us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as
scarlet. Now Rahab's sins were certainly
as scarlet. Everybody saw it. She's the harlot.
But what about those Pharisees? What about you? What about me?
Well, in God's sight, our sins are scarlet, glaring, unhidden,
unclothed. But he says, they shall be white
as snow. There's gonna be a wiping away,
a purging away of those sins. How? By the blood of Jesus Christ. That's how. God forgives my sins
on a just ground. What is that just ground? The
righteousness of Christ. And he goes on to say, though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. So people naturally
view those who are outwardly immoral sinners, they need salvation. Was there any doubt in anybody's
mind that Rahab the harlot needed to be saved? And the answer is
no. But what about those self-righteous
religionists who appear righteous unto men, like Nicodemus? Christ told Nicodemus, you've
gotta be born again. You're spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins, Nicodemus. You're like all other people.
You're like Rahab the harlot. Naturally. Dead in trespasses
and sins. And basically what he's telling
all, we need a righteousness we cannot produce. And here's
the point. When I was a second year seminary
student, I was no closer to producing such a righteousness than Rahab
the harlot. Do you believe that? Somebody
said, well, you need to be saved, but not as much as old Rahab.
Oh no. In fact, if you want to get technical,
you might say I was more in need of it because you remember what
Christ told the Pharisees about their efforts to get proselytes? Go out and get these immoral
Gentile dogs into the right religion. He said you encompass sea and
land to make one proselyte, and when you got them, what did he
say? You make them two-fold more the child of hell than you are.
Because now they've got a false refuge. Now they've got a false
hope. And it takes the spirit of God
to blast a sinner out of that false refuge and false hope and
bring them to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
So we can look at an immoral sinner, an infamously, notoriously
moral sinner like Rahab the harlot, oh yes, she needs to be saved,
but are we in any less need of that salvation? The answer's
no. The fact is that we're all sinners who are equally in need
of salvation by grace. I always liked when I talked
about Nicodemus in John chapter three, and then you go to John
chapter four, you have the Samaritan woman who was an infamous adulteress. And Christ spoke basically the
same message to both. He didn't have a lighter message
for Nicodemus than he had for the woman at the well. It was
the same gospel. We're all sinners, and if God
were to judge us based upon our best efforts to keep the law,
we'd all be damned. So again, we're in need of a
righteousness we cannot produce. Well, this Rahab in Joshua chapter
two, she is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible, isn't
she? But she's also one of the most important people in the
Bible. Because think about this. She
was instrumental in helping Joshua and the children of Israel get
into Jericho. In order for them, here they
are, they're coming, they're at the brink of the promised
land and they're getting ready to go over. And Joshua, he sends
some spies over. And they end up at Rahab, her
house was upon the wall. of Jericho. Those walls, you've
heard the walls of Jericho. That's kind of like a folklore
thing now. Joshua fit the battle of Jericho
and all of that. And Joshua did. But it was the
power of God that brought the walls down. It wasn't the power
of Joshua. Of course, Joshua was a picture
of Christ there. We'll talk about that next week. But here, they
went to Rahab's house, and she harbored these spies, and when
the king of Jericho found out that they were there, she helped
him leave safely. And then, as you know, she let
the scarlet cord down, that scarlet cord, which is a picture of the
blood of Christ, that they would protect her, and they climbed
up on it, and all of that. So she was instrumental in God's
providential dealings. of Israel coming over into the
promised land, and then consider how many times she's mentioned
in the Bible, not only this historical event. In Matthew chapter one,
verses five and six, Rahab, it's spelled differently in the Greek,
or in the transliteration of the Greek to English, R-A-C-H-A-B,
but I believe it's Rahab, the harlot, And she was, later on
she married Salmon, who was the father or grandfather,
I can't remember all the, sometimes when the Bible talks about somebody
being a son, it could be a grandson, but anyway, Boaz, you know who
Boaz was, there was Salmon, and she had Obed, and then there
was Boaz, who married Ruth. You have two Gentile women in
the human lineage of Jesus Christ. And Rahab's one of them. Actually,
you have Rahab, you have Ruth, and you have a woman named Bathsheba
in that lineage. Another infamous sinner. And
that is in the human lineage of Christ. And she's the one,
she's listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. as one who by
faith, along with Abraham, Isaac, and Moses. Hebrews 11.31, you
can look that up. Rahab's mentioned, Rahab the
harlot. And then, over in James 2, just read this one. James 2. When James is talking about evidences
of the genuineness of our faith, and that's what James is talking
about, He's talking about not justification. When he talks
about a person's justified by works, he's not talking about
justification before God. James is not. How do you know
that? Well, he starts off in verse
14. He said, faith without works is dead. So what's he talking
about? We who claim to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, is our faith, is our belief, is it really genuine
or is it just lip service? And that's what James is talking
about. And he mentions Abraham here. He says, Abraham proved
his faith when he took his son, by being commanded of God, took
his son upon that mount and was going to sacrifice him. And then
he mentions Rahab the harlot. Look at verse 25. Likewise, James
2.25, also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, not
before God now, I don't know why, you know, read the context
of these things. 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. So what
he's saying is Rahab proved her faith in the God of Israel. when
she did what she did. And back here in Joshua chapter
two, we see this. Here, as I said, Israel's camped
across the Jordan. Joshua sent two men out to spy. And they're going to take the
city. In order to enter the promised
land, they had to go through Jericho. That was a strategic
place. So it had to be conquered if
they were going to take possession of the land. And we know they
did. We see that later on, but we
know that this victory in Jericho was not due to their own power.
It was not due to their own arsenal or any of their goodness. It
was God's power. This was a nation of vagabonds. They'd been wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years, and most of that first generation,
except for a few, had perished in the wilderness, and there
was a new generation, and they wouldn't have been able to conquer
Jericho, but God had a plan and purpose and a power, and he was
going to do it. And it's an amazing demonstration
of his power. Look at Joshua 2 and verse 15. It says when it's talking, I
may have the wrong reference there. Well, no, okay, here it
is. Rahab's house was upon the wall which circled the city. It says in verse 15, she let
them down, these spies, by a cord through the window, for her house
was upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall. And that's
where she had her brothel, Rahab the harlot. So her house was
where a person could come and find food and lodging. And then
it says that the spies stopped there, look at Joshua 2.1, 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 that's
where they stayed. And as you know the story, the
king of Jericho, he found out about it and he sent word to
her to deliver these men. He sent word to Rahab, said,
bring these men to me. And she hid the spies on the
roof of the house and sent word to the king that although the
Israelites had been to her house, that they were gone. And Rahab
came up on the roof where the spies were hidden, and she professed
her faith in the living God. Now you can read the whole chapter,
but look at verse eight of Joshua two. This is Rahab, and she said
unto the men, I know that the Lord, let me take this coat off,
it's hot in here. Look at verse eight. Yeah, it says, 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.
Now they hadn't even crossed the Jordan yet. They hadn't moved,
there's two guys came from that nation. But what did she say
here? I know the Lord has given you
the land. And I always think of that as
a proclamation of gospel salvation. Before we take possession of
salvation in the new birth by the power of the Holy Spirit,
you know what? The Lord's already given it to us. The Bible in
2 Timothy chapter one, Paul spoke to Timothy of a salvation which
was given us, God's elect, in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Do you know 40 years before this,
when they were sentenced by God to wander in the wilderness,
God had already given them the land. Wasn't that the message
that Caleb and Joshua had? When those spies came back at
first and said, oh, these guys, they're too big for us. What
God said, it's a land flowing with milk and honey and these
two guys, these guys are too big for us, we can't take it.
And Caleb said, wait a minute, you're not looking at it right.
God's already given it to us. All we have to do is go over
and possess it, have it. And so Rahab expresses that same
thought. And that's by God-given faith,
isn't it? I mean, this wouldn't come, Rahab
the harlot, what does she know about it? Somebody said, well,
who told her? I don't know. But somebody did. Did God give it to her in a dream?
I don't know, the Bible doesn't say that. Why should we argue
about stuff like that? Here it is, this is a woman of
faith. James said it. Paul said it in
Hebrews. The Lord hath given you the land.
Look at it, verse nine. And that your terror is fallen
upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of
you. So this was widespread, this was well known. But people
like the king of Jericho and the mass of the population, they
didn't think like Rahab. Rahab conceded. The Lord's given
you the land, you're gonna have it. King of Jericho says, you
know, we've heard about you. We know your power, and it wasn't
their power, it was God's power, you know that. None of their
victories, none of their sustenance in the wilderness was of themselves,
it was all of God. But they'd heard about it in
Jericho, but we're not gonna let you take it. Well look at
verse 10, she says, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the
water of the Red Sea. They'd heard all the way back
to then. "'For you,' he said, she says, "'when you came out
of Egypt "'and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites
"'that were on the other side of Jordan, "'Sihon and Og, whom
you utterly destroyed. "'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.'" So the people of Jericho
were afraid, even though they weren't going to concede it,
They were afraid. He says, for the Lord your God,
now this is what Rahab says, for the Lord your God, he is
God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Your God is God. Your God is God. And then after
she says that, after that statement of faith, she then sought the
mercy of the Lord to be upon her and her household. Look at
verse 12. 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 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. She's asking him for mercy. She
understands what's gonna happen here. She understands the power
of God through these people, that they're gonna take this
place. And so the men promised her, look at verse 14, the men
answered her, our life for yours, if you 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. So they say, we'll have
mercy. And they ask her to hang a scarlet
cord to let it down of the wall. 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 there. So that's how they got down.
And so look down at verse 18. Well, let's read verse 60. And
she said unto them, get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers
meet you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers
return. 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. Behold, when we come
into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet, this red
cord. this 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 so she lets the spies down
by that scarlet cord. They fled to the mountains for
safety. And when Israel come in finally to take the city,
Joshua commanded that Rahab be spared. You can read about that
over in Joshua chapter six. Rahab be spared. And what you
have there is a picture of Christ, who is our Joshua. You know,
Joshua is the Old Testament name for the Greek Jesus. And he's
a type of Christ. And it's he, by the power of
his word, he said, when you see that scarlet thread, you don't
touch her. What does that remind you of?
It reminds me of the Passover. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Isn't that right? That scarlet
thread, we'll talk about that in just a moment. But let me
show you, there's several spiritual lessons we learn from Rahab.
Number one, Rahab is a picture of God's mercy and grace towards
sinners. We've already talked about that.
Christ came to save sinners. Paul said to save sinners of
whom I am chief. Paul wasn't just, using hyperbole
there, you know, exaggeration. You know, I think a lot of times
when people run around displaying their awareness of their sinfulness
and they talk about how bad I am, how bad I... I think in some
cases it's genuine, but for the most part I think people have
a tendency to even brag upon their badness. But Paul's not
doing that when he said, I'm chief. He really meant it. That's how he saw himself. You
see, Isaiah made the statement, he said, woe unto me, I'm a man
of unclean lips, starting with himself. Then he said, I dwell
amidst a people of unclean lips. We're all in the same boat, folks.
There's none righteous, no not one. There's none that doeth
good, no not one. Even when God saves us, Think
about it, even when we're regenerate, born again by the Spirit and
believe in Christ, nothing we do, even by the power of the
Spirit, will equal the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in Christ. We'll always fall short. But
what does that do for us? Does that lead us to despair?
Does that lead us to Bunyan's slew of despond that we might
wallow in? No, it causes us to look more,
to value more the glorious person and finished work of Christ,
his blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness.
The blood of Jesus Christ. And what we learn from people
like Rahab, and we learn because the Spirit of God teaches us
now, is that His mercy is to the miserable and His grace is
for the guilty. We see a lot of examples of God's
mercy and grace to what we, even the world, calls notorious sinners.
I think about Zacchaeus. You remember Zacchaeus? He was
up a tree. He was a publican. He robbed many people, lined
his own pockets. Christ told him, said, Zacchaeus,
today salvation has come to your house. And then I think about
the publican in Luke 18. God be merciful to me, the sinner. God propitiate for me, the sinner. I need the blood of the lamb
to wash away my sins. You can think about the Samaritan
woman, I mentioned her in John chapter four, who had five husbands
and then living with a man who wasn't her husband. Notorious
sinner. Think about the thief on the
cross. The gospel was not made effectual
to him until he was on that cross. But what we have to learn out
of all this is that No matter how moral and religious we are
in the eyes of men by nature, and no matter how much we try
to do right towards men and women, and we should now, but we have
to learn that we're no closer to salvation, to forgiveness,
to righteousness, than old Rahab the harlot, a notorious sinner,
as I said. In the eyes of God, we're all
notorious sinners. And if we're saved, we're saved
by grace. And we have to enter into this
in Romans 5, where sin abounded, not just in general, but where
sin abounded, which the language there is literally like where
sin overflowed me like a flood. Me, oh, religious, religionist,
the moralist. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. And grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here's the second thing. Rahab is an example of God's
electing, distinguished, and efficacious grace. This was no
accident here. This is what God purposed before
the foundation of the world. Rahab the harlot's name. Now
I don't know, you know, I don't believe that's talking about
a literal book with a literal name in it. Some people do. I believe it's just talking about
the eternal mind of God which never changes. But Rahab the
harlot's name was in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation
of the world. The lamb that was slain. And
these spies were led to her house by the Spirit of God. They didn't
just happen on it. And her knowledge and her faith
were not products of natural thought and knowledge, they were
gifts of God. Any knowledge of truth that leads
a sinner to salvation is the gift of God, leads a sinner to
Christ. And so there you have it. She
was one of God's elect. And then thirdly, the scarlet
cord. that she put out the window is
a picture of the blood of Christ by which salvation is accomplished.
That's our whole hope, the scarlet cord which she by faith dropped
from her window is as clear a picture of Christ and his blood as the
lamp, as the blood over the doorpost of the Hebrews before they left
Egypt. It's as clear a picture of Christ as the blood of animals
slain on Jewish altars. Purged by the blood of Christ,
that's what that is. And then lastly, fourthly, Rahab
and her family were told to come into her house where the scarlet
cord was hung, and only there they'd be safe. He tells them,
he says, now you stay in the house. And when we see the scarlet
cord, We won't go in there and destroy. And what does that teach
us? Well, our only safety and security
from the wrath of God is to be found in Christ. Not having our
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness of God. Outside
of Christ, there's nothing good for us. Outside of Christ, There's
nothing but God's wrath and justice, but in Christ, what do we have? The complete forgiveness of all
our sins to the point that God cannot charge us with our sins. He charged them to cry. A complete,
eternal, unchangeable, incorruptible righteousness that's been freely
imputed to us by God, which we receive by faith. In Christ,
that's the lesson.