All right, open your Bibles first
to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, and look back at
verse 30. I dealt with verse 30 in the last two messages,
talking about the walls of Jericho falling down. Verse 30 of Hebrews
11, by faith, which means by revelation, by the word of God,
the walls of Jericho fell down. We read about that in Joshua
chapter 6. I'm going to go back to that
passage in just a moment. Joshua, the type of Christ, what
a beautiful type of Christ. Joshua led the Hebrew children
to march around Jericho. Remember they marched around
six times and then on the seventh time they blew the trumpets,
they gave a shout, the walls came down. That's the power of
God. And it's a beautiful picture
of how God saves sinners. Breaking down our own walls of
Jericho, you might say. Sin itself, the law that stands
against us, the darkness that prevails over us in a natural
way as we're fallen and ruined in Adam. Because we have no knowledge
and no desire for God as he reveals himself in the world. But Jesus
Christ, our Joshua, broke down the walls of Jericho. He first
did it by his cross work. He kept the law perfectly. He
satisfied justice. We're justified before God based
on his righteousness imputed. He took that legal wall down.
And then that spiritual wall that kept us as enemies in our
minds by wicked works and in unbelief and ignorance, He broke
those down by sending forth His Spirit to give us new hearts,
knowledge. God taught us, you see. He brought
us to faith in Christ and repentance. He broke down that wall of Jericho.
We could talk about other walls probably, especially this life
and this body of death, which he's broken down. For sure we
haven't experienced it yet, but we will be glorified one day.
And the sin that so easily besets us, the corruption and the contamination
and the remaining influence of the flesh, one day it'll be totally
gone. That wall come down too. So that's
how we view that, everything about that. in Joshua chapter
6. There's so many things in that. Let's just go over there just
for a moment. Joshua 6, where he talks about how, verse 4,
the seven priests, the seven priests represent the people
of God, the church. That's what we are made by Christ.
We are priests unto God. What does that mean? That means
we have free access to God through the blood of the Lamb. We have
liberty to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, His righteousness
alone. And there's the ark, verse 4. The ark was the ark of the covenant. That was the place of sacrifice.
That was the place where God would meet sinners on the basis
of the blood of Christ. Joshua, that type of Christ who
led his people into that spirit, into that promised land. Christ
is the one who led us into that spiritual promised land of blessing,
of salvation by God's grace. He talks about the seventh day,
that's the finished work of Christ. Seven times, blowing the trumpets,
that's proclaiming the glory of God, the power of God, preaching
the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. Look down
at verse 8. of Joshua 6. It came to pass when Joshua had
spoken unto the people that the seven priests bearing the seven
trumpets of the ram's horns, that's the sacrifice, the ram's
horns, the ram had to be killed. The blood had to be shed. Without
the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins. And he
says, bearing the seven trumpets of the ram's horn passed on before
the Lord, blew with the trumpets The Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord followed them. You see, all of this is a picture
of our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He did in leading
us into that spiritual promised land of salvation, and how all
of it came about. Look down at verse 16 of Joshua
chapter 6. It says, It came to pass at the
seventh time, when the priest blew with the trumpet, Joshua
said unto the people, shout, shout. Now what are you gonna
shout? Well, we're gonna shout out about what we've done for
the Lord. Is that what it says? Look at what God, look at what
we've done. No, shout for the Lord hath given
you the city. It's grace, that's what we shout. When the Holy Spirit does his
great work, in the new birth. We're going to blow that trumpet.
We're going to shout. And what are we going to proclaim?
We're going to proclaim the glory of God in Christ. We're going
to talk about Him and His work, His righteousness alone. We're
going to point sinners to Christ. It's not our desire to draw attention
to ourselves, but to point sinners. Like John the Baptist, we must
decrease, He must increase. And that's what that's all about.
Now hold your finger there and go back to Hebrews 11. Look at
verse 31. Now comes the next person mentioned
in Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Faith. And lo and behold, who
is it? A harlot named Rahab. Can you imagine that? It says
in verse 31, by faith, by the revelation of God. And I want
to tell you something. There's only one way that Rahab
could have could have come to faith, what we call faith in
Christ, that's what it is, and that is by revelation from God.
By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them, that is with the
people of Jericho, that believed not when she had received the
spies with peace. Rahab the harlot. Look back at
Joshua chapter six, and look at verse 17. It says in Joshua chapter 6 and
verse 17, the city shall be accursed even in and all that are therein
to the Lord only or except Rahab the harlot. She shall live. She and all that are with her
in the house because she hid the messengers that we sent. And then you know the story,
how they went in. The walls came tumbling down,
and they went in, and they did what God told them to do. They
brought about the justice of God, the wrath of God upon that
people. And look at verse 22 of Joshua
chapter 6. It says, but Joshua had said
unto the two men that had spied out the country, go into the
harlot's house and bring out thence the woman and all that
she hath, as you swear unto her. Verse 23, the young men that
were spies went in, they brought out Rahab and her father, her
mother, her brethren, and all that she hath, and they brought
out all her kindred and left them without the camp of Israel.
In other words, they took them out of the city and sent them
outside the camp of Israel. Verse 24, they burnt the city
with fire, and all that was therein, only the silver and the gold
and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury
of the house of the Lord. They weren't pillaging and plundering
here. You understand that? This was
the Lord's work, and it was for His glory, and that silver and
that gold and all of those precious things, they were put into the
house of the Lord. They were used for His honor.
You see, these weren't barbarians. These weren't, as I said, pillagers
and plunders. That was the common way back
then. It was dog-eat-dog, every man for himself. You go in and
you take it, and you take everything you can get. That's not the way
of the Lord. And then it says in verse 25,
in Joshua saved Rahab. You know what happened when God
saved us? Jesus Christ saved a bunch of Rahabs, and we're
going to talk about that. You know what the name Rahab
means? It means proud. Proud one. That's what God does. He brings us off of our spiritual
pride and self-righteousness and brings us down to submit
to Christ. So Joshua saved Rahab the harlot
alive and her father's household and all that she had and she
dwelleth in Israel even unto this day because she hid the
messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. What a story. What a story. I really have two titles for
this message. The title, and I couldn't decide
on which one I wanted, so I just gave it to them both. I think
Kristen, though, she only put this one that's in your bulletin
on the CD. Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Are there any sinners here this
morning? Well, there are, aren't there?
All of us. That's the kind of people he
came to save. The whole need not a physician, do they? If
you're well, you don't need a physician. You don't need a doctor. That's
right. If you're not a sinner, you don't
need a savior. Somebody tells me that somebody
told me that when God saved them, they quit being a sinner. Well,
he saved you, but you don't need him now. See, I need him now. How about
you? Christ Jesus came into the world to save us. That's why
I read that passage out of 1 Timothy chapter 1. Paul said, Christ
Jesus, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
That means every one of us, this is worthy to be believed. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. My goodness. The other title
is The Scarlet Line of God's Grace. I love that. That scarlet
line, the scarlet thread. Well, point number one, Christ
Jesus came to save sinners. The whole need not a physician.
Sinners, I'm only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. You know,
somebody says, well, there are some sinners who are better than
other sinners. There are some sinners who aren't
as bad as old Rahab here. Well, in the eyes of men, that
might be so. But in the eyes of God, here's
the fact. We're all sinners. We all deserve
damnation. The wages of sin is death. And
there's none of us worthy to be saved. I'm no more worthy.
I was brought up in religion. How about you? Now, some of you
may not have been, but I was. I was brought up in a so-called
church. It didn't preach the gospel, but I was brought up
there. I was taught to be immoral, taught to be a good boy, responsible
citizen, all those things. And listen, I'm not putting down
those things in and of themselves. Because that's what we ought
to teach our children. But not for salvation. Not for salvation. But here's
what I'm saying. When God saved me out of a seminary,
I was no more worthy to be saved than Rahab the harlot, the prostitute. No more worthy. If anything, I was no closer
to God. If anything, I was farther away.
You remember what Christ told the Pharisees when they went
out and did their form of proselytizing, getting converts into their religion?
He said, you make them two-fold more the child of hell than you
are. They'd be better off just to
be left where they are. But here's the story. Christ
Jesus came to save sinners. And all who are saved are saved
by the grace of God based on a righteousness that none of
us had any part in working or producing. Totally worked out
by our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. As I said,
Rahab, the name means proud or proud one. You'd say, well, what
did she have to be proud of? I'll guarantee you there's something
in the mind of an unbeliever. that he or she is gonna find
to be proud of. Because that's our nature, isn't
it? Stiff neck, that's what that word means. It means we won't
bend, we won't bow, we won't submit, when we'll always find
somebody who's worse than us, that we can compare ourselves
to, to inch our way into the kingdom of God some way. But
it just won't work. Brahab the harlot is a picture
of every one of us by nature as proud, self-righteous, spiritual
harlots. Do you know before God saved
us, that's what we were? You say, well, that offends me.
Well, I'll tell you what. There's a whole book in the Bible
where God told one of his choice prophets, whose name means salvation. His name was Hosea. And he commanded
that prophet to go find and marry a wife of whoredoms. And he found one named Gomer.
And he married her. And you know what she did? She
did what she would naturally do. She played the harlot. And
you know what happened in that story? Hosea the prophet loved
her in spite of it. and went and bought her off the
slave block when she was too old to sell her wares and brought
her back into his love and his home. And you know that's how
God saved us? Every one of us, if we're saved.
It's a picture of us saved by the grace of God and justified
in his righteousness imputed. Rahab represents the kind of
people that Christ saves. He said, you know, the Pharisees
were offended when Christ walked the earth and he sat down and
had supper with publicans and harlots. And concerning those
who refuse to receive Christ and cling to their own righteousness,
Christ made this statement. He said in Matthew 21, 31, the
publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before
you. Well, does that mean that if you're a publican or you're
a harlot, you have an automatic ticket to salvation? No, that's
not what it means at all. Here's what he meant, Matthew
21 and verse 32. He said this, John the Baptist
came unto you in the way of righteousness. You didn't believe him, but the
publicans and the harlots believed him. And you, when you'd seen
it, repented not after that you might believe in him. He's talking
about believers. And then here's another thing.
God has chosen a people whom he will bring to faith. And he
chose them before the foundation of the world and gave them to
Christ. Rahab was the only one that God saved out of Jericho.
Now we say her family, I don't know about her family, but I
know Rahab is mentioned several times in scripture. But it reminds
me of this. You remember when the Lord was
walking with his disciples in his earthly ministry, And he
was going from one place to another, and he made this statement in
John chapter 4. It says of him, he must needs
go through Samaria, which is the last place that his disciples
or any other self-respecting Jew would go. But he must needs
go through Samaria. Why? Because there was a woman
down there, an infamous woman, a sinner. An adulterous woman,
a Samaritan woman. Man, she's got several strikes
against her. That's who he went down there
to save. Because she was given to him before the foundation
of the world. And he was going to redeem her
on that cross. One of his elect. Well, you know
that's what Rahab is? You know the reason that God
sent two spies in to Jericho. was not to scope out the city. It doesn't even say that. You
remember we read Joshua 2? We read Joshua chapter 6? They
didn't go in to scope out the city. The king thought they did. Well, they're spies. They're
coming here to see what kind of a plan of action they're going
to take. No. The plan had already been set.
God had already done that. He said, you're going to walk
around. You're going to blow the trumpets. Here's the ark.
Here's the priest. They're not going in there to
form a human strategy, a battle. No. They went to a harlot's house
and lodged there. The reason he sent two spies, and
I think about that, look back at Joshua chapter two now. It says here, Verse 1, Joshua,
the son of Nun, sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying,
Go, view the land, even Jericho. And I know that. I know people
say, well, you know, that they just wanted to scope out everything
and make their plan. That's not what they're doing
now. And they went, and they came into a harlot's house named
Rahab, and they lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho,
behold, king of Jericho was tipped off. There's two spies here.
So he sent word. that Rahab, somehow he knew that
Rahab had something to do with this. And he said, you bring
them forth to me. And she took those two men out
and hit them. She hit them, brought them up
on the roof. Verse seven, when the men pursued
after them the way of Jordan into the fords, and as soon as
they, which pursued after them, were gone out, they shut the
gate. And then Rahab gave her testimony, you might say. There
it is in verse 9. She said to him, I know that
the Lord hath given you the land. I know the Lord has given you
the land. You know that's another way of saying I know that salvation.
That's the way we would put it in our spiritual. I know that
salvation is a gift from God. I know that righteousness is
a gift from God. I know that forgiveness is a
gift from God. I know that the blessings of
salvation are free, unearned, undeserved gifts from God. That's it. Nothing else. You
ever wonder why there were two spies? Well, the scripture says
there's got to be two witnesses, doesn't it? Like the king of
Jericho, Satan wants to kill all the witnesses of Christ. And why did the two Two spies
tell her not to tell the rest of the city about this. Well,
that's because God sent them in for her. Joshua sent them
in for her. God had chosen to save Rahab
and her house, not the whole city. God said, I'll be merciful
to whom I'll be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. It's of the Lord. You know that's offensive to
man by nature because it interferes with their concept of self-worth
and pride. Rahab received blessings from
God not based on her goodness. She's Rahab the harlot. She received blessings from God
based on God's free sovereign grace through the promised Messiah
having been chosen by God in Christ. Rahab received the good
news from the spies Rahab received faith as a gift from God. Look
at verse 21 of Joshua chapter 2. It says, she said, according
unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they
departed. And she bound the scarlet line
in the wind. She acted upon it because that's
what she was told to do. It's a picture of faith. She
bounded immediately. Look over in the book of James
with me, James chapter two. Now a lot of people get confused
about the book of James and what's being said here. Because James uses the word justified,
Abraham justified by his works and things like that. James is
not talking about how a sinner is justified before holy God. That's not what his issue is.
Because the only way a sinner is justified before holy God
is the grace of God through the blood, the righteousness of Christ.
That's it. There's no other ground. It's
not his works, not our works. What James is talking about is
evidence of a person's faith. Do you really believe? Did Abraham
really believe what God promised him? Well, he proved it when
he took his son Isaac up on the Mount to plunge that knife in
Isaac because he believed that God was going to fulfill his
promise. He wasn't going to let that boy die because Messiah
was to come through him. Well, did Rahab really believe
what she said back there in Joshua 2 that we read? Well, look at
it. In verse 25 of James 2, likewise,
or in the same way that Abraham proved his faith, God-given faith,
Also, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she immediately
put that scarlet line down? When she had received the messengers
and had sent them out another way? Didn't Abraham prove his
faith when he took Isaac up there? Yes. That didn't justify him.
He was justified before that. Abraham was justified already,
before God, based on the righteousness of Christ. And then he was given
faith and he really believed it. Well, Rahab the same way. So she received. It was all by
God's revelation. Now going back to Joshua 2, this
scarlet line, it's a beautiful picture of the blood of Christ.
Rahab received the scarlet line that identified her with Christ.
Look at verse 15 of Joshua 2. Here's these two spies, she's
going to let them down. She says, she let them down by
a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall,
and she dwelt upon the town wall. That cord, this was a sign, a
cord. You know, that word cord, it's
a good translation. It means cord, but it has a strong
secondary meaning in other places. It's sorrows. And I thought about
that because Christ is identified in Isaiah 53 as a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief. It's because of his humanity
which he died for the sins of his people. And then look at
verse 16, it says, 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.
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 the line of scarlet. That word scarlet,
that thread, scarlet thread, a whole line made of scarlet
thread in the window which thou didst let us down by and thou
shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all
thy father's household home unto thee. That word line there is
only translated line two times in the King James Version. But
over 30 times, you know how it's translated? Hope. Expectation. It's a line of hope. A line of expectation. Job said
it this way in Job 6 and verse 8. Here's the same word. He says,
Oh, that I may have my request that God would grant me the thing
which I long for. I expect this. And then it's
a scarlet thread, the same word that Isaiah used in Isaiah chapter
1 when he was issuing out God's command, Come now, let us reason
together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet. Same
word. Though they be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they'll be as wool. That's a prophecy of the work
that the Lord Jesus Christ would do on the cross as the surety
and the substitute of his people in dying for our sins and establishing
righteousness that would justify us before God. Christ, the hope
and will. This scarlet thread, this scarlet
line, it's a picture of the blood of Christ. It's a picture of
justice satisfied. It's a picture of righteousness
imputed. It's the work of Christ. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And when the
children of Israel saw the scarlet line, they passed by Rahab's
house. Just like when God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Let me close with this. I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter one. And I want to show you something. God works His sovereign will
to accomplish His purpose even against our sins. He even overrules
it. You know, one of the things that
a lot of so-called biblical interpreters emphasize and bring out is that,
you know Rahab, you know when the king sent men to her, you
know what she did? She told a lie. And I've heard
them argue, well, was that wrong for Rahab to do that? And they
say, no, it was not wrong for her to do it, because she was
doing everything, you know. Lying's wrong in any fashion, any form. But my friend, listen, we live
in a sinful world, don't we? And we're plagued with sin all
the days of our lives while we're here in this flesh. God always
overrules our sin for His glory and for the good of His people.
He always does. Now that doesn't give us an excuse
to sin, but if you don't believe that, then just consider that
the greatest sin, if you want to say it that way, ever committed
on earth. What was that? It was the murder
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did Peter say about
it? Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you with wicked hands have crucified and so on. So don't get bogged down in that
stuff. We live in a sinful world. And Rahab defied the king. She
betrayed her own country. She was a sinner. But God intervenes
and overrules for his purpose. There's no excuse for sin, but
her sin was covered by the blood of Christ. And ours is too, thank
God. And you know, you think about
it. There's a lot of biblical scholars, they don't even like
to call Rahab a harlot. It embarrasses them. I even saw
one who made a big deal. He said, that word harlot, we
could translate it innkeeper. Rahab the innkeeper. I thought,
are you crazy? Rahab was a harlot. That's what
the word is. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. That's what he did. But let me
show you, out of this woman's situation, God overrules sin
to bring forth the greatest good. Look at verse 1 of Matthew 1.
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ. This is talking
about the human genealogy of our Savior. He's the son of David,
the son of Abraham. And Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac
begat Jacob. And Jacob begat Judas and his
brethren. And Judas begat Phares and Zerah
and Tamar. And you know who Tamar was? She
was the wife of one of the sons of Jacob who I'm getting my names
mixed up here. But anyway, she tricked, the
name won't come to my mind, I should have written it down, one of
the sons of Jacob into having children with her. Alright, she's
in the line of Christ, his humanity. And Phares begat Esram, and Esram
begat Aaron, and Aaron begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat
Naazim, Naazim begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz, you remember
Salmon and Boaz, Boaz and Ruth, of Rahab. Now, I believe that
Rahab there is Rahab. I believe she was the great-great
grandmother of David. Now, some scholars disagree,
but some scholars agree, and everything I've read and studied,
that's who it is. In other words, she's mentioned in the line,
human genealogy of Christ. God brought out of this the greatest
good in the history of the world. Out of the sinful genealogy.
You think about the, there's only, I think, four women, or
four or five women that are mentioned in the human genealogy of Christ.
There's Tamar, there's Rahab, there's Bathsheba. She's mentioned
in verse six, called the wife of Uriah, and then Mary. Now Christ had no sin in his
humanity. He was not born as we were, born
dead in trespasses and sins. But my friend, in the history
of his genealogy, there's sinful things that God overruled to
bring out the greatest good, Jesus Christ himself, who would
die for the sins of his people as our surety and substitute,
the Lord our righteousness. Isn't that something? To me,
it's a marvelous thing when you see the power of God and His
grace and His good. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief.