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Rowland Wheatley

The Scarlet line

Hebrews 11:31; Joshua 2:21
Rowland Wheatley • June, 11 2026 • Video & Audio
1,017 Sermons
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Rowland Wheatley
Rowland Wheatley • June, 11 2026
1,017 sermons
And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window. (Joshua 2:21)

**This is audio of Reading and Sermon only** - *See PDF for hymn sheet and scarlet line poem*
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A Thursday morning service in the lounge of Milward Pilgrim Home, Tunbridge Wells Kent.
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*1/ Who Rahab's faith looked to.
2/ How her faith was evidenced.
3/ How it proved true*

**Sermon Summary:**

The sermon centers on Rahab's faith as a Gentile woman whose trust in the God of Israel, demonstrated through her actions and the scarlet cord she bound in her window, secured her and her household's salvation.

Her faith was rooted in the historical acts of God—particularly the parting of the Red Sea and the conquest of the Amorite kings—and culminated in a clear confession of the LORD as the one true God. This faith was evidenced not in words alone, but in her courageous decision to shelter the spies, risk her life, and seek a token of deliverance, which mirrored the Passover blood and pointed to Christ's atoning sacrifice.

The scarlet cord became a visible sign of her reliance on God's promise, a testimony visible to all yet ultimately seen and honoured by God, who preserved her house which was on the wall when Jericho fell.

Her inclusion in the lineage of Christ and the faith hall of Hebrews 11 affirms that true faith is both personal and life-transforming, leading to eternal belonging in God's people.

The message calls believers to examine where their faith is placed, how it is evidenced in their lives, and to trust solely in Christ's blood as their only hope.

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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The reading this morning is from Joshua chapter 2, the first 21 verses. And it's on your sheet, starts on the first sheet and then goes over to the other side. And of course this is when the children of Israel are going into the promised land, the time that they actually do go in. And so after 40 years in the wilderness, and Joshua sends spies. So this is where we take up the account. So it is about Rahab, the harlot, and how she hosted the spies.

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 an harlot's house named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to nine 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 and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were. And it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out, Whither the men went, I want not.

Pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan and to the fords. And as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof.

And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is 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 unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Om, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token, and that ye 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.'

And the man answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business, and it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with thee." Then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned, and after may ye go your way." And the man 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 thread in the window which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath, which thou hast made us to swear.

And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line in the window." That's part of reading of God's holy word. And the word I put upon the front sheet is the word we ended with, she bound the scarlet line in the window. And we'll look at the significance of that in a moment. But here we have one that is in the line to Christ.

Rahab was a Gentile and yet she along with Ruth also in the Old Testament ended up in the line lineage to Christ. She also is in the role of those in Hebrews 11 that are mentioned of having faith, and that what she did here was an act of faith. So it's good for us, we are Gentiles, or at least I think most of us are, and we also, the only way that we will be saved is by faith as well, so we need to look at Rahab and her faith. I want to think first of who her faith looked to, and then secondly how it was evidenced, and then lastly how it proved true. Each of those things is very important to us. So firstly, who her faith looked to.

In the passage that we've read, we hear in verse 9, She said to the men, I know that the Lord, that is Jehovah, has given you the land. So she is looking to the Lord, the God of Israel, and her faith really is in Him. Already she is reminding them, she says that they can still remember what happened 40 years ago when God brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea.

I wonder how many of us can think back 40 years to something that happened, not directly to us, but to someone else, and to realize that it was their God that did that for them, and appeared for them. Or maybe even in our own lives, to remember back that far, because that is what Rahab is doing now. And of course we have the promise of the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance whatsoever things He has said unto us. But this is a good incentive to think back, to hold back, don't cast away or think that, well that was so long ago, that doesn't mean anything to me today. It did to Rahab, and it must to you as well. The Lord always remembers what He has done for His people.

And so, her faith with looking to that God, she says, how the Lord dried up the water of the sea for you. And then she has a clear statement of faith in verse 11. She tells of how their hearts melted, no more courage in any man because of you. And then she says this, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. What a clear testimony. Not any heathen God, not idols. She's identifying the God of Israel. And I often like to think of this way of describing our God.

It is the God of the Bible, but it's the God of Israel, because He is the same God today as He was then. The same God today that divided the Red Sea, that saved Rahab, he's not changed. I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. So we need that same faith in the same God that Rahab was trusting in, the God that did those same things, and we can add to what the Lord did for Rahab herself.

And I hope some of us can think of what he has done for us. and for our loved ones as well. The important thing, and this is why Rahab is listed in Hebrews 11, because their faith was always looking forward to the coming Messiah, to Christ, the Savior, the way of escape from the wrath to come. And all of the types and shadows in the Old Testament were all pointing to that. And so I want to look then how her faith was evidenced, and in looking at that we'll see as well how she's looking to Christ. The first way is what is recorded in Hebrews 11, was that she received the spies with peace.

She didn't hand them over, she didn't betray them, It's always been a difficult passage for God's people, this, because we say, well, she lied. And it's never an excuse to tell untruth, to lie, but it is told here that it was an evidence of her faith that she didn't hand them over. Some of you might know Corrie to Tembo and her story and her account And there was an occasion there when actually the Germans came looking for Jews and they were hiding them, and she just simply told the truth, but she believed that God would deliver those that were discovered, and they were, they were taken into captivity, but within a short time they were delivered and set free. And of course you could go to Jacob, who deceived his father and got the blessing, but he would have got it without deceiving his father and of course the Lord marked his lying, his deceiving his father by Laban deceiving him ten times and especially in the matter of Rachel and Leah and then later on his own sons regarding Joseph saying he was dead when he wasn't so he had to reap what he sowed so we must leave that part But we must say that what is set forth here is how her faith was evident.

She really saw them as servants of the living God. She cast in her lot with them instead of her own people. It would have been easy to side with her people, but she saw that deliverance was only with the children of Israel, with the true and living God. and she really believed that God would give them the land. She's seen all these things, she's seen the evidences of the going through the Red Sea, and you think what that must have been when they did come into the land, and when they saw Jordan stopped up and going over. The same thing really what had happened at the Red Sea, already they were fearful, But now to see that must have been terrifying.

And so, another point here, she is wanting to save not just herself, but all of her family. I often think of this as really being an evidence of how much we really believe what we believe. If we believe that salvation is only through Christ, and that all others shall be destroyed, as what Rahab here believed, then surely we must speak to our children, our grandchildren, we want those to be saved who are near and dear to us. And Rahab did. She is a real example of an evangelist and one that really was speaking to her own house and her own people.

She then asked a token, a true token. And we do need true tokens. Sometimes we can have a token that is not a true one. A token isn't the actual thing, but is something that has the real evidence that it will be performed and will be done. And the true token that they gave was the line that she let them down from the window. It was a scarlet line.

Those spies would have remembered what happened on the Passover evening, 40 years before in Egypt, when they were told to put blood on the doorposts and on the lintel of their houses to go into those houses and that the destroying angel that passed by would not destroy the firstborn, he would pass over their houses. The promise was, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Well, Rahab did not have blood on her doorposts, but those spies would have seen that lime that she was using, and it was the color of blood, it was garlic.

And so they said, bind this in the window. This is just equivalent, it's pointing to the same thing, it's the same equivalent pointing to the blood. It is the blood of Christ, Jesus Christ, the God's Son, cleanseth from all sin. It is trust in the blood of Christ and That is why with the Lord's Supper, the Church of God is not to forget that Christ has died and shed his blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

And so she was told this token, told what to do, and at the end of what we read then, she bound the scarlet line in the window. It would be one thing to be saying, well, this is the token, but there's something that she actually had to do and to bind it there, and that was the proof of her faith, the evidence of her faith, she bound that scarlet line in the window.

It must have been a marvellous thing, a remarkable thing. When the children of Israel came into the land, you remember how the Jericho was destroyed, that they had to go round the city once for seven days, or for six days, and the seventh day round it seven times. Every time they passed that window, they would have seen that scarlet line. every one of those children of Israel in the army would have seen that line. But Rahab couldn't, because she was inside.

And the important thing is that Christ sees it, God sees it, and others see it as well. It is our witness, with the heart man believeth, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Are we as clear declaring, and is it clear outside of us, whose we are, whom we are trusting in, and where our shelter is. I wonder how often we plead the blood that does for sin atoned, and that that is our only hope, not in our works, not in what we're doing. What was Rahab and her family doing? Just sheltering beneath the blood, sheltering beneath that token. That's what they were doing.

And that's what we need to do as well. And so, if that was how it was evidenced, and I hope it is with us, we have those things that is evidenced with us, that it is known to those around about us, it is our testimony, and others are aware as well where our hope and where our trust is. And that is in Christ alone. So then we have how it proved. How it proved. Well, she was saved. She and her household were delivered.

But again, what a miracle that was. It was not just a promise by those spies and then honored by the children of Israel, it was honored by God as well. Because the walls of the city, they fell down flat And the children of Israel went right up into the city, every one before them, but her house was on the wall. So that house did not fall with the rest of the wall. That in itself was such a miracle, such a testimony, and the fact now that she is in the line to Christ, She married Salman, and then it comes down to Boaz and Ruth and David, and she is in Israel's line.

So a real testimony that this token was a true token, God honored it, she was amongst the people of God. And what a testimony that really is to us as well, that when we are saved, when we trust in the Lord, then we are numbered with the people of God as well.

One of the hymns says, numbered with them may I be now and to eternity. Or in Ruth's case, thy people shall be my people, thy God my God. Or in 1 John, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. We are with the people of God, just like Rahab was. And if we are with them here below, we shall be with them in heaven above. He shall give grace and glory."

That is, the two things are joined together in Psalm 84. So, maybe think of Rahab today. Think of her faith. Think of where her faith was placed and that our faith might be placed in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His precious blood alone. and how her faith was evidenced and you think how is my faith evidenced and to have this real trust that the Lord is our God and he will be ours for ever and ever and that we shall be safe when our mortal tabernacle is taken down and when we are called to stand before him at last. May the Lord bless this word and give you something to meditate on throughout the die.
Rowland Wheatley
About Rowland Wheatley
Pastor Rowland Wheatley was called to the Gospel Ministry in Melbourne, Australia in 1993. He returned to his native England and has been Pastor of The Strict Baptist Chapel, St David’s Bridge Cranbrook, England since 1998. He and his wife Hilary are blessed with two children, Esther and Tom. Esther and her husband Jacob are members of the Berean Bible Church Queensland, Australia. Tom is an elder at Emmanuel Church Salisbury, England. He and his wife Pauline have 4 children, Savannah, Flynn, Willow and Gus.
Broadcaster:
St David's Bridge Strict Baptist Chapel
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