I rejoice to know and to declare
to you that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world
to save sinners. The most wondrous thing I've
ever heard is the fact that Jesus Christ, God's Son, came into
this world in human flesh for this purpose. to save sinners. Sinners, Jesus will receive. Sound this word of grace to all. By his blood and by his grace,
Christ saves sinners from the fall. You don't need to look
beyond the genealogy of our Lord to recognize his identification
with sinners like you and me. If you ever read through the
scriptures, I'm sure you have, and you get to the list of names
and genealogies, genealogies. I recall Brother Scott Richardson
reading the genealogy of Matthew chapter one from this pulpit
one time, and he said, so-and-so begat, and so-and-so begat, and
so-and-so begat, and they kept on begatting until they begat.
And you sometimes read the scriptures just that way, and your eyes
glaze over, why? by all these names and the listings
of the genealogies of these people, of all the things that the Jews
during our Lord's day questioned about Him. And they accused Him
of much and questioned many things. One thing, one issue they never
raised, they never raised the issue of His genealogy because
by divine purpose the genealogy was too accurately kept and they
knew it to even be called into question. But when you read Matthew's
account of our Lord's genealogy, there are four women specifically
identified, just four. All four of them were women with
a reputation. That's putting it politely as
we like to. Tamar committed incest. Ruth was a cursed Moabitess,
an unclean woman, born as she was as the result of Lot's incest
with his own daughter. Bathsheba was an adulteress. Then there was Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot is held before
us here in James chapter 2 by God the Holy Ghost side by side
with Abraham as an example of faith in Christ. Faith made evident
by works. Look at James chapter 2 and verse
24. James 2 verse 24. You see then how that by works
a man is justified and not by faith only. Likewise also was
not Rahab the harlot justified by works 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 also. I want to talk to you tonight
for a little while about this Dear Saint of God, held before
us in James chapter 2 as an example of faith, an example of faith
that we should follow. Rahab the harlot. Sitting there
thinking about getting up here to preach, I thought maybe I
ought to entitle the message, The Holy Harlot. That'd be a
pretty good title. The Holy Harlot. Rahab the harlot,
God's saint, justified by works, not in the sense that she justified
herself before God by works that she performed, but justifying
her faith, her faith in God by her works. Not before men, but
before God. And yet, this woman Rahab, this
woman whose name means proud. This harlot, she was a harlot
and proud of it. Her shame was her pride. She
was a Canaanite, a Gentile, an alien and by nature an enemy
to the commonwealth of Israel. Without hope, without God in
this world, a notoriously known woman of ill repute, living in
a city that was condemned by God, marked for destruction by
divine justice. And yet this woman Rahab is held
before us in our text side by side with Abraham as an example
of faith to follow. That fact makes Rahab, her faith,
her work of faith, peculiarly interesting to me. Rahab was
a believer. She believed God. Rahab did. Oh, wonders of distinguishing
grace. From the stock of this woman
Rahab, the Lord God chose to send his dear son, the woman's
seed, our Redeemer, into this world. Imagine that. By her marriage
to Salmon, God brought Boaz into the world. By Boaz' marriage
to Ruth, Obed was born. From Obed, Jesse was born. From
Jesse came David, and from David came Christ our Savior, David's
son, and David's Lord. I say again, oh, the wonders
of distinguishing grace. Truly, God's thoughts are not
our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. When you see Rahab,
the harlot, held before us as an example of faith, Side by
side with Abraham, by God the Holy Spirit, you've got to stop
and say what wondrous things grace has done. God chose Rahab. Christ redeemed Rahab. God saved
Rahab. God the Holy Spirit gave Rahab
the knowledge of Christ and faith in Christ. And God used Rahab
the harlot to save his people. destroy his enemies. Read about
it in Judges 4, 5, and 6. God took this harlot, the least
likely person in all of Canaan, the least likely person in the
whole city of Jericho, and God chose her to be an instrument
by which he would deliver his people and destroy his enemies,
her own kinsmen. God holds Rahab before us here
as an example of faith. Now throughout this epistle,
so that you are reminded and do not misunderstand James' intention,
James draws a clear distinction between those who profess faith
in Christ and those who possess faith in Christ. and the distinction
is one that needs to be drawn continually. In this world, at
present, every day since the time began when God called men
to worship Him, since our Lord established His church in the
New Testament, and throughout all parts of the world in all
ages, and as long as this world stands, God's professed church
in this world is a mixed multitude. The children of Israel are called
the church in the wilderness. That whole nation, symbolic and
representative of the church of God, in reality, God's true
Israel. But that whole nation was always
a mixed multitude. And in that mixed multitude,
there were many, many, many who were Abraham's physical sons,
who claimed to be the sons and daughters of God Almighty, but
only a very small remnant who worshiped God. A very small remnant
who believed God. A very small remnant who walked
with God. As it was then, it was in our
Lord's day, it is today, and it will be tomorrow. Wherever
our Savior plants his wheat, Satan sows his tares. Wherever
our Lord gathers his sheep, Satan gathers goats. Wherever the Lord
God raises up wise virgins, Satan brings in foolish virgins. Wherever
there are regenerate men and women worshiping God in spirit
and in truth, there are unregenerate religious folks pretending to
worship God. There are many in the church
by profession, who are believers in name only, vain talkers, men
and women whose religion consists in nothing but a name. Read the
fourth chapter of Hebrews and you'll read about them. Well,
throughout this epistle, James speaks of those false professors
and their lip religion to teach us who God's saints are and to
teach God's saints ever to cling to Christ Jesus. He is twice
mentioned in chapter 1, verse 25, and again in chapter 2, verse
12, the perfect law of liberty. The perfect law of liberty is
Christ Himself set before us in the book of God. He is the
engrafted Word, the uncreated Word, revealed and made known
to us by the Spirit of God in this book, His written Word.
And looking in this mirror, looking at Christ as is revealed in this
book, we behold our Savior's perfections. The perfections
of His person and the perfections of His work. Those things done
for His people. And beholding Him, as Paul put
it, as in a glass. The glory of the Lord, we behold,
changes us into the same image from glory to glory. even as
by the Spirit of the Lord, so that as we behold our Savior,
we're made conformable to Him in our conduct, in our faith,
in our character. God describes by James here,
his church, the true children of God, regenerated and made
new creatures in Christ as looking holy to Christ. Looking to Christ,
every heaven-born soul receives his grace, and His graces, looking
to Christ, trusting Christ, we are made by grace to imitate
Him, to follow Him in His example, and caused by grace to delight
in all that belongs to Him and His gospel. This is the life
of God's children. I didn't say it should be the
life of God's children. I said this is the life of God's
children. This is how all who know God
live. This is how all believers live. If you're a believer, this is
how you live. If I'm a believer, this is how I live. All who believe
God are doers of the Word, not hearers only. The mere professor
may know all about spiritual things. A lost man may know a
lot more than you know. A lost man may know a lot more
than I know, but all he knows is just letter knowledge. He
knows the things of God in name only, just in name. You can teach
somebody a good catechism and teach them to recite things and
they can give them back to you word for word and give you the
scripture references to prove it. That doesn't change anything
about the person. Well, shouldn't we do that? Oh,
yes, by all means. I wrote a catechism for our daughter
and taught it to her. By all means, teach them, but
don't presume that mere letter knowledge is salvation. The lost
man may observe with the greatest punctuality, church attendance,
praying time, Bible reading, religious duty, and moral righteousness. But when the heart is unregenerate,
all his knowledge is vain. Without the life of God in your
soul, knowledge is meaningless and religion is meaningless. The love of Christ is known,
felt, and enjoyed in the renewed heart. You didn't hear that, did you?
The love of Christ is known, felt, and enjoyed in the renewed
heart. It is known, it is felt, and
it is enjoyed. Where the new birth is wanting,
everything is wanting. where the Spirit of God has wrought
the saving change, a gracious life follows, but not the kind
of life most people imagine or the kind of life most people
pretend to practice. The gracious life that follows
is a life of faith, doing the Word of God and the will of God
just like Rahab the harlot did. the passage that's referred to
back in the book of Joshua. And you wonder, what are those
works by which Rahab was justified in her faith before God as she
walked before men? She was Rahab the harlot, not
Rahab the nun. Rahab the harlot. Her works were
not works that men looked at and said, my, what a fine specimen
of righteousness she is. There were not works displayed
before men that would win men's applause. In fact, in the world's
dictionary, Rahab was a treacherous woman, a deceitful woman, a lying
woman. She hid the spies and sent them
out another way. And the folks from Jericho came
and said, have you seen those men who came in and said it?
She said, well, they came in here, but they went out. They've
been gone a long time. And she hid them on the roof of her house. In the world's views, she was
treacherous to her own kinsmen, treacherous to her nation, and
deceitful, lying to her own people. And yet God, the Holy Ghost,
tells us that Rahab this in faith. And by her works was justified,
justified in her faith. God's work you see is a sure
work. And God the Holy Ghost in the
new birth forms a new creature after the image of Him who created
Him. Rahab the harlot was a new creature
in Christ and the harlot believed God. Turn back one page, well
two pages to Hebrews chapter 11, look at verse 31. I find it remarkable reading
this 11th chapter of Hebrews how the writer was inspired of
God to give us great monuments of faith, great examples of faith. Some of them you just didn't
expect. Some of them you just didn't
expect. Who would have thought about Samson being an example
of faith? There he's written. And who would
have thought about Rahab being an example of faith? Look here,
verse 31. Oh, the change that's wrought
in a sinner's heart by the touch of the master's hand. When God
gives life and faith in Christ, the most hideous lusts are conquered
by the revelation of Christ. The most bestial debauchery is
defeated by the grace of God. The most useless, worthless dregs
of fallen humanity are made the instruments of the greatest possible
usefulness in Christ by faith in Him. Faith in Christ is the
greatest gift God can give a sinner. Oh, that God would grant you
now faith in His dear Son. Seek it for yourself. Seek it
for others. And if God's given you faith,
give Him praise for it. Alright, let me show you six
things about faith. Six things about faith by showing
you these six things about Rahab's faith. I'll be very simple and
very plain. I don't want you to miss anything
because I didn't state it plainly enough or simply enough. Here's
the first thing. This woman's faith was saving
faith. Now I know some folks Get all
bent out of shape when you talk about saving faith. Faith doesn't
save us, Jesus does. You know, this might shock somebody,
but I know that. But I know our Lord said to a
woman, thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Thy faith hath saved
thee, go in peace. Faith that's true is saving faith. Saving faith in that it brings
to us the blessed enjoyment of God's salvation and there is
no salvation without it Rahab the harlot James tells us was
justified by works when she had received the messengers and it
sent them out another way Hebrews 1131 we read tells us by faith
the harlot Rahab perish not She was delivered amid the destruction
of Jericho by faith. Purely, singularly, by faith. Her salvation was not just temporal
deliverance of her body and the temporal deliverance of her family
out of the destruction in Jericho, but rather the deliverance of
her soul from hell, and obviously the deliverance of her families
from hell as well. Oh, what grace. What great grace. There he is. in the gift of faith. Let me read something to you
Spurgeon wrote. So mighty is the ever-rushing torrent of sin
that no arm but that which is strong as deity can stop the
sinner from being hurried down to the gulf of black despair.
And when nearing the gulf, so impetuous is the torrent of divine
wrath that nothing can snatch the soul from perdition but an
atonement which is as divine as God himself. Yet faith is
the instrument of accomplishing the whole work. There's no salvation but by God's
outstretched omnipotent arm. No redemption but by Christ's
precious blood. But faith is the instrument by
which sinners receive God's salvation and Christ's redemption. By faith
in Christ, we receive the atonement. Hear me, if you would have God's
salvation, believe Christ. Believe God. Trust the Son of
God. Call on the Lord, seeking Him,
and you'll find Him. What a great thing the salvation
of the soul is. You can never know how great
it is until you've experienced it. The only two people who know
what salvation is are the same sinner and the Savior. No one
knows what liberty is except someone who has been set free
and the one who set us free. No one knows what redemption
is except the ransomed soul and the Redeemer. No one knows. No one knows the blessedness
of forgiveness except He who is forgiven and He who forgives. No one knows what salvation is
except the saved soul and the Savior. By faith Rahab the harlot
perished not. God sent his word to that harlot. And I don't know how. I don't
know how, but I know somehow Rahab heard. Rahab heard. She says, we've heard. We've
heard about your God. And we've heard who he is and
what he does. We've heard. She heard God's
word and she believed what God reported in his word. believing
God. Now hear me, the same faith that
saved Rahab saves us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. I recognize and I declare to
you relentlessly Faith in Christ is the gift of God. Salvation
comes to those who wait upon God. But if you imagine that
somehow God's sovereignty alleviates you of your responsibility, you
will go to hell dreaming such a thing. It is your responsibility
right where you sit right now to believe God. Lord God says,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Believe on the Son of God and
you shall be saved. Christ Jesus declares free salvation
for sinners in the Gospel. Thieves, murderers, and harlots
find in His precious blood full absolution from all sin. Thieves, murderers, and harlots
find in his precious blood full absolution from all sin. Such absolution that the conscience
of the believing sinner is purged of guilt. Oh, what would you give to go
home guilty before God in your own soul. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and be free of guilt. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. To them who are in Christ who
believe God. That's what it is to walk after
the Spirit, not after the flesh. But Brother Don, my sin, my sin,
my sin, my sin, my sin. Oh, my sin. Oh, my sin. How my sin troubles me. Me too. Me too. That's just a fact or it's a
lie, one of the two. There's no in between ground. But my sin doesn't keep me from
believing God. My sin doesn't keep me from calling
on the Lord. I pray like David, pardon my
iniquity, oh Lord, for it is great. The greatness of our sin
becomes a plea for God's pardon. He said, put me in remembrance.
Put me in remembrance. I haven't said to you, seek me
in vain. Seek me and you'll find me. The
fountain filled with Emmanuel's blood was opened for the cleansing
of souls like mine as black as hell. The robe of Christ was
woven for buck naked sinners like you guilty before God. The balm of Calvary is for sin
sick souls like us. He who is life came into the
world to raise the dead. Oh, perishing Guilty soul. May God give you Rahab's faith.
If he does, you have Rahab's salvation. And you will stand
yonder with Rahab in heaven's glory singing everlasting hallelujah
to God our Savior. All right, here's the second
thing. Rahab's faith was singular faith. I mean by that, she stood alone
believing God. The city of Jericho was about
to be destroyed. Within its walls were hosts of
people, people of all classes and characters, most of them
considerably better in reputation than the harlot, Rahab. They
all knew that if the city was stormed by Jehovah's Israel, The city and all its inhabitants
would be destroyed and they would die with all their kinsmen. They had heard clearly who God
is, what God had done, and what God would do to them. And yet,
there's not another person in the whole of Jericho, not another
person in the whole of Jericho who believed God. Not another,
just Rahab, just Rahab. You think sometimes, well, Brother
Don, you're so strict and you talk as though God's elect are
just very few. What about all these people?
What about all these people? What about all these people?
In Noah's day, there was one man who believed God, who was
the instrument of saving his family, just one man. In Ray
Haddon's day in the whole city of Jericho, there was one woman
who believed God, just one woman, who was made by God to be the
instrument of delivering her household, but she alone believed
God. If we would believe God, there's
a sense in which we too must be singular in our faith in Him. Faith in Christ is always an
individual matter. It doesn't come by blood, it
doesn't come by relationships, it doesn't come by crowds, it's
always personal and individual. Faith, faith in Christ always
stands alone. Oh here we are, many of us here
believe in God and yet each of us standing alone before God
believing Him. Faith always, I promise you, always
swims against the tide upstream. I promise you. It'll never get
easier. It'll never get better. Faith
always swims against the tide upstream. Faith never goes along
with the crowd. Just can't. They just can't. They just can't. Believing God
is going to make you stand out like a sore thumb. I don't mean
you've got to stand around and say, I can't do that. I believe
in Jesus. I can't talk like that. I believe
in Jesus. I can't act like that. I believe in Jesus. I don't mean
you have to do it. I mean believing God, Merle Hart,
makes you stand out like a sore thumb. People who don't believe Cannot
endure faith faith always Stands by itself like Moses before the
burning bush barefoot before God It's never the result of
group therapy Folks use a I don't know what
to do now in these churches. Used to use invitation system
like Billy Graham did in his crusade. You know, you come down
to the front of the theater, front of the stadium, or front
of the church building, to a morning bench, or to an altar, and you
just get folks moving. You get them moving. You get
them to raise their hand. And then you get them to step
out. And you get somebody to come help them to step out. And
when you see one come, then another comes, or another comes, another
comes. Never. Never. Never. That's how I got
saved. Well, take that to God if you
want to, if you dare, if you dare. No, sir. Faith in Christ
is always, always an individual thing, independent of the crowd. Here's the third thing about
Rahab's faith. It was saving and singular, and it was steadfast. Her faith stood in the midst
of trouble. She believed God when it looked
like everything she hoped for would be lost. Here she is in that house and
the walls are crumbling all around her. Can you imagine the circumstances?
I mean the whole city is falling all around her and here's Rahab. believing God, standing firm
in the end where she was when she began believing God, standing
in the house marked by blood, kept by a covenant, secured by
the word of God. Sometimes I hear folks say, when
in difficulty, all we can do is pray. What else would you want to do? What else could do any good?
All we can do is believe God. Oh, that I could believe Him.
Believe Him. Standing firm. Believing God when it appears
that everything I hope for is crumbling before me. Believing
God. Number four, this woman's faith
was self-denying faith. She dared to hazard her life
for the sake of those two spies. She knew She knew full well that if those
men were found in her house, she would die with them. That's
no small thing. That's no small thing. Yet she
ran the risk of being put to death to save those two men. The fact is, true faith is faith
that hazards life for Christ. I didn't say it should be, it
is. These men, speaking of Paul and Barnabas, the scripture says,
have hazarded their lives for the gospel. They've hazarded
their lives. Believers are people who take
up their cross and daily follow the Savior. That's what faith
is. Someone actually made I don't
know who he was. I don't remember where I got
it, but I wrote it down. He said, I've got a good religion. It's just the right sort of religion. I don't know that it costs me
a cent a year, and yet I believe I'm as truly a religious man
as anybody. I've got just the right kind
of religion. It doesn't cost a thing. Well, Cody read to us about that
rich young ruler. He heard otherwise, didn't he? Faith in Christ costs you everything. I never shall forget. I don't
think I will. I was sitting in the waiting
room waiting to take chemotherapy. I'm sorry, taking cobalt treatments
down in Durham, North Carolina when I was 26 years old. And I was reading a book by J.C. Ryle, a collection of some of
his papers somebody put together called True Christianity. And
I don't make a show of those things, but someone saw the cover
of the book and the man sitting beside me after a little bit,
he said to me, Do you mind if I ask you something?" I said,
I'd be happy to answer anything I can. He said, what does it take to be a Christian? And I paused for a minute and
looked at him, and I said to him, it takes nothing from you. Salvation is God's free gift
in Christ. But it requires all of you. It is the utter surrender of
life to Christ the King. Faith in Christ is always self-denying. Rahab hazarded her life that
she might obey God. Fifth, Rahab's faith was a sympathizing
faith. She wasn't content to go to heaven
alone. She desired the mercy and grace
of God for her family. And that's not all. She got it. She desired, Lord, Lord, you
promised me, you promised me everything's all right if I abide
right here in my house. What about my family? He said,
go get them. Bring them in here. Staying here,
they'll none of them die. And they stayed there with Rahab,
and every one of them delivered. Every one of them delivered.
A long time ago, Brother Rex Bartley, in one of his prayers
standing here, made this statement. He said, Lord, we never read
in your word of anyone who brought his needy child to you for mercy. whose child you didn't give mercy. What a statement. What a statement. What do you do with your sons
and daughters? Bring them to God, teach them,
and trust them to God's hands. Trust them to God's hands. No, the Scriptures do not teach
household salvation. But the scriptures do give us
example after example after example of men and women whose families
were born of God through their influence by them believing God. No, I can't believe for my children
and I can't believe for you, but I can believe God on your
behalf for your soul. George Whitefield once said,
as soon as I was converted, I wanted to be the means of the conversion
of all that I'd ever known. Pray for God to give us such
grace that we may never be satisfied if we're not made the instruments
of everlasting good to others, made the instruments of grace
to others. I read a story a long time ago
about a man who tried to witness to his son. He tried to witness
to his son. He witnessed to him and taught
him the gospel and instructed him. And the boy was about to
leave home. And the man lived out in a large
area, had a farm. He took him out and sat down
with him one day just before he was to leave home and told
him the gospel of God's grace he gave and called on him to
believe on Christ. And he said, now, son, you see
this oak under which we're now sitting? I make this oak my witness before
God. I'm free of your blood. And you've
heard the gospel. God make us sympathizing believers,
seeking the souls of men for Christ's sake. One last thing. Rahab's faith was sanctifying
faith. Was not Rahab the harlot justified
by her works? The grace of God that brings
salvation teaches all who experience it to live graciously, to live
unto the Lord, to be doers of the word and not hearers only. And thereby, folks like Rahab,
folks like Rahab, as they profess faith in Christ Jesus the Lord,
walk with God. Rahab, the harlot, believed God. And believing God, she honored
God. How? How? Believing God. Believing God. But what did folks
see about Rahab? All they knew about Rahab was
Rahab the harlot. That's all they knew. As far as I know in
the scriptures, she was never identified in any other way.
Rahab the harlot. She didn't in any way prove her
faith to men. She proved her faith before God,
receiving the spies, sending them out the other way. And he's
the only one that matters. He's the only one that matters.
Amen.