Years ago, I heard Brother Scott
Richardson tell about a man, uneducated, simple man. God has
saved him by his grace, and he tried to witness folks best he
could, and all they could talk about was Christ. Didn't know
anything else. Finally, somebody, a religious
fellow who didn't know Christ, he said, well, Is Christ enough? He said, if He's all you got,
He is. And He's all I've got. And bless God, He's all I need. Men everywhere honor fallen heroes
and the great triumphs that have been made by other men with monuments. I don't suppose I've ever been
in a town of any size that didn't have some kind of a monument
to someone. Usually the monuments are raised
in honor of someone who'd been involved in warfare and done
some valiant deed. Sometimes monuments are raised
to men who've done various things, acts of philanthropy and so forth.
We've just seen in this horrid, horrid affair in New
York City, how the monuments have been raised to folks who
lost their lives trying to save others, and rightfully so. But
in the light of the fact that men honor men for much lesser
things, and I chose the words deliberately, it is most reasonable
that the greatest of all acts performed by a man should be
honored. Now, what do you suppose that
might be? The greatest act? any man, any mortal, fallen,
sinful man can ever perform is to believe God. Now let it sink in. Nothing on
this earth is greater than faith, for nothing honors God like believing
Him, and nothing is more honorable to a man than believing him. Faith, we recognize, is the gift
of God, yes. Faith is given to sinners by
the act of God's grace. It is not human. It is not within
the realm of human ability to believe God. It is not something
you can do if you just decide you will. Try it if you want
to. You can't. You can't. I urge you to believe him. You
must believe him, but you cannot believe him. Unless God opens
your heart, raises you from your spiritual death, gives you life
in Jesus Christ, reveals His Son in you, and as soon as He
has revealed His Son in you, first thing you know, you begin
to believe Him. You just believe God. And thereby
acknowledging that you are nothing in yourself, acknowledging that
you have no hope before God, no access to God, no acceptance
with God, but by faith. in his darling son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's all our wisdom, all our
righteousness, all our sanctification, all our redemption. We have no
other. Christ is all. Now, in the 11th
chapter of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul, being moved by divine inspiration,
raises a monument to faith, and a great monument it is. In this
chapter, We have names recorded, but like the names recorded on
most monuments, now listen carefully, the names recorded in this chapter
are the names of ordinary, common men and women just like you and
me. There is nothing extraordinary,
remarkable, nothing that would set these men and women apart
from any other men and women except this one thing. Being
the objects of God's saving grace, they believed God. In a natural
sense, there was nothing extraordinary about Abel. He was a boy born
of Adam, just exactly like his brother Cain. In a natural sense,
there was nothing extraordinary about Enoch. Enoch did not somehow
muster up holiness in himself so that by his own deeds he pleased
God. He pleased God because he believed
him. In a natural sense, there's nothing at all extraordinary
about Abraham. Man, he was a pagan. He was a pagan, one who lived
in a land of idolatry and worshipped idols, things that you make with
your fingers. He was a pagan, but he believed
God when God called him. By nature, there was nothing
extraordinary at all about any of these men or women. They were
made extraordinary because of God's extraordinary grace brought
in them. but the grace of God wrought
in them caused them to do extraordinary things. Yes, these acts of faith,
if I have counted them correctly, there are 48 specific things
spoken of here performed by faith. The commentators and the tendency
of preachers is to pick these things out and say, now, Lyndsey
Campbell, buddy, this is what you ought to be. You and Don Fortner, this is
what we ought to be. This is how we ought to live.
But there's something more. If we believe God, this is what
we ought to do. If we believe God, this is the
kind of faith we have. These acts of faith are the common,
ordinary acts of all men and women, young or old, who believe
God in any generation. Able, believed God. and believing
God, obtained witness that he was righteous before God. God
said, I've accepted you. You're righteous. The same is
true of Bob Pontchart. The scripture tells us that Enoch
was delivered from death. He didn't even taste it. Was
rather translated to heaven without experiencing the curse of death
because he believed God. Listen to me. I had been translated
from death to life, delivered from the curse of death. So that
for the believer, there is no such thing as death. We use the
term, it's used in the scriptures to talk about the death of these
bodies. But our Lord said, plainly said, he that believes on me
shall never die. I'm just going to drop this. I'm going to pull
off this coat. That's all. I'm going to lay
down this tabernacle. That's all. I ain't about to
die. Ain't about to. How come? Because I believe God. The scripture tells us about
this man, Noah, born of God, believing God, he was made to
be, listen to how the scripture, made to be heir of righteousness. An heir of righteousness? What
on earth does that mean? That means he was made to be
a rightful possessor of everything that perfect righteousness rightfully
gets from God Almighty. Saints true David Burge. Heir
of righteousness, not because he did something good, but because
he believed God. He trusted him who had done something
good. He trusted the blood and righteousness
of God's Son. Like Abraham, all believers are
strangers and pilgrims on this earth, confessing that they are
so looking for a city which has foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. Faith triumphs over natural affection. So that faith submits the darling
son, Isaac, to God Almighty and lays everything on the altar
for him. All faith does. I don't suggest faith doesn't
struggle with these things. Oh, no. Oh, no. I know it does. I know there's
a constant struggle in my soul. And if you know God, a constant
struggle in your soul, warring between faith and unbelief, between
flesh and spirit. But I'm telling you that the
believer is one who believes God, and faith subjects all natural
affection to God's glory and God's will. Faith stands firm
against the allurements of the world like Moses did. Faith constantly
keeps the Passover in the sprinkling of blood, constantly looks to
Christ and Christ alone for atonement and acceptance with God. Faith
worships God like old Jacob leaning on his staff. Faith is patient
and trial. It endures to the end as seeing
him who is invisible. Now, the Holy Spirit has given
Paul direction to give us all these examples of faith. And
before he brings this great description of faith to its conclusion, Paul
makes one more mention of faith. He makes one more mention of
a person who believed God. And the one he saves to the last,
as if he were sitting the pinnacle of the monument, right
here, is an old gal who was a harlot named Rahab. Look at verse 31. Rahab, perish not. with them that believe not, when
she had received the spies with peace. Who didn't? The harlot Rahab. By faith, Rahab
the harlot perished not. Now there's no doubt at all that
this woman Rahab was indeed a harlot. She was not merely a hostess
at the local Jericho hotel. If the Lord had meant for us
to understand that she was an innkeeper, he would have said,
by faith, the innkeeper Rahab. But rather he said, by faith,
the harlot Rahab. Perish not, for she believed
God. I can't imagine why anyone would
object to this description of Rahab, or try to find less offensive,
some less degrading word to describe her, except because they despised
God's free grace and refused to acknowledge man's utter depravity. This woman Rahab was a harlot,
but this woman Rahab was the object of God's grace. The harlot
Rahab believed God. Oh, what a display of grace.
What a greater, more encouraging picture could we ever find of
the fact that the change that's wrought in the sinner's heart
when touched by the master's hand is a change no man can understand. 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, most worthless
dregs of fallen humanity are made to be the instruments of
the greatest possible usefulness when a man is made to believe
God. Now I'm talking about grace.
Grace that's manifest in the gift of faith. I want you to
see and to see clearly that faith in Christ is the greatest gift
God Almighty ever gives to any center upon this earth. Seek
it for yourself. You who have it, seek it for
those around you. Seek it for others. Earnestly
give yourself, give yourself, give yourself in the totality
of your being to promoting faith in others. Some are preaching,
we can't give anybody faith. I didn't suggest that, but we
can tell them about who does. Seek it earnestly for yourself
and seek it earnestly for others. And if God's given you faith
in Christ, oh, don't ever get over the wonder of it. The only
reason why you believe him is because he came to you, spoke
to you the word of his grace, revealed his son in you, and
gave you faith. Oh, gift of gifts, oh, grace
of faith, my God, how can it be that thou who hast discerning
love shouldst give that gift to me? Now let me show you five
or six things about faith in this woman Rahab. I want you
to listen carefully and the five or six things I'm going to say
will be just as simple as possible. I don't want you to miss a thing
because I didn't state it clearly or because I didn't state it
simply enough. The first thing that we see concerning this woman's
faith is that it was saving faith. Some folks who like to squabble
about words, they get upset when we talk about saving faiths.
Faith's not our savior. I know that. You know that if
you know God. Faith did not put away sin. Faith cannot make atonement for
sin. Faith cannot establish righteousness. Faith doesn't cause God to forgive
us our sin. Oh, no. The blood and righteousness
of Christ alone gives us acceptance with God, and only grace gives
us life before God. But faith. is not a dormant,
meaningless notion in a man's head. Faith is a grace by which
men and women live if they're born of God. Faith is the breath
of the newborn soul. Faith is the character of all
who are born of God. This woman Rahab, we're told,
by faith, the harlot Rahab, perished not. In other words, God the
Holy Spirit ascribes to her faith the fact that she did not perish.
Truly, it was the object of her faith that kept her, but it was
her faith. Our Lord said to that woman in Luke chapter 7, said,
thy faith hath saved thee. Didn't it? He said, thy faith
hath. He was her Savior, but he said, your faith has. Because
faith unites us livingly with the Son of God so that we now
have a vital union with Him and we are one with Him. This woman
was delivered amid the general destruction of Jericho purely
and only through her faith. Her salvation, however, was not
merely a temporal salvation of her body. It was not merely of
a temporal nature. It was not just the deliverance
of her body from destruction at that time, but rather it was
the deliverance of her soul from everlasting destruction in hell.
She believed God, and so she never perished. She believed
God, therefore she never died. She believed God, therefore she
lives forever. It is this faith which saves
sinners from hell. Listen to what Spurgeon had to
say concerning this. I thought it was just so well stated, I
don't commonly give quotations, but listen to this. So mighty
is the ever-rushing torrent of sin. that no arm but that which
is as strong as deity can ever stop the sinner from being hurried
down to the gulf of black despair. And when nearing that 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. Faith was purchased for us by
the blood of Christ. Faith is given to us by the sovereign,
irresistible, effectual call of God the Holy Spirit. Faith
is the fruit of divine election. All those things are so. But
let me tell you something. No sinner on this earth will
ever get to glory because he was elected of God, predestined
to life, or redeemed by Christ, except they believe God. Faith
is just as necessary to the saving of our souls as the blood of
Christ. That's exactly right. You read
this book and find out. You read this book and find out.
This woman believed God. What a great thing the salvation
of a soul is. You can never know how great
it is until you experience it. In fact, there are only two people
in the world who know how great God's salvation is. That's the
sinner who's saved and the Savior who saves. The only ones. Only those who are forgiven know
what forgiveness is. Only those who have been in bondage
and captivity and set free know what liberty is. Only those who
have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ know what it
is to have their souls ransomed from the grave. Only those who
were dead and made alive know what it is to live in Jesus Christ. Grace gives us faith and faith
fetches to us all the blessedness of that grace and experience. By faith, the harlot Rahab perished
not. Now she obtained her faith because
God sent his word and healed her. God showed her the blood
and she hung everything on the blood represented in that scarlet
cord tied from her window. The same faith that saved Rahab
is the faith that saves us. Pastor, did this woman just trust Christ
and that's all? That's it. That's it. Turn to
Romans chapter 8 for a minute. I want you to see this. Oh, God
make you see this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and you shall not perish, even
if your name is Rahab the harlot." Christ's gospel is a declaration
of free salvation for sinners. Thieves, murderers, and harlots
find in his blood a full, permanent absolution from all sin. Right now, Romans chapter 8,
look at verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Those two groups of people are
exactly the same. Those who are in Christ experimentally
are those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
That's not talking Some kind of wild, charismatic, Pentecostal
nonsense. That's talking about believing
God. Do you believe Him, Bobby? You walk in the Spirit. We've
been made to live in the Spirit. That's what it is. And there's
no condemnation. Read on. For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. I believe God, therefore in Christ
I have full atonement and perfect righteousness, and that frees
me from the possibility of condemnation. Verse 3, for what the law could
not do, the works of the law, the sacrifices of the law, the
ceremonies of the law, never could in any way make the sinner
accepted with God, in that it was weak through the flesh. God
sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. A better word would be because
of sin. Because of the sin that was imputed to him. Because of
our sins that were upon us. Because of the justice demanding
death for our sins. He condemned sin in his body
of flesh. Now then, look at this. That
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We believe
God, and as Noah, are now heirs of righteousness, because Christ's
righteousness is ours. His obedience is ours. His death
is ours. Sometimes I hear folks talk, preachers and
others, Somebody had been notorious in their behavior. And God saves them. They confess Christ and believe
in baptism. They unite with the church, and
folks kind of, well, we'll see. Give them time to live it down.
Let me tell you something. The Son of God lived everything
down for me." Everything. And all who are born
of God stand on the same footing of grace as Rahab the harlot
and Saul of Tarsus. We are robed in his righteousness
and washed in his blood, and that's all. That's all. The fountain filled with Emmanuel's
was open for the cleansing of souls as black as hail. The robe of Christ's righteousness
was woven for buck naked sinners guilty before God with nothing
to offer him. The balm of Calvary is for sin
sick souls. He who is life came down here
and was made to endure the horrid death of the cross that sinners
who have no life and no possibility of life might live forever before
God with him. Listen to what Paul says. You
got your Bible still in Romans 8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who's going to charge you with
sin? Who's going to do it? Lots of folks will try, and sometimes
you'll try yourself. Looking to yourself, looking
away from Christ to yourself for hope. Oh, but who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Nobody can. It's God that
justifies. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. All right, that's the first thing. Raab's faith was saving
faith. Second, it was singular faith. Singular, solitary faith. What
do you mean, preacher? The city of Jericho was about
to be attacked. Within the walls of that city,
there were hordes of people, all classes of people, all kinds
of characters. rich and poor, learned and unlearned,
moral and immoral. Those who lived on the upper
side of the tracks and those who lived on the lower side of
the tracks. But inside those walls, there was not a soul who
believed God except Rahab. What's your point? The fact is, all true faith a
singular, solitary faith. If we believe God, we believe
Him for ourselves, and we believe Him by ourselves, and we believe
Him without any support except Him. What's the point, Pastor? You
see, faith always stands alone. It always swims upstream against
the tide, both of all around us and all that's in us by nature.
Faith always stands by itself before God. I remember years
ago, Brother Charlie Pennington, when he was, when he first started
preaching, first sermon, I think, first sermon he ever preached,
at least it was recorded. He's pastoring up in Wheelersburg
now. Good preacher. He's preached here. First sermon
he preached, I heard, was barefoot before God. That's where we are. Faith stands barefoot before
God. Got nothing except you. Nothing. I've got no one but you. I've
got nothing to stand on but your word. Nothing. Nothing. Faith
is never the result of group therapy. That's the deception of modern
evangelism. That's the deception, the trickery,
the deceit. When I was in college, those preacher meals, they tell
you how to give an invitation. And if you're really sharp, what
you do is you take some folks who are out in the congregation,
and when you start to sing, they will start to come forward, because
that will kind of inspire somebody else to come. And you just get
things moving in the flow of things, and folks just can't
resist it. That's the way to take folks
to hell. Nobody's ever been saved in that nonsense. Nobody. Not
you, not me, not your mama, daddy, nobody. Nobody. Salvation is
not the result of psychological manipulation. Faith in Christ
is not the result of walking down an aisle and kneeling at
a mourner's bench or an altar anymore than it is going to a
confessional booth and talking to a priest. Faith in Christ is
the fruit of God's grace in your heart. Believe in God on your
own. You'll never believe him because
your mama does. You'll never believe him because your wife
does. Well, my wife, she decided she'd join the church. I thought
I would, too. That's how churches get full. Well, my kids wanted
to join church. I decided I would, too. Mom and
Daddy decided I'd be part of it. Faith believes God personally. individually alone. That's it. Thirdly, Rahab's faith was steadfast. Her faith stood firm amidst great
troubles. She believed God when everything
she hoped for seemed to all outward appearance to be utterly impossible. They have called a family in.
Y'all stay right here in this house. Those fellows from Israel,
they told me God's word. They promised me God's word.
I know everybody heard what God's done, but nobody's believing,
but I do. Stay right here in this house and we're safe. And I can almost picture that
old gal. Maybe she was stronger than me.
Probably was. Those walls began to just fall
flat all around her. She believed God. How's this house going to stand?
God said it would. But nothing else is standing.
God said it would stand. But you, of all people, why should
God have mercy on you? He said He would. That's all. That's all. She believed God
steadfastly. Oh, God give me grace to believe
Him steadfastly. She believed to the end. When Jericho was gone, when the
storm was over, Rahab was in exactly the same place she was
when God first sent his word to her. She was in the house,
the house under the blood, marked by blood, the house with a covenant
promise, the house God promised he wouldn't destroy. She believed
God steadfastly. Let me show you something else.
I want you to turn for a minute to Luke chapter 14. This woman's faith was self-denying
faith. All true faith is. Always is. Always is. I heard Brother Mahan
say years ago, he said Baptist churches are
just a poor man's country club. Anybody can get in, there are
no dues, and you can't get out even if you die. Cost you nothing,
and that's the way most men deal with religion. Someone actually
made this statement. I don't know who made the statement.
I wrote it down, and I don't care who made it. I've heard
it lots of times. I've seen the fellow's face lots
of places. This is exactly what he said.
I've got a good religion. It's the right sort of religion. I don't know that it costs me
a cent a year. And yet I believe I am as truly
religious, as truly a religious man as anybody. That's the kind of religion you
get from preachers. That's the kind of religion you
get from Babylon. That's the kind of religion you get from
most anywhere. But that's not the kind of religion you get
from God. Our Lord told that rich young ruler, I'll be your
Lord, Lord of everything, possessor of everything, or nothing. That's all. Paul and Barnabas
were men who hazarded their lives for the gospel. And every child
of God is just like that. Everyone of them. Look in Luke
14. Our Lord Jesus would never have
made it as a hotshot Hollywood evangelist if he'd have flunked
every test in school. Look at verse 25. There went great multitudes with
it. Just multitudes of folks following him. We want to be
yours. We want to go to heaven with you. We want to follow you. And the Lord said, all right,
let me tell you what it is to follow me. He turned and said
to them, if any man come after me, and hate not his father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." It's called faith. It's called
faith. What does that mean, hate? It
means the same thing it does when it says, Jacob I love thee,
so have I hated thee. God gave no regard to Esau. He
didn't do anything for Esau. He did everything for Jacob.
He regarded Jacob. And this is what it means to
believe God. It means that my life and my wife's life and my
mother and father's life and my son's or daughter's life and
my neighbor's life cannot, must not come into consideration.
between me and God. That's it. That's it. I've often seen it happen. Man
and woman, both unbelievers, both unconverted, and God saves
one of them. And that husband, oh, he's not
happy. Because all of a sudden, there's
somebody more important to her. than him. Or that wife, she's not happy.
Because all of a sudden there's somebody more important to him
than her. And that's just the way it is.
There's not a creature walking on this earth more important
to me. Doesn't even compare. Not even that little granddaughter
to that woman right there. But there's somebody more important.
And the same is true of her. Somebody more important. Whosoever doth not bear his cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple. Path of obedience to
Christ, path of faith, is always contrary to the flesh, will always
cause you problems. He's not talking about because
you had a car wreck last week or a car wreck when you was a
boy. You got a mangled arm. That's my cross. I just have
to bear it. That's not what he said. Take your cross up and
follow me. Take it up and follow me. Read on. For which of you,
intending to build a tower, sets not down first, and counts the
cost? Whether he hath sufficient to finish it, lest, haply after
he hath laid the foundations, not able to finish it, all that
behold it begin to mock him. Look here, I told you he couldn't
do it. Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to
finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king,
setteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000
to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000, or else, while
the other is yet a great way off, he sends an ambassador and
desires conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple." That's demanding a lot. You know what? The only person
who imagines so, buddy, is someone who's never seen the crucified
Savior. See from his head, his hands,
his feet. You see? Love so amazing, so
divine, demanding my life, my soul, by all. Rahab's faith was a sympathizing
faith too. I gave you this before so I won't
spend much time here, but this gal wasn't content to go to glory
by herself. She desired the mercy and grace
of God for her family and sought it earnestly. Those two messengers,
David Dixon walked out the door, she said, wait a minute now,
wait a minute. I've got my father's family right next door here.
And I ain't been nothing but pain and heartache to them all
my life. Promise me you'll be gracious to them too. And you
know what? Her whole house stood fast when
Jericho fell in covenant mercy. Sinners converted by God's grace earnestly care for the souls
of men. I wouldn't give you two cents
for religion that doesn't spread itself. George Whitefield once
said when he was preaching, as soon as I was converted, I wanted
to be the means of the conversion of all that I'd ever known. Years
ago, I read a story about a man whose sons, he was a farmer,
like most farmers' sons, not all of them, but most of them,
they get grown, first thing they want to do is get away from the
dirt, go to the city. And all of his sons did. They
got grown, went off to school, and before they left home, he
took them one at a time out to an old oak tree, and one more
time, spoke the words of God's grace to them and prayed for
them. And before they got up, he said,
now son, I've been faithful as I know
how to witness to you of the grace of God, to point you to
Christ, urge you to believe it. And I want you to remember this
day, this oath, right here, will stand as a witness in the day
of judgment that I witnessed the gospel to you. And with that
he sent them off. Let us be just that zealous concerning
the souls of men. Paul said, I say the truth in
Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost. I have great heaviness. and continual
sorrow in my heart, for that I could wish that myself were
accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."
And I'll be honest with you, I've made every effort I know
how at expounding those verses. I've read everything I could
get on it that I thought was any good, and I don't know how to explain
them. But I know this, that's the expression of a heart. tender, broken, and heavy, desiring
the grace of God for desperately needy sinners. Oh, God make me
such. Say one more thing about Rae
Ann's faith. Turn to Titus chapter 2. Let
me show you this. I'll let you go home. Her faith was a sanctifying faith. This old gal took down the red light machine
going, God save her. She was no longer a harlot. She
was always called such, Rahab the harlot. Here it is hundreds
of years later, and the Holy Spirit refers to her as Rahab
the harlot because the Holy Spirit would have us understand that
God's grace reaches where no man would ever consider reaching
and proceeding. But she was no longer hostile.
But what Paul tells us in Titus 2, 11, for the grace of God that
brings salvation. That means, Jimmy Ray, if God
has brought salvation to you and to me, if God's brought salvation
to you, Bob Duck, and to Don Fortner, your pastor, If he has,
it taught us something. It didn't just give out the lesson.
God doesn't give out lessons. God teaches. The grace of God
that brings salvation teaches us. Verse 12, that denying ungodliness,
saying no to ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live
soberly. righteously and godly in this
present world, with your heart and your mind and your soul fixed
on things above, looking for that blessed hope, the glories
appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who
gave himself that he might redeem us from
all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. Now I call on you, O needy sinner, believe God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
What does this book say? Thou shalt be saved. Right where you are, right now.
Don't even say a word. Don't bow your head. Don't close
your eyes. Don't move a muscle. Just believe Christ. Believe
Him. Believe Him. And God saved you
by His grace. Amen.