let's turn in our Bibles this
morning first of all to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. I want
to read one verse here and then we're going to turn to the book
of James chapter 2, read one verse and then go back to the
book of Joshua. But first of all Hebrews chapter
11 and look at verse 31, verse 31. By faith I The harlot Rahab perished not
with them that believed not, when she had received the spies
with peace. Let me read that one more time.
By faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not
when she had received the spies with peace. And then in James
chapter 2 in verse 25, likewise also was not Rahab the harlot
justified by works when she had received the messengers and had
sent them out another way. Let me read it one more time.
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when
she had received the messengers and had sent them out another
way. Now, I want to speak today on
Rahab the harlot. And I trust that the Lord will
give us a word that we'll be able to speak those things that
would be helpful to you and would be a blessing to you and those
things that would exalt and glorify the God of all grace. Now, first
of all, I'd like to give you just some opening statements
that will give you some ideas to where we're headed in this
message today. The two verses that we read out
of the New Testament, one out of the book of Hebrews, chapter
11, and the other out of the book of James, I think give us
the summary of the life of Rahab, and they're both equally honorable
to her. Now, Paul puts Rahab among the
great worthies, who by faith wrought wonders. You remember
the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews is a chapter on the
heroes of faith, those who believe God and wrought great wonders.
Well, Paul put this harlot, this Rahab the harlot, right there
among the worthies, whom God blessed with faith, and she wrought
a great wonder indeed." Now, the object of James, I believe,
is to show that the faith which justifies the sinner, the faith
which justifies the soul, is a faith which produces good works. Otherwise, God's people are saved
by a faith without any works, but they are not saved with a
faith which does not work. The faith which saves us is without
any work of our own, but the faith that saves us moves us
to work. It moves us to obey God. It moves
us to follow the Lord. It moves us to fear the Lord,
to reverence His Word, and to walk in His ways. And so we have
many examples in the Word of God, but this woman was such
an example that James, who was a practical writer, he mentions
her and gives her honor in that she obeyed the Lord and then
sent the spies. She hid the spies from Israel
and sent them out another way. And James says her faith caused
her to do that. She believed God, and that's
why she did that act. You remember the Bible talks
about Noah, how that Noah feared God, how that Noah believed God,
and he built an ark. He built an ark on dry ground.
It had never rained from the heavens before. And nobody had
ever seen it rain before. And all of the water had come
up, the mist and all had come up and watered the earth. But
the Lord said, I'm going to bring a flood. And Noah believed God. And so he moved his heart to
build an ark to the saving of his family. And so this is the
way faith works. It works in the hearts of those
who have it. And it causes them to follow
the Lord and to do that which God leads them to do. And so
it's no small honor then to this remarkable woman that she has
her name recorded not only with the heroes of faith, but also
that she is selected by the Apostle James as one of the two, one
of the two remarkable instances of the works which result from
faith. And the other was Abraham, you
remember. James mentions Abraham as one Who went out? God said
to him, I want you to go out into a place that I'll show you
later. God says, I just want you to get up and go, leave your
kindred, leave your folks, and go out, and I'll show you where
you're to go. And so he went out. And so James
lists Rahab the harlot. along with Abraham, the father
of the faithful. And what an honor that is. Now,
with them, the commendation of Paul and the praise of James,
backed as they both were by the witness of the Spirit of God. They did not say what they said
about Rahab the harlot just because they selected to do so. They were moved, holy men of
God were moved by the Spirit of God to write the Word of God.
And so the Spirit of God backed up the witness of the Spirit.
We have the witness of God's Spirit behind what both Paul
and James said about this woman. And so in that, that we have
here the witness of the Spirit of God, this woman's character
is well worthy of our consideration. There are some things about this
woman that we ought to know. First of all, let me say in just
the way of opening this up, just giving you some preface here,
let me say that this woman did indeed believe God. But her faith
was a gift of God. The Bible says, for by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. This
woman had faith, and it was a genuine faith. It was a God-given faith. And you don't have any faith
unless God gives you faith. Now, when He gives it, you got
it. You can believe God when you're unable to. A man left
to himself, cannot even believe in a God who cannot lie. God
stands as he were before us today and says, I cannot lie. It's
not that I won't lie, it's that I cannot lie. My nature will
not permit me to lie. But now man is not that way.
Man may not lie, but he is capable of lying. It's not that his nature
would forbid him to do so, but God's nature will not permit
him to lie. But yet you and I left to ourselves. Now isn't this a sad commentary
on human nature? We cannot believe in a God that
cannot lie. We just can't do it until God
gives us faith. And so God gave this woman faith. She received no instruction from
her parents. Her parents were of a condemned
race, that of the Canaanites. They had no faith in God. She
did not become a worshipper of God because her family were worshippers
of God. No, it was not that way. They
had no family pew in the First Baptist Church of Jericho, where
they attended every week. No, they didn't have that. And
she didn't have that kind of an influence. And God had chosen
this woman. God had chosen her as one of
a family. One in her family by his electing
love. And though we hope that grace
continued, and there's indication that it did in her household
for many generations to come, yet she was the first of all
from that family that was ever touched by the grace of God.
that ever experienced God-given faith in her soul, moving her
to respect and honor and serve the living God. Next, she was
not in a believing country, and you're not either. Somebody said,
America is a Christian nation. Well, when did that happen? When
did that happen? America is an even nation. America in our day and time needs
missionaries. America, listen to me, the best
place for a sinner to hide in America is in what we call a
church. Let him go to church. If he wants
to hide from God, let him go. Get him a pew and sit down in
a church. And everybody's going to think
he's alright. Everybody's going to think he's respectable. Everybody's
going to say, this fella is God-fearing, he goes to church. But my beloved
friend, this woman was not in a believing country. And we're
not either. This world is no friend of grace
to help us on to God. And we go out here in the world,
and the Bible says, the whole world lieth in the lap of the
wicked one. That's what it says. The whole
world. lies in the lap of the wicked
one. She was the only believer in the whole city of Jericho. Think about that. The whole city
was full of filthiness. Jericho was neighbor to Sodom,
not only as to locality, but as to condition. And as bad as
this woman had been, it is probable that her sin was among the least
of the offenses that were practiced in the city limits of Jericho,
as bad as she was. That was probably the least of
the offenses against God that was practiced there. Now, beloved,
let us notice. So you see what direction I'm
going. Let us notice five things in this story. And I separated
these things and want to point them out to you so that you'll
be able to remember them and so that they might be able to
register in your heart and do you some good. First of all,
let's notice who this woman was. who she was. Now in verse 1 of
Joshua chapter 2, it tells us who this woman was. It says that
these two spies were sent out by Joshua, and they were to go
view out the land of Jericho, and they went. and came into
an harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. Now, I believe who this woman
was, she was no mere hostess, as some has tried to make out.
Some have said this woman was just a hostess here in a hotel. Well, beloved, this woman was
a real harlot. She ran a house of ill fame. And let me say that it exemplifies
and magnifies the riches of God's grace when we accept the truth
of what the scripture says about an individual. God is not trying
to conceal what people are in the Bible. Now sometimes you
may think that what the Word of God has to say is mighty,
mighty clear, and maybe it would be a little better if some of
it was hid from our view. But no, what we read in the Word
of God, it's clear that God means to exemplify His grace and magnify
His sovereign free will, that God's will is free and He can
do whatever He will. Now she has then, there's nothing
but distaste, listen to me now, for the free sovereign grace
of God that would ever prompt any commentary, anybody that
is a commentator, to deny what this woman really was. Nothing
but a distaste for God's grace. And there's a lot of people in
this world that have a distaste. for the grace of God. Is that
not true? Oh, my friend, they'll spit on the grace of God before
breakfast every day. They're not interested in hearing
about God's pure, free, sovereign grace, and that God exercises
His sovereign prerogative in the salvation of sinners, and
that God is no respecter of men's persons. God saves whom he will,
when he will, and he saves them wherever he finds them. This
woman was a Gentile. She was a Canaanite. She was
an Amorite of that race and seed which in general was devoted
to destruction. In short, this whole race of
people were to be exterminated from the earth. This woman was
a member of this race. Now, she was a known harlot,
she was a notorious profligate, but God, as we said before, is
no respecter of men's person. By her choice, she was a vile
sinner. But by divine choice, by God's
elective grace, by God's predestinating grace, she was to be delivered
from the Maori pit and washed, whiter than snow, by the precious
blood of Christ, that lamb that was slain in the mind of God
from before the foundation of the world. This woman was to
be a jewel in the crown of the Lord Jesus Christ. This woman
was to be as Manasseh of old. She was to be a trophy of the
grace of God. That's what she was to be. She
was from eternity to be a member of the many-membered family of
God. God had said, I set my love and
affection upon this woman, in spite of what everybody would
say to the contrary. I set my love and affection upon
this woman. I picked her out. I singled her
out. I will have mercy on this woman.
And God said, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and
whom I will. I'll harden. I'm God, and I'll
do what I will with my own mercy. I'll do what I will. And I'm
going to have mercy on this woman. I'm going to save this woman.
I'm going to deliver this woman. Now, beloved, let me say this
to you this morning. If you know yourself, if you know what you
are, then I believe that it will not bother you that God has mercy
on some sinners, that God delivers sinners. Now anybody who knows
who they are, you know, there's such confusion among religious
people about this business of our sinnerhood, about this business
of us being what we are. But you know, my friend, the
Bible teaches that God has good news for sinners, but you just
can't find one. You can't find one. There was
an old evangelist, went to France to preach. He said, I've got
such great news for sinners, but I just can't find any. I
can't find any. People that know themselves,
people that know what they are, Now, you know, we're confused.
We say, well, if a person steals, that makes them a sinner. But,
my friend, stealing is not what makes a man a sinner. Cursing
is not what makes a man a sinner. You steal because you are a sinner. It's what you are. You're born
that way. You're born with a fallen nature. You fell in Adam. And you do
what you do because you are what you are. Now, you know, I've
often illustrated it this way. I said a dog is not a dog because
he barks. He barks because he's a dog.
And you do what you do because of who you are and what you are. And so remember that. You say,
well, preacher, I didn't mean to do such and such and so and
so. I know you didn't mean to do that, but you did it because
of who you are. You're a fallen sinner. You're
born that way. And all men come forth out of
their mother's womb speaking lies. And yes, the women do too. They're all fallen. We're all
fallen people. We fell in Adam. We're all sinners.
And you trace back your history, the things that you've done in
your life, you're ashamed of. It's because of what you are.
And if you ever repent, and I'm not concerned about what you've
done. I'm not concerned about that. Somebody comes and says,
Preacher, can I tell you, I'm not interested in hearing what
you've done. I know you because I know myself. I know myself. I'm not interested. I'd like for you to come to repentance
over who you are, what you are. I'd like for you to come not
over what you've done. What you've done, my friend, is because of
what you are. And when you get sorry for what
you are, then you're getting close to the kingdom of God.
Are you a sinner? You say, well, I think I am.
I think I am. I believe I am. Well, when you
trace everything you've done back to the fact that you were
born in sin and that you got a nature that is contrary to
God, then I think you're getting someplace. Now, if you own your
part in the fall, you remember that righteous man in the book
of Luke, chapter 18, that Pharisee went up to the temple to pray
and he said, I thank you, Lord, I'm not like other men. Well,
I'm not like this poor publican over here, why he's this and
he's that and he's something else. And God said that fellow
went down to his house. He wasn't justified when he went
down. But this old publican, he beat on his breast and said,
God be merciful to me, a sinner. And he went down to his house
justified. Before God, just as if he had
never committed a sin, he went down to his house. God be perpetuated
toward me, this sinner. This sinner, he owned his part
in the fall. And you've got to own your part
in it too. You were there. You say, I wasn't there. You
were there. You're a son of Adam and you were there. And when
God, when Adam did what he did, you did too. You did it. You
were right in him when he did it. And that's why you're lost.
That's why you're in need of a Savior, is because you were
born with a nature contrary to God, and you're a sinner. Now
listen, if you own your part in the fall, and if you know
your sinnerhood, then... You're no intruder. You're welcome. Oh, you're welcome. And you have
a sacred right. A sinner has a sacred right to
the court of mercy. If they know themselves truly
to be a sinner, they got a sacred right to the court of mercy.
Come. You're no intruder. Come on. Come to Jesus. Come. Welcome, John Bunyan would say.
Welcome, sinner, come. Well, number one, then, who this
woman is? I think we've seen that she's
a sinner. She's one that is a sinner, a fallen woman. And that's what
she was. Well, now number two, what she
did. Verse four tells us what she did. It says, And the woman
took the two men and hid them, and said thus, There came men
unto me, but I wist not when they were. She hid these men. And this was a good work. This
was a work of faith, as we said earlier. Now there seems to me
to be four things that are required to render any action a good work
in the sight of God. First of all, it must proceed
from a holy principle. This woman had a good reason,
a godly reason, for doing what she did. I'll explain that in
a moment. Number two, a good work must
be regulated by the rule of righteousness. In other words, this must promote
the purpose and cause of a righteous God. And this woman, what she
did, was in complete harmony with the righteous purpose of
Almighty God to rid the world of sinners, of sinners, of alien
sinners that would not bow their knee to His sovereign will and
purpose. Number three, It must be done
in a light spirit, that is the spirit of faith and love toward
God. For a work to be a good work.
Now this woman believed God and she loved the God, that sovereign
God of the Israelites. She loved Jehovah God. And she
swore her allegiance to this God. And so she had a good work. And number four, it must be performed
with a right end in view. And that is the glory of God
and the good of his people. And what this woman did was to
the glory of God. She hid them spies and she lied
to the authorities about who, that they were there. She said
they're not here. They've already gone away. And
she lied to the authorities about it. But what she did was for
the glory of God prompted by faith in her heart, and that's
what James was talking about. Well, number three then, why
she did it. Well, verse 9 and 10 will tell
us why she did it. And she said unto the men, that
is, after she came up on the roof to them, she says, 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 think
because of you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings that were on the
other side of Jordan, Sihon and destroyed. Now, she believed
then what she had heard. God had given her faith based
on what she had heard. Now, beloved, this woman, I told
you earlier, her parents had not given her any instruction.
Neither did this woman have a Bible that she could read to know something
about God. She had no inspired copy of the
Word of God. Not only that, but she had no
prophets, no Elijah or Eliases came by her home speaking in
the name of God. There wasn't any Jonah that came
by her house like Jonah went to Nineveh and cried aloud in
the streets, repent, repent, the judgment of God is coming.
She never heard no message like that. All she heard was what
she had heard by the way of gossip. Gossip down at the city gate.
The chitchat down at the city gate. You see this woman being
a harlot she went down to the gate and she waited there for
strangers to come in the gate and she heard all of the talk
that was going on and when strangers would come into the gate she
would take them as she did these two spies and take them into
her house. They don't need to cover it up,
that's the way they got into her house. Well there were others
that had preceded these spies and they told there in that house
what God had done. what God had done to these other
kings, and what God had done to this king of Egypt, how that
he had opened the Red Sea, and that the Egyptians had went into
the water, and then the waters overflowed the Egyptian army
and destroyed that Egyptian army. And she heard all of these stories
about what God had done. And so her faith was based upon
those things that the Lord had been pleased to get to her ears
by the various means that she had. And what a rebuke that is
to our hearts. This woman had a great faith
in a sovereign God, great respect for God, because she said in
verse 11, and as soon as we had heard these things, Our hearts
did melt, neither did there remain any more courage. Courage wouldn't
come up anymore in our hearts because of you. For the Lord
your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. I wish more people in our day
and time believed that. And there are some of you that
have heard preaching out of the Holy Book, you've heard preaching
out of the Bible, and you've heard the truth of God set forth
to you, and you still don't believe. This woman believed that God
was God in heaven above and in earth beneath, and yet she had
never heard a sermon out of a Bible. And she'd never heard it by a
priest. She just believed what she heard about this God. She
said, I believe those Israelites, I believe they're going to conquer
the earth. I believe they're going to take, I believe they're going
to have the whole land of Palestine because God has given it to them.
I believe that. And I believe that they're going
to be able to get over that Jordan River. And that Jordan River
is out of its banks, it is in the time of harvest, and she
believed that God was able to divide the flood, and it was
going to take a miracle, you hear me? It was going to take
a miracle for the army of the Israelites to get over there
to Jericho. A miracle. But she had heard about the Red
Sea, don't you see? And so she said, well, if God
can open the Red Sea, he can open the Jordan. And it's going
to take a miracle, but those Israelites are coming through,
and they did. God opened it up. The priests
went down and carried the Ark of the Covenant, set their foot
in the water. Joshua said, when your foot goes in that water,
that water, God's going to open it up, and he's going to cause
the water to be heaped up. And the water on both sides was
heaped up and the children of Israel went over the river Jordan
right next to Jericho. And then they started their march
around the wall, you remember. Seven days. They had to march
one time a day around those walls. Well, this woman, she believed,
first of all, that God could open and divide the flood and
let this happen as a miracle. She had to believe in a miracle.
And not only that, but she believed that the walls of Jericho was
going to fall down. She believed it, that God was
going to destroy that city. And so this woman, this is what
she did. She hid these spies. And she's
the only one in Jericho that could have done it. She's the
only one that had the faith. God had given her the faith to
do it. And this is the way it is, beloved. This is the way
God works. He works that way in families. He works that way
in congregations. He gives faith to his people. and God is sovereign in the salvation
of sinners, and He chooses some, passes by others, and this woman
did this great work of faith because God was with her. Number
four, should she have done it? Should this woman have done it?
Well, you know, don't you, that this woman, the question is often
asked, did she do the right thing, defying the king's authority?
Did she do the right thing in betraying the higher powers?
You know, the Bible teaches in Romans 13 that we ought to be
subject unto the powers that be. And that we ought to be subject
to the rules of the land and to whatever the authorities say
that we're to submit ourselves to them. But we notice that this
woman didn't do that. When the authorities came, said,
we know there's some men that came in here, and they're spies
from Israel spying out the country. And this woman said, well, they
were here, but they're not here now. But she had hit them up
on the roof. She lied to them. Well, should
she have done that? Well, we believe, we're not going
to judge the woman. Because we know the end of the
story in the matter. We know it's not right to lie.
We know it's wrong to lie. David said, I said in my haste,
all men are liars. And I've often said that now
he could say it leisurely. All men are liars. We are every
one. There's not anybody here that
would certainly exempt themselves and say, I never even told a
little white lie. We're all liars by nature, by
nature. And there's some places in the
world where if men tell the truth, it's only by accident. They purposely
lie all the time, and they don't know when they're lying and when
they're telling the truth, because they lie so much. But we believe
it's wrong to lie. It is wrong to lie. But this
woman There was something said by Thomas Matten that I like. He said, her lie was an infirmity
pardoned by God and was not to be exaggerated by man. I think
that's a good statement. It is indeed a good statement.
Now there are various verses in the Bible that explains how
one's allegiance to God must be supreme. and how one must
submit themselves unto God and if the laws of a land, if they
clash with the laws of God and the will of God is revealed in
the word of God, the Christian must take and his stand with
the Lord and must stand against the laws of the land. Now, Charles
Haddon Spurgeon had something to say about this woman's faith
and about her allegiance to God that I think is absolutely tremendous,
and I'd like to give it to you, as to why this woman did what
she did. Why that she took the stand against
her own people, the people of Jericho, the king of Jericho,
when these spies came in. Why she became a traitor to Jericho. Well, listen to this. The Lord
Jehovah, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. This
is what she believed. Now this is no small thing. We
said a few moments ago we wish more people believed in the sovereign,
the absolute sovereignty of Almighty God. But this is what this woman
believed. She said, the Lord Jehovah, he
is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. And she laid that
down as a certain fact. The Lord Jehovah, who had done
so much, must be the God in heaven above and in the earth beneath.
And then from that she drew the inference as to the future. She
believed that God would give the country into Israel's hand,
and she asked that when the Lord did actually do so, that they
would deal kindly and truly with her. Now, beloved, let me say
this, but her thought was not only so active that she become
a doctrinalist, in other words, she wasn't trying to simply set
forth her doctrine, but she said, I belong to this town. I have
citizen privileges in Jericho. I will give them all up. God is against this city, and
it will be destroyed, and I shall be destroyed in it if I am against
God. God is going to destroy this
city, and He's going to destroy me if I stand with this city. But He is the true God. I, therefore,
side with Him. I side with him and take part
with his people. If he will but have me, I will
put myself beneath the shadow of his wings and ask him to cast
the skirt of his garment over me. Henceforth, I am no citizen
of Jericho. I disavow my allegiance to its
king. And so when the spies came, she
knew her course of action. She knew that her allegiance
belonged to God. A believer's allegiance belongs
to God. The Bible says our citizenship
is in heaven from whence also we're looking for the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to change these vile
bodies and fashion them like unto his own glorious body. Our
citizenship is in heaven. And Spurgeon went on to say,
she considered herself an Israelite and acted as such. You see the
reason? Now why that she was exonerated
in standing against the enemies of the Lord and lying to them.
She was exonerated before God. She acted like an Israelite,
a true Israelite. And it is said in the word of
God that she lived. for many, many years in Israel after she
was delivered. Well, lastly, what was the result
of her doing all of this? What was the result of it all?
And I like this, and I'm going to hurry here and come to a conclusion. Well, let me say first of all
that according to what the Word of God says in Hebrews 11 and
31, the verse we read earlier, this woman was saved. She didn't
perish with the unbelievers. She was saved. She was delivered. Now you all know, and you heard
the story read this morning, that this woman hung the scarlet
thread out of the window. Now this scarlet thread that
she let the men down over the wall outside of the city with,
she was to hang that in the window. She did that immediately after
the spies left. And this woman was going to be
saved as the children of Israel and the armies of Israel approached.
They would see that scarlet thread hanging out that window. They'd
know that's Rahab the harlot's house. And Joshua had given command
that her and all of those in her house were to be saved. They
were to be delivered. And so when the children of Israel
marched around the walls of Jericho, and on the seventh time the walls
fell down, but there was one little piece of wall standing
up, and there was something on top of that little piece of wall
that was still standing. What do you suppose it was? What
was that? Rahab's house, exactly. Rahab's
house, like an oasis in the desert, standing on that one little piece
of wall that was still standing, and that red thread hanging out
of there. Now that red thread is symbolic. of the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, beloved, it's a seal unto
those that were coming upon Jericho that this woman was to be saved. She was saved. She would not
perish with all of the others. Now, God forbid that we should
ever have any confidence in the outward symbols of our religion
as far as any saving efficacy in baptism and in the Lord's
Supper. God forbid that we should ever
trust our baptism or trust the Lord's Supper. We don't think
the Lord's Supper is a sacrament. In other words, there's no grace
administered to us by taking the Lord's Supper. We do so to
show forth our union with Christ and our belief in His death,
His burial, and his resurrection and that his blood was shed on
our behalf. But we don't believe that it
has any saving efficacy. But we take note, this woman
could not have been saved without that scarlet thread hanging out
over that wall. She wouldn't have been saved.
She swore that that's what she would do. And the spy said, If
you don't do what we tell you, what you're agreeing to do here,
you will not be saved. You will not be delivered. But
this woman was delivered. The Bible says, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Somebody said, cut it out. Take
that out of the scripture. I'm not going to take it out
of the scripture. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. You say, well, baptism's not important. It was important
that that scarlet thread be hung out that window, wasn't it? That
was mighty important. And I'm going to tell you something.
Don't you laugh at baptism. Say, I don't need it. You need
it. And you cross God's path and say, I'll never be baptized.
And I'll tell you what, that's right there is where God's going
to leave you, right there. You crossed the path, and God
crossed your path, and you said no. And God said, if you're going
to believe me, you do it. You do it. And there's a lot
of people, you know, they stand right there and said, I'll not
do it. And God said, you just go on to hell then. If you won't
mind me and obey me, you just go on to hell. Those that believe
on me, follow me. And I'll tell you to be baptized.
And so you take the step. You believe God and you take
the step. Now this woman then, first of all, we want to say
that she was saved. And then secondly, what was the
result of all of this? She wanted others to be saved.
The first thing this woman said, as hard as her heart had been
by her sin, she said, I want my father and my mother and my
brothers and my sisters in on this thing. I want them in on
this thing. I want them also to be saved.
Now, beloved, let me say a couple things about this. Where there's
a real child of God, I'm saying where there's a real child of
God, there's always going to be anxiety about that individual's
family. Listen, if you don't want your
own children to be saved, I doubt you're saved. You're not saved
if you don't want other people saved. I think anybody that is
a true child of God wants others, especially their own family,
to be saved. You know, I read a story one
time about a fellow that walked 10 miles to church and 10 miles
back, said it's the only place he could hear the truth of God,
and so he walked 10 miles there and 10 miles back, and somebody
said, well, what about your family? And he said, well, my family
will have to take care of itself. He said, I believe God will have
his elect. And I just walk, I go, and I think God will have to
take care of my family. Well, God's going to have his own. There
ain't no question about that. But I'll tell you, that's a bad attitude.
That's a wrong attitude. If a man's not interested in
getting his children, let me tell you something. You get your
children under the sound of the gospel. Whatever you've got to
do, you bring them in. Somebody said, let them just
take care of themselves. That's the problem in America
today. It can be traced to the fathers and to those that are
responsible for children. You need to bring up your children. Don't send them up. Bring them
up. And the thing for you to do is
to bring them. This woman said, now wait a minute.
I got a father, and I got a mother, and I got brothers, and I got
sisters. And I want them in on this thing. I want them in on
it. And that's so very important that we see that. That we see
that today. Whatever you gotta do, you just
get those children by the nap of the neck and you bring them.
You get them under the sound of the gospel. You introduce
them to some good music. You say, my children like music.
Get them some good music. Introduce them to something that
means something. Some words, let them memorize
some songs that's got some words in it that'll mean something
to their souls in time to come. Do something that your children
will remember you for. Get them and keep them under
the sound of the word of God so that they can hear the way,
the truth, and the life, and know Christ and know his way. Now this woman, was greatly concerned
for her children. And you know, after this, I mentioned
a little while ago that I believe grace continued in her life. After this experience, she was
delivered. She married a Jewish prince whose name, he's the Prince
of Judah. His name was Salmon. And she
became, listen to this now, the great-great-grandmother of King
David. Rahab the harlot became the great,
great grandmother of King David, holy King David. Now listen to
me. Isn't it amazing? It's very remarkable to me that
in the pedigree of Christ, this woman, she became, she was one
of the ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And it's
remarkable, listen, that in the pedigree of Christ, that there
should be so many women with blotted characters, that there
should be, listen to it, an incestuous Tamar, a harlot Rahab, an idolatrous
Ruth, and an adulterous Bathsheba. Christ has descended as to his
earthly parentage from the loins of such sinners as these. how matchless is the condescension
of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. He descended his earthly
parentage from these kind of people, sinners, sinners. Now, beloved, let me say that
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let me say that faith is a gift of God. Let me say that repentance
is given by God. Christ was raised from the dead
that he might give repentance to Israel and the remission of
sins. All of these gifts of God on this woman's part was unsolicited. God gave them to her. And to
sinners, they're unsolicited. We could not get them except
God would give them to us. And God will give them to those
whose hearts are bent toward him and those who have a desire
and feel in their own souls a desire to believe in the sovereign God
of the Bible and trust this God. God gives those gifts and that's
the reason why you believe. Believing is the effect of God
doing something in you. And you cannot, we said it earlier,
you can't believe until God does something in you. When he does
something in you, then you can believe. You can believe. I'm not here to try to talk you
into anything. I couldn't talk you into anything,
get him out to anything. I'm here to tell you that God
gives faith, he gives repentance, he gives eternal life. I'm here
to tell you that. And if you ever give, you'll
get it from him. It's a free gift of God. God
gives it. God gives it. Now then, let me
read these words. Come ye needy. These are the
words of the old song. Come and welcome. God's free
bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance
and every grace that brings us nigh. Without money, come to
Jesus Christ and buy. Without money and without price. You know the problem is getting
a man down to the price. Not getting him up to the price,
getting him down. Jesus said, well the harlots
and the publicans are going to enter the kingdom of God before
you self-righteous Pharisees do. That's what he told them. He looked them in the face, said
the publicans and the harlots are going in before you do. Self-righteous
people couldn't get them down to the price. He said we don't
need it. Somebody said, it's a gift. I
don't want it to come from the Lord. I don't want it. Said,
all you got to do is just receive it. Take the gift. I won't take
it. I won't do it. I want to do something
in return. I feel like that God ought to
recognize who I am. Let me say this, and we're going
to leave it. It don't take any more grace for God to save a
harlot like Rahab than it does for him to save the most virtuous,
pure woman in the city of Great Falls. Don't take a dime's bit
more grace to do it. You know why? Because God, it's
nothing to God to save the blackest sinner out of hell. Ain't nothing
to God to do that. He's able to do it. When he saved
old Saul of Tarsus, what did Saul say? He said, I'm the chief
of sinners. I committed murder in the name
of the Lord. And the Lord saved him. You gonna
tell me? Let me say this. God saves without
any respect to persons. He does. And He don't want you
bringing something in your hands. He'll get all the glory if He
ever saves you. I'm going to tell you that. And
if He don't get the glory, you're going to go to hell. You're going
to die and go to hell. He saves. He does. Glorious. Gloriously, He saves. Hallelujah,
He saves. But He's going to get the glory
when He saves you. He's going to get the glory whoever
He saves. It's His work. And don't you bring a thing in
your hands, offering it to God. You come as a poor sinner, lost,
undone, and God will save you. He'll save those that come with
that attitude. Getting a man down to the price,
isn't that right? Get him down to the price. Without money and
without price. That's what he said. Can I get
you down to the price? Somebody said, I'll give a quarter.
You ain't gonna give nothing. You ain't gonna give nothing,
not to Christ. it's his salvation. Don't rob him of his glory, that's
his work. Salvation is his work. Ain't
something that we do for God. Salvation is something God does
for us. Believe it. Trust God. Rejoice in the Lord. He's God in heaven above and
in the earth beneath. He's God. Father, receive