Joshua chapter two. You remember the context of this
incident here that I'm ready to read to you, the overthrow
of Jericho. It had been 40 years before this
time. Israel had wandered in the wilderness
for 40 years. The Lord had brought them out
of Egypt, out of the land of bondage. He brought them through
the Red Sea on dry land. For 40 years that generation
wandered in this wilderness. All of them had died but Joshua
and Caleb. This was a new generation that
just came over to Jordan. Parted that deep Jordan River,
they'd come across seven miles from this huge city of Jericho. Had a king, had a mighty army,
a lot of men and women and children, brass and silver and gold. This
was a mighty city, well built, appointed to destruction. And
this is the account. of their sending spies into this
city and who they met and who was saved in this city. Now let's
read it together. In Joshua chapter 2, let's begin
reading in verse 1. And Joshua the son of Nun sent
out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the
land, even Jericho. And they went and came into Naharlath's
house, named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king
of Jericho, saying, Behold, I come in here tonight of the children
of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent
unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are coming to thee,
which are entered into your house. For they become to search out
all the country. And the woman took the two men,
and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I
wish not whence they were. And it came to pass about the
time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men
went out. Whether the men went, I know
not. Pursue after them quickly, for
you shall overcome them. But she had brought them up unto
the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax,
which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued
after them the way to Jordan and to the forbs. And as soon
as they which pursued after them were gone, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down,
she came up unto them upon the roof, and she said unto the men,
I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that your Torah
is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt, and what He did to the two kings of the Amorites
that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom He
utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these
things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any
more courage in any because of you. For the Lord your God, He
is God in heaven above, and He is God in the earth beneath.
Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I
have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto
my father's house, and give me a true token, a true and that
ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brother,
and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives
from death.' And the men answered her, Our lives for yours, if
ye utter not this our business, and it shall be when the Lord
hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly
with thee. Then she let them down by a cord
through the well, for her house was upon the town wall, and she
dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you
to the mountains, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves
there three days, until the pursuers be returned, and afterward may
you go your way. And the men said unto her, We
will be blameless of this thine oath, which thou hast made us
swear. Behold, when we come into the
land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window
which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt bring thy
father, and your mother, and your brother, and all thy father's
household home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever
go out of the doors of the house unto the street, his blood shall
be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And whosoever shall
be with thee in the house, His blood shall be on our head, if
any hand be upon him. And if thou offer, and if thou
utter this our business, then we will be quiet of thine oath,
which thou hast made us to swear." And she said, according to your
word, so be it. And she sent them away, and they
departed, and she bound the scarlet line in the window. And they
went and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until
the pursuers were returned. And the pursuers sought them
throughout all the way, but found them not. So the two men returned,
and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to
Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell him. And they said unto Joshua, Truly
the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land, For even
all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us." That's
a wonderful story. Let's see what we can glean from
it. And I want to maybe entitle the message this morning a simple,
Some Things Concerning Rahab. Concerning Rahab. I want to see
some things concerning this woman. This city had been appointed
to destruction. Appointed of God, it was so sure. The walls were coming down. When
the children of Israel departed from this city, there was nothing
standing. All the walls of brick and mortar
and rock were flattened. There was nothing there but a
few smoldering timbers, the smell of burning flesh, It was all
destroyed. Everything was gone. It was appointed
to destruction. All that you saw left out in
the field was this woman, her dad and her mother and her relative. This woman ran. Now, when you
and I talk about the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
We often go to the New Testament and we pick such scriptures as
the Master saying, I am come to seek and to save that which
was lost. I came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. Or we look at that great statement
by the Apostle Paul, this is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation. that Jesus Christ came into this
world to save sinners. And we can read all of those
statements about being saved by grace, free and sovereign
grace. But sometimes the best teachers
that we can have in all of the Bible is some of these illustrations
that we can light upon, like this woman here and her family
that was saved. And sometimes we learn more in
these illustrations than we do in the plain words themselves.
What do we learn from this illustration this morning but salvation by
the free grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's
very telling that the first person who is saved when they come into
the land of The very first person in the land of promise that is
saved is a woman who is called Nan Harlot. Ain't that amazing? Ain't that amazing? The city
appointed to destruction and the first person that's saved
out of that city is Harlot? Is that not a good illustration
of the grace of God in salvation? It never ceases to amaze me when
I read the commentaries, and some of them are so adamant about
this woman not being a heart. It amazes me how they will stretch
definitions and go to the Hebrew and Greek and stretch words that
are so plain Because they cannot endure to think that this woman
could have been a harlot, a prostitute. Let me read you a statement that
one man made. He pleased that this woman wasn't
an innkeeper or a tavern owner. Here's what he says concerning
our Lord coming out of this woman's lineage. We'll look at that in
a minute in Matthew chapter 1. But he said to all this, I want
to add to all of this, he'd give all this proof that this wasn't
a harlot. To all of this may be added,
this Thomas Taylor says, that as our blessed Lord came through
the line of this woman, it cannot be a matter of little consequence
to know what moral character she sustained. Now listen to
this. It is not very likely that the
Providence of God would have suffered a person of such a notorious
bad character to enter into the sacred land of the genealogies
of his son. In other words, he's saying It
would almost be unthankful, unthinkable, since we find this harlot in
the lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ, to think that she truly
was, in the whole world, our prostitute. Well, let's turn
just for a minute and look at Matthew chapter 1. Let's look
at the lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just some things I want
you to hold. I want you to hold. Chapter 1
of Joshua. But look in Matthew chapter 1,
some things concerning the first woman that was saved when the
Lord brought His people into the land of Canaan. What kind
of a person was she? Since the Lord allowed her to
be in His lineage, could she indeed have been a prostitute?
Well, let me tell you something. Jesus Christ shows plainly in
his lineage that he is willing to be identified with sinners,
and some of the worst of sinners that you can imagine. Now, let's
read his lineage and look at the people in his lineage. Look
at Matthew chapter 1, and look at this in verse 1. The book
of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of
Abraham. He could trace his family tree
back to Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac
begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brother, and Judas
begat Phares and Zaira of Thamar. Do you have any idea who this
Thamar was? And Judah was? Thamar was Judah's
daughter-in-law. Do you remember that Judah had
three sons? He gave Thamarah his oldest son. He was a wicked man. The Lord
killed him. He told his middle son, you go marry your brother's
wife and raise up children. And he wouldn't do it. The Lord
killed him. And he said, you wait on my youngest
son, and when he's old enough, I'll give you him to be your
husband. Well, when his son got older,
he wouldn't give him. It upset his daughter-in-law.
She was living in another county. Judah went over there one day,
and his wife had died, and he was lonely. And Tamar said, I'll
play the harlot. I'll show him. She put on harlot's
clothes and sat along the side of the road. And Judah came up
and said, if you'll lay with me, I'll send you a kid. I'll send you a little goat."
She said, what will you give me? He said, here's my spout.
You take it as a charity. Here's the bracelet from my hand.
He lay with her and she became pregnant with her own father-in-law. Somebody come to him and says,
Judah, did you know tomorrow was with child? She's playing
the whore. He said, you go over there and take some men. You
drag her outside of town and burn her. What a wicked woman. And they got her out there ready
to burn, and she said, well, I'll tell you who the father
of my children is. Here's his bracelet, and here's
his staff. You go ask Judah who these are. That was pretty bad. What is it we call that? Incest? You mean the Lord Jesus Christ
would have such an incident as this in his lineage? But that's
not all. Read on. In verse 4, Abram begat
Abimadad, and Abimadad begat Nessun, and Nessun begat Salmon,
and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. That's her, isn't it? That's
her. And let's read on. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. Now, who was Ruth? Well, you
remember when Naomi and her husband They were in the land of Canaan. They were in the homeland, a
drought hit, and they said, let's go down to Moab. They went down
to Moab to dwell. They had two sons, and they talked
to Moabite women for their wives, Gentiles. But they were idolaters. Remember that? And Naomi's husband died, her
sons died, and she said, I'm going back to Israel. And Ruth
said, I'm going with you. And she said, no, you go back
to your gods and your people. Ruth said, your God is my God.
Where you go, I'll go. Where you die, I'll die. This
was a Gentile Moabitess idolater who was converted and went back
and became the wife of Boaz. But read in verse 6, And Jesse
begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of Ur,
Isn't it strange that the Holy Spirit would put this in here?
I mean, He should have hid this. Why would He even put this in
here? David the king begate Solomon of her who had been the wife
of Uriah. Well, what happened to Uriah?
David killed him because he committed adultery
and he took his wife. You mean Jesus Christ come out
of that? What does this tell us, brothers
and sisters? That Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, though He
was not a sinner, though He never sinned and no God was found in
His mouth, He was more than willing to be identified with sinners. That's what that tells us. He
associated with, He ate with, He received, He preached to,
and He saved sinners. And here he shows himself willing
to be identified with sinners, the most notorious of sinners,
because he records it in his word that he came through the
lineage of some of the worst sinners in this world. Luke 15, verse 1 says, Then drew
near unto him all the publicans and sinners, for to hear him. But what did the Pharisees do?
They murmured, This man receiveth sinners. Aren't you glad of that?
Aren't you glad he does? Where would that leave us if
he didn't? He receiveth sinners and eats with them. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
this to the Pharisees and the scribes. He said, The publicans
and the harlots, they go into the kingdom of God before you. right before your face. You read
the context of that, and he said, John came to you in a way of
righteousness. He come preaching to you Pharisees
and your scribes. And you didn't believe him. When
he said, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the
world. You heard him preach that. You
didn't believe that. You don't have any sin to be
taken away. That's what you said. He's not
talking to us when he talks about taking away sin. We don't have
any. But he said the publicans and
the harlots, they not only heard him preach, but they believed
what he said and they repented and they went into the kingdom
of God right before your face. Oh, He says, you're going to
die in your sins. You don't believe I am He, and you're going to
die in your sins. And there's no way that you're going to escape
the damnation of hell. And while harlots and publicans
will be with me in glory, you will be suffering the torments
of hell. You can't escape that. Does it shock us this morning
that God in His providence would suffer notorious sinners to be
in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. If it does, if you're
like this one commentator that you're shocked to even think
of that, then we need to go back again and examine who Jesus Christ
is. Examine why He came. Examine
what He did upon the cross that Bob read to us about, and examine
who He did it for. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners. to repentance. I wonder if these
commentators, some of them, bless their hearts, wouldn't have preferred
Rahab to be a Pharisee. I think they would have been
pleased if they could have proved she had been a Pharisee. Oh,
how clean! Oh, how separated! Oh, how holy! The first one that the Lord set
His heart upon when they came into the land of Canaan was a
good old Pharisee. a praying man, a church-going
man, a moral person. That wasn't so, was it? That's
just not so. My dad's often told me and my
grandmother, great-grandmother, and I'll tell you there's some
things about my grandmother I won't tell anybody. I'll tell you that's
how embarrassing it is. I am ashamed of my ancestry. And I'm telling you what, there
are some things, if I could go back, I can't go back any further
than my great-grandmother, because I don't even know what my name
is. She had eight children by eight different men. Of course,
I don't know if she ever was married. I ain't going to tell that. I ain't
going to go around and broadcast it. I sure ain't going to write
it in a book. Do you want to be identified with that kind
of ancestry? Can you imagine the blessed Son
of God coming down in His holiness and beauty and glory? And somebody
opens the Bible and says, let's see where you come from. And
they run up on a harlot. They come up on incest. They
come up on idolatrous. You came out of this like this?
Yeah, because that's the kind of people I came to save. That's the first reason that
they want to give, well, we just don't believe it would be right
if a harlot was in his ancestry. And the second reason this commentator
gives for this woman not being a harlot was this. He went on
to say this. But what completes in my judgment
the evidence on this point is this. He's contending that she
couldn't have been a harlot for this reason. that this very Rahab,
whom we call a harlot, was actually married to Salmon, a Jewish prince. And it is probably that a prince
of Judah would have taken to wife a such a person as our text
represents Rahab to be. He said that don't tell me. Selman,
this prince of Israel, would have taken a former harlot to
be his wife. It disgusts him to even think
about that. Let me say this this morning.
If you were here, you were in your mid-twenties or so, and
you were looking for a wife. I mean, you weren't a woman that
feared the Lord. You weren't a woman that loved
the Lord. And you met this woman, and you
found out about her that she loved the Lord Jesus Christ so
much that she basically left her home, left her house, and
followed Him everywhere He went. that all of her substance that
she had, she ministered unto him of that substance. And early on the resurrected
morning, as the sun was coming up, this woman was the first
one there at his tomb. And she told the one she thought
was a gardener, if you'll tell me where you've laid him, I'll
get him in my own arm. And I'll take him and give him
a proper burial. Now, if you met a woman like
that, wouldn't you say, that's my wife right there, buddy. I'm
going to court her. I'm going to marry her. Man,
you talk about sweet fellowship. You talk about loving the Lord.
That's the wife I'm looking for. Now, what if you had found out
that that woman had had seven devils? That change anything? Would you be repulsed for her
farmer life? What if you was here and you
were looking for a good woman who feared the Lord and had the
testimony that the Lord had came to her and did a marvelous work
of grace in her heart? And she could tell you that I
was sitting on the well one day and drawing water for me and
the fellow I was living with. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to me, and He began to speak to me and deal with my heart
and bring my sin to remembrance. And He told me, Woman, you ask
of Me, and I give you living water. And He gave this water
to me. And she just went around telling
everybody about it. Would you like to be married
to a woman like that? Wouldn't you like to sit on your
back porch of an evening and, boy, just have fellowship, sweet
fellowship with a wife like that? What if you had found out that
she had had five husbands already? Huh? Would that matter? Seems to me what this poor commentator
is forgetting, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Paul said there was among you
fornicators, adulterers and idolaters, effeminates, abusers of yourself. That's what you were. But now
you're washed. Now you're justified. You're
sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God. If the Lord doesn't look back
on the child of God's life and accuse him and condemn him, if
that's all gone, who are we? I tell you, there are men that
would give their right arms to marry a woman like this harlot. How many here this morning, if
I asked you and I wouldn't dare to, how many of us here this
morning, if I said, how many fornicators do we have here this morning?
Huh? How many adulterers? How many
idolaters? I tell you, there'd be a bunch
of us raising our hand on that. But you're washed. You're clean. You're accepted
in the blood. I tell you, to be married to
a wife, that knew something about what this woman knew. Look back
over in our text again. Look back over in Joshua chapter
1. In verse 9, look here what she
said. Oh, she said, I know, I know
that the Lord hath given you the land. I bet you there's a lot of these
fellas in this city complaining, mad. That ain't fair. This is our land. We built this
thing. We own this. This is my property. I bought it. I got the deed to
it. What right does God have to take what I have and give
to these people? Boy, she wasn't fussing about,
was she? She said, it's His, and He can give it to whoever
He wants to. She said, the Lord's your God. He's God in heaven.
He's God upon this earth. Wouldn't you love to be married
to a woman like that? I mean, she lives her life under
the knowledge and faith of this. God in heaven is God. When she
goes to work, she lives with the knowledge and faith of that.
When she cooks her meals, when she raises her family, this is
the way she lives her life. God is God. Everything that He
is, everything I have, He gave to me. I have nothing but what
He's given me. He's sovereign. He's free. He
can do as He pleases, and I bow to that. I bow to that. You're going to be married to
this woman or some Pharisee. Which one are you going to be
married to? I think I'd rather have this moment, wouldn't you?
Give me a washed harlot over a white-walled Pharisee
any time. Give me a harlot that's been
saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ over a Pharisee
who is like a grave full of dead men's bones. I'm just saying for myself. You
can come to your own conclusion. Perhaps you're looking for a
wife. I'm not suggesting you go down on the skin road looking
for one. I'm just saying you can find one like this. Something else concerning this
woman. She was a harlot. She was a harlot. And let's look now quickly at
some things that begin to happen to this woman. Look over in verse 2. Look in verse 1 of chapter 2.
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy
secretly, and they came in to Rahab the harlot's house. But one of the things I thought
as I looked at this, all of this was done secretly. There were some things taking
place in this harlot's house that nobody outside this house
knew anything about. She had begun to open her heart
in secret. She had begun to acknowledge
her faults. of God and who He was and what
He was doing and what He was going to do and she was so anxious
about it. These two spies had came to her
house and now finally she goes up on the roof with her head
and she opens her heart to them. But it's all done in secret.
Nobody knew what was taking place in this house. We make a mistake sometimes.
when we think that nothing's going on within the heart of
a sinner because we can't see any evidence of it. Sometimes they come to the worship
service for a long time, and we begin to think, well, nothing
going on there because we can't see it, you see. If you could
see that person working their job, It looks like they're just
all wrapped up in their job. They're thinking, what I must
do on this job. But if you could see in their
hearts, if you could see in the secret place of their heart,
if you could see what was going on there in the night of their
soul, they're thinking. They're thinking. They're thinking
about some serious matters. They're thinking about God and
their condition before Him. They're thinking about, is there
some mercy for somebody like me? You can't see it, you see,
but it's there. There's no outward evidence that
there's anything going on within, but there is. Can't you relate
to that? How long was it before anybody
knew that anything was going on within your heart, how long
was it that the Lord was dealing with you? He had sent these spies
into your heart. And you began to talk just like this woman talked.
And you became anxious. But you never told anybody. And
especially of the night when it was getting dark. You talk
to these spies. I remember all through my teenage
years, or so many times, when I lay down on my bed of the night,
I talked to these spies. Oh, is there any mercy for somebody
like me? Oh, I pray God don't kill me
tonight. Oh, I pray for mercy tonight.
Keep me another day. I know what I am. You've showed
me what I am. Is there any mercy? I tell you
what, before there's any outward evidence, something's going on
inside. It's always that way. So we shouldn't
be discouraged or judged because we don't see what's going on
outside. If you'd have went down the street in Jericho, you wouldn't
have thought anything was going on in that house. It was all
taking place secretly. That's where it begins in the
heart. What was it that brought about
this concern? Well, we're told here in verse
11. Here's where her concern started. Look in verse 11. And
as soon as we had heard these things, As soon as we'd heard these things.
What has she heard? Well, we heard that God brought
you out of Egypt. He delivered you from the house
of bondage. We heard how you dried up the Red Sea. Oh, my! We heard about that. We heard
about how He kept your parents in phantom with manna. We heard
all about that. We heard about your Lord and
who He is and how He saved you and how you're His chosen people. We've heard about this. And when
we heard it, our hearts melted within us. There's no more strength
left within us. As soon as we had heard. You know why we preach the sovereignty
of God here. You ain't going to fear God until
you hear of it. And you ain't going to fear a
free will God. You know why we preach Jesus Christ to be a successful
Savior, that He never died in vain for sinners? Because you
ain't going to believe in Him until you hear what He's actually
done. Men cannot call upon Him in whom they have not believed. They cannot believe in Him of
whom they have not heard. When we heard, then our hearts
melted within us. You remember when Brian Barnabas
was sitting by the highwayside begging, these old filthy rags
on him, and he heard a commotion. He heard a crowd going by. And
he said, what's going on? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth
is passing by. He said, Jesus of Nazareth? That's
the son of David. He's the one that's raised the
dead and opened the eyes of the blind and healed the lepers.
Jesus imagines, and the Bible says when he heard that it was
Jesus, he began to cry out, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. What if he'd heard that was a
parade? What if he heard that was Cowboy Church? What if he'd
heard that was a motivational speaker that had come to town?
He'd have died blind, wouldn't he? Oh, but he heard that it
was Jesus, the Redeemer, the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, and
therefore he cries out, Jesus, have mercy upon me. When we heard, when we heard. Here's how we know Here's how we know that this
woman really heard. She really heard of the Lord.
She said here, when we heard, our hearts melded within us.
But here's the difference between her and all the rest of the tale. When she heard, she really believed
what she heard. Listen to Hebrews chapter 11.
In verse 31, "...by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with
them that believed not, when she received the spies by in
peace." She believed. She believed what she heard.
That's the difference with everybody else. Look at her attitude as
opposed to everybody else. They said, we're going to hold
out. We're going to hold out, boy. Yeah. We're going to pile up our rocks.
We're going to sharpen our swords. We're going to load up our rifles.
Yeah, we've heard what God did. We're going to try to beat Him
if we can. We're going to try to win this
battle if we can. We're not going to surrender. We're not going to seek if there's
any mercy. No, Sir Ray, bud, we're going to hold out to the
end. We're going down fine. Why didn't they do what she did?
They didn't believe it. They just didn't believe it. She was seeking an unconditional
surrender. They said, we're never going
to surrender. You and I have had friends, haven't we? We've
had relatives, acquaintances, and they tell us, well, we believe
in the sovereignty of God. We believe in the necessity of
redemption, the new birth. We believe all these things.
But you know what we ask them? Why are you hiding behind that
wall from God then? Why are you pulling up all these
rocks to throw at it? Why you sharpen your saber? Why
you got your rifle loaded? If you believe in Him like we
say we believe in Him, then where's the melded heart? Where's the loss of your natural
strength? Where's the white flag of surrender?
Now, there's some evidences when you believe something. And she
believed it. She believed it. The Bible says
she believed it, and here she was trembling. We know she believed
what she heard for this reason. Well, she couldn't endure the
thought of taking a chance of being delivered. I mean, this was serious business
with her. You know how you can know if
you really believe? He becomes serious with you.
You quit playing. You quit playing around with
God and the things of God, if you really believe. Look at what
she said again in verse 12 and 13. She said, I pray, swear unto
me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, you will
show kindness to me in my Father's house, and give me a true token. Woman, can't you live on an ocean?
No, sir. I want a true token. That you
will save alive my father, my mother, my sister, and look at
the last portion of verse 13, and deliver our lives from death. That's serious, ain't it? That's serious. She said it's so serious, I've
got to have a sign. I've got to have a token. If you leave here and don't give
me a true token, I won't sleep. I won't have any rest. Because this is a matter of life
and death. Life and death. I've sometimes wondered if this
woman, years later, didn't horn herself the old mule, hook him
up to the little cart, and maybe drive for miles to come back
and look at this rubbish and ruin. And there the saplings
are growing up through the bricks. And there is some bones that
the animals haven't carried off. And she begins to look around
and there's a A bunch of bones, and she wonders if that was the
king's bone. I saw him. I wonder if those
bones over there, I wonder if that's the skeleton of the man
who owned the local grocery store. I knew him and his family. And, boy, she begins to contemplate. That's where I could have been. Those people have gone out into
eternity. They're either in the tarments
of hell or in the glories of heaven, but they're gone from
this life. And the only reason I'm not there is because of mercy,
is because of grace. But it was so serious, and she
knew what was coming, that she said, I've got to have evidence. I've got to have assurance that
you'll save me and my family from death." Well, when you get
there, when we reach that place in our hearts, it's a pretty
good indication that we've been believing what we've been hearing.
That there's been some secret conversations going on within
the depths of our soul by these spies that the Lord has sent
into our land. Boy, she got the assurance she
desired. Notice three things about this
assurance that she desired from these men. Look in verse 14.
Three things concerning this assurance that she got. And look
at this. The men answered her, Our lives
for yours. If you utter not this, our business. If we don't save you, when we
come back, we'll forfeit our lives. Our lives for yours. Look in verse 17, the second
thing about this assurance. And the men said unto her, We
will be blameless of this thy oath which thou hast made us
to swear." Their honor was staked upon. Not just our lives forfeited
if we don't save you, but our honor. These were men of integrity. That's why Joshua sent them there.
He remembered some more spies that were sent out. About 40
years before this, who brought back an evil report. And he says,
I want to send men of integrity out this time. Boy, she knew
what kind of men these were. And when they said, we swear
unto you, we'll deliver you, we will be blameless from this
oath that you've made us to swear. You think if these men had to
save this woman and her family, after swearing to her, you'd
think they could live with themselves. They wouldn't have showed their
faces anywhere until they went to Joshua and said, stone us.
We're ashamed. We swore to this woman, and now
we didn't do it. But probably here in verse 19,
it's the most binding thing of all. Look what it says in verse
19. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out of the doors of thy house and to the street.
His blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And
whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall
be on our head, if any hand be upon him." Man, this is no serious
thing at all. They said, we swear to you that
if we don't save you and your family, we'll forfeit our We
swear to you, if we don't save you, then we'll bear the blame
forever." And then they said, if we don't save you and your
family, your blood will be on our head. Now that's serious,
ain't it? It's one thing to live with shame,
it's another thing to give your life, but it's another thing
still to die with somebody's blood on your head. And look at what she said in
verse 21. According to your word, so be
it. So be it. Look in chapter 6 right
quickly. I don't want to keep you any
longer. Look in chapter 6. Look in verse 17. And the city shall be accursed,
even it and all that are therein to the Lord, Only Rahab the harlot
shall live, she and all that is with her in the house, because
she hid the messenger that we sent. Look in verse 28. But Joshua
said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into
the harlot's house and bring out thence the woman and all
that she has, as you swear unto her. And the two men that were
spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, and her mother,
and her brethren, and all that she hath. And they brought out
all her kindred, and left them without the count. And they burned
the city with fire, and all that was therein, only the silver,
and the gold, and the vessels of brass and iron, they put into
the treasure of the Lord's house. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot
alive, and her father's house, and all that she had. And she
dwelled in Israel even unto this day." day, because she hid the
messengers which Joshua sent unto them." You say, well, that's wonderful,
Bruce, but how in the world does that apply to me? Well, they
said, we'll give our lives if we don't save you. Hasn't somebody
already given his life to Hasn't somebody already forfeited
his life to deliver us from death? Hasn't an oath not been taken
to that account? Didn't God swear to Abraham,
saying, Blessed, I will bless you? So after Abraham had patiently
endeared, he obtained the promise? Look over here and close it.
Look over here with me in Hebrews chapter 6. Let this be our closing
scripture. Look in Hebrews chapter 6. God has an eternal purpose. He's
going to save a great host of sinners. Don't put their names
down in the Lamb Book of Life. Christ has obtained eternal redemption
for them. The Holy Spirit has brought them
to faith in Christ. And here's the assurance that
He gives them. He says, I swear, I swear to
you, that my purpose will never be altered concerning you. It
will never be changed. It will never be made void. I
have purpose to save you, and you will be saved. And He swears
to that. Look here how he says it in Hebrews
chapter 6, verse 11. We desire that every
one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
until the end. He's saying put that scarlet
line in the window, bind it solid. That ye be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. But when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, bless him, I'll bless you, and multiply, and
I'll multiply you. So after he had patiently endured,
he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater,
and that oath for confirmation is to them that end of all strife. You swear it to me. And that'll
sell me. Is that what we say? You give
me your promise. You swear to me. We have two Bibles waiting on
the grandbabies down here this morning. Gail and Clarence brought
them to the two grandbabies. Well, yesterday, I told Sienna,
I said, the Bible is down at church. You swear? Will you swear? No, I ain't gonna swear. Will
you promise? Will you promise?" I said, when
I tell you it's there, it'll be there. I'm not willing to
swear, but God was. I wasn't willing to give her
that kind of assurance, but God is. I swear by myself, and I'm
the greatest, my purpose will be accomplished concerning you.
That ends it, doesn't it? That's simple. wherein God willing,
more abundantly, God willing, more abundantly, to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it
by man foe." Here's what Albert Barnes says concerning this purpose
of God, His fixed purpose. He meant to show in the most
solemn manner that His purpose would not change. The plans of
God never change. All the hope which we can have
of heaven is founded on the fact that his purpose is immutable. If he changed his plans, if he
was controlled by sudden whims and fancies, if he willed one
thing today and willed something else tomorrow, who could confide
in him? Or who would have any hope of
heaven? No one would know what to expect, and no one could put
confidence in him. The farmer plows and sows because
he believes that the laws of nature are settled and fixed. The mariner ventures into unknown
seas because the needle points in one direction. We plant an
apple tree because we believe that it will produce apples.
And a peach tree will produce peaches, and a pear tree will
produce pears. But suppose there were no settled
laws, that all was governed by chance and happenstance. Who
would know what to plant? Who then would plant anything? So in religion, if there were
no fixed and settled purposes, who would know what to do? If
God should change His plan, and save one man by faith today and
condemn another for the same faith tomorrow, or if he should
pardon a man today and withdraw that pardon tomorrow, what security
could any have of salvation? How grateful, therefore, should
we be that God is immutable in His counsel, and that this is
confirmed by a solemn oath. No one could honor a God that
had such an immutability of purpose. If He changed His purposes and
plans, no one could confide in such a God. You've got to know
it. You've got to know it. And you
know something? If God has promised to save you,
and He doesn't save you, You know, justice has got blood on
its hand. Yeah, that's how much you can
trust Him. Is that evidence enough for you? When you're given grace
to put all your confidence in what God tells you in His Word,
is that evidence enough? You say, Bruce, I thought you
were talking about some kind of feeling. No. I'm talking about real evidence. Feelings come and feelings go,
but feelings are deceiving. Our worth is the Word of God. Is that enough? When He gives
you grace to put all your confidence in His Word, then that's evidence
enough. Boy, you'll throw out the scarlet
thread then, and you'll wait for His coming. Rahab, the harlot. Salvation by grace. Let's pray.