Please turn with me in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2, somewhat of an application or extended application of this morning's message with reference to the grace and compassion and kindness of God toward those who we may not always suppose are the lawful recipients or targets of it. We're all familiar, I believe, with this section of scripture, the conversion of Rahab the harlot I just want to begin reading in chapter 2 at verse 1. Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho.
So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country. Then the woman took the two men and hid them.
So she said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened, as the gate was being shut, when it was dark, that the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them.
But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. And the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you.
For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord, your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
Now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token. and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. So the men answered her, our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall.
She dwelt on the wall. And she said to them, get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way.
So the men said to her, we will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear. unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home. So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear.' Then she said, according to your words, so be it.
And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went to the mountain, and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them.
So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over. And they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, truly, the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands. For indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us.
Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the ministry of your Spirit.
We pray that even now you would send him, God, and guide us in our study of this section of Scripture. We thank you that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, that it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. and for instruction in righteousness. And we pray tonight that you would just help us to understand very vividly and very powerfully your grace and your mercy and your compassion and your kindness towards sinners. We thank you, Lord God, that there is mercy with you that you may be feared.
We thank you, Lord God, that you have sent your Son to deal with our sin. We thank you, Lord God, that you have blessed us so richly, and may we tonight appreciate afresh that glorious grace of God Most High. Forgive us now for all of our sins. Cleanse us afresh in the blood of the Lord Jesus.
For those, God, who are outside of your of your saving mercies. We just pray that tonight would be the night of salvation, that they would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they would be saved. And we ask in His most blessed name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, the book of Joshua is taken up with four primary concerns. You'll remember after the book of Deuteronomy, they're being prepared on the plains of Moab to go into the land of Canaan and to take possession of the land. Moses dies according to the book of Deuteronomy, and then the spotlight shines upon Joshua as the leader in Israel. So the book is concerned with entering the land of Canaan, chapters 1 to 4, taking the land in chapters 5 to 12, possessing the land or dividing it up between the tribes in chapters 13 to 21, and then the book ends with an exhortation to retain the land. how they are to be faithful to God Most High and conduct themselves in the land that the Lord had in fact given them.
And tonight, as I mentioned, this is a bit of an application of what we already learned this morning. We saw it in a corporate sense. Remember that Jonah was having a difficulty with God's mercy and compassion toward Nineveh as a whole. Well, here we have a lady that Ralph Davis calls the shady lady of Jericho, and she is the recipient of God's mercy, the recipient of God's grace.
Again, an application or some more fleshing out of that principle that we learned this morning, that we ought to have large hearts, we ought to respect the fact that God, in his grace and in his mercy, saves to the uttermost unsavory people, people that perhaps we would feel are beyond the pale of redemption. And I think that Rahab illustrates that point in a very splendid way.
Preliminary Objections Addressed
Before we actually get into the chapter, a couple of things by way of introduction in terms of this particular book and this particular lady. Sometimes the opponents of biblical religion take exception with the conquest. They think it is unrighteous that God would send Israel into Canaan to utterly dispossess the land of the Canaanites. That seems offensive.
That seems ungodly. It seems unholy. Interestingly enough, the opponents use standards they only find in God's world to try and indict Him. But as we've seen in our studies in the book of Deuteronomy, it is not as if the Canaanites were a bunch of innocent people just minding their own business, worshipping the true and living God, living and let live, as it were, in the land of Canaanite.
No, they were an unholy, and ungodly and an unrighteous people. In two places in the Pentateuch, the Lord God specifies it is because of their wickedness that God sends Israel in to conquer them and to destroy them. In the book of Leviticus, in chapter 18, after highlighting or calling Israel to fidelity with reference to sexual matters. He calls them not to engage in adultery or in bestiality or in sodomy.
He says, for this cause I am sending you in to dispossess the land of the Canaanites. They were engaged in that sort of wickedness. In the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 18, They are being cautioned about when they enter the land. They're not to practice witchcraft.
They're not to involve themselves in the occult. They're not to engage in spiritism. Why? It is for this cause that the Canaanites are being dispossessed from the land.
So the biblical data tells us that God uses not so righteous Israel to go in and judge a people that were even less righteous. Now later, of course, when Israel does the very same sorts of sins, God will use other nations to then dispossess them from the land. God has a righteous standard. God has a holy rule.
So that's the first thing, the conquest. It is good. It is right. It is ethical because God the Lord commanded it.
But the second thing that oftentimes we sort of trip up on is Rahab's why. Rahab's lie. It is obvious in the reading of the section here that Rahab lied. If you missed that, you weren't paying attention.
You need to listen more attentively in the future. You know, it's one of those things. When I'm in certain situations, perhaps right now, my ears just turn red. I don't know why it is.
You know, I wonder at times, people say, I wonder if he knows his ears are red. Yeah, I know that. It's almost like people say, I wonder if they realize that one of their heroes of the faith is a liar. One of the people that is celebrated in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, what we call the hall of faith, is a liar.
How do you deal with that, Christian? Well, there are several ways that we can answer that. The first is the Bible often reports things without necessarily condoning them. Allah, David's adultery, and subsequent murder.
We do not go thou and do likewise because it's reported of a hero in Israel that he did this. As well, though, when we come to this issue of Rahab's lie, we ought to remind the opponent of biblical data or the biblical revelation that she's not only a liar, she's a traitor. She's engaged in treason here. These spies are not there offering watches and chocolate in some sort of a peace treaty.
They are reconning the land so that they can come in and dispossess the land and utterly destroy all the inhabitants. She's engaged in treason of the highest sort. Probably saying, you're not helping our case, brother. Well, you need to remember that Rahab is only ever treated positively in subsequent revelation.
It's interesting that she finds herself in the genealogy of Israel's Messiah, according to Matthew chapter 1. and verse 5. She finds her place, as I've already mentioned, in that hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. And as well, she is one of James' examples, along with Father Abraham, of faith that issues forth in a lively, practical outflowing of words. So what subsequent revelation does is doesn't tell us how bad she was, but rather, on the converse, tells us how good she was.
Not in and of herself, not inherently, not because she was necessarily a woman of virtue, but because she believed on the Lord God of heaven and earth. I like what Dale Ralph Davis says with reference to this situation. He says, it is tragic when people snag their pants on the nail of Rahab's lie, quibble endlessly about the matter, and never get around to hearing Rahab's truth. He says, which the writer has conspired to make the center of the whole narrative.
It's kind of an interesting placement in this particular book. I already mentioned what Joshua is all about. You are to enter the land. You are to take the land.
You are to possess the land. You are to retain the land. But prior to that, chapter 2 is a stop, pause, and understand that the God of heaven and earth is also the God of prostitutes. He is also the God of mercy, the God of compassion, the God of kindness, the God who can be and is entreated, the God of refuge for people as unsavory as this harlot named Rahab.
In fact, if you read chapters 1 to 3, chapter 2 isn't crucial to the flow in the narrative. You could read 1 and then read 3 without ever missing a beat. Now when you get to chapter 6, 22 to 25, it is helpful to have chapter 2 because it explains the fact that Rahab and her family is being spared. But before we get into conquering the land, it's as if Israel is reminded, behold your God.
He's a God of mercy. He's a God of compassion. He's a God of kindness. He is a God of long-suffering.
He is a God of grace, a God of mercy.
Her Conduct
Brethren, let us behold our God in the narrative in Joshua chapter 2 under three considerations. We're going to center it on her. But the hero is God. First, her conduct.
Secondly, her confession. And thirdly, her blessings. Note, first of all, her conduct. The scene is very clear.
Joshua is the military commander in Israel. He is the leader now. He has succeeded Moses. He is charged with going into the land, taking those people so that they may engage in military campaigns, wage holy war, and dispossess the Canaanites.
So he does what he himself had participated in. back in Numbers 13 and 14. It was a recon mission. Verse 1, now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly saying, go view the land, especially Jericho. This was a means to assess the threat.
This was a means to assess any potential danger. This was a means so that they may indeed come back and report to Joshua so that he could then strategize the best possible way to penetrate that city and to take it from them. So that's the context.
Rahab Receives the Spies
Notice that Rahab receives the spies. Verses 1B all the way down to verse 7. She is identified as a harlot. She is identified here as a very unsavory person. to be mindful of the age differences and the mixed audience and all of that sort of thing, but it is important for us to understand that Rahab made her money by having relations with men.
Sometimes people try and soften the blow. They try and explain that Rahab was an innkeeper. Well, it doesn't say she was an innkeeper. And when the author to the Hebrews writes in Hebrews 11.31, and when James writes in James 2.25, they don't call her Rahab the innkeeper.
They call her Rahab the porne, the harlot, the immoral woman, the ungodly one. I mean, that is her claim to fame, brethren. She is the harlot. That's how she's identified.
That's how she's known. Again, what is the underlying message in this chapter? It is, behold, your God. It's conspicuous.
These would be some foolish spies if they checked into the inn. These would be some very foolish spies if they went to the crazy eight. They went to the motel or the hotel. They would go to that place where they would be least likely to be found.
More than likely, person saw them enter into her house and word got back to the king. So her profession is simply one of harlotry. Notice the threat involved in this particular endeavor. Verse 3, So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house for they have come to search out all the country." Again, we need to understand people in other contexts.
We heard this morning about Turkey. People in Iran. People in other Arab nations. People in India.
People in places where the cross of Jesus Christ is looked upon even more disfavorably than it is here in North America, it is costly and it is risky to identify with the living and the true God. In this instance, the king of Jericho threatens or tells this woman to produce these spines. Now, if it is found out that she is lying, if it is found out that she is committing treason, if it is found out that she is a traitor to the city-state of Jericho, she will most certainly die. You see, what we find in this particular narrative is faith.
Faith in the living and true God. She hid the spies on her roof among the stalks of flax. She confirmed that the men had come to her house. She lies to the king's men.
She says the spies already left her house. The king's men believe her. They depart from her house in search of the spies. then she gives them very particular instruction, she gives them very particular direction on how they may evade escape.
Her Confession
But before she does that, notice we see her confession. And her confession is beautiful in its simplicity, but beautiful in its power.
The Fear of God
Notice first she highlights the fear of God. The Scripture sets that forth throughout the Old Testament. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. You want to see if someone is rightly related to God the Lord?
There ought to be the fear of the Lord in their heart. You know, the Christian life isn't just bouncing around, engaged in frivolity, levity. There is a right reverence or an awe before the living and the true God. She manifests that.
Notice in verse 8, now before they lay down, she came up to them on that roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. There is this fear. Again, it's not as developed, say, as a Hebrews 12 godly fear, and acceptable worship, and those things that we are more prone to and more in tuned with. But here's a pagan.
Here's a harlot. Here's a woman who makes her money in a very unsavory way, living amongst idolaters, and what is pervading her soul? There's a fear of God. There's an understanding of who he is.
There's the realization that he has to be treated with reverence, that he is not like the deities of the land, that he is not like Baal, that he's not like Asherah.
The Central Confession of Faith
Later on, when she makes that central confession of faith, she highlights something again that we take for granted. In the mouth of a pagan, in the mouth of an idolater, in the mouth of a polytheist, the confession that God, the God of Israel, is the God of heaven and earth is biblical religion. This woman is meeting Yahweh of Israel. She has fear in her heart.
The Might of Yahweh Declared
Notice she highlights the might, the power, the glory, the magnificence of Yahweh in verse 10. She says, how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed." You know, just read through that, you know. We can all say, we've heard that, we've heard about the Exodus, haven't we? We attend the Wednesday night Bible study.
We're going through the book of Deuteronomy. We reviewed in that historical review on the plains of Moab the data, the reality that God gave them victory over Sion and Og. We are brought up in this. We are reared in this.
This is what we do in Sunday school. But on the mouth of a heathen, the mouth of an idolater, the mouth of a harlot, we have to appreciate the grace of God at work. You see, total depravity was true of her as well. For her to mouth this, for her to express this, for her to communicate this, for her to tell these spies this, is an evidence and an indicator that God the Lord is at work in her heart.
You see, it isn't by our strength alone. It isn't by nature alone. As our brother read this morning or highlighted in Romans 9.16, it does not depend upon him who wills or him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. We don't look at this text and say, isn't Rahab a marvelous specimen of a human being?
We look at this text and we say, isn't God a marvelous being that is working on this heathen, that is working on this harlot, that is changing her, that is bringing her out of darkness into marvelous light? I don't think she just recited this in the manner of historical review. I like to think she had it this way. We have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea for you.
Imagine that. Baal never did that for the Canaanites. Asherah never delivered for the Canaanites. The deities of the land didn't dry up the Red Sea.
The deities of the land didn't provide such so that that many people could walk through water that had been walled up on either side without even getting their feet wet. You see, the deities of the land never, once Israel passed through those waters, then collapsed the water on Pharaoh and his armies. I think this woman is excited about what God Almighty has accomplished. We have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed." Brethren, if we could stop for just a moment, if we could pause for just a second, based on what we heard this morning, based on what we've seen in the Song of Solomon, How should we as God's people communicate His work to others?
Well, you know, there's this God and He sent His Son and, you know, you just ask Him into your heart and everything will be okay. It's one way of doing it. Or we could get a little Rahabian fire going. We serve the living and true God, the God of heaven and earth.
The God who is holy, holy, holy. The God whose eye is too pure to approve of any evil. This God who rightly and justly should punish every last one of us in hell. But oh, the blessings!
He sent His Son. He didn't just come to part the Red Sea and lead Israel out of Egypt. He came to go to the cross. He came to lead His Israel out of the Egypt of sin.
He didn't just deal with Sihon and Og. He dealt with the devil. He dealt with sin. He dealt with all those enemies.
You see, if this pagan is rehearsing the mighty works of God with earnest, how should the people of God, in their witness and testimony, approach these things? Remember in the Song of Solomon, how the bride describes the bridegroom. She said, you know, he's okay. He's all right.
He's decent. No, she gives this glowing description, which we probably can't relate to most of those things. You know, noses like towers of Lebanon. That just doesn't communicate a lot to us in 21st century North America.
She's describing him in his beauty. She says that he is chief among 10,000 and altogether lovely. What did the daughters of Jerusalem then say? Where is your beloved that we may follow him to?
Right? We preach a little Savior and people are going to respond in a little way. We preach blood atonement. We preach reconciliation by the cross.
We preach the power of God unto salvation. And under God's blessing, hopefully they respond in more than a little way. Where is your beloved that we may follow him to? Rahab here is expressing the mighty works of God Most High, His victory in Egypt, His victory over Sihon and Og.
We jump into the New Covenant. We as believers have so much to testify. We can point to the same God of heaven and earth. He brought His people out of Egypt.
He destroyed Sihon. He destroyed Og. He engaged in faithfulness and fidelity and kindness to His people. And in the fullness of the time, He sent forth His Son, born of a woman and born under the law, to redeem those under the law.
We get to bask in the privilege of telling people about that King of kings and Lord of lords that Pastor Kamrat of in Revelation chapter 19. I mean, that's a beautiful description of our mighty Lord. It's a beautiful description of our sovereign King. Let's go out and preach Him.
Let's go out and testify. Let's go out and witness. We should see that by way of a sideline note that this woman is expressing something concerning who God is. Now notice the majesty, excuse me, in verse 11.
And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." Again, that is the equivalent of Acts 16.31. And that Philippian jailer said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Remember that central confession of Israel's faith in Deuteronomy 6.4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 39, this was the emphasis upon the covenant community.
Therefore know this day and consider it in your heart that the Lord himself is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. There is no other. That she is confessing this means that God Almighty is at work in her heart. It means that the new birth has transpired.
It means that she's been born again. She has been regenerated. That reality that Jesus speaks of in John 3, that reality prophesied in Ezekiel 36, is happening to the shady lady at Jericho. John Calvin said it this way, here the image of Rahab's faith appears as if reflected in a mirror.
When casting down all idols, she ascribes the government of heaven and earth to the God of Israel alone. For it is perfectly clear that when heaven and earth are declared subject to the God of Israel, there is a repudiation of all the pagan fictions by which the majesty and power and glory of God are portioned out among different deities." You see what Calvin says. In her statement, in this confession, she is throwing off the deities of Canaan. She is making a clean break.
She's not adding Yahweh to her pantheon. She's not adding Yahweh to her polytheistic approach to the gods. In this confession of the majesty of the God of Israel, she is throwing those out. She is repenting.
She is forsaking. She is repudiating all false claimants to the throne. He says, and hence we see that it is not without cause that two apostles have honored Rahab's conduct with the title of faith. Beautiful ascription that this prostitute makes in the city of Jericho.
And then
Casting Herself on His Mercy
notice fourthly, with reference to her confession, she highlights his mercy. Again, it's not as well developed as you and I might declare it. You know, Lord Jesus, wash me in your blood and cleanse me from my sins. That's an acknowledgment of the mercy of God.
Remember the psalmist in Psalm 130? If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. That's an acknowledgment of mercy.
That's the realization there's grace. That is the acknowledgment that there is kindness to be had with God. and the casting of oneself upon Him. Well, she does that. Again, it's not as developed in terms of 1 Corinthians 6 or Romans chapter 10, but notice in verse 12.
Now, therefore I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father, my mother, my brother, my sisters, and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. She's casting herself upon the mercy of Yahweh. She's made the central confession. She's sided with Him as an exhibition, as a demonstration, as an application.
She now throws herself upon Him for temporal mercy. Again, Ralph Davis says, genuine faith never rests content with being convinced of the reality of God, but presses on to take refuge in God. Let's just say that one more time. Genuine faith never rests content with being convinced of the reality of God, but presses on to take refuge in God.
She's got the understanding, she throws herself on His mercy. You know, I've been saying that her faith perhaps isn't as developed in the sense of a Romans 10 1 Corinthians 6 faith, I think her faith outdoes my faith. I think her faith is stellar. She would join in with David, say, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
He forgives all your iniquities, doesn't he? But he also protects you. He protects your father. He protects your mother.
He protects your brothers. He protects your sisters. He enters into temporal treaties. He enters into covenant mercy.
He comes. He aids. He rescues. He saves.
He spares. Every good thing is to be had in the God of Israel.
Her Blessing
And then, finally, her blessing. Spies make this promise. The Lord responds. And they take encouragement when they depart on their way that God Almighty has, in fact, delivered all the land into their hands.
Turn over to Joshua 6, so you can see God's response or God's making good on this particular promise made to Rahab. Joshua 6 at verse 22. But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, go into the harlot's house and from there bring out the woman and all that she has as you swore to her. And the young man who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had.
So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had.
So she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." Isn't that glorious? I wonder about the annals of great military commanders, you know? Men who have led troops into battle. Men who have done mighty exploits for their country.
Do they stop and write a chapter about mercy demonstrated to one particular woman and her family? God does. You see, when you finish the book of Joshua, what should stand out to you? When God makes promises, they don't fail.
When God speaks His truth, it comes to pass. When God promises mercy, He delivers. When God says He's gracious, He makes good. In fact, you can turn for just a moment to Joshua 21.
If you understand Joshua 21, you got the whole book. I'm not saying all of Joshua 21, just 21, 43 to 45. Oftentimes, when we write papers, we put our outline or our thesis statement right at the beginning so everybody knows where we're going. Well, this particular thesis or this particular outline is found here in chapter 21, verses 43 to 45.
So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and not a man of all their enemies stood against them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Here it is.
Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel all came to pass. That's the theology of the book of Joshua right there. And the shady lady of Jericho is included in God's gracious dealings to his people, Israel.
Lessons from the Conversion
Well, with reference to her conversion, a couple of things I think that we can just see in this passage. about the works of Yahweh. She wasn't standing there at the Red Sea when Israel marched through. She heard this. Somebody told her.
A brother reminded us this morning in Romans chapter 10. How shall they hear without a preacher? You know, there's this idea that if we just be holy, we can win people to Christ. You better be really holy.
We need to shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation, according to the Apostle in Philippians 2, holding forth the word of truth. The way we rear our children will never save anyone. The way we smile at unbelievers will never save anyone. The way we manicure our lawn will never save anyone.
Now, these are good things. Being kind, absolutely. What our brother reminded us this morning, absolutely. Conviction in my heart, I need to love my neighbors, I need to make a way for the truth.
You see, we need to set before them Christ. In this context, she needed to hear of the exodus. She needed to hear of Sihon and on. She needed to hear redemptive fact, so that she could lay hold of Yahweh of Israel.
Reverend, we need to testify, we need to declare, we need to tell people, even if it's as simple as that man in John 9. All I know is that I was blind, and now I see. Isn't that beautiful? They're having this discourse with this man, they're trying to trip him up, and he basically does just that.
All I know is that I was blind, and this Jesus made me see. Oh, you're a man born in sin, a total sinner, just get away, what can you tell us? He can tell you the truth. We need to declare.
We need to communicate. If you don't have it in terms of doing it, then pray to God for courage or pray to God for those who are engaged. Pray for those who are evangelists. Pray for those who are preachers.
Pray that on Sunday, when we come to church, yes, the edification of the saints is in view, but I hope and I assume and I presuppose that you are praying that the Spirit comes and that we see this as a vehicle of evangelism. That when sinners come into this place, they'll hear the Gospel, the Spirit will attend, they will hear those revelatory facts, and by God's grace, lay hold of Jesus Christ the Lord. She heard of Yahweh, the Word was communicated. She confesses the majesty of Yahweh.
She was convinced. Again, we give God all the glory for that. Any power, any change that takes place in the heart of sinner, all goes to God the Lord. Every single bit.
We see it displayed here. She fled to the mercy of Yahweh. She demonstrates commitment. Yes, she's believed.
Yes, she's confessed. I believe that's justification. Sanctification is that commitment, that following, that going after, that holding on to, that never letting go. All the elements, all the spiritual blessings with which God puts on his people are here demonstrated in this conversion of Rahab.
The Power of the Gospel
Secondly, we need to understand the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You've got to appreciate that God doesn't take sort of a scouring pad to the scripture. I can't tell people that she was a harlot. I can't tell people that David, their hero, the king in Israel, actually committed adultery.
You might be like me. Every time you get to 2 Samuel 11 and 12, you're saying, no, don't do it, David. You know he does it. You know the Bible's not going to magically change right before your eyes.
Reading the history of David, he's consolidated power. He's made Jerusalem the political capital in chapter 5. He's made it the religious capital in chapter 6. 2 Samuel 7, God makes that promise of the Davidic covenant to him that from his seed one will sit upon his throne. one who will reign forever and ever. You see David exhibiting kindness, grace.
We see that in 8, 9, see it in 10, and then we get to 11 and David becomes just another thug, just another king, just another renegade, taking power, exploiting it, taking someone else's wife, covering it by killing him. You see, God doesn't hide those unsavory facts. God doesn't scour that away. When we get to Luke chapter 7, this woman, which was a sinner, that's not sanitized for the reader.
Because as I've already tried to point out, the hero in each of these instances is the God of heaven and earth. the God of glory, the God of grace, the God who saves Rahab the harlot, the God who forgives David, king of Israel, the God who allows that woman, which was a sinner, to wipe his feet with her own tears and her own hair and then chides the Pharisee for his wicked heart. You see, the Bible sets forth the glorious grace of God. We need to understand that. Again, a lengthy quote, but a powerful quote from Dale Ralph Davis.
He says, so Rahab is a harlot, a pagan and a disreputable one at that. Yet she is welcomed into the church. Rahab the harlot. Joshua saved a life and she dwelt in Israel to this day.
He says, now that can be offensive. He says, we say we can't have that. The church is only for respectable, clean, middle-class folks. As a brother pointed out this morning, perhaps we don't voice our prejudice.
Perhaps we don't voice the unsavory things in our heart, but that doesn't mean they're not present. We've just become good at masking. We've just become good at hiding. We've just become good at camouflage.
But really, is there a one of us who this morning wasn't a little bit convicted that there are some persons that make us uncomfortable? You can say, not me. Praise God for you. I'm so glad that there are specimens like you in the church to teach the rest of us.
But the rest of us struggle. The rest of us have difficulty, and I think Davis is making that point. We say, but we can't have that. The church is only for respectable, clean, middle class folks.
But that is like saying that hospitals are only for doctors, nurses, and x-ray machines instead of sick people. Or it is like saying that only morticians and coroners belong in morgues instead of dead people. Who then should be in the church but sinners? He says, the church is not a club, but a refuge for sinners who have been touched by the grace of God.
He says, apparently Rahab's past did not bother the writer of the first gospel. Rather, Matthew seemed to see in Rahab a trophy of divine grace. Astounding, isn't it, that the shady lady of Jericho should be the ancestress of Jesus, the Messiah. Beautiful.
He's right on.
Application
And in conclusion, as I was listening to that message this morning, I was thinking, if we bear that attitude like Jonah, if we look down our noses on the Rahab's, if we separate ourselves and we distance ourselves, we have betrayed our calling as followers of Christ. Because this man receives sinners and eats with them, right? And that was the complaint of the Pharisees and scribes. That was their grumble.
That was their murmur. That was their whining. But they were actually declaring the truth of the gospel. In fact, Jesus answers that with a three-pronged parable.
You're right, I do receive sinners. I receive them like a shepherd. When he loses one sheep, he leaves the 99, he goes and he finds the one, he puts it on his shoulders and he goes home rejoicing. I'm like that woman who loses a coin.
She doesn't just write it off, she doesn't just report it to Revenue Canada as a loss. Rather, she moves the furniture, she gets the broom out, she searches and she finds that coin and she rejoices. And Jesus says, I receive sinners like that father of the prodigal. When he was a long way off, the father ran to him and fell on him and kissed him and put a ring on his finger and slayed the fatted calf and received him back into his own arms.
So you see, if we are not, or if we aren't like Jonah, or we look down on people, we're not like our Savior. But I think it does evidence at least three things about us. This will be quick. This isn't a three things that's gonna take 30 minutes.
First, I believe it is an implicit denial of our own sinfulness. An implicit denial of our own sinfulness. Jonah, do you really want to go there? Jonah, do you understand that you deserve the wrath and fury of God Most High for a million eternities?
Jonah, do you think that your performance, your conduct, your place is any better than these Ninevites? You ever read through Hosea? Hosea is told to marry a harlot. I think a lot of readers identify with Hosea.
We're the victim hero. People wrong us all the time, but we're big enough to overlook it and we'll come to the rescue. We're Gomer in Hosea. You haven't figured that out, you need to reread that Minor Prophet.
We are Gomer. We are the defiled one. We are the wretched one. When we fail or when we refuse to show God's grace to sinners because we think they're a little bit worse than we are, there is in that an implicit denial of our own depravity.
As well, it is a failure to comprehend the power of the gospel. What's Paul say in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17? I am not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not.
Why aren't you ashamed, Paul? For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Everyone includes, dare I say it, harlots, wicked kings, drug addicts, people who have had abortions. For everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in that gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, that, as it is written, the just shall live by faith." When we think that we are not going to spend our time evangelizing them, it is a failure to comprehend the power of the gospel.
And lastly, and very closely conjoined with that second one, it is a lack of appreciation for the mercy and grace of God. The next time you're feeling a little bit Jonah-ish, may I encourage you to look in the mirror. May I encourage you to reflect upon where you were. My brother described it as BC days.
If we're honest with ourselves, we need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from the sins that we've committed in the last two seconds. Not even going back to the BC days, right? Why do we think we're better than people? Why do we get proud?
Why are we arrogant? Why are everybody else's sins so much worse than ours? How can we, with pinpoint precision, see the nastiness and the wretchedness and the evil and the vileness of those people and not explode with our hypocrisy? The best Christian is terrible.
Isn't that something you learn as you grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? how much you constantly stand in need of Jesus, that's what you should be learning as you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. You should be understanding. You should be appreciative. You should realize there's grace and mercy to be had in Him.
And if God was able to save Rahab the harlot, if He is able to save David, king of Israel, if He is able to save the chief of sinners, Paul himself, and He's able to save wretches like us, shouldn't we go out and preach, Jesus saves? Jesus saves. Brethren, I hope Rahab the harlot teaches us about God, the Lord, the king, the maker of heaven and earth, and the one who sent his son into this world to die for sinners and to rise again. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for this account and for what it teaches us concerning your character, concerning your majesty, and concerning your graciousness. How we bless you and how we praise you and how we thank you for the forgiveness of sins, how we bless you and praise you for your grace that brought us out of darkness into marvelous light. And we pray that you would send forth your gospel, conquering and to conquer. And we pray that you would let the nations be glad, that you would cause your face to shine upon the peoples, and that the way of God Most High would be made known throughout this world.
And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.