Rahab: The Deliverance of Faith

In your community, do you align yourself with the Lord or do you align yourself with everybody else when the two are in conflict? Dr. Tony Evans says our answer foretells who we'll depend on when we need deliverance.

Because if popularity drives the decision, you'll choose the crowd. If faith drives the decision, you'll choose the Lord. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Dr. Evans says too many people believe what they've done in their past has canceled out what God can do in their future. But today he'll tell us a story that demonstrates what a dangerous lie that really is.

Let's join him. We are studying Hebrews 11, what it means to live by faith. As we now come toward the end of this series and the end of this chapter, we come across a most unlikely candidate for our faith museum. The story of Rahab that's summarized in chapter 11 verse 31 of Hebrews is explained to us in chapter 2 of the book of Joshua. We talked about Joshua fitting the Battle of Jericho and walking around the walls. Well, Rahab lived in Jericho. Joshua sent two spies in the Jericho.

We're told in chapter 2 of Joshua verse 15 that Rahab's house was built into the wall at the gate. We're told in Joshua chapter 2, which gives us the story that's summarized in Hebrew 11, these words, they sent two spies in and they came to the house, verse 1 of chapter 2 of Joshua, of Rahab the harlot and lodged there. It was told the king of Jericho saying that these spies had come in to Rahab's house. So somebody saw the spies go into the harlot's room. So verse 3 says, 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 the country. The woman took the two men, verse 4, and hid them and said to the people who came looking for them, verse 4, yes, the men came to me and 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. That's called a lie. She had hidden them upstairs.

Why does she choose the lie? She goes on to say, verse 9, she said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you this 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 Jordan. Verse 11, and as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. For the Lord your God, He is the God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

She said, we heard about y'all. I have made the decision to align with you and your God. She made a decision against the culture because the culture had all heard about Israel, but she says, I am not, watch this, going to align myself with the culture. I'm going to align myself with the Lord. Even though I am a minority, even though I am a sinful minority, I have made the choice today to align myself with God, even though that means I have to go against my own country, Jericho. I've got to go against the king, the government. I have made my decision to align myself with the Lord.

Now, let me tell you something. If she would have made the decision to align herself with the culture instead of the Lord, nobody would know her name today because she would have been wiped out when Jericho got wiped out. But because she made the radical decision to align herself with the Lord, even though that meant she would be disaligned with the culture, we still talking about Rahab today, and her name has been recorded in the Hall of Faith. So my question first and foremost by faith is who are you aligning yourself with? Because if you're seeking the popularity of the world, you may go down with the world. If you're seeking the notoriety of the culture, you may go down with the culture. Every serious Christian comes to that place in life when you're going to have to choose the Lord or the crowd. You're going to have to choose the Lord or popularity. You're going to have to choose the Lord or notoriety. One of the realities of being committed to Christ is sometimes you find yourself by yourself because everybody else had turned them down.

But Rahab, the prostitute, made the decision, I am going to align myself with God even though that means I will not be aligned with the culture. On your job, do you align yourself with the co-workers or do you align yourself with the Lord when the two are in conflict? In your community, do you align yourself with the Lord or do you align yourself with everybody else when the two are in conflict? With your friends, and you have to choose between the group's acceptance and you looking weird because you're the only one who takes a stand for the Lord, which way do you choose?

Because if popularity drives the decision, you'll choose the crowd. If faith drives the decision, you'll choose the Lord. It says by faith, she made a decision that nobody else in the culture except she and her family were going to make.

And that is the choice we all run into. She says, I chose God. She cut a deal after she made a faith choice.

The faith choice must precede the deal. They march around Jericho seven times on Saturday. They blow the trumpets and the walls start collapsing. That except one piece of the wall, because verse 15 says her house was on the wall. So when all the wall collapsed, there was this one piece of wall standing where her house attached to it.

She was delivered. One of the reasons why we are not experiencing more deliverance is God is seeing not enough faith. He's seeing Christians who live by sight. And if you live by sight, you're not living by faith. And if you're not living by faith, you won't see or you'll be limited in what you see of the supernatural hand of God moving in your midst. But one of the most exciting things to see is when you live by faith, God responding to your faith because you made your decision upfront.

You trusted him in advance. And so she not only saved her own life, she saved her family's life. That's why all the men here, your mantra must be, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Because you want God's covering over your home like he covered Rahab's house. Now, that would be good enough if that were the end of the story. That's a great story. But it's not the end of the story. Rahab keeps showing up in the Bible. She's not just there in Joshua chapter 2.

Sister won't go away. And every time she shows up, except on one occasion, she's called a prostitute. Rahab the prostitute, Rahab the prostitute.

A girl never just called Rahab. It's like God wants you to know what her past is. And God wants you to know what her past is so that you can know and I can know your past doesn't have to determine your future.

That your yesterday, as bad as it might be, doesn't have to control your tomorrow. So we keep being told, let's lay to the prostitute. Let me clue you in on what happened to our girl, Rahab.

Chapter 6 of Joshua tells us that the walls came down, Rahab and her family were kept safe. And then it says that she was transported to Israel. And now a prostitute becomes a proselyte.

A proselyte is somebody adopted into the Jewish family. So a prostitute, a whore, is escorted into the covenantal people of God. While in Israel, she meets a man. The man's name is Salmon. Let me tell you a little bit about Salmon. We're told in 1st Chronicles chapter 2 verse 51 that Salmon was the father of Bethlehem.

I mean, he built the city of Bethlehem. So girlfriend winds up in Israel and meets an affluent family, Salmon, who is the architect for a whole city of Babylon. Salmon falls in love with Rahab the prostitute. Salmon has to know she's a prostitute because of the circumstances in which she came part of Israel and says that's not hidden in the Bible. Salmon falls in love and marries a prostitute. How do I know Salmon fell in love and married a prostitute?

Because in Matthew chapter 1 verse 5, going through the lineage of Jesus Christ, it says, and there was Salmon who was married to Rahab. And through Rahab, they had a baby boy named Boaz. That shifts us to the Book of Ruth because Boaz is riding through the field and he sees Ruth. He falls in love with Ruth.

Boaz marries Ruth. Ruth has a baby named Obed. Obed has a baby named Jesse. Jesse has a baby named David. And David is the lineage of Jesus Christ. So Rahab the prostitute, who becomes Rahab the proselyte, now marries an upscale family in Israel and becomes the great-great-grandmother of King David and is written in Scripture as part of the high-class ladies in the lineage of Jesus Christ. If God can take a prostitute, get her married off to somebody special and put her in the lineage of Jesus Christ, I don't know what you did and how long you've done it.

All I know is your past doesn't have to control your future. Dr. Evans will come back to tell us why this kind of deliverance only results from a certain kind of faith. Stay with us. There are so many ways that God has demonstrated His faithfulness to me and to this ministry over these 40 years. You know, there were times when we just weren't sure we were going to make it.

We got down to our last paycheck for our staff. After that, there was no money to pay anyone, and I remember us having a special prayer time and asking God to intervene. And then, out of nowhere, a donor's heart was touched, and they wrote us a note and said, God placed it on my heart to send you this gift, and it was able to sustain us a while longer until we were able to rebuild.

I praise God for 40 years of His favor on us. One of the goals of this ministry has always been to provide the tools and resources to help listeners like you dig deep into the subject matter Dr. Evans presents in these daily broadcasts. And right now, I want to tell you about Tony's book that goes hand in hand with the message we've been hearing today. It's called Kingdom Heroes, and it's a look at the Bible's Faith Hall of Fame, full of ordinary people who did extraordinary things by taking God at His word. This new book from Dr. Evans teaches us that spiritual reality is about much more than we can see or touch, and that by believing God, there's nothing He can't do through us. To help you dig deeper into this important subject, we're offering the book, its companion Bible study workbook, and the complete two-volume 13-message audio series as our gift to anyone who will come alongside Tony's ministry and make a contribution to help continue this important work. We rely completely on your support to keep this program on the air, and this is one way we can show our appreciation for your faithfulness. Get all the details and make your request online at tonyevans.org, or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222 before this special offer runs out. I'll repeat that information for you later in the program, and Dr. Evans will come back with the second part of today's lesson right after this.

Coming to theaters this November. I'm here in Bethany, the place where Lazarus was raised from the dead. I'm here in the place where it's believed was the tomb from which he walked when Jesus raised him from the dead.

Dr. Tony Evans brings the New Testament Gospels to life as he visits the locations of Jesus' earthly ministry, connecting them to their significance for humankind today. What do you think has died in your life? Maybe hope has died. Your relationships have died. Maybe your dreams have died.

Guess what? Jesus is still the resurrection. He can take things that are dead and bring them back to life again. November 15th, 16th, and 17th travel with Dr. Tony Evans on a life-changing, eye-opening journey with Jesus.

Find theaters, showtimes, and learn more at TonyEvans.org. When James was writing his epistle, he came to chapter 2 of the book of James, and he wants to tell you faith without works is dead, beginning in chapter 2, verse 14. And he says faith without works is dead, and he says, let me illustrate what I'm talking about. The first illustration he comes up is with Abraham, and he says Abraham offered up Isaac by faith, but faith wasn't words. He had to act on what God says, and he offered up Isaac to demonstrate the power of faith. He says, let me tell you another example as he concludes chapter 2. He says, let me tell you about Rahab, again, the harlot. She exercised faith when she received the spies and sent them out another way.

And watch this. You see, she was not justified by faith alone. She was justified by works. So Rahab is used to give us another theological concept. It's called justification by works. That's what James calls it.

Let me explain the difference. Justification by faith, what Paul talks about in Romans chapter 3 and Romans chapter 4 is where you trust Jesus Christ alone as your sin-bearer, and you trust Him for the forgiveness of sins, and you believe in Him to give you the gift of eternal life. That's justification by faith, free of charge, by grace, through faith.

Nothing you can do to earn it. It's justification apart from works. You cannot earn a relationship with God.

You must trust Christ, and He gives you forgiveness, and He gives you eternal life. That's justification by faith. But that's not what James is talking about. James is talking about a whole different justification. He talks about justification by works.

That's different. When you accept Christ, that takes you to heaven. Justification by works is when God brings heaven to you. Justification by faith is apart from works. Justification by works is faith demonstrated by function. And what faith demonstrated by function did was save her on earth because she was protected.

You see, many of God's children are living uncovered. You may have trusted Christ to go to heaven, but far too many of us will never see heaven till we get there because there's no justification by works. Justification by works is when you act on your faith, which frees God up to respond to you in history, to respond to you in the nasty here and now, not just in the sweet by and by.

It is when you declare, I want to be identified with Jesus Christ and I'm going to make my choices by faith, even though that means I'm soloing it, I'm against the crowd, and then I cut a deal with heaven for the needs I have on earth. If you want to see God visit you in history, let him see some faith. Let him see you acting like he's telling the truth, even when you can't see any results. Let him see your faith, and then you'll see him work. Then you'll see him visit you in history.

So the message of Rahab the harlot is that God can work on your today in spite of your yesterday if you will choose him by faith that functions. Billy Taylor is a man in our community, and I call him a junkyard specialist. He goes to junkyards. And let me tell you what Billy Taylor does. He finds stuff that's been thrown away, stuff that's junk. You and I would call it junk. Billy Taylor takes it back to his garage, reconfigures it, turns it into a contemporary art piece, and then sells it for $5,000. See, Billy Taylor can take junk and see something else in it, and when he's able to work with it right, turn it into something valuable. I don't know what junk you have to bring to God today, but if you bring your junkyard junk to God, he knows how to reconfigure that thing and turn you into a masterpiece, can do something with your life to turn it around. I don't know about your yesterday.

All I know is he can do something about your today and he can reverse your tomorrow by letting you see him work in history if you'll accept him as savior and then choose him as Lord in the choices of your life. I got here a $100 bill. Anybody want a $100 bill? Can anybody use a $100 bill?

Okay. Everybody wants what I have, okay? You want this $100 bill. Okay, now I got a crushed $100 bill.

I got a wrinkled $100 bill. Anybody still want a $100 bill? You know why you still want a $100 bill?

Because even though it's crushed, it has not lost its value. It's still good for a $100 bill. I done stepped on a $100 bill. I've squashed a $100 bill. This $100 bill is now dirty under my dirty shoes. So it was already wrinkled, it was already crushed, but now I've made it a dirty $100 bill. Anybody still want this $100 bill? You know why you want this $100 bill? Because even though it was crushed, even though it was stepped on and dirty, it had lost its value. It still has the value of a $100 bill.

Well, let me go one step further. Let me tear the $100 bill. Anybody still want this $100 bill?

Sit down, boy, you ain't getting nothing. You know why you want this $100 bill? Because even though it's been tore up from the flow up, a piece of tape put on this $100 bill will still be good at the Federal Reserve. It will still keep its value because its value is intrinsic to its being. I don't care how your past has crushed you, dirtied you, and tore you up. In the right hands, you still retain your value for a living God. Ray have the harlot's name, Ray have the harlot, Ray have the harlot, Ray have the harlot, Ray have the harlot.

You keep telling me that she's a harlot because God wants you to know that no matter how messed up your past is, if you will choose him by faith over the crowd, over the circumstances, over the popularity, over the money, over whatever it is, if you will choose him by faith, his acid covering is yours. Now what deal do you want to cut? Dr. Evans will come back with a great story about how the problems trying to bury us can wind up being stepping stones to deliverance. But first, we'll be wrapping up Tony's Heroes of the Faith series later this week.

And as I mentioned earlier, you can get the full-length version of all 13 lessons in this two-volume series on CD or digital download, along with Tony's brand-new book and Bible study guide, Kingdom Heroes. They're yours as our thank you gift when you make a donation to help us continue this ministry to a world desperately in need of the good news of Jesus Christ. So call us right away at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center never closes, so don't wait. Again, 1-800-800-3222. Or visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements. While you're there, be sure to sign up for Tony's free weekly email devotional.

Again, that's tonyevans.org. Most of the time, faith makes no earthly sense. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain why that's the point, as he talks about the kind of trust in God that can bring supernatural power to bear on our earthly problems. Right now, though, he's back with an encouraging story to wrap up today's lesson. A dog one day fell into a well, and it was a deep well. And the owner knew that there was no hope for the dog falling that deep. He thought he would give the dog a burial. And he started putting dirt in the well, putting dirt in the well, putting dirt in the well. He was crying as he put the dirt in the well. And he wasn't gonna use the well anymore, so he just filled it up with dirt. And when the well got filled with dirt, the dog walked off. He used the dirt as a stepping stone. And the dirt wound up being the stepping stone to bring him out of the well. I don't care how much dirt and trash that is in your yesterday. If you'll let the grace of God step on top of that, he can bring you out a better person than you ever knew you could be. Rahab the harlot tells you, tells me God can reverse that thing if he can get you to choose him by faith. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.