When I need help with a challenge that I cannot overcome, I say, God, I know that I am unworthy. I know that I am incapable, but I also know that this Christian life is not about what I can do for you, it's about what you in mercy can do through me. It's not me for Christ, it's Christ in me. It's very simple. And it's the core of faith.
Welcome to the Summit Life podcast with JD Greer. You know, your faith isn't just personal. meant to be public. That doesn't mean you need to be loud or confrontational. means you live with clarity, conviction, and grace wherever God's placed you.
In his new book called Everyday Revolutionary, Pastor Jidi shows us how to live with gospel courage in a culture that often misunderstands it. You'll be challenged to see your ordinary life as a platform for extraordinary impact. Request your copy today at jdkreer.com when you make a donation and learn how to be faithful where it matters most. That's right where you are. And when we talk about living out our faith publicly, Rahab's story gives us such a powerful picture of what that can look like, which is where our teaching is taking us today.
Isn't it amazing how God honors even the smallest step of faith? You don't have to be a scholar or have your life perfectly put together to be used by Him. Thank you, Lord. Rahab certainly didn't look like a candidate he would use mightily. She was a Gentile prostitute.
And yet she trusted this God that she had only heard about. And that one act of faith not only saved her family, but secured her in God's story forever.
So let's continue in Hebrews chapter 11, the great hall of faith. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 31, if you have your Bibles. This morning, if you will open them up to Hebrews 11 and look at verse 31, by faith. The prostitute Rahab. Did not perish with those who did not believe.
when she had received the spies. With peace. How many of you recognize the name of Arnel Pineda? Raise your hand, be honest, but you recognize the name Arnel Pineda. Anyone?
Small handful of you here in the room. Arnell was born in the Philippines in 1967 to pretty poor Filipino parents. At age 13, his mother, who had always held the family together, she very suddenly and tragically died. And his dad, who was already a little bit of a loose cannon, began to spiral. And so Arnell left home at age 13 and he began to live out on the streets out there outside of Manila, sleeping on park benches and under bridges.
He managed to make a little money, just enough to feed himself by collecting glass bottles, newspapers, scrap metal, and selling it to recyclers. He had musical abilities, though. And so he started to sing in a makeshift band with a couple of his little homeless buddies. And they performed in a pizza parlor. Um there in in in Manila.
Well that eventually grew to singing in some of the local bars and nightclubs around Manila and eventually um they produced a few YouTubes that allowed him to be discovered by a group in America called Journey. Journey, whose lead singer Steve Perry had just resigned for health reasons. Steve Perry, an American, of course, had one of the most distinctive, most iconic, most one-of-a-kind voices in music history. But it was uncanny, uncanny how much this poor Filipino kid, Arnel Pineda, who grew up not even speaking English, how much he could sound just like Steve Perry.
Well, eventually, make a long story short, in 2007, the band Journey hired Arnell Pineda to replace Steve Perry as the lead singer for one of the most popular American rock bands in history, certainly of the 1980s and 1990s. And Arnell Pineda still performs with them today. He is so good. He is so good that even some of the biggest Journey fans, like me, cannot tell whether it is Steve Perry or Arneel Pineda on lead vocals unless you can, unless you can actually see them physically singing. You would never look at the profile of Arnel Pineda.
You would never just look at his life details. Poor kid, Asian, grew up on the streets of Manila, not really speaking English. You would never look at that profile and think that he was capable of becoming that. I share that because that's a little bit how I feel about Hebrews 11:31. How does Rahab Join this illustrious group of faith heroes in Hebrews chapter 11.
Rahab is about as unlikely a person of faith as you could ever imagine. She is a Gentile. The only Gentile, by the way, mentioned in this list in Hebrews 11. Not only is she a Gentile, she is a bad Gentile. She's a citizen of Jericho, the enemy Canaanite city that opposed Israel's possession of the promised land.
She had grown up worshiping idols. She had no knowledge at all of the living God. On top of that, she was a prostitute. And yet, Hebrews 11 lists her as one of the great all-time heroes of faith. In fact, biblical scholar Dr.
Carl Masser. argues that Rahab is the most significant figure of Hebrews 11. In fact, he says all of Hebrews 11, he believes, builds up to the story of Rahab. For the author, he says, she is the prime example of the faith that pleases God. Her story is going to answer a question that a lot of you have asked at some point.
You've asked it during this series. And that question is, do I have enough faith? faith because sometimes you say sometimes I got doubts I have questions. And y'all, sometimes I think these thoughts, dark thoughts. Thoughts that are so bad and so unbelieving that it makes me wonder how I could ever be considered a person of faith at all.
Because nobody of true faith, you think, nobody of true faith would ever think like this. Or maybe you've asked, do I know enough about the Bible to have faith? I mean, everybody else in my small group seems to know so much more about the Bible than I do.
Now, you tell me I don't even talk much in a small group because I'm embarrassed, and I don't want everybody there to know how weak I am in faith. If you have ever asked those questions or ones like them, Then Rahab's story. is for you. By faith The prostitute Rahab. Did not perish with those who did not believe.
When she had received the spies, with peace. If you got your Bibles and you want to jump back to Joshua chapter 2, where Rahab's story is told, then you can meet me there. Here's the context of Joshua 2: We are in the weeks leading up to the Battle of Jericho. Joshua, who is trying to get a sense of what they're up against, sends out a couple of spies to check out the city. At that point, of course, he doesn't know what the battle plan is going to be.
God had not told him that he's going to knock the walls down himself. He wouldn't reveal that to Joshua 5.
So Joshua, Joshua 2, he's just doing some recon, trying to figure out what they're up against.
Well, these two spies go into the city, and that night they enter the house of a prostitute to spend the night there.
Now, they don't go in because they want to use her services. It's because brothels back then functioned a lot like hotels. This was the easiest way for them to avoid suspicion because it's what most traveling men would do.
Well, somebody in Jericho apparently figures out that these two men are not just normal traveling men. And so they send an urgent message to Jericho's king, and they're like, hey, I think a couple of representatives from that traveling Israelite horde that we've heard so much about, I think they're here spying out our city. And one of them says, yeah, and I think I saw them go into the house of Rahab the prostitute. And so, Joshua 2, verse 3, the king sends soldiers to Rahab's house to find out if they're there. Verse 4, but the woman had taken the two men and she'd hidden them.
And she said, true, she said to the king's representatives, to the soldiers, true, the men did come to me. But I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I don't know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, because if you run right now real fast.
Then you can probably catch them. You can overtake him. Verse 6. But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks. That's actually what happened.
Hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and she said to the men, I know, I know that the Lord has given you this land, and the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt. We've heard of that. And as soon as we heard that, our hearts melted in us.
And there was no spirit left in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above, and he is God in the earth beneath.
Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you. Will you also deal kindly with my father's? House. By the way, that word kindly right there is the word in Hebrew, chesed. The word that is used for God's loyal covenantal love.
Rahab is asking, in whatever feeble way she knows how, she is asking to be covered by, to be included in, God's covenant with Israel. The spies promise her that because she has helped them. It will be so, but there's going to be one condition. She has got to paying a scarlet colored cord. outside of her window.
So that when they come and attack the city in a few days, they will know which house is hers. And they tell her, hang this scarlet cord outside your window. And when we come and when we see this cord, you and anybody else within the shelter of the house with the scarlet cord hanging from it will be saved.
Now, one small textual thing I want to address. before we get into the heart of the message. Here it is. In these verses, Rahab Outright. Live.
Did she not? The king's soldiers ask her directly, are these two Jewish spies there? And Rahab says, No. And then she points far out over the horizon and said, They went that way. And I bet if you run real fast right now, you can catch them, and they go tearing off off into the distance.
The ninth commandment is crystal clear. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Rahab was clearly lying here to her neighbors. And not just her neighbors, she was lying to her kink.
So here's the question. Was Rahab's lie? Sinful.
Some Christians say, well, yeah, it was a sin. Because a true person of faith would have told the truth and just trusted God to take care of it. But they say Rahab was so new in her faith, and it was such a small, well-intentioned lie that God just kind of overlooked it. That is a legitimate opinion, and I know many Christians who I respect that hold that opinion. But I actually have a different perspective based on what I see to be the consensus of biblical evidence.
Okay? This is your theological nerd moment, by the way. Here it is. Which is why it is true. That we are commanded not to lie.
Throughout the Bible in extreme situations, Such as when it is apparent that somebody is going to use the truth to physically harm somebody else. We don't owe the evildoer the truth in that situation. When we know somebody is up to evil, We don't have to provide for them the oxygen that will enable that evil. Here's my biblical evidence for that: Exodus chapter 1. The Hebrew midwives lie to Pharaoh in order to protect Hebrew babies so that Pharaoh cannot murder them.
God specifically commends those midwives for doing that. He doesn't criticize it. He says that's a great act of faith. 1 Samuel 18, Jonathan lies to his father, King Saul, to protect an innocent David, and David regards Jonathan's actions as faithful and true. Here in this situation with Rahab, the writer of Hebrews calls what Rahab did righteous and an example of great faith, and points to it and says, This is faith in action.
By the way, the book of James says the exact same thing. James holds up Rahab as an example of not just faith, but faith and action. He's like, she believed and then she acted on that belief.
So here's what I conclude from all of that. Lying? is sin. Almost without exception. But in extreme situations, when we know somebody is going to use the truth.
to physically harm somebody else. We are not obligated to tell them the truth. During the Holocaust, Corey Tinboom famously hid Jews in her closet when the Nazis came looking for them. And Corey Timboom lied about their presence in her house to the SS so that she could save their lives. That was a righteous, not a sinful act.
Now again, I want to emphasize that these are extreme situations. High school students, I'm not talking about you saying.
Well, I knew my parents were going to ground me. And that was really going to mess up my Saturday night plans, and it didn't feel fair to the other people who were affected by my grounding.
So I lied to my parents, but it's okay because Pastor J.D. told me it was okay. Nope, I will not reply to that email. I will not come to your aid against your parents, okay?
Okay.
Now that I've given you something you can debate for an hour in your small groups this week, let's go to the real part of this message, okay? If Rahab is the ultimate example of Hebrews 11 faith, Then there are four things that stand out to me about Rahab's faith. If you're taking notes, write these down. Number one. It's simplicity.
It's simplicity. Doesn't have a lot of theological knowledge, does she? I mean, she's really, all she ever really says about God, verse 10. And we've heard about how God brought you through the Red Sea. We've heard about When you heard that, the fear of God fell on us.
Verse 11, our hearts melted when we heard the stories about your God. Please remember me in your victory. Here's how I would summarize Rahab's faith. The whole thing. Number one, God is real.
Number two, judgment is coming, and I deserve it, and there's nothing I can do to save myself. You know, it's pretty remarkable when Rahab knows what's happening. She's not trying to run away, she's not trying to turn the guys in. She's not trying to mount a resistance. She's like, I know I cannot outrun God's judgment.
I know that I deserve it. Number three, I appeal to your God for mercy. Those are the three components of her faith. That's it. That's it.
And hear this. That is the essence of all true faith. God, you're real. I'm a sinner who cannot save myself. And I deserve your judgment and I cannot outrun it, but your love is strong enough.
And your mercy is long enough. To save even me. It's the thief on the cross who looks to Jesus and says, I know you're righteous and I am not. Remember me. when you come into your kingdom.
That statement is not rife with theological knowledge either, is it? It wasn't backed up by a lifetime of good works or church attendance or financial generosity. It was simply, Jesus, you're true, and I'm unworthy, but I think. that you can and will save me. I'm reminded here of the story of how Charles Spurgeon came to faith in Christ.
I've told you different versions of the story over the years, but Spurgeon is a teenager. 14, 15 years old, troubled in conscience. was trying to walk to church one snowy Sunday London morning. When the weather got so bad that he couldn't make it to the uptown London church, the respectable church that he was trying to go to, and he had to stop off in this little alleyway at what he calls a little backwood side street chapel, the primitive Methodist. Said the main preacher wasn't even there that day because he'd gotten snowed in himself.
He said, so it fell to a deacon, a blue-collar, untrained, and completely unprepared man. to have to give the sermon that morning to the 12 or 13 people who'd made it to church. The surgeon said the man could barely read the text. He's just not a good, just not that educated, not a public speaker. He said the text for the morning was Isaiah 45:22.
Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. This person said the man was not prepared at all. He just read the text and then he said, My dear friends. That's a very simple text indeed. And I'm a very simple man.
All the text says is. Look.
Well, a man needn't go to college to learn to look. Anybody can look, I can look, you can look, even a child can look. But pay attention, he said. Pay attention, he said. The text says, look unto.
Me? This version said, All of a sudden, when he said that, it's like he got suddenly filled with the spirit or an idea or something, and I said he. in a broad SX accent, which I think basically means like English redneck. I said he in this redneck. accent.
Many of you are looking to yourselves, but There's no use looking there. You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. No, the text says, look unto me. This person said the guy then looked directly at him sitting under the balcony and said, Young man, you look very miserable. This person said, I wasn't used to having.
personal remarks about my appearance made from the pulpit. First that I was like, I just froze. He says, you look miserable. and you always will be miserable. You're going to be miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't look to Jesus today.
Obey now, and this moment you will be saved. Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look, look, you got nothing to do this morning. Just look and live. This person said, I don't know anything else that man said that morning.
I was so overcome with this one thought. Because in it, I knew I had just seen the way of salvation. Just trust Christ. And you will be saved. How had I missed it all these years?
Virgin asked. How would I miss it? God, you're real? I'm unworthy. But God, you will have mercy.
Friend, that is all faith is, and for the rest of your life, you just keep going deeper into that. As a pastor and follower of Jesus now for more than three decades with a PhD in theology, I'm telling you the substance of my approach to God is still the same as what you see in Rahab right there. When I need help with a challenge that I cannot overcome, I say, God, at my core, I know that I am unworthy. I know that I am incapable, but I also know that this Christian life is not about what I can do for you, it's about what you in mercy can do through me. It's not me for Christ, it's Christ in me.
when I've got a need as a parent. I say, God, I'm not sufficient as a parent. I'm unworthy and incapable, but your grace is enough. And you can help. It's very simple.
And it's the core of faith. The first thing we see in Rahab's faith is its simplicity. Here's the second thing we see. It's sufficiency. This sufficiency.
Had two significant strikes against her, right? Let me first he's a Gentile. And like I told you, not just any Gentile. She's a Gentile from the enemy. Blocking Israel's path into the promised land.
Let's strike one. Strike two? She's a prostitute.
Now, I do want to acknowledge. Quite often in those days, women did not choose prostitution. Quite often, usually they were forced into it, whether through slavery or through poverty. A lot of times it was by their family that would make them do into that. But either way.
She's a prostitute.
She's not high on the social or the moral respectability chain, right? And yet. And yet, all she has to do to be saved is believe in God's grace. That's it. Charles Furzen said she had nothing to do.
But hang the cord in that window and rest in the house. She didn't have to reinforce the walls of her house with extra support beams so that when the other walls came down, hers would stand. She didn't have to prepare a defense against the siege or a plan to escape. She didn't have to learn a bunch of catechisms or start learning Hebrew or go through a bunch of Hebrew rituals or have a Hebrew priest come and solemnize the whole thing. All she had to do was put herself in the house of safety behind the scarlet cord and rest there.
Rahab's story reminds me of another of my great, my favorite stories of faith. Mark 7. Story of the Syro-Phoenician Woman another gentile lady. Who comes to Jesus, interrupts him. He's on his way somewhere else, asks him to deliver her daughter from a demon.
Y'all, Jesus' response to this woman, Syro-Phoenician Gentile woman in Mark 7, has to be. the most politically incorrect statement Ever given by Jesus, I would argue, the most politically incorrect statement in the Bible. Jesus turns to her and says, Ma'am, it is not right for me to take the children's bread and throw it to a bunch of dogs. And the disciples are like, oh, snap, did he just call her a dog? By the way, some scholars try to soften what Jesus said here by saying, well, dog.
This means more something like little puppy. No. The word kunarias, look it up in your Greek New Testament. means one thing. Dog.
And calling somebody a dog in those days was even worse than it would be in ours because dogs were considered unclean animals. For the Jews, dogs were not cuddly household pets. They were unclean animals representing defilement and judgment.
So this seems in every way like an insult, and yet And yet that woman remains undaunted. Because she perceives this a test. And she knows that Jesus' statement is not a racial slur against her. It's a description of her unworthiness before God to receive this miracle. And she agrees with his assessment and she does not protest it.
She says, yes, Lord, but even the dogs get to eat what falls from the master's table. In other words, I know it is true. What you say is true, Master. I've got no more worthiness for this miracle than a dog, but I believe there is enough grace and power flowing off your table that there's enough even for a dog like me. She put all of her hope in the compassion and power of Jesus.
And Jesus not only healed her daughter, he said, I haven't seen faith like that anywhere in Israel. Doesn't this sound to you like Rahab? Rahab is our final, and in some ways, ultimate exhibit. in our great hall of faith and sees not even an Israelite. Just as somebody who puts all her hope and how gracious God is.
We'll rejoin Pastor JD in just a moment, but first, let me share how you can get quick access to more gospel-centered resources. Did you know we have a newsletter packed with free content just for you? Each week, we'll send you the latest from Pastor JD: links to new episodes, news on free downloads, updates on new releases, and even stories from fellow listeners. It's the easiest way to stay connected and never miss out. And when you sign up today at jdgreer.com, we'll send you our latest free download.
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Now let's get back to our teaching today. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Her faith didn't even have to be that strong. You know, I'm sure she had all kinds of unanswered questions. I'm sure she didn't know that much about theology.
I mean, the first she'd heard of the Israelites was when they crossed over into her land. I'm sure she could not recount the genealogy of Abraham or explain the nuances of the hypostatic union. All she knew was God is real.
Now I'm in trouble. But God, I think there's enough grace in you to help me. I'm sure she was filled with all kinds of fears and doubts. I'm sure she was like, but what about? What happens after?
And why this way, God? Or what about those people? And yet, even with all those doubts and unanswered questions, she was still saved. fully and completely saved and her household. It is not the strength of your faith that saves you.
It is the strength of the one that your faith is in that saves you. The weakest faith in Jesus still saves. The strongest faith in anybody else. Does not. Hear this.
The question ultimately. It was not about how strong her faith was. The question was whether she would obey God's command, stay in the house, and hang the scarlet cord from a window. A few weeks ago in this series, we looked at the story of Noah's Ark. And I told you that if you have doubts, remember this, I told you that's okay.
Just have them inside the ark. If you're only like 60% sure that this is all true. Fine, that's like greater than 50%. Get on the ark and have those doubts. Staying outside the ark is every bit as much a decision as getting on the ark.
So if you're going to have doubts, well have your doubts from inside the ark rather than from outside it.
Well, the same thing is true here. She stayed in her house even with her doubts and all of her unanswered questions. And she was saved. Faith is less about having undaunted, unshakable confidence, and it's more about where you choose to put your hope. In fact, I might say it like this: it's not about the steadiness of your knees.
That you stand with absolute rock-solid confidence. No, it's more about the placement of your posterior. Where you choose to seat yourself. The weakest faith in Jesus still saves. The strongest faith in anything else will not.
I was flying back from LaGuardia in New York City this week. You know, sometimes when I sit down And I buckle in, I'll just look around at all the people sitting around me on the plane. It's like a great little interesting case study in human nature.
Some people, you can tell, they fly all the time. I mean, they barely notice when the plane takes off. They barely notice when it lands. They are totally unfazed by the whole thing. But then you got others.
Who are just a nervous wreck. I saw one lady with her Bible out. She was, you know, she was reading, but the way she was reading it, kind of rocking back and forth, I could tell it's like she's trying to summon up the presence of God or something. I've seen people clutching prayer beads during takeoff. I remember one guy I was with one time, pulled a statue of St.
Christopher out of his bag. Saint Christopher, who is apparently the patron saint of traveling, and he starts to caress it during takeoff. It was weird. It was weird. I was like.
Brother, you okay? You okay? Can I buy you a drink or something? I'm a pastor. I normally don't do that, but I think that'll do you more good than rubbing that statue, to be honest with you.
The point is The point is, you got people of all different kinds of confidence levels, faith levels. Sitting on that plane. But here's the thing. All those people. The ones with the unwavering confidence and the ones who are nervous wrecks, we all landed in Raleigh just the same.
The deciding factor is not the strength of your faith in the airplane. It's the position of your posterior on the airplane.
So I will say it again. Bring all your mess. And all your confusion and all your doubts, and enter into Jesus' house and hang that scarlet cord from the window of your heart. Because it is not about the strength of your faith. It is about the strength of the one your faith is in.
It is not about the steadiness of your knees. It is about the placement of your posterior. The weakest faith in Jesus still saves. The strongest faith in anything else will not. Here's the third thing that is significant to me about Rahab's faith.
It's legacy. Its legacy, Rahab was not only saved. Her whole house was safe too. The two Israelite spies had told her, verse 18, check this out. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window.
And you gather into your house your father and mother. Your brothers and all your father's household, verse 19. But if a hand is laid on any one who is with you in the house, Well, then his blood shall be on our head. Rahab somehow persuaded her parents. And her brothers.
to join her in the house. And when those walls came down everywhere else, All the ones who were in Rahab's house were saved. Ah, but it gets better. After Jericho was destroyed, Rahab apparently left. with Israel.
She had nothing left in Jericho, so she left with Israel. And she made her home among the Israelites. And there, 1 Chronicles 2 tells us. She met. and married a guy named Salmon.
Whom the writer of First Chronicles describes as the father of Bethlehem, which basically means. that he and Rahab together founded and built the city of Bethlehem. And together Salmon and Rahab Had a child. A boy named Boas.
Well, Boaz, when he grew up, met and married another young Gentile woman, a recent widow. Who had fled to Israel as a refugee because of a famine in her country? She wasn't a Jew, she was a Moabite. And her name was Ruth. And Ruth and Boaz met each other, fell in love, got married, and had a son named Obed?
And Obed had a son named Jesse And Jesse had a son named David. And David became the greatest king of Israel, and from David's line. One day would come another son, Jesus Christ. who would die for the sins of the whole world. This prostitute Who showed this very, very simple faith?
became the great-grandmother of King David. and even more importantly of Jesus Christ himself. Two takeaways here. Number one. You think there's no hope for your family?
You think there's no hope for your legacy, that your past, that your failures, your divorce puts a curse into your family? God included in Jesus' line two Gentile women, both poor, both refugees, one a widow, and one a prostitute, to prove that he brings his best wine out of broken pots. From the wombs of refugees and prostitutes, God brought forth His only Son. I've heard people nowadays talking about, well, I feel like I got this family current. I'm going to tell you something: if Jesus Christ.
is a part of your life. He has broken that family curse. You don't need anything else but him. More importantly though, here's your second takeaway from this, what I want you to see right now. Is her act of faith Save not only her, but her family.
Right? and her future family life. Her act of faith. Saved everybody. in her trajectory.
I point this out because some of you are sitting here right now on the fence with Jesus. Fan, let me talk directly to some of you dads. You're not quite sure if you're ready to follow Jesus. You keep leaving here thinking, what does this mean? I don't know if I'm ready for this, and I don't know if I want to have to change the schedule.
And I just, I feel like there's so much pressure and all the stuff that goes with it. And I'm not sure about the church. Do you realize what could happen in your family and in your family line if you just obeyed today?
Some of you high school students. Wondering if it's really worth it to follow Jesus. Maybe I can do that later. Maybe I'll do it when I get old and I have kids. Do you realize what kind of difference it would make on your current friends?
On every future friend you have in college, on your siblings, on your future family, if you choose to trust Jesus today. My mind goes back to a True story. I heard about a Troubled young man in his mid-twenties. whose wife was eight and a half months pregnant with their first child. A lot of things were changing in his life.
He was about to move, he had to switch jobs. And somebody invited him to A church service. He didn't really want to go, but the friend had invited him, so he reluctantly went. There's a visiting pastor that night who Urge those in attendance Not that many people there, but urge those that were there to give their lives to Jesus that they never had before. An invitation hymn was given.
The first stanza was sung. And this man stood there, he said, as if his feet were bolted to the floor. A preacher does that thing, preachers do. He gets up between the First and the second verse of the song, and he urges again. Said he was just sure.
That somebody else out there needed to come and receive Jesus. And so they were going to sing a second verse. Still this man says he couldn't move.
So they sang a third verse. People were starting to get annoyed. Why can't we just end the service? The worship pastor is always dragging stuff out. He just shut up.
I want to go to show and he's, you know. Typical audience. That worship pastor who was listening to the Holy Spirit, not to the audience. extended that invitation into the fourth verse. That man said he looked down, and he could see that the knuckles of his hands were white from clutching the pew in front of him so hard.
He didn't want to step out. But then at last he said, almost as if the decision was not even his. He just let go. And Lynn Greer, my dad. stepped out into an aisle.
walked forward and gave his life to Jesus. And not only did his life forever change, but My mom's life changed, and my life changed, and my sister's life changed, and our children's lives changed, and many of yours changed, too. Because in case you didn't put all that together, I was the baby born 10 days later. My life was changed because of that step he took that night. And yours too, by the way.
If you have ever been blessed by this church at all, It's because that man 50 years ago took a step. I wonder. I wonder sometimes if he could just have somehow seen. A vision of all the lives that his act of faith that night would change. What would he thought?
I probably wouldn't have taken him to the fourth verse.
Now what if he hadn't stepped? What if you hadn't stepped, think of all that would have been lost? Here's my question: what if that same thing is happening right now? But it's not his family line that's in question anymore, it's yours. And all the people in the wake of your influence, and all the people that are going to come from you.
The question is solely right now about whether you step out in faith. One act of faith creates a legacy. It changes eternities, not just yours, but also many of the people who are going to be caught up in the wake of your influence.
So, why are you waiting? What are you waiting for? Start that legacy of blessing today. Fourth and final significant thing about Rahab's faith. It's simple.
Symbol, it's symbol. They outer hang a scarlet cord. From a window. Again, verse 18, behold, when we come into... The land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down.
And you shall gather into your house your father and mother. Your brothers and all your ho father's house. Hold but. If anybody goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head. Y'all, sometimes when I read these things, I find myself honestly just.
wondering in amazement. How God, in his poetic beauty and wisdom, just set up all these things to give us a prophetic picture of the cross, right? I mean a scarlet? Blood-colored cord hanging from the window of your house. To promise any in that house protection from God's judgment and only those that are underneath the protection of that scarlet cord will be saved?
Come on now. That's John 3.16 in Joshua 2. That scarlet cordon. She runs through the entirety of your Bible. And all who hang that scarlet cord from the thread of their lives will be saved.
In Genesis, it was the scarlet cord of blood flowing from the neck. of the lamb that God killed to cover Adam and Eve's sins. That scarlet cord was the blood of the ram Abraham found caught in the thicket that God told him to offer in the place of his son Isaac. In Exodus, that scarlet cord was the Passover lamb whose blood they sprinkled on the doorpost of their houses so that they could avoid the curse of the death angel and escape the bonds of slavery. In Leviticus, it's the blood that ran down the altar in front of the holy place so that people could meet with God.
In Isaiah, that scarlet cord is the coal that touches the unclean lips of the prophet, cleansing him from his sin. It's the blood flowing from the suffering servant who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and by whose stripes we are healed. In Ezekiel, that scarlet cord is the river of life Ezekiel promises that flows from God's throne, bringing healing to the nations wherever it goes. In Hosea, it's the tears of the ever-faithful husband who is pursuing his adulterous and unfaithful bride. In the book of Haggai, that scarlet cord is the water of God's cleansing fountain from David's house that washes away our sin and impurity.
In Zachariah, we see that scarlet cord in the wounds of the pierced son whom every eye on earth, he says, will one day behold. In Malachi, it's the life-giving rays from the Son of righteousness who rises with healing in his wings, and that healing comes from being soaked in his blood. That scarlet cord is the blood that flowed from Jesus' hands, his feet, his side, his head, and the gospels. It's the blood that the writers of the epistles explain is the propitiation for our sins. It is our redemption from God's wrath.
It is the record of our debts with all of its legal demands that God has nailed to the cross forever. That scarlet cord is the blood that the writer of Hebrews tells us enables us to go boldly before the throne of grace with whatever need we have. It's the blood the writer of 1 John tells us that our advocate. advocate pleads in our place before the bar of God's justice. It's the blood that guarantees our forgiveness and our cleansing from sin and enables us to overcome the devil himself.
That scarlet cord is the robe dipped in blood that Jesus wears in Revelation when he appears again for the final time in power and glory to end injustice and restore peace and God's presence on earth. That's That scarlet cord running through your Bible is the blood of the Lamb. slain before the foundation of the world. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Because see, without the shedding of blood, Leviticus tells us there is no...
remission of sin. And there's been one message since the beginning of time, since Adam and Eve onward. All who grab a hold of that cord, whoever they are. Whatever they've done, like Rahab, will be saved. And see, when Jesus shows up as a warrior at the end of time, I'm not afraid.
You wanna know why? He's clothed in a robe. With a red sash, it's dipped in blood. But it's not my blood he's coming for. It means that The injustice for my sin has already been put upon him.
And he has already paid for my sin. And I have nothing to be afraid of because there's no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. I'm washed. I am cleansed and I'm protected by that scarlet cord that hangs outside. of the house of my life.
So before we conclude, let me just pose this question again.
Okay? Of all the people in Jericho that day. Why did God send the spies? to the house of a prostitute. Or in the New Testament.
Of all the people in Samaria, Why did Jesus go to the woman at the well in John 4, a woman? Outcast. with her own compromised sexual history. Or when Matthew records Jesus' genealogy, Matthew chapter 1, and he puts four women into it. Obviously there's a lot of women in Jesus' genealogy because every Man requires a man and woman to have a baby, so there's lots of women in it.
Why is it that the only four women he chooses to name? are either a Gentile guilty of sexual sin or the victim of sexual abuse. Tamar was a prostitute. Rahab was a Gentile and a prostitute. Ruth was a Gentile and a widow.
Bathsheba was most likely a sexual abuse victim. Maybe a willing adulteress. We don't know. But those are the only four women mentioned in Jesus' genealogy. You know, it's striking to me that no mention is ever made in the genealogy of the great esteemed matriarchs of the Old Testament.
There's no mention of Sarah or Rebekah or Rachel. Instead, all we get listed in Jesus' genealogy are notorious sinners or great sufferers. Why record only Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba? I think it was to answer this question for you once and for all. Have you ever felt like you're damaged goods?
Have you ever felt like you were beyond redemption? Have you ever felt like you're not good enough or capable enough or clean enough to be saved that you're just not the Jesus type? Rahab's story shows you that's not true. It doesn't matter how much dirt and trash is in your past. If you will let the grace of God into your life, he will make you a better person than you ever thought possible.
And he will change the entire trajectory of your family in ways beyond what you ever dared hope. He takes prostitutes, sex abuse victims, and forgotten refugees, and he turns them into his family. Martin Luther wrote it this way: It is though God intended through that genealogy to say, Oh, Christ is the kind of person who's not only not ashamed of sinners. He even puts him in his family tree. The good news I stand up here and proclaim to you week by week is this: anybody.
Who grabs a hold of this scarlet thread can be saved. In body. Like the great apologist Francis Schaefer said, the truth is, we're all prostitutes. We're all harlots. Each of us is a whore in the idolatry of our own hearts.
But Hosea, thank God, shows us that God pursues harlots and He loves prostitutes because that's all of us. That's me, that's you, that's any of us. But friend, here's the thing, you gotta grab the cord for yourself. You got to enter the house where it hangs. Because if you don't, it doesn't matter how much you know, you will not be saved.
I've heard it said that one of the great tragedies is that many people will miss heaven by 18 inches. 18 inches. That's the distance between your head. And your heart.
Some of you listening to me right now are going to miss heaven by 18 inches because. Oh, you know a lot about Jesus here. But you've never grabbed a hold of that scarlet cord for yourself here. You've never entered the house of Jesus.
So you got doubts? That's okay. You got doubts, so did Noah, so did Rahab, so did all these great people of faith. Just enter the house. and have your doubts in there.
That's it for today's teaching. I'm praying it was an encouragement to you to remain faithful. Don't forget we are featuring Everyday Revolutionary this month. Pastor Didi's bold new book that challenges believers to live courageously in a post-Christian culture. you'll learn how to follow Jesus with conviction and compassion.
passion. without retreating or conforming. It's time to live scent, not sidelined. Request your copy of Everyday Revolutionary Today at jddyqueer.com. We'll see you next time.
Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
