Listen, it is so good to see you here today, and I'm so grateful. Great crowd here at our A30 service for a summer week, and we had our fine arts.
The county schools just ended their year this past week. I know here at Union Grove we ended a couple of weeks ago, and so everybody's fully on summer break now, and so we are grateful for that, and I know you're excited about summer, and all that comes with that. But it is good to see there's a lot of things going on in our church right now, and Pastor David did a great job just explaining each one of those things, and I just, as your pastor, not going to reiterate what he said, but I do want to just encourage you to get involved in some capacity. And if you're newer to our church, possibly trying to find your way around and connecting and finding friends and relationships and things like that, let me encourage you to dive into something.
Get to know people and say yes to something. The reason why we do these things is so that you can experience community right here in our midst, and we would love for you to do that. Also, I want to say that if you are a guest, thank you so much for being here.
We are so grateful that you are here, and we'd love the opportunity to be able to connect with you before you leave here today. Well, if you have your Bible, I'm going to go ahead and tell you the passage we're going to be in. We're going to be in Joshua chapter number two. Joshua chapter number two. We are continuing a series. This is actually week number three of our summer series that we are doing over the summer entitled Sinners Like Us.
Can we all say that together? Sinners Like Us, and just to personalize it a little bit more, why don't you look to the person to your right and say, he means you, okay? So listen, we are talking about sinners like us, and over the course of the summer, we are going to slowly work through different people in scripture that are sinners just like you, sinners just like me, that God chose and that God used to accomplish His purpose. So far in this series, we looked at Abraham in week one, we looked at Moses in week two, and truthfully, we can relate to both of those in different ways. They doubted, and every single one of us doubt from time to time.
They lied about different things, and they had anger issues, and all these different things that you and I can relate to today. And then today, we are going to look in Joshua chapter number two at a pretty significant sinner in scripture. And you might not have specific things related to them, but you'll find that we have much more in common with this person than we realize. And so today, we are going to look at Rahab. We are going to look at Rahab. If you're newer to church, you might not know a whole lot about Rahab, and so today, I hope that you'll learn about Rahab.
And then for the rest of us, we know more than what we want to know about Rahab, probably, and things like that. But you will see she is a sinner just like Joshua chapter number two. We're going to do some reading here today, and so there's going to be a lot of verses. I hope you brought your Bible. If you don't have your Bible, it will be up on the screen to help you stay engaged as we work through this.
I'll give you a little bit of commentary as we kind of work through this here today, but there's quite a few verses that we're going to look at. So look to the person to your left and say, get ready. All right, buckle up. And here we go. All right, Joshua 2, verse number one.
And if you're an introvert in here today, I just had two strikes against me because I made you talk to the person next to you. And so I apologize about that. But Joshua 2, verse 1 says this. And Joshua, the son of Nun, he sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, go view the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into a harlot's house named Rahab, and they lodged there.
So a little bit about what's going on. They come to a place of Shittim. And so if you look on a map, Shittim is about 15 miles or so from where Jericho is. And so Joshua, he actually sends these two spies there. Now, what's significant, kind of interesting to me when I was studying this this week, because this kind of comes on the tails, if you were here last week in our service, you remember we talked about Moses and remember the spies. And he sent two spies, Joshua and Caleb, and they came back with a positive report. But he sent, you know, he sent 12 total spies and 10 came back with a negative report. Well, Joshua was one of those spies that was sent out, one of the 12.
And he was one of the ones that came with a positive report. I think it's interesting, and we don't know if it's connected at all, but I think Joshua learned something from the first time around. He's like, man, we ain't sending 12 people because that didn't work out last time. So Joshua said this time, we're sending two spies to go 15 miles over to Jericho, which was across the Jordan River. And so they had to go and they had to spy out the land to see what they are going to be dealing with. And when they get there, these two spies, they came into a harlot's house, Rahab. We don't want to sugarcoat this. Rahab was a prostitute. And I'm not going to sugarcoat that because it makes the story of redemption that much better. And so they came into this prostitute's house, and I know that's interesting for you.
I want you to understand, they weren't there for her services or anything like that. They were there because her house attached to the walls of Jericho. You'll see that right here in the passage. And so they went there and they were able to spy out the land from Rahab's house. Verse two, and it was told the king of Jericho saying, Behold, there came men and hither tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. So word spreads that these two Israelite men had shown up there in Jericho and they're there to spy out the land, which obviously any king is nervous about. And so verse three, the king sent unto Rahab saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house, for they become to search out all of the country. And the woman took the two men and she hid them and said, Thus there came men unto me, but I would not went, they were. In other words, I don't know where they were from and I don't know what they're here to do. Now, that's a lie, right?
Rahab was fully aware of what this was. So now she's lying here in this story. We'll come back to why she lied here in a moment. Verse five, and it came to pass about the time of shutting out the gate when it was dark that the men went out. Whether the men went, I would not. In other words, I don't know where they are. Pursue after them quickly, for she shall, ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flack, which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords. And as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof. So real quick, before we go further, there is something here that is interesting. There's kind of what I would call an ethical dilemma here. So we're going to get to the meat of this story here in a second. But here Rahab, she has these two spies there in her house, these Israelite men who were sent there by Joshua, their king, God's chosen people, to spy out the land.
And now they come to a harlot's house, a prostitute's house, and now they are there and they are hiding there. And now Rahab begins to lie for them. Now, if you look at this, you would quickly ask the question, like, is it okay to lie? If you're a young person in here, you're probably thinking, hey, does this give me an opportunity to lie to my mom and dad, right? And I want you to know lying in scripture is a sin.
I mean, if you remember in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter number 20, when God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, this is one of the, you know, one of the very laws of God. You shouldn't bear false witness. We shouldn't lie. And so what in the world does this mean? This is just my little interpretation for you in case you have a question about this. I think sometimes you can see throughout scripture that when someone is going to use the truth to harm somebody, you don't owe them the truth to begin with.
And here's what I want you to see is because here that's very true. They were going to harm, they were going to kill these two Israelite men. So Rahab felt that the men's lives were more important than giving the truth to the king of Jericho and the messengers that he sent. And you see that theme throughout scripture. I mean, you look back, the Hebrew midwives, they lied to Pharaoh to protect the babies.
1 Samuel 18, Jonathan lied to King Saul to protect David. And so I feel like this is something just for you to understand. So don't get caught up in what she was doing here. I mean, there's a whole book and many of you have probably read or learned about the name Corrie Ten Boom. If you remember in the hiding place, she actually hid Jews in her home to protect them from Nazi Germany. And so you see these kind of things happening from time to time.
I mean, practically speaking, it'd be like this that if your wife was in labor and she was in major labor and you had to rush her to the hospital, or perhaps that's not your story or perhaps you're thinking like maybe your spouse is nearing death and you've got to rush them to the house and there wasn't any time to wait for an ambulance to come and you get on the highway, you're probably going to go a little bit more than the speed limit says because you're looking out for the life of them. Well, in this story, I think that's what you have from Rahab. She's looking after these two people knowing that if she gives them the truth, they're going to kill these two Israelite men. And so in verse number nine, she said unto the men after she sent the messengers away from the king of Jericho, she said, I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard, don't miss this, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water out of the Red Sea for you when he came out of Egypt and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sihon and Og whom he utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts melted.
Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Real quick, I want you to understand, this is Rahab, this is the prostitute saying what we just read. Word traveled about the one true God of Israel. How in the world would she know this?
There wasn't the news, the internet wasn't around, social media wasn't around. How in the world would she have been able to know these things and articulate who the one true God of Israel was? And so as God would do these miraculous things in protection of his people and in provision of his people, it would spread throughout all of the different camps so that they were without excuse. You see, that's the message of the gospel that we have, all that we need to know about God from his word and also around the world. Creation and things around it are screaming who God really is.
And so Rahab, she announces to the men, she's like, I know who you guys are. And because of who your God is, we know he is the one true God. If you look back, verse number nine, she uses the word Lord and when you see that in all caps, it's the name Yahweh.
This is the covenant name of God that he would use for his people. She knew who the one true God of Israel was. She knew and it brought terror to her and to the people of Jericho.
In fact, she said there's no courage in any of us because we know who you serve. So verse 12, she says, now therefore, I pray you, I beg you, swear unto me. In other words, make an oath with me by the Lord Jehovah, since I have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my father's house and give me a true token. In other words, she's saying, hey, I'm showing you mercy. You ask your God to show me mercy.
You ask me if he could show me mercy for the mercy and kindness that I'm showing you, verse 13, and that you will save alive my father, my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, our life for yours. If he utter not this our business, and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee, verse 15, that she let them down by a cord through the window for her house was upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall.
And she said unto them, get you to the mountain, lest thy pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers be returned, and afterward may you go your way. And the men said unto her, we will be blameless of this, thine oath, which thou hast made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window, which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father's household home unto thee. And it shall be, verse 19, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on your head. Then he hand be upon him, verse 20, and if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath, which thou hast made us to swear. And she said, according unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line in the window.
So real quick, I'll summarize kind of what's happening. And if you've kind of been around church, you know this story well. And so she says, hey, the same way I'm showing kindness and protection for you, can you ask your Lord, Jehovah, to show the same kindness and mercy to me?
And so they said, absolutely. They said, here's what you have to do, is that in a few days we are going to come in and we are going to destroy the city of Jericho. We are going to take this city because God has given us this city. And so they said, when we come in, the only way that we're going to be able to know who to protect and who to save from the judgment of what we are going to instill upon Jericho is going to be, what you have to do is hang this scarlet thread or the scarlet cord outside of your window. And when you hang this scarlet cord outside of your window, when we come, we know that everyone within that home that has the scarlet cord hanging out of its window, we will know that they are under protection and that the judgment that we instill upon the city of Jericho, they will be saved because of the scarlet cord that they are trusting in and the scarlet cord that they are trusting to deliver them and to protect them. Well we know, and we're not going to turn there, but in Joshua chapter number 6, the Israelite people come in and they destroy the city of Jericho and the entire city, all of the walls were completely destroyed down except for Rahab's home and the only ones in Jericho that were saved was Rahab and her family, the ones that rested in that home and the reason they were saved is because they knew that the scarlet cord hanging out of her window was there to protect her. So as we get into this, here's what I want, continuing with our theme, for sinners like us, I want to look real quick at a little bit about Rahab, what we know about her, to help us understand.
You could say this is kind of her bio if you would. First of all, Rahab was a Canaanite. She was a Canaanite and here's what that means, she was a Gentile. In other words, at this time she wasn't a part of God's chosen people, she was an outcast, she was from a pagan family, a pagan community, in other words you could say that Rahab and her family were anti-God, they were against the things of God, they practiced idolatry and they practiced idol worship there in this land of Canaan right there in Jericho and so she would have been the last one to ever choose. In our culture, this would be somebody that hated God.
This would be somebody that hated the things of God that were against church, that was against Christians, that were against any of those things. She was a Canaanite but not only that, she was a prostitute. We have the word harlot used here, meaning she was immoral, she was an outcast and the truth is she was what we would call as undeserving of the protection and salvation of God as anyone you could ever, ever imagine. In fact, Rahab's name is mentioned a few times throughout Scripture and in a couple of different times when her name is mentioned, you know what, it always attaches her label to it.
Rahab the harlot. Isn't that a terrible label? And by the way, here's what I want, when we think about this, we're sinners just like her and we all have labels about our life, right?
Put your name there, prideful, arrogant, possibly immoral, anger issues, right? Whatever your sin struggle is, whatever your temptation is, we all have a label. So when we look at Rahab and it always adds Rahab the prostitute, Rahab the harlot, I want you to know that you have a label.
Your spouse might know your label or nobody knows your label but we all have a label. What's interesting is in Scripture that label has kind of followed her name throughout Scripture. Just kind of interesting thing here is that it follows her all the way into the New Testament. And it follows her into the New Testament so much to the point that if you read Matthew chapter number one, you see the genealogy of Jesus. And here's what's interesting is that about 30 generations from Rahab comes Jesus the Messiah to take away the sins of the world. The one that would be an embarrassment to the family of God, what's interesting, is not an embarrassment to Christ.
Think about that. In his family tree stands Rahab the prostitute, Rahab the prostitute. You also find Rahab in Hebrews chapter number 11 when we look at what we would call in the church the great hall of faith.
It's a list of people that, you know, the writer of the book of Hebrews is writing about these people with faith and great and strong faith and he writes down all these people and you know who made it into that? Hebrews 11, Rahab the harlot. You see, how in the world could a prostitute and a Canaanite person who was anti-God, how in the world did she make it into the family tree and how could she make it into a future relationship with God and a future time where she's going to spend forever with him? What we learn from her story is so important because it's so important for you and for me is this, is that definitely for Rahab, but this is true for your life as well, is this, is there is always more grace in God than there is sin in you. There's always more grace in him than there is sin in you. Rahab had as much sin as anybody you could ever imagine. Well, God's grace is still greater than that. God's grace still outweighed Rahab's terrible immoral sin and by the way, if you're in here today and you think, man, God could never love me because there's a lot of things I've been involved in, nobody even knows about, guess what? God's grace is greater than that. If God's grace can save somebody like Rahab, God's grace can for sure save somebody like you and that's the message that we get here. There's two things about her faith here that I want to mention that I think is just so interesting to me about her story.
The first thing I want you to see is this. Look at the simplicity of Rahab's faith. The simplicity of Rahab's faith. In verse 9 through 12, we have this declaration. This is what we would call her faith story.
It's very simple. In verse number 11, here's what we learn, is that God is the one true God, okay? This is the extent of her faith. Now, I want you to understand if you're in here and you think that the gospel or you think faith is complicated, the enemy wants you to keep believing that. The enemy wants you to continue to believe that the gospel is just this complicated thing and it's this long list of rules and it's all this different stuff. He wants you to do all these things to get you off of how simplistic the gospel really is, how simple the gospel really is because look at Rahab's faith. Rahab, she says in verse 11, God's the one true God and then she goes on, number two, the second extent of her faith is this, there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves.
She mentions that we have no courage, right? And that there's nothing that we can do to escape what's going to happen here in Jericho and then the third thing is to ask God for mercy. What's interesting about her faith is this, that's the extent of it, ask God for mercy, recognize there's nothing she can do to save herself and then recognize who God really is. Pretty simple salvation story, right? Like pretty simplistic salvation story. It's not that hard. It's not that hard, it's not hard to realize but what you have to do to trust in Jesus, it's not just abide by all this stuff, it's not to add on all these different things, it's not to really measure up if you're worthy or not. She didn't do any of that.
I talk to people all the time who can't trust in God and they're like, man, you don't know what I've done, you don't know what I've been involved. Rahab didn't mention any of that. God already knew it. Rahab didn't say, well guys, if you could ask your God to show me mercy, I know I don't deserve it, I know I'm pretty bad and I've done some pretty bad things.
No, she doesn't say any of that and that's true of you, it doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter who you are. All that matters is that you recognize who He is and you recognize that you can do nothing to save yourself and then you have to ask Him to give you and to grant you mercy. And the church that I grew up in, they would always say this, the gospel is as simple as ABC. It's real simple. It's easy. Acts 16, 31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. It's simple.
It's not hard. Don't over complicate the gospel. Every time I think about the simplicity of the gospel, I always think of Charles Spurgeon's testimony.
You might have read this. Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers to have ever lived. He gives his salvation story and I'd encourage you to go and read a biography at some point on the life of Charles Spurgeon. But Charles Spurgeon as a teenager growing up in London back in the 1800s, Charles Spurgeon, he got up, he doesn't say a whole lot about why he decided to go to church on that day, but he got up and it happened to be a major snowstorm on a Sunday morning, major snowstorm. And so for him, he wanted to go to church and this is before automobiles. So he got out and he started walking to his church. The snowstorm was so great that it had pretty much shut down a lot of things in the city. And so a lot of people weren't getting out. A lot of people couldn't make it to church. And so he shows up there in London in a Methodist church and he shows up there. And in fact, the snowstorm was so great that there was hardly anybody there.
It was just him and a couple of other people. In fact, the snowstorm was so great that the preacher himself couldn't even make it to church. And so a deacon in the church, a deacon in the church, now deacons don't get nervous that I'm not going to ask you to preach, okay? But here's what I'll tell you, a deacon in the church realized pastor couldn't be there so the deacon's like, man, I got to get up and I got to deliver something to the few people that came out on this snowy Sunday morning. So the deacon gets up, he reads one verse, the message took about 10 minutes long and he read one verse, here's what it was. Isaiah 45 verse 22.
And it says this, this is as simple as it comes. It says, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.
There is none else. Charles Spurgeon sitting there as a teenage boy, he said that the deacon began to go on after he read this verse and he said this, it's almost as if God is telling us to look unto me, I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me, I am hanging on a cross. Look unto me, I am dead and buried. Look unto me, I rise again. Look unto me, I ascend to heaven.
Look unto me, I am sitting at the Father's right hand. Oh poor sinner, look unto me. He closed his Bible and he said this to the few people that gathered there in that London Methodist church, he closed his Bible and he said this, church, he said, you don't need to go to college to learn to look. He said, you don't have to be trained to look and because there was only a few people there, he actually looked directly at Charles Spurgeon as a teenage boy and he said this, he said, boy, he was sitting up in the balcony at the time and he said, boy, you look miserable. Like a lot of the people in the balcony today.
No, I'm just kidding, okay. He said, you look miserable and Charles Spurgeon telling this story, he said, I was miserable and he said, boy, the only way to cure how miserable you look is for you today to heed the words of Isaiah, look unto Jesus. That day, Charles Spurgeon, he looked upon Jesus and he was saved, he became one of the greatest Baptist preachers to ever preach. Here's what I'm telling you, the gospel is simplistic, the gospel is not complicated.
All we must do is look and live, look and live. You see, that's the simplicity of Rahab's faith here but the second thing is the symbol of Rahab's faith. The symbol of Rahab's faith. So here, you saw the simplicity, her cry was very simple, wasn't overly complicated but now you see the symbol, it was a scarlet cord, you'll see a picture of it up on the screen, a scarlet cord to hang out of her window. Now we don't know exactly what this looks like, there wasn't a whole lot of dimensions about it, we don't really know but this is a picture of perhaps what it looked like and so that when the Israelite people come to Jericho and that they destroyed the whole city, Rahab and her family, the only ones that stay in her household and don't leave and stay there in protection under the scarlet cord, they would be saved. Now, a blood colored cord, red, hanging out her window and all that are covered under that cord would be protected from the upcoming judgment that is coming to Jericho.
That sound familiar? Do you see the picture, you see the red colored cord is a picture of Jesus, a picture of what Jesus has done for every single one of us, including Rahab, for all of us sinners just like us throughout all time, the cord that is hanging out of Rahab's window is a picture and here's what's interesting, is that the cord, although this is unique to this story, the blood colored cord, the scarlet cord is actually seen throughout your Bible, from cover to cover. It's pointing to the protection and provision that Christ has offered us.
I mean, you see it in Genesis chapter number three with the animal that would be killed to provide skins to cover over the sins of Adam and Eve. You see it in Exodus when the children of Israel were trying to escape the plagues of Pharaoh and as that angel of death crossed over, you see that blood over the doorpost of the lamb picturing what Jesus has done for us. In Leviticus, the scarlet cord is the blood that would flow from the mercy seat, taking care and atoning for all of the sins that Israel had committed. In Isaiah, the scarlet cord is the coal that touches the unclean lips of the prophet, cleansing him from all sin.
It's also found in Isaiah. It's the blood that would be dripped from our suffering savior that would be wounded for your transgressions and for mine as well. In Hosea, you see that the scarlet cord is the tears of the husband that continuously chases after his unfaithful bride, like our savior continues to chase after you and I. In Zechariah, we just looked at this in our Wednesday Bible study recently, the scarlet cord is the wombs of the hands and feet of Jesus who the entire world will behold one day. You see in the New Testament, the scarlet cord is the blood that would flow from the hands and feet of Jesus that would end up being the propitiation for all of the sins that you have ever committed. And let me tell you this, that one day, Revelation chapter number 19, when Christ comes back into salvation, that scarlet cord will be dripped in blood on our savior when he comes back this time, not to die for us, because he only had to die once, but to rule and to reign and to provide the healing and restoration that our world desperately needs.
The point is, is this, is that the symbol of Rahab's faith, this scarlet cord, is also the symbol of your faith. It's the blood of Jesus that saves us. And by the way, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Want forgiveness?
Of course, we all do. The only way is by trusting in the blood of Jesus. And it's like this, that just like Rahab was saved because when they came in to destroy the city of Jericho, they noticed that the blood-colored scarlet cord hanging out of that window, that signified that she was trusting in something bigger, she was trusting in God, the one true God of Israel, and that when you're trusting in that, you are covered under his protection from the judgment that is coming. And here's what I'll tell you, is that judgment is coming one day to our world, and the only thing that's gonna get you or to maintain that you are protected from it is the blood of Jesus that you rest upon and you rest underneath that.
You see, that's the symbol of Rahab's faith. The scripture screams on every page that whoever, whosoever grabs hold of the scarlet blood-colored cord, whatever you've done, whoever you are, sinners as bad as Rahab, can be saved. You see, that's the message of the gospel.
And so when we read this, it's a reminder to us, I like what Francis Schaeffer said, he said this, the truth is about all of us, we're all prostitutes. We're all sinners. We're all sinners, just like Rahab. And we're all desperately in need of a Savior. We were all born into this world without hope, the same boat as Rahab. But aren't you thankful that just like Rahab, here's the point, is that there is always more grace in God than there is sin in you. Aren't you thankful that Rahab's past, Rahab's sins didn't affect God's grace for her? No, God's grace can overshadow any sin.
And so if you're in here today, let me just speak to you for just a second. If you've never trusted in Jesus as your Savior, you say, and I've grown up in church my whole life, listen, that doesn't save you. The only thing that saves you is when you stop trusting in your works and you start trusting in His work for you on your behalf. Of what He did on the cross of Calvary for you. When you trust in that, you are now safely under the blood of Jesus that one day, you don't have to worry about the judgment that is to come. You don't have to worry about the wrath of God being poured out on you because you have trusted and the only thing that can protect you from that. And that's the blood of Jesus. Can you bow your heads with me?
