 We're going to be looking at this chapter this evening. It's a chapter that introduces a woman to us by the name of Rahab. So we're going to look at the passage and when we conclude it, I want to give some application as our conclusion concerning this woman. But as we have begun our study here in the book of Joshua, we've seen that God has given to Joshua a direction. And the direction that he has given to him relates to his entrance into the promised land that had originally been promised to the nation of Israel through the ministry of their first leader, a man by the name of Moses. And so here we are in chapter two after seeing chapter one where Joshua had been given an exhortation from the Lord to have strength and courage. Then he might have confidence and not only had the Lord spoken to him and said, this is what is going to be required of you to enter in. The men of Israel had also come to him and said the same thing. And that's where we had closed off our first chapter study last week where it had stated here in chapter one verse 18. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words and all that you command him shall be put to death. And then they had said what the Lord had already said to him, only be strong and of good courage. So as we enter into chapter two, what we're going to be seeing is them as they're about to spy out this land that they're going to be receiving from the Lord. Beginning at verse one, reading to verse seven, Joshua chapter two. Now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly saying go view the land, especially Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho saying behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country. Then the woman took the two men and hid them and she said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out. Where the men went, I don't know. Pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stocks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. Then the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Now Joshua is the general of the army. And as mentioned a moment ago, Joshua is now leading the Jews into what has been referred to as the Promised Land. Now the Jews, when you're looking at this geographically and you're looking at a map of the nation of Israel, if you went to roughly around the center or so, it's just north of the city of Jerusalem, if you were looking there, you would see that on the western side of the Jordan, seven miles to the west of the Jordan River lies the city of Jericho. And so where they're encamped right now would be seven miles to the east of the river Jordan. So all in all, the Jewish people are encamped about 14 miles altogether away from the city of Jericho. And as they're in this particular location waiting to enter into the Promised Land, Joshua sends out two scouts. Now later on in chapter 6 verse 23, you're going to see that they're referred to as young men. So these are two young men that he sends out to spy out the city. And what they're doing as would be done today is they're looking at the terrain, they want to see the organization of the army, they want to see what kind of supplies are there, they want to see whether they have water supplies, they want to know whether or not there are some who might become allied to them. They're checking out the armor that they might have, they're looking for the guards, they're checking out the guard shifts, they're doing a thorough research of this to bring back this information to Joshua. They're young men, that means that they were brave and they were men who were qualified to perform the task more than likely they could run very fast and they were wise. And so they're sent out, they're deputized to go into this particular city to spy it out in order to bring the information back. Now ordinarily the information would enable Joshua to develop a battle strategy. Developing a strategy is normally a wise way to enter into any battle and you see that kind of encouragement and that kind of commendation in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. If you're going to go into war, you ought to know what you're going to be going up against. That's just wisdom. As it says in Proverbs 20 verse 18, plans are established by counsel. By wise counsel, wage war. And so Joshua is about to enter in, he wants to have some wise counsel, he wants to hear from these scouts and all. And so in the Old Testament you see that there's an admonition that you should wage war and when you do so it should be with wise counsel. Jesus himself used this kind of thing as an illustration in Luke chapter 14 verse 31. Jesus said what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider. Whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000. So strategy is an ancient art obviously, especially as it pertains to warfare. And so he's sending spies out. This wasn't necessarily an act of unbelief to send these spies out. I mean, initially we might be thinking that it's unbelief. There's a couple of things involved in this that would help me to think it's not necessarily that. One is he had as an experience in life already, he had himself been a spy who had gone into the promised land and had sought it out. And he came back with courage and confidence and faith that God would give this land to him. And so sending spies was not necessarily an act of unbelief. But secondly, it might be just a wise thing to do, just a cautious approach. He's not afraid to enter in, but he doesn't want to presume on the Lord. So what he does is something that is prudent. He says, let's go in. I'll send two spies in. They'll check it out, see whether or not we have what kind of strategies we need to come up with in order to take this property, this land and all, and that's what he does. And so Joshua does the normally wise thing. But we're going to see later on that God actually is going to reveal something much deeper than this. The entering into the promised land is more than a simple war. It's more than a simple conquest. The entering into the promised land really represents a nation entering into the promises of God. And so they're going to trust the one who's going to give to them those promises. And so as they enter in, the receiving of the promised land is really one of the ways that God reveals his goodness to them. And so they're going to ultimately see that the Lord is going to be the one who delivers this promised land into the possession. They need to seek the Lord in this because the Lord will give direction. Even as it says in Proverbs 69, a man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. So these spies, according to verse one, are to go into the city of Jericho. The word Jericho is also referred to this day as the city of palms. Jericho can be translated fragrance. And it was known for its beautiful fragrance. The city of palms had a beautiful fragrance about it. And it is the oldest continuously occupied city in the history of man. One of my commentators was saying that when Joshua sent those spies in, the city of Jericho had already had a continuous history of around a thousand years. So allow that to settle in for a moment because in the United States, if you come from a city that will put on its entrance when you're coming in, established in 1862, we think that we live in an old city. Well, during the time of Joshua, which was 1400 years before Christ, Jericho had already been in existence for centuries. And it is a very ancient city that has been continuously occupied. It was also what would be called a fortified city. It had walls that were large enough to have houses that were built into and upon them. And so here come these former slaves turned warriors. And they're about to enter into a fortress kind of city. And so it's just kind of an amazing thing that God had brought them to this place. And as they would have seen it, it would have appeared unassailable. It would appear that they couldn't have gotten into this. There's no way we're going to be able to take this city. So Joshua sent spies out. And he says, come back with a report. Let us know what we have to expect. And so as verse one says, they'd go on in. Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly saying, go view the land, especially Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and they lodged there. Now it is probable that as they entered into the city gates, that they began to mingle a bit and began to blend in. And where would be the easiest place to go that people wouldn't really take notice of you? Well, it would be to go to a house of prostitution, because this house would be having strangers entering in quite often. And so it was one of the ways that they could blend in and get the information that they wanted. So there was nothing immoral about their entering into the house of Rahab. And so as they go into this house, because men often went into that house, they have an opportunity to meet up with a woman, and they stay there. Now, the word Rahab, and I'll give you a couple of these things as we look at this as a lay of foundation for you. Rahab means spacious. That's what the name Rahab means, spacious. And the early church fathers looked at Rahab as a picture of the church, because the people of God have been gathered from all the peoples of the world, and they were all sinners. And so Rahab could be a picture of the church, a church that is large enough and welcoming enough for sinners who are willing to repent to enter in. The point would be that God's grace is wide enough for all to enter in through faith. And so they come to the place of Rahab. Now in verse 2 it says, it was told the king of Jericho saying, behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. And so this is what you would call a city king, and he's notified of the men's arrival. And it's interesting how they're responding. When you look at this, and I want to develop something with you as a foundation. When you look at this, we have to realize that God has said, you're going to get that property. It's going to be yours. You're going to enter into that land. But even when you enter into the promises of God, there will always be opposition. It's never that easy. And sometimes when people get saved they think, man, praise God I'm saved and everything's going to be easy from this point on. And if that's been your experience, you've been saved for two minutes. Because that's not how it works, right? I mean, you get saved and it seems that the opposition actually grows. And when you're wanting to serve the Lord and do things that are pleasing to him, very often you would think when you're first saved, you would think, how come things have gotten more difficult? How come things are hard? How come there's opposition? We only want to do good and don't we belong to God? And doesn't God bless those who love you? Well, the bottom line is, his opposition is always inevitable. And God uses opposition to refine us, to strengthen us, to develop us. It's like that old story of this man who was walking through this particular garden and as he was doing so, he happened to see a caterpillar that was actually becoming in front of him. There was a butterfly that was actually leaving the cocoon in and as he saw this butterfly beginning to stick its head out of that cocoon, the man watching him struggle, watching that butterfly struggle, thought that he would do it a good deed and he had a pen, a little knife, that he put into the cocoon and began to slice away what was holding this butterfly and as the butterfly made its way out of that cocoon, the man was kind of amazed. He had never seen anything like this before, how it had a great swollen body and tiny wings and it ultimately just died very, very quickly and he didn't understand why until he spoke to somebody else who said to him, when you opened up that cocoon to rescue that butterfly, you actually killed it because in order for that butterfly to become a butterfly, it needs to squeeze through that small opening which forces the juices in the body to go into the wings so that the wings can be stretched out and strengthened and so you thought you were doing a good deed by taking the pressure away from it but in reality you were killing it because in order for it to be what it's supposed to be it has to go to the pressure in order to become that and in our lives what we're saying is, God can you remove that pressure and God say no because you're going to walk around with a big old swollen body and you're not going to survive. I would like you to be a butterfly. And so battles will be fought. But the victory and this is an important thing guys as believers because you guys are veterans, you guys are going through warfare. You need to understand this. Battles will be fought but victory is guaranteed. We ultimately are victorious in Christ. We are more than conquerors. We need to understand that because the enemy wants to tell you that you cannot survive. You cannot win. You are dead. You are stupid. How could you trust a God whom you cannot see? Everything's in opposition to you. It's called propaganda. In World War II there was a woman by the name of Tokyo Rose. Well known to those who fought in World War II and Americans of that era. Tokyo Rose. And she would speak over the radio to dishearten American troops. And she would give reports of how the Japanese were winning every battle and she would say to the GIs, just give up. You might as well just let it go. You can't win this war. It's called propaganda. The enemy knows he's lost. But he keeps whispering to me and he keeps whispering to you. Just give up. You can't win this one. Leave it alone. But God would say no. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. If God be for you, who can be against you? And so that's what the Lord would speak in. And Joshua is going to learn that. And he needs to learn that. In Deuteronomy in chapter 20 verses 3 and 4. Moses was speaking of the priest. As the priest was to speak before the battles. And in Deuteronomy chapter 20 verses 3 and 4. It says, he shall say to them, Hero Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid. And do not tremble or be terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he who goes with you. Fight for you against your enemies to save you. Do not be afraid. That's what the priests were intended by God to say to those who were entering into the battle. God goes with you to fight for you. Who has ever defeated God? Who can defeat God? That's the whole point. And so there will be opposition. 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 all the country. Then the woman took the two men and hid them. And she said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. The men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords, and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. And so I want you to notice the Bible reports sin. I want you to see this. She's lying, quite obviously, right? The Bible reports sin, but the Bible does not condone it. Rahab is guilty of lying, and Rahab's lie is reported. But it's not Rahab's lie that will be ultimately commended. You need to see this. It's not Rahab's lie that is commended, and Rahab's lie is never approved up. I'm going to jump ahead of my notes for just a moment. I meet with a friend of mine, Monthly, who's a relatively new believer. He's probably three years old in Christ. And the last time we met, he asked me about Rahab. Actually, one of my other friends asked me about Rahab, but it was part of our conversation. She lied. Does God approve of lying? So I lied and said, no. I said, you need to take it into context, and this is what I'm going to be teaching you. That question is really what is referred to today, and you've heard of this term, and some of you studied this in college. It's called situational ethics. That the situation determines the ethics of the behavior. Therefore, I'm in a certain situation. If I am going to be saving some lives, what is my response at that moment? Well, my response at that moment is not to look for an absolute, because the absolute is, thou shalt not lie. Therefore, I look for the ethics of the moment, and so if I'm going to be put in a position where somebody is going to be sought out, found, and killed, because I reported where they were, then the situation dictates that I should lie, and therefore that makes my lie actually true. There are whole religions that are built on that went in particular that believes that Islam believes that a practitioner of Islam can lie, and it's justified for them to do so, and it's part of the religious tenets. And so as my friend was asking that question, I said, you know, one of the things you have to take into consideration is the fact that Rahab, and you're going to see that Rahab has faith, that Rahab is not a developed believer at this time. God is not commending her lie, but he's actually later going to commend her faith. But he doesn't commend her lie whatsoever. This is a woman who at that time is simply aware of the greatness of God, and she actually is moving and actually demonstrates a true faith, and you'll see this as we go through this in a moment, but God is not saying that it is right to lie. God is saying that she lied, and this is the report of what she did. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I would never want to make a judgment on Rahab or anybody else as it relates to this kind of thing, because I'll be honest with you, as much as I hate lying, if I were put in a position to have to determine whether somebody was delivered, died based on what I reported, well, who wants to be put in that kind of position? I'll tell you this, that in my heart of hearts I want to do what the psalmist said. I have a desire within me to be, well, it says that God wants me to have truth in the inner parts. He wants me to have integrity, and I've been praying for many years concerning that, that I would be a truth teller, and I pray that God is honoring that in my life. Many years ago now, story time, many years ago now, I went on a team to China, many years ago, to mainland China, to go into Beijing. The underground church in China has millions of believers, but very few Bibles. And so you can go to a house church, that is not what is called the Three Self Church, it isn't government approved, you can go to an underground church in China, and you'll discover that there are a great number of Christians, but they don't have a Bible. Sometimes what happens in these underground churches is they may have one Bible, and you know what happens? The pastor will actually divide that entire Bible, one Bible, up amongst his parishioners. So you might be a member of his church, and you might get a chapter from one of the books of the Bible. And so when he's studying, he will connect with you, and he will say to you, this is chapter three, I'm going to be teaching on Sunday out of Genesis. And so you would take this chapter to him, and bring it to him, because if you got caught with that, and it's illegal, you can be imprisoned. But you're only losing one chapter of the Bible, and so the believers there value the word of God so incredibly much, that they're willing to take the chance of being imprisoned for holding onto a book that hasn't been documented by the state. It's something that we Americans to this day really don't understand. So we were given the opportunity to bring Bibles, suitcases of Bible, to the underground church. I believe that we ought to obey God rather than man, and that the word of God is something that people need. And so I was willing to go in, violating Chinese law, and bring Bibles in. And so we're about to enter into Beijing from another site, when we are briefed by the individuals who set up the Bible drop. And they said, and I can't remember the exact details, but they said something like, you have a visa, and in China the visa requires that you have six names on the visa, but your team only has five members. So when you go in and you start going through passport control and you hand them your passports and you hand them your visa, they are going to ask you, where is the sixth member of your team? You only have five. If you say you only have five, you will not be given entrance into China. So you need to say, he did not appear. That's a quote, he did not appear. And you can enter in. Now, we get on the plane, we're flying in, we land in Beijing. We start going through passport control and I'm praying the whole time and I'm saying, God, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I can't do that. I'm not going to lie. What am I going to do though? I've got all of these Bibles. We had suitcases of Bible. God, I want your word to go in, but I can't lie. I just can't do that. See, here's a little rewind for you. Before I got saved, I was a liar. I lied all the time, just as a hobby. The truth. See, that's the truth. I was a liar. And I said, I don't want that. I am not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm really upset as I'm watching as we're going through and one after another of these tourists going into China are handing their passports and then it comes to me. And I hand them the visa and the passports. They start counting, they say, to me, there are only five of you here. Where is the sixth man? I'm just standing there. And somebody from another line climbs into our line and the passport individual sees them climb in and says, oh, there he is. I didn't say a word. I didn't have to say a word. I said, oh, God, you're too much. Thank you so much. This guy's just kind of standing there looking around like, you know, he doesn't even know that he was the sixth man on my. And you know, I just believe that God honors truth. I really do see. So when I when I when I when I read about Rahab, I don't make a judgment on her and none of us do. I'm sure not a one of us, but God is not commending her life. You have to understand that. He's reporting it. He's reporting it. This is a woman who's just coming to a faith in the God of Israel. She doesn't know all the ins and outs of being a follower of God. And so for her, she saw that these men, if they were taken would die. And her decision was she's going to lie. And that's exactly what she did. She lied. She had taken them up. She had hidden them. But she said, well, go look for them. Now, if you were in this area in Jericho, even to this day, there are caves everywhere and hills everywhere. And you could literally be in caves for weeks and months and nobody could find you there. And so that's why she sent them off into that area to hide for three days. And that's why the men would never have found them. It says in verse 8, before they laid down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on you, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint hearted because of you. For we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Zion and Ag, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. And so as she was telling these men to go search out these caves and all of that, she knew that if these two spies would really have gone there, they could have hidden for months. She knew that if she would have actually sent them there, they would have never been found. These men who are going to go search aren't going to spend that much time looking for them because they too know that anybody who finds a cave and hides there could be there for a long time. And so even though she's saying that she sent them there, she was actually given what would be called a ruse and then later on instructs these men who had remained behind these two spies and she says, this is what I really believe. What I really know is this, and I want you to see this first night. I know that the Lord has given you the land that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. This is what I know. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. So she's going back the 40 years. The history of what had happened, they had been hearing this in Jericho had what had happened. It was common knowledge for quite some time. We know that the Red Sea had been dried up. We know that you took two mighty kings, the kings of the Amorites and their name was Sion and Ag. And we know that you utterly destroyed them in verse 11 and as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For notice verse 11 for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore I beg you, swear to me by the Lord since I have shown you kindness that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token. Now I want you to notice something here in these verses in verses 8 through verse 12. I want you to notice how she approaches the men. This is really interesting and I'm just going to touch it lightly. I'm not going to make a big issue but I just want you to notice that she was a prostitute and what is she doing? She's bargaining. She's making a bargain with the guys even as she's speaking to them. She's used to bargaining. She's making a proposition to the men. But her proposition has the intent of saving her entire family. Now this is a Gentile woman who was acting on what she had heard. She had heard how their God had performed a miraculous deliverance for the people of Israel. She says we've heard how you crossed the Red Sea. We have heard how you defeated these great kings and so what she's doing is she's acting on what she heard and what she has heard she has come to believe. Notice the response in verse 11 as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted. We didn't have any strength. It caused great fear. God had made that promise to Moses in Deuteronomy 2.25. In the book of Deuteronomy 2.25 it says this day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be an anguish because of you. Now she was not aware of all the promises that God had made to Israel but she does have something that we're seeing evidence. She has what is called a germ of faith. I want you to notice that she said their God was God in heaven above and on earth beneath. That's what it says in Deuteronomy 4.39 therefore know this day consider it in your heart that the Lord himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath there is no other. Though many had heard of what had happened what she's doing is she's admitting a personal faith in their God and she's making a choice to trust in the God who is doing such things for Israel. But she has a request in verses 12 and 13 I beg you swear to me by the Lord since I've shown you kindness that you also will show kindness to my father's house give me a true token spare my father, my mother my brothers, my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. She's making a choice here guys she's choosing a side so she has chosen to side with God and she's chosen to side with God's people but I want you to notice she did not do so selfishly she wants to be saved but she wants her whole family to be saved also and what does she do for them to be saved she intercedes on their behalf there's a spiritual principle for you it has been said that the most selfish person is the one who goes to heaven alone when you got saved now I'm assuming that there are many in this room who may have been raised in Christian homes so this will not apply specifically in this context to you but I'm about to say who were not raised in Christian homes maybe you had a home where you had a mom or even a dad who was a God-fearer somebody who believed that there's a God and that you ought to be moral and it would be a good idea if you went to church once in a while and therefore maybe you as a family maybe you went maybe you went on Christmas maybe you would go for baptisms maybe you would go to church for weddings you would go for funerals in the various Christian holidays like Easter and all maybe that was your habit and you did so because well because religious people do that and so that may be your background you had kind of like a knowledge but not a personal knowledge but then you heard the gospel and you heard that it's not your religious activity that saves you very clearly but it's a personal faith in God it's a turning from your sin it's called repentance it's asking God for forgiveness and it's a yielding of yourself to him and you heard that clearly whether it's in a church like this or whether it was while you were driving your car and you happened to turn on the radio or it may be that you have friends at school who are believers who would share with you perhaps they invited you to some outreach whatever but you heard that and you embraced it see the thing is what did you do after that in the case of many in my own case what did I do I told my mom and my dad first thing actually second thing first thing was I went across the street to some friends house and the reason I went there first instead of just going directly to my parents is because I was supposed to get loaded with them that day and so instead of getting loaded I got saved and I went across the street to the place I used to party to tell them about Jesus Christ that's the first thing I did the second thing I did is I crossed the street back to my parents home and I went into the den and I saw my mom and my dad and my two sisters watching TV and that's when I said mom, dad, Madeline, Becky I love you, praise the Lord and that's when my mom freaked out went and did a rosary for me true story and my two sisters came and followed me and asked me what happened to you that's what caused my sister Madeline the same day December 27, 1970 that I got saved to go to bed that night and say whatever it is you did to my brother do that for me and so that's why three weeks later well thank you bro, appreciate that three weeks later that's why I was able to share with my mom and my dad and that's when I read Revelation 9 I said I don't know what this means I do know this it's not talking to me it's talking to you and that's why I told my dad dad you're a good man you're the best man I'll ever know but you will be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to Jesus Christ daddy I love you I don't want to go to heaven without you bow your head you're receiving Christ right now as your Lord and your Savior pray with me that's what my dad did that's what my mom did I brought my family to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ I thought everybody does so when the man who was asking my sister Madeline to go out and it's taking her out on her first date his name is Pat when he showed up in my parents house because I was her big brother I was the interviewer and so when he came walking into the den I sat him down and I said so who are you and what do you want with my sister and he says oh I'm this and that and I say you a believer in Jesus Christ Pat and he said yes I am I said are you where do you go to church and we started sharing because that's what big brothers do when they love their sister I want to know who you are and I want to know why you want to be with my sister and I said have you led your family to Christ yet he says no so I'm thinking this guy doesn't know Jesus everybody leads their family because I thought that was true I really did I thought everybody automatically just leads their parents to Christ I thought everybody does and I still think that everybody has that impact now Pat he passed muster he's been my brother-in-law now for 35 years you know but that's how it works you see and so I believe this listen if you haven't told your mom if you haven't told your dad if you have a dad and a mama still if you haven't told your grandma your aunt whomever brothers sisters do it live for Jesus Christ pray for them and tell them because if you don't who's going to who's going to I promise you Greg Laurie is not going to knock on the door and say oh by the way I'd like to know if you know Jesus it ain't going to happen pray that wrong never shows up it ain't going to happen but you show up Rahab said spare me you will you have a God we've heard of that dries up the sea and destroys great kings you have the true God spare us but don't just spare me spare my dad spare my mom spare my family that's love that's love I could not sit back and watch my parents go to hell I just couldn't do it you know why? because there is a heaven and there is a hell and that's why I told my daddy you will be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to Jesus Christ because there's a place waiting for you the mouth of hell is gaping open taking as many as it can figuratively and I didn't want my mom and I didn't want my dad and I didn't want my sister Becky and I didn't want my brother Frankie and I didn't want my sister Madeleine to end up in this place without hope without love without light without joy in hell? no and so she says I want to be saved from what's going to happen because I know what's going to happen but I don't want to be saved alone I want my family to be spared also well the answer verse 14 for yours if none of you tell this business of ours and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you there's one condition that we're giving to you and we will do so we will be faithful to our word just do not report us that's the stipulation verse 15 we let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall she dwelt on the wall and she said to them get to the mountain lest the pursuers meet you hide there three days until the pursuers have returned afterward you may go your way then the men said to her we will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down and unless you bring your father your mother your brothers and all your father's household to your own home so it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street his blood shall be on his own head and we will be guiltless and whoever is with you in the house his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him and if you tell this business of ours then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear then she said according to your word and she took them away and they departed and she bound the scarlet cord in the window so after sending the others to go search in areas that they were not she now sends them out to hide for those three days in that area that was filled with so many caves now the spies are guaranteeing her and her family's safety but notice with me only if a scarlet cord is hanging out of the window which will identify her home obviously scarlet is easier to identify than a green or a brown or a gray cord and so they say this will be the stipulation put a scarlet cord and have it hanging because we can see it, it will be very visible when we come in to take this city now I want you to notice something though notice verse 21 how it says she sent them away they departed and she bound the scarlet cord in the window and as we look at this I want to develop this for a moment Rahab is obviously pictured as a person who is deeply in sin she was a prostitute she's a woman who is deeply in sin and yet this is real important and yet she's not too far away from the hand of the Lord to save it was not impossible for her to be saved Rahab is a picture of how gracious God is and Rahab gives to us a picture of how faith in God provides deliverance this scarlet cord represents the color of blood in the Old Testament the cord that would be there in that window would remind the reader of the Passover scarlet is a color that represented deliverance because it is the blood that covers and it's the blood that saves us and so this has been called the scarlet cord of redemption now Rahab was to be saved because Rahab believed but Rahab didn't just have a belief that was intellectual there are many people who are missing heaven by 18 inches 18 inches and this heaven by 18 inches the distance from their brain to their heart they have intellectual knowledge but they don't have a true saving faith it's not there within them so they can say and I've had these conversations and I've been guilty of being the one who was doing this they can say well I believe in these things as I've said so many times to you prior to coming to Christ that I had been trained in because I had gone to religious classes called them catechism classes and I could at the age of eight I was able to repeat the ten commandments I was able to speak to you about some basic essentials of faith if you ask me who Jesus was he is the second person of the most holy trinity if you ask me things about heaven do you believe in all of that I had some rudimentary belief in those things and as an eight year old I was able to repeat them at the age of eight when I was in church on one occasion being raised in the Catholic church I was in the church service and the priest gave a message on abstaining from alcohol and then he says and I went to a church in Santa Fe Springs called St. Pius X Church and I still remember being seated there when the priest said those here in this congregation who will promise God make a promise and oath to God that you will not drink alcohol will you stand to your feet and make that a public declaration that you will not drink alcohol I was eight years old and I stood up I still remember and the priest is looking at me because there is only a handful of people who did that and I was one of them I was one of God and I still remember that priest looking at me looking at me not the adults who were standing this eight year old little boy and he kept on saying this is a very serious oath you are making to God but as an eight year old I wanted to do what God wanted me to do the same church just a few months later I broke my oath because that same church that had a priest had a festival where they were selling beer to the parishioners and my friends and I after catechism broke into an ice box and stole some beer and the first beer I ever tasted I stole from the Catholic church the same church that I made a promise before God I will never drink was a church that was making it possible for other people so see when I was a little boy I was seeing things like that and I started thinking making oaths to God really don't matter if on the one hand religious figures saying let's promise God we won't do something but then again let's have a festival and we'll sell you all the beer you want to drink so that we can do whatever it is and I started seeing that in a very early age hypocrisy really worked and yet if you would have spoken to me which some on occasion did I would have argued with you hammer and tongue that I know God I'm in a true church I have a faith relationship with Christ I would have argued that with you and that's the whole problem see Rahab was not one of these people who said oh I believe Rahab did something that the Bible demands she acted on her faith she immediately I want you to see that again it says in verse 21 she sent them away they departed and noticed she bound the scarlet cord in the window she didn't know when the city was going to fall they didn't say well after three days we'll be back they didn't give her a timeline whatsoever did you notice that she just acted immediately it could have been a few days it could have been a few weeks it could have been even months but it didn't matter she moved immediately and fulfilled her part of the arrangement and she made sure that her family was brought into safety in chapter six you can turn there very quickly I want to show you something in chapter six notice what happens here in verse 22 in Joshua chapter 622 Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country going to the harlot's house and from there bring out the woman and all that she has as you swore to her and the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab her father her mother her brothers and all that she had so they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel but they burned the city and all that was in it with fire only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord and Joshua spared Rahab the harlot her father's household and all that she had so she dwells in Israel to this day hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho it doesn't matter if you say you believe something you have to act on it if she just said oh I believe and never put out that scarlet cord she would have died with everybody else and there is there are an awful lot of people who say one thing and don't act on it Rahab acted on it and that's why her faith was seen as an evidence because it was put into action it says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 31 by faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace James chapter 2 verses 25 and 26 says likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way whereas the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also so the the witness of scripture is simply this if I believe I act on it if you believe act on it if you trust Christ live for him it's that simple we see three basic things here with Rahab one, salvation is possible even for the worst of sinners no one is beyond the reach of the grace of God to save no matter how many men she had been with no matter how many sins she had committed no matter what her past had been like and what her present reputation was God saved her because she put faith in him if we confess our sin he is faithful in just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if any man be in Christ he's the new creation old things are passed away behold all things are become new and what she had done when she put her faith in God she was saved and that to me is a powerful powerful thing secondly salvation came through something represented by a scarlet cord and that something that is represented by that cord is the blood of the lamb she was moved to obey she put a scarlet cord in her window and she was saved because of her faith but for us we are saved because we too have something scarlet in our lives it's the blood of Christ Ephesians 1 7 says in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace and then third in spite of all our past sins God can make us entirely different I have old friends they have to be they're my age they're all old I have old friends that I on occasion have come into contact with who cannot believe I'm the same person that they knew on two different occasions over the years on Easter on two different occasions this has happened we've had people who went to high school with me come to church services not knowing that I was the pastor who have left and both said basically the same thing they said I went to high school with him he's conning you that he cannot be what he's pretending to be up there and they warned these two people from my church they said you watch out for him because I know what he is because I went to school I was crazy you know you don't know my testimony really I was crazy and they knew me they knew me but you know what God does he makes you entirely new a brand new creation in Christ Jesus and he can make you unrecognizable for those who have known you best doesn't he he changes lives doesn't he he can make you brand new it doesn't matter what your past was in Christ you have nothing but a great and glorious future because of what you can do and it doesn't matter if Rahab was a harlot because Rahab was transformed and what is such a blessing is eventually Rahab marries a Jewish man and ends up in Jesus's genealogy when you read Matthew 1 it speaks of in verses 5 and 6 it speaks of Solomon who begot Boaz by Rahab Boaz begot Obed by Ruth Obed begot Jesse Jesse begot David the king and Rahab found herself in the lineage of the Messiah of the world because God did a tremendous work in the life of a former prostitute by the name of Rahab God can take your past and transform it into an unbelievable future what a God that we serve what a God finally verse 22 they departed and went to the mountain stayed there three days until the pursuers returned the pursuers sought them all along the way but did not find them so the two men returned to the mountain crossed over they came to Joshua the son of none and told him all that had befallen them they said to Joshua truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint hearted because of us even as Rahab had to act so did the spies but unlike the ten spies who brought an evil report this time these spies brought encouragement God indeed has given us this land and the people know we're coming and that word must have caused just a great courage to spring into the hearts of those who heard that report because he says the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands the inhabitants of the country are faint hearted by the way they weren't faint hearted because of you guys they were faint hearted because of the God delivering the land into the hands of those whom he had given it and that God by the way who delivered that land to them is the God that we serve today what a God we serve