The Harlot in the Genealogy of Christ

James 2. And we'll read this section again. V. 14, what good is it, my brothers? James 2. V. 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? You should all be able to answer that.

Can that faith save him? You ought to be able to answer that. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? That is not separate from faith. That is tied exactly to faith.

What good is that? You ought to be able to answer. That is no good. So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Some people, when they imagine Christianity, it's what they can get. You recognize that genuine faith is attached to giving. So also, faith by itself, verse 17, if it does not have works, is dead.

These kinds of works, it's dead. Someone will say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works.

And that's what we all want to do. Obviously, that's what James is teaching. That we should all be in that place where we show our faith by our works.

You believe that God is one. You do well, even the demons believe and shudder. So obviously, believing facts, that kind of faith that believes truth, but is not accompanied by works, is no good.

It's like demons. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person? Strong language. That faith apart from works is useless? Yes.

James, we do want to be shown. Okay, here's the first example. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? And again, a lot of question marks.

A lot of rhetoricals coming at us. What's he looking for? Yes, he was. That's what he wants.

You see that faith was active. Paul says the same thing in Romans. The obedience of faith.

Faith is obedient. Faith is active along with his works. That's how faith expresses itself.

Through the activity of works. Faith was completed by his works. And the Scripture was fulfilled.

I mean, bang, bang, bang. You get these things. Faith active.

Faith completed. Scripture fulfilled. That's where we all want to live there.

That's the point of this. This isn't to be separate from us. Something we just sit back and admire.

Or something we can just be an audience, like a spectator and see Abraham out there on the field playing football. The idea is we need to be playing just like he plays. We need to be in the game just like he's in the game.

That's the point. And remember back up in v. 14, can that faith save him? This is a salvation issue here. V. 23, and the Scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

And he was called a friend of God. You see, this is the conclusion of the whole matter. Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar.

He had this faith that we all know about from Genesis 15. Abraham believed God. It was counted to him as righteousness.

It expressed itself. It worked out. You see from that that a person is justified by works, not by faith alone.

In the same way. Now here we are. I'm dealing with Rahab today.

In the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute. In the same way, what does that mean? In the same way her faith was active. In the same way her faith was completed.

In the same way that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone like Abraham was. In the same way was not also Rahab the harlot? The prostitute? Was she not also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? Another question mark. What's the answer? Yes, she was.

So then, verse 26 comes, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. So, here's the thing. I totally understand.

Christians, non-Christians, we're all prone to defective views about what Christianity truly is. Even Christians sitting here, you're prone to that. What did we think Christianity was? When Jeff was asking how many of you grew up Catholic, I kind of went like this.

I was a kind of Catholic in name where I carried a cross. My dad had a crucifix on the wall. There was probably a family Bible somewhere.

We were Irish, so we were Catholic. You know, we were evangelizing yesterday on Burleson. That's over in the Wheatley Court area.

Where's Mark at? Mark knows that area. Where are you, Mark? Yeah, we've been systematically working those streets over there. And one of the houses that some of the guys went to, they had a Mary that was literally this tall.

And the nice Catholic family, they were there with their beers and they didn't want to talk to our folks a whole lot. But my mindset about what a Christianity was, it was just like the demon thing. That was my idea.

I believed that Jesus was real, so I somehow felt that that was going to be sufficient. And you know what? Jeff is talking about Romans and Galatians, and I don't doubt Romans and Galatians. I mean, obviously, that's what God used in Luther's life.

You know, in mine, it was the Gospels. And it was Jesus. And even though Jesus is always telling people to do something, and you might think, well, that's not exactly what we want to say to the Catholic.

But you know what jumped out was just who Christ is. Like, I never really saw who He was. He spoke like no one else ever spoke.

I mean, it was actually in Matthew that I was reading when God saved me. But anyways, brethren, the reality is we can have misunderstandings about what it means to be a Christian. Even Christians can get to the place where we drift to where we lose the bearing of what it is that God expects.

What we have to do is we have to come back all the time and realign. This is why you need to be in the Word of God every single day, brethren. We need to realign with truth all the time.

Realign with what God says, with what God teaches. And I'll tell you this, if James 2, 14 through 26 is meant to convince us of anything, it's meant to convince us that God insists that good works are the main evidence of genuine faith. You can't get away from that.

That's the reality here. That it's possible to believe in God. It's possible to believe in Jesus Christ.

It's possible to believe He went to the cross. It's possible to believe He rose from the dead. I mean, you know what? The vast majority of Catholics do not know the Lord.

Why? You can say that dogmatically. Why? Because they exalt and worship Mary. They exalt and worship the Pope.

They exalt and worship stuff like crosses. They deny grace alone. The vast majority are just lost.

They believe, but they believe in a Trinity. They believe with the demons. And it's possible to believe all that, yet have nothing beyond what James calls dead faith.

That's the point here. Look at 2, 17. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

2, 20. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is dead? Yours might say useless. Look at 2, 26.

As the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Look, you've been to a funeral. A corpse in the casket.

And you know what the mortician did? They did the hair. They put makeup on the person. Typically you dress them in the best kind of clothing.

Why? To make them look as real to life as possible. What they looked like when they were alive. But they're not alive, they're dead.

And that's the idea here. It's like this corpse. Brethren, this is totally possible.

You can be lifelike like this, and yet, what? You have no breath, no movement, no life. And what's at stake in all this? Remember 14? Can that faith save him? This is what's at stake here. Brethren, is this something to get stirred up about? I mean, you think we ought to get a little bit stirred? Brethren, anybody have some idea or some thought that we have a lot of corpses in the churches today? Brethren, the thing is, James says the things he says because he was pastoral.

We could go back and talk about the fact that the vast majority of these people probably that he's writing to had once been in Jerusalem, been people that he pastored. And he stirred up about it. You know how you can tell the very language he uses? You foolish person.

That's strong language. I mean, he had to deal with this. He stirred up about this.

We've got to shake people. Mere professions won't survive the judgment. That's what it says back in 13.

They won't survive the judgment. And brethren, if we're going to be pastorally responsible, you never want it to be that somebody's going to perish at our preaching who sat under our preaching and have it be because the preacher himself did not say the truth to people. And this is the truth here.

Barren orthodoxy. And you know what I mean by that. You get the facts right.

Like the demons as they tremble. You know what? The reformers called this historical faith. They obviously dealt with this.

Why historical faith? Because you can look at the history. You can look back 2,000 years and you know the history. And you can nod to that.

You give your assent to that. Tyndale called it story faith. You read the story? I don't have any reason to disagree with that.

So obviously, the reformers dealt with it. Tyndale dealt with it. James dealt with it.

We deal with it. They dealt with it 2,000 years ago. They dealt with it back in the time of the Reformation.

Brethren, faith that doesn't produce works of obedience saves nobody. Okay, now I recognize I dealt with Abraham last time. And you know what? Abraham is a significant figure.

And somebody might say, now I don't think it stands. I don't think it's reasonable to think this way. But you might think this way.

You might say, hey, you know what? How can I be expected to match that guy? I mean, his faith didn't waver and he gave all this glory to God and Abraham just seemed so far above me. God spoke to him personally and I can't identify with him. I mean, he talked with God and he saw the stars and he saw the sand.

It's like this guy's bigger than life. Abraham is called the friend of God and he shows up all these times in the New Testament. And I would just say this, okay? Let's try Rahab.

You ready for this? Verse 25, "...in the same way that Abraham was justified by works, in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." Now, key in here. Verse 25, Rahab the prostitute justified by works.

Justified. D-K-I-O-O. Greek often puts a string of vowels together and who knows how they pronounced it.

But this is the same word that Paul uses often in a very specific and technical fashion. We know Paul, we can prove this, and you know this, that Paul uses the term justify to basically mean that I, though ungodly, this comes right out of Romans 4 for you guys that are going to be looking at it this week, I though ungodly, God pronounces me righteous, not based on my merits, so that I'm vindicated in God's courtroom based on the obedience of Jesus Christ. He often uses it that way.

But let me tell you something, the word justify, you use it, I'm justified in saying that. We might say something like that. We use the term justify or vindicate might be a perfect synonym.

We use that term in English really much like they use it in Greek. It's got a range of meanings. And the thing is, the idea here is that really no different than Paul also uses the word, for instance, in Romans 3, Paul says that God is vindicated when he, this comes out of what, Psalm 32, Psalm 51.

But God is vindicated. Well, what does that mean? That God's ungodly? And now the righteousness of Christ is imputed to Him? Well, of course it doesn't mean that. So even in Paul's writing, the fact is that the term has a broadness.

It has a range of meanings. Some more specific. Some less specific.

And so don't get bent out of shape the fact that James just simply means that justify is the same as saying to clear or to vindicate among other possible meanings that the word can have. James is saying that we who profess faith that we are proven not to be fakes by the works that accompany our profession. And so Rahab is justified as a genuine believer.

She's vindicated. Why? How? How? By taking a snapshot of her life and what she did and the works that proceeded out of that faith. Her faith is vindicated.

And brethren, that is really no different than how we're going to be justified on judgment day. We're going to be vindicated on judgment day by our works in the same way that James is speaking about here. So let's see what Rahab did that so vindicates her.

We want the Old Testament account. So turn in your Bibles back to Joshua 2. Joshua 2. And we're going to move through this because I want you to see various things. I want Rahab to be fresh in your mind.

I find Rahab just massively encouraging. So here it is. Joshua 2 v. 1. Are you all there? Here we go.

Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies saying, go view the land. Now notice this, especially Jericho. Why especially Jericho? Well, there may be several reasons.

For one, where they were planning to cross over. That was undoubtedly one of the nearest cities to the point where they were coming into the promised land. But probably also because they were significantly walled and defended.

It was probably a powerhouse among the Canaanites. And they went and came into that. Whatever the reason is, okay, here goes the spies.

They take his words, especially let's go check out Jericho. They came into the house of a prostitute. Now, you've got to figure this out.

These guys are spies. These guys are Hebrew children. They're Jews.

They've been told to go spy, especially give some attention to Jericho. And they go in there. And you might even ask, well, how did they end up in a house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab? Now, notice this.

They lodged there. Now, that's significant. Because what they did was they went in there and they were looking for a lodging place.

They lodged with a harlot. And you know what, brethren, all you had to do was look like the Wild West as we expanded. I mean, basically, if you look at where they serve food and they serve liquor and they had an inn, they were typically brothels as well.

None of this is surprising to us. And then she's located in the wall. At the wall.

So you might have been right inside the gate. Anyways, it would have been strategic. We know there's a window that goes to the outside.

Whether they saw that. It might have been a compelling location. But folks, let me tell you something about this city.

Remember what God had said to Abraham? See, Abraham was told by God that he was going to receive this land, but not yet. Not until when? Not until his descendants went into Egypt and they were there for a handful of generations. What had to happen? The sin of the Amorites had to come up to full measure.

That's where we're at. The sin of the Amorites is now full. Listen to Deuteronomy when it speaks about these people.

When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. And you know what God also said? The land is going to vomit them out. Wow! Why? What were their abominable practices? You can read about them in the Scripture.

For one, God says that their abominable practices had to do with just deviant sexual behavior. I mean, He talks about sex with animals. And He says the nations that you're going to go in there and displace, they're guilty of all these things.

Homosexuality and just aberrant sexual sin. And their idolatry. And you know what God tells us? I don't know if you could even imagine taking your child and putting it in glowing hot arms of a statue.

Can you imagine the scream? Can you imagine? I mean, abominable. The land vomits out the inhabitants. This is the kind of thing you've got.

And so, is it strange? I remember back when I preached through Hebrews 11 that John Piper had said that it's amazing how when the spies come in there, she ends up with her mother and her father and her brothers and everybody. And Piper said, you know what? In our society, if your daughter was a prostitute, you probably are not really involved in her life. And yet, this seemed to be so accepted.

But you've got to remember, this is a debauched thing. Their sin has come up to the point where God is going to vomit them out. They are so wicked and such an abhorrence to Him.

Now look at 2.2. It was told to the king of Jericho, Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land. Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land. Now, you know what jumps out at me? Word had gotten around, even all the way to the king.

And you think, I don't know what kind of spies they were. I mean, they weren't... Yeah, not so good. Now, here's the thing.

You look at it. The king had no reason to distrust Rahab. Not at all.

Because you've got to figure, everybody in Jericho, they were in the same place. The enemy was coming. They're all going to bind together.

Certainly, if there's spies in there, they're all going to be on the same page. He has no reason to distrust her. It's like, they're coming for all of us.

It's like Og and Sihon out there. It's going to be... I mean, Rahab, you're not going to be spared. I'm not going to be spared.

So the reality is, Jericho is probably gripped by this unity of self-preservation. He has no reason to think that she would do anything than cough these guys up if they were still there. Obviously, the king is frightened by this idea that he could be invaded.

He's aware that on the other side of Jordan, they knew they were out there. Word had come back. She's going to tell us.

They heard about Og. They heard about Sihon. They knew all the way back to the parting of the Red Sea.

The stories are coming about what's... They're aware. He's aware. You know, when you read the account, remember the two-and-a-half tribes that were staying on the other side of Jordan? They had 40,000 armed men that went in ahead of everybody else.

And that isn't even including the other nine-and-a-half tribes and all the men that they were going to have. They're coming. They're coming for invasion.

They're coming to displace these people. And they're known to have defeated the giant on the other side of the river. Known to have escaped Pharaoh and his grasp.

Here's a man trying to maintain and save his life, his power, his city. Verse 4, But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said true to the king, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

And I'm not going to get into the line here. She obviously was a woman of faith. Verse 5, And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out.

She says, I don't know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you'll overtake them. But she brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she laid in order on the roof.

And it's not like soldiers even came in and were rifling through everything. It's like they would have believed her. They would have had no reason to think that she'd be harboring these guys who were coming to destroy everybody.

And you know, there's no indication that they were going through, taking a pitchfork and stabbing in the flax and they just happened to miss the guys. None of that stuff. The men believe it.

And they have every reason to. The men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut.

As soon as the pursuers had gone out before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, now all brethren, just listen to her. Because this isn't the work she does that validates the faith. This is her expressing the faith that is behind and energizing why she does the work.

Here's her faith expressed. I know, brethren, we could stop right there. Oh, I can tell what you really know in the depths of your soul by what you do, by how you act, by how you approach the difficulties in life, by how you treat money, by how you treat need, by how you live your life, by the decisions you make.

Here's a conviction. I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. Not just here in our city.

Across the land. For we have heard. And I just ask you, brethren, what have you heard that you know? How the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt.

And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan. To Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard, our hearts melted 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 on the earth beneath. I'll tell you this, what she heard, she knew. She knew that what she heard was the truth and Rahab staked her life on it.

She staked her family on it. She staked her future on it. You see it there.

Her all. On the fact that she'd heard about the Lord and that this was a true God. He was the God of heavens and He was the God of the earth beneath.

And He's the God that divided the Red Sea. He's the true God. He's the God to be feared.

And you know what she recognized? It's rather than to fight against this God, the safest thing was to run into His arms. That's where she's at. Surrender to Him.

Trust Him to be merciful to her. V. 12, Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death. You know what's really interesting about this? You have an enemy that you know is coming to kill you.

And the God who is their God is sending them to kill you. And she seems convinced that this true God produces people who follow Him and are righteous and upright and honest and merciful. Isn't it interesting to you that even though we are not told of a single righteous king in Israel, that when in battle, one of the foreign kings is told the kings of Israel are merciful.

You remember that account? This God produces this kind of people. And she wasn't wrong to think so. And notice Joshua 2.14. It's like her trust in the Lord extends out to trusting the kind of work that He does in His people.

The honesty that He creates in them. Their fear of God to honor their word. Joshua 2.14. It's apparent by their response that this was not misplaced on her part.

And the men said to her, our life for yours, even to death, if you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land, they were confident of that, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned.

Then afterward, you may go your way. The men said to her, we will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie the scarlet cord." I mean, there's no direct reference here or in the New Testament that the scarlet cord was that color because it signified, say, the blood of the Passover lamb that was put on the lintel in the doorpost or the blood of Christ Himself.

But you've got to think there's significance in this. The scarlet cord in the window through which you led us down. And you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers and all your father's household.

Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head." So like Passover. And we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.

Brethren, you've got to think this is probably a deliberate symbol of that blood that turns away the wrath of God. It was hung there to distinguish her house from all the other houses. And you know the thing is, it was the only place of safety.

We often think of the city of refuge. We think of Noah and the ark that God had him build. These places of safety that prefigured Christ.

But you know what we don't think of? Probably we don't put Rahab's inn, her lodge, her brothel as one of those places. And yet it is. It clearly is.

And you know what jumps out at me too that I find encouraging in all of this? I mean look, to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. And when it comes to me looking in Scripture for some sweet thing to give me some encouragement about the soul of my daughter Charity, it is just this reality that the whole family was there. The whole family was welcome.

It wasn't just her. I take courage in that. Now look at verse 20.

Because the thing is, isn't God even in the New Testament in the business of saving whole families? I find that brethren. Don't be content that your children are lost. Don't be content.

Lord, you saved the whole family of a harlot. Will you not save my whole family? Joshua 2.20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you've made us swear. And she said, according to your words, so be it.

Then she sent them away and they departed. And notice this, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. You know, that jumped out at me.

Why? Well, because she already knew the guys were going to go up in the hills and hide for three days. And then it was going to take them however long to get back. And then it was going to take however long for them to actually prepare.

And then however long to stack up all the rocks and the water's going to back up and they're all going to come across. You're talking massive amount of people. They're going to come across.

They're going to set up camp. And then once they actually get there, they have to walk around the city seven different days. She didn't wait.

Would you have? And yet, isn't it amazing? You get people that aren't saved and yet they wait? They wait? She tied that in the window then. It's like it's there. Even if they're likely not going to get back here for weeks or months or however long it took, she put that thing there now.

Brethren, you want Christ now. Children, don't be a fool. Don't be foolish.

Now. Don't think, well, my parents have a Savior that saves them and someday I've got to get... No, no. You see what she did? There's no playing around here.

Right now, she put that in her window. There you go. V. 22, they departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned.

The pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them.

Now, here's the thing. What'd they tell about? Well, James, he sees the fact that she did this to the spies. This justified Rahab's faith as real.

Her willingness to hide the spies and keep them and protect them, lodge them. I'll tell you this. Had that king found out she was lying, you can be sure he'd have executed her and the spies on the spot.

Probably her whole family. They executed them all. You can be positive of that.

She feared the true God more than she feared the king. And more than she feared losing her life. She took a huge risk.

Brethren, you've got to know, that whole city was on edge. People are running around. They're suspicious.

I mean, had they been discovered, it was all over. Rahab's act could have cost her her life. Evidence of her faith is found right here in this tremendous act.

Courageous trust in the true God. The God of the heavens and the earth beneath. Then, when Israel came, turn over to Joshua 6. I'm just going to have you look at a handful of verses right here.

Joshua 6. So, they report. Here comes Joshua and the whole of Israel into the promised land. God backs up the waters of the Jordan.

They come in. God tells them, here's how I want you to take. Yes, they're walled.

They have this mighty wall around the city of Jericho. But, you're going to go and you're going to circle this city once and you're going to do that for six days and then on the seventh day, you're going to go around that thing seven times and we know what happened. The walls fell down.

So, here they come. Joshua 6.20 The people shouted. The trumpets were blown.

This is the seventh day. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout and the wall fell down flat. So the people went into the city.

Every man straight before him and they captured the city. And you know what they were told to do? You don't spare anybody. This picture reminds me of Bunyan.

Pilgrim's Progress, the city of destruction. Everybody is destroyed. Everyone is devoted to destruction.

There's no escape. And it didn't matter if you were pregnant, you were young, you were old, you were male, you were female. One day you're safe behind your wall.

And you can imagine how often they put their trust in that wall. To have a wall around the city was pretty critical in those days. And you know what? From all accounts, this was a wall that would have been hard to get past because you're fighting a city with a wall.

They're able to stand on the top of the wall and you're down below. So for one, you're in the bad position. And you've got gravity in your favor if you're on top of that wall and you're throwing anything down, whether it's javelins or spears or arrows or whatever, you're obviously in the prominent position.

And to try to even get to the base of the wall so that you can come up the side or in any way try to knock the wall down or punch a hole in it, you are going to have things raining down on your head. You'll remember one account where simply a millstone is cast off and a man was killed by a woman. A woman can kill you easily enough by just dropping all her stuff on your head.

And so, this is a big deal. They've got this wall. And brethren, you can imagine, there they are.

They're safe behind their wall. They're a prominent city. Jericho.

Especially go there. Why? You can imagine. This isn't a special fortress.

This isn't a special place. They're behind their wall. They're at comfort.

They're at their ease. They've got their wealth. And then sudden destruction.

Their walls come down. They're laid bare. And there it is.

By the edge of the sword. Brethren, that's a devastating... Have you ever imagined being one of these guys that ran into that city with a sword? Can you imagine just running through here? A crowd. You've got people running all over and people are screaming and men and women and you're running in and God has told you with the edge of the sword.

Brethren, that's a devastating picture. And I'll tell you what all of this is. It's like the city of destruction.

This is all a picture of the destruction that comes through sin. The penalty of sin. Listen to this.

Deuteronomy says, Every abominable thing that the Lord hates, they have done for their gods. They even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Every abominable thing.

There are cancer among the nations. The cruelties, the abominations practiced by those people required punishment. And the Canaanites were destroyed.

They lost their lives. And anybody who thinks that God won't do this... You know, this is one of the things when I was lost, I just thought, God wouldn't do that to me. You know, people that are really notoriously bad, God might do these kinds of things too.

Brethren, here it is. Anybody who thinks God won't do these kinds of things to sinners, they're just dreaming. God, we know.

We have a holy God. He must, He will, He acts against every sin. You are going to pay.

You're going to be utterly put to destruction or Christ in your place is going to suffer the crushing and that destruction. And brethren, I'll tell you this. We live in a world, and sometimes you see people even comfortable.

They float in and out of the church and they hear the preaching and stuff, but we've got people all over the place that are just like these people in Jericho. They live fat and they live secure behind their wall. And they think that wall is going to hold them.

They think that wall is going to protect them. They're rejecting God. They've got all these false hopes in that wall.

Joshua 6.22 But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore to her. So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belong to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel.

You know, they had their laws of cleanliness and everything and probably men had to be circumcised and anyway, they put them out at first. And then look at verse 25. Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belong to her, Joshua saved alive.

There was only one place of salvation. You had to be in that house where that red cord hung. Everyone else destroyed.

One place of safety. That's it. And she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

And it's interesting that gets emphasized because when you come over to the New Testament, Scripture makes a big deal out of this. She hid the messengers Joshua sent. This is what James says, in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? Hebrews 11.

We've got this whole list of faith. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. And you know what? In the Old Testament, after you get through Joshua 6, verse 25, Rahab disappears.

You don't find her anywhere. When you come to the New Testament, she's there in the hall of faith. Hebrews 11.

She's there with Abraham in James 2. Amazingly, brethren, the New Testament begins right in the first chapter of Matthew with a reference to her. Salmon, the father of Boaz. Who married Boaz? Ruth married Boaz.

Salmon was the father. This is her father-in-law. Ruth's father-in-law.

Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed, the father of Jesse. And of course, Jesse, the father of David.

In 1 Chronicles, in all those genealogies, it says Ram fathered Amminadab. Amminadab fathered Nashon. Nashon is the father of Salmon who fathered Boaz.

You know what it calls Nashon? Prince of the sons of Judah. Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. This man who is the prince in Judah, a prince of the sons of Judah, has a son who makes him a prince.

He married Rahab. We always think of Naomi as Ruth's mother-in-law. Ruth actually marries Boaz and ends up with another mother-in-law that we don't think a whole lot about.

Rahab. It's just like if you're Nashon and you're in this princely line, it's kind of like with the priests. You know, if you're a priest, you could only marry into the... I mean, she had to be a virgin or she had to be a widow of another priest.

It was very limited. Here's a man who's a prince in Judah in the very messianic line and he marries Rahab. Brethren, just think of Rahab.

In so many ways, she's remarkably unlike Abraham. She has no advantages. She has no heritage.

She doesn't have the oracles of God. She doesn't have any teachers in her life. She's surrounded by all this paganism.

She's surrounded by all these bad influences. She's selling her body. I mean, I try to think, a woman selling her body, giving her body to strange men.

They become disconnected. I mean, you know, all that the Amorites, all that the Canaanites were given to, just bad influences. Abraham's a Jew.

Rahab, she's a Gentile. Abraham a man. Obviously, Rahab a woman.

Abraham was called a friend of God. You know what Rahab is called even in the New Testament? Rahab the harlot. Rahab the prostitute.

He was a great leader. He could take 318 guys and lead them against the people that kidnapped Lot. And he went in there.

I mean, he was a leader. He was wealthy. He was a recipient of the covenant.

God spoke with him. Just a militarily cunning man. He was at the top of the social ladder.

He had all sorts of stuff. What is Rahab? And you know what's amazing? They both appear in Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Faith. They both are in the genealogy of Jesus and they're both the examples that James wants to bring up in James 2. Now brethren, just let's think about this Hebrews 11 for a second.

Because back when I preached through Hebrews, this was significant and it jumped out at me. Who's in there? I find that Jephthah's in there. You guys ever seen him in there? That guy made a vow that cost him his daughter's life.

But it doesn't get brought up in Hebrews 11. David's in there. David murdered a guy.

David and Bathsheba. We don't need to get into the details. But you know what? You know what's very interesting about Hebrews 11? It never calls him a murderer.

It never calls him an adulterer. Even James was dealing with this several weeks back. Abraham and Isaac both.

They gave their wives to foreign kings saying, He's my brother. None of that. Sarah laughed in unbelief.

That's not recorded in Hebrews 11. How about Samson? Samson's in there. He distinctly had a problem with foreign women.

That never gets brought up. You know what? Hebrews 11 has always struck me as the way God is going to judge His people on Judgment Day. It's only good.

It only says what they did by faith. It doesn't mention any of their sins. Brethren, this is so consistent with what Scripture says as far as the East is from the West.

God casting it behind His back. Forgetfulness. Into the depths of the sea.

Those are the kind of things that God says about our sin. It's like Hebrews 11 is such a perfect representation of what's going to be declared about. It's like we come, and even now as we think about judgment, well, we quake a little bit.

And yes, God is fearful, and we ought to. And He's holy, and we've got to stand before Him. And Jesus Himself says, I'll tell you who you ought to fear.

But brethren, there is going to be a reality where we are going to hear well done, good and faithful servants. Yeah, but what about all those things? Craig mentioned it. God has not dealt with us according to our sins.

They're not even going to get brought up, folks. As far as the East and from the West, that's what that means. Behind my back.

He forgets them. And yet in all... I'll tell you the thing that stands out about Rahab in Hebrews. One thing is she's the only Gentile.

Everybody else is Jewish, or they're of that Jewish heritage even before Abraham. She's the only pronounced Gentile in the group. And the thing is, both James and the author of Hebrews calls her Rahab the harlot, the prostitute.

It's like that jumps out at me. It's like the failures of all the other guys, they're forgotten. It says there at the end, people of whom the world is not worthy.

And the only negative thing is that in the entire chapter. It's like, wait, wait, wait, wait. Rahab has faith.

Rahab has so much faith that she's in the hall of faith. She has such faith that it's only her and Abraham that get brought up in James chapter 2. She was a believer. She wasn't disobedient with the others.

That's what it says in Hebrews. She's saved. She's in glory.

She's forgiven. She's right there in the cloud of witnesses. Right there alongside, I mean from the very beginning.

But Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Jacob and David and Samson and all the rest. Samson isn't called a womanizer. Why is that? David's not got this tag on him.

The author of Hebrews could have easily left that label out. James could have left it out. It almost makes us feel like, wow, this poor woman.

I mean, aren't her sins forgiven too? And it runs even deeper. I just think about that Abraham. Abraham means like the father of a multitude.

And you think in James 2, Rahab. Do you guys know what Rahab means? Rahab means pride. In Hebrews 11, you just have two women.

Only one Gentile. But two women. Sarah.

Sarah means, we just thought about this last week, Sarah means the princess of nations. Rahab. Pride.

Egypt is called Rahab. Listen to this. Isaiah 30 says, Egypt's help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her Rahab.

It's a derogatory name. It's the image of a loud, proud, arrogant, unbridled whore who got her living from selling her body. That's the idea.

Rahab is a horrible name. She's Rahab the harb. Only representative in Hebrews 11 from among the heathen.

And the thing is, in so many ways, Rahab's so unlike all the other people there in Hebrews 11. I mean, these guys are valiant in battle. You've got David and you've got Samson and Jephthah and Gideon.

And Abraham. I mean, these guys are men of men. Abraham said God found his heart faithful.

I was just reading in Nehemiah 9 today. Against hope. We come over to Romans 4. Against hope.

I mean, his faith didn't waver. It grew strong. Abraham's got all the saints.

Father of the faithful. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. I mean, these guys are the patriarchs.

Noble race. Rahab. Her whole city's decimated.

She escapes. She's this cursed, sin-laden Amorite. And for all the difference, for all the disparity between them, for all the dissimilarity between Rahab and Abraham, the fact is that Rahab possessed the one thing in common with Abraham that really matters.

That's really necessary. They both, through their whole life, on trusting that the Lord God was the God. The great God.

The powerful God. The God to be trusted. The God under whose wings to find shelter.

Abraham did and so did Rahab. You think about this. Remember what she said? I know the Lord has given you the land.

Who? Well, these guys not long ago were slaves. They were slaves of Pharaohs. And then God wiped out a whole bunch of them out in the wilderness.

And you know what? They're not like the Canaanites we know. The Canaanites we know, like they have 10,000 chariots over here just waiting for these guys to come across the river. And by the way, the Jordan is at flood stage right now.

These guys are slaves. These guys have been wandering around out there for 40 years. They're not... We're behind our walls.

But you know, the fact is, Rahab somewhere, somehow, had heard about this God that delivered His people from Pharaoh. God's reputation as the divider of the Red Sea had preceded Him and all these troops. She just recognized, this God is fearful.

This God is not a God you want to fight against. This is a God you want on your side. This is a God you want to be on His side.

This is a God you want to bow down to. It's safest there in His arms, pleading for mercy from Him. Brethren, when we consider Rahab over against Abraham, I can tell you there's many differences.

But none of the differences matter at all. What James is telling us is this, what counts is faith in the living God. And it's the kind of faith in the living God that sees Him as a big God and is willing to make decisions and is willing to take risks and is willing to bank your life on the fact of who He is and what He's promised.

That's what they have in common. This faith that you have is such an energizing force to the way you live that it shows itself real like it did in both the lives of Abraham and Rahab. Rahab the prostitute.

You know what that says? It says you don't have to come from good stock. It says that you don't have to come from the perfect family. It says that you can come from this horrific background of all sorts of sin and wickedness and filthiness.

You can have run with the wrong crowd, a filthy crowd, wretched people. You can be so shockingly wicked that 3,500 years later they're still calling you by the sin you were involved with. You can have that kind of reputation.

But what this is telling us, if we'll seek shelter under the arm of this Almighty God, brethren, you seek shelter there, you'll find the compelling refuge, that foundation on which... Brethren, that is what produces the energy to produce the kind of works. It is that confidence in who He is. When you're confident of what He has said, you're confident of His person, you're confident of what He is able to do, you will step out.

And that's what she did. She cast it all. The great trial.

Brethren, all of these things, whether it was her... Self-denial. This might cost me my life. For Abraham, put my son on there.

It's self-denial. When it's you meeting the needs, because that's what James was dealing with, you meeting the needs of a poor brother. Again, it's self-denial.

It's putting it all out there. It's putting it on the line. Abraham, put it on there.

Rahab, put it on the altar. And brethren, one of the things, right here at the end, I'm done, but listen to this. I realize the Scripture says, it says it right there in Romans 1, that we live from faith to faith.

Beginning and ending with faith. I recognize that every single day is a day to exercise faith in this God. That's true.

But something strikes me about Abraham and Rahab. Neither of them failed when the big test came. That jumps out.

The big test. Both of them are defined thousands of years later by the big test. That's what James does.

He brings out the things that define them. You remember Revelation 14. Revelation 14.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them. I just ask you this.

What deeds define your faith? Because this is essential. This is where James is at. This is personal.

I have to ask that. What have I done in my life that really defines what I think about God and how convinced, how compelled I am by who He is and what He's promised? Brethren, you know what? He gives us these two examples because He expects us to imitate them. And if we do, that would tend to mean that a thousand years from now if somebody recorded your story just the same way Rahab and Abraham are meant to encourage us, to confront us, to challenge us, so if we actually have imitated them the way James and God Himself desire us to imitate, we're going to take risk because of who God is.

Comparable to theirs. So that if we actually do imitate them, there's going to be something that defines your faith so that to your children, your grandchildren, even a thousand years if somebody told your story, it would be just as motivating as their story because we're supposed to be like them somehow. The big test.

Does that trust make you take risks? Rahab risked it all. Brethren, this is where we're at. This is what I have to ask myself.

This is the example. This is what proves it's all true. She heard something.

She said, I know something about this God. And she put it all on the line. Brethren, God has spoken to us.

This is His Word. You believe this book? What James is saying, there's got to be proof. What is it about my life that says I believe God is a big God? Are we going to corporately believe that? He is a big God.

Because the bigger you think He is, you can never think He's big as He is. Our estimation always falls short. But if you even begin to approach thinking how Abraham and Rahab fought, what would you do that right now you're not doing? Brethren, we need bigger views of God.

Who He is. What He's capable of. What He's able to do.

That's where they're at. Brethren, we're confident in this God of heaven above and earth beneath who can split the seas and halt the rivers and cause these great walls of Jericho to come tumbling down. I just say, what Brother Andy always says, onward.

Brethren, we're not to the end yet. Because when you get to the end of Hebrews 11, there's a race. We keep our eyes on Christ, but we're not there yet.

We have not made it to the end. Those guys did. That's why they're the cloud of witnesses.

They're encouraging us on, but we're not there yet. And what are they encouraging us to do? The same thing they did. By faith, they did things.

Let's do it. Onward to the end. Father, may Rahab encourage us to something.

Put a boldness in our step. A fearlessness in the fight. You're the same God.

We thank You for a red cord in the window, especially of a harlot who stands forth with such a faith that it echoes down to our day. What grace! What Rahab speaks to us is glorious. Thank You.

Amen.