Saved: By Faith
By Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
If you were to chose. Who should be the next hero of faith for this week?
Obviously - Joshua right?
Back ground on Joshua.
Early leadership:
Joshua served as Moses aide and military leader
He was one of two spies who believed that they Israelites could conquer Canaan and move into the promise land God had promised.
God appointed Joshua to succeed Moses and lead Israel into the promised land.
Enoch: Walked by faith
Noah: Built
Abraham: Trusted
Now Joshua?
How about highlighting a lady of faith. We briefly covered Sarah in Heb 11:11 last wk.
Let’s focus in on Rahab.
The unlikely hero of the story is a prostitute.
This great leader Joshua is going to trust the intel of a non-Jewish lady and a prostitute. This is the lest likely of candidates.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
Prostitute: The bible does not hide it.
1. Our Hall of Faith Hero is a prostitute.
1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. 2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
Of all places they went to the house of a prostitute?
4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
2. Our Hall of Faith Hero is a liar.
Story of mission trip saved by a lie.
8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.
I Know
10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
We have heard / When we heard of it
3. Our Hall of Faith Hero believed what she heard.
12 “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.” 14 “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”
Our lives for your lives
4. Our Hall of Faith Hero made a life saving deal.
For the whole family.
15 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. 16 She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”
17 Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us 18 unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. 19 If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them.
Scarlet cord
In the case of Rahab, the spies instructed her to hang a scarlet rope out of the window of her house, which was built into the wall (Josh. 2:18). This scarlet rope would identify the “house of safety” to the army of Israel when they came to take the city. The color of the rope is significant for it reminds us of blood. Just as the blood on the doorposts in Egypt marked a house that the angel of death was to pass over (Ex. 12:1–13), so the scarlet rope marked a house on the Jericho wall whose occupants the Jewish soldiers were to protect.
Rahab was a woman of great courage. She had to tell all her relatives about the coming judgment and the promise of salvation, and this was a dangerous thing to do. Suppose one of those relatives told the king what was going on. She also had to give a reason for the scarlet line hanging out her window.
Stories of families telling Nazi’s about family members rescuing Jews.
5. Our Hall of Faith Hero displayed courageous faith.
20 But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.” 21 “Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.” So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window. 22 When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. 23 Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. 24 They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?
considered righteous
Tweet from a teacher: “I asked my class, ‘what do you need to do to be saved?’ The first kid yelled out ‘SIN!’”
Our Hall of Faith Hero was a lying / prostitute and was clearly a sinner. But she put her and her families saving faith in God.
Rahab was a harlot, an unlikely person to put faith in the true God of Israel! She was saved by grace, because the other inhabitants of the city were marked out for death. God in His mercy and grace permitted Rahab to live.
But she was saved by faith. What she knew about God is recorded in Joshua 2:8–14. She knew that Jehovah had delivered Israel from Egypt and that He had opened the Red Sea. But that was forty years before! She also knew God had defeated the other nations during Israel’s wilderness wanderings. “For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (Josh. 2:11). That was her testimony of faith, and God honored it.
She was saved unto good works. True faith must always show itself in good works (James 2:20–26). She protected the spies, put the cord in the window as directed (Josh. 2:15–21), apparently won her family to the true faith (Josh. 2:13; 6:25), and in every way obeyed the Lord.
Not only was Rahab delivered from judgment, but she became a part of the nation of Israel. She married Salmon and gave birth to Boaz who was an ancestor of King David (Matt. 1:4–6).
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,
Whose mother was Rahab
Imagine a pagan harlot becoming a part of the ancestry of Jesus Christ! That is what faith can do!
Rahab gives no excuse to unsaved people who give excuses for not trusting Christ.
“I don’t know very much about the Bible” is an excuse I often hear. Rahab knew very little spiritual truth, but she acted on what she did know.
“I am too bad to be saved!” is another excuse. But Rahab was a condemned heathen harlot!
Another excuse is, “What will my family think?” Rahab’s first concern was saving her family, not opposing them. She stands as one of the great women of faith in the Bible.
The rescue rope of Salvation.