Saved Through Faith

0:58I can't bend over and pick something up when I'm wearing a suit, but he can defeat all the bad guys wearing one. Most spy movies have something in common. There's almost always a lovely lady in distress. And what happens is that the spies have to figure out how to rescue that lady, whether that's James Bond or Ethan Hunt or Jason Bourne. But in today's text, in Joshua 2, we've got the makings of a great spy movie.

1:28Got a couple of spies, you've got a lovely lady. In danger. But in our text today, it's these incompetent spies who are going to have to be rescued by this lovely lady in danger. But I want to go back 40 years first to when the Israelites first came to the promised land. Moses sent 12 spies into the land to see what the land was like and to scope out the people. And these 12 men were all key leaders in their tribes. They were men of stature.

2:01And as we know from Numbers 13, the spies returned after 40 days and they brought a good report of the land. They said, hey, just like God said, it does indeed flow with milk and honey. It is a very desirable place to live. But it's also filled with big, strong people and large, fortified cities. So the people panicked and their fear overcame their faith in God and they refused to enter the promised land. And for their unbelief, God had them wander the wilderness for 40 years until that entire unbelieving generation died out.

2:35So we can understand why Joshua doesn't send 12 spies, but two, reminiscent of him and Caleb. And no doubt, these were not men of stature. These were men of faith. He sends those two spies into the land, and their task is similar to the original 12 spies. They're supposed to look at the land, especially Jericho, which is going to be their first military target. And what we see here is that Joshua, like any good leader, wants to be prepared.

3:06He is assuming, as you would, that they are going to have to take the city through conventional warfare. They're going to need to gather intel. They're going to need to make sure they preserve the element of surprise, that they attack the city at the weakest points, that they prepare for the counterattacks of the enemy. Those are his working assumptions that they're going to have to use conventional warfare. Now, if you haven't read the story before, I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but those methods won't be necessary. We'll just say that.

3:38Thing is, Joshua didn't know that. And the first challenge I want you to take out of this text today is that faith is not presumptuous. Faith is not presumptuous. Joshua did not assume that they would just cross the Jordan and walk up to Jericho with no preparation at all, and that God would just give the city into their hands. No, he does everything that a good military commander would do because his assumption is that God is going to fight with them and for them, and he's going to give them the victory, but that he's going to do it through their valiant effort on the battlefield. He's not presuming upon the grace of God to take care of them. And friends, I think we need to guard ourselves, like Joshua, against that sin of presumption.

4:29That attitude. That says, I don't need to study. God will take care of me. I don't need to work hard at my job. God will take care of me. I don't need to plan appropriately for the future. God will take care of me. Friends, God does promise to take care of us, but ordinarily he takes care of us through ordinary means, through our diligent preparation, our hard work, not often through miraculous means. And so faith is not presumptuous.

5:01So Joshua sends these two spies into the land because he is trying to be as prepared as possible. What he doesn't know is that there's another reason that he's actually being moved by God to send these two spies into the land. And we meet that other reason in verse 1. One of the citizens of Jericho was a woman named Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute. Nothing more is said about her backstory. So she could have been a cult prostitute for the Canaanite goddess Ashtoreth, who was the goddess of sensual love.

5:36Or maybe she was just a lady of the night. We don't know. We don't know because God didn't tell us, and that's because God clearly didn't think that those details were important for us to know. But what we do know is that her occupation placed her on the low end of society. People like Rahab are at the bottom of the social ladder. They're usually very poor. And her housing situation, which we looked at, Learned about in verse 15 makes that abundantly clear. It says she lived in the city wall.

6:05You might be thinking to yourself, how does one live in a wall? Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book or something. Well, cities like Jericho usually had two walls, an inner wall and an outer wall. The outer wall was usually about six feet thick, and then there was a gap of about 15 feet, and then you had an inner wall that was maybe about 12 feet thick. So the idea was that if an opposing army came and attacked the city, hopefully that outer wall would slow them down or stop them. If they got into the in between the outer wall and the inner wall, well, now they're trapped in that 15-foot space trying to figure out how to scale or get through that thick inner wall, and that gave the army time to attack them from on high. So that was the thought process. And so if you're building your house in between those two walls, a few things are clear.

6:55One is you must be poor because that's clearly not a desirable place to build a house. There's no air conditioning, and so there's very little airflow in between two ginormous walls. But also, if the city is attacked, you and your family are going to be the first people to die. So it's just not a good situation. But the spies go to Rahab's house, and we aren't told exactly why. That seems a bit scandalous, doesn't it, for these Israelite men to go to the house of a woman like this?

7:30They go to her house, and remember, they're trying to keep a low profile. And so, two guys coming in from out of town to visit a harlot who lives in the city wall is probably not going to raise a lot of suspicion. That thing probably happened all the time. So, it was a decent plan, but as we mentioned earlier, these two spies are definitely not James Bond and Ethan Hunt. They're not chosen for their spying ability, they're chosen for their faith.

7:54And that's very evident because they haven't been there for like five minutes, and already the king sends officers to Rahab's house. Which just goes to show that long before big tech, every government on earth already knew what you were doing. So, the officers show up, and they're like, We know that you've got two spies from Israel there in your house, bring them out. And Rahab, who surely understood the potential consequences of her actions, lies right to their faces. She was smart enough to admit that they came to her house.

8:32See, she knew that if she denied that outright, if she was like, What are you talking about? I don't know what you mean. I've never seen two men from Israel. If she would have done that, they would have known immediately she was lying because informants saw them. So, she wisely says, Yes, you're right. She confirms what they already knew. They did come, but then she lies and says she didn't know where they were from and that they had already left.

8:55As though she's been in spy work her whole life, she fakes patriotism and she says, Yeah, go on after. Them, if you pursue them, you will surely overtake them. And friends, I think before we move on, it's good to just consider the ethical dilemma that's presented in this text, because this has tripped up a lot of Christians over the years. Like, what do you do with the fact that Rahab tells a lie? Is that okay? I mean, lying is condemned in Scripture. Well, I think a few facts are relevant. The first is that we're reading a narrative account.

9:29So, this is descriptive and not prescriptive in nature. This is saying, here's what happened, not here's what you should always do in every situation. Second, it's important to note that Rahab's actions are never condemned in the Bible. Every time that Rahab's actions are spoken of in Scripture, she's praised. She's not praised specifically for lying, but she is praised for what she did. Take a look at Hebrews 11. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

10:10Take a look at James 2. And 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? Every time that we read about Rahab in Scripture, she's commended for her faith. Third, though the citizens of Jericho didn't know it yet, they were at war. Do you owe the truth to your enemy? So I think we need to think through this ethical dilemma. How do you define lying? Well, lying is deliberately misrepresenting the truth, or it's presenting false information as true. So by those definitions, Rahab lied. She did.

11:00But as with all ethical dilemmas, we have to differentiate between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. So Colossians 3:9 says, do not lie to one another. Very straightforward. But why? None of God's commands are arbitrary. So anytime he gives us a command, there is a reason for it. The reason that lying is condemned in Scripture is because in almost every instance, our motives for lying are sinful. So we lie to make ourselves look better because we're afraid of what other people think of us.

11:44Or we lie to get the outcome that we want because we don't trust God to provide the outcome in another way. So lying is condemned in Scripture because our motives are almost always sinful. But there could be rare instances where deliberately misrepresenting the truth or lying may not be sinful, and this might be one of them. Another instance in Scripture is where the Hebrew midwives lie to Pharaoh and to Pharaoh's officers about putting the children to death.

12:17So you need to study God's Word and think long and hard about this ethical dilemma. Because the reality is, all of us would love for every situation in life to be black and white, to have a very clear and straightforward answer. But, friends, the truth is, we live in a fallen world. And in a fallen world, we're sometimes faced with hard choices. So, me personally, because I know you're wondering, what do you think? I'm up here talking about it. I don't think that Rahab sinned in this instance.

12:50But you're going to have to figure that out for yourself. Verse 8. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, 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. For we have heard 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 it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in us. Any man because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

13:41So before the officers came, Rahab had taken them up to the roof where she hid them under stalks of flax. And flax stalks are these long things, three or four feet in length. They're dried, usually out on the roof, anywhere it's going to get really hot, so that you can make yarn out of them. And so this is a perfect hiding spot for the spies. So remember, it's dark. The officers, because of what Rahab said, went out of the city. The gate is closed. Nobody gets back in or out after the gate's closed for the evening in a fortified city. And so there's enough time now, she's bought enough time to go up to them and have this conversation. And this conversation is really the centerpiece of the whole story. Because it's here that she says, listen, we've heard the stories. These stories are 40 plus years old, some of them. We've heard the stories about how your God split the Red Sea and destroyed the whole Egyptian army. We've heard the stories about how you fought against and destroyed those tribes who wouldn't let you peacefully pass through the land when you asked for it. We've heard all those stories, and we know it's over.

14:52But I want you to look at the end of verse 11 again because you have here Rahab's declaration of faith. She says, For the Lord your God, He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. I want to take you back to what we studied earlier this year in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Take a look on the screen. It says, For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

15:31You see, everybody in Jericho was scared. Text says that their hearts melted for fear. There's no doubt that there was a lot of grief, a lot of sorrow that accompanied this understanding that their city, their families, their way of life was probably about to be destroyed forever. So everybody was scared. But here's the thing: only Rahab feared the Lord. Everybody else was scared because they were thinking, we're going to be unsuccessful in fighting against Israel's army.

16:12But Rahab was scared because she had been unsuccessfully fighting against Israel's God her entire life. So she comes forward with this bold statement of faith and she says, none of their gods are real, perhaps including the one that she served as. A temple prostitute. None of them are real. Only your God is real. He is the Lord in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. So, as Paul talks about worldly grief leads to death, we're going to see that in a few weeks with the destruction of Jericho. But godly grief leads to repentance and salvation with no regrets, and that's what you see in Rahab's life.

17:00Let's pick up in verse 12. Rahab says, 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. 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, 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 this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your 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, 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. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear. And she said, according to your words, so be it. Then she sent them away, and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in her window.

18:47In exchange for helping them, Rahab asks the spies to deal kindly and mercifully with her and her father's house by sparing their lives. And you notice that the spies quickly and eagerly agree. As long as Rahab doesn't tell the king or his officers or anybody else that this attack is coming, as long as she keeps her end of the deal, they will deal kindly and faithfully with her and her family. Now, you may remember last week we were talking about one of the big objections that is raised in the book of Joshua, and that objection is that this book seems to support genocide, seems to support ethnic cleansing.

19:28Well, I think you see right here, The promise of the spies shows that that's not the case. If this was really about ethnic cleansing, they're not going to agree to spare Rahab's life, much less her entire family. No, this campaign for the promised land was not about ethnic cleansing. God is willing to receive anyone who comes to him in repentance and faith. The campaign to conquer the promised land was God's judgment on these wicked nations for their rebellion against him and especially for their sinful practices of worshiping false gods and burning their children alive in the fire as offerings to those false gods. That's why God's judgment was coming. Rahab and her family would be spared because, unlike the rest of the people, they responded to God's coming judgment with humility and repentance and faith.

20:25But the question is, how are they going to be saved from God's judgment when it comes in the form of Israel's army? I mean, even if you told every single Israelite in the army that there was this woman that helped them, how would they know who she was? How would they know who her family was? Well, in verse 18, we saw that the spies told her what to do. Gather your whole family into the house and hang this scarlet cord out of the window.

20:54Does that remind you of anything? Right before. God put to death all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt? This is what we read in Exodus chapter 12. Take a look. Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. Listen to this: None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

21:47When God brought judgment on the nation of Egypt, the avenging angel, the angel of the Lord, passed over every house that had the scarlet blood spread on the doorposts. And in the exact same way, the avenging army of Israel would pass over Rahab's house because it had the scarlet cord hanging out from the window as a sign of faith in Israel's God. God is merciful and gracious. He is slow to anger. He is abounding and steadfast. Love. Rahab and her family deserved to die for their sin and their rebellion against God.

22:38But they were going to be saved from God's judgment because they heard his warning, they believed his word, and they acted in faith. And friends, in the same way, if we want to be saved from God's judgment, we must hear his warning and believe his word and act in faith. We have to hear his warning. Jesus came the first time to save the world. He came to be the spotless Lamb who lived perfectly and died a sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf, who rose from the grave victorious over sin and death. But when he comes again the second time, he's not coming to save the world, he's coming to judge the world. We have to hear that warning that judgment is coming. We also have to believe his word. Jesus is the word made flesh, and he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. He is the only way that we can be saved from our sin and rebellion.

23:53And we have to act in faith. We have to repent of our sin. We have to confess Jesus as Lord. And we must respond by putting our trust in him and him alone for salvation. Have you done that? Have you heard the warning and believed the word and responded in faith? If not, friends, today needs to be the day. Because we don't know when the day of judgment is coming, but we know that it is coming. And so we urge you to receive Jesus by faith today.

24:28Let's pick up in verse 22. They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned. And 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. And they said to Joshua, Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.

25:08Let me ask you a question. What was the point of this whole endeavor? I mean, these faithful but incompetent spies were nearly caught like five minutes after they got to Jericho. They gathered exactly zero. Useful intel. The only thing that they learned was that the people were afraid of them. But so what? Just imagine, for the sake of argument, that they went into the city and they found the entire city getting ready for war, and none of them were afraid of Israel at all.

25:52Would that have changed anything? Friends, at this point, nothing that the spies learned was going to make this a go-no-go situation. They were going. They were going in no matter what. They had already been on the brink of the promised land once and refused to enter due to lack of faith. Joshua was not going to tell the people no matter what the spies came back and said, guys, it's too hard. We're turning around. We're going back to Egypt. That was never going to happen.

26:22So I ask again, what was the point of this whole endeavor? This whole thing was a rescue mission for Rahab. The whole thing. God, in his kindness, chose to save this one woman and her family. This one woman and her family who did not deserve it, just like we don't deserve it. He sent two men into a wicked city. To save a family in the same way that he sent two angels into wicked Sodom to save Lot and his family from destruction and judgment.

27:12And this one woman, this one woman with a sordid past, would play a truly significant role in salvation history. Because you see, after Jericho fell, Rahab and her family assimilated into Israel, and she married a man, an Israelite man, named Salmon. And I don't have time to talk about how godly of a man that Salmon must have been, not just to receive Rahab and her family, these Amorites, into the Israelite family, the family of God, but to say, I will marry that woman.

27:53Salmon and Rahab had a son together. His name was Boaz. And Boaz is that farmer that showed such unbelievable kindness to Ruth, the widow from Moab, who moved to Bethlehem after both she and her mother-in-law lost their husbands. And Boaz married Ruth just like his dad had married Rahab because those two men cared more about the faith of those women than they did about their pasts. Or where they were from. And many centuries later, Jesus Christ would descend from David, who descended from Boaz and Ruth the widow from Moab, who descended from Salmon and Rahab the prostitute from Jericho.

28:58Friends, if you think that God could never accept you because of your past or because of your present, all you need to do is look at the story of Rahab, this woman who did not deserve to be saved, just like none of us deserve to be saved. But God mercifully and graciously pursued her and called her to himself and rescued her from his judgment that she deserved. It reminds me of the words of Jesus in John 6:37: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

29:46I hope and pray that if you have not come to Jesus Christ because you are worried that your past will not allow you to do so, that today would be the day that you see for the first time that you can never make yourself good enough. You can never make yourself pure enough. You can never do enough good to make up for all the sin that you've committed to come to God and have Him accept you. The only thing that you can do is to come to Him knowing that you are not good enough, but that Jesus Christ was, and that He lived and died and rose again for you. Anyone who comes to Him, He will never cast out. And so I pray that you would come to Him this morning if you haven't already.

30:31Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this beautiful story of your rescuing grace. There is no God like you who is perfectly just and will bring righteous judgment, but who also is perfectly merciful and gracious and never turns away anyone who comes to Him. Father, I pray for any man, any woman, any child. Here today, who has thought to themselves, God would never and could never accept me. I pray that Rahab's story is the encouragement that they need to come to you, knowing that they will be received not because of their work or their intentions or anything else, but because of the person and work of Jesus.

32:04And God, I pray that the rest of us who have already come to faith in Christ, I pray that you would remind us that we are as undeserving, that we are as unworthy as Rahab or any other sinner. And so we pray that you would keep us humble and remind us that we are saved only by your grace. Thank you, God. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.