Saving Faith

Good morning. I am one of the pastors here, Jason. If I haven't met you, I'd love to do that today, get a chance to talk with you. I'm glad you're here. And if you're newer with us, great news. We are only one message so far into this new series in the book of Joshua.

So if you missed chapter one, you can pick up on that, read that, or maybe catch the sermon on the live stream after this. But we're going to go right on into chapter two today. Chapter two of Joshua has got to be one of the most amazing, fun stories to tell.

So if I get this wrong, if you fall asleep today, it's my fault. It's my fault. Let me begin reading for us in verse one, and we're going to read all the way through verse 24.

Joshua chapter two, verse one. Please follow along with me as I read for us. And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho.

And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.

And 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.

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out.

I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and had hid them with stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof.

So the men pursued 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,

I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen on 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.

As soon as we heard it, 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.

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 the 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 on 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, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household. Then if anyone goes out the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless.

But if any 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 the 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 the window. 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 spies returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua, 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.

Let's pray once more, shall we? Father, we do ask for open hearts today. Father, as we look into the faith of this Canaanite woman, will you teach us about what saving faith truly is?

And we will give you all the glory through Jesus Christ, your son. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. If you've ever heard the old phrase, their reputation precedes them, you have some idea of what's going on here, right?

That's what's happening. These Canaanites here in Jericho have apparently heard more than a thing or two about these people, and more importantly, about their God.

Joshua initiates the action in verse 1. Little military strategy. Being himself a former scout, a spy, he decides that that's the plan right now.

But he doesn't send 12 spies like they did 40 years earlier. He sends only two. Maybe he thought since last time only two were good, we're going to send two.

He sends these two men into the city. He says, Go view the land, and especially Jericho. Now, there are a few scholars that question Joshua's decision here.

Like he's not totally trusting God, but militarily speaking, this is pretty routine stuff. And we also know, and Joshua knows, that although God does things supernaturally, he's not going to give them this land just by dropping it at their feet.

They're going to have to go into this land with some weapons in hand. So sending a couple of scouts makes sense. And why Jericho? Well, as you can see on the map, it's the first stop.

Israel's encamped at that little red dot that you see, and Jericho is right across the river. So Jericho really is kind of, you know, the keys to the promised land.

It's the first city on the docket. It's really their first obstacle in the conquest of the promised land. And Jericho seems to know it, don't they?

So we watch our spies. They enter the city, and they make their first stop for the evening at a local tavern slash inn slash way station slash brothel.

You say, well, which one was it? And the answer is yes. It's all of them. This was a natural place for travelers to stop in the ancient world.

It was a discreet gathering spot where you could get some information and maybe not have too many questions asked about you. And so it makes sense that this is where they go.

Now, the establishment happens to be run by a woman. A woman, a prostitute named Rahab. Interesting, but the name Rahab actually does pop up in a few other places in Scripture.

It pops up twice in Psalms. Pops up again a couple times in Job. It pops up a couple times in Isaiah too. And in all of these places, the name Rahab is the name for a Canaanite god.

Actually, in those contexts, the Lord has described as crushing, shattering Rahab. We think it might be some kind of a sea creature like Leviathan.

So what we have here is we have a pagan woman from Canaan running a house of disrepute bearing the name of a Canaanite god. Well, despite their attempts, these spies at being all secretive and incognito, despite their best efforts to be clandestine

and their entrance into the city, it's a huge miss. We don't know if they're bumbling or clumsy or just they're so different than the people of Jericho, but they are made right away.

No sooner do they come into the prostitute's house and everyone in Jericho seems to know A, who they are, B, that they're there, and C, even why they're there.

Now naturally, Jericho would know about a massive encampment of people just across the river, no more than about a day's march. They know the Israelites are there.

It stands to reason that they might even be on their guard for some things like this, like some spies. Maybe they were even watching Rahab's house.

We don't know. But somebody has very easily and very quickly spotted these two men. It almost reminds me of a scene out of The Lord of the Rings.

If you guys have ever read the books or seen the movies, in the very first movie, there's this scene where you have the hobbits and they leave their home in the shire and they travel to the neighboring town of Bree.

They go into the inn, the tavern, the Prancing Pony Inn. And if you've ever seen the movie especially, you know how ridiculously different they look than everybody else there.

For one thing, they're hobbits. They're a lot smaller. And they're dressed differently. And they act really nervous. They're very intimidated.

They're like fish out of water. And I would imagine that our two Israelite spies, I was thinking about this, remember how the Promised Land people are like giants?

They're really big. And it could just be simply by virtue of their stature that they stand out. Maybe they spoke differently. Different dialect.

Maybe they had different clothes on. Whatever the case, verse 2 tells us that the king, the local king of Jericho, he is immediately informed of their presence.

It's like, check it out, king. We got a couple of the men of Israel in town. They've come here to search out the land. And our sources are telling us they're over at the prostitute Rahab's house.

Verse 3, our king dispatches his agents right away to the prostitute's house. He says, bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out the land.

Deliver up those spies. We know you have them there. But we learn in verse 4 that Rahab has very shrewdly taken some preemptive action. She has hidden them.

Where and how, we aren't told yet. We're kind of left in suspense. Verse 4, she says, yes, it's true. Some men came here. Men come here all the time.

And the men you're talking about, yeah, they came to me, but I did not know where they were from. Lie number 1. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out.

Lie number 2. I do not know where the men went. Lie number 3. And you better pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them. Lie number 4, right?

I don't know if it's four lies or just like a complex single lie with multiple parts. I don't know. But verse 6 tells us that the whole truth and nothing but the truth is this, that she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them under stalks of flax that she had laid out probably to dry.

Now some scholars get a little tripped up over the lying here. I was surprised to learn this. I'm just so enamored with like, wow, the brilliance, the deception, wow, how God uses it.

And there's a few scholars that are like, you know, we better not make sure, we better not let God's people, Christians today, think that it's okay to go lie.

And I think that's a fair point, but I also think that there's a bigger deal made of this lie than there should be. The fact is, we've heard the story, our writer never offers any kind of evaluative judgment of what she does.

Basically, he just kind of ignores it. It happened. It's not the point of the story. And whether you want to argue it's for a greater good or a lesser evil or you want to say that God exempts someone like Rahab because she's in a unique situation, she's saving people after all.

Some would point back to the book of Exodus chapter 1 to the two Hebrew midwives who did the same thing. They lied to Pharaoh when Pharaoh said, you've got to kill all the male baby boys that are born.

Exodus 1 · chapter mention

They lied and said that the women give birth too fast, we can't. Maybe Rahab should have refused to answer the question, I don't know. But we all know it's a lot easier to look at things in hindsight.

I think it's safe to say as Christians today we should not make light of lying and we should try to strive to deal truthfully with our neighbors.

That's what the Bible tells us. Our neighbors. But this isn't exactly a neighborly situation, is it? In fact, last time I checked, this is the dawn of a holy war.

And as someone once said, deception is the name of the game in war. You don't telegraph to your enemy what you're doing. You want to catch them off guard and unprepared.

Besides, we know that this king and his men have very wicked intentions. They want to kill the Lord's people. So again, I think I'm going to go with the scholars who would say, well, it is a unique and specific situation of deception, but it's aligned with the purposes of God right here.

And so I think she's morally justified. Okay? Besides, you know, the Bible talks about Rahab in the New Testament. And in the places that it does, never anything negative said about her.

In fact, here's what Hebrews chapter 11 verse 31 says. This is the famous Hall of Faith chapter. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Hebrews 11:31

Understand that part of her friendly welcome is not ratting them out. Is not offering them up. And we could go on and offer the Apostle James' words about Rahab.

He has something to say about her too. Here's what he says. Book of James chapter 2 verse 25. 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.

James 2:25

In James, in this chapter, he's talking all about works proving someone's faith. He talks about Abraham as the great model for this. And he goes on and says, in addition to Abraham, a great hero we all know, you also have Rahab.

It's funny, they still call her Rahab the prostitute. She's another Old Testament hero proving her faith genuine by her actions, by duping Jericho's authorities and lying to them and hiding and redirecting the spies so they could get away.

Well, her plan, it works. It works like a charm. Seems like everybody in this story is doing whatever Rahab says to do, right? She's like the one calling the shots.

The pursuers, they listen to her, they head right out of the city, they make their way westward toward the fords of the Jordan. Verse 7, we're told that the city gate is shut behind them.

And if you're our two spies and you hear that gate shut, that means one thing. You are now 100% totally at the mercy of this woman. This Canaanite prostitute.

But she's back up on the roof before anybody can drift off to sleep underneath those docks. She goes to the spies and she begins her speech in verse 9.

And this is really the heart and soul of the chapter. Both symbolically and literally. Because this is where we finally learn the big why. Why is she doing this?

Here's what she says, verse 9. I know that the Lord has given you the land. Stop right there. Think back to the previous generation of Israelites.

Think about the Israelites right now at this time on a bad day. They don't even have faith in this. She says, I know that this land is going to be yours.

God has given it to you. She goes on and she says, and I also know that everybody is absolutely 100% freaked out by you guys. The fear of you has fallen upon us.

All the inhabitants of this land have melted away. Interesting choice of words from a pagan woman of the night. Because in point of fact, you know what these words echo?

They echo another group of words we find in scripture. We find them again in the book of Exodus in the song of Moses. This is the song he composed right after the Red Sea crossing 40 years earlier.

This is what he said in Exodus 15. Exodus 15 verses 16 15 and 16 sorry. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them.

Exodus 15:16

That's what Moses prophesied. And interestingly enough, speaking of the Red Sea crossing, that's what Rahab goes on to talk about next. Verse 10.

She says, For we have heard. Somehow reports have gotten to Canaan all the way from Egypt. We have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came up out of Egypt and what you did to those two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, beyond the Jordan, how you just

destroyed them. Two key events. Two high points in God's mighty acts of deliverance. News of which had somehow come to Jericho, to Rahab's ears and beyond.

All the inhabitants of the land of Canaan are absolutely dismayed. That's why, again, she says in verse 11, As soon as we heard about these things, we knew we were doomed.

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 God on the earth beneath.

faith.

You could really say that this is the high point of her words because what this really is is her confession. Her confession of faith. Because what she's saying is, I recognize who Yahweh, the Lord, your God, is.

He is the true God. He's not like any of our pantheon of Canaanite gods. Baal, Marduk, Ishtar, Asherah, whomever. He's not like these little territorial gods.

He is it. He's the real God with unlimited power and reach. What a statement. I think this is a remarkable and powerful statement. And honestly, it's one that is echoed throughout the book of Deuteronomy.

And here, it becomes Rahab's statement of faith. Because as the New Testament apostle James would remind us, statements that claim faith are important, but they also need something else.

Saying the right thing, that's a great start, but we need action to follow it. And isn't it interesting that that's exactly what Rahab is in the process of doing and what she goes on to do next?

She says, verse 12, Now then, please swear to me, by the Lord, make an oath with me, make a covenant with me, that as I have or as I am dealing kindly with you, that you will also deal kindly with my father's house.

She's concerned not just for her own skin or even her own immediate family. I don't know, I don't think she has one at this point, but she's concerned about her father and her mother and her brothers and sisters and their families, the extended family.

She goes on to ask the spies, please give me a sure sign, so that when the Israelites, your people, come to take the city, you will save my family and they do give her a sign.

Down in a few more verses, we read that it's the red cord from the window.

It's not until verse 14 that finally our spies speak for the very first time and they go on to assure her. They say, our life for yours, even to the death.

You stay faithful and don't tell our business, we will return the kindness and we'll be faithful to our oath with you and you and your whole family, we will spare you and we will even welcome you into our nation, which is what they go on to do eventually.

Verse 15, the pace of the narrative starts to pick up a little faster. The pursuers are now far enough away from the city that the great escape can commence.

And once again, it's all Rahab's plan, it's all her idea, it's not the spies saying, hey, you happen to have a window in the wall, it's Rahab.

She says to them, here's a rope, you can get down through the window. We're told that she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was built in a unique spot, into the city wall so that she actually lived in the wall.

It's not actually all that unusual in this time. We've done archaeological digs, we've found things like this, we don't know whether it's what they call a casemate wall, probably it is, which is like a double wall.

Oftentimes they'd make a double wall and they would kind of fill the intervening part with maybe rubble and then in many instances they would build on the second story or the third story residences into the walls.

house, she conveniently happens to have a house in the city wall. And we know their outer window is high enough that she's going to have to have these guys repel down that wall.

But before she lets them go, some final instructions for our spies. I don't know whether they're up in the room and right next to the window when this exchange happens.

A couple scholars think maybe they're like dangling from the rope while they're saying this. Verse 16, she tells them go into the hills. Don't go toward the Jordan right away or you're going to encounter the pursuers.

They're going to be coming back. So go the other way, the opposite direction. Go into the hills of Canaan. Lots of places to hide. We know there's tons of caves.

And wait a few more days. Wait a couple more days. By the third day you can come. You can quietly make your descent from the hills and you can get back across the Jordan and get back to your people safely.

As the spies are ready to leave, they remind Rahab that there are some conditions. There are really three conditions for this oath. Number one, you got to tie the scarlet cord from your window and leave it there so we know where you are.

Number two, you got to gather your entire extended family, all the people that you mentioned, they got to be in the house. Kind of like Passover, right?

Remember the Israelites in Egypt? The whole family had to be in the home. The home was marked with blood. It's also a scarlet color. And thirdly, the third condition, this one seems kind of obvious, they're like, don't betray us.

You know, don't buckle the questioning or whatever happens. If you tell this business of ours, verse 20, all bets are off. Her reply in verse 21, according to your words, so be it.

Sounds almost like someone in the New Testament, the Gospels, after a visit from an angel, doesn't it? According to your words, let it be. And just like that, our spies are down the wall and off into the night, and we're told that Rahab, she immediately ties the

scarlet cord outside the window. Next day passes, then on to the third. Our spies follow her instructions to a T. The pursuers come back empty-handed, as she predicted, and in verse 23, after the requisite time, the spies come down from the hill country,

quietly cross over the Jordan River, and safely return to Joshua back at the camp with quite a story to tell, right? Joshua, you'll never guess who saved us.

We read that they tell Joshua all that had happened to them. And that's a great way of putting it. It happened to them. They were not really actors or agents in much of anything.

And she made quite the impression, because in verse 24, we read of how the spies go on to relay to Joshua of how truly the Lord has given us the land, put it into our hands, and also, they finish by noting, all the inhabitants of the land, their hearts

melt away because of us. This is quite the contrast from the earlier report of the 12 spies 40 years earlier, right? Because what happened 40 years earlier, 10 of those 12 spies came back, and they

successfully squashed the morale of God's people and led them into disobedience. It was Israel's heart that was melting. But not now. Now. It's the other way around.

As we step away from this story this morning, I think we can agree that this is quite a woman. Rahab. Quite a woman of ingenuity, shrewdness, fast, clever thinking, yes.

But you know what? If we keep pace with what the New Testament says about Rahab, there's another quality that rises above all of that. And that's her faith.

Her faith. Because Rahab not only saves the spies in return for her own family's safety, she saves the spies, and in so doing, saves her family and herself.

Did you know that she also becomes the first convert from Canaan to join God's people? She will join this nation. And she will even find her, she is unmarried, because she's going to go on to marry into a family.

An Israelite family. Not just any old Israelite family. An Israelite family that's in a very special family line. Because her name pops up in a very noteworthy genealogy in Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 1 verses 5 and 6. Check it out. You never thought genealogies had much, did they? And Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab.

Matthew 1:5

And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed the father of Jesse. And we know who Jesse's son is, the youngest one. Jesse the father of David the king.

Now we know that this is an abbreviated genealogy, so I don't know that the baby that Rahab had was the Boaz of Ruth. But not far from it. Maybe a grandson.

She's in the line of David.

Again, hear that passage from Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11 verse 31. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention Hebrews 11:31

What's the author saying in Hebrews? Is he saying that Rahab is somehow a model of faith? Yes, he is. And today, I think she shows us a model of what saving faith looks like.

That's how this Old Testament story instructs us, Romans 15. In both her words, and maybe more importantly, in her actions, I believe Rahab's story shows us three things about saving faith and what it does.

Let me offer them to you. First one is this, number one. Saving faith is acutely mindful, acutely mindful of who God is and what he's done. Saving faith is acutely mindful of who God is and

what God has done.

You know, if you've read the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible at any time, you know that over and over throughout these books, especially Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, this is what the people of Israel needed to be.

They needed to be mindful. They needed to be mindful of who God was and as he began to do mighty acts of deliverance, they needed to be mindful of what he had done.

They needed to remember those ten plagues that got them out of Egypt. They needed to remember the Passover and the angel of death. They needed to remember the Red Sea crossing.

They needed to remember how God had revealed himself at Mount Sinai in giving them the law. They needed to remember his miraculous provision of manna in the wilderness.

All of his mighty acts. In fact, in another chapter or so, they're going to cross another body of water and they're going to be instructed to build an altar to remember, to be mindful of what had just happened.

But of course, when that first generation of Israelites came to the border of the promised land the first time, they did not remember. They were not mindful and they failed miserably.

And yet, look at Rahab's words today. Let me read them again. Verse 9, I know that the Lord has given you the land. Better than those ten spies in numbers.

Verse 10, we have heard about the Red Sea and how the Lord dried up those waters for you when you escaped Egypt. We've heard what you did to those two powerful kings in the Transjordan that attacked you, that came after you.

And you completely decimated them. Verse 11, for the Lord your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. What's she doing? She is remembering who God is and she is rehearsing for the spies all the mighty acts that God has done

on their behalf. It's like she's teaching them Sunday school. She's their Sunday school teacher. Let me tell you the story about what God did for you people.

You could call this Rahab's first move of faith to be acutely mindful of God and his works. It's almost like these things, these events, are burned into her mind and heart.

And they've been burned into the hearts of the people of Jericho and all the Canaanites too. Burned in the sense of melding their hearts.

God is sovereign over all. This God overpowers and judges all his enemies while delivering his people in the process. Rahab's saving faith is rooted in these truths and she is acutely mindful of them.

I think about our lives today. I think about our time right now. In this era not of conquest but of grace that we live in. I think it's undeniable that us being acutely mindful of both of these things is still very much a part of what makes for saving faith today.

For being a genuine Christian. To know who God is. A triune God. A creator God. The God over human history. The God who reveals himself in his word that we call the Bible.

The God who ultimately and perfectly revealed himself in the living word. In his incarnate son. Jesus Christ. That's who God is. And to know what he's done.

His mighty acts of deliverance for us. And specifically what is his greatest and mightiest act of deliverance. Which is to send his son to the cross as our atonement.

Being acutely mindful of these truths is still very much the first move we need to make if we are to have a saving faith. Because I don't know about you but I look around at a region like the one we live in.

And in our region there are a lot of people who maybe profess to be Christians. Maybe they have some nominal connection to the faith. Take an occasional church service in once in a while.

Maybe two of them a year. Go to maybe even a weekly mass and do the routine. Register the kids in a good Catholic school or Christian school.

But is it really saving faith? Do my nominal Catholic friends or my I was brought up Lutheran friends? Maybe you have some too. And I'm not picking on Lutherans or Catholics.

You could throw a lot of other traditions in there. Maybe even missionary church people. But do they really have an understanding of who God is and what he's done?

Are they acutely mindful of what God has done in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Rahab was acutely mindful of these things. And our friends and neighbors and coworkers who are nominal must also be acutely mindful

of what God has done for them in Jesus Christ on the cross. Because that's the first move in saving faith. But we know it's not the only one.

It wasn't for Rahab and it won't be for us. So we've got to go on to the second thing she shows us about saving faith and it's this. Number two.

Number two. Saving faith actively seeks refuge in God's mercy. Actively seeks refuge in God's mercy. Notice how specifically and how earnestly Rahab appeals

for one thing from the spies. It's translated as kindness. But it's a kindness that means mercy. A loving kindness. She trusts in God showing her kindness.

She abandons her life and her fate to God's kindness. Verse 12. Now then please swear to me by the Lord. By the Lord. That as I have dealt kindly with you, you will also deal kindly with my whole family.

This is the second move of her faith. Moving from that acute recognition of who God is and what he's done to now actively seeking refuge in his mercy.

I mean, if you think about it, the rest of the inhabitants of Jericho, they're acutely mindful of who God is and what he's done and their hearts are melting.

Hers is drawn.

Mercy. Loving kindness. The gift of compassionate treatment. Withholding judgment that is otherwise deserved. We know that's what's happening here in the land of Canaan.

In the promised land with these Canaanites. They are under God's judgment. Remember, Rahab is too. Previous to these spies coming, she is right along with the rest of the wicked Canaanites.

She is a citizen of condemned Jericho. She is living and working as a prostitute in this city. But when the news of the true God reaches her ears, while others have hearts that melt, hers is drawn.

Drawn to show kindness to the spies who just so happened to knock on the door of her house. Which just so happens to be a house built into the wall of the city.

Which just so happens to be run by a strong woman who actively seeks refuge in mercy.

Realize that once she hides those spies and then goes back down and lies to the king's men, it is game over for her. Once she goes back up on that roof and instructs the spies on how they're to flee, how they're to get out through the window by a rope to let themselves down, how

they're to go hide themselves for a few more days. Make no mistake, this is a woman who is completely throwing herself upon the mercy of God and his people.

She believes in God. She believes in the reports of his redemption, his mighty acts. And she acts on her belief by entrusting herself and by aligning herself with God and his people.

What about you? What about that person you know that you've been praying for? What about that person or those people that you go to school with, that you work with, that you live near in your neighborhood?

What about those family members? Have they, have you moved past simply agreeing with who God is? Or simply saying, yeah, I agree in what Jesus has done?

And have you made a second move in your faith? The move where you actively seek refuge in God's mercy. Because Rahab confesses with her mouth, yes.

She confesses with her words. But she's also gone a lot further. She has thrown in. She is all in. She has forsaken all other gods for the true God.

And in the process, she's put her very life on the line.

How about you? Have you given your life to the Lord? He's not likely to ask you to take part in some clandestine operation. But he is asking for your life.

Have you actively come to him to seek refuge in the offer, the rich offer of rich mercy that he makes? That's what the New Testament describes God's mercy as.

He says, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4, but God is rich in mercy. God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.

Ephesians 2:4

Someone might claim to belong to God, but have they actually backed it up by throwing their lot and their life in with Jesus? And it'll have implications if you do.

Implications for your life. Because as this story moves forward and we come to about chapter 6, you know what's going to happen to the mighty walls of this city?

They're going to fall. And we're going to find Rahab and her whole family in her house as sworn. But she won't stay in her house after those walls fall.

She's going to come out. Joshua actually gives the orders to go find her. Sends those two spies. Go find this woman that you talked about. God has miraculously protected walls that include her house from falling.

Go find her. Because she's now going to become one of us. And that brings us to the third and final takeaway from Rahab's saving faith. Number three is this.

Saving faith turns outsiders into insiders. Outsiders into insiders. I don't know if you've ever wondered why this story is placed right here in the book of Joshua.

I want you to think about this. If someone had just ripped out chapter 2 of the book of Joshua, there's no Rahab, there's no story of the spies.

Would anything have changed in the plan of God's redemption?

Nope. Do the spies obtain some actionable intelligence? Come back and report to Joshua? No. They just tell of how they got caught and hidden and instructed and escaped and here we are.

And they come back, I guess, with some encouragement that the hearts of those people are really freaked out. But there's nothing essential here in chapter 2 to the movement of God's people taking the promised land.

Rahab's chapter contributes nothing to Israel's success under God. She doesn't give them like, here's where the weak points in the wall are.

She doesn't. God miraculously just drops the city.

But this chapter has a contribution to make for Rahab herself and her family. Because today, this one-time outsider, because of her faith, is making her an insider.

Saving faith does that. Saving faith turns outsiders into insiders. All a part of the fulfillment of a very big promise made many, many years before this to a patriarch, the people's ancestor.

His name was Abraham. Genesis chapter 12, verse 3. What did God promise Abraham? I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse.

Genesis 12:3

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. What he's saying is that in you, there will be the ability for people to be blessed.

It's not automatic. There will be those who resist you. They'll be cursed. They'll be judged. But if someone gets on the side of my people, if someone comes inside the kingdom of my people, they become an insider.

Rahab joins God's people. She's grafted in. She marries a man with the fish name Salmon. Salmon? We have some pregnancies. There you go. Here's a name for you.

No, really, it's Salmon. Salmon, we know. Mary Salmon, Salmon, goes on to have a descendant named Boaz. And great story of Boaz and Ruth. You can read it in the book of Ruth.

Again, we think the great-grandson, this one I think is pretty tight, the lineage. The great-grandson of Boaz and Ruth is David, as in King David.

And of course, we know in 2 Samuel chapter 7, David is promised that he will have an heir like no other. There will be a king in his line whose throne is established forever.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

And it's our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Realize that Rahab's saving faith doesn't just save her and grant her mercy and refuge. It does more.

It grants her a place of belonging with God's people. It makes her one of God's people. It makes an outsider an insider. Have you done that yourself?

Have you joined God's people? And I don't mean just symbolically or even just spiritually, although I do mean it spiritually. But I'm talking about things very practically.

Have you become a part of the family of God's people? If the story of Rahab teaches you and I nothing else today, let it teach us, let it remind us that God's grace is for all the outsiders, whomever God welcomes.

From Rahab, I think we can say whatever their condition. She's like the three-strike lady, right? Canaanite, prostitute, bearing the name of a false god.

But this outsider, by God's grace, becomes an insider. And you can too. And so can the person that you know that you're praying for. It happens when we are acutely mindful of God and who He is and what He's done for us in the gospel.

And when we actively seek refuge in that mercy shown to us. Can I ask you if you would stand with me? Let's bow our heads. Team's going to come and lead us in a song.

Let's prepare our hearts as I pray for us. Father, we know You are Lord. We know You are the King of the universe. We know that with Jesus, Your Son, at Your right hand, Lord,

that You have made a way for us to be Your people. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence and receive help and receive mercy in our time of need.

And we live in a state of constant need, Lord. Constant need of power and provision. Constant need of wisdom and discernment. In constant need of forgiveness.

Purchase for us, won for us at the cross of Jesus. And so we thank You and we praise You. And Lord, we pray for those that we know. We pray for our own hearts, Lord, that we would go from more than just knowledge of who You are.

More than just knowledge even of what You have done. But that we would actively seek refuge. And Father, we pray that Your kingdom would continue to expand.

We know, Lord, that the love You have for people, You love the world, the whole world. And You sent Your one and only Son. That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish under judgment, but join the kingdom and have everlasting life in You.

We thank You for that, God. We thank You, Jesus, for Your gift. And we pray this in Your name. Amen.