Faith That Works: Rahab the Harlot's Distinctive Faith

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Go to the book of James and, hey, here we are. We are at the end of chapter 2.
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Getting ready to embark on chapter 3. And we're almost halfway. It's hard to believe.
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But we're making some progress, right? Praise the Lord for that. I'd just like to focus for us to look at two verses of Scripture this morning.
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This is an illustration, a living illustration. A story, this is also a special story of God's amazing grace.
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It's really a focus on faith, but it is a story of God's amazing grace that came to a
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Gentile harlot in Jericho. We're gonna look at this. We're gonna go to the
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Old Testament and look at the verses there in Joshua. But James is focusing on living active faith, faith that works in the life of, of course, we looked at Abraham last week.
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And today we're gonna look at Rahab the harlot's distinctive faith. So look with me in James chapter 2, just two verses of Scripture we were looking at is our focus.
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Verse 25 and verse 26, hear the word of the living God. In the same way, was not
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Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
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That's a question. And then he gives the answer in verse 26, for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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That's the answer. To verse 25, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your holy word this morning.
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It is inspired, it is inerrant, it's pure, it's authoritative, it has all authority, it is sufficient.
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And we thank you for that. So Lord, speak to our hearts this morning, just not only our minds, but take this word to our hearts.
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And may we see that as Abraham was justified by his works, his faith was working, his faith was working.
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So was his Gentile prostitute had faith that was working as well. It was demonstrated.
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Something happened. Therefore, they believed God. May it be with us as well.
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May we believe simple belief in you. But it does not stay still.
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There's obedience that follows it. So may we realize that what
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James is teaching compliments Paul's writings. Salvation is determined by faith alone, and it's demonstrated by faithfulness to obey your will.
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So give us, Lord, the ears to hear, the minds to understand, and the hearts to be willing to obey you.
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In Jesus' name, for his glory, amen and amen. Well, we see a wonderful illustration before us.
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I'd like to begin by giving a definition of faith, because that's really
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James' focus, and I've decided to use Sinclair Ferguson here as a book that Sister Lillian passed to me.
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Thank you, Sister Lillian, to this wonderful gift, because he nails it, exactly what
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James is talking about. Sinclair Ferguson said in the study of James here, quote, it is always worth remembering that we often use abstract terms to denote what are personal characteristics and actions.
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There is no such abstract entity as faith. It is not a commodity.
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Rather, faith, I like this, faith is the New Testament's shorthand descriptive language for the person who knows, trusts in, and yields to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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That is an excellent definition. In the very act of faith, he says, he or she receives and rests on Christ alone, and yields himself or herself in obedience to him, saying,
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Lord, what will you have me to do? He goes on to say this, we can put this another way.
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James is teaching us the following, and this is it. If I profess, who professes faith is not also an
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I who obeys, then that I does not truly believe with justifying faith.
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And then he brings in the Westminster belief here, and he says, the
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Westminster divines expressed as well. With an allusion to Galatians 5, 6, faith is the alone instrument of justification.
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Yet it is never alone in the person justified, but it is ever accompanied by all other saving graces.
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It is no dead faith, but worketh by love. Calvin says even more simply, indeed, we confess with Paul that no other faith justifies but faith working through love,
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Galatians 5, 6. But it does not take its power to justify from that working of love.
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Indeed, it justifies in no other way but in that it leads us into fellowship with the righteousness of Christ, that's
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Calvin. And then it goes to another reformer, Luther. And then he says, but perhaps it is
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Luther who expresses it most vividly. When it comes to faith, what a living, creative, active, powerful thing it is.
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It cannot do other than good at all times. It never waits to ask whether there is some good work to do.
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Rather, before the question is raised, it has done the deed and keeps on doing it.
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A man not active in this way is a man without faith, end quote.
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And I could not help but think that is an excellent way to begin this message because this is exactly
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James's point. And he ends this chapter with verse 26, that answer in the question about how
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Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.
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For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Rahab is an unlikely candidate, isn't she?
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For being among great biblical characters who walked in the footsteps of faith.
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And we see this from the account in scripture. Yet, the apostle
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James brings her as a illustration. She's the second person the apostle
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James uses to illustrate justification by works. And it stands in stark contrast to Abraham.
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And I love the contrast, don't you? And I'm gonna bring this out a little bit. I brought it out last week, but just to bring it out for those who did not hear it and was not here last week.
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She was a woman, Rahab was a woman, but she was a Gentile prostitute.
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A member of an immoral Amorite race that God had marked for destruction.
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And you can read this in Genesis 15 verse 16. Abraham, on the other hand, here's the contrast, was a man.
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He was a moral man and he was the father of a chosen race, a chosen people of God.
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He was a noble Chaldean. He was also a great leader. But Rahab, she wasn't a great leader, was she?
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She was just an average citizen of Jericho, at the bottom of the social economic order, while Abraham was at the top.
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Really, all of us here in this little room can relate more to Rahab.
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Because we are the Gentiles that has come into the grace, saving grace of God.
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We're not Jews. The Jewish people in which God has his hand upon and he's chose,
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Abraham being the father, isn't it interesting, the father of faith. And he gives the contrast of a woman that is totally without the knowledge, and the revelations, and the covenants of God.
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And yet, James uses her as an illustration of faith that works.
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Rahab is a harlot that is listed along with Noah, Abraham, Moses, Abel, giants of the faith.
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Other more noble Old Testament personalities in the hall of fame, of the great gallery of the faithful in Hebrews 11, 31.
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And actually, right here in my notes, I have the scripture that gives in verse 31.
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By faith, by faith, the writer of Hebrews says, the harlot
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Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, who were not disobedient, basically, when she had received the spies with peace.
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That's what the writer of Hebrews says. But most importantly, we know that she was the great grandmother of King David.
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Now we know what God had in mind in reaching out and bringing out this harlot and saving her by faith.
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She was chosen to be in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Matthew 1, 5,
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Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot
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Jesse. And verse 6, and Jesse begot David the king. And you know where it goes from there.
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Rahab became the ancestor of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lord, and Savior.
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Could you imagine? We would have never thought that. Don't you love the way
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God works? These last two important facts makes her a woman worthy of our consideration this morning.
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So what is happening here? It's reported in Joshua chapter 2. Go with me to Joshua 2.
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I like for us to just look a little bit and glean from Joshua 2. Rahab was an innkeeper in Jericho.
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She was an innkeeper. And when Joshua sent two men into the city to spy it out, her inn was a logical place.
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I like for us to look at why it was a logical place.
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And the scriptures gives us the insight of this. I'd just like to read a few verses, a scripture of what is taking place here about Rahab shelters these spies.
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And what's this all about? It's a beautiful story. And it's God working.
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In verse 1 of chapter 2, then Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men as spies secretly from Shattem saying, go, view the land, especially
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Jericho. So they went and came into the house of a harlot, whose name was
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Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho saying, behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.
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And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.
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But the women had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
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It came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark. The men went out, and I do not know where the men went.
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Pursue them quickly, for they will overtake, for the men, I'm sorry, for you will overtake them.
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Verse 6, but when she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax, and basically the flax is fibers that was used to make linen, were stems about three feet long, left to sit in the water, so then piled into the sun on a level roof to dry.
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So that's where she hid them. And hidden them in the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof.
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Verse 7, so the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan, to the fords.
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And as soon as those were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate.
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Now, let me stop right there. Why? What's going on?
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What's about these spies being hidden in her place? Logical place, why?
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Because, number one, because it was on the city wall. Number one, being the city wall and did not require venturing far into the city.
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So it was on the outskirts of the city. So they did not choose the place for immoral reasons.
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We know this. As she was a prostitute, that was not the purpose of the spies. They were there on a mission to spy out the land and the place of Jericho.
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It's safe to assume they did not even know it was a house of prostitution. We don't believe that because scriptures, you know, it brings out the point.
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And the second reason of why they went to lodge in that place, they chose it in order to be less conspicuous while they were learning what they could about the city.
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They were spies to spy out the city of Jericho. And because the house was located along the city wall, which
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I mentioned, it afforded them the opportunity for a quick getaway.
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That was another reason. There was purposes that these spies, a pretty smart spies, spies, but they were novice spies.
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But also most important, I like this, God in his sovereign providence.
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That's the key. His sovereign providence wanted them there because Rahab had a heart that was ready to receive the saving truth.
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It was all about getting her. And we see how God's grace reaches out to her in a beautiful way.
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You see sovereign grace here, but you also see faith in action, faith that was working.
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So the scouts were novice spies. And as they were novice spies, their presence was soon discovered as we saw right there in verse 2 and 3.
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They were discovered in Jericho city from the king, who was more like a mayor in a sense, with a military control who was obviously frightened over the
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Israelites across the Jordan River. He had a reason to be frightened. And the history of Israel's miraculous escape from Egypt and her wilderness wanderings was somewhat common knowledge to the people of the region.
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They had heard about this. Therefore, the king was fearful of Israel's next potential move and was desperate to maintain his power in Jericho.
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So they heard about this. So when the king of Jericho heard of their presence in the city, he sent officials to Rahab's house, as we read, to arrest them.
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But Rahab, remaining true to the laws of the Middle Eastern hospitality and risk her very life to secure her guest, she did this by faith.
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But the woman had taken the two men and she hid them.
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And we saw that. But after officials reached her house, Rahab further protected the spies by lying.
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Let's be honest, she lied. And she reported something false, that the spies had left the city just before dark and suggested that the soldiers be sent to capture them.
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So she had hidden the two men behind the stacks of flax of the roof. And after the officials left, that's what she said to the
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Israelites. Now, notice in verse 8. Now, before they lay down, in verse 8, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men,
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I know that the Lord has given you the land. Listen to her. And that the terror of you has fallen on us.
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And that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.
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Don't you love that? In verse 10, for we have heard, we have heard how the
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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
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Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Shahan and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
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See, she got the, they got the report about this. News is going about what
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God had done. And when he heard it, when we heard it,
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I'm sorry, our hearts melted. Our hearts melted. And no courage remained in any man longer because of you.
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For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven, above and on earth beneath.
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Now, notice what she's doing, what she's saying. Now, she's heard about this. And it's something that God has taken a hold of her heart.
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And now, therefore, please swear to me by the Lord since you have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household and give me a pledge of truth and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters with all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death.
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So the men said to her, our life for yours, if you do not tell this business of ours, it shall come about when the
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Lord gives us the land and we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.
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What a beautiful story. You know, let me give you MacArthur's commentary here on this in case what's going on in your mind about this lying, about this woman that was justified by her faith that works.
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He says in his book, The Footsteps of Faith, MacArthur says this, quote, it was not right for Rahab to lie about where the
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Israelites' spies were. Gets right to the point, doesn't he? And that's right. He says this, even though her heart was open to God's saving truth, her knowledge of him was extremely limited.
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She was a victim of her own fallen nature, as we are. I inserted that.
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Goes on to say this, and her ethics were those of the corrupt Canaanite culture.
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She did not understand the value God puts on truth. He honored her faith, as we will see, but her lie was unnecessary.
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No lie provides any assistance to God. He needs no help, especially sinful efforts.
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And he goes on to say this, Rahab also would have been unaware of the sinfulness of lying because the laws of the
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Eastern hospitality surpassed the laws of honesty in that culture.
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Honoring and protecting your guest was the greatest moral imperative.
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When someone was sheltered in your home, even your greatest enemy, you were bound to save his or her life if you could.
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And he goes on to say this, therefore, it was not God's will that Rahab lied to rescue the scouts.
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Now, I like this. He could have and would have saved them anyway, but she did so.
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And none of us will know what providential means or miraculous methods God might have used to present the two men otherwise, end quote.
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And that is so true, isn't it? And we see that Rahab was justified by her works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way, as the story says.
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But after all, the word of God recognizes her faith, not her sin.
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Notice that. And Brother Keith was bringing this out to me, and I love, and that's such a good poem, Brother Keith.
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And Brother Michael brought this out as well. The focus is not on the sin and the shortcoming, even though God does not justify the sin, not to say that it's not important, right?
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But the focus was her faith in the living God. And that's what we want to look at.
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It's like us in a work in progress when we come to the Lord, right?
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We still have remaining sin to deal with, and we are sinners saved by grace.
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We're not perfected yet. It's the direction in which we go. And but faith takes hold.
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Rahab was not only acknowledged that the God of Israel was the true
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Lord, according to Joshua 2, 9 through 12, which we read, but she obviously trusted in the true
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Lord. She put her trust in God. And that's what matters, is putting our trust in God.
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Although she doubtless knew nothing of salvation as we Christians understand it, or even as the ancient
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Israelites understood it, from God rescuing them from out of Egypt, but her heart was right before the
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Lord, her motive, and he graciously accepted her faith for righteousness.
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And therefore, she's an example. Isn't that great? God also accepted her protection of the spies as an act of obedience to him and she was therefore justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way, as the scripture tells us.
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Now, let me bring in Abraham here. As with Abraham, every other true believer imputed righteousness is based on faith.
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It's based on faith, resulted in practical righteousness, reflected in good works.
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And that's James's point. And that's why he says that it's not dead faith, is that he begins to talk about dead faith in the beginning of this section, but he ends it with living faith.
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This is the way living faith works. It works, there's action.
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And therefore, she was justified by her works when she received the messengers, sent them out by another way.
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Abraham, he was justified by him laying everything on the altar.
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He gave up what was precious to him. And that's pretty much what faith does.
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It gives up everything precious to us and we see something far more precious than what's passing away.
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Faith sees the invisible. Faith sees the God that is there and that has spoken.
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So, it's reflected on her works, her outward life of faithfulness manifested that was in her inner life as genuine saving faith.
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So, I was studying this, I liked what Herbert Locklear says. He was a wonderful Scottish minister in his day.
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This is what he said. Faith had wrought in her a change of heart and life.
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That's what faith did. And it is likewise enabled her to shield the spies as she did in the confidence
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God would triumph over his enemies. She exemplified her faith by her brave act.
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So, James quotes Rahab as exemplifying justification by works eventually, end quote.
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And that's why faith works. Commentator Fawcett says it this way, that Paul's justification by faith alone means a faith that's not dead but working by love.
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Here is an example of grace justifying through an operative and as opposed to mere verbal faith, a verbal faith, none could be more suitable than the saved harlot.
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She believed so as to act on her belief what her countrymen disbelieved.
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And this is the face of every improbability,
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I'm sorry, that an unwarlike force would conquer a well -armed one, far more numerous.
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And then he says this, she believed with the heart, as Romans 10, 9 and 10 speaks of, confessed with the mouth and acted on her profession at the risk of her life, end quote.
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That's exactly what happened. We cannot, it ties exactly, it ties in exactly with Romans 10, 9 and 10.
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There's a confession made to salvation. But remember the statement that stands out more than anything else in Romans 10, 9 and 10, with the heart man believes in, one believes into righteousness, the heart.
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How many people do we see today? And we all always must examine our own selves.
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We can have it in the head, we can verbally speak it, we can talk the talk, we can learn the language, we can know the vocabulary, but there's an empty profession.
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There's just a mere profession. But what about genuine faith? It lays hold of the heart.
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There's a belief unto righteousness and when it happens in the heart, the life is changed.
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It, yes, and amen, it affects our whole total life.
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I don't know about you, when I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, it was just not mere hearing the words, knowing the language, it was just not going to church and knowing what the preacher was saying here with my head, intellectually, there's something that happened within me.
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God took a hold of me and faith took a hold of Christ and Christ alone.
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And faith is the instrument and that's what James is saying. James is basically saying this.
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So that's the example and he gives the example of Abraham and Rahab the harlot.
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So in this passage, that's what he's talking about, the
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Old Testament records the content of her faith in which was the basis of her justification before God.
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That's how she's made right before God. It's a heart motive. She's laying a hold of God and what
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His word is said, what she heard, what they heard about, what
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God did, how He delivered out His people from the land of bondage out of Egypt.
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So she demonstrated the reality of her saving faith when at great personal risk, think of this, this could have cost her life.
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She laid everything on the line. Her life was on the line. So she did this at a great risk as she protected the messengers of God.
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She also demonstrated faith as well as a fear of all before God, surprisingly strong faith here of the true
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God, of the living God of Israel. And I love this, she was so sure of the
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Lord's supremacy and power that she sought to make a solemn pledge. Notice that.
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This is a Gentile, this is a harlot. This is not like the Abraham, but they were both justified in the same way, by faith.
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So she made an oath with the spies to which they agreed. Notice they agreed to it in verses 12 -14 of Joshua 2.
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So Rahab then helped the men get out the back window and directed them out their way.
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Now however, they didn't depart without adding this significant stipulation to the pledge and I'd like for you to notice this in verses 17 and 18.
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And the men said to her, we shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear unless when we come into the land you tie this cord of scarlet thread.
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This scarlet thread, that's important here. And the window through which you let us down and gather to yourself and to the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household.
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The whole household was saved because of Rahab's faith.
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She put her trust in the true God, in the living God. One more quote from MacArthur here in his commentary, he said this, nearly all faithful commentators of the
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Old Testament interpret the scarlet cord as a symbol of the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And I believe this, connecting it to his future death on the cross.
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But we also must look backward from the scarlet cord to the Passover, you see?
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Go back to the Passover, he says, when God sent the angel of death to kill all the firstborn and spread only, that spared only the
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Israelites whose doorpost was marked with the Lamb's blood. Nailed it,
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Brother Keith. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Everything is about the blood of Jesus Christ here.
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Faith in the blood of Jesus. You see this? Goes back, goes forward.
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MacArthur goes on to say that blood was symbolic of the coming Savior, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his precious blood, would save all sinners who believe in him.
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The scarlet cord that Rahab obediently placed in her window was a sign of her faith in Joshua 2 .21,
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is therefore another analogy to the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
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There you have it. Faith in the Lamb of God. Also like Abraham, however,
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Rahab was not perfect, right? We see this. She lied. She told a story, and God doesn't excuse that, but God honored her faith.
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Her profession was despicable, and her lying was sinful.
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However, let us remember this, beloved, that she was not honored by the
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Lord for either of those. She had been born into and been raised in a debauched pagan society that the
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Lord was about to destroy. We see this. In which lying and all sorts of gross sin were the norm.
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That's the way it is in America, isn't it? But when she had an opportunity to demonstrate her trust in the
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Lord, she placed her life on the line. She was a brave, very brave person, a very brave harlot, prostitute.
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All her actions had been discovered by the king, and her family would have been actually executed for treason if she had been caught.
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So in His boundless grace, God accepted her trust in Him and her service to Him, rescued her family, used her for His own divine purposes, causing her to become a model of faith and an ancestor of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the Lord. Well, let me bring this to a conclusion here.
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And I think this is very important for us to see. What are the lessons that we can gather from this harlot in Jericho?
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A Gentile harlot, prostitute whom God used to fulfill
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His purpose. What can we learn out of this? What can we glean from this personally? We can learn much, can't we?
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First of all, I'd like to, that we are reminded by Rahab's change of heart and life that His blood can still make the vial as clean.
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And His blood avails for you and me, as the old hymn says. His blood.
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And that's what she was placing her faith in. And she had limited knowledge, but what little she did have of hearing about the
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God of Israel, she placed her complete faith in this God that's able to keep
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His word. And God kept His word, as He always does. She was justified by her works.
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That was faith. And that's how it happens to us. Was it not a wonderful condescension on the part of our
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Redeemer when He became manifest in the flesh to take hold of the root so humble and a type as poor and despised as this
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Gentile Rahab? To magnify His abounding grace for all sinners? I don't know about you, this story melts my heart.
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Because you see God in grace reaching out to a poor, wretched, miserable sinner.
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That's a prostitute. Just like Jesus reaching out to the prostitute at the woman at the well.
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You would have never thought. You know, it's like, okay, Jesus, when
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He chose a man, just a small amount of men to do
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His work, He doesn't go to the synagogue. He goes to fishermen.
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He goes to the average, mundane, low -class people. He goes to the nobodies.
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That includes us, right? Rahab was well worth saving from her evil life, both for her own sake and for the place she and God's holy plan that God had in store.
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Other women in Jericho saw no beauty in Rahab. She was a reject. She was a harlot.
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Let's be honest. She's a reject. She's scum. She's a nobody.
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She sells her body to get money. That's what a prostitute does. That they should desire her company?
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No. But through faith, she became one of God's heroes, heroines,
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I should say, and is included among the harlots entering into the kingdom of God before the self -righteousness.
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Rahab's sin had been scarlet, but now the scarlet line, free and despised, remaining as a token of her safety, typified in the red blood of Jesus Christ, whereby the worst of sinners can be saved.
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That's what we can glean from this, that even the worst of sinners can be saved and cleaned up by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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I love what Jesus says in Matthew 21, 31 and 32.
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You know, it's amazing. I was sharing this with Brother Keith as he walked through the door today. He texts this verse to me about a day, and I said, isn't
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God good? I said, I already had this verse, and Brother Keith was doing a little study here on Rahab the harlot, and he came with this verse too.
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Jesus says in Matthew 21, 31, 32, this is what he says, which of the two did the will of the
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Father, and he was speaking about the parable of the two sons. And they said to him, the first,
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Jesus said to them, surely I say to you that the tax collectors and harlots enter to the kingdom of God before you.
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Amen. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.
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But the tax collectors and the harlots believe him. And when you, speaking of the
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Pharisees, the self -righteous scribes, the scholars, the thinking they was somebody because of all that they did externally, and Jesus says inside you're full of dead men's bones.
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They were, yes, whited sepulchers on the outside playing church, but when he said you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.
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They did not truly believe. So the door of mercy still stands open wide, as Brother Key said.
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The vilest sinners can come return to the Lord and know what it is to be saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
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There's nothing more greater. When it's all said and done, nothing's going to else matter if the death, and when the death angel comes in which he's going to visit all of us, but the only thing that's going to matter is see the blood.
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Will he see the blood on the doorpost of our hearts? Now let me close with this. Abraham's and Rahab's justification by works was not demonstrated by just a mere profession of faith.
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It's not what they said. It's what they did. Their worship or ritual or any other religious activity, both cases, was demonstrated by putting everything dear that they had on the line for the
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Lord, and that's what it takes. This is what it means to follow Jesus, that I'm entrusting him everything to him without qualification, without reservation.
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And when I come to Christ, I say, I forsake everything because he means everything to me.
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That's what it means. You see Moses as an example later on. He forsakes all the riches of Egypt.
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Why? Because he saw greater riches, greater riches, esteeming the reproach of Jesus Christ.
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Oh, isn't it great? There's something far greater in this world, and it's called the reward, and Abraham saw it.
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It was that God himself was an exceedingly great reward, that God himself and these people were supremely committed to the
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Lord, whatever the cost. Well, God, we see this with Rahab. This could have cost her her life.
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She counted the cost. In a way, it is the vortex of the great plans, the decisions, the crossroads of life, where our ambitions, our hopes, our dreams, our destinies, and life itself are at stake.
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Where the truth, faith unfailing, reveals itself. Long before Jesus' crucifixion,
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Abraham and Rahab were willingly to take up their crosses, as it were, to follow him, as Jesus says in Mark 8 .34.
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They hated their life in this world in order to keep it in the world to come. Basically, that's what faith does.
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It's also that the same vortex that faults deceitful faith reveals itself as well. There's the line drawn.
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On this side, you have dead faith. On this side, you have living faith. It's one of the two. Just because a person says they have faith, doesn't mean they have living faith.
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Amen. Just because a person says, I believe in God, doesn't mean that they're saved from God, or saved from God.
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You see, James notes this. Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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And that's why he gives these illustrations. Don't you love James? He's very practical.
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He goes to Abraham, the faithful Jew, who was justified before God, the patriarch, the father of faith, and then he goes to the
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Gentile Rahab, the reject, the nobody in society.
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He likens dead faith, professed faith without works, to a body without the spirit. Both are useless, devoid of any life -giving power.
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Now, I also want to bring out one more thing in my little commentary here,
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James, on the general epistles. I like what this commentator says. It is true that her faith was not perfect.
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She was guilty of falsehood and deception, yet her faith was remarkable, and it was genuine.
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A poor, sinful woman of Canaan, with little opportunity for knowledge, she had become convinced that the
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God of Israel was the living and true God as an opportunity offered in serving him. She imperiled her life to defend his messengers.
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The result was that she was saved, and she was honored as a heron in the
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Hebrew annals. She became the ancestor of Jesus Christ.
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Such is the power of living faith. And on the other hand, again, the commentator basically makes the same point as we're just saying, as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
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Now, I like what he says here, and this is why I mentioned this commentator. What's his name?
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Charles Erdman. He says this, the days of dead orthodoxy are not gone.
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There are many persons whose faith consists in recitals of creeds and in the defense of dogmas, many who need to be reminded that faith apart from works is dead.
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And then he says this, yet again, on the other hand, it is time for men to cease proposing the false alternatives of creed or characters, belief or conduct, doctrine or duty.
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And this is what he says, these supposed alternatives are inseparable as causes and effects, as roots and fruit.
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When creeds are living, when beliefs is sincere, when doctrine is truly accepted, then character and right conduct and performance of duty are sure to result.
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A living faith does save, end quote. And that is so true. And I like to end it with this, that this is all a sobering reality, a very sobering reality to all who just profess faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ would not be saved. How do we know this? Jesus said it in Matthew 7.
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This is probably the most sobering thing that you will ever hear, the most sobering words that you will ever hear.
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We need to take heed. There's a reason why Jesus concluded the greatest sermon ever preached this way.
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And he says that this, and he refers to those who profess a faith and they profess to know
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God. And this is going to happen at the judgment. Many will stand before him, and this is what he says in Matthew 7, 21, 23.
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Not everyone who says to me, notice what he said, says to me.
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James says that same thing, says, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
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And what does he say? But he who does, there it is.
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Who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. It's those who are obedient to the will of God.
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Faith is action. Faith is working in progress. Many will say to me, now that's scary.
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He didn't say few, many, many. Will say to me on that day, the day of judgment, they call him
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Lord. Lord, Lord, they're deceived, thinking they're saved. Did we not prophesy in your name?
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Prophesy, preach his word. And in your name, we cast out demons, miracles.
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And in your name, we perform many miracles. Are these supposed to be the qualifications to get me in?
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No. Notice this, they make a profession, then
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Jesus makes his profession. And this is the words none of us want to hear in this.
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And we can make sure our calling and election sure, beloved. But he says this, and then
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I would declare, profess to them. What does he say? The first thing he says,
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I never knew you. I never knew you in the first place.
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All along, they were deceived. They thought they were saved. They were deceived.
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They professed to know Christ. I never knew you, never. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
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That's the most fearful words we will ever hear. But we can make sure, and as Peter says, you can make your calling and election sure.
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You can make it sure. So I like to close with this. We always, always must test ourselves to see if we are in the faith.
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You know, make examinations. I do this all the time. I tell you, it's sobering.
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It is the most important thing. Is it really well with your soul? Do you examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith?
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Judge yourselves that you may not be judged.
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Judge yourself now while you've got time. 2 Corinthians 13, 5.
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So that's important. Abraham and Rahab stand for all time as examples of those whose living faith has passed the test.
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So we must always remember this. We judge ourselves that we may not be judged, and we can come to God.
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And let me say this. There's another point I like about this in closing, this wonderful story.
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God's arms open wide to those who will come to Him in simple faith, childlike faith.
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God has not made it difficult, has He, to come into the arms, the everlasting arms, to trust
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Him alone. He's made a way. You notice the gospel is not complicated?
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We've made it complicated. We've messed it up when we start adding our little subtractions and additions.
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Notice when Paul says, the simplicity in Christ. It's simple, but it's deep.
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It costs something. And that's why we must not mess it up.
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It's pure. And He made it in a way, He made it clear where even a child can understand it.
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In simple, childlike faith, we can fall right into the arms of Jesus.
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And hear Jesus say, come unto me all you labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. And he that comes to me,
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I will not, no wise, cast him out. That's good news. God's gracious.
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He's willing to bring us in. If only we're willing. However willing,
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He comes after us. And when He does come after us, and when you have that sense of conviction upon your heart to repent,
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I would repent. I would repent. And He'll help you. And He'll give you the gift of faith and repentance.
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A lot of brothers and sisters have to latch on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Buried and resurrected.
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There's nothing else going to matter, right? When I draw my last breath, everything leans right there.
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My faith has found a resting place. And where is it? In Jesus Christ alone.
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Amen. The rock of ages. Cleft from me. Let me hide myself in thee.
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Amazing grace. Amen? Grace untold. Grace, grace, greater than all of our sin.
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Grace that will cleanse us from all of our sin. Well, praise God. We have a great
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Savior. And that our faith should be in Jesus and Jesus alone.
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That's Scarlet Court. Praise God. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You today for Your Word.
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It's pure and holy. And it cleanses the vilest sinner from all of sin.
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Lord, there's hope as long as people have breath. There's a living hope.
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Lord, may we cling hard to this hope. We're all wretches saved by Your grace.
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Only those that truly understand Your saving power can only say,
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By Your grace and by Your grace alone, I am that I am. As Paul said.
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We are wretched, miserable sinners coming before You to be cleansed.
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Lord, a Christian is not a good person that's come to church and made himself clean.
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No, it's wretched sinners that come to the feet of Jesus and say,
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Lord, help my unbelief. Cleanse me and wash me in Your precious blood. Father, we thank You for this great saving grace that You have given.
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You have sent the Son. You have made a way. We rejoice in this today.
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That the way has been made. And there's only one way. That Jesus Christ is not of many ways.
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He is the only way. Not just the best way. The only way. And we thank
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You for that, Father, in Your great mercy. We're so undeserving of it because we all deserve hell.
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We do not deserve heaven. So we thank You for Jesus Christ and Him crucified who came to save to the uttermost.
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We give You praise. We give You glory. And Father, we would pray that You would do a work among us.
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Anybody that's here that has not made their calling and election sure that they would do so.
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In faith. In You alone. So we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.