Rahab (Hebrews 11:31, Jeff Kliewer)

Good morning. It is a hard time for our church right now with many people who are ill.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer for them and also for those in Afghanistan who are suffering mightily, and especially our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in great danger.

So, Father God, we come to you now trusting in your plan, trusting in your sovereignty, knowing that your plan is unchangeable and you work all things according to the counsel of your will.

We know that you work all things together for our good, and so we trust you with what you are doing.

We know that you are strengthening our faith. You are refining our faith.

And so we do not shrink back, Lord God, but in the midst of the trial we run to you. We need you,

God. Lord, as a preacher, Lord, I need you, especially at a time like this. It is so much easier for me to preach when we are together in the assembly,

Lord God. And yet your word is true in all circumstances. And so I pray for myself as I bring the word that you would give me the words to say, that you would take over and by your

Holy Spirit teach us through your word. Even though these circumstances are the way they are.

Father, I lift up those who are sick, our brothers, our sisters, some of them who are pretty ill.

God, raise them up in Jesus' name. Jehovah Rapha, we call on you now and ask that you would heal each one who has fallen ill.

You are able to do that, and we ask, God, by the power of the blood of Jesus, that you would raise them up, that you would heal them, each one.

We trust you for that, Lord. We pray also for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. We know that some pastors there have reported that they expect to be killed this week.

And yet, God, we know that you are able to restrain evil. And so we pray that you would restrain the evil of the

Taliban. You, in the past, have used the U .S. soldier and the military to restrain the evil of the

Taliban. But you can speak a word. You can change the very heart and will of the

Taliban, of individuals there. And so we ask you to do that in Jesus' name.

Protect the brethren, Lord God. Save them. Do not allow the enemy to stretch out his hand to destroy and kill our brethren.

Be merciful towards them. We pray also for their faithfulness, that no matter what you have decreed, that they would be found faithful in the trial, that their faith would be shown to be pure gold, that they would not shrink back into destruction, but that they would boldly confess

Jesus, the Son of God, without fear. Keep their hearts at perfect peace,

Lord God. Keep our hearts at perfect peace. We pray for your word now to go forth as we open the book of Hebrews, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 31 today.

Before we get into verse 31,

I want us to think a little bit about what's happening here with our church going through a test.

Why is it that God is allowing us to get hit like this?

And we've been hit. We've been hit hard. Why would God allow that? We don't know.

We don't know what His purpose is, but we know that He has a purpose. Turn back a couple pages to Hebrews chapter 6, verse 17.

It says, So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose,

He guaranteed it with an oath. God has a purpose.

It is a decree. It is a plan. And there is a reason for everything that happens under the sun.

He has a purpose in it. If He didn't, then it would just be random events out of control. It's not the case.

God does have a purpose. We don't know necessarily what it is, but I would speculate. I think this summer we set out to grow in the faith through the study of Hebrews chapter 11.

And we've looked at these examples from Scripture. But here God is giving us a trial, a test of our faith to see if we will trust

Him and take Him at His word, recognizing that His word is unchangeable, and that we can stand on it, and that we would grow in the faith on account of this test.

I think that's what's happening. I think it also might have to do with stepping out in faith to take ground for the

Kingdom of God. Within days, we will launch

Woke Free Church, a book that takes the fight to the enemy at the very point where he has been attacking the church the most in the area of sin, in defining sin, which social justice has twisted and perverted that and turned it upside down.

This book will take direct aim and enter into that fight. And when you step out into a new front of the battle, you can expect that there's going to be pushback.

I think there's a spiritual aspect to this. There's spiritual warfare going on. And then secondly, when you step out to fight for the life of unborn children in the new abortion ministry that we are opening to rescue children from the slaughter, there will be spiritual warfare surrounding that.

And I think what's happening is God is refining us for the battle. He's strengthening us that as we come out of physical illness, we come back stronger physically, but not just physically, spiritually, that we come forth refined as having passed through fire.

I know as a pastor, I've been praying more in the last couple weeks than I think I had for months.

The Lord is drawing me to my knees, calling. He's forcing me to rely on Him and to step in the areas where He calls me to lead.

And I thank you guys for being such a loving, responsive congregation to be willing to follow that leadership.

Hebrews 13, as you know, I humbly do the best that I can, and I know that I've fallen short in many ways in trying to lead through this, but seeking

God each step of the way and now trusting Him for His grace to cover areas where I fall short.

But knowing that God is in control of this, that He has a purpose in the things that are happening.

This is encouraging to me. This is why we have to have that high view of sovereignty, by the way. A high view of sovereignty, recognizing that God is working all of these things together for good.

It's not out of His control in any way, shape, or form. This is God working together a plan that includes suffering for His people.

We'll see that actually next week in Hebrews 11, near the end of the chapter. You see that sometimes He does allow suffering.

Other times He delivers from the edge of the sword. So we don't know

His purpose, but there's purpose in all of the things that He allows to happen under the sun.

Okay, that said, we are being tested. A test of our faith. The book of Hebrews is for our faith.

First of all, faith is born by seeing Him who is invisible. The spiritual eyes of faith apprehending the glory and the splendor of Christ.

That He is greater than anything else in the world. The things that we cling to in this life, that we hold dear.

Christ is better. The attractions that we have to things that are even created by God and are good.

Good designs of God for family and sex and for everything that God has made under the sun, which is meant to bring

Him glory. We can at any point make idols of those things and begin to worship and serve the created thing rather than the

Creator who is forever praised. But faith recognizes that Christ Himself is greater.

He is greater than angels. He is greater than Moses. He is greater than Joshua. He is a greater and better high priest than the whole

Levitical system of priests. And He is a better sacrifice. His blood on the cross accomplishes what all the blood of a million animals could never do.

It takes away sin and forever perfects and completes the Christian, making us righteous and imputed with righteousness in the sight of God.

It's a better sacrifice. He's the mediator of a better covenant. Better, better. That's the theme of Hebrews.

And so faith, first of all, apprehends that. It sees His glory and His splendor.

It sees Christ. So we recognize that Christ is worthy and glorious.

And so the book of Hebrews brings us faith by showing us Jesus. But the second thing it does is it warns us against a false faith, something that's not genuine, that only kind of looks like faith but doesn't turn out to be faith.

So you have the five warning passages in the book of Hebrews. Chapter 2, verse 1,

You must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what you have heard, so that you do not drift away.

For if the message spoken by angels was binding and every violation received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

That's a strong warning. If we neglect salvation and drift away by not paying careful enough attention, we won't escape.

Those who neglected the law of Moses, which was mediated through angels, they did not escape.

They fell in the wilderness. And if we neglect the glory of our salvation, that would be something short of genuine faith.

It would be a flippant reaction to being shown the most glorious and splendorous thing in the history of the world, which is

Christ and Him crucified for us. We must pay more careful attention. So that first warning teaches us that we must look on Him and come fully to Him to believe on Him.

The second warning is about the Israelites who fell in the wilderness. In Hebrews 3 and 4, we saw that they never entered that rest that was offered to them.

They never went into the Promised Land, but they died in the wilderness. And so we must be careful and take heed that we enter that rest.

Come all the way to Christ, fully believing in Him, convinced and fully committed to Him.

And then in Hebrews 6, we have the third warning. And this is about those who have tasted the heavenly gift and the goodness of the

Word of God and the powers of the coming age and then yet fall away. They're like land that has been drinking in water that often falls on it, the rain that often falls on it, but never produce any fruit.

And that land is fit to be burned. It's a strong warning that it's impossible to renew this person again to faith because what they had, they thought was faith, but it wasn't.

It came close to being faith. It looked to others from the outside like faith, but it wasn't a genuine saving faith.

So the warning is that we must come fully to Christ to believe in Him and to not just sip, but to drink, to fully take in the

Word of God, to believe, to fully believe what we're being taught.

Again, in Hebrews chapter 10 is the fourth warning and that is the one who tramples underfoot the

Son of God and regards as unholy the blood of the covenant. These warnings and then the fifth one we get to in Hebrews chapter 12, the second half of Hebrews chapter 12.

These warnings show what is not quite faith. It falls short of faith and it doesn't save.

So the 11th chapter shows us what faith is. It's when

Enoch walks with God. It's when Abel offers a better sacrifice, obeying what

God had commanded in Genesis 3, 21 and modeled in the killing of an animal for the shedding of blood as a sacrifice.

It is when Abraham goes to a place that he's never seen before.

It's when Sarah believes the promise. It's when Abraham offers

Isaac in obedience, his one and only son, believing that he would receive him back from the dead.

It's when Moses regards the treasures of Egypt as not worth comparing to what is in Christ.

And he leaves the splendors of Egypt behind to go identify with the people of God. In each of these things we see genuine faith.

This is real faith. This is a faith that changes a person. And there are actions that come from this genuine faith.

And so we come to Hebrews 11, verse 31 today. And we'll just have some comments, really three major things to notice in this verse today.

Rahab's faith. It is the faith of a transformed life. By faith,

Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

A short verse about her. But what we recognize is that she is an example of faith.

She's in the hall of faith here. Notably, she's not an Israelite.

She's from Jericho. And she's a prostitute. And yet she is rescued and saved by the same kind of faith that rescued

Abraham, the father of the faith. And Moses, and all these heroes that we read about in chapter 11.

Here also, Rahab is saved by faith. She is, and she typifies, a transformed life that protects life, no longer destroys life.

So first of all, notice, by faith she gave a friendly welcome to the spies.

Salvation is by grace through faith alone. But that faith does not stay alone.

We know from Romans 3, verse 21 through 521, that justification is by faith alone.

Very clearly, works do not contribute to justification before God.

Faith alone justifies. And yet, James chapter 2, verses 24 to 26, explain that if a person has this justifying faith, there will be a transformed life that comes from it.

And the works that will result from that faith, demonstrate that the faith was real in the first place.

This is very important, because every false gospel misunderstands this point.

They usually will run to James chapter 2 to make a deceitful point. You see that in every works righteousness system.

But what Romans teaches us is absolutely true, and it does not contradict with James chapter 2.

The two teachings are absolutely compatible, they're coherent. Think of it like the root and the fruit.

A tree has its root in faith. And the fruit that comes from the tree is the works of a person.

So if there is a genuine faith, the root is good and alive, it will result in fruit.

The fruit of the tree is not what saves or makes the tree itself, it's what comes out from the genuine living tree.

If that tree does not produce fruit, it's a dead tree.

And in the same way, faith, if it does not transform a person and change them, change how they live and work in the world, and the things that they do, then it's a fake faith.

It is not a genuine faith. So turn with me to James chapter 2. We'll see Rahab here as well in these words.

The Apostle James is answering the question about a fake faith. Can such a dead faith save a person if all they have is a profession of faith and it never affects their life?

Is that saving faith? And of course the answer is no. Verse 24, chapter 2 of James, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Now of course he's not contradicting God who wrote Romans 4, 5, for example, or Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

In verse 25 it says, In the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

She was justified by works in the sense that her faith was shown, it was demonstrated, it was justified before men, shown to be genuine and real because it resulted in action.

Had she just remained and identified with the people of Jericho, the king who came asking about the spies, she would have been safer.

That king would have not killed her. But by God's grace, her ruse worked and the spies were allowed to go free.

But in that, she identified with the people of God and with Yahweh.

This was an act of faith. And you see this most clearly in Joshua 2.

We'll spend just a minute there. Let's go back because this point is so important. What had happened in her heart is that she, by faith, had apprehended that Yahweh is better,

He's greater than the false pagan gods of Jericho.

And she confessed Him in Joshua 2, verse 11.

She's referring to when the Israelites had come over the Red Sea and they had conquered the two kings before crossing the

Jordan to go and soon they're going to overtake Jericho. The people had heard about this.

And here is the response of Rahab. Joshua 2, verse 11.

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.

So you see in Joshua 2, verse 11, this is her making the good confession. She is acknowledging that Yahweh is the true

God. And she puts her faith in Yahweh. And so she is believing in the true

God. And now her actions are in keeping with that faith. And it demonstrates the reality of it because she then hides the spies from the people of Jericho and gives them a way out.

This raises an interesting question because in doing that, she tells a lie. Was that part okay?

I think many of us assume that, of course, well, you know, you've got to save a life. You can tell a lie in that case.

But that's not the case. Listen to John Calvin speaking about this passage.

Although our purpose might be to assist our brethren to work for their safety, it never can be lawful to lie because that cannot be right which is contrary to the nature of God.

And God is truth. This question is raised all the time in philosophy classes in college.

It's one of the first things that the wicked philosophy professor will want to bring up because his job is to tear down the faith of Christians.

That's what philosophy professors do on college campuses. And so they will present an impossible moral dilemma as they call it because they want to demonstrate that there is no such thing as absolute truth.

There's only relativism. So they'll say, if you were hiding Jews in your walls when the

Nazis came looking, would you lie to the soldiers or would you tell them that, well, there's

Jewish people hiding in our walls. And this supposed impossible moral dilemma is used to convince the students that by lying, you're actually not sinning because you're protecting life.

But again, this is not a biblical argument. This is a philosophical invented construct and it's not in keeping with reality.

What John Calvin is saying here and then Wayne Grudem will concur with this is that actually there is not a need to lie in that situation.

Now first of all, before I explain that, recognize that what Calvin is saying here God's nature is truth.

In Hebrews 6 .18 it says it is impossible for God to lie.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. John 14 .6

and then in John 14 .15 and 16 the spirit is called the spirit of truth.

So the very nature of God, Father, Son and Spirit is truth in essence.

It is His attribute. Part of His moral attributes is truth.

And so we as image bearers in reflecting those attributes of God must always tell the truth.

And that word always is what makes it an absolute statement, not just a relativistic statement.

So returning to the impossible moral dilemma. Rahab hiding the spies on the roof.

The Nazis knocking on the door. Or to make an even finer point on it, even today as we prayed for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.

The Taliban knocks on the door. Is your pastor hiding here? Because we know that you're part of this church and we heard he was here.

Is he here? You've got him hidden in the basement under a bag of golf clubs or something.

I don't know. Do you tell the truth? What Wayne Grudem will point out, and he's got a whole chapter in Christian ethics on this, is that lying does not keep the soldiers from searching.

And to not tell the truth is to not disclose everything is different than telling a lie.

So consider what could be said in those kind of situations. The Nazi knocks on the door.

You answer that person, I will not participate in your persecution of the Jewish people. And then begin pleading with that person to repent and believe the good news.

Now, what will they do? They will come in and search the house. But if you had lied and said, no, I'm not hiding Jewish people, do you think that they're not still going to search the walls or search the house?

That's why Corrie Ten Boone had the Jewish people hiding behind the fake wall and was able to do it because they would search regardless.

So what you say, you can be careful and you don't have to say everything or you can just fall silent or you can just preach the gospel.

Point being, we don't want to belabor the point, but recognize what Calvin goes on to say here.

We'll summarize it up. The particular fault does not wholly deprive the deed of the merit of holy zeal.

In other words, the fact that she lied doesn't mean that God is going to cast her out now.

For by the kindness of God, the fault is suppressed and not taken into account.

We don't see anything in James or Hebrews talking about the fact that she lied. Rahab does wrong when she falsely declares that the messengers were gone, and yet the principal action was agreeable to God because the bad mixed up with the good was not imputed.

On the whole, it was the will of God that the spies should be delivered, but he did not approve of saving their life by falsehood.

Remember, this is Rahab as a brand new believer. She doesn't have the moral law of God.

She doesn't have Exodus 20 teaching her that she must never lie.

Even in that fault, she's still commended because on the whole, her faith is concealing and identifying with the people of God to conceal the spies rather than with the people of Jericho.

And so, she is acting in faith even if she errs in that way. There is forgiveness for her in that, which leads us to the second big point.

There is forgiveness for her prostitution. The text says in Hebrews 11 verse 31, it says,

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient.

I think that obviously could have been left out by the author, but he puts that in there to remind the reader of the profession of this woman.

And, it really highlights what God has intended and created with the invention of sex.

God has designed from the very beginning that male and female would, the man would leave father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This design of marriage, man and woman marriage, and we know from 2015 with the

Birgefell decision that this country has stepped into uncharted territory by redefining what had been defined as the union of a man and woman, the two becoming one flesh for thousands of years.

This country is experimenting with something completely unnatural and contrary to God's created order, as it's been understood in every culture, even in Jericho, which would be brought to the sword for wickedness.

But in any case, you have marriage, sex, and children. But, here, as a prostitute,

Rahab is breaking those bonds apart, shattering those bonds. And sex, of course, here becomes a recreational pursuit and outside of marriage, explicitly outside of marriage.

The result of that, of course, would be such atrocities as abortion because of the unwanted pregnancies that would take place.

And so, we understand from the text that Rahab was a destroyer of life.

She was a destroyer. Someone who was harming marriages and destroying the family, the structure of family that God had designed from the beginning, which was so important to His created order.

I mean, it goes back to Genesis 1, 26 -28. The first commands to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Here, Rahab is doing quite the opposite. She's destroying life. This is a good and important word to young people.

I remember as a youth pastor, I used to get this question all the time. Why is it that God has given such strong sexual desires so far in advance of when

I'm old enough to be married? A young man would ask a question like that. And the answer to that is that God has given strong sexual desires to young men in order that they grow up and become a man.

It will be to them a driving force and impetus to work hard to become capable of providing for a family, protecting a family, establishing a home.

Those desires drive a man to work. It's a good desire that God has given to motivate a man to grow up and then to pursue a wife.

And if it be God's will that he would find a wife and find what is good and receive favor from the

Lord. This is a good desire that God has given. However, in our culture, like Rahab the prostitute, there is a short -circuiting of that process through prostitution, which of course is still rampant today, but also through pornography.

And the entire design of God for family is falling apart.

And that is why we see the devastating results in the culture in which we're living.

The degree to which family breaks down and you no longer have the bond between husband and wife, sex as part of that relationship, and then children, offspring coming from this design of God.

When you see that unravel and fall apart, you see society fall apart.

And the problems that you see in the inner city of America is largely due to the fact that regardless of race, ethnic background, you have a breakdown of family.

And where there is 80 % birth out of wedlock and fathers that are not present in the home, you have all of the problems that come from that.

This was Rahab's life. She was a destroyer of life until she met the spies and believed in the

God of the spies and saw the God of Israel as greater than the life that she knew and worthy of genuine faith.

And so she identifies, and so to the last point, look at Hebrews 11 31, the big idea here.

By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish.

She did not perish with those who were disobedient. She herself had been disobedient and that's why it's stressed that she was a prostitute.

But she did not perish because of John 3 16, that God so loved the world that He gave

His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

There is a scarlet thread woven from Genesis 315 all the way to the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 22.

That red thread to which

I'm referring here is the blood of Christ. As the story of Rahab unfolds, we understand maybe if you've not read

Joshua 2, you go back and read this. When the spies came to her, she sheltered them.

That act of righteousness demonstrated true and saving faith and so they said to her, you take this scarlet cord and you tie it in the window of your house and now you destroyer of life, now that you're a believer in Yahweh, if this is genuinely your faith, you become a protector of life, you bring your family, the very thing that you were destroying, family, now you bring your father and mother and your sisters and brothers and their little ones, the family, together under this roof in which you live and you tie a scarlet cord in the window and when

Israel comes to Jericho to conquer this city, that scarlet thread will be protection for you.

That scarlet thread pictures the blood of Christ because when the judgment of the sword, of God's wrath against an ungodly people, pagan, idolatrous, sexually immoral, murderous people, where there would also be widows and orphans and the poor and the vulnerable.

What made them under the judgment of God was sin, that all of them have sinned and God was seeing fit to judge this people, the city of Jericho, but there was a shelter from His wrath.

There was protection for sinners from God's own judgment and that was under the scarlet thread.

That picture is the blood of Christ. Way back in Genesis chapter 3 when sinners first turned away from the living

God, He provided a covering for their sin, a blood sacrifice and made coats of skin to cover their shame and their nakedness and then when

Abel brought a sacrifice, he brought the blood of animals in obedience to God's command in Genesis 3 .21

and the example that was given in Genesis 3 .21. Abel offered a better sacrifice, yet Cain killed him.

Abraham offered blood sacrifice and there was an example in Genesis 22 where we thought that Isaac was going to be that sacrifice, but no, this was only picturing the blood of the

Son and there was a ram caught in the thicket, a substitute animal whose blood would be shed on that altar picturing the blood of Christ and then we move forward to Moses and the

Passover lamp, the blood that marked the door so the angel of death would pass over.

In all of these things we see the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin,

Leviticus 17 .11. An atonement made and in the story of Rahab, a red cord was hung on the window of the house, the house window was part of the wall of Jericho and there that marking pictured the blood of Christ so when the

Israelites, the walls fell down and somehow she was protected there supernaturally and the soldiers came in seeing that red cord they passed over and they did not kill

Rahab or her family they were all sheltered under the blood that cord represented the blood of Christ which would in the future be shed for sinners like Rahab and isn't that good news for us all of us who have fallen short of the glory of God that even if we're like Rahab and have fallen short sexually that there is a redeemer in Israel, the

God of Israel forgives sin and if we will come and be transformed by the renewing of our heart that the

Holy Spirit would come and make us new we would no longer go on with the former ways but would come out and live among the people of God this is what

Rahab did, it says as we follow the story in the book of Joshua that she remained with the people after being spared that wrath, she remained with the people identifying with them and living among them until her dying day, no longer practicing the sin of her former life but now living in righteousness before God, a transformed believer and so we have in Hebrews 11 31 an amazing example of the grace of God of saving faith when you come to Him, He will not cast you out a broken reed

He will not crush a smoldering wick He will not snuff out it says by faith

Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies so an application in closing of this like Rahab receive grace believe in the

God of Israel the one who opens the Red Sea and then will open the

Jordan River He opens a way into the promised land for us, He forgives sin like Rahab, no matter what you've done you can come to Him and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sin you will find

Christ Jesus to be a perfect Savior turn from your sin repent of sin if you have been caught up in pornography, if you have been caught up in prostitution if you have been caught up in any manner of sexual sin turn turn to the

Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness, He is able to deliver you and set you completely free make you new, transform your life live with the people of God with accountability with strength from your brothers and sisters to encourage you believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved like Rahab there is for us forgiveness of sin that covering for sin is only in the blood of Jesus so if you've never trusted

Him for salvation, for the forgiveness of sin, no matter what you've done, the story of Rahab tells you that He is a merciful and loving

God if you will come to Him in faith, repent and believe the good news, let's pray if you've never trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, here's your opportunity to ask

Him to save you pray like this, say, Father I am a sinner just like Rahab I deserve to be destroyed with the disobedient but I'm hearing of a

God of mercy, that You sent

Your one and only Son, Jesus to die for my sins to rise from the dead and I believe

I believe in Jesus I believe

His blood was poured out on the cross for the forgiveness of my sin please forgive me for the things that I have done change my life

I am coming to You, Lord all the way to You throwing myself completely on Your mercy willing to identify with the people of God I believe in Jesus save me

Amen if you just prayed that prayer believing in the Lord Jesus Christ we want to help you and walk with you, you need to come out from Jericho and walk with the people of God come be a part of Cornerstone Church we want to give you a

Bible we want to disciple you in the truth that you could continue to grow and draw nearer and nearer to Him the story that we teach about the

Lord Jesus Christ is no fantasy it's not a man -made these are true stories and all of these things happen and all of them point to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus so we invite you to come and believe the good news and brothers and sisters

I'm sad that we're not together this one Sunday but the next Sunday is coming real soon and we are going to have a celebration a party in the presence of the