We open our Bibles this morning to Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2, the story of Rahab. I believe the Bible that I have up here is the same one out there. Joshua chapter 2 can be found on page 194. We hear this morning how the Lord harvests a heart, how he brings one into the covenant community who no one would have expected. When we examine our own hearts and lives, the truth is the same about each and every one of us. So congregation, hear with me now the word of the Lord according to Joshua. Joshua 2, beginning at verse 1 and reading the entire chapter. Now Joshua the son of Nun set out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, Go, view the land, especially Jericho. So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come here to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men and hid them. And so she said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was beginning to shut, when it was dark, that the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid there in order on the roof. Then the men pursued them by the road to Jericho to the fords, and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Now before they laid down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have no shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all they have, and deliver our lives from death.' And so the man answered her, our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be when the Lord has given us a land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall. She dwelt on the wall. And she said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward you may go on your way. So the man said to her, we will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet into the window which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brother, and your father's household to your own home. So it shall be that whoever goes out the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on them. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear.' Then she said, according to your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet cord to the window. They departed and went to the mountain, and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over. And they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands. For indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. May he add his blessing to it. I'm sure it's not just children, but children like to read storybooks that come in series. Maybe some of you kids like to read the boxcard children books or the Hardy Boy books. I'm sure there's even more modern series of books that are out there that I'm not aware of, but I'm sure my children will be into very soon. But these series have an overarching art to them. There's independent stories in each of these books, but these individual books serve the broader purpose of explaining the whole series. As a congregation, what we're seeing here in the book of Joshua this morning is one story, one section of God's drama of redemption. His overarching plan to save and protect and preserve a people for himself. You see, we don't look at this record that we have here before us, the Word of God, as simply a collection of individualized stories, little tiny pieces. They are that. They do contain wisdom for us. They do tell us how we're to live before our holy God. But Scripture is one unified whole, expounding for us God's glorious story of redemption, the drama of redemption. It's a story which God has been drawing and calling his people into since before the foundations of the world. And while the final ink on that revelation has certainly dried, It's not a dry and dreary, boring story. It's not worn out. It hasn't seen better days. Its implications are beautiful and glorious, even for us gathered here this morning. Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, this story that we read here is not just a story of Israel. This is God's story and He has brought us into it. And it's a beautiful thing. It's a story of Christ's church. Today we witness one small chapter in that overarching narrative. One step which shows and shadows the gracious and merciful character of God himself. And as we pull that camera lens back just a little bit later on, we're going to see a beautiful and glorious picture emerge. And so our theme this morning will be that the God of heaven and earth delivers a lowly prostitute from death. The God of heaven and earth delivers a lowly prostitute from death. And we'll see this in three points. We'll look at a profession of faith in the God of heaven and earth. We'll look at the fruit of faith. And then finally we'll see the seed of the woman secured. But as we begin, let's observe the context into which Rahab professes her faith. The Lord had been doing great things for his people as Rahab proclaimed. He'd taken a fearful, a grumbling people out of the wilderness. He'd taken them as slaves through the Red Sea on dry ground. He delivered them from great military powers such as Pharaoh and his army. Well, beloved, the word of Yahweh's victory, of Yahweh, the Lord's power, was spreading among the nations, among the people. And the people were afraid. Their hearts melted. They were faint-hearted, as we read a couple times in our passage. We can imagine the Canaanites saying to each other, have you heard what the God of Israel did to Sihon and Og? It seems like the Israelites are on the move. Are we next? What's going on here? Fear gripped the entire region. Their hearts melted and they were shaken to the very core of their beings. They'd heard the reports and they feared that they were dead men walking. Well having heard about God's display of mighty power of His redemptive acts on behalf of His people, or we could even say His impending judgment on the nations in a way, near universally the response was hardness of heart. In fear the inhabitants of Canaan cried out. But they did not cry out to God for mercy. They did not say, who are we to challenge the will of the Lord? Let us place ourselves in His hands and beg for His mercy. No one feared their hearts were hardened. Instead, they uttered battle cries against God's people, anticipating a fight where they didn't even stand the slightest chance. News of God's redemptive acts that he accomplished the same ends then that they do today. Hardens the hearts of some and quickens the hearts of others. Romans, in Romans 9 verse 33 Paul talks about this, about God's redemptive acts, the gospel being a stumbling block, a rock of offense. But thankfully he doesn't stop there. He goes on to say that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will not be put to shame. For them, the gospel is not a stumbling block. And so here we see the other effect of Yahweh's redemptive acts by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's repentance and faith. As we see in the life of Rahab the Canaanite, the prostitute. You see, surrounded by hard-heartedness, surrounded by opposition to God and opposition to His people, she professes her faith. Look again in our passage at Joshua 2, verses 8 through 11. Now, before they lay down, she came up to the roof. And she said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and the earth beneath. He is God of heaven and earth. Not the false idols of Jericho. Not the false idols of Canaan. Not the king of Jericho. He is not God. God, Yahweh, the God of Israel, He is God of heaven and earth. He's not one God among many gods. He's not a good luck charm. He's not a battle token. He is God of all. And Rahab confesses this. He is the one true God. Where else could she turn? He has the words of life. So, beloved, what we're seeing here unfold is what we seem to see so often in Holy Scripture. What God does, what the Lord, our God, does. He uses the weak and the lowly to shame the strong. He uses the marginal to show how powerful He is. That salvation doesn't come from man. That salvation does not come from things on this earth. Salvation comes at his hand and his hand alone. The Holy Spirit did not convert the King of Jericho, a city of great cultural importance and power. Had the King of Jericho joined forces with Israel here, perhaps he could have tried to claim some of that glory. But instead, the beginning of this city's destruction begins with the newly kindled faith of a prostitute. It's a woman who was at the fringes and an outcast of society. She lived in the unmentionable parts of the town. She was a sinner who placed herself at the mercy of the God of heaven and earth. And beloved, here is great hope for every last one of us, isn't there? You see, there's no sin too great. There's no sin that would disqualify us from receiving the grace of God. besides that of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, rejecting God's grace. You see, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When having been chosen in His Son, we reach out to Him in faith, as John reminds us in his first epistle. And so in the end, it's not about the greatness of our sin, but about the greatness of our Savior. Kelvin puts it this way. He says, we are but mean, mangy dogs whom the Lord must totally transform. To realize that is to understand that only He can save us from hell and call us into His heavenly kingdom. And so that analogy is true for the drug dealer, for the prostitute, for the broken stay-at-home mom, for the broken father, for the broken businesswoman, for the broken businessman, for the broken farmer. God's grace levels all of us. The law, the reminder of sin, levels all of us. There is only one hope, and that's in the God of heaven and earth. Rahab saw this. She saw that the people of, that the enemies of God were being crushed and destroyed. You see, she's only mentioned, she's mentioned three times in the New Testament, Rahab is. In Hebrews 11 verse 31, the writer tells us, You see, by the power of the Holy Spirit in her life, Rahab had the eyes to see who God was and what he was doing. That judgment was coming and that he was the only one who could save her in body and soul, in life and in death. And second we see this morning that faith, that profession of faith that she has bears fruit. There's action to this faith because of the power of the Spirit in her life. You see another place where Rahab is mentioned in the New Testament is James chapter 2. Look with me at James chapter 2 verses 24 through 26. James 2 verses 24 through 26. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise, was Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. And perhaps that gives us pause. So is James then saying that really it's not just by faith alone in Christ, salvation that is, that perhaps there's a works component to it. God does some and we do the rest. Beloved, that is not for a moment at all what James is saying. It's not what he wants his hearers to understand. James wants his hearers to know and to remember that we are justified before a holy God by faith in Jesus Christ alone. But what he is saying is that faith evidences itself to others by those good works that we do. As we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our works have no standing, no impact on our standing before God. That is, by Christ's blood alone. We can add nothing to this. Not a drop. But what James is saying, those who have been redeemed, those who have been covered in the blood of Christ, will show who they are in Christ. They'll live out that identity that they share with Him. Even these good works that we do are out of God's mercy, His plan for our lives. Think of Ephesians 2, verse 10. Those works that God prepared beforehand, in advance, for us to walk in them. No part of our salvation is by God's sovereign grace and His power. And so it's this living faith that bears fruit in Rahab right away. Why these two spies came to Rahab's house, we do not know. But what we do know is that Yahweh's hand was using these less than ideal circumstances for the good of those who feared him. You see, at Rahab's house, the two spies have entered the one safe haven in all of Jericho. There's no other place that is safe from them. because Rahab feared the God of heaven and earth. More than she feared man, she lied so that she could protect these children of God. You could think of the way that people protected Jewish people in the time of World War II. They would lie when the Gestapo would come to their door asking, are you harboring anyone? The point is that life is being spared. Verse four of our passage tells us that Rahab had taken these spies to the roof and hidden them there. So these are the actions of one who believes in Yahweh's supremacy, Yahweh's sovereign power. Yahweh's sovereign claim over her life. Because you see, when Rahab agreed to harbor and hide these spies to protect them, she was risking her very life. She not only risked her own life, but she risked the entire lives of all of her family. Her act of rebellion could have been punished by death. And yet we see that Rahab was much more confident in the God of Israel, the God of heaven and earth, in His ability to save her, than she was afraid. And so she pleads with the spies in verses 12 and 13 of our passage. Now then please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, and also you will deal kindly with my father's house. Give me a sure sign. You see, Rahab feels that weight of her situation. And she asks the spies to swear an oath to her that they will deal kindly with her. This is a very serious matter for her and for her family. Their very lives are at risk. But nevertheless, she trusts in God. And as the spies tell her, our lives for yours. And she says, according to your words, so be it. Amen, in a sense. The Lord has her life in His hands. As a congregation, let it be said of us that our trust is in the God of heaven and earth. That we fear God before we fear man. That we trust Him with our lives. This is not a story here about Rahab. This is a story about our sovereign God and His saving work amongst His people. His saving work amongst the nations. Before mighty Jericho knows what's going on, God is defeating them by conquering the heart of its lowest member of society. The Lord is using the weak to shame the strong and beloved. This gives us great hope. And this greatest hope that we can see, brothers and sisters, is this third point that we see here. The seat of the woman is secured as we begin to take the camera lens upon the story and pull it back a little bit to see more of the big picture. To see this drama of redemption in its greater context. This is God's story where he is the main character. Where he is calling and drawing a people to himself. Where he is preserving the seat of woman that he promised he would do in Genesis 3.15. With congregation, the third and final place where Rahab is mentioned is in the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 1. I'm sure you're familiar with it. In Matthew chapter 1, we have that great genealogy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look with me at Matthew 1, the beginning at verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah and his brothers. Judah begat Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram. Ram begat Amenadab. Amenadab begat Nashon, and Nashon begat Sammon. Sammon begat Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, and Obed begot Jesse. We know this, we follow this down, it's David, it's the kings of Israel. All the way to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. But did you notice as we read verse 5 there in Matthew chapter 1, how Rahab was identified? Did Matthew identify Rahab as Rahab the prostitute? No, beloved, there we read Sam and the father of Boaz by Rahab. You see, Rahab here is simply identified as one mother in a great line of the seed of the woman. That one who was to come to crush the head of the serpent. No longer was Rahab's identity found in that broken profession of hers. No, Rahab's identity is now found in Jesus Christ. that one who would be the grandmother of David, whose greater son was Jesus Christ. And so some can ask that question, well, how could a prostitute be in the line of Christ? How could this be? But congregation of Jesus Christ, as we've already said, God has been using the lowly and the weak to shame the strong since the dawn of time. And he does this in order to focus our eyes upon him. Because yes, this line is a list of actually broken people. Abraham was an idolater called to faith in the God of heaven and earth. Rahab's own daughter-in-law Ruth was an idolater, a Moabitess, who as well placed her trust in Israel's God. We know King David well. We know that King David was a man after God's own heart. Yet David was an adulterer and a murderer. So congregation, ask yourself this this morning. When it comes to sin, who is worse off? You and I or Rahab? You see, we have a much fuller revelation of God's drama of redemption. We have a much clearer picture than Rahab ever did. As we examine our own hearts and lives, even as we have with the law this morning, we see the same brokenness, the same filth and sin in our own lives. You see, you and I need a Savior just as much as Rahab needed a Savior. The covenant line is full of sinners saved by grace alone. Israel's history is a complete train wreck to humanize, isn't it? God's people are constantly failing. They're receiving redemption. They're falling away. They're receiving redemption. They're falling away. And yet God was faithful. And so this line that we see, this line of Christ in Matthew chapter 1, is not a pedigree of perfection. You see, every person mentioned in this genealogy, including Rahab, desperately needed a Savior. And here, we found Him. Jesus Christ, that Son of David, the Son of Joseph of Mary, came as the Savior of the world. He lived out that law that we read perfectly in our place. He atoned for our sins on the cross by bleeding, by being bled for our sins, by covering us in his robes of righteousness. He was resurrected from the dead by the Father. He's ascended to the Father, reigning at His right hand even now, and He will come again to judge the living and the dead. And so it begs the question, is this where you find yourself today, trusting in that God of heaven and earth? Or do we easily give ourselves to other gods? The gods of money, the gods of pleasure. The Son, Jesus Christ, has come to redeem us. Let's cling to Him. Cling to Him alone. We've seen what Rahab and all of Israel could only have ever hoped for. We are those who are those unnatural branches who are grafted in, just as Rahab was grafted in. Just as Ruth was grafted in. So, beloved, we too were those weeds, those strange branches grafted into the one branch, Jesus Christ. And so that drama of redemption continues to this day as the Lord calls people from all corners of the world to himself by the gospel. Congregation, this is a beautiful story, a beautiful drama that we have been made a part of. This is the God in whom we profess our faith. Put your trust in Him today. Look to Him for your comfort and your consolation. For there is no place other where it can be found. Save in the name of Jesus Christ alone. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we come again to You. For Father, where else would we go for, O Lord, You have the words of life. We are those who are broken, Father, but You are the one who heals. We are the ones who are dead, Father, but You are the one who makes alive. So, Father, we're grateful for You and Your sovereign power. We're grateful for Your story of redemption, O Lord, that You have brought us into. So, Father, help us to find our identity in Christ alone. We may not find our identities in the gods of this world, in the gods of the own making of our own hearts, but, Father, may we find ourselves in Christ. Father, by the power of your Spirit in me, we go forth in that knowledge and in that power, relishing and reveling in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ more and more every day. Oh Lord, we ask these things in the name of Christ, our only Savior. Amen.