Rahab: The Deliverance of Faith | Sermon by Tony Evans

[Music] hello everyone this is dr tony evans with the urban alternative and i'm excited to welcome you to join us on a journey a journey through hebrews 11 it's known as the hall of faith where men and women discovered what god can do when god's people learn to live walk and act by faith the beautiful thing is it's not just about them it's about us as the author of hebrews writes to new testament believers that's who we are about how the lives of old testament saints who learn to live by faith should challenge and affect our lives as we live by faith so we're excited to welcome you on this journey it's going to be an exciting trip we're going to learn a lot most importantly we're going to be transformed by the truth what it means to be a kingdom hero who lives by faith [Music] what we've been doing is walking through the personalities of the old testament as they've been written for us in the new testament in hebrews chapter 11 and we've been touring as in a museum the hall of faith and looking at the heroes the men and women of renown who god has placed for the new testament church out of the old testament scripture for us to emulate when it comes to living by faith as we now come toward the end of this series and the end of this chapter we come across a most unlikely candidate for our faith museum we come across a most unlikely hero for us to be analyzing and that is a lady named rahab the harlot of all the people who are in this text you would think she doesn't belong first of all she's a gentile she's not a jew she doesn't she doesn't belong to the people of god by her historical background she comes out of a world of pagan worship but worse than all of that was rahab's occupation she's called rahab the harlot i mean why couldn't god just say rahab why you got to tell us what she did for a living she seems like an unlikely candidate for this hall of faith because we're told right off the bat rahab the harlot in fact chapter 11 30 verse 31 reads this way by faith the harlot rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she received the spies with peace the story of rahab that's summarized in chapter 11 verse 31 of hebrews is explained to us in chapter 2 of the book of joshua in the book of joshua we find out the story of this lady of the evening named rahab we talked about joshua fitting the battle of jericho and walking around the walls well rahab lived in jericho joshua sent two spies in the jericho to spy out the land before they would uh take over the country through the supernatural power of god collapsing the walls we're told in chapter 2 of joshua verse 15 that rahab's house was built into the wall at the gate so as strangers went out or citizens came in they would pass by the red light district we're told in joshua chapter 2 which gives us the story that's summarized in hebrew 11 these words they sent two spies in and they came to the house verse 1 of chapter 2 of joshua of rahab the harlot and lodged there it was told the king of jericho saying that these spies had come in to rahab's house so somebody saw the spies go into the harlot's home so verse 3 says 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 to search out the country so they not only were discovered it was known while they were there they were israel spies who was trying to who were trying to sneak into jericho and they snuck into this harlot's house and somebody saw them and turned them in so the king sent some messengers to get these guys but when they came the woman took the two men verse 4 and hid them and said to the people who came looking for them verse four yes the men came to me and i did not know where they were from and it happened as the gate was being 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 that's called a lie a girlfriend is telling a bold face lie she had hidden them upstairs when they said the king sent the men to get him she said oh they left they left us before dark and if you hurry up you might be able to find them she lied so that raises the question when is it okay to lie all right because i know some people think it's always okay to lie here you have a scenario with two sins on the table the lie is a sin the bible calls lying a sin yet at the same time turning in the servants of god to be killed as spies would be a sin so you have two sins on the table the same thing that happened in exodus when the hebrew wives gave birth and lie that the children came before the the midwives could get there in time it was a lie and yet the bible says god blessed the midwives and they lied whenever you have two sins on the table and there is no other option any option you take is a sin then you must make the choice to choose the option that will bring god the greatest glory whenever you have two sins and those are the only options you have then you must make the decision that god's name would be honored the most so she makes the decision not to turn in the spies and she'll tell you why in just a second but to lie to the king and to his messengers why does she choose the lie she goes on to say verse 9 she said to the men i know that the lord has given you this 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 jordan verse 11 and as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted neither did they remain any more in carriage in anyone because of you for the lord your god he is the god in heaven above and on earth beneath she said we heard about y'all more than that we heard about your god we heard about how he delivered you from egypt opened up the red sea defeated the the kings on the other side of jordan we have heard about your god i have made the decision to align with you and your god now she was not given any more information than anybody else because she uses the plural we in us we heard we were afraid the message has been delivered to us but in the middle of everybody knowing i have made a different decision than everybody else everybody else wants to get rid of you kill you and destroy you i choose to be identified with you therefore i will hide you okay watch this she made a decision against the culture because the culture had all heard about israel but she says i am not watch this going to align myself with the culture i'm going to align myself with the lord but because she made the radical decision to align herself with the lord even so even though that meant she would be disaligned with the culture we're still talking about rahab today and her name has been recorded in the hall of faith so my question first and foremost by faith is who are you aligning yourself with because if you're seeking the popularity of the world you may go down with the world if you're seeking the notoriety of the culture you may go down with the culture every serious christian comes to that place in life when you're going to have to choose the lord or the crowd you're going to have to choose the lord or popularity you're going to have to choose the lord or notoriety one of the realities of being committed to christ is sometimes you find yourself by yourself because everybody else had turned them down but rahab the prostitute made the decision i am going to align myself with god even though that means i will not be aligned with the culture after she makes her decision watch this now she cuts the deal she says verse 12 therefore in light of my decision to choose god i beg you swear by the lord since i have shown you kindness that you also will show kindness to my father's house give me a true token spare my father my mother my brothers my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death so the men answered her our lies for yours if none of you tell this business of ours it will be when the lord has given us this land that we will deal kindly and truly with you then she let them down by a rope through the window for the house was on the city wall and dwelt on the wall she cuts the deal now stay with me here she says i chose god i chose god over the culture so when god turns this when god shuts this mama down when god turns this place out i want you to cover me and my family she uses a hebrew word and is translated in your bible kindly it's from a hebrew word pronounced hesed hesed refers to god's loyal covenantal covering love it was god's covenantal word for how he would cover his people the word hessen kindly i want you to cover me when god destroys jericho she wants to be covered so she expresses the covering she wants by saying protect me and the family and the spies say okay i want you to bring all your family into your house and when we shut this place down everybody in your house will be covered in other words they won't collapse with everybody else now watch this she cut a deal she cut a deal based on a decision the decision was a faith decision because she had to go against the culture in order to choose god she made a stay with me here she made a faith decision and then cut a deal okay now you heard me but i don't know if you heard me she made a faith decision and then she cut a deal that's not how we do it we cut a deal and then we say now god do what i ask you to do and if you do what i ask you to do this is what i will do but that's not faith that's sight because you're not responding until he comes through so when he comes through you promise him god bless me with money then i'll tithe god bless me with a new job and then i'll represent you at work god bless me with it and then i will that's the wrong song that's backwards christian soldiers no no no she cut a deal after she made a faith choice the faith choice must precede the deal you want god to do something for you with you by you from you before you've ever exercised any faith that you don't see yet and without faith it's impossible to please god god wants to see your faith before he'll cut your deal he wants to see that you trust him without seeing before he gives you something to see which doesn't take faith now for you to respond to because without faith it is impossible to please god he wants to see you take your step of faith without seeing him opening up the red sea without seeing him opening up the jordan river without seeing him destroy pharaoh without seeing how he's going to do whatever he's going to do next he wants to know that you trust his integrity before you cut your deal and so she cuts the deal they march around jericho seven times on saturday they blow the trumpets and the walls start collapsing that except one piece of the wall because verse 15 says her house was on the wall so when all the wall collapsed there was this one piece of wall standing where her house attached to it she got a miracle covering by god a miracle covering by god she was delivered one of the reasons why we are not experiencing more deliverance is god is seeing not enough faith he's seeing christians who live by sight and if you live by sight you're not living by faith and if you're not living by faith you won't see or you'll be limited in what you see of the supernatural hand of god moving in your midst but one of the most exciting things to see is when you live by faith god responding to your faith because you made your decision upfront you trusted him in advance [Applause] and so she not only saved her own life she says she saved her family's life chapter six of joshua tells us that the walls came down rahab and her family were kept safe and then it says that she was transported to israel okay so we find in chapter six of joshua she now because jericho has been destroyed she's now transported and now a prostitute becomes a proselyte a proselyte is somebody adopted into the jewish family so a prostitute a a hole is escorted into the covenantal people of god the prostitute becomes a proselyte while in israel she meets a man the man's name is salman let me tell you a little bit about salman we're told in first chronicles chapter 2 verse 51 that solomon was the father of bethlehem i mean he built the city of bethlehem so girlfriend winds up in israel and meets an affluent family salmon who is the architect for a whole city of babylon salmon falls in love with rahab the prostitute salmon has to know she's a prostitute because of the circumstances in which she came part of israel and says that's not hidden in the bible salmon falls in love and marries a prostitute you say how do i know salmon fell in love and married a prostitute because in matthew chapter 1 verse 5 going through the lineage of jesus christ it says and there was salman who was married to rahab and through rahab they had a baby boy named boaz that shifts us to the book of ruth cause boaz is riding through the field and he sees ruth he falls in love with ruth boaz marries ruth ruth has a baby named obed obed has a baby named jesse jesse has a baby named david and david is the lineage of jesus christ so rahab the prostitute who becomes rahab the price of light now marries an upscale family in israel and becomes the great great grandmother of king david and is written in scripture as part of the high-class ladies in the lineage of jesus christ if god can take a prostitute get her married off to somebody special and put her in the lineage of jesus christ i don't know what you did and how long you've done it all i know is your past doesn't have to control your future if god could ever get a hold of you and you choose god over the crowd god is able to take a mess and turn it into a miracle oh but that ain't all when james was writing his epistle he came to chapter 2 of the book of james and he wants to tell you faith without works is dead beginning in chapter 2 verse 14. and he says faith without works is dead and he says let me illustrate what i'm talking about the first illustration he comes up is with abraham and he says abraham offered up isaac by faith but faith wasn't words he had to act on what god says and he offered up isaac to demonstrate the power of faith he says let me tell you another example as he concludes chapter two he said let me tell you about rahab again the harlot she exercised faith when she received the spies and sent them out another way and watch this you see she was not justified by faith alone she was justified by works so rahab is used to give us another theological concept it's called justification by works that's what james calls it let me explain the difference justification by faith what paul talks about in romans chapter of three in romans chapter four is where you trust jesus christ alone is your sin bearer and you trust him for the forgiveness of sins and you believe in him to give you the gift of eternal life that's justification by faith free of charge by grace through faith nothing you can do to earn it it's justification apart from works you cannot earn a relationship with god you must trust christ and he gives you forgiveness and he gives you eternal life that's justification by faith but that's not what james is talking about james talked about a whole different justification he talks about justification by works that's different when you accept christ that takes you to heaven justification by works is when god brings heaven to you justification by faith is apart from works justification by works is faith demonstrated by function and what faith demonstrated by function did was save her on earth because she was protected you see many of god's children are living uncovered you may have trusted christ to go to heaven but far too many of us will never see heaven till we get there because there's no justification by works justification by works is when you act on your faith which frees god up to respond to you in history to respond to you in the nasty here and now not just in the sweet by and by it is when you declare i want to be identified with jesus christ and i'm going to make my choices by faith even though that means i'm so low in it i'm i'm against the crowd and then i cut a deal with heaven for the needs i have on earth if you want to see god visit you in history let him see some faith let him see you acting like he's telling the truth even when you can't see any result let him see your faith and then you'll see him work then you'll see him visit you in history so the message of rahab the harlot is that god can work on your today in spite of your yesterday if you will choose him by faith that functions i don't care how your past has crushed you dirtied you and tore you up in the right hands you still retain your value for a living god ray have the hardest name ray have the harlot ray have the harlot ray have the harlot ray have the harlot you keep telling me that she's a harlot because god wants you to know that no matter how messed up your past is if you will choose him by faith over the crowd over the circumstances over the popularity over the money over whatever it is if you will choose him by faith his heffed covering is yours now what deal do you want to cut i don't care how much dirt and trash that is in your yesterday if you'll let the grace of god step on top of that he can bring you out a better person than you ever knew you could be rahab the harlot tells you it tells me god can reverse that thing if he can get you to choose him by faith [Music] most of us have to be delivered from something from the repercussions of our history and background abuse misuse from negative reputation and repercussions of decisions made in the past delivered from dangers and needing help to get through adverse circumstances the need for deliverance is a part of life the beautiful thing is when we learn to live and walk by faith we invite god's delivering presence and power into our circumstances to flip them inside out upside down and even hit a bull's-eye with a crooked stick turn the lemons of yesterday into the lemonade of today turn our messes into miracles our god is a god of deliverance [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 92,827

Keywords: sermons, deliverance, deliverance sermon, faith sermon, Tony Evans sermons, Rahab, powerful sermon

Id: rlfMuYvT968

Length: 27min 40sec (1660 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021