Let's pray. Father, we come confident that you would have us to read your Bible that you have given to us. We are confident that you would have it to be opened, to have it expounded and applied to our lives, and so we pray that as we come to this point in the service, that you, Spirit of God, who has given us this book, that you'll come now and give us an interest in it, and that you'll help us to understand it aright. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we want to read as we come to the meditation of God's Word to just James 2 and verse 25 and 26. This will be the basis of our meditation. It's been earlier back in James 2.14 that he started talking about the importance of a faith that is alive, of faith that is working, of faith that is fruitful. He's given us the illustration of Abraham, who is so famous in the Bible, and now we're given the illustration of Rahab, the prostitute. James 2 verse 25. And in the same way was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. The Apostle Paul is warning us not to think that we can come to heaven's gate with our wheelbarrow full of good works and that heaven's gate is going to open it because of the good things that we have done. That will never happen. Pastor James is dealing with the issue wanting us to make sure that we do have gospel works, we do have fruit to go along with our living faith. We've seen two kinds of justification. Forensic justification is that initial saving justification where God declares a sinner righteous by faith in Jesus' perfect righteousness. A less well-known justification is called demonstrative justification, which is the later proving justification where a believer is shown to be righteous based on the character that has been worked into this true believer. It's helpful for us to see that Jesus in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector speaks of that justification of the courtroom. That tax collector who could commend nothing in himself but he pled the mercy of God. Jesus says that man went down to his house, justified a sinner, declared righteous because of his faith in Jesus. But Jesus also uses demonstrative justification where he taught saying that on the day of judgment, Either your words will justify you, your words will prove that you're a changed person and you need to be in heaven. or your words will prove that you've never been changed and you're dominated by sin and you will be condemned. Now I want you to notice with me something of how Pastor James labors to make this teaching to be plain to us. He starts out in verse 14 by speaking of the absolute necessity of a fruitful faith, a working faith. Then he gives that illustration of the brother and sister in need and how are you going to respond to them. Then he gives the negative example of the demons who believe that God is one and they shudder And then he comes along and he gives the positive example of Father Abraham, whose name appears 220 times in the Bible. That's not surprising. But now in our text this morning, he comes to the positive example of unlikely Rahab. And if you simply search for Rehab, you'll find that sometimes it's a way of referring to the nation of Egypt. Sometimes it's a way of referring to a mythic being in the sea, some kind of monster. But eight times it refers to this woman who was an extremely immoral woman. Not exactly the kind of person that we would expect that Pastor James would hold up. as a proof text example of justification by works. And then James rounds out this section with another illustration of a body without the spirit. And so somewhere along the line, he has said to us, he doesn't want us to be empty headed when it comes to the whole relationship of having a faith that is working. But notice how he's labored over and over again, even what I call examples. Those can be, we could call those illustrations. So it's over and over again. I'm working to get this truth into your head is what Pastor James is saying. So Rahab. Where else has she mentioned in the New Testament? She's mentioned in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. Abraham lived 2,000 years ago. We're going to be jumping back into the Old Testament. How far back are we jumping? Well, not all the way to Abraham lived about 2,000. But we're jumping back to almost 1,500 years where there's an Israelite, Salman, who marries Rechab. Then you see the line going down to Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and then to David. And what we see is that King David is the great, great grandson of Rechab. Now that in itself is really kind of amazing, isn't it? Where else is she mentioned in the New Testament? Well, how about Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Fame of Faith? You've got to be kidding. No, I'm not. She's really there. This unlikely example. And we're not done yet with our introduction. It's supposed to be brief and lead right into the message. But I think this will be of help to us. Rahab is interacting with the spies. And so if we're looking here, we need to kind of turn this map on our mind to be going north and south, right along this valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea in the south. Israel is still over on the east side of the Jordan. They're coming in. And this line is pointing up. Can you see a little white dot there with an 18? That's where Jericho is. They're gonna cross over the Jordan River and they better be able to conquer Jericho pretty quick. So that's why we need to know something about the city. This is, it's one of the oldest civilized cities where we have the remains. I forget how deep it is, but there's different versions of Jericho have been built on the rubble of earlier generations. You could see how, what Rahab does for these men and giving them information might be helpful. And here we've got a view. We're with Israel not in the land yet. We're looking across and I want you to see where Jericho is right at the at the foot of those mountains of that spiny Ridge that goes up through Israel. and some 17 miles from the Jordan River. Well, with that, let's come to the exposition itself. We'll look at Roman numeral one. The unlikely Rahab illustrates the necessity of a fruitful faith. If you would like a handout sheet and do not have one, simply poke your hand up a little bit. Somebody will see that and get that handout to you. So the unlikely Rahab illustrates the necessity of a fruitful faith. Now, first of all, A, who is Rahab in Jewish history? Well, little number one, Rahab is a grossly immoral woman. She's a harlot. She's a prostitute. In the New Testament passages, she's referred to literally in the Greek as a porne. You can hear our pornography that comes from that. It's simply a gross immorality. We read of her, first of all, in Joshua 2 and verse 1. The spies went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. We hear of a father and mother. We hear of brothers. We hear of sisters. We don't hear of a husband. She was a woman who sold herself to men. Number two, who is she? Well, she's not only a grossly immoral woman, she confesses faith in Yahweh. This is in Joshua chapter two, now verses eight through 13. And what we're gonna see here is that some four times, this immoral woman speaks of Yahweh, and Yahweh is the distinctive name of the God of Israel. Yahweh is not a common name for God throughout the nations, but she's heard of this name and she's embraced this name. Notice with me, now verse nine, I know that Yahweh has given you the land. Verse 10, we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea. Verse 11, for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. Verse 12, now then please swear to me by Yahweh that you're going to keep the terms of our covenant. Isn't that amazing? We're not told that the two spies came with an assortment of tracts to give, share, this is the God you're about to come up against. That wasn't God's mission then. The bucket of their sin and their guilt was full and it was time for judgment. But here is something of the mercy and the grace of God. Rahab puts her life on the line as she chooses the God of Israel over her fellow citizens right there in Jericho. Number three, who is she? Rahab works for Yahweh. Rahab received Yahweh's spies. We find it in Joshua 2 and verse one. They lodged there. She received them. Hebrews 11, 31 tells us she welcomed them. I've heard about your God. I'd like to talk to you about your God. I'd like to serve your God. So she received the spies. Verse 4, she hid the spies. It seems that she has talked to them, communicated with them, even before the officials come from the King of Jericho and say, where are these men? Bring them out. We find further in verse 9 to 11 that Rahab encourages Yahweh's spies. Listen guys, if you're a little afraid of the mission that is before you, let me tell you the fear of you has fallen upon us and all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. And she's even more detailed than that. But further we find that she is working for Yahweh and that Rahab tells lies for Yahweh's spies. Now, I'm not necessarily gonna defend her here, but she is willing to put her life on the line. What do you think is going to happen to her if these men are discovered and if the men of Jericho discover that she has lied to them about her involvement? Verse four is a bit of a stretch of the truth. Verse five is a fabrication intended to deceive. She says in verse five, when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. No, they didn't. I do not know where the men went. Yes, she does. Were the soldiers going to catch them quickly? Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them. Not if I have anything to do with it. Now some, and I might slightly lean in this camp, who study the Bible, believe that there is a certain place of lying, but only in a time of war. And people believe this because of a passage like 2 Samuel 5 and verse 24, where God deceives the nations as they hear the sound of an army up in the top of the balsam trees. That must be a huge Israelite army. From the noise of it, we got to get out of here and they run away. Joshua, just in a couple chapters later, Joshua 8, Joshua pulls back from Ai in a military strategy intending to deceive the man inside the city. You pushed us back the first day. and now we're gonna act like we're defeated and we're gonna be running away and we've got guys hidden on the other side and then as you come out, we're going to destroy your city. It's not central to our issue or to our focus on Rahab this morning, but Rahab does what she does for the sake of these spies who belong to Yahweh. Further, Rahab counsels Yahweh's spies with good advice. She knows that when they come out of Jericho, they're gonna be rushing the 17 miles towards the Jordan River, towards this ford and that ford, and they're gonna be searching all of this area, and they'll probably spend two or three days doing it. And so she says, don't go that way, go to the hills. Remember that kind of mountainous, Jericho's right at the base of it? Go away from where you're really needing to go. Hide out three days. Then Rahab secretly releases Yahweh's spies out over the wall through her window. Verse 15 of Joshua 2. And then Rahab covenants with Yahweh's spies in Yahweh's name. Verse 12. Please swear to me by Yahweh. What an amazing thing. And the guys come back in verse 20 and say, listen, you need to pledge to us your side of the terms. And she said, according to your words, so be it. Imagine these spies reporting to General Joshua about their little happenstance there in Jericho. Well, we went into this kind of house. And the ladies started talking to us about Yahweh. And this is how things progressed. And this is what we did in making a covenant. And we really think we should honor that covenant. So who is Rahab in Jewish history? Secondly, B, how is Rahab remembered elsewhere in the New Testament? Well, we're only five verses into the New Testament and we find in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, Solomon the father of Boaz by Rahab and on the list goes. She has the privilege of being included one of four Gentile women that are included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And so Matthew, which is the more Jewish gospel of the four gospels, starts out, and how could you get much more Jewish than having a genealogy? But he tucks away in there the names of four ladies, and they're all Gentiles. And some of them are probably not going to get any awards for works righteousness. But by the time Matthew finishes his gospel, it's wide open. Go and make disciples of the nations. make them followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's how she's mentioned there in Matthew chapter one. See how Rahab's trajectory in her life purpose has slightly changed? From being an immoral woman and whatever satisfaction or guilt and shame you can get from that to now, She is in the line that's going to lead to King David and the line that's going to lead on to the Lord Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world, the sinful mass of humanity that he gave his only begotten Son. In Rahab, we find something of a moral scum of Jericho. Can you imagine General Joshua saying, well, couldn't you have found somebody else? I mean, how can we trust this kind of person? Couldn't you at least find a respectable individual? And here, This unlikely woman, who some of us might argue is even more further along in the scale of being totally depraved than her fellow citizens. Number two, how is she remembered not only in Matthew 1, but in Hebrews 11? Rahab is wonderfully honored in Hebrews 11. It's there in verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been circled and circled for seven days. Verse 31, by faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. God records who she was. God records what she escaped, the destruction of Jericho, and the destruction of herself in the Day of Judgment. God records the basis of her salvation by faith, and God records the fruitfulness of her faith. She gave them a friendly welcome. And now thirdly, see, why does James use Rahab alongside of Abraham? Abraham, we understand 220 times his name is used. He's the father of the believing, is the father of the Jewish nation. Well, have you fallen asleep yet this morning in this message? No. You're keenly interested to understand how it is God could use this kind of woman. And Pastor James, prompted by the Spirit of God, has been successful. So are you thinking that this woman earned her way to heaven? Not exactly. So she must have experienced something of forensic justification where God declares a sinner to be righteous based on their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or in that sacrifice that was yet to come. But James is using her to show that not only did she have this declarative righteousness given to her, but there was a change that came to her so that we can see it. All right, why does James use Rahab alongside of Abraham? John Blanchard gives us three reasons. Number one, her condition is so openly sinful. Rahab the prostitute. Someone can say, well, how can I be expected to match up with Abraham? God met with Abraham. God talked with Abraham. God gave Abraham all of these promises, put him in a unique position. I'm an ordinary Joe. Well, now you got Rahab. And the same thing that is true in Abraham, where God justifies, he also sanctifies, where he declares someone righteous, he also eventually makes them righteous. So James goes right to the bottom of the social barrel And he puts the fruitful faith of Rahab, the prostitute, right there next to Abraham, the father of the faithful. Abraham was generally moral. Abraham was established in his community. Abraham is the kind of man, he's got 317 trained men in his household. He can make a treaty with Aner and Eshcol, and there's another one that I can't remember. He's a respectable guy. Slightly different is Rahab. She's at the other end of the social scale. Johnstone commenting here draws attention. There's a little conjunction that has a sense of but. at the same time that the verse starts out, in the same way, you could render it literally, in the same way, but. Abraham is an example of faith that is working, and in the same way, so is Rahab, but there's a little bit of difference between them. There's a powerful lesson in Rehab's example, isn't there? No professing Christian can say, well, on the basis of my background, on the basis of my lack of education, on the basis of my family connections, you can't really expect me to be bearing fruits of holiness. Rahab just pulls that argument right out from under us. She's on the wrong side of the tracks in so many different ways. First Corinthians 6. And verse nine, we heard it in Sunday school. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And don't you know God's not going to have anything to do with you? Now, verse 11. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Why is she put alongside of Abraham? Because she was so openly sinful. Secondly, because her confession is so similar, similar to the Jewish professors, similar to the demons there in James 2.19. You believe that God is one, you do well. Her faith, though, is very similar to Abraham. And he believed Yahweh, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And Rahab introduces Yahweh's name to these spies. Of course, they knew it, but I'm saying she brought it up four times. Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh. And in a similar way, someone here may make a profession of faith in the God of heaven, the creator God who has spoken the worlds into existence. may make a profession that I own Jesus Christ, but there's got to be more. There's got to be a reality, there's got to be, that faith is evidenced in being worked out. Rahab demonstrates what it is to be righteous. And it doesn't take 14 years for her first good work to come out, does it? Here at this initial point, she's believing in God and she's saying, I'm committed to you and to your God over my fellow citizens. Third reason. Why is she mentioned? Because her confirmation is so straightforward. What she did as a believer was not easy, but it was a simple outgrowth. You believe in Jehovah? Here's two of his servants. God is coming in to devastate sinners. I don't want to be a part of that devastation. I want to be right with that God. Is there any hope of that? She risked her life by being kind to the spies and she risked her life by making a covenant with the enemy. Making a covenant with the enemy in the name of the enemy's God. I think a fairly strong case could be brought up against her. Can you imagine? A little interesting thing, she talks about her brothers and her sisters, father, mother, brothers and sisters, later on in Joshua 6, when they bring them out, there's nothing mentioned of her sisters. What if one of them talked? What if one of them took it seriously? Blanchard writes, the grace of God at work in her life transformed her and the reality of her spiritual experience was made strikingly clear by her daring act of loyalty to the people of God in their great need. Roman numeral one, unlikely Rahab illustrates the necessity of a fruitful faith. Roman numeral two, A body without the spirit illustrates the necessity of a fruitful faith. Notice with me, A, what is the meaning of the illustration itself? We can read it here in verse 26. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. And I have no desire to be ghoulish or gory, to talk about death, But really, it's required if we're gonna even begin to understand what James is saying to us in an earthy and graphic and a plain sort of way. And James is saying you got two parts of a man who is living here on the earth. And one part is that physical thing that you can see, And one part is that animating principle, the spirit, that immaterial part of the being. And if you pull that immaterial part of my being out of me right now, the body is going down. I'm gonna be dead. Solomon speaks of death in this way. The dust, that physical part returns to dust. The dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it. So imagine with me that we come in a remote area and we're the first to discover a man's body. It happened to us once on a walking trail. And you're looking, you're not the medical type. Maybe a little bit queasy at such things. Proceed cautiously. Don't know if he's alive or dead. And if he did die, what did he die from? So you're looking. You're looking to see if there's any diaphragm movement. Eventually you get down close and you're listening to hear if there's any breathing that has taken place. Now you've gotten your nerve up. Your hand goes onto his hand and you're looking for a pulse, but you find out, no, the wrist has already lost its warmth. He said, That one part of his being has gone away. When you have only a physical body and you don't have that animating principle in there, we call that separation of spirit and body to be death. B, what is the comparison of the illustration? How does James use it? Now every illustration, if you press the details and keep going on and on with the details, eventually the illustration breaks down. We want to just stick with the main point. Faith is like the body. Faith needs another component to prove that it's real, to prove that it's alive. Fruit or the works are like the spirit of a man. Where there are no works, then you have no marks of life. Where there's no movement, there's no breath, there's no pulse to indicate life, there's no warmth. Without the distinguishing marks of life, there is no life, that faith is dead. Isn't that his point? And now thirdly, what is the unmistakable lesson? What is the unmistakable lesson from this illustration of verse 26 and really this whole section from James 2 beginning of verse 14? James is over and over again insisting on a bedrock principle of biblical Christianity. Belief and behavior go together. Creed, what you believe, and conduct are Siamese twins, and where you see the one, you're gonna see the other. There must be a profession on the lips that is backed up by a changed life. In Romans, Paul teaches chapter 321 through chapter 521, there is such a thing as forgiving grace. And then when he starts talking about transforming a grace, he says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? You got forgiving grace and you're just gonna keep on living in sin? God forbid. They both go together. So what James is saying, verse 14 is, If someone says, if someone claims he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? Verse 17. So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, so that apple tree doesn't have apples on it, then we can question whether or not it's a good apple tree. James 2 in verse 20. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? And now he ends the section with verse 26. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Blanchard says, we're just completing the central message of the whole book of James. You've got to have a living faith. If you've got forgiving grace, you will have transforming grace. James is not at odds with the rest of the Bible. James and Paul are saying the same thing. In fact, Lenski, the evangelical Lutheran, quotes what Luther said in his famous introduction to his commentary on Romans. Here's what faith is. Oh, it is a living, active, energetic, mighty thing, this faith, so that it is impossible that it should not work what is good without intermission. It does not even ask whether good works are to be done, but before one asks, it has done them and is ever doing them. And Lenski, the evangelical Lutheran who loves Luther so much says, why can't Luther say the same thing about the book of James that he just said about the book of Romans? And I think he's exactly right, isn't he? James and Paul are saying the same thing. Thomas Manton, another voice from the past 1600s. In Paul's sense, a sinner is absolved. In James' sense, a believer is approved. So most sweetly and without exception, Paul and James are agreed. But it is not enough. for us to see that Paul and James are agreed. What is actually most important for us is to see that our lips of profession and our life of obedience agree. Oh, it's good to have Paul and James to understand that they agree. But what you say needs to be backed up with your life. Listen to how John says it. Whoever says, I know him, I know him, but does not keep, habitually keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. Not exactly ambiguous. But whoever habitually keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. William Gurnall has it, say not that you have royal blood in your veins, I'm a child of God. and are born of God, except you can prove your pedigree by daring to be holy. If your lip and your life contradict one another, I don't want you to go away miserable. I want you to come in faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus. If there is this major breakdown, this is what I say with my profession, but this is how I live when I'm away from church, that's hypocrisy. And do you know how many times Jesus went after hypocrisy in the Gospels? Please don't stay there. Come to the Lord Jesus with the sins that the Spirit brings to your mind even now, and own them, repent of them, lay them at the foot of the cross, and if you've done it before, do it again, and say with Peter, where shall we go? You are the words of eternal life. God may test you. as he tested John Bunyan over a period of years, pleading that God would save him. But keep coming, own your sin, and say what you know is true. Jesus, you have said that if I will come to you, you will in no way cast me out. I am clinging to the feet of you, Lord Jesus, please. Don't let me slip into hell. Grant to me a true faith. Grant to me a faith that works. Grant to me a faith that bears fruit. Even as you did with Abraham. And even as you did with that woman Rahab. Make the gospel to be powerful in my life. Let's pray. Father, if we simply look at the Bible, look at the book as a piece of literature, we see that it excels. We see that Pastor James excels in making his point and doing so in such a simple way and doing so in a convicting way. We pray that The literature, this inspired literature, would bear fruit in our lives. We see it as your truth. And we pray that you would be pleased to work in every heart and mind under the sound of my voice, that you would cause them to want to have the forgiveness of sin, to want to be in heaven, and want to be right with the Lord Jesus Christ who offers mercy and forgiveness to all who will come. Show your grace and your mercy to us. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.