All right, turn your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, please. Hebrews chapter 11. I think it's going. Everything working right? Oh, you got it? Okay, good. Hebrews chapter 11. I want to preach a message to you tonight called Lessons from a Harlot. Lessons from a Harlot. And, you know, they're very practical lessons. Some some very practical preaching for you here today and on Sunday and Sunday afternoon, we'll do Baptist history, but there's there's some just some practical lessons in my Bible reading and my studying that I've been doing and I think will be profitable and one of these is there's some great lessons from the life of a harlot in the Word of God and some things that I believe you and I can learn and discern and grow and Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 31 says by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not When she had received the spies with peace now turn to Joshua chapter 2 Because we are going to read the entire account here of what took place, to better equip ourselves to understand the scriptures and what's being said here. And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly saying, go view the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into the harlot's house, and harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men hither tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house. For they become to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men and hid them and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were. And it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out, whether the men went, I want not, pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan under the fords, and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you." Now pay attention to everything here. This is an amazing story. She is telling a lot of things here. When you came out of Egypt and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord's your God. He is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath. That is quite a declaration of her faith, isn't it? Now, therefore, I pray you swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token, and that you will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brother, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life are yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourself there three days, until the pursuers be returned. And afterward may ye go your way. And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath, which thou hast made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by. And thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father's house home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head. And we will be guiltless. And whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be upon our head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this our business, then we will quit of thine oath. We will be quit of thine oath, which thou hast made us to swear. And she said, according unto your words, so be it. And he sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet line in the window. and they went and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned, and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not. So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all the things that befell them. And they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land, for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us. Let's pray. Father, Lord, please help us now as we learn some lessons from the life of this harlot. and see her faith and see what you did with her life and what we can glean from that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, there are a lot of good lessons here in this chapter that tell us a lot about this lady and about what she went through and who she was and her bravery. And I think sometimes we just read things so fast we don't realize all that is going on here, all that took place here. Again, everything is like we read it fast so we think almost in our minds we think everything happened in a minute, you know? But this is a progression of time of things that took place, right? And there's some wonderful lessons about God using this lady, this woman, what she came from and who she was. It's a miracle of God. It really is. It's the miracle of salvation. And it's right there for us to see. So I want to, I just want to go through this tonight with you a little bit and give you some things that I believe will help you and I in our faith, help grow our faith and make us stronger and show us just some very simple things. So, the first thing I want to show you is God is not a respecter of persons. That's the first thing. Here is a harlot. The Bible says that she is a whore, okay? This woman was a harlot. But God is not a respecter of persons. I think one of the first lessons we learn in this story is that. That he didn't whitewash Rahab's sins, right? He did not ignore the fact that she was a harlot. In fact, he placed that in the record for a specific reason. He mentions it over and over again in the scriptures, so that in our minds, Rahab was a harlot. You know, Acts chapter 10, verse number 34, the Bible says this, then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." Why? God's not a respecter of persons. God'll save anybody. Amen? God'll save anybody. God used a harlot to save his people. You understand that? God did not use her because of her righteousness, but God knew that she would repent and see the true God of Israel. God knew. what she would do. Rahab was a harlot and God would use, God will use anyone. It doesn't matter where you're at in your life and what you've been through or where someone has come from. It doesn't matter. You could have the dirtiest, most soiled, wicked life in the world. You could have done all kinds of evil things in your life and been everywhere and done everything, but God can still forgive your sins, save your soul, and make you a new creature. Amen. God is able to do that. Number two, God uses the most unlikely resources to deliver sometimes. God will use the most unlikely resources. This shows us that God can save his people from the most unlikely places. How about this? God used the ravens to feed Elijah. Now who would have thought that ravens would bring him food? That ought to help strengthen your faith. Remember, the Bible says, by faith Rahab did these things. Do you understand that? You may be in a place in your life right now, in a very challenging, hard place in your life right now. You may be facing some things and think, you know, where can my delivery come up? Well, the Bible says, look up for your redemption drawth, that God can deliver you, God can see you through, God can clothe you, He can take care of you, O ye of little faith. Wherefore dost thou doubt?" You say, yeah, but my situation, is your situation any different than a starving man sitting next to a brook waiting for ravens to feed him? Is there anything too hard for God? If anything we learn in the life of this lady is that there's nothing too hard for God. God used a rock to bring forth water, right? Who'd ever thought that water would come from the rock? But it did. God used an ass to warn a prophet. God used a little shepherd boy to deliver Israel, the meekest, smallest one out of the group. God, to show his power, will use the most unlikely things to deliver his people. You know, it's amazing because God may not choose a man that has the most finesse or great oratory skills. He might not use a polished person. He may use a John the Baptist, a rough and rugged man that comes out of the wilderness. Right? But he'll use what he wants to use. He might use the jawbone of an ass to deliver you. Right? So many things that were peculiar did God use, just like Rahab, the most unlikely means. Who would have thought that them going up into a harlot, that this harlot would be like, hey, I've heard about the God of the Bible. I've heard about the God of Israel. I've heard who he is, and I've heard what he's done, and I want to be with him. I want to be on his side. Think about that. Boy, that seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it? Pretty unlikely that God would have a witness in that house. We'll talk about that a little bit. Number three, God is in the business of saving harlots. Isn't the sin of prostitution and selling your body for money something that God really hates? Absolutely it is. Fornication is hated by the Lord, but God wants harlots to be saved. God wants whores to be saved. And because no sin is above another in the sense of God's holiness, he'll take a dirty old whore and save her by his grace. Right? That's right. That scarlet thread, right? God can take anybody and make them clean. Rahab the harlot was saved. The one thing we know is that God is in the business of saving harlots. To all others she was putrid and vile and disgusting in their sight, made to be used and abused in the offscoring of the earth. And sometimes you see sinners and you be careful because you don't know what work God is going to do on the heart of that person. You look at them and they're down and they're out and they're dirty and they're disgusting and they're full of sin and you don't see any hope at all in those people. But God can save them. God can save them. Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse number 17 says there shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. That's something God took a whore and saved her and put her in Israel. Think about that. She wasn't a whore anymore. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow. For even both these are an abomination of the Lord thy God." Think about that. Leviticus chapter 21 verse number 9 says, And the daughter of any priest, if she profaneth herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father, she shall be burnt with fire. God didn't like whores. He didn't like that sin. God hates it. He abhors it. Proverbs 23, 27 says, For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit. She also lieth, and waiteth for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. There's a lot in that verse. We won't go down that road, but that's a good one. But you think about that. God had a strict judgment. We know what God thinks about them. Matthew chapter 21, verse number 31 says, Whether them twain did the will of his father, They say of him the first Jesus sayeth then and verily I say unto you that publicans and harlot and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. How about that? For John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you believed him not but the publicans and the harlots believed him and ye when ye had seen it repented not afterwards that you might believe. that you might believe Him. Jesus said they would be saved. Why? Because they'd repent. They'd see their dirtiness. They'd see that they're imperfect. Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. In a world of self-righteous people. Self-righteous religious people, I've seen it. They're never wrong about anything. They never have to get right about anything. Right? Amazing that it isn't morality, but it's faith that saves by the grace of God. The grace of God to take a dirty harlot and make her a daughter of Israel. Because that's what he did. If you look at the lineage, you'll find it. It's spelled Rakab in the New Testament. But who did she marry? She married into the line of Jesse, right? How's that? Huh? God is the only one that could take the unclean and make them clean. But he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. From the uttermost to the guttermost, he's able to save them. God will turn a harlot into a holy woman. He'll turn a drunk into a sober-minded, God-fearing man. He'll turn a heathen into a holy man. He turned old, swearing Jack Waller into John Waller, the pastor evangelist and church planter. God is in the business to save harlots. But we see a testimony of God's mercy. Right there, we see a testimony of God's mercy under the strict law. God took this harlot, and saved her. Number four, God uses unusual ways to give people the truth. Joshua chapter two verse number nine, I want you to think about this. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint 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 unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion, and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord's your God. He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. You know, one thing that you and I can understand is never be afraid to plant seeds wherever we go. You know, whether it's a porta potty, whether it's a bathroom, whether it's a gas station, wherever it is, a bus station, you're sitting and talking to somebody, never be afraid to plant those seeds wherever you go. Because you don't know, you don't know when you're gonna find good ground. You have no idea. Right? We don't know that. That's why we should plant. The sower went forth to sow, right? So we just drop those tracks everywhere and talk to people everywhere we can. Think about this, do you understand how this woman, now this is gonna sound funny to you, but this is how this woman received the truth of this. She was a harlot and she was a harlot on the wall. So men came in and told stories to her. In her sin, in her fornication, in her wickedness, these men told of the God of Israel that over there he did a mighty work and he pulled his people out of the Red Sea. Now that's hard for us to take sometimes. You mean in her wickedness and her slum and her disgusting lifestyle and her filthy abomination that God would bring a message like that and it would hit home? How filthy that lady was as a whore in her sin and filth. But yeah, some of those Men that used and abused her came along and said, you know, there's a war going on out there. The Hebrews, God, He parted the Red Sea and He defeated the armies of Pharaoh and they're marching this way. It's crazy. Right? They crossed over Jordan on dry land. I saw it. How about that? You know, a lot of times people hear the gospel in a scoffing manner. But only, it doesn't end there. Right? How many times did Paul hear the gospel when he was hauling those men in? As he stood at the feet and held the clothes of them, the cloaks of them that stoned Stephan. He heard the gospel there. Stephen called out the gospel right there. Paul heard it, and Paul scoffed at it at the time. Paul heard it in his absolute sin, right? It is murdering sin. He heard the gospel. Right? Hit good ground, didn't it? Just like that old heartless house. And they told the truth of the God of the Bible. Now, that's what you tell some of these new evangelicals. Now, we know that Rahab heard the gospel that way, but we don't recommend that method. You understand? So, the method does matter to God. All right? That's not a new ministry, and that's not the way you minister the gospel to people. All right? Just because it happened that way doesn't mean it's supposed to be done that way. You understand that, right? I guess that might take just about an inch of maturity to get that. Okay? But that ought to prove to you that not every way that people will evangelize is a biblical way. But you know what? Nevertheless, God still used that witness. You know, God still used it. There's people that have been high before and they're sitting around getting high and somebody gives them the gospel and they're high giving people the gospel. Right? And they think about that though, don't they? Yep. They think about it, don't they? You know? Or those old drunks that you see that we hand those tracks out on the road. They might wake up from their drunken stupor and be like, how did I get this? And they start reading it. You know how many people have mailed in tracts to Chick tracts and places like that and said, man, I read this. I was drunk. I sobered up. Somebody gave me this. I read it and I got saved. Right? Amen. They told her when she was in her sin. They told her about the God of Israel. They told her about everything. She said their hearts melted because of that and there was no strength in them. God used the terror of the Lord to save her, right? That was the terror of the Lord. Snatched her from the fire, hating even the garment that was spotted, right? Amen. She said, their hearts melted. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Amen. The terror of the Lord persuaded Rahab that she perished not with the heathen nation she was a part of. You see, God brought the truth of who he is to her right while she was a harlot. And little did those wicked men know that went in under her and told her of those stories that she would be brought to repentance and faith in the God of the Bible. The gospel can find some people in the most unusual ways ever. And seeds can be planted in the most unusual places ever. But when God is moving on a heart, it may be like the one that it took. That story I told you about, that one that was 80 years old. 80 years went by. He heard the gospel over in Ireland or someplace like that. And 80 years later in New York, he got saved. 80 years later. He heard it when he was a little boy over there, but he never got saved. Eighty years later, he gets saved. Think about that. Never underestimate the power of a good witness of the work of God in your life. Never be afraid to give God the glory and tell others of the marvelous work that he's done in your heart and life, because you never know those testimonies and how they will affect the heart of others. You never know. You never know how that's gonna affect them. We have to be sowers that go forth to sow and sow seeds everywhere and wait for the harvest. Number five, another important lesson. I think it's number five. It might be six. Who's keeping track? Anybody? Is it five? Joshua's not keeping track. Lucius is keeping track. Is it six, Lucius, or five? Five, okay. Lucius is keeping track. He's gonna get a cookie. Joshua's not keeping track. He doesn't get any cookies. You get no cookies? You shouldn't have those cookies? You are not getting any cookies. I will give you a dog bone before I give you a cookie. Do you understand me? You are not getting any cookies. We want you to live a very long time. Yes. Yes. Amen. Isn't that right, Brother Joshua? All right, number five. There are examples, and this one throws some people off. There are examples of deception being used for good in the Bible. We're going to talk about some of those. Actually, we're going to talk about most of them here. Well, not most of them, but many of them. So, the first one, examples of deception being used for good, the Jewish midwives. How about those? Exodus chapter 1. Turn there, please. Exodus chapter 1 and verse number 15. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shippurah and the other name of the other, Puah. And he said, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then shall you kill him. Well, that wasn't very nice. Right? By the way, there's some interesting lessons right there in that verse. But anyway, you can see very clearly. When you see them upon the stools, if it be a son and you shall kill him, but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. Right? But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but save the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, why have you done this thing and saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively, and are delivered, ere the midwives come in unto them. Well, okay, God punished them for lying, right? Or for deceiving him, right? No. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God. That's what I want you to pay attention to in this verse. Feared God. that he made them houses. So what happened? They used deception, didn't they? What was their motive for using deception? Was it to better their own lives and to make money and to be rich and powerful and famous and make their lives comfortable and all that stuff? No. What was their motivation? There's two words. What was their motivation? Feared God. Brother Finney, who did they fear God above? Pharaoh, that's right. They feared God. And who was Pharaoh? He was the king, right? He represented the law of the land. But they feared God. Their motivation was the fear of the Lord. Do you understand that? So, Pastor, are you saying that deception can be used for the fear of the Lord? Yeah. Well, I'm not saying it. God said it right there. That's illustrated right there, very plainly. Very plainly. All right, well, maybe that's the first one. Maybe there's not another one. How about Exodus chapter 2? We'll go right away over there. And there went a man from the house of Levi. He took to wife, a daughter of Levi, and the woman conceived and bare a son. And she saw him, that she was a goodly child, and she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took him for an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river bank. And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. and the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept, and she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrew's children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Go, and the maid went and called the child's mother." Now remember, they were supposed to put their sons to death. Well, what did she use? She used deception. Why? Because she feared God. She obeyed God. In matters of life and death, you always choose life. You always obey God. You always obey, like Brother Finney teaches in the Hierarchy of Law, you always obey the higher power. Who's the higher power? God. He's the highest of all, right? The Most High, right? We always obey Him. We always follow Him. Then we find Rahab. What did Rahab do? Did Rahab tell them where to go? No, she deceived them. Why? What did she say? Why did she say she deceived them? Right, the fear of God. Her motivation was the fear of the Lord. She said that He is God. She said to them, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. Verse number nine. 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 under the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion, and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. By the way, if we followed what modern-day fundamentalists and 501c3 churches and all, by the way, it's not illegal to not be a 501c3 in America anyway, but they don't understand what they're talking about. But anyway, the point is if we followed theirs, do you know that there would never have been a man that printed a Bible anywhere in this world? Do you understand that, don't you? You understand that you wouldn't have smuggled Bibles under the Iron Curtain. You wouldn't have smuggled Bibles into China. You wouldn't do what these men are doing. Like I watched... I think it's yeah Luba your your your uncle I think it was had a had a semi trailer there at the fair and he had this he had this trailer there it was about the Bible it was about how they took the Bible and how these people are taking the Bible and they're going all the way to the edge of North Korea and they're sending them up in balloons and they're sending them across the border into North Korea so they can have the gospel now that's illegal But not according to God. But, if we follow what most Americans say today with that, and most Christian fundamentalists say, well we would never print a Bible because it would be illegal. We would have never done anything because it was illegal. How many men were burned at the stake for printing Bibles? And for not obeying civil government? And obeying God? How many? Many. Right, that's right. Go back and listen to that one. Rebellion is right. But you think about that for a second. Rahab did the same thing. She said, first of all, this is a matter of life and death. Well, let me ask you a question. If you had two Bible smugglers in your house and the SS were coming and they were going to come to your door, what would you do? Would you send them out the other way or send them into their death? I know what I'm going to do. I know what I'm going to do. Or if you had other nefarious alphabet soup people, which will remain nameless, what would you do? Do you obey God? Or do you obey man? I'm not going to get into the specifics. We'll save that for off camera. But the point is, Right. The point is pretty easy. I would do what those Hebrew midwives did. I would do what Rahab did. I would do what those Bible smugglers did. I would do with what Alexander Deshalando. Yeah, Deshalando did. I would do what he did. That's what I would do. Yeah. We would obey God rather than man. I would do that. You're not allowed to print this Bible. Yeah, okay. You can't smoke this bottle? Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay, thanks. Where'd they go? I don't know. I think that way. They really went that way. Maybe that way? I don't know. I don't know. Where did he go? Yeah, exactly. Right? What do we see there, though? We see that sometimes deception is used. Right? It's used in the form of civil disobedience many times. To obey God. Because I have to stand before God. And the little short trial that I stand before man here, oh, I'm not saying it won't be painful. It very well may be. But it won't be eternity. Right? That's right. How about Ehud? Turn to Judges, excuse me, Judges. What's going on? Judges. Judges chapter three. If this, hey, I can promise you one thing. This is not going to be preached in your local Fundy Baptist Church. Your local 501c3 Fundy Church is not gonna talk about this stuff. Not gonna talk, they're gonna say undying loyalty and submission to the flag. Even when the flag hates Christ, right? I know it's not very popular, but Christ never has been very popular to the world. And neither has obedience to him been popular to the world. They have always hated it. And by the way, they always will. True Christians will always be hated by the world. If they're not, they're not true. Makes sense, doesn't it? All right, how about Judges chapter 3, verse number 15. But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised him up and delivered him. Ehud, the son of Gerah, a Benjamite, a man left-handed. And by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eklon, the king of Moab. I like this present. It's kind of funny. But they wanted you to know that it was a left-handed man. So for any of you lefties here, there's your hero. You do have one Bible hero. I think it's only one. So enjoy it, because that's the only one that I can see so far. Maybe there's another one in there. Are you left-handed, Ryan? Okay, you look a little offended, so I was just checking to make sure. Lucius, are you left-handed? You are. Okay, well, there's your Bible hero right there. All right? But Ehud made him a dagger, which had two edges of a cubit length, and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh. Oh, that's a good place for it. He hid that pretty well, didn't he? There you go. There's a concealed carry right there for you. There's some directions. See, we have all kinds of directions. Now, if you see them, we had directions on delivering a baby earlier. Right? Do you see that? Directions there. Then you have right here, you have directions on where to conceal a knife. A really big one. And he brought the President to Eglon, King of Moab. And Eglon was a very fat man. Eglon is not going to be very happy here. I love the way this is told. This is great. Tell me that's not a great story the way they tell it, though. It's like, he was a very fat man. And when he had made it end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bear the present. But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king, who said, keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him. And Ehud came unto him, and he was sitting in a summer parlor, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he rose out of his seat. And Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. And the haft also went in after the blade. Wow, he shoved that in. Right? He only wanted to shove that in once. He did not want to do that twice. Because he pushed that in, man. He thrust that in. Right? It says he thrust it into his belly. He was making a point, right? Literally. Right? And the haft also went in after the blade and the fat closed upon the blade so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly and the dirt came out. You know what that is? That's his guts. Pretty graphic, huh? That's a real knife attack. Then Ahud went forth through the porch and shut the doors of the parlor upon him and locked them. So, what did Ahud use to get in there, though? He is deception. God sent him to do that. Right? Think about that. I have an errand for thee, O king. Hey, king, I have an errand for thee. Come a little closer, yeah. Closer, closer, gotcha. Not good. Second Samuel. Second Samuel. Chapter 16 we see again deception being used again second Samuel chapter 16 What happened I'm not going to read all this because it's 16 and 17, but what happened is basically David's friend who Shia He used deception on Absalom who Shia wanted to stay with David and But David said, no, you're more used to me if you go back to Jerusalem and pretend like you're on Absalom's side. And then you can mess with him. You can mess with his head. So what did he use him for? He used him for deception. Ushaiah knew that he wasn't going there to be on Absalom. And what did he do to Absalom? He told him, yeah, well, I served with your dad, so now I'm going to serve with you. And he was deceiving him. Right? But if Hushaiah wasn't there, what would have happened? They wouldn't have won. He wouldn't have done that. Because his advice was given over Hithofel, right? And Hithofel went out and hung himself. So, anyway, how about Obadiah? I won't go through all these, but Obadiah. Not the Obadiah that was the prophet that protected, who did he protect? The prophets of the Lord. He was a servant and he hid the prophets of the Lord in a cave from who? Jezebel. So, he deceived his master. And he hid the prophets. Why? Life and death. What was Absalom's situation? Life and death. Or, who's Shias? Life and death. How about Jehoiada? The king. Second Kings chapter, or Jehoiada the priest. In Second Kings chapter 11, what does he do? Let's turn there. We'll turn there. He pulled the wool over big time. Actually, yeah, 2 Kings 11. He was really tricking. 2 Kings 11, verse number 4. And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds of the captains and the guard and brought them to him under the house of the Lord and made a covenant with them and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord and showed them. the king's son. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do. A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall even be the keepers of the watch of the king's house. So they are watching the king's house, right? What's going on here? And the third part shall be at the gate of Sir. So he's giving them. And then in verse number eight it says, And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand. And he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain. And be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. Right? What happened? Well, treason happened according to Athelia. Athelia thought that it was treasonous but it really wasn't. He was the rightful king. But what did Jehoiada use? He used deception but he was the priest. He was the high priest but he used deception. He protected the king in the temple. He protected the king and he had guards around him and she yelled, treason, treason, but it wasn't treason, but it was deception and it was used, right? It was used for good. Sometimes deception can be used for good. And that's hard for people to understand, but it can be, especially when it means life and death, right? especially when it means life and death. And we see that over and over again in the Bible. Now, that's not the rule. That's the exception that is there. Right? Sometimes you don't need to tell everybody everything. It's none of their business. Right? Sometimes you don't need to. Amen. God shows us that over and over again. You know, the Waldensians and others, I'm sure they use that, too, as well, many times. Next, number six, Rahab's faith led to works. The Bible says she believed God. Now, therefore, I pray you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token. And the men answered her, our life for yours, if you utter not this our business. And it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall. You know, that took a lot of faith, by the way. Do you understand she had to turn her back on the whole city, the whole nation there at Jericho. She had to turn her back on all of the people that she knew, everybody she knew. To what? To go to follow God, to follow the God of the Bible, to protect those spies. But she had faith and she knew that God was going to deliver her. She knew by faith that God was going to. So her faith had works. Just like your faith, a saving faith works. Works, works don't produce faith, faith produce works, right? Faith produces works. Works are just a fruit of Bible faith. They're not the root. The root is the Holy Ghost in you. But works do follow faith. They have to. Her faith was not a dead faith, not a faith in knowledge only or head knowledge. It took great courage for her. It was a death sentence if she got caught to deny the king and betray her nation. But her obedience to God was above her allegiance to the republic for which it stands. You may be called on to do that someday as well. The God of Israel is who she stood by, and therefore she hid the spies because she believed God. When's the last time? You know, we have been so far removed from that mindset that we don't understand the persecution that goes on around the world and what takes place, that we couldn't see ourselves ever disobeying government because we have a perverse view of Romans chapter 13, most Americans do, and most Christians do. They have a perverse view of Romans chapter 13, and they do not understand what it means. Yep. Yeah, when he used deception because he would not eat, he would not defile himself with the king's meat. Right, exactly. You know, she and all her family could have burned for treason to her nation, but she didn't. God saved her. Amen? But her faith had works. Next, her faith led to the saving of her family. Rahab was not just interested in saving her own skin. She did not dwell with her family, even in her own house. She had a harlot's house. But that harlot's house was transformed into a haven of rest, wasn't it? That harlot was probably rejected by her family because of her wicked lifestyle. Everyone knew the harlot. They knew where her house was. They knew what her business was. However, She went to her family and told them that she had met the messengers of the Lord and had saved them and judgment was coming that they would leave and all be saved if they would enter into the house. And that was once the house of ill repute was now the haven of rest. But note that she was concerned for her family to be saved. She knew they were just as doomed as she was and her whole family was saved. God used her to reach her whole family and tell them of the God of Israel. God's showing you is not to respect her persons, but saved her soul and the lives of the others in her family. She believed God and that faith impacted her entire family. Sometimes our testimony in life will impact our families. You know, it's not so much what you say all the time, it's how you live. They both should match and that impacts the lives of our family members to bring them to Christ. God saved her family and she had faith in the Lord. Think about that faith to trust those spies would come back and save her family and not double-cross her. Remember whores weren't supposed to be in Israel. They could have said, well, you're just a whore. I'm not going to help you. Although we see the evidence that she wasn't anymore. Bible never says she slept. In fact, one of those it is recorded historically that and this is not I haven't been able to compare this with Scripture, but somebody had stated that one of those spies ended up marrying her. And he was the line of Jesse that married her. I haven't found that myself yet in studies, but they said they they said that I thought that was kind of interesting. I think it was Salman or something like that was one of those spies and he's the one that married her. So You know, and that was one of and it's. Said that that was one of that spy was. Well, that was one of the spies he was. Salman was one of the spies that went in into her house. So anyway, it's kind of interesting, isn't it? But what a burden, though, that harlot had who God saved. And lastly, let's talk about this scarlet thread of faith. That scarlet is a picture. It is interesting to the world that scarlet thread meant nothing. Remember, that same thread, that same line is what they used to, that those Israelites used to get out. And they said, hang that in the window so we know. We'll look for that scarlet thread. We'll look for that scarlet line. You know, that scarlet line meant nothing to the enemies of the Lord around them. They saw it all the time. They saw that scarlet thread, but it didn't mean anything to them that it was there. But to the chosen people of God, the scarlet thread meant everything. That was a picture, a sign of the covenant of the promise that was made. Just like the preaching of the cross to them that perish is foolishness, but unto us that are saved is the power of God unto salvation, right? It means nothing. When they hear the gospel, when they see the Bible, it means nothing to them. Not a thing. Christ means nothing to the lost and wicked. They care nothing for him. His truth means nothing. His gospel means nothing. His death, burial, and resurrection meant nothing to them. But to us it is most precious, the Bible says. That thin line throughout, that thin scarlet line, is also a picture of Christ through the Bible. The truth of Christ goes all the way through the Bible in types and shadows and pictures until the substance comes. From Genesis to Revelation, Christ is there. He's that scarlet line all the way through. Though your sins be as scarlet, right? The Bible says. How about that picture there of that scarlet line? If they stayed in the house, the Bible says that the blood was on the doorpost, right? I will pass over you. Same thing happened to her. That scarlet line was there. The scarlet thread, one preacher said the scarlet thread was an emblem of the blood of Christ by which salvation is. Redemption and all the blessings of grace are through it. Justification, remission of sins, reconciliation and atonement and safety and protection from avenging justice and wrath to come are only by it, that blood of Christ. Likewise, the spies who are called messengers, James chapter 2 verse number 25, may represent the ministers of the gospel who are the messengers of Christ and the churches are sent out by him that and typical Joshua, men of wisdom, courage, and valor are sent as spies to bring to light men and things who direct to the way of salvation and give the same token of it. They give the proof of salvation. They give that same thin line, right? Those messengers that go forth and bring the gospel of truth to those people. Scarlet is the color of the blood atonement, without which there is no remission of sins. The scarlet thread of sacrifice begins in Eden. After man had sinned, he realized his nakedness and sought to cover his shame with fig leaves. But God in his mercy and grace, ere he drove man forth, slew the lamb and provided a blood covering. I like this. This preacher says fig leaf religion that provided by man's own ingenuity is utterly insufficient. God must provide our covering. He did it in Eden and in so doing pointed his finger down the course of time to Calvary to the lamb that taketh away the sins of the world. Again and again, woven into the whole texture of the book, this blood thread appears. It cannot be escaped. It is seen climatically at Calvary where sins were forgiven once for all. In this scarlet thread, the cross has been woven into the texture of the Bible, the one book of adequate substitutionary sacrifice for man's redemption. What do these colors mean to you? Where do you stand in respect to the Word of Life, which is nigh thee, even in thy mouth? If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The scarlet line, that cord used to identify her house, symbolizes the line of the blood which runs throughout the Old Testament, pointing to Christ. And lastly, we see from this harlot, lineage of the harlot. She is in the lineage of Christ, her name being spelled Rahab in Matthew chapter 1 verse number 5. The fact that a prostitute is found in Christ's genealogy illustrates the marvelous grace of God in salvation. The New Testament uses Rahab as an example of faith, a symbolic name. You know, she is a picture of redemption, of faith. Simple faith that God, you think about that. God took a harlot and made her a daughter of Israel. Not only a daughter of Israel, but a mother in Israel. And not only a mother of Israel, but a grandmother to David, the man after God's own heart. Think about that. That's the power of redemption. That's the power of the cross. That's the power of the blood of Christ. There's a lot of good lessons in the lineage of this lady and this of this harlot that you can learn a lot of simple lessons. One of the simplest I think is just trust and believe God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You can torture yourself your whole life by not trusting God. Simple faith. Simple. Just like that harlot had. Simple faith. A lot of lessons from a harlot. A lot of good lessons. Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the truth of it. Thank you, Lord, that You pulled us out of the wicked sin that we were in and the wicked life that we lived and changed us and made us new creatures. Lord, thank you for that work of redemption in my heart and my life, which you've done for me, Lord. One that did not deserve anything from you but death and hell. and that You made me a son. And Lord, I thank You for that. And I pray, Lord, that You'd please and help others to see the truth and trust You and live by faith and have the victorious life that You want us to have. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.