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The first you'll find in the Gospel by Matthew and in the first chapter. The Gospel by Matthew and the first chapter. Read from verse three just for the sake of connection. And Judas begat Pharis and Sera of Tema, and Pharis begat Esrom, and Esrom begat Aram, and Aram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nason, and Nason begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Oaz of Recha, and Oaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David the king.
Verse five again, and Salmon begat Boaz of Rehob. Now, chapter eleven of the Hebrews, please. Chapter eleven of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Verse thirty again, for the sake of connection. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
Now the Epistle of James, please, just following hard on there to the Hebrew Epistle. The Epistle of James, and in chapter two, Reading at verse twenty five. Read verse twenty one to the end. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect, and the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. May the Lord bless the reading of his generous works over our souls. We'd like this afternoon, by the help of the Lord and by the help of his gracious Holy Spirit, to interest you in this most remarkable character in the Word of God, in the Old and New Testaments.
That is Rahab the harlot. To someone, that's a strange subject for Sunday afternoon. Well, someone did say to me before I come in that I hope you're interesting because we might just be tempted to sleep a little bit. Well, I do desire that you don't sleep at all, and of course this subject is quite absorbing, and I trust it will be quite interesting. There are four women's names, of course, that come on the page of Holy Writ in the first chapter of the book of Matthew. These are names of women that you wouldn't have up in your drawing room, neither would you have their picture in your drawing room, but they are there because they come into the line of the purpose of God, and amazingly how God lifted them and raised them up and used them for his glory.
Now, we're not going into them all, but the four of them are quite clear down Matthew chapter one. First of all, there's Tamar, and the thing about Tamar is she had the evidence of Judah's signet. She had something to hold on to. Now, when you come down to Rahab, she hadn't the signet, but she had a scarlet cord that hung out of the window. She had something very definite, a covenant oath with the people of God. And then when you come to Ruth, you remember that for her to be redeemed, she had to possess the shoe. For you remember, if a man would not redeem, then the party had to come and spit in his face, and he had to take his shoe off and give them the divine right to possess the land.
That was the meaning of the custom in those days, that if a man would not redeem, they spat on his face as a contemptible thing, and they took the shoe from off his feet because he had no further right to go in and possess that particular piece of land. So then Tamar has the signet, and eh, when you come to Rahab, she has the scarlet thread or the cloth, and then when you come down into Ruth, she has the shoe. And then the fourth lady that's mentioned is Bathsheba. She's not even mentioned by name. I hope you noted that. It was of her that was the wife of Uriah, and even although David had taken her to himself, the scripture still says that she was the wife of Uriah, which puts paid to ideas that whenever a party is unfaithful, then they cease to be the wife of the other party.
The Holy Scripture calls her the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So I want to stress this, that these four women are in this particular. Then, of course, there's another one in the chapter, and that's Mary, and she has the Savior, the first ever to behold with her own eyes the Savior of mankind, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is most touching that it is in what we call Jewish books. There are five Jewish epistles, and of course the gospel by Matthew we have always deemed to be a very strictly Jewish book.
And it's in Matthew's gospel, and it's in the Hebrew epistle, and it's in James' epistle, which is very, very strongly biased to the Jewish setting. Then it's in these three that this woman's name is raised. Now I can understand it because of genealogy in Matthew, and I can even understand it if Paul wrote the Hebrews that he was of a broader mind than the most of them at Jerusalem. But to hear James lifting Rahab's name and him being, of course, one of the leaders of the Judaizing party at Jerusalem. There are four names mentioned in James' epistle.
I think we should know them. Abraham is one, and then Rahab comes next, and then Job comes next, and then Elijah comes fourth by. Now, here this Rahab, she finds her name amongst those most illustrious of the people of God. For instance, who wouldn't like to have got their name alongside Abraham, but Job and Elijah. Well, that makes the subject that we're discussing on, it makes it very, very important because there's no one here dare think that they could get their name alongside any of these great bodies, but she does, and because of this, she, it demands that we look into some matters concerning her.
Now, there's sixteen names mentioned in Hebrews chapter eleven, sixteen names, and only two of them are women. And the two women that are mentioned is Sarah and Rahab. Well, says someone, surely they are poles apart, but once God intervened in grace, both of them are linked together in the great catalog of faiths worthies in Hebrews chapter eleven. Well, we're going to see these matters as we look through the personality of Rahab, and I trust that we'll get some grain of corn for our souls. Each time her name is mentioned in the New Testament books, it is always in an honorable setting.
It is always in an honorable context. That is very, very wonderful indeed. That is that the great writers of the New Testament, they held this woman in great and high a honor indeed. And if it was only mentioned once, then the most of students would say, well, it is an isolated instance. But when it is a threefold court, Matthew, the Hebrews, and James, then it of course, has got a hallmark about it that is really genuine and, and divine. Well, the first thing I would like to preach this afternoon is this, and I'm, I am trying to make myself aware that all might not be reading these books now.
Some people get the length of their duty calendar and maybe even the two or three little verses that they feel they read, and I may have to fill in a lot of matter which I didn't, don't really want to do, but the point is people are not reading now, and people are not reading these old passages, and contained therein is the mind of God, and instruction, and guidance, and doctrine, and reproof, and correction, and righteousness. And if I have to fill in a little bit here and there, then the older ones will understand why I'm doing it. I noticed that Rahab's faith was a personal faith. That is that she had no parentage to lie back on.
That is that she, there was no, there was no prophet's chamber in her house. That is that there was no one before her in her family had ever shown any signs of godliness. And the faith that she had was a faith that was distinctly her own. And how true that is in the blessed gospel, that everyone needs a faith of their own. I remember once looking up the encyclopedia when I was preaching somewhere to find out something about fish. And I learned about little fishes away out there in the Pacific, and they couldn't exist unless they held on to the greater fish. And they're what we would have called years ago about Armadale, we would just have called them a lot of parasites.
And they just lived off others, but they had no real life of their own. They didn't swim for themselves. They didn't forage about for food the way that normal things did. They just lived and sucked of others. But what I'm preaching is this, that this lady had a personal fear of her own. That is that when husband goes, and wife goes, and children goes, and friends go, and job goes, and health goes, you've got something that stands the test of time. She had a personal faith of her own. Let's say someone, surely some of the neighbors were an influence to her.
Jericho's neighbors were Sodom. Jericho's neighbors were Sodom, and you can imagine the influences that came from that stench of a place. It says the very stench of it had come up into the nostrils of the Lord. They were exceedingly wicked. But she had a personal faith of her own. I want to teach this too. This will be very helpful. I'm hoping it will be. I noticed that her faith came by hearing. Her faith came by hearing. Her faith came by hearing. And all who preach the gospel learn this basic lesson, that that's how faith comes.
It comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Don't get alarmed, and don't get allured, and don't be carried away with every little tinsel toy. Remember the basic scriptural matter, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. How do we substantiate this? She said to the spies when they came, we have heard, we have heard. She heard reports. What did she hear? She had heard about the plagues in Egypt. She had heard about Og, king of Bashan. She had heard about Zion and Og and all these people.
She had heard all about it. She had heard about the Passover. She had heard about the plagues. She had heard about the punishment of God on the Egyptians. She had heard the reports. My friend, that's how we come to really have a personal faith, all made by ourselves. I noticed too that in her believing, what she heard was very slender. That is that she hadn't a lot to go on, but it was enough. It was enough. Some people linger in their sins, don't they, because they feel they don't know enough. I'd like to ask some in the meeting tonight, how much did you know when you got saved?
I hear someone shooting up with the very what about them. I know very little yet. How much did you know when you got saved? Did you know the full import of the coverage of the atonement? Did you know the deep things of justification by faith and by works? Did you know all these things? No, you had heard the report, you knew your need, you thanked God for a savior, and thus you and she believed. There is a remarkable similarity between this. Not only did the, did faith cometh by hearing, but she had something else in her knowledge. She knew that God was going to bless Israel, and she knew that Canaan, though she dwelt in it, and although she was a native of it, she knew that God had purposed to give the land of, the land of Palestine to Israel.
Oh, here's this woman and all the things that she heard. I noticed that they'd all heard that, but the words that she uses are these: I know, I know, I know. It was so personal, it was so individual. She says, I or I know. She speaks of Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth. Think of that. I wonder if everyone is in the knowledge of that. She speaks about God as in control of heaven and the earth. Oh, says someone, I know he's in control of the heavens, but he's in control of the earth as well.
I'm glad it's not in Mr. Reagan's hands, and I'm glad it's not even in Mrs. Thatcher's hands. If you're afraid of Mrs. Thatcher, I'm not here to offend you, but I'm glad that the earth is not in the hands of any of the small politicians of this world. The half the world is in the hands of our God. I tell you, he is in control of, of it all. Not only so, she knows the purpose of God for Israel, and she know that, she knows that terror has come upon her people because of the advancing nation of Israel. Let us come to some finer points, or even better points, I think. I noticed that she was the only one in Jericho that received the spies with peace.
That word really means she received the spies as friends. The best word for the spies, really, is messengers. They were really messengers of Jehovah, and she received the spies with friendliness. That was the great thing. You see, most of our brethren preach that Rahab got saved after the spies went, but of course that's not true. Rahab was saved before the spies ever went. Rahab was saved before the spies ever went. We all think the man in John nine was saved when he got his eyes over, but he doesn't get saved to the end of the chapter. Who is he, Lord, that I might believe I that speak unto thee am he.
We should always make it a point to know where the point of contact is. Sometimes we listen to testimonies, and we just never get to that point where they got God's salvation. That's the point that really matters. They had believed before the spies ever came upon the wall at Jericho to receive the spies. You know, my friend, that's a very lovely sign. When you receive the servants of God, and you receive the messengers of God, and you receive the people of God, that's a very, very lovely sign indeed. You know, there's something beautiful about that, and I would like to have linger there.
Another thing I noticed about it was that her faith shone in a very ordinary sphere. That is that she's mentioned in these three great books, and yet where was she when her faith was operative? You know, most of the people nowadays, they think that you must be in some group, or you must go to Pakistan, or you must go to Nicaragua, or you must go to Africa before you can do anything or operate by faith. But this woman's faith operated within the small dimensions of her own house. This is so very, very important. My friend, this is the secret of things.
It was just a house on the wall. It was not a good house. I tell you this, her faith operated not a thousand miles away, but just in the small, small circumscribed sphere of her own home. Maybe there's a lesson for us here. Are you a mother? Are you a mother? Well, God doesn't expect you to be anything else but that. God doesn't expect you to be doing a thousand other things. Let your faith be operative in that sphere that God has placed you.
Are you a master over men? Then let your faith operate within that sphere. Are you a servant? Then let your life and faith operate within that sphere. You're never going to be called in question for other people's doings and what other people need to do. If you're gifted, then operate within that sphere. If you're not gifted, don't operate within the gifted sphere. It's all so important. We're all wanting to be doing something big and something that's noticeable and something that'll get into the magazine or something like that.
Well, all the time, people can live with God within the sphere of their own four walls. In fact, I make bold to say that if you cannot operate by faith in your own life and home and own assembly, you're absolutely useless to anyone else. If God helps, just to be like Reha, that faith operated. She was saved before they came, and it operated in taking in those two men that everyone was after and would have taken their life, and she put her own life in jeopardy for the sake of those two men.
But all the faith that she was marked by, it was all operated within her own four walls. Just at this point, let me say this, that that is just where the women's ministry commences, and that's where it just really shines. I asked you the other week there to read the thirty first of Proverbs. Don't come to say that you did. Don't say you didn't, but no one came to say they did. And when you go down in that chapter, the woman only speaks once. She speaks with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. It's one of the most glorious chapters in the book of John.
It's not just only to do with a woman, it's to do with Israel as the wife of Jehovah, and it may even be prophetic in looking forward to the full Lord manifestation in the bride. What a chapter that is. Every woman should have a copy of it right there before them in their back kitchen and read it. It's beautiful. It's full of kindliness, gentleness, generosity, everything that should mark a woman is all there. Rahab's faith operated within that beautiful. So she operated within a very, very ordinary sphere.
I noticed that when faith operated, sense didn't run out the door. When faith operates, sense doesn't run out the door. The way she advised those men, the way she hid those men, and even when she's, even when she's sending them away out again, she tells them the way to go, and she tells them how long to hike. You see, my faith friend, when faith operates, common sense doesn't go out the door. Oh, my friend, some of the things that have been done in the name of faith have brought disgrace to God's name. So I speak to you in that mind. Or there's someone in the hall, and they're, I feel they're shutting up, and they're saying, you know, she told lies.
And that's right, so she did. I've read all the commentaries on it, and how they've twisted this, and oh, they've bent it, and and how they've tried to explain it away, and they've nearly made me crooked thinking about how to get it over. And all the time, I'm not going to be crooked and get it over. She told lies. And lies never forward the purposes of God. Shall we do evil that good might abound? Oh, but let us be a little bit careful. She wasn't long in the road. She didn't know too much. She told lies. You know, God expected her to receive the spies, but God never told her to protect the spies.
God never wanted her to tell lies about the spies. You know, God can look after his own servants, and God can look after his own people, and he wants us to do our bit, but he doesn't want us to tell any lies about it. I know you'll enjoy this, that is that we've end minutes. In the Puritan days in sixteen hundred and seventy, there was a man called Mr. Story. He was a preacher of the Puritan class. Now that was different, even better than us. Even better than anything you've heard, the Puritans were. You couldn't bend them, you couldn't change them. Feet were often in the stocks and pelted with eggs, and some of them died. Well, Mr.
Story was a preacher like that. And he preached in the time of King Charles, that wanton king. And he was called before the king, and it was Judge Jeffreys that called him before the king. And as he was before the king and all the court at Buckingham Palace, not then, but at Westminster then, they gathered them all together, and there Mr. Story standing there, poor man that he was. Jeffreys, the great judge against the Christians, he thought, well, before the king and all the court, Story will change his story. You understand? He'll change his quotes. So the king before the court said, Mr. Stone, what did you preach about me?
He said, sorry, it wasn't Charles, it was James II. He says, sir, it was you that set London on fire. That was to the king's face. What else did you preach, sir? I preached that you poisoned your own brother. That was the second point. Is there anyone in here with the caliber that would do that? He said, did you preach anymore? Yes, sir, I did. What did you preach? I preached, sir, that if you were left the way you are, we would all be rapists within a year. A man, a real man.
Just someone, did he get his head off? No, he didn't. The king thought he was the most courageous man in the, in among all the courtiers, all the fawning, begging crooks. There's only one real man. Don't need to tell lies. The truth can stand on its own two feet. All it needs to get is out amongst us. That is, if we're real, and it will do wonderful things if only the truth would be preached. Not only so, but when we come to Rahab, the thing that's most known about her is the act of putting that token over the window, the scarlet line.
Well, says someone, peace shouldn't need tokens. Well, that's right, that is of your country. But of course there's nobody country. And when she said to the spies, I would like you to make a covenant with me, and they said, well, we will then. If you hang out of your window, there's a scarlet thread, the scarlet cord that personally let them, let them down over the wall. If you leave that in the window, leave it hanging out there. Just leave it hanging out there. Says someone today, but you know, you should know better that we don't need any signs and symbols and tokens and things like that. Well, but that's not right too, because you were baptized by immersion, weren't you?
That was only a symbol. That was a symbol that you had died with Christ. That was a symbol that you were buried with Christ. That was a symbol that you were raised with Christ. I hope it was true. A very young church met Mr. Faraday at Rothesay when he stayed there, and they got round about him, he was sitting looking out, they know how cut he was, and they asked him for a bit of advice. It must have been a, a good day with him. He said to the young people, you told me you're Baptist. I never left you when I heard that.
Well, you see, when you come into this tank, if it was a tank for the river, wherever you were going, you actually told this district, and you told all the brothers and sisters that you have died, that you had died, that you wouldn't be seen again at the haunts and the habits of the world. You have died. In Christ dying, you died. And this baptism was only a symbol to tell everyone that you are now buried in outer sin. Do you still love the world? Do you still create after it? Can you not do without your program? You need something, do you?
Do you? You said I was buried, but raised here in a resurrected life, a new life with new power, with new concepts, with new desires and ambitions. That's what it all means. So you do believe in symbols, don't you? Because you are baptized. You symbolized. You had died of AIDS and raised again to newness of life. But apart from the baptism, we still believe in symbols because when we gather to the Lord's name and round the bread and round the cup, these are just symbols too.
These are just symbols. I was in England not so long ago, and I was staying with the man that put the bread and wine on the table, and eh, when he come home, he just took the bread that had been on the table, and he just threw it out to the birds. And eh, I never said nothing. I was just a little bit eh, I was just a little bit taken aback, and I would love to have said something, and then I said to myself, but really they were only symbols for it. Whether that's the thing I would do or not is quite another thing, but what I'm saying to you is this, I had to remind myself that the bread and the wine are only symbols.
Symbols of a given broken body, symbols of an outpoured blood at the cross, but still we must remember, brethren, that they are only symbols. And I don't mean in any derogatory way like that, but you've got to remember, I know they have spiritual import, and I know the symbolic meaning is something that's deeper than my tongue could express, but I still want you to remember that these are only symbols. Then we come to other symbols that we hold. The sister with her hat on. That's another symbol. And just in case the young people have never had this clearly explained to them, I want to go over this point to show you the importance of it.
That it's not a matter of what the brethren think. I work on what all the brethren think here. That's understood. But I do want you to know this, that it's nothing at all to do with some narrow-minded brother's mind or things like that, the way you think we're antiquated and all that. I want to tell you the teaching of First Corinthians chapter eleven is one of the greatest secrets that ever a man or a woman could learn. It's this, that it links the highest in Godhood with the lowest in womanhood. That's woman. God and Christ and the man and the woman. That's the divine thing. It's a divine grading right down. And the woman covers her head because of honor and dignity that and authority that's invested in the man.
That's why she puts her hat on. It's not the fobials of the brethren, it's Holy Scripture. Not only so, she recognizes man as God's appointed head. And not to recognize the man is to, is to disallow what God has really written and said. And this is God's wisdom. It's nothing at all to do with what we or they or others believe. It's divine wisdom. And why the man is uncovered is because if he was covered, then Christ needs to be covered. So it's so serious. So we have the symbol of baptism.
We have the symbol of the Lord's Supper. We have the symbol of authority on the woman's head. That's so very, very important. Not only so, not only is there the covered woman's hair head, but there is the symbol and sign of the long hair. Oh my friend, I want to speak to you on this point very, very kindly. I want you to understand that that is how Eve was created. It was given her for a covering. It was divinely given her in Eden, and who would and could question the wisdom of God? Anyone who questions the wisdom of God, they're only errant fools.
Oh, my friend, this is the way God would have it. This is the divine way. This is the word of God. It's not a matter of our opinions. It's not a matter of what certain people think. This is the word of God. Nature length, that's it. Here's a way a woman can shine. Here's a way the woman can really show that she really loves the Lord, by being obedient unto the word of God. So important. Oh, says someone, you shouldn't speak about these things. You should leave it to everyone's opinion. My friend, you wouldn't leave the salvation of your soul to that. It's signed on the word of God in John three sixteen, and it's the word of God in First Corinthians chapter eleven.
We must accept it in its entirety, even though it's unfashionable, and even though it may disturb us and alarm us. My friend, do you wonder why we're so firm? And do you wonder why we are the way we are? Because clear written things in the Word of God are before us. And so I noticed that she hung out the token of her links with the people of God and her links with the covenants of God, and she hung out the token. Are you ashamed when you come to the breaking of bread that possibly you're the only group of people that do it in that scriptural way? Oh, says someone, thank God we're not ashamed.
Are you ashamed of baptism? Oh, I know you're not ashamed. I hope you're not. Well, let us look at these other ones, and let us see not only the long-haired lady, but also the short-haired man. That is just as clearly taught in the word of God. Both these things are clearly taught in the word of God, and none can ever mistake them unless they're only wanting to quarrel, and all would have nothing of that nature at all. Since these serious things have been said, I want you to see that our faith was rewarded.
I want to end it there. Her faith was rewarded. You know, when the spies went away and she was questioned after the spies were coming back and the, the times round Jericho with the priests and the ram's horns, there's one thing she did. She gathered all her family in. You might not think Rahad's faith is very big, but on occasion of a big crisis day, she had as much in there as gathered all her family in. She gathered in her people, all her family into that house. She had some influence, hadn't she?
She certainly had a good past. She certainly had no parental help. There's one thing she had, she had influence over her family. She gathered them all back home. She really was, she really was rewarded. Not only so, she not only called them in, but she convinced them to do a thing. She convinced them to do a thing that nobody else would ever believe, because she had convinced them that what she believed was. It's something that we find difficult with her. Find it difficult to convince her that we're in the right way, and what has happened.
And I'll tell you this, she convinced them because they must have just made a fool of themselves, all getting into that little house, all having a family, all having a house that they got in. But isn't that what freedom does? It makes you do the things that are contrary to nature, and that is very, very important. Not only so, I noticed that her faith was greatly tried. Greatly tried. Faith that isn't tried, I judge, is having faith of God, but her faith was greatly tried. You can imagine when the armies come up and they're up near the walls, she sees no spears, she sees no rams, she sees no spears or swords or mighty army.
She looks out of the window and she sees a, a group of priests, long cloaks of... They're all marching round about, marching round about the city. The weakest, the weakest group of men you could ever have found, not trained to war at all, not trained to anything like that at all, and they're going round and round and round the city. And what are they blowing? Silver trumpets, maybe like ram's horns. Ram's horns are they blowing. Very plain things. You can never bring them up. Very late ram's horns. That's how the work of God was done. Oh, it must have tried our patience, you must have said.
When are they going to get on with the business? I've told this family of mine what's going to happen. For seven days she was tried with patience. Faint is often tried in great patience. I'm going to sit down in a minute. I noticed too that her faith was encouraged because the spies kept their word. I know nothing that could discourage a Christian more, is when another Christian doesn't keep their word. That your word be your own. Never mind what anything else comes or goes.
It's too little start, and it may never be a failure, but the spies kept. It worked. There's something else I want to bring to you, notice. The word of God goes on finally in the Old Testament, except when you come to the book of Isaiah, but finally in the Old Testament, it tells us how she ended up. It says, and Rahab is in Israel to this day. The device changes and it says, she's in the midst of Israel to this day. Now it's obvious, of course, that she married Salmon. It's obvious that Boaz was the outcome of the marriage between Salmon and Rehah.
It's obvious, of course, that, that she must have been Ruth's mother-in-law. She had two mother-in-laws, one to the first wife, one to the first family, and she must have been mother-in-law to Ruth as well. But what am I saying? I'm saying this, that she's Israel to this day. She didn't lie in the perimeter. She just didn't keep in the meeting and no more. Just attend the Sunday morning and the Sunday night and never at the prayer and the reading and things like that. Oh, I think that must be disastrous for spiritual health. She's in the midst of Israel, in the midst of Israel, in the midst of the thick of the interest, of the responsibility, and the privileges and the joys of Christian fellowship.
She's in the midst of Israel unto this day. Do you wonder this afternoon that this lady is mentioned three times, gospel by Matthew, the Hebrew epistle, in James, she's linked with Abraham, in Hebrews, her name comes after Moses. You're going around the Hall of Fame, and you come to Moses, and you stand there a long while, and you bow your head, you say a little prayer. My, there was never a man raised like Moses. And you take two steps along the, the collection of maps. Who do you come to? Rahab the harlot.
Imagine her beside Moses. You would think, well, beside some other kind of undergraduate, but oh, who not beside Moses? That's what life is going to be in heaven too. There's going to be lots of people that you never thought right up in their seats. Lots of people that you think will be getting first places, they'll get very little at all. And big works that you think are going to be noticed, they're never going to be noticed at all. There's a little hymn in the Irish Gospel hymn book. I never forgot the first thing we sung, and I never need it to forget.
He's of merit as we know. He will tell us about us. The lacks we have put up. He will tell us. Is your name Demas? Isn't that what Mr. Bunyan said to the man at the silver mines when he was calling him over? Is your name Demas? Well, I want you to understand that with the gold fronts, Mr. Bunyan thought he wouldn't be going at all. I never thought that, but he thought Demas had nothing to offer. You live a Demas life.
You love the world. You deserve all. You've been for that. Don't be thinking that you'll be up in the front seats of heaven. No, my friend, it's the people like John that need in Jesus' name. Prepare to suffer for the work of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. They often think there's two, one in the right hand and one in the left. All must be one of them. Surely the left, at least, eventually might decide that our Lord come out of Judah. Assure this, my friend, that in that gathering, the Lord in James has it alongside Abraham, the founder, the head of them all. He has her alongside.
So she's no mean character, is she? I do hope that we'll be marked by her faith, a personal faith of our own. I trust we'll have that nation faith. I pray that we'll not be afraid to hang out the tokens. Hang it out!