Rahab's faith and actions demonstrate that true salvation comes through believing God's promises and acting upon them, even when surrounded by doom. The sermon contrasts Rahab's receptive heart with the closed hearts of Jericho's inhabitants, illustrating how God uses various means like sickness and death to draw people to Himself. Ultimately, the scarlet cord in Rahab's window serves as a powerful symbol of Christ's atoning blood, the only 'token' that guarantees salvation from God's judgment. The message concludes by emphasizing that salvation is a free, personal, and public act of faith, urging listeners to trust in Christ's sacrifice and display their faith openly.
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Your Honor me, Joshua. Chapter two and verse twelve. Now what I pay you swear unto me by the Lord, that is, Rahab is speaking to these two spies she had hidden. Since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father's house and give me a true token. and that ye will save a night my father and my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life for 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 to 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 mountains, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers be returned, and afterward may he go your way. 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.
Thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father's household 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 on our head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quick of thine own which thou hast made us to swear. And she said, According unto your words, so be it. She sent them away, and they departed, and she found the scarlet line in the window.
The verse in chapter six, in the first verse, it's very interesting, especially when you connected with what we have in this chapter. It says, Now Jericho was strictly set up, none went out, and Dunham came in, unmoved by this city, was so cautious and so careful, as to see that all the gates were shut and locked, and no one dared go out, and no one did it. There the herald of the march of draught earthly people to Israel as they came across the wilderness, and how they had crossed over Jordan, Dunham and his son was a miracle, and how that God had given to the children of Israel the land of Canaan where Jericho walked.
And naturally the people of Jericho, especially the heads of that city, thou thou will not let anyone go out to act as a spy to give information unto Joshua. We will not let anyone in, lest that person be a betrayer of our city, into the hands of the enemy. and so Joshua or Jericho was straightly shut up, none went out and none came in because of the advance of God and his people. I often think it's a picture of many a human heart. God is advancing toward the heart of every sinner.
He wants to come in. He wants to save you. He wants to put away your sin. But as strange as it may seem, as well as mysterious and puzzling, sinners do not want Christ in their heart. They don't want God to approach any nearer. They want their heart's door, and they want to keep him up. If you can explain to me why, I would like to know. When God wants to come in and bless you more than you've ever been blessed, to give you a peace, the like of which you've never known, to give you the knowledge of things forgiven, and make you the happy possessor of everlasting life, and yet you don't want God to come any closer to your heart.
You don't want to let him in. And your heart is strangely shut up. None go out, and none come in. In other words, I've met people, and they just are not in any way talkable about this subject. They will not converse on it. They're silent. They're not going to express anything, and they don't want anyone to speak to them. And like Jerry called, their heart is straightly shut up. I wonder if I'm talking to any like that this morning. In other words, as of now, you're not interested. And you don't appreciate anyone speaking to you about your soul.
Well, friend, I want to say this. God has tried various ways and means to get into your heart. And if he hasn't, he will. Deny this means that he employs is the gospel of his grace. That winsome story, when he tries to win the lost and set, and he can't observe of his love, and of his care, I am concerned that God's mildest, gentlest, tendlest approach to the sinner's heart. But when the sinner says, No, I'm not going to believe that. I'm not a sinner.
Then says, God, I don't use other means, and sometimes it's sickness. Concerning the person involved, maybe the sickness of some member of a family, God often approaches the sinner's heart in shoes of sickness. Again, it may be death, that horrible thing, death. The death of a loved one, a close friend, a sudden death that may be a tragic death. And God tries to pry open your heart's door. He tries to put a crack in those walls, but that has faith.
Maybe you have your opinion of religion, your ideas as to how you're going to get to heaven. And God has tried his best to change your mind through circumstances, but that has failed. I wonder, friend, just what it is that's causing you to resist and to rebel against God and to refuse to let it in, even though he has employed the things I've mentioned. You get on a sick bed. You have no one sick. May some have died. Service taxes have a shock that you should have bought about your soul but up till now.
The doors are locked, and the wall is on crack. And you haven't yielded yet to the gospel of God's saving grace. Well, I have news for you. God hasn't begun yet to use his heavy artillery. We just concluded our series on the revelation of those who attended, so little of God's honor. Already I've given our artillery. And one of these days, friend, if you cease, if you don't stop rather resisting his approach, he will move to position his heavy artillery.
and just of her heart, very earnestly will be the object of that attack. A matter of the laws, God will let loose. Then the laws of your presence in this will crumble into dust, just like the walls of Jericho. I pity poor sinners who dare to fight against God, who dare to say no to the Almighty, who steal their banks and quench their sins, sell their jobs, and say, I know you will. For God in the day to come will unleash his heavy bombardment of his judgment against which friends you cannot stand.
Then those wars that you think to be massive and thick, are those wars you think to be locked securely, Everything will crumble before the impact of God's righteous wrath. Poor sinner. Don't dare to continue to fight against the Almighty. It's a losing call. Jericho straightly shut up. None went out and none came in. Some of you are not rebellious. You are not resistant. You are receptive. You are ready to be saved. If that be the case, and I believe it is, then I want you to try and listen very closely this morning, and I'll try my best to make the way of salvation play that you might be saved this morning and know it.
Leading rebellious and resisting to God for Him to use whatever means, He chooses to bring them to His feet in repentance. though that course may be. Here is Rahab and she is in a city doomed, Jericho, doomed, God's condemnation, resting over it, and you are the inhabitant of a world that's doomed. This poor world reserved under fire, the Bible says, this world yet This planet with possibly two billion souls upon it, this planet, having it in space, carrying its human cargo onto a direct meeting of God.
This doomed world. Sometimes this world has been likened unto a ship. On board that ship, there are pleasure seekers, businessmen, politicians, religious folks. And there has been an explosion down in the boiler room that has caused an alarm to be sounded. And there's only one lightboat. And it's lowered. Of course, a lot of people say, well, I don't believe it's that serious. Let those who wish get into lightboat. I think the old us will make it. The explosion wasn't too bad. I don't see any danger. And of course, the pleasure seekers continue with their pleasure.
The politicians continue with their politics, and the businessman seeks to make more money, and the religious folk may cling to their ideas. But a few simple souls, jeered at by the others, who say you're a coward, but down they go into that lifeboat. And finally, the lifeboat has its quota, and it pushes away. And then a terrific explosion causes that big boat to shut it. But it's too late. Now the people on board run to where the light boat was, but it's not there.
It's gone. And the big boat goes down with its cargo of pleasure seekers, its businessmen, its politicians, its religious folks. They missed their chance. There was only one lifeboat. This world's end is going down. That's certain. It's sinking. With its carbon of humanity. There is one lifeboat. And that's Jesus Christ. He's now in hand. And at the speed of God. And the pieces of the gospel are urging many women. Get into Christ. Take the steps. Trust the Savior.
Thank God for the few who heed our warning, obey the gospel, and trust Christ at our stake in the judgment that is to come. Rahab in a doomed city. But... If this world is doomed, friend, this world is loved, for God loves this world, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Don't think that God has any pleasure in the death of the wicked. God loves your wounds for this world. He loves it. If you want evidence of that, look to the cross.
but he gave his only son to that shameful death to save men and women. God loved this world. So the world is loved. How do you know God had interest in the inhabitants of Jericho? He sent two men to it. Do you want of those two men to go in and to warn the people? You know, God has sent two messengers into this world. They've been here for nineteen hundred years. the Word of God and the Spirit of God. What this Blessed Book been doing? Glory to many women of God, which is to come, telling the world of God's love story in the gift of his Son, and the Spirit of God has always backed up God's precious Word.
Here are the two messengers. I know some of you have read the Bible and know you've heard it preached time and time again. Sometimes it's just a little different. The Spirit of God seems to accompany this book when it comes to life, when it has power in it, and it reaches your conscience and it makes you think, ah, yes, I trust that's true of you this morning. The two messengers God has sent still in this world, try to warn you of that which is to come that you might prepare for that dark and dreadful day. The wonderful thing about Rahab is that she let them in.
Wasn't that night? She believed the messengers. She let them in. That's what I want you to do this morning. Believe the word of God. And yield to the striving of the Spirit of God. Do just what Rahab did. She let them in. God wants you to open your heart. He wants you at this very moment to have an open mind. He wants you to say, Lord, speak to me. If I am wrong, show me what I am wrong. Tell me what I must do to be saved. Lord, for the best of my ability, I open my heart.
What am I to do to be saved? In other words, that's what Rahab did in her day when she took the strangers, these messengers in. She believed their story, where they told her that God's earthly army, the children of Israel, were going to advance upon Jericho, or Jericho was going to fall. You know she said this, too. She says, I know that God has given you the city, and all the inhabitants of Jericho have been faced because of you. Oh, that led us into something, didn't it? All the people in Jericho feared and trembled. Only this woman in her household believes.
I believe today that the world is trembling. I believe in every sinner's heart there's a degree of fear. The devils believe, says the Bible. They tremble at it. Certainly the devils are not saved. They believe and tremble when the Bible says... Devils know what God has said is true when they tremble in the light of that day when the world comes to pass. For they, even the demons, said to the Lord Jesus, Read only who they are, hast thou come to torment us before our time.
The spirit of the day of judgment's coming, and even the demons tremble in their folly. I wonder if you do. I believe the world has a tremor in it. The hardest sinner at times must think seriously and solemnly, especially as these things are there developing in the world. It's possible to tremble and be lost. Felix trembled, but he said to Paul, go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I'll call for you.
Some of you have trembled. I've seen people go out that door and so have the ushers weeping, trembling as they follow their souls, not to come back. They didn't want to be shaken up again. Yet sooner they were honoring their sin and be pardoned and be lost and face the facts. Trembling. I hope you are trembling. I trembled at the age of nineteen, and it took a lot to make me tremble, but I trembled like an aspirin leaf in the wind, as I thought of meeting God in my sins.
But thank God when I got saved, I trembled no more. They all trembled. But you know this really happened. She says, give me a true token. Mile when she heard the whole story of what God was going to do, she says, Give me a true token, I believe every word you say, give me some evidence, some guarantee, so much here that I will perish with this city. She says, Give me a true token. You asking for that this morning? You saying, Mr. Wilson, I believe everything God says. I believe all what's in the Bible. I know a dark day is coming, and I know I'm unprepared for it.
Will God give me a token? Will he give me some evidence, some assurance, some guarantee that when judgment breaks, I'll be taken out of the world. I'll escape it. I'll be with him. Yes. He'd give you that assurance. Are you asking that question, what must I do to be saved, or, oh, God, give me a true token? some indication that I'll be in heaven forever and I'll not perish when this world is judged. She wanted the true token. You know, you read in Exodus chapter twelve, the blood shall be unto you for the token in the houses where you are.
God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. The plague shall not be appointed to destroy you when I destroy you. The land of Egypt. I wonder, friend, if you have the scarlet line tied in your window. They gave her a scarlet line, a scarlet cord, and they threw her the tied in her window. And she believed in that scarlet line. She believed in the story that revealed her own. Do you believe in the precious blood of Christ? What a better picture do you want? for the blood of Christ in this scarlet cord.
Look at the Lord Jesus on that cross, as we've said before, in this light he was pure and white as a lily, but in his death crimson and as red as a rose. The Son of God crimson with his own blood as he hung upon that cross. And it's through that precious blood, friend, you be saved only through that blood. Do you believe God's testimony concerning the blood of Christ that will bear it the same of God? There's no delusion of sin. And you'll have to be washed in that precious blood of whatever you expect to be in heaven. Do you believe that?
Rahab says, I believe everything you tell me about that scarlet cord that's the only thing you'll save me. And I'll tie it in my window. What does God see in the window of your heart? For he sees your heart. Does he see a picture of yourself, and you're looking at yourself, and you're trusting in yourself, your good deeds and all the rest to take you to heaven? Is that what you've got pinned up in your heart? And all you think is about yourself, and how good you are, how much better than the neighbor?
God will give you the glance of that picture. Maybe you've got your church membership pinned up there in the window, and you give so much to the good cause, and you memorize all your good deeds. And of course you don't put up the bad ones. Maybe you have on that window, or in that window, your sincerity, your morality, and all the rest. God will not pay any time, will give any attention to To all that rubbish, friend, there's one thing he looks for, and that's the precious blood of Christ. Is he saved in the window of your heart, that simple faith, that simple trust in his son on what he did upon that cruel cross for you?
Tired in the window this morning. In other words, trust the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. How do you do it if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God has raised them from the dead, thou shalt be saved? Say, he says, give me a true token, and they said it will be this. The scarlet thread, and she took it. She didn't hesitate. That will be the token that God will pass you by in the day to come. That will be the token that you'll be saved and go to heaven. When Jesus returns, your passport to the glory is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus.
It is very simple. I don't know whether Rahab had to even get up on a chair or not. Maybe she could reach the top of the window from the floor. But it was very simple, wasn't tying a scarlet cord in the window. God's salvation is simple. You don't have to be educated to be saved. The Bible says a wayfaring man going to be a fool need not err therein. How simple is God's salvation? Some children really get saved. God's salvation breaks upon the soul just like the sun dawns upon the dew so dark.
On a beautiful spring morning, everything just seems to brighten up. And the young heart opens, like the petals of a flower of the rising sun. Because I believe that Jesus died for me, and I'm going to accept it. And I trust that you'll open your heart today to that very same precious truth. That Jesus loved you. He died for you upon the cross, indeed. And if you accept and you shall be saved, you say, is it that easy? Try it and see. It's just that easy. tied the scarlet line in the window. It was simple. A child could have done it.
It was personal. She didn't go next door and say to her neighbor, well, I'm pretty good, but you're pretty bad. You do things I wouldn't do, and I'm going to put this scarlet line in your window. When judgment comes, I know that when it takes you in, brother. I question you, but this scarlet line will protect you. You know they're always peaceful, and they want that sermon for their neighbors. I wish my neighbors didn't hear this morning. I wish so and so didn't hear this morning. I'm glad you're here this morning. No mind your neighbor. You're the one that needs it.
It's a personal matter. Rahab didn't think about her neighbor. It was her window. And, friends, we want you to think about your session. None of them. I'm glad to say it's free. I don't read anything here about a collection being taken or saying to Rahab, Rahab, that will cost you so much. You'll sell this scarlet cord to you? No, there's no money involved then. God's salvation is free without money, without Christ. Christ purchases at the cross. He pays the price. It's free.
And that wonderful God's salvation is for you, your lonely sick. You know, Rahab, they say, Satan. They're not in their feelings. Not in their good works for their church membership. No hurt, Satan. He was in that scarlet line of battle. They didn't say when they marched on the city, Rahab, how do you feel this morning? Well, I feel fine. Okay, that's it. You say, they didn't say they have. How do you believe? How do you look at this life? I remember the church of a woman baptized. How thick would you attend?
None of these questions. They didn't even ask her one question when they danced upon the city. They looked for that window. Did she hang the scarlet cord in it? Yes, it's there. Then that house and all its sides will be saved. The Lord is looking at the window of your heart. What did he see? Have you obeyed his word? Have you trusted the blood? If you have, there will be no judgment for you. Another thing, Rahab's house was the only place to face it.
And it's nice to see Rahab's interest, she said to these two men. Oh, she said, Won't you let me get my mother? my father, my brothers and sisters, and bring them down into my house. But they may also hide behind that scarlet cord, yes. But don't you take that cord to any other home, put it in your window first, and then you can get the others in behind it? Rahab's concern is for her people, members of her family. Well, the first thing that a young convert will do I've heard it many, many a time when a wife has trusted Christ.
Through their tears of joy, mingled our pines with some of sorrow, pray for my husband. She's not saved. My mother is not saved. My father is concerned about members of the family to get them behind that scarlet door. That was true of Rahab. I'm not going to rest until all my family is in behind that scarlet cord, under my roof. Are you that interested in your relatives being saved? I trust you are. I trust you are.
As judgment days nearing, if they're not saved or exposed to what's coming. And so do you agree, Hatham's concern for members of our family? No doubt she would get with excuses. Why, they say, Rehab, don't be so fool. Who told you all that? Those who spy. Why, for vicious? First of all, we have us panning around inside the city. Look at those massive walls. Look at our gates. They're all guarded. No chance at all of those people ever getting into this city, Rehab. She'd get lots of excuses. But she paid no attention to all the excuses. Just like people today who try to speak to another about Christ Take it all kinds of excuse.
Of course, I don't believe that. It's God of God of love. He's not going to punish anybody. He has all kinds of excuse. Don't you say he's any such excuse. You say God of his word and be like Rahab. Another thing you know in connection with this, she was unafraid. It was quite conspicuous. A red cord in her window. It would have been another color. It wouldn't have been as conspicuous as this, but it was quite conspicuous. It was done in the open. She was unafraid. Some may laugh and ridicule, scoff and scorn. Rahab didn't care a snap. She went and hung that scarlet line, and it was conspicuous as could be, right in her front window.
She wanted them to see it. You know that's true, Christian. A real born-again Christian wanted to be conspicuous. A real born-again Christian wants others to see, I belong to Christ. I trusted the Savior. They're not ashamed. And you must be ashamed either to trust Christ this morning and confess him publicly if you realize the dreadful issues that are stated here, don't you? He wasn't afraid. You know, every time the trumpet started, because God told Joshua that the Priests were to go around the city. Of course, they're not anything connected with the priests we hear all today in the religious world.
But those priests marched around the city once the first day, blowing with the trumpet. Then the next day, the next day, and on the seventh day, they went around seven times. That's thirteen times they circled the city, blowing with the trumpet. Why didn't God destroy them right at the first? Here is God's long story. God says, after all I told them in the morning, I'm going to give them thirteen chances. My people have been to circle the city thirteen times, and that music was heard all over Jericho, the blowing of the trumpet.
Every time the trumpet started, it was an additional one, as well as another opportunity. Every time you've heard the gospel preach, you've heard it many times on this platform, every time you hear it, it's a warning. Another warning, and it's another opportunity. You know about the first time the trumpet sounded, the people in Jericho were alarmed and somewhat afraid, and they'd be talking to one another. What do you think about that? Well, they put in the night, the first night. But the next day they went around again.
They weren't so scared the second time. Well, they did it yesterday. Nothing happened. At the time the seventh day came, twice did become a cup of tea. But something strange on the seventh day they went around the second time. The other days they only went around once. That was a little different. That made them think a little more, but after they kept on going around in circles. That crazy bunch out there going around in circles. Yes. But the first king's time came. God says, when you've gone around the seventh time on the seventh day, turn and face the city walls and grow with your comfort.
And when they did, the walls of Jericho king came tumbling down. March down to the city, and everyone lost his life, say those who, in Rahab's house. It all came true, didn't it? Remember, friend, you have stopped the march of God's militia, not for the minute. They're coming! Everything this book tells you and all we've tried to warn you is coming, and it's near today than it's ever been before. Some of you have been able to wear it. The glory of the trumpet. You've become accustomed to it now.
The first time you heard the gospel has shook you up.