Richard Sipley emphasizes the story of Rahab in Joshua 2, illustrating how even those deemed sinful can find salvation through faith in God. He discusses the importance of recognizing God's judgment and the necessity of accepting Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation. Sipley highlights Rahab's transformation from a condemned sinner to a believer who acted on her faith, ultimately becoming part of the lineage of Jesus. The sermon calls for listeners to acknowledge their need for salvation and to embrace the grace offered through Christ, just as Rahab did for herself and her family.

This morning I'm going to do something I don't normally do, but I'm going to read the entire second chapter of Joshua. So you should open your Bibles to the book of Joshua. There'll be some other scripture, but basically that's where we will be, is Joshua chapter 2. I want to give my very special thanks to all of our musicians and technicians for our time of singing and worship and praise this morning. It was very special, thank you very much. Joshua chapter 2. Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Chittim, go look over the land, he said, especially Jericho. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land. So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab, bring out the men who came to you and entered your house because they have come to spy out the whole land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them. But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof. So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan. And as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. That was 40 years before that. And what you did to Sion and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you. For the Lord, your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Now, then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and that you will save us from death. Our lives for your lives, the men assured her. If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land. So she let them down by a rope through the window for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. Now she had said to them, go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return and then go on your way. The men said to her, this oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when we enter the land you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house, if anyone goes outside your house into the streets, his blood will be on his own head. We will not be responsible. As for anyone who is in the house with you, his blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on him. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear. Agreed, she replied. Let it be as you say. So she sent them away and they departed and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. And when they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, for to the river and came to Joshua, son of none, and told him everything that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands. All the people are melting in fear because of us. Will you stand, please? And while I lead in prayer now, Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit will take your word and your truth. And apply it to our hearts with the supernatural power that only you can do. If we do not hear from you, we have heard nothing. So we pray that you will speak in Jesus name. Amen. In the city of Akron, Ohio, where I was a pastor for 10 years, we used evangelistic home Bible studies as our principal method of evangelism. Those Bible studies were literally filled with non-Christians. I have been in a living room of a home where there were 32 people, and there were only two Christians, myself and one other. What great times we had, and how wonderful to watch people come to Jesus Christ. In those studies, anyone could ask a question anytime, as long as it was a sincere question. All they had to do was put their hand up and ask a question. And I was one of those people. We would immediately go to the Bible for an answer. So over a period of time, there were some questions that unbelievers ask again and again and again. In fact, there were basically just seven. And if you had the Bible answers to those, you can answer all their questions. In the flyleaf of one of my Bibles, I have 21 questions. You'll never hear a question that isn't one of those. But the number one question that they asked was very interesting. It was this, and I've heard it hundreds of times. What about the people in other lands who have never heard of Jesus? Because we were teaching evangelistic home Bible studies, and we were presenting the gospel, and we were saying, Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, which is true, by the way. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, just the name of Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man can come to the Father but through me. So that's very clear, very plain, very direct. The Bible doesn't quibble about it. It just says it straight out like it is. And so as we taught these Bible studies, and this message was presented again and again, that question would come up. Yes, we're hearing about Jesus. You're telling us that Jesus is the only way of salvation. But what about the people in other lands who have never heard of Jesus? Now, I don't want to be unkind, but the plain truth is they weren't that interested in those people. No, really. They had no burden particularly for people in other lands who were not Christians, because they were not Christians. But they thought they had a good argument, and they thought their argument was that surely God would not condemn those people. You say Jesus is the only way, but they've never heard about Jesus. So surely God would not condemn them and send them to hell, pass judgment on them because they've never heard of Jesus. And the reason they wanted to reason that way is because they were hoping there was some hope for them if they didn't receive Jesus, because they would like to convince themselves that he was not the only way of salvation. And that's the reason they asked the question. Of course, we answered it again and again and again from the scriptures. Now, I'm going to make the question harder this morning. I'm going to make it much harder, because I'm going to go back over 3,400 years, 1,500 years before Jesus was ever born, and ask my question. What about those who were in sin years before Jesus ever came into the world? What about those who were in sin years before Jesus ever came into the world? If he's the only way of salvation. You see, our scripture this morning tells a most remarkable story. Jericho was a great city. It was at the center of two passes through the mountains into the land of Canaan. You could cross the Jordan River, and then you came to this particular area where you had to get through those passes if you were going to invade that land. And there sat the city of Jericho, a large city with a king, with an army, with thousands of people within the city, a city nation. It was an idolatrous city, and it was, as most cities of that area, filled with sin and violence and immorality and horror beyond your imagination. Many years before, the Israelites were about to go into one area, and God said, no, you can't go there yet because the cup of the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. But there would come a time when God would say, that's it, it's time for judgment. That time had come for the city of Jericho. It was about to be completely destroyed by the supernatural power of God. Does God have a right to pass judgment on sinners? Did God have a right to drown the world in the flood and only save Noah and his family? Is God righteous if he passes judgment upon sinners? I'm going to tell you something very plainly this morning from my own heart. I have lived long enough now that I have come to know enough about me. I don't know everything about you, though I know some things about you. But I know a lot about me. I don't know everything about me, I'm sure. And the things I don't know, my wife tells me about, because her and God have set out to straighten me out in that order. No, I'm kidding. But I will tell you, I know enough about me to know that without the grace of God and the shed blood of Jesus Christ and salvation through faith alone in Christ, I haven't a ghost of a chance. That God would have every right to strike me down as I stand in this pulpit and to send me to hell this morning, right now, if he so desired. It would be within his right and perfect justice to do so. What about you? In this city, they took their little babies and sacrificed them to the god Moloch, that was a great iron god, and they made a fire in the god until the arms became almost white hot and the flames shot up and they took something and laid their live baby in the arms of the god Moloch and burned him to death as a sacrifice. Their immorality was so great that there was absolutely no standards of any kind sexually. You say, no wonder God destroyed them. Well, we don't do it in the god Moloch, but we do it in hospital operating rooms. By the millions, by the millions, a lot more than they and immorality is taken for granted as the way to live in both Canada and the United States. Am I right? And dishonesty and violence is the order of the day. Some more gang-related murders in Toronto. It's the way of life. Immorality, corruption, lying, stealing, cheating, killing our children, murder, sin of every kind. Would God be within his right if he destroyed, if he let his judgment fall on the United States and Canada? Would God be within his right? Brothers and sisters, we have had the truth for years and years and years and God would be within the right and I have no way to know if he hasn't decided to do something about it. So here was this city and within this city was a woman who was living like everybody else and she was a prostitute and made her living by sexual immorality. She probably had a place that was like an inn and you could go there and have your sex partner and have your dinner and have a place to sleep for the night for so much money. That would have been a likely scenario. But I want to talk to you a minute about Rahab the prostitute. Joshua sent them secretly into the land and they went into the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there not because they wanted the services of the prostitute but because they needed a place to eat and sleep for the night. She was a prostitute, she was an idolater, she was a liar, right? I read it to you. The king sent messengers to her house and said some spies have come into your house and what a tale she told. Is it all right to lie? So she was a liar and on top of that she was a traitor. She was a traitor to her own country. She was willing to betray the king and the people of her city. This is not a nice woman. She probably was a beautiful woman who had started plying her trade and may even have had others involved. I do not know. That would have been the normal procedure. She was in a city that was under the judgment of God, was condemned, and every man, woman, child, and animal was to be put to death. Everyone. Our city of Victoria is probably, what is it, 320,000? But see, I want you to know this morning that every person in this city is under the condemnation of God and will be judged and sent to hell unless they escape through the blood and salvation of Jesus. Is God angry with sin? You better believe it. You say, why would God be angry with a city like that so full of sin to the point where he'd destroy it? Well, what if he didn't destroy it? If he didn't destroy it, they would go on having babies, bringing them up to be idolaters, to be immoral, to be full of violence, and to die and go to hell. And they would give birth to children who would continue to do the same thing and grow up and die and go to hell. And they would give birth to children who would continue. And God said, I've let this go on long enough. Hell has opened her mouth wide and people are descending into it by the thousand. And I cannot let it go on. They had had the truth. They had rejected it. And that would be another message this morning. But this whole country had had the truth. They had had Melchizedek, who was a pre-incarnate revelation of Jesus Christ himself as a priest in that land. And even when the Israelites come into the land, they had the prophet Balaam who said, if you gave me your whole house full of gold and silver, I couldn't speak anything but what God gives me to speak. And he had the message of salvation. But they had rejected it. So there they were very serious situation and Rahab was under that wrath and that judgment under God's ban. The city chapter six verses 17 and 21 of Joshua, the city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with a sword, every living thing in it, men and women, young and old cattle, sheep and donkeys, both her and her whole family were condemned to destruction. That was her situation. But she knew about God. She knew about God. Isn't it interesting what she said about God? She said about Jehovah, the God of the Israelites, he is God in heaven and on earth. He is the true God. She knew that. You see the word of God says in Romans 1 18, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godly, godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them for set through the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood by what has been made so that men are without excuse. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork day in the day, utter speech night and tonight shows knowledge. There is no language where their voice is not heard. All men have the light of creation. They know there's a God. They know he is the God of heaven. They know he is the creator, even if they try to deny it and they know, but they do not worship him. She knew the difference between right and wrong. She said, now swear to me by the Lord that you'll do this. She knew that even though she was a liar, she knew that there was such a thing as truth and she wanted these men to swear unto her that they would keep their word and that she could be saved, her and her family. There are many stories in the Bible about people in this particular situation and she had a conscience that made it clear to her what was right and what was wrong, but I don't just want to talk about Rahab the sinner and Rahab the condemned under the wrath of God and his judgment coming, but I want to talk about Rahab the believer. She heard, she heard, she feared, she believed, she confessed, and I want to say to you this morning, this morning you are hearing and will hear the truth about Jesus Christ. And the question is, if you are not born again, if you have not received Christ as your savior, will you tremble over the fact that along with me you are a sinner and that God's judgment is coming and that his wrath hangs over you and you haven't the least chance of escaping total and eternal and everlasting destruction except through Jesus Christ and his shed blood. Paul said of the people in Rome that there was no fear of God before their eyes. We're living in a day when people no longer fear God, but we ought to fear God. We ought to tremble. He is God. He is the almighty creator and sustainer and ruler of the universe. He is the master of the universe. He is the final judge from which there is no recourse. There is no other supreme court. There's no way to get around it. God is the almighty God and he is righteous and he has provided his love and his salvation and paid a price beyond our understanding and he is saying, accept my son Jesus or I have no recourse except for my full wrath and power to fall upon you and to judge you and to send you into a dark and lost eternity. That's just the way it is and I'm so thankful for what happened in Rahab's life. There she was in this terrible city of sin, her life full of sin of every kind, but she heard about God and she believed and she trembled with fear and she wanted to be saved and she cried out to be saved and not only for herself but her family. It's a terrible thing for me to be lost, but it's an awful thing for my family to be lost to my love. When Jesus told the story about the man in hell, do you know what he was concerned about? His five brothers because he had never been concerned about his own salvation or theirs and now he was in hell and he didn't want them to come there and Rahab loved her family. She said I want to be saved and I want my family to be saved and so she acted upon her faith and she confessed the word of God says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved and so she confessed her faith and she acted upon her faith and now I want to talk for a minute about Rahab the saved. There is a place of safety for us sinners you know, it's at the cross. There is a righteousness of God, that's what we need. We don't have any righteousness of our own, not by our own righteousness, not by any works of our own righteousness, not by the works of the law, none of it can do it. It can only condemn us and show how sinful we are, but the righteousness of God is available to us through Jesus Christ. That righteousness can be imputed to us, that perfect, perfect righteousness of the Son of God can be imputed to us and that righteousness can even be imparted to us in our daily living by his grace and they said to her well what you need to do to have a place of safety in the middle of destruction is to put this scarlet cord in your window. I love the way there's a scarlet cord running right through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation don't you? And when you get to Revelation you find that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. There's a scarlet cord that runs all through. Before Christ was born it looked, all those blood sacrifices of the Lambs looked forward to Jesus and pointed to him and since he came and died and rose again, when we partake of the Lord's Supper we look back to him who died for our sins, but he's the only Savior. So they said you must be under the sign of the blood. They knew all about that because when they came out of Egypt, do you remember that God said take the blood of the Lamb and put it on the doorpost, the lintel and the doorposts of your house and get all your family in there under the blood and when the judgment falls on Egypt it won't fall on you because you'll be under the blood. And there's an old gospel song, when I see the blood. Anybody remember that? A few old people. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Oh, that's a great old gospel song, talks about judgment coming. Judgment is coming, but there is safety in the blood of Jesus and in Christ. There is safety in the Son of God. And it says in Hebrews 11 31, by faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. By faith. It was by faith that she was saved. And her family was saved by faith. She said, now swear not only for me, but my family. Do you remember what Paul said to the jailer in Acts 16 31? When he said, what must I do to be saved? And he said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your household. Oh, I thank God for that. I want to get in, don't you? I want to be saved when the judgment falls. I want to be saved. She was saved and her family were saved. And it says in Matthew, in the genealogy of Christ, Matthew one five, Solomon, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. You go back and read the story. Rahab, after she was saved, after that terrible judgment fell and Jericho was destroyed and she and her family were saved and they were taken into Israel. And according to the custom of Israel, men had to be circumcised to become Israelites. Women had to be baptized. So she must've been baptized. She was married to an Israelite man and she became part. Now that's incredible. This sinful woman became part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Isn't that amazing? Her and her family totally take it in. Joshua 6 25, but Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute with her family and all have belonged to her because she hid the men. Joshua sent his spies to Jericho and she lives among the Israelites to this day. And she became part, her and her family of the people of God. I want to tell you this morning that if you're outside of Jesus Christ, the just judgment of wrath of God hangs over you. You say, I thought God loved me. He does. He does. All you have to do is look at the cross and see the poured out blood of God, the son, pain beyond our imagination, anguish and broken heart that we can never understand God dying in our place to save us. But that doesn't change the just judgment and wrath of God for sin. And I want to say the just judgment and wrath of God for sin hangs over every human being on earth who does not know Jesus as their savior. And that means you this morning, if you haven't received Christ. But I want to tell you that the love of God is reaching out to you even as it did to Rahab through Jesus Christ and his shed blood and his willingness to love us and sacrifice himself for us. And we don't need to be destroyed under God's wrath and judgment. We can be saved. We just have to come and believe and open our hearts and receive Christ as our personal savior and Lord. And our sins are forgiven. And in Christ, we're accepted in the beloved one by the father, and we will not come into condemnation, but we're passed out of death into life. And we become part of the family of God. And then we can pray the rest of our family into the kingdom, and we all become part of the family of God. Oh, this is good stuff. A wonderful truth of salvation. One night a man was sleeping and he had a dream. I've had all kinds of dreams in my time. And he was in great distress of mind at that time about the fact that he was not right with God. And he was greatly concerned about his salvation and how he could be saved. And he thought he stood in the outer court of heaven and he saw a glorious host marching up the steps of light, singing hymns and bearing banners of victory. They passed by him and entered through the gates, and he heard in the distance the sweet strains of music. He asked an angel that was standing there, who are they? And he said, don't you know? They are the godly fellowship of the prophets who have gone to be with God. And in his dream he heaved a deep sigh as he said, alas, I'm not one of them and shall never be and cannot enter heaven. By and by there came another band, equally lovely in appearance and equally triumphant, robed in white, singing and praising God. And he said, who are these with wistful expectancy? And the angel said, they're the goodly fellowship of the apostles. Alas, he said, I do not belong to that fellowship. I will never be able to get in there. He still waited and lingered in the hope that he might yet go in, but the next multitude did not encourage him, for they were the noble army of martyrs, and he could not go in with them because he had never died for Christ. He waited still and saw that the next was a company of preachers of the gospel and earnest Christian workers, but he didn't feel like that would help because he had never done a thing for God. His hope of entrance into heaven seemed gone when at last, as he walked, he saw a larger host and all the rest put together, a great throng without number, marching and singing. And in front walked the woman that was a sinner and the thief that died on the cross next to Jesus. And Rahab, the harlot, and many others. King Manasseh, who repented as an old man, and when they entered, he could see who they were and knew who they were somehow. Well, there won't be any shouting about that crowd, he thought, but to his astonishment, it seemed as if all heaven was rent with sevenfold shouts as they passed in. And the angel said to him, these are they that are mighty sinners saved by mighty grace. And he said, bless me, God, I can go in with them. And so he awoke and was saved by God's grace. Are you a sinner? Have you received Christ as your Savior by faith? If you have not done that yet, you may do so this morning. And in a moment, we're going to sing an old gospel song, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, the Savior wretched like me. But what we're going to do is we're going to ask some of our counselors who pray with people who have needs or who come for salvation to come and stand at the front here, so that you have somebody waiting to receive you. And if you need Christ, you just come forward, go to one of these people, then they will take you up these steps into a prayer room where there's a comfortable room where you can pray and where they can help you to understand and open your heart and receive Jesus as your Savior.