Faith Lessons From Rahab

Faith Lessons from Rahab

Griffith Baptist Church – 2/8/09

A.M. Service

Text: Hebrews 11:31 (Joshua 2:1-20)

Key verse: Hebrews 11:31 - By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

Premise: God uses the most unlikely heroes to teach us faith, but are we learning?

The Introduction

A woman was trying to raise her daughter as a Christian. However, she was getting very little support from her husband who thought Christianity was ridiculous. In fact, he often tried to undermine her efforts. One Sunday, the mother and her daughter were coming home from worship and the daughter was excited about learning about creation. Her mother went over the story with her and added some details that weren’t covered in junior church. God created Adam. Then God created Eve. And it was pretty exciting to think that God had done all this and that both of them were created by God in God’s image. The daughter got home and with grand excitement told her father all that she learned. When she was finished, he said, “Honey, I know you are very excited about this but I need to tell that what the church is teaching is just a story. There may be some lessons to be learned about being a good person. But it is a story that is just not supported by science.” So he told her about evolution and how humans were descendents from apes. The little girls took it all in with a somber face and said that she understood. “I know that you are disappointed but it is better for you to learn the facts then to grow up believing a story is true.” The little girl went to her mother and told her everything that her dad had told and said, “How could they both be true? Daddy says these are the facts.” The mother replied, “Oh those are the facts all right. He was telling you about his side of the family.”

We learn a lot of things in our lifetime

Many lessons are taught to us.

We get the greatest lessons the Word of God and putting that Word into practice.

Sometimes, God uses unlikely instruments to teach us what we need to know.

Such is the case with Rahab.

In fact, the only other woman mentioned by name in Heb. 11 is Sarah

Sarah was pure

Rahab was a prostitute

Both are in the line of Christ

For the rest of our teaching, we need to turn to Joshua 2:1-20

There are three great truths that Rahab teaches us about faith from her life and the life of the spies.

Body

1. God Uses Unappealing People to Support Our Faith

A. We should never get like Frederick the Great who said - The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog.

B. God used a common prostitute, Rahab, to hide the spies - 1

i. God could have used anyone with a better reputation

ii. Rahab feared what God had done through the Israelites (10-11)

iii. Rahab was in the lineage of David and ultimately Christ, signifying that Christ can forgive and use even the vilest of sinners.

iv. The spies most likely did not know where they would stay

a. This woman’s house would be the least likely to attract attention to spies

b. The word gets back to the king who sends for her and inquires

c. She hides them and lies about their departure

d. God saving her did not justify the lie but God saved her for one reason only: her saving the spies – James 2:25 - Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

C. God uses people we would never expect to be used

i. He may use your enemy

ii. He may use a stranger – Hebrews 13:2 - Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

iii. He may use the weak and unwise – If God uses the weak and unwise in salvation, there is not reason to believe that He doesn’t use them after our salvation - 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 - 26For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

iv. He may use a child – The disciples never expected Jesus to use a child as a teaching tool - Matthew 18:2-3 - 2And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.