Bad Girl Gone Good
Joshua, Chapter 2
By: Pastor J. B. Hall
Introduction: We’ve all heard accounts of a good girl gone bad. Well, today I’d like to preach a message about a Bad Girl Gone Good. Today I’d like to preach a message on Rahab.
1. Verse 1 – Rahab was a harlot.
A. Rahab was no church-going choir girl.
B. She was a harlot, a woman of the night.
C. While some people sell illegal substances and unethical items, Rahab made her living selling the most precious thing any person has been given – herself.
D. Rahab then, would not have been your prime candidate if you were looking for someone to do a work for the Lord.
E. However, she provides a perfect example of someone who would have been voted ‘most un-likely’, but who stepped up to faith when God began to move; and as a result, would eventually be inducted into the hall of faith of spiritual heroes listed in Hebrews, Chapter 11.
F. Rahab was a harlot; but she would be a Bad Girl Gone Good.
2. Verses 9 & 10 – Rahab recognized God’s hand in human affairs.
A. Her spiritual perception was tuned to the fact that God was at work in human affairs; and that the judgment of God that had fallen on others who had resisted His will was even now at her door.
B. She recognized the fact that those who God had appointed as His representatives were to be taken seriously.
C. In the blindness of their unbelief, the king of Jericho and his servants sought the spies to destroy them as if this would prevent the judgment of God from reaching them.
D. Destroying the representative of God will not provide protection from the judgment of God.
E. Rahab realized that there was no staying the hand of God when once it was moved to impose judgment.
F. Her only recourse was to seek God’s mercy and protection in judgment; not to turn it back.
G. She arrived at this conclusion by recognizing by faith that the things that had befallen the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, were from God.
H. She realized that the phenomenon of the crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army in it, were both results of the will and action of God.
I. She realized that Israel’s victory over the kings of the Amorites was the result of God’s intervention and working on their behalf.
J. She didn’t dismiss the miracle of the Red Sea as just some freakish act of nature that resulted in unlucky consequences for the Egyptian army.
K. She didn’t dismiss the overwhelming victory of the Israelites over the Amorites as just great military strategy, or cowardice on the part of the Amorites.
L. Rahab’s faith sharpened her spiritual discernment so that she was able to perceive the hand of God in human affairs.
3. Verse 11 – Rahab recognized Israel’s God as being Lord.
A. Notice in the last part of this verse she calls Israel’s God ‘Lord’.
B. She also acknowledges the fact that God is not just God of Heaven – a distant God who has no interest or ability to act in human affairs.
C. Instead, she says that the Lord is not only God in heaven above; but that He also is God in earth beneath.
D. This was Rahab’s confession of faith.
E. She recognized and acknowledged God for Who He really is – God, the Creator of the universe; but also God, the One Who is intimately involved with His creation, and in the lives of individuals and nations.
F. This faith, this not turning a blind eye or an indifferent shoulder to the intervention of God in the routines of her daily life, is what saved her and her family from certain and sudden destruction.
G. There comes a time in each of our lives that we are confronted with the awful truth – we are sinners exceedingly against God.
H. God sends someone or some event to remind us of the truth we know but have refused to face.
I. It is at that moment that we are faced with a decision: Do we continue in our sin as if this confrontation has not taken place; or, do we, like Rahab, make the choice to turn to the very God we have sinned against for His forgiveness and protection?
J. The choice to turn to God from your sin is described in Hebrews 6:1 as “…repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.”
K. Dead works are works, or activity that has no lasting value.
L. We are each allotted an amount of time that we can utilize any way we choose.
M. You can waste your time by squandering it on momentary pleasures; or by building a kingdom for yourself that is temporary; one that will perish with your death.
N. You can however, choose instead to invest your time if you “...lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew 6:20)
O. Rahab chose to forego the lifestyle of her past in order to secure deliverance from the approaching wrath of God, for herself and her family.
P. This began with her choice to acknowledge Israel’s God as being Lord.
Q. God has the connotation of His being Creator, and Sustainer of His creation.
R. Lord, on the other hand, carries the implication of His being Ruler.
S. God is the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of His creation regardless of what we believe.
T. Our belief does not alter those facts.
U. But, if His power is going to benefit us, we must make the choice to make Him our personal Lord.
V. Rahab recognized Israel’s God as being Lord.
4. Verses 4 – 8 & 12 – 13 – Rahab’s faith produced action in her life.
A. First, her faith moved her to recognize and protect the men of God.
B. Those with hearts of unbelief viewed the men as threats to their way of life.
C. Rahab though, viewed them as her chance for deliverance from the wrath to come.
D. Those whose lifestyles were threatened, and who were unwilling to turn from their sinful lifestyles, sought to do harm to the men of God.
E. Rahab, whose lifestyle had been exceedingly sinful, realized this was her opportunity to escape the judgment that she knew by faith, was coming.
F. Rather than just sit back and hope for God’s mercy, her faith moved her into action to do something about the danger she was in.
G. She held the men of God in high esteem and did everything she could to help them in their mission.
H. Today, those whose comfortable lifestyles are threatened fight against men of God who are on a mission.
I. This even occurs within the church body.
J. These think that by ridding themselves of the man of God they can continue with their lifestyles of fruitlessness.
K. They fail to see that God has come on the scene and will not leave until His judgment has been executed.
L. Rahab, though, recognized the men of God for whom they were – men sent on a mission from God, whose mission could give her a new life, or destroy her life.
M. She realized that regardless of the choice she made, her life would never be the same again.
N. Therefore, she moved into action to assist the men of God, for in doing so, she assisted the mission of God.
O. Her faith moved her to recognize and assist the men and mission of God.
P. Second, in Verses 12 & 13 Rahab moved into action to represent herself and her family members who were perhaps unaware they were in serious danger.
Q. Likewise, you and I who recognize the danger of those among us who are blinded to the approaching judgment of God by their unbelief need to move into action to represent them before God, lest they be swept away in His judgment, unawares until it is too late.
R. Rahab’s faith was not just a worthless mental acknowledgment of an existing truth.
S. True faith moves one into action.
T. The danger was real; and if she and those she loved were going to be spared certain doom, her action was required.
U. Hebrews 11:31 says, “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.”
V. Faith that does not produce corresponding action is not genuine faith; not faith that will provide any benefit or deliverance for you.
W. James 2:24 – 25 say, “Ye 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?”
X. So, genuine saving faith acts to save oneself; but it also acts to save others who perhaps are oblivious to the threat before them.
Y. Because of Rahab’s actions, she was saved, her family was saved, and all who were with her were saved.
Z. Rahab’s faith produced action in her life.
5. Verses 18 & 19 – Rahab’s safety and her family’s safety was a particular safety.
A. Rahab was given specific instructions.
B. Her safety and her family’s safety depended upon her following those instructions.
C. She was not free to just go about business as usual expecting the judgment of God to just automatically pass over her.
D. Let’s look at the instructions she was given and see how they relate to you and me today.
E. First, she was instructed to be in her house.
F. She must not be found outside her home with the unbelievers or she would be destroyed just as they would be.
G. For the lost person, God makes it clear that there is only one place of safety – in Christ.
H. 1 Timothy 3:15 says, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God…”
I. The only place of safety for the lost person is in the house of God which is the church of the living God.
J. I’m not talking about such and such Baptist Church, or so-and-so Pentecostal Church, or so-and-so Methodist Church.
K. I’m talking about the church of the living God; in other words, for the one who is lost, being in Christ.
L. For the saved one who is in sin, you too must be in the safety of the fellowship of God’s church.
M. If you are wandering around partaking of the same sin the lost world is, and the judgment of God comes, you will be swept up in the same judgment they will experience; only yours will not continue into eternity. It will end with your death.
N. Rahab was instructed to be in her house.
O. Second, Rahab was instructed to have the scarlet thread in her window.
P. There would be many houses when the judgment of God came, but only the house with the scarlet thread would escape His wrath.
Q. The blood of the Lord Jesus is the scarlet thread that runs from the book of Genesis through the book of Revelation; and is the only protection afforded you from the wrath of almighty God when it falls.
R. If you are not safe under the blood, you are not safe.
S. There is no other protection that will be recognized in that day.
T. Rahab was instructed to have the scarlet thread displayed.
U. Third, Rahab was instructed to bring her family “…home unto thee.”
V. You see, their safety didn’t depend upon their relationship to Rahab, but upon their being in the house of safety marked by the same scarlet thread that protected Rahab.
W. Dear one, the only place of safety for your family from the judgment of God is for them to come home unto you.
X. Like you, their safety can only be found in the same place you found yours – in Christ, with His blood as the only demarcation that will be recognized as denoting a safe house in that day.
Y. Please notice it was Rahab’s responsibility, since she knew the plan, to persuade her family to come home unto her.
Z. In the same way, you and I who know the plan of salvation, have the responsibility of persuading those around us to come home to the place of safety.
AA. Rahab’s safety and the safety of her family was a particular safety.
6. Chapter 6, Verses 16, 17, 23, & 24a – Rahab’s promise was for a time yet future; but when it arrived, the promise was kept.
A. It would have been easy for Rahab to have forgotten the promise, or to neglect to follow the instructions given her when the judgment of God did not immediately fall.
B. Much the same way, people often begin to count the warning of coming judgment as not being relevant because the judgment of God does not immediately come.
C. Rahab knew that the promise of coming destruction was not a fairy tale that was just given as a spectacular fable to entertain her.
D. Had she been distracted by everyday living or recreational pursuits and neglected to inform and urge her family to come to safety, when destruction arrived it would have been too late to scurry around and get everyone to safety.
E. Though desolation was yet for a time appointed, she got busy trying to make sure her family was in the place of safety at the time of wrath when it came.
F. Joshua did not forget the promise that had been made to Rahab to save alive those in the house with the scarlet thread.
G. The instruction to Rahab was specific; and the plan to spare those gathered in Rahab’s house was executed exactly as it had been promised.
H. In the same way, God’s instruction to us to be under the blood and in Christ is very specific.
I. When His judgment comes, His plan to spare those gathered in Christ under His blood will be executed exactly as it has been promised.
J. Rahab’s promise was for a time yet future; but when it arrived, it was kept.
7. Chapter 6, Verse 25 – Rahab traded a life with the people of sin for a life with the people of God.
A. Rahab’s genuine saving faith took her to a whole new life.
B. Her life was changed completely and permanently.
C. Saving faith does not return to the life it has left.
D. Instead, it goes forward, seeking new relationships, new friendships, and new acquaintances.
E. When genuine repentance of sin and faith toward God takes place in someone’s life, the old life of sin loses its allure.
F. Now, they are attracted by the very people that they were repulsed by before.
G. They move in and make their home with the people of God now.
H. Though Rahab was not a Jew by physical birth, she was adopted into the Jewish family, and lived the rest of her life with them.
I. Now she, as a Jew, lived among the Jews.
J. 1 Peter 2:9 & 10 say, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
K. You and I who are Gentiles by nature, and not a part of the people of God, when we place genuine saving faith in Jesus as our personal Savior, though we were not the people of God, are then adopted into His family and become heirs along with Christ, God’s Son.
L. We now make our home among God’s people here in the midst of sinful people; being grateful to God and to them for His and their acceptance.
M. We are not attracted by the old life of sin; it has lost its appeal to us.
N. Instead, we are thrilled to have escaped it and the danger it held us in.
O. Rahab traded a life with the people of sin for a life with the people of God.
In Summary:
(1) Rahab was a harlot.
(2) Rahab recognized God’s hand in human affairs.
(3) Rahab recognized Israel’s God as being Lord.
(4) Rahab’s faith produced action in her life.
(5) Rahab’s safety and her family’s safety was a particular safety.
(6) Rahab’s promise was for a time yet future; but when it arrived, it was kept.
(7) Rahab traded a life with the people of sin for a life with the people of God.
In Conclusion:
What is the moral of the story; what is the conclusion of the account of this Bad Girl Gone Good?
It doesn’t matter where you come from; it only matters where you go!
This week I listened to the testimony of a man who, in the commission of a crime, had committed a horrible murder. This man got saved, was released from prison after serving only 8 years, due to prison overcrowding (but by the providence of God), and now pastors a large church with 2,800 members in Tennessee.
You see, it didn’t matter where he came from; when he turned to God in genuine saving faith; God took him from a life of habitual, compulsive sin, to a life of fruitfulness; a life of investing his life in eternal reward.
You see, it doesn’t matter where you come from; it only matters where you go!
Are you willing to trade your life of sin and danger for a life of deliverance; a life of complete and permanent change?
