Friday, August 24, 2007

By Faith... Or Not? Israel's Exodus and Conquest, Part 7 of 41

TEXT: "By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace" (Hebrews 11:31).

IDEA: The people who come under God’s judgment are those who refuse to believe and submit to Him.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that unbelief comes as a matter of the will, not simply as a matter of the mind.

Do you remember the old spiritual, “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came atumblin’ down”?

How do you feel when you hear that spiritual sung?

Did it ever occur to you that you were laughing at a great tragedy?

I. The story as we have it in the Bible features a woman named Rahab who was a prostitute.

Briefly sum up Rahab’s story.

What do you think happened to the other folks living in Jericho? Does it strike you as unfair?

II. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says in 11:31, “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient” (NIV).

Disobedient to what? Weren’t the people of Jericho innocent bystanders?

Rahab, in talking about her people (Joshua 2:8-13) is clear that both she and they had enough information to convince them that the God of the Hebrews was the true God – “The Lord your God is God in heaven above and in the earth below.”

Not only did they have the information, but they believed enough of it to be terrified.

There is also evidence that Rahab’s parents, brothers and sisters believed enough to come into the house and stay there.

III. The unbelief that God hates is not unbelief because of ignorance. It is the choice to refuse to believe and thus set yourself up in opposition to God.

In John 3 we are familiar with verse 16, which is followed by the reason people are condemned: John 3:18-21:

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

The process of the judgment is that light appears and people flee from it, resisting it.