Change the World – Rahab

Have you ever felt so dirty and icky that you can’t do anything? Like when you’re sweating really bad…you know you stink, so you don’t want to get too close to anyone. You are soaking wet, so you don’t want to sit on the couch or get on your bed. You just feel “eh,” so you don’t want to do anything but clean off. Or, if your hands are dirty. When your hands are dirty, it really hinders almost anything you do. You don’t want to touch anything or do anything until your hands are clean.

Do you ever feel that way in your life? You feel like you’re too dirty…you’re too stained…you’re too broken to ever be close to God…to ever be used by God…to ever be whole and clean and well and good.

Tonight we’re going to look at a lady who felt like this…who Was like this…and we’re going to see where we fit in this amazing and beautiful picture of grace

Joshua 2; 6:20-25

1. No one is too dirty to come to God

As a father came home from his work he saw his little daughter who had been playing in the mud. He said to her, “Honey, you’re pretty dirty.” In her childish way she replied, “Yes, I know daddy, but I’m prettier clean.”

When we think of God as our Father, we realize the love He has for His children. I don’t care how dirty my kids are, I will love them and draw them near…now I love them enough to be willing to hose them down to get all the dirt off…but I love them just as much with the dirt. It’s the same with God. Jesus taught this beautifully in the parable of the prodigal son. The son was filthy as a pig, and the father went running towards him to embrace him.

We see this so clearly in this story of Rahab.

This affects how we relate to God. Rahab was a prostitute. This isn’t an occupation you just stumble upon. This woman has some DEEP issues and stains and pain and wounds. Rahab was a gentile. She was not a part of God’s chosen people. She was a part of people who were enemies of God.

Rahab the gentile prostitute…was spared and became an Israelite (6:25). She shouldn’t have been spared and she should have been killed, both because her people were enemies of God’s people, and because of her sexual sin (Leviticus 20). We see the character of God revealed in the story of Rahab. Just like when God revealed it to Moses.

Exodus 34:5-8 – 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

God is just in destroying His enemies, but He is also merciful and gracious. Rahab deserved God’s justice…so why would God spare this woman and give her a future? – Because He is merciful and gracious. No one is too dirty to come to God. There is no pit too deep where the grace of God is not deeper. No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Why was Rahab saved? – God’s grace. That’s the only reason we’re saved. God is under no obligation to be gracious. I want you to think about this…God hasn’t even offered salvation for the angels who have fallen.

2 Peter 2:4 – For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment

God would be perfectly just in not offering any of us salvation, just like He is with the angels. So, why has he offered us salvation? Purely by His grace.

How was Rahab saved? – Her faith

Hebrews 11:30-31 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the pro