NO. 1060
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S DAY MORNING, JULY 14TH 1872,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON
“Behold the Lamb of God!” — John 1:36.
IT IS the preacher’s principal business, I think I might say, his only business, to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God!” For this reason was John born and sent into the world, and such were the prophecies which went before concerning him. If he had been the most eloquent preacher of repentance, if he had been the most earnest declaimer against the sins of the times, he would, nevertheless, have missed his life-work, if he had forgotten to say, “Behold the Lamb of God.” He did well when he baptized the repenting crowd, he spoke nobly when he faced the Pharisees, and was a true hero when he rebuked Herod, but after all his chief errand was to herald the Messiah, to bear witness to the Son of God. What we have said of John we may say of every God-sent minister: he is sent to bear witness to the Christ of God, and whatever else he may do, if he do not this continually, habitually, earnestly, he is not fulfilling the errand for which his Master sent him, but has turned aside to baser ends. When any one of us who are called ministers shall die, and come before the Lord to give in our account, it will be a sorry thing for us if we can only say, “Lord, I have preached the dogmas of the church to which I belonged,” unless we can also add that we have directed men to the living Savior. Vain will it be to have argued with accurate logic, and persuaded with lofty rhetoric, unless we have uplifted Christ among the people. It will be idle to say, “I have preached against the scepticism of the times, I have rebuked the sins which raged around me, and have proclaimed what I knew of the glory of God in nature and in providence,” for our chief and distinguishing work is to declare the name of the Lord Jesus and the power of his precious blood. As the stars called “the Pointers” always point to the Pole star, so must we always point to the Redeemer. Methinks the minister who has failed to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God,” may expect at the last to be cut in pieces, and to have his portion with the tormentors. I can scarce conceive a doom too terrible for the man who dazzled his hearers with oratorical fire works, when he ought to have lifted up the cross, and mocked immortal souls with the carved stone of his elocution when they were starving the bread of heaven. Sermons without Christ condemn the preacher and delude the hearer. Sermons which do not point to Christ in them will be as hard to answer for as blasphemy or murder when the Judge is on his great white throne. It is cruel to amuse with trifles those whose souls are in jeopardy of eternal fire. Playing with men’s souls is murderous work, and truly if the Lamb of God be not preached, the ministry is playing with souls, if not worse. John, however, most thoroughly discharged his life-work, for he was ever saying, “Behold the Lamb of God.”
Notice in the text the attitude of the preacher, for it is very instructive. “Looking upon Jesus as he walked,” John said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The preacher’s eye should be upon his Master while he points to his Master. They preach Christ best who see him best. John had his own eyes fastened upon Jesus, and therefore did he by his own example as well as by his word say, “Behold the Lamb of God.” If you will take your place in a crowded street, and stand for a few minutes looking at a certain object in the heavens, or gaze upward as if something were there to be seen, you will soon find that without asking others to do the same a company will gather round you and begin to look in the same direction. Indeed, a vast crowd might be collected, by no other action than by you yourself gazing intently into the air. So John, in addition to his saying, “Behold the Lamb of God,” was doing the best thing to attract others to behold him — when he fixed his own eyes on Jesus, with fixed wondering, admiring, adoring gaze. John had no eye for any one but “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” and therefore his words had point and power in them. And note that John’s eye was upon Christ, not only when Christ visas coming to him, but as he walked by him. Well may the preacher have his Master before him when his Master is cheering him with his fellowship and honoring him with his presence; but, on this occasion, Jesus was walking alone, as though in meditation, with his eyes probably bent upon the ground. It was not meet that he should always be coming to John; he had done that once, and so had put an honor upon his servant, but this time he came not to him lest men should think that he had any dependence upon John, but he walked in quiet musing as though his thoughts were otherwise occupied. Nevertheless the Baptist had not forgotten his Lord, but again pointed him out. If the Lord deny to the preacher his comfortable presence, if no light of fellowship shine forth from the brow of the Crucified, it is still ours whenever and wherever we preach to let the eye of faith realize Christ as present, and still to cry to others with a heart that palpitates in union with our words, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Even when I preach in chains I would labor to honor Jesus, looking to him as the end and object of every word I utter.
It is mine to preach a Savior in whom I believe, whom having not seen I love. I am looking to him now for everything, even as I would have you do. I see in him superlative beauties which I wish you to see, and I worship a divinity in him which I desire you to worship. I preach not to you an unknown God, or an untried Savior.
There is something notable in our text as to the hearers. This was a brief but weighty sermon, worthy to be preached a thousand times. Nobody needs a new sermon when “Behold the Lamb of God” is the old one. John had delivered this same discourse before an assembled crowd; but now he had only two hearers, and those two were not unconverted persons; they were disciples of his own, and they were at least very near to the kingdom if not already in it. Yet to the solitary two and those already discipled he had only the same message to deliver, “Behold the Lamb of God.” He was a man of rich mind and ready utterance, yet he kept to his one point in all companies. It is thought that if we go into the theater to preach to the mob, we must be sure to preach Christ: let me ask you what subject would be fitter for an assembly of saints? I pray you tell me. It has been said that he who preaches in the street ought to confine himself to the simple gospel: my brethren, in what place would that subject be inappropriate or unprofitable? Paul knew nothing among the Corinthians save Jesus Christ and him crucified, the resolve is a safe one for all companies. In this respect some preachers know too much, and the sooner they join the holy know-nothings the better. Christ is appropriate as a subject for two disciples as well as for a thousand scoffers, for while he is the resurrection to those who are dead, he is also the life of those who have been already quickened. No subject is more sweet, more refreshing, more inspiriting, more sanctifying to the saint than the Cross of our dying Lord: the sinner needs it if he would be saved, but the saint requires it that he may persevere, advance, conquer, and attain perfection. Give me that harp and let my fingers never leave its strings, the harp whose strings resound the love of Christ alone. To harp upon the name of Jesus is the blessed monotony of a true ministry, a monotony more full of variety than all other subjects besides. When Jesus is the first, the midst, and the last, yea, all in all, then do we make full proof of our ministry. We do well when we are able to say, “of the things which we have spoken this is the sum, we have such an high priest who is set on the fight hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” May Christ be “all in all” in all our ministries, for so shall we prove that God hath called us to testify concerning his son Jesus.
This may serve as an introduction to our subject. Now let us take the text itself: John saith, “Behold Lamb of God.”
And first let us behold Jesus, and know him to be the Lamb of God. It will be well to be fully assured upon that point, and heartily to accept the witness of God concerning his Son. When we have so done let us secondly behold Him, that is contemplate Him, and humbly and attentively view Him as the great propitiation, the true sacrifice for sin; then thirdly, beholding Him again, let us gather instruction from the Redeemer’s appearance as the Lamb of God; and fourthly, let us behold Him, that is, reverently adore Him in his blessed capacity as the Lamb slain.
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I. First then, let us behold our Lord, and Learn That He Is The Lamb Of God.
What means the term, “the Lamb of God?” The Hebrews are accustomed that a thing is “of God” when they mean that it is the greatest, the noblest, the chief of the kind. For instance, they call the cedars “trees of God,” and the thunder is the “voice of God.” So that we may understand in the first place by the expression “the Lamb of God” that Jesus is the chief of all sacrifices, the first of all offerings by which atonement is made to God for sin. And truly he is so. He stands above all others because he contains all others. All other sacrifices of God’s ordaining were but pictures, representations, symbols, and shadows of himself. There is only one sacrifice for sin, there never was another and there never can be. All those offerings under the Aaronic priesthood which were presented because of sin were only representations of the One Sacrifice; they were that and nothing more. Jesus far excels them all. Beloved, if you want to see the lamb that Abel offered on the altar, the lamb because of which God accepted his faith, and had respect unto him, you must see Jesus Christ, for we are accepted in the Beloved. God hath respect unto any man who brings this sacrifice; but unto any who bring a bloodless sacrifice, such as the Cainites of Rome foolishly do when they offer the unbloody sacrifice of the mass, unto them God hath no respect, and never can have. The blood of Jesus once presented has for ever put away sin, and no further sin-offering can be brought. Whoever resteth in Jesus as the true and only sacrifice is accepted in his faith. If you desire to see the lamb which Noah offered when he came out of the ark, together with other sacrifices of which it is said that “The Lord smelled a sweet savor of rest,” you must look to Jesus Christ; for the bullocks, and rams, and lambs of Noah all pointed to the one sweet savor offering of Christ Jesus offered upon the cross, where God and the souls of all believers meet in blessed union and find sweetest rest. This, beloved, is the Lamb of which Abraham spake when he said to Isaac, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb.” And to-day if you would understand the paschal supper first of all spread on that dread night when the destroying angel went through Egypt and smote the first born of all her land, if you would know who it is whose blood is the true Passover when it is sprinkled upon the conscience, and whose flesh is meat indeed when it is fed upon by the children of God, you must look to Jesus, for he is the Lamb of God’s Passover. And if, pursuing your studies, your thoughts should turn into the tabernacle of old, or into Solomon’s Temple, and you should see each morning a lamb slaughtered and its blood poured out, and each evening the same sacrifice repeated, if you desire to know what was intended by the morning and evening lambs you will find that they were but lambs of men, lambs presented by men, but they pointed to the Lamb of God, in whom their teaching is all summed up. He is the substance of that of which they were but the shadow. Jesus is the Lamb of the morning slain from before the foundation of the world, and the Lamb of the evening offered up in these last days for his people. Thus might we speak of all other sacrifices, and show that in Jesus they are all fulfilled. Atonement for sin is truly and in very deed to be found in the Son of God. In him alone is there remission, for in his blood alone is there efficacy to satisfy the law.
Stern as the truth is, we ought never to flinch from repeating it, that sin cannot be put away under the moral government of God without punishment. This is a rule from which there is no variation, and there should be none, for if justice be left unsatisfied the foundations of society are out of course. Infinite wisdom has found for us a door of escape by the way of vicarious sacrifice, but that way does not violate justice. Seeing that we originally fell by the sin of another, namely, our representative Adam, God has seen fit that we should rise through the righteousness and sufferings of another, namely, Jesus, the second Adam. Because Jesus was one with his people, and their federal head, it was just to allow him to suffer in their stead, and he has so done. Apart from this, every man must bear his own burden of sin and punishment. The only possible way by which a man can be forgiven his sin is by that sin being punished in his legal representative — the Lord Jesus. Jesus has borne what every believing sinner ought to have borne in his own person, or an equivalent for it, sufficient to recompense the injury done to eternal justice. No other person could be a substitute for our sin, for no other is our head and representative before God, and yet himself innocent. There is none other name given under heaven by which we may be saved. The Lord Jesus is of God appointed, and provided to be the one vicarious sufferer, the true bearer away of the sin of the world by enduring its penalty in is own person, so that whosoever believeth in him is redeemed from the punishment of sin. That is the gospel. I would sooner state it in the most simple language than have the power to deliver an impromptu poem, though it should excel the productions of Homer or Milton. There is more of precious truth and priceless learning in that faithful saying that “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners” than in the most profound discourse, or the most stately epic. Be thankful that you have heard it, that there is forgiveness with God because Jesus Christ has become the Savior of men. O fellow sinner, you may approach your God without being plunged into suffering yourself, or needing to bring a victim with you, for Jesus Christ has been brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and his soul has been made an offering for sin. Tremble not, but receive the reconciliation effected by the Lamb of God. Come boldly, for the way is open, and man is invited to approach his God.
Moreover, our Savior is called the Lamb of God, not only, par excellence, because he is, beyond all others such; but, secondly, because he is the Lamb of God’s appointing. God from all eternity appointed the Lord Jesus. He was chosen and ordained to be the great Sacrifice for Sin. So was it decreed and written of him in the volume of the Book, that oldest of books, “I delight to do thy will O God.” In the fullness of time Jesus came to do the Father’s will, and therefore it is plain that there was such a will to do, such a decree to fulfill. Jesus is elect, precious. Peter tells us that the Lord Jesus is “a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained from before the foundation of the world.” Jesus is the choice of the Father. Our hearts rejoice that it is so, for when we rely upon Jesus Christ to save us we trust in one whom God has appointed to save his people. If as a poor guilty sinner I leave my sin upon Christ the Lamb of God, I leave it where God has bidden me cast, namely, on the appointed scapegoat; I rest in a sacrifice which God himself ordained of old to be the sacrifice for sin. O soul, there can be no question that if thou comest to the Father in the way in which he himself appoints thou comest acceptably; for if thou wert not accepted thou mightest well say, “O God, thou hast set forth Christ as a Savior, and yet thou dost not save men through him. Thou hast bidden him say, ’Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,’ yet I have come and thou hast cast me out. This be far from thee, Lord.” Such an event shall never happen. No human lips shall utter such a complaint. God’s appointment is the guarantee of the acceptance of everyone that believeth in Jesus.
Thirdly. Christ is called the “Lamb of God” because he is of God’s providing. The Father not only appointed his Son to be the sacrifice for sin, but he gave him freely to be such. Out of the bosom of God came Jesus Christ as love’s richest benison. He is the Father’s only begotten, God’s dear Son, and to us “his unspeakable gift.” “He spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all.” “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins.” Men were bidden to provide the sacrifice under the law, but the one sacrifice of the Gospel is the gift of God. “This is the record that God hath given to us, eternal life, and that life is in his Son.” It endears Jesus to us know that he is the dearest pledge of Jehovah’s love to his chosen.
And then, fourthly. He is not only of God’s appointing and God’s giving, but he is of God’s offering. Let us never forget that Jesus Christ was not presented to God by a human priest; there might then have been some mistake in the sacrifice. It was not left to the sons of Aaron to offer up this true sacrifice to God; that we may be quite sure that the offering was presented in fit order and in an acceptable way, it is written, “It pleased the Father to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” God himself had a hand in the sufferings of his Son. What means that cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But that God himself had turned away from him, and so had brought his soul into the extremity of woe. What saith the Scriptures? Is it not the Father’s voice which saith “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow.” Oh, beloved, when I think of this, that God chose his Son to be the atonement, that he gave his Son, and then himself did, as it were like another Abraham, offer up his own Isaac, I feel that the sacrifice must be acceptable and all sufficient, so that he who rests in it, need not have a shadow of a doubt but that his soul is saved.
One other reflection here: this sacrifice is also of God’s setting forth to the sons of men. Remember the text, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” When we, as God’s ambassadors, tell you of Jesus Christ, we do not so in our name but we do our Lord’s bidding, and God himself by us is setting Christ forth, showing him, revealing him, exhibiting him, and bidding you come to him. “Behold,” saith God “I have given him for a covenant to the people, a leader and commander to the people.” This is God’s will, that Christ should be made known to the ends of the earth. Everywhere Jesus is to be preached, whether men will bow before him or no. We are quite sure we are doing God’s will when we are setting forth Christ, for we are bidden to go into all the world and preach him to every creature. Assuredly, what the Lord thus sets forth he intends to give to those who seek it. There are no mockeries with God. He does not exhibit bread and refuse it to the hungry, or set rainment before the naked and refuse it to them. Happy are the men who see Jesus set forth manifestly crucified among them, for they have good ground to hope in him.
Now then, sinner, look at this. Thou wantest to be rid of thy sin; thou art conscious of it this morning, and thou dost confess it with shame. Well then, God’s way of pardoning thee is that thy sin be laid on Jesus. As far as thou art concerned, thou canst obtain all the merit of the great atonement of Calvary by a simple act of faith. As of old the Jew laid his hand upon the victim, and then the victim was his substitute, so if thou dost but lay thy trembling hand upon Christ, he suffered for thee; he was an atonement for thee, and what a blessed atonement! Let us rehearse that point again, he is the chief of all sacrifices, the sacrifice of God’s ordaining, of God’s bestowing, of God’s presenting, and now of God’s setting forth to thee. What more wouldst thou have? In order that all things might be of God in this matter, from first to last, Jesus is the Lamb of God; is not this well? Jesus is God’s own chosen Savior, what can be better? On what surer ground wouldst thou wish to rest? O that thou wert led to receive him now to be thine for ever. Jesus is my all, and I am a man as thou art; why should he not be thine also?
I feel as if I could tarry here just a minute and pass round among all this audience, this one solemn question for each one to answer — wilt thou accept Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, to be unto thy soul the Lamb of God which taketh away thy sin? Come, what sayest thou? It is ours to point to him and to bear our witness, wilt thou accept our testimony? Truly he is a great God and a Savior. We have trusted in him and we are not confounded. Oh, if the Spirit of God sweetly leads thee now to say from thy heart —
“My faith doth lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin — ”
it is indeed well with thee both for time and eternity. Be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee! Go thy way, thou art accepted in the beloved! Thine iniquities are blotted out like a cloud: not one of them shall be mentioned against thee any more for ever. O blessed Spirit of God out of thy great mercy grant that many and many a heart may lay hold upon the Lord Jesus to this at this hour.
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II. But now we most pass on to a second point. “Behold the Lamb of God,” that is, let us Contemplate Jesus Under That Character. Let us meditate upon him for a few minutes and then let us constantly fix our thoughts upon him.
Jesus Christ, as the atoning sacrifice, ought to be the principal object of every believer’s thoughts. There are other subjects in the world which we must think of, for we are yet in the body; but this one subject ought to engross our souls, and, as the birds fly to their nests so ought we, whenever our minds are let loose, to fly back to Jesus Christ. He should be the main topic of each day’s consideration and of each night’s reflection. We might, with truthfulness, transfer the words of the first psalm, and say, “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Christ of God and who meditates in him both day and night; for he shall be as a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
To meditate much upon the Lamb of God, is to occupy your minds with the grandest subject of thought in the universe. All others are flat compared with it? What are the sciences but human ignorance set forth in order? What are the classics but the choicest of Babel’s jargon when compared with his teachings? What are the poets but dreamers, and philosophers but fools in his presence? Jesus alone is wisdom, beauty, eloquence and power. No theme for contemplation can at all equal this noblest of all topics, — God allied to human nature, God the Infinite, incarnate among sons of men, God in union with humanity taking human sin, out of love stupendous condescending to be numbered with the transgressors, and to suffer for sin that was not his own? O wonder and romance, if men desire ye, they may find you here! O love, if men seek thee, here alone, they may behold thee! O wisdom, if men dig for thee, here shall they discover thy purest ore! O happiness, if men pine for thee, thou dwellest with the Christ of God, and they enjoy thee who live in him. O Lord Jesus, thou art all we need!
“Such as find thee find such sweetness
Deep, mysterious and unknown;
Far above all worldly pleasures,
If they were to meet in one.”
Ye may search the heavens above and the earth beneath; ye may penetrate the secret mysteries to find out the callow principles and the beginnings of things, but ye shall find more in the man of Nazareth, the equal with God, than in all else besides. He is the sum and substance of all truth, the essence of all creation, the soul of life; the light of light, the heaven of heavens, and yet he is greater far than all this, or all else that I could utter. There is no subject in the world so vast, so sublime, so pure, so elevating, so divine; give me to behold the Lord Jesus, and my eye seeth every precious thing.
Brethren, no subject so well balances the soul as Jesus, the Lamb of God. Other themes disturb the mental equilibrium, and overload one faculty at the expense of others. I have noticed in theology that certain brethren meditate almost exclusively upon doctrine, and I think it is not severely critical to say that they have a tendency to become hard, rigid, and far too militant. It is to be feared that some doctrinalists miss the spirit of Christ in fighting for the words of Christ. God forbid I should speak against earnestly contending for the true faith, but still without fellowship with the living Savior we may through controversy become ill-developed and onesided. I think I have noticed that brethren who give all their thoughts to experience are also somewhat out of square. Some of them dwell upon the experience of human corruption until they acquire a melancholy temperament, and are at the same time apt to censure those who enjoy the liberty of the children. Other brethren turn all their attention to the brighter side of experience, and these are not always free from the spirit of carnal security which leads them to look down upon trembling and anxious hearts as though they could not possess true faith in God. I think also that I have noticed that those who pay all their homage at the shrine of practical theology have a tendency to become legal, and to exchange the privileges of believers for the bondage of servants. This also is a grievous fault. But when a man takes Christ Jesus crucified to be his mind’s main thought he has all things in one; doctrine, experience, and practice combined. As Canaan contained Carmel, and Sharon, and Eschol, and Hermon, so Jesus comprehends all good things. If “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” be the object of our thoughts we have wine and milk, butter and honey, the fat of the kidneys, of wheat and oil out of the rock, all in one. “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me,” “a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi.”
All human beauties, all divine
In my beloved meet and shine.
Beloved, this indeed is the most needful subject of contemplation that can be brought before you. You may forget many other things without serious damage, and even upon important matters you may somewhat errand yet be safe; but you must live upon Christ, your souls must meditate on him, else you have left the bread from the feast and missed the water from the well. The crucified Savior is as needful for our meditation as the air is for our breathing. The blood of Jesus is the life-blood of true religion; a bloodless faith is a lifeless faith. I stood yesterday by the little open grave of one of our orphans, and it said far more to me than I could say to those who mourned around it, for it reminded me that there is nothing worth living for beneath the sky, since all things are as a dream. Then I thought within myself as I looked on the poor orphan lads around me — yes, there is something to live for, to help the poor and train the young, and to make men holier and happier; but then I recollected that they too, like myself, were dying creatures and therefore even the benefit received by them would also pass away. To live, then, for men is, as far as eternity is concerned, an unsatisfactory thing, unless there be some higher light in which to view it. But when the heart lives for Jesus it is not less philanthropic, for it loves men for his sake, but its object melts into the divine, for we love God when we love Jesus, since he is very God of very God. Beloved, this leads me to the very marrow of the matter; to believe in Jesus as divine is essential to real Christianity, and one of the distinguishing subjects of faith which separate Christians from other men. Individuals are to be found who possess great admiration for the prophet of Nazareth, but they know him not as the Son of God, or as the Lamb of God; they deny his divinity, and reject his atonement. With fair words and oily speeches they compliment his character, and bedaub his name with their worthless praises. Yet they are not Christians, and the name is dishonored when they wear it. Of late we have heard deniers of our Lord’s divinity spoken of as Christian brethren; now, my common sense does not enable me to see how a man can be called a Christian who rejects Christ. Charity by all manner of means but not falsehood. Union certainly, but not union in deadly error. Confederacy with those who do not believe Jesus Christ to be God, and deny his atoning sacrifice, is treason to the Lord of glory. Such persons may be excellent Mahometans, or Jews, or pure Theists, but they are not Christians; and if they wrongly assume that title we ought not to concede it to them. In this matter he that is not with our Lord is against him, and he that gathereth not with him scattereth abroad. Without a distinct and hearty recognition of our Lord’s deity and atonement, how can a man be a partaker of Christ at all? True Christians about these truths have no question; Jesus is to them the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and the Son of God, whom the world shall yet adore.
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III. Now, let us pass on to a third run of thought, but indulge in it very briefly. Let us behold the Lamb of God, that is, Gather Instruction From Jesus Under That Aspect.
I beg you to gather some doctrinal instruction. If the sacrifice provided by God for human sin must be none other than the Son of God himself, then sin is a gigantic evil, and then necessarily the punishment of sin is stupendous too. I observe with pain the attempt that is made to lower the meaning of Scripture upon the subject of the penalty due to sin. It has been usually believed to be everlasting, but this is now denied, denied in the teeth of express Scriptures. Now, the moment we begin to mitigate our thought of hell’s terrors we also lower our idea of sin’s evil, and with it we also decrease our estimate of the Savior. All things in the temple of truth are to scale. If you take the inch scale which now seems to be getting popular you diminish the dimensions throughout! A little hell involves a little atonement. But, to be consistent, grant a divine Savior, an infinite sacrifice, and you grant the infinite demerit of sin and then the eternity of future punishment is seen to be consistent. All these truths in Scripture lean the one upon the other, and your judgment upon every other will be affected by your opinion of any one. Do not err I pray you. Uplift the Christ of God and believe in the Lamb of God as none other than “very God of very God” and have him in high reverence whatever that reverence may involve. What though your inmost soul be awed with the deepest dread and made to tremble at the fate of those who reject the Savior and perish in their sins, yet seek not to save your feelings at your Savior’s cost.
Moreover, what a conception of the love of God, the gift of the Lord Jesus for our salvation gives us. Despite the terrible wrath of God against sin he loved the sinner so much that he gave his only son to die for his redemption! Herein is love. Let us infer from that gift his willingness to answer prayer. “He that spared not his own Son but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things.” Let us also see herein sure proof of the security of the saints, for if Christ be the Lamb of God and no less than divine, how shall they perish for whom such a sacrifice was offered? If it be the blood of the Son of God which has bought us, we must be most effectually redeemed beyond all fear of perishing. So far you get doctrinal truth from beholding the Lamb of God.
Now, if you desire experimental aid look to the Lamb of God also. Is there a heart here troubled with sin? Do not meditate upon your sin hoping to find comfort from any consideration connected with it: as well look for heaven in hell. Do not look to your own resources for consolation, — as well search the Arctic ocean for tropical heat. “Behold the Lamb of God!” Sin vanishes when the Savior appears. Are you tormented with the power of sin? Beloved, if you long to conquer sin within you, behold the Lamb of God! Crucified, your sin shall be upon that cross where Jesus died. Contemplations of the Savior are the death of sin, but no other weapon will destroy them. If you suffer to-day from personal affliction and need fresh strength to bear it, “Behold the Lamb of God!” His way was much rougher and darker than yours, — pluck up courage, he will bear you through. He is familiar with all your griefs, his pitying eye beholds your sorrows; and oh, if you are getting weary in the battle of life and tired of serving God, “Behold the Lamb of God!” wrestling unto blood, and your courage will return. Reaper in the summer’s heat, see him as he grasps the sickle with that pierced hand! What strides he makes, how untiringly he labors till his bloody sweat falls on the ground. Up and do thy reaping too, working at his side. Builder in the house of God, if thou seest not the temple rising as thou couldst desire, lay not down thy trowel or the mallet, but see the master-builder standing there with indefatigable perseverance following out his glorious design. Let not self-denial or self-sacrifice be hard when the Lamb of God is before thee. Let not perseverance be difficult, or shame, or scorn be hard to endure, or defeat, or death itself, be impossible to triumph in, when the Lamb of God is before them. He conquered upon Golgotha, perhaps thou wilt only conquer there. Only keep thine eye upon the Lamb of God and this will make thee strong to do and to endure.
I might thus continue urging children of God to their profit to look to the Lamb of God, but I shall only add this, that if at any time we grow discouraged about God’s work, and are afraid that it will not succeed and so on, the very best encouragement for us is to Behold the Lamb of God. You get afraid that sin will conquer in your soul, — how can it, when Jesus died for you? Sin seemed to win the day when Christ was dead, but he rose again, and so shalt thou rise, and thou shalt be more than a conqueror. And in this world, is it not a very weary business to be a minister of Christ to-day? If I might have my choice I would sooner follow any avocation, so far as the comfort of it is concerned, than this of ministering to the sons of men, for we beat the air, this deaf generation will not hear us. What is this perverse generation the better for years and years and years of preaching? Here is this land going back to the foul doctrines which its fathers would not bear: while those who know better act in concert and continue in fellowship with the priests of Rome. The world is not worth the preaching to — we have piped unto it, and it has not danced; he have mourned unto it, but it has not lamented. It wants an Elias, a man of fire and thunder, to deal with such an age as this. But for all that, there is no room for discouragement, for the truth will win the day; it is in the hand of one who cannot fail or falter. He shall not fail or be discouraged till he hath set judgment in the earth, and the isles wait for his law. The fight may seem to hang in the scales to-day, but the conquest is sure to come unto him whose right it is. He shall gather all the sceptres of kings beneath his arm in one mighty sheaf, and take their diadems from off their brows, and be himself crowned with many crowns, for God hath said it, and heaven and earth shall pass away, but every promise of his must and shall be fulfilled. Push on, then, through hosts of enemies ye warriors of the Cross. Fight up the hill, ye soldiers of Christ, through the smoke and through the dust. Ye may not see your banner just now, neither do ye hear the trumpet that rings out the note of victory, but the mist shall clear away, and you shall gain the summit of the hill, and your foes shall fly before you, and the King himself shall come, and you shall be rewarded who have continued stedfast in his service.
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IV. Now the last thought was to be this. Behold the Lamb of God With Reverence. I will not dwell upon it for I have not time. Lift up your eyes and worship him now. He exists, he is as truly there in heaven as he was here on earth. Behold him, worship him, trust him, love him, for be this remembered, he will come ere long, and that which we shall have to dread if we are unbelievers will be the wrath of the Lamb. Read through the book of Revelations and you shall find there, I think, more than twenty times, the Lord described as a Lamb. The song is the “song of Moses and of the Lamb.” Worship is given “unto the Lamb, for he is worthy.” He it is that takes the book and looses the seven seals thereof, and it is the Lamb that shall come “to judge the quick and the dead.” “Wherefore kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a little.” Worship him at this hour for he cometh ere long. As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, he will summon every one of you to his bar. Take heed that he be not an object of terror to you as he will be if you continue in unbelief, but turn unto him that he may be your joy and gladness in the day of his appearing. Amen. RAHAB.
NO. 1061
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S DAY MORNING, JULY 21ST, 1872,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies in peace.” — Hebrews 11:31.
“Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? — James 2:25.
THESE are two New Testament summaries of the life of Rahab, and they are equally honorable to her. Paul puts her amongst the great worthies who by faith wrought wonders. The eleventh chapter of the Hebrews is a triumphal arch to the soldiers of faith, and amongst the illustrious names inscribed thereon is the name of this harlot of Jericho. We are not, however, so much surprised at that, for she was evidently an instance of great faith; but we are somewhat surprised, I think, to find her name recorded by James, because he is an eminently practical writer, and was writing of good works rather than of faith. His object is to show that the faith which justifies the soul is a faith which produces good works, and hence he looks for instances of holy service of God. We should not have thought that he would have singled out Rahab, but he has done so, and this is the more remarkable because the only other person whom he mentions is Abraham; Abraham the Father of the Faithful, the Friend of God, a perfect and an upright man. James cites Abraham as standing for the one sex, and Rahab the harlot for the other. I have no doubt that James knew what he was about, and that the inspiration which guided him was infallible. Possibly Rahab was chosen to represent the Gentiles, in connection with the founder of Israel, who fitly stood for the Jews. While Abraham possessed a faith which manifested itself by works, so also did Rahab, the daughter of the Gentiles, descended from a race doomed to destruction, a Gentile of the Gentiles. And possibly another reason for mentioning her may be this, that like as Abraham renounced his own kindred at the call of God, and came forth from Er of the Chaldees, separated unto the Most High, so did this woman leave all her associations with Jericho, practically renouncing her nationality, forsaking her country, and leaving it to its destiny and doom, while she took her part with Israel to be a partaker with the people of God in the promised inheritance. It is no small honor then to this remarkable woman that she has her name recorded not only with the heroes of faith, but also that she is selected by the great practical Apostle as one of two remarkable instances of the works which result from faith.
Let us consider her faith and her character, all the more attentively because of this high position which the Holy Spirit has accorded to her. With the commendation of Paul and the praise of James, backed as they both were by the witness of the Spirit of God, this woman’s character is well worthy of attentive consideration. May the Spirit of God bless our meditation to our profit.
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I. Our first observation upon her shall be that she possessed Singular Faith. This will be apparent if we reflect that she received no instruction from her parents. Birth-right membership was not a question which touched the case of Rahab. Her parents were of the condemned race of the Canaanites. They had no faith in God themselves and could not inculcate it. She did not become a worshipper of Jehovah because the family always had been so. They had no family pew in the sanctuary, no prophet’s chamber in the house, no name to keep up amongst the Lord’s people. She was the first and only one of her race called out by grace. God had chosen her as “one of a family” by his electing love, and though we hope that grace continued in the household for many generations, yet it first of all came into it by her. Now, we do not so much wonder, though, I believe, in many respects it is equally to Gods glory, when we see the children of godly parents becoming believers in Christ; for we remember the many prayers offered for them, the instructions which they have received, the affectionate admonitions which they have heard, and above all the godly examples which they have seen; we do not so much wonder, though indeed even in that case it is a work of the Spirit of God as much as in any other if the conversion be genuine: but we do marvel, and we cannot help it, when we see one rising out of a family in which no true religion had ever been seen before. Here we see a lone palm in the desert, a solitary life among the tombs. It is a struggle as some of you know to stand in the position of a lonely witness for God in a family. When in seeing enquirers I have to talk to young persons who are the only ones of the family attending the house of God at all, the only ones who make any pretensions to godliness, I feel great sympathy with them because I know they will have much to put up with, and a heavy cross to carry. Such converts are not plants in the conservatory, but flowers exposed to the winter’s cold; yet it is right to add that I have often observed that these have become amongst the strongest, and most decided, Christians that I have ever met with. Even as Rahab, though her faith was solitary and was like a lily among thorns, yet was her faith none the less strong, but perhaps all the more unwavering.
Reflect again that her faith was singular because she was not in a believing country. Not only within doors had she none to sympathise with her, but in the whole city of Jericho, so far as we know, she was the only believer in Jehovah. It is right to conclude that if there had been other believers there, either the city would have been spared for the sake of ten righteous, or else there would have been means found for their preservation; but she was the only one there. If we could have taken a birdseye view of the city of Jericho, and had been informed that there was one believer there, I warrant you we should not have looked to Rahab’s house. She would have been about the last person that we should have supposed had been a possessor of faith in the true God. God has a people where we little dream of it, and he has chosen ones among a sort of people whom we dare not hope for. Who would think that grace could grow in the heart of one who was a harlot by name, as though her sin was openly known to all; yet it did grow there, like a fair flower blooming upon a dunghill, or a bright star glittering on the brow of night. There her faith grew and brought forth glory to God. I know not what god they worshipped at Jericho, but the whole city was full of idolatry, and she alone looked to the living God. The whole city was full of filthiness; and, bad as she had been, her faith must have made her loathe the sin. Jericho was neighbor to Sodom, not only as to locality but as to condition, and bad as this woman had been it is probable that her sin was among the least of the offenses practiced there. It is a shame even to speak of the loathsome crimes which defiled Jericho. When reclaimed by sovereign grace Rahab must have found herself as much alone in Jericho as Lot had found himself alone in Sodom. She was the one and only believer amidst an idolatrous and depraved generation. May we not have hope, dear friends, that from the lowest slums of our vast city there may come other Rahabs? Why not a Rahab in the Haymarket as well as in Jericho? May we not trust that among those who have been in our prisons, there yet may arise believers in the Lord God of Israel? May we not even hope that the fame of the gospel may have been carried by rumor into cities unvisited by missionaries, and that here and there Rahabs in unknown cities may be seeking after the Lord. There is no saying what grace may be silently doing throughout the world in culling out the ones and twos whom God has chosen. Israel dreamed not of finding an ally within her enemy’s walls, yet the Lord would have it so, and so it was.
Remember, too, that Rahab’s faith was remarkable, because her means of knowledge were very slender; and, therefore, the food of her faith was comparatively scant. She had no book inspired of God to read; she had been instructed by no prophet; no Elias had spoken to her in the name of God; no Jonah had gone through the streets of her city, warning men to repent. What information she had obtained she had gathered by odds and ends. She had put together the talk of the marketplace, the chat at the well, and the gossip outside the city gates, and she had gathered that a nation had come out of Egypt, and that for their sakes, and by their God, Jehovah, the Egyptian king had been destroyed at the Red Sea; that Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, had been overthrown in battle by this people; and that it was certain they were on their way to take the whole of Palestine to themselves, because their God had given it to them. Out of these common reports this woman had gathered evidence sufficient for faith to rest upon. The proverb hath it that common fame is a common liar, but in this case the general panic with which her countrymen had been seized, convinced her that the reports were true. The terms in which the advance of Israel was everywhere described, convinced her that a terrible calamity hung like a cloud over the country, and paralyzed both the court, the army, and the people; she saw that the ground of fear was that a living God was with this people, and she said within herself, “Verily, there is one God,” and her conscience within responded to that declaration. She felt it was so; and light streamed in upon her spirit. She believed in Jehovah the God of Israel, and she began to worship him, expecting that the cause which he espoused would be successful; and that those who were his enemies would certainly come to destruction. Slender, I say, was the basis; strong enough in itself, but far inferior to that line upon line, precept upon precept, which we have so long received. Many here present have the whole of God’s book before them, and yet do not believe; they have the testimony of his saints by thousands, and yet do not believe, they are earnestly entreated by living witnesses, yet do not believe; but this poor woman, with her few opportunities became a believer in Jehovah. Take heed lest in the day of judgment she should rise up against you. She believed with far less testimony, how will you be able to excuse your own persistent unbelief? I pray you, dear hearers, think of this.
Perhaps the most wonderful thing about her faith was that she should be a woman of such a character. She was apparently the most unlikely person to become a believer in Jehovah. She was a harlot, a woman that was a sinner, and universally known to be such. Desperate attempts have been made to find some other meaning for the word rendered harlot, but they have been utterly fruitless. Both Paul and James declare concerning her that she was what we commonly call her. The idea that she was a hostess or tavern keeper is absurd, because such a thing as an innkeeper was not known in those days, as everybody knows. To foist such an interpretation as that upon the original Hebrew is not to translate, but to misinterpret; and no one has ever attempted it with the Greek. She had doubtless been a great sinner; it is no use trying to mince the matter. Let the glory be to divine grace. Why should we wish to rob God of his honor in having delivered such a woman from her sin? But after she became a believer in Jehovah it strikes me she forsook her sin and became another character, though she was still known by her old title. We read that she hid the spies amongst the stalks of flax. For what purpose had she stalks of flax upon her roof if she had not begun to be an industrious working woman? A little thing will often indicate character; a straw shows which way the wind blows, and it seems to me to be most probable that she had forsaken her unhallowed life. And, then, since hospitality had come to be forgotten in Jericho and the other Canaanitish cities, she, being a follower of Jehovah, and knowing that hospitality was his delight, would go to the city gate every now and then, just as Lot had been accustomed to do, and watch for strangers, and see if she could entertain them. She was under no suspicion in doing this, because her old name would stick to her, and give her a license to do what others might not attempt without being suspected of treason against the crown by entertaining aliens and as adversaries. So I doubt not she most honestly entertained strangers, and the reason why on this occasion the spies came to her, was because she was generally on the look out to receive wayfarers, who else perhaps would have received bad treatment at the hands of her wicked townsmen. So the generous spirit which true religion gave her brought her into contact with the Israelites who came to spy the land, and they became in God’s hand the means of her safety when the city was destroyed. The grace of God had, even before these men came, lifted her up out of her former self; and though her old name stuck to her, I think I see reason to believe that her old character was gone, and she had become a new creature through the power of faith. However, she was a harlot once, and the wonder is that she became a believer. Wonders of grace are God’s delight, he loves, for Jesus’ sake, to call unto himself the lowest of the low, and the vilest of the vile. The Lord sets in the same manner still. Let us rest assured that Jesus still receives sinners, and that publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before the self-righteous and captious. It is very remarkable that in the pedigree of Christ there should be so many women with blotted characters; that there should be an incestuous Tamar, a harlot Rahab, an idolatrous Ruth, and an adulterous Bathsheba, so that Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, has descended his earthly parentage from the loins of sinners, and so is nearly akin to them. O the depths of the grace of God! How matchless is the condescension of the Redeemer!
Once more, Rahab’s faith was singular because the subject of it was difficult. What was it she had to believe? Was it not this? That Israel would destroy Jericho. Now, between Jericho and the tribes flowed the Jordan, and the Israelites had no means of crossing it. Only a miracle could divide that overflowing river. Did Rahab’s faith expect a miracle? If so, it was remarkably strong. Around Jericho stood a gigantic wall. There was no likelihood of the assailants scaling it or making a breach in it. Did Rahab think that those walls would fall flat to the ground? Or did she leave the way of the capture with God, but firmly believe that it would be conquered? If so, she was a woman of no small faith. I have known intelligent Christians whose faith could neither have divided a flood nor leaped over a wall; but this poor woman’s faith in God did both. She was sure that the God of the Red Sea would be the God of the Jordan, and that he who smote Og, king of Bashan, could smite the king of Jericho, too. Her faith was special because it was strong, and stronger than faith often is in those who have far more of a basis on which to rest it.
Now, let each one of us say as we think of this woman’s strange faith, “Why should not I have the same faith in the living God? God can give it to me. Though my past life may have been greatly defiled with sin, yet why should I not put my trust in the Lord, the Savior? Is not faith the very grace which best becomes a sinner, and does most for a sinner? Has not God sent Jesus Christ into the world to redeem men from sin? Has he not redeemed many already by the power of his Spirit, and the application of his precious blood? I will believe in Jesus.” Oh, may the Holy Spirit give you faith at this moment. May God’s electing love single out some here who have been, if not actually, yet in heart, as bad as Rahab; and may they be led by infinite mercy, having followed her in sin, to imitate her in faith. Come, ye fallen, Jesus can raise you. Come, ye filthy, Jesus can cleanse you. Believe, and eternal life is yours.
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II. In the second place Rahab’s Faith Was Active. It was not a sleeping faith, or a dead faith; it was an operative faith. It was active first, mentally. When she believed she began to think. Some persons get converted at revivals and wild excitements, and seem to me as if they either have no brains or else their heads were never entered by grace. You have always to keep up a great excitement or you will miss them. They have no well-considered principles. If you asked them what they believe they would not know, nor would they be able to tell why they believe. They probably believe, because other people believe; the minister is earnest, and they had a good time in general, hence their faith; reasonable reason they have none. The best believers to wear and endure are the thoughtful ones, men of principle, men who weigh and judge. They of course have their conflicts all the more for their thoughtfulness, but then, on the other hand, they gather strength by the mental exercise; and these are the men who are not carried about with every wind of doctrine, but who stand fast in the trying hour. Would to God we had a large army of thoughtful believers for then Ritualism and Rationalism would do far less mischief. Rahab was a thoughtful woman, and had quite a system of theology of her own. She knew the past, she knew the story of the Red Sea, and of Og and Sihon; she knew something about God’s having promised by covenant to give the country to the Israelites, and from that she gathered the present. Notice her doctrine upon present things, “The Lord Jehovah, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath.” She laid that down as a certain fact, that the Lord Jehovah who had done so much must be the God in heaven above and in the earth beneath; and then from that she drew her inference as to the future. She believed that God would give the country into Israel’s hand, and she asked that when the Lord did actually do so, they would deal kindly and truly with her. So she had a doctrine about the present, the past, and the future, and she had it all arranged in her own mind. But her thought was not only so active that she became a doctrinalist, and one commentator even calls her a semi-prophetess, but she was active in her mind as to her decision for the Lord. She said, “I belong to this town, I have citizen privileges in Jericho; I will give them all up. God is against this city and it will be destroyed, and I shall be destroyed in it if I am against God; but he is the true God; I therefore side with him and take part with his people; if he will but have me, I will put myself beneath the shadow of his wings and ask him to cast the skirt of his garment over me. Henceforth I am no citizen of Jericho: I disavow my allegiance to its king.” When the spies came she knew her course of action; she did not regard herself as bound to take any part in the defense of the city by sending word to the king that spies had come. She considered herself as an Israelite, and acted as such. Oh, I wish that some professors were half as decided as this. They know the truth but they do not stand up for it; they will hear it cavilled at and ill words thrown at it, yet their blood never boils with indignation against the adversaries of God. They keep very quiet, and perhaps one reason is that they have nothing to say. They have not learned Christ; they have no reason for the hope that is in them, and therefore they cannot give it with meekness and fear; and so their religion appears to be a dead letter as far as their mind is concerned. God deliver us from such a faith as that. May we have a faith which thrills our entire manhood, moves our judgment, enlightens our understanding, and makes us decided for truth and righteousness in whatever company we may be thrown.
But next came another form of activity. Her faith was active in her own sphere. As I have already conjectured that she became willing to entertain strangers, so when she saw the servants of God in the form of the two spies she knew at once what to do. She took them home and she did her best to hide them. She did not set up to be a heroine, and say, “Now I am a follower of Jehovah, I must be doing something extraordinary.” She did not pack up her clothes and start off to some distant place where she could find more glittering service for Jehovah; but she stopped where she was and served God there. She minded her own guests and kept her own house. I believe that home duties one of the very best forms of the activity of faith, our business is not to do what we fancy but what the Lord appoints for us. Of many a Christian woman it is best to have it said, as of Sarah, when they said, “Where is Sarah?” and the answer was, “In her tent.” It is a good thing when a Christian feels he will not choose his work but will take the work God chooses for him; he resolves not to ape somebody else, but to follow the special path which the Lord marks out for him. Now Rahab was not to anticipate Joel, and drive a tentpin through the head of the King of Jericho, nor to be a Deborah and call some Barak to the battle. She had work at home ready to hand, and what her hand found to do she did with all her might. May we see in all of you who are Christians the faith which works in its own sphere; may you exhibit the religion of common things. Do not believe in knight-errantry. Do not be spiritual Don Quixotes. God has made you what you are, a mother, or a daughter, a husband, a servant, or a master; serve God as such. There is something for you to do in your position. Extraordinary calls may come, and I pray they may come to some here present, but they are not likely to be given to those who cannot use their present every-day opportunities. We may be called to very special service and have special grace given, but it is best for us till such calls are felt to mind our business in the station of life in which God has placed us. Moses kept sheep till he was bidden to deliver Israel; Gideon was threshing when the angel appeared to him; and the disciples were fishing when Jesus called them. They used diligence in their callings, and then threw their hearts into their higher calling. So Rahab did. The spies came to her, she received them in peace, she hid them, and after she hid them she led them down by a rope from her house on the wall, which perhaps she did before to very different characters. Then she gave them the best advice she could, and was thus the means of preserving their lives. She fulfilled a very necessary part in Israelitish history. Her faith was truly active and is to be commended.
And let me say that she did all this to the best of her ability, and she used her common sense. She covered them up with flax; she put them on the house-top; she let them down after it was dark; she told them to go to the mountain; she recommended them to wait three days till the heat of the search should be over; she acted prudently. She did all she could, and she did it with remarkable tact and shrewdness. I never could see why true religion should be so often associated with stupidity, and yet I have remarked that some gracious people either affect a babyish simplicity, or else the Lord has indeed chosen the foolish things of this world. If you have faith, surely you are not therefore to act as it you had lost your reason. It seems to me that faith is common sense spiritualised, carried into the affairs of religion, and that it is quite consistent, nay imperative upon us, to continue common sense in your ordinary affairs. We are to be wise as serpents, as well as harmless as doves. Doth not the apostle say, “In understanding be ye men.” Oh, if men had their wits as much about them when they serve God as they have when they are looking for guineas, how much more would be done in the church and the world, but there is often a blundering in the management of Christian societies and Christian churches which would not be tolerated for a moment in a house of business, and men are allowed to be head and foremost in Christian enterprises who would not be reckoned worth their salt for selling pins or driving pigs. We ought to be as thoughtful, as careful, as prudent, as quick, as enterprising, what if I say as go-a-head; in the service of God as we should be in the pursuits of life. I commend Rahab’s faith for that, because while she was thoroughly active she was active in the way in which she could best serve the church of God, and brought all her wits and abilities into full play.
Rahab was also active at great risk. Rahab’s faith made her run the risk of being put to death, for if the spies had been discovered there would have been short shrift for Rahab. The king of Jericho’s sword would soon have taken off the head of the woman who dared to conceal the enemies of her country. She gladly staked all upon the truth of God, and ran all risks to save the servants of the Lord. In this being far superior to those who will not risk their employment, their situation, their good name, or even the love of a single relative for Jesus Christ’s sake.
She was thus possessed of an active faith, and we may say as James does, “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” Did not her works go with her faith? Was not the faith which justified her, a faith which produced works? Did not the Holy Ghost work in her a manifest activity which justified her faith by proving it to be real, and justified her by shewing that she was sincere?
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III. Rahab’s Faith Was Marred With Gross Weakness. She lied unto the men who came to the door to seize the spies. She said that two strangers had come to her, but she did not know whence they came, which was a lie; and she did not know where they were gone, but they had departed some time ago, and they had better be pursued; this was another falsehood, and is altogether inexcusable. But at the same time, please to recollect that she did not know it was wrong to lie; There were, no doubt, in her conscience indistinct glimmerings of an idea that to lie was an evil thing, but, nevertheless, her surroundings prevented her clearly knowing it as we know it. To this very day among many Orientals it is far more usual to lie than to speak the truth; in fact, a thorough-bred aboriginal eastern never does speak the truth unless by mistake, and he would be very sorry for it if he knew he had done so, even by accident. Among the Hindoos men cannot readily be believed upon their oaths in courts of justice. We despise a great liar, but the Easterns consider him a genius. Sad it is, but it has always been so, and this very much accounts for our finding such men as Abraham and Isaac deliberately saying, under certain trying circumstances, the thing that was not. You must judge individuals from their own standpoint, and consider their circumstances, or you may do them an injustice. I am not going to excuse Rahab’s lie. A lie in Rahab, or in Abraham, is as bad as in anyone else; but in this case there is this to be said, she had not been taught, as most of us have been, that a lie is a degrading sin. Nobody had ever said to her, “To deceive is contrary to the law of God, for his Spirit teaches us not to lie one to another, seeing we have put off the old man with his deeds.” There is one thing else to be said. I have often tried to put myself in Rahab’s place, and have said, “Now, suppose I had been hiding two servants of God during the old days of Claverhouse’s dragoons; for instance, if I had Alexander Peden and Cameron in the back room, and two dragoons should ride up to my door and demand, “Are the ministers here?” I have tried to imagine what I should say and I have never yet been able to make up my mind. I suppose I have more light than Rahab, and certainly I have had more leisure to consider the case, and yet I do not see my way. I do not wonder, therefore, that she blundered. And I am not much astonished that she said what she did say, for it would most readily suggest itself to her ignorant and anxious mind. I have turned over a great many schemes of what I would have said. I do not see how I could have said, “Yes, they are indoors.” That would be to betray God’s servants, and that I would not do. I have concocted a great many pretty-looking plans, but I confess that, upon examination, they appear to be more or less tinctured with the deceit which tries to justify or conceal deceit, and therefore I have had to abandon them, as being no better than falsehood and perhaps not quite so good. I am not sure whether Rahab’s lie was not more honest and outspoken than many an evasion which has suggested itself to very clever people; in fact, as a rule, things which are not obvious, and need cleverness to suggest them, are rather suspicious. Strip a Russian and you find a Tartar, and if you strip these clever plans they peel into falsehoods after all. I do not want to say a word of apology for the falsehood, far from it. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, altogether wrong; but, for all that, before you condemn Rahab, be quite sure that you do not condemn yourself, and ask yourself first what you would have said, or what you would have done under the circumstances. To tell the truth is always right. Consequences are not so much to be thought of as the claims of the God of truth. Sometimes, plain truth has had a very wonderful effect, and doubtless it would, in every case, be the best policy. I have heard of a man who had been brought up before Judge Jeffreys, to be tried for rebellion against King James II, and there was always very faint hope of a man escaping who had once been introduced to that monster. By some means, Story had gained a great repute for honesty, and Jeffrey brought him before the king to speak for himself. As I remember the history, it ran somewhat in this way: The king said, “Well, Mr. Story, you were in Monmouth’s army, were you not?” “Yes, please your majesty.” “And you were a commissary there, were you not?” “Yes, please your majesty.” “Did you not preach and make speeches to the crowd?” “Yes, your majesty.” “Pray,” said the king, “If you have not forgot what you said, let us have a taste of your fine florid speech: give us some flowers of your rhetoric, and a few of the main points on which you insisted.” “I told them, your Majesty, that it was you that set fire to the City of London.” “Upon my word,” said the king, “and pray, what else did you tell them?” “I said you poisoned your brother, and that you were determined to make us all papists and slaves.” By this time the king had heard enough, and asked him what he would say if, after all this, he should grant him his life and a free pardon. Story there upon declared that he should, in such an unlikely case, become a right loyal subject, whereupon he received a free pardon as an honest though mistaken man.
In his case plain speaking did what falsehood could not have done, and if, in all cases, it did not turn out so, yet our duty is clear, and, therefore, we must be prepared to do it and take the consequences. I suppose if Rahab had possessed great faith she would have said, “It is my business to serve God but not to break God’s laws, and as it will be breaking God’s laws to lie I will not do it. I will take care of his servants as far as possible, but it is his business to take care of them after all, and I must not do evil that good may come.” Though that would have been the best course, Rahab was not yet so instructed as to have thought of it, and I fear that a great many here would not have thought of it either. Her fault was by no means one which we can afford to throw stones at; avoid it carefully, but do not censure it self-complacently.
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IV. Rahab’s was A Faith That Was Not Above The Use Of Outward Signs And Seals. Please note this. There are persons in the world who altogether despise the outward ordinances; they may be good, but they are not wise. Rahab first of all required from these spies an oath that they would preserve her, and next they gave her a token, a scarlet line, which was to be hung up in her window. This was the blood red flag of Israel. Was it not hoisted on the Passover night, so that the angel might pass by and deliver the people? She felt great comfort when she had placed the token in her window. She was not superstitious; she did not believe that anything mystical was in the red cord, but she put it there, because she had been told to do so. Now, the highest faith in Christ is perfectly consistent with the obedient use of Christian ordinances. We are resting on the precious blood of Christ, not upon sacraments. God forbid we should ever build our hope upon baptism or on the Lord’s Supper. What are these things in themselves, but very vanity if we repose confidence in them? At the same time the Lord has given us baptism as the emblem of his death, his burial, and his resurrection; and if we believe we have been buried with him and are risen with him, let hang this scarlet cord in our window. He has given us the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper to be the emblem of his death; let us eat the bread and drink the wine in memory of him. We do not trust in the emblems in the slightest degree. We abhor the idea. Still we put the scarlet cord in our window, and thus let all men know that we believe in Jesus. We are not ashamed to show his death till he come. Yes, and we enter the house, that is the Church, and we delight to dwell there, numbered among God’s people. We are not ashamed to be known to be members of the brotherhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not seek to get a faith that would abjure the assistance which God’s Spirit appoints you. Everything that is of man’s invention put aside, but that which is of God’s ordaining is for your benefit, and you are bound to hold to it even though it be little as a scarlet line in the window.
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V. Her Faith Was Saving Faith. I have shown how it was grievously marred but it was effectual notwithstanding. She was saved when all the city wall went down. Her house was on the wall, but there it stood. Must it not have seemed strange? The walls began to rock and shake, and then down they fell with a thundering sound, and upward flew dense clouds of dust; but above all there stood the piece of the wall on which was Rahab’s house, like an island in the midst of a tempestuous sea. The Israelites dashed over the ruins of the wall, pursued the doomed men with fury, and slew them, for they had been ordained of God to be their executioners. Not one escaped; but no sword came near to Rahab’s bosom, no death took away one of her kindred. She was saved. She was taken out of her house with her friends, and put outside the camp of Israelites, and afterwards received into it. She was married to Salmon a prince of Judah and afterwards had the high dignity of being one of the ancestors of our Lord. So, dear brethren, true faith in Christ, despite its weakness will save us, separate us from the world, join us unto God’s Israel, marry us to the true Prince of Judah, give us kinship with the Lord Jesus Christ; and what higher dignity is it possible to receive?
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IV. With this I shall close when I have mentioned the last point, and that is Her Faith Became With God Acceptable, So That She Was The Means Of The Salvation Of Others. Oh, I like this in Rahab, that she did not bargain for her own safety alone. Her sin had not hardened her heart as sin does in many cases. She thought of her father; her mother, and her brothers, and her sisters. Now, wherever there is a real child of God there will be anxiety for his families. If you do not want to have your children saved you are not saved yourself. I have seen professors who thought it quite enough if they went to heaven alone. I knew a man who would walk twenty miles on the Sunday to hear “the truth“ — nobody preached it, but at one place; but when he was asked where his family went, he said that it was no business of his — God would save his own elect. Such people are not the children of God, because God’s children are not worse than heathen men and publicans, for they care for their own households. Rahab was a good daughter; with all her wrong she loved her father and her mother. She was a good sister, and desired her brother and sisters to be saved. O you Christian people, do seek to be good in your relationships at home. I won’t give a penny for you if you are not a good husband or a good wife. Away with your Christianity if it makes you a bad child. A domineering, surly father, a rebellious child, a gossiping wife, an idle slatternly servant, a tyrannical master, these may belong to Satan, but God will not own them. Rahab, with all that was wrong about her, had an intense love for her kindred.
But notice that, love them as she might, she could not save them unless she got them under the red flag. If any of them stopped in the streets when the Israelites were slaying the people, they might say, “We belong to Rahab,” but the reply would be, “We cannot help that, the oath we took was to spare all in the house where the red line was in the window, and if you are not there you cannot be spared.” It will be of no use when you die to say, “Spare me, O avenging angel, my mother prayed for me, my sister agonized for my conversion.” No, you must personally get into Christ yourself, and have a real faith in him, or no prayers of others can be of any avail for you. But the mercy was that somehow Rahab was helped by God to bring all her family in. Her father did not say, “No, my girl, I do not believe in it.” Some of you have fathers who do say that. Pray hard for them. And the mother did not say, “My child you are mad. I have always thought you a little affected in the brain. Do not come teaching your mother.” No, but mother came too. When the Israelites marched round the city the six days, and the people of Jericho laughed and said, what fools they were to think they were going to make the walls tumble down by walking round them, she still confided in God: but I dare say she had some difficulty in persuading her lively sisters and her argumentative brothers to believe too. They would say, “Rahab, are you quite clear about this? Is it not all a mere farce.” Somehow, such was the influence God gave her, such was the power of her faith, that they all remained in the house, and with their families were saved. The house, I dare say, was filled as full as could be from top to bottom, and glad was Rahab to see it. God grant I may have all my family thus preserved. I am sure every child of God here is breathing the same prayer — “God of Rahab, give me my father and my mother, and my brothers and my sisters, and all my kindred.” The Lord hear your prayers, and bless you for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.