Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Grace’s Incredibly Long Reach Hebrews 11:31 Promised Land Living in Problematic World Sermon #10 Bono, lead singer of the band, U2, recently said: “The most powerful idea that's entered the world in the last few thousand years–the idea of grace–is the reason I would like to be a Christian. Though, as I said to [U2 guitarist] The Edge one day, I sometimes feel more like a fan, rather than actually in the band. I can't live up to it. But the reason I would like to is the idea of grace. It's really powerful.” Bono is right! God’s grace is awesomely powerful. Powerful beyond the furthest limits of our imaginations. This is frequently brought home to me when I am in a dialogue with someone who has never really considered the far reach of God’s grace. Often when I talk about God’s love and grace, the question comes up “What if someone like Hitler had repented, would God have forgiven Him?” At the core of that type of question is: How far does grace reach? Is there a limit to God’s grace? It’s simple for most of us to see God’s grace reaching “good” people, but does grace reach those that we consider spiritually unreachable? During the last century there were three horrible attacks on America; Pearl Harbor, the Oklahoma City Bombing and the September 11th terrorist attack. In each of these innocent people were murdered without warning and without cause. They were vicious, violent acts upon the innocent. But does God’s grace reach even those who would plan and execute such cruel attacks? Does God’s grace reach even our worst enemies? This morning we are exploring the life of Rahab. Rahab was an enemy of the people of God, part of a cursed people, the people of Jericho. And she was even at the bottom of the social strata of a cursed people because she was a prostitute, a common streetwalker. Are you a gambler? Do you like going for the long shot? A couple of weeks ago there was an upset in the horse racing world as a 70-1 longshot, Sarava, upset the odd’s on favorite, War Emblem, at the Belmont Stakes and War Emblem’s quest for the Triple Crown. But Rahab was not even a 70-1 longshot, maybe 70,000 to 1. Rahab was the last person that any of us would have thought had a chance of coming to Christ and being part of the people of God. She is beautiful example of Grace’s Incredibly Long Reach. A few weeks ago we examined Rahab’s story in our study of Joshua 2. Rahab is unique in the Joshua narrative. God’s work of grace in her life is so powerful that she is mentioned three times in the New Testament. That’s very noteworthy, Joshua himself is only mentioned twice. Caleb, the other hero of the book is never mentioned in the New Testament by name. This morning we want to examine these three New Testament to references to Rahab. They provide us with a powerful flesh and blood account of Grace’s Incredibly Long Reach. Rahab’s story is a primer on grace. What does her wonderful story teach us about God’s grace? 1. Accepted grace will always result in faith, Hebrews 11:31, “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” In Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, we find that Rahab is the most surprising example listed. She is one of only two women listed (Sarah, the wife of Abraham is the other one). Rahab, though, is the last person that we would expect, particularly as compared to the others listed here, as coming to faith. The very fact that she, a harlot, is mentioned here is evidence of the universal character of grace. No one is beyond its reach. Rahab’s faith is based on what she had heard, not on what she had experienced. She says, (Joshua 2:10) “We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.” Rahab heard what God had done and believed though she had not seen it or experienced it personally. She fleshes out Romans 10:17 “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”    Unlike atheists of our own today, Rahab lived in a religious culture. The people of Jericho believed in the existence of God. The primary question for them was, whether Yahweh, the God of Israel, was mightier than other gods. All the other gods that they were familiar with were made with hands. They were both visible and experiential. It took little faith to believe in their gods, whereas Israel’s God was invisible. Rahab chose to believe the “words” of a God she could not see, rather than believe in stone gods that she could see. That’s Biblical faith. She expresses her faith, “I know that the LORD has given this land to you” (Josh. 2:9). She knew from the certainty that faith gave. She believed the Word of God. Rahab is not an anomaly in her hearing of what God had done. Everyone in Jericho had “heard” the same reports. They all knew what Israel’s God had done. But it is not enough to hear with your ears, you must also hear God’s Word with your heart. Do you really think that there is anyone in America today who has never heard the Word of God? Who has never heard God’s plan of salvation and coming judgement? I would venture to say that nearly every home in America has a Bible, certainly every hotel room does. It is not that people have not “heard,” it’s that they have not heard...with their hearts. Some of you come faithfully every week. You have heard the Word of God, but you have heard like all those who perished in Jericho. It is merely a verbal or intellectual hearing. You have never heard the Word of God in your heart. Rahab is listed in the Hall of Faith of Hebrews 11 because she heard God’s Word in her heart and believed. And Rahab’s faith is a challenge to those of us who are part of God’s forever family. She simply heard about what God had done, and responded in faith. At this point, she hadn’t yet experienced any of that herself. She does not have first‑hand knowledge of the God of Israel, of His power, might or holiness. She only had heard the reports. Yet, she recognized the truth, and embraced it. How about us? Where do you need to take a leap? We often want God to act first and then we’ll trust Him, don’t we? It’s like we say, “ok God, you work out all the details and then I’ll trust the situation to you…” That’s not faith. Faith is saying, “OK God, I don’t know what is going to happen next but I leave it to you because I know who You are. I’m going to trust your Word, even though I haven’t personally experienced it yet.” Rahab teaches us that Grace will always take God at His Word. 2. Accepted grace always produces righteous works, James 2:25.  “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?” Back in June of 1999, in a Target department store parking lot in Milwaukee, Dawn Chapman, 25, allegedly tried to run down a woman whom she had just accused of butting in line at a checkout. And in April, Etharine Pettigrew, 41, was arrested in Milwaukee after allegedly trying to run down a 27‑year‑old woman in the parking lot of a Kohl's Food Store. The victim had been invited into the express checkout line by the cashier, even though she had more than 10 items, and Pettigrew took offense. Both victims required hospitalization. In February of 1996, John Howard opened a Ku Klux Klan museum and apparel store called The Redneck Shop in Laurens, S.C. Asked by a reporter what the reaction was by townspeople, Howard said, "The only people I’ve had a problem with, who took it as an insult and a racial situation, have been blacks. I didn’t know blacks here were so prejudiced." (Shortly after it opened, a man in a pickup truck rammed the storefront, shutting Howard down.) A West Valley City, Utah, man, 35, was charged with an August burglary in one apartment and trespassing in a nearby apartment. Police said that after the alleged burglary, the man heard a baby crying and entered the second apartment. He awakened the mother and asked her to feed the baby, but she refused. After suggesting that the baby might need to be changed and receiving no response from the frightened mother, he changed the baby’s diaper himself, lectured the mother, and left, but was picked up shortly afterward by police. All of those are true stories from “News of the Weird.” Prior to the walls of Jericho falling down, if what Rahab had done in sending the spies out over the wall and protecting them, had been known in the city of Jericho, don’t you think that she her actions would have been listed in the local yokel’s “News of the Weird” column? Putting feet to our faith is going to mean that others will often think that we’re weird. Rahab was still safe when she welcomed the spies into her home. But when she protects them and sends them off in a different direction, she risks her own life. Humanly speaking, it was not rational behavior. Faith today is viewed as a private belief system. It doesn’t matter whether or not you ever act on it as long as you sincerely believe it in your heart. That’s not faith. James 2 confronts the absurdity of such a perspective. He teaches that declaration without deeds is merely superficial faith. James 2:14 “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?” The unwritten answer is "No." Such faith cannot save a person. Why not? It’s not real. It is superficial. It’s an outer veneer of spirituality, but it doesn’t extend to the core of that person’s being. Rahab though has the real thing, true faith that is evidenced by action. For too many, faith is similar to the animatronic figures at Disney World. When you walk into the “Hall of Presidents” you can meet Lincoln, Washington, all of them. They are so life‑like, moving, talking; they stand up and sit down, gesture. They move and talk like real people. It is an amazing, lifelike engineering feat of computers and motors. They look and act quite real but they’re not. It’s only the appearance of life on the outside. Inside they are quite dead. They are only imitations of the real thing. Billy Graham had this to say about faith and works and their relationship to one another: “There really is no conflict between faith and works. In the Christian life they go together like inhaling and exhaling. Faith is taking the Gospel in; works is taking the Gospel out.” Faith is a buzzword of our day. Often people will say things like, “he/she has his/her faith.” The synthesis of Hebrews and James gives us balance. Hebrews praises Rahab’s faith; James praises Rahab’s actions. True saving faith cannot be hidden for long. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Rahab could have had a dead faith, a mere intellectual experience. Or she could have had a demonic faith, her mind enlightened and her emotions stirred. But she exercised dynamic faith: her mind knew the truth, her heart was stirred by the truth, and her will acted upon the truth. She proved her faith by her works.” When we realize how minuscule the information was that Rahab had, we cannot help but be amazed by her faith. She didn’t even have a Bible, she only had reports of the power of God but she believed and acted in faith. Oftentimes we think that acts of faith are only for “super Christians.” James is purposefully knocking down such erroneous thinking. His first example of living faith, faith that demonstrates itself by action, was Abraham. Abraham is the patriarch, a hero of the faith. It would be easy for James’ readers to mentally say, “Sure, but that’s Abraham. You can’t expect that of me.” James goes from the top to the bottom with Rahab. Abraham is the hero; Rahab is the zero, a harlot. Faith with works is normative for all who have true faith no matter where grace reaches them. The extreme examples of Abraham and Rahab make his point, “Faith without action, even if it is embalmed in a beautifully profound creedal statement, is a decaying corpse.” It’s a dead faith that will send you to Hell. Rahab’s belief resulted in transformed behavior. True faith has fruit. A living faith produces evidence that it is alive. Does your faith demonstrate that it is a living faith? The evidence of a relationship with Jesus Christ is manifested in the things you do on a daily basis. Friend, do you feel the need to pray regularly? Are you drawn to the spiritual things in life? Has your motivation changed directions since you became a Christian? Are certain behaviors you used to enjoy becoming loathsome now? Are behaviors you used to find loathsome becoming enjoyable? Works are the evidence of saving faith. Without righteous works, there is no saving faith. Perhaps you’re familiar with that Rich Mullin’s song, “Screen Door on a Submarine.” Part of it goes like this: “Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing, it’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.” Rich Mullins wrote that song with James 2 in mind: faith without works is dead. Spiritual works are what define a truly Christian life. Accepted grace always produces righteous works. 3. Accepted grace always results in heaven’s rewards, Matthew 1:5-6, “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife.” Like many of you I have several different Bibles in my library, Bibles of all shapes and sizes. I have a copy of the Living Bible, A New International Version, a Revised Standard Version, a 1611 King James Version, a New King James Version, a King James II, an Old American Standard Version, and a New American Standard Version. I have lots of Bibles! But of all the various copies of God's written word on my shelf one of my favorites is The New Testament In Modern English. It's a soft cover New Testament originally printed for use in schools and was translated by the late British scholar, J. B. Phillips. Actually, it’s more of a paraphrase than a translation but I love the way Phillips puts things. For example, instead of the King James Version of I Peter 5:7, "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you," Phillips "translates" it in this way, "You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon Him, for you are His personal concern." Isn't that rich? Sometimes I think it would be both enjoyable and beneficial for us to study the Bible together by simply bringing different versions and sharing the various nuances of translation! Phillips' version of the New Testament has always been very popular, but when he printed his first edition in the early 1950's he got into trouble. Apparently, as Phillips began to translate the first chapter of Matthew he decided to leave out the first 17 verses, which lists Jesus' genealogy. Initially he began his translation not for publication but to use in a Bible study he was conducting with the young people in his church. He was a youth minister and the teens he was working with were having trouble understanding King James English. Desiring to make the Bible more readable, he felt that this seemingly endless list of hard‑to‑pronounce biblical names might be boring to teenagers.  He certainly didn't want to lose his audience in the first 17 verses of the New Testament! Omitting the genealogy is somewhat understandable, for it can be boring. Long lists of "who begat who" isn’t the most stimulating public readings! But when people read Phillips' version they got upset and so he went back and inserted the genealogy in a revised edition of his New Testament. In spite of my love of Phillips' translation, I agree with the criticism that he received. The genealogy of Jesus Christ is just as much God's Word as any other portion of the Bible. God inspired Matthew to include this list because it has important messages for us. We begin to understand one of these messages when we look closely at these names and see that there were all kinds of people in Jesus' family tree. There were kings and heroes of the faith who were dedicated to God. But others on the list had been horrible sinners prior to their coming to God. The list also includes:  murderers, prostitutes, and all kinds of unsavory characters. I guess you could say there were several rotten apples on Jesus' family tree! There are four women on the list, all of whom were unlikely candidates for membership in this list. One is Ruth, a former idolater; another is Tamar who, masquerading as a prostitute, tricked her former father‑in‑law into fathering her children; The third is Bathsheeba, an adulteress. And the fourth is Rahab. What an eternal reward for Rahab, not only is she included in Scripture as an example of faith and works, she is included in the genealogy of our Savior. God didn't pick those whom we think of as "the best people" to be a part of the Messianic line. In fact, scripture records that God has a habit of picking unlikely people, obviously flawed people, to further His kingdom. From our perspective it seems that God loves to turn things upside down. He chooses the most unexpected people to work with. He specializes in social outcasts. From man’s perspective, Rahab is a social outcast but from God’s, she’s a trophy of His grace. How would you like a prostitute in your family tree? But that is exactly who Jesus wanted in His family tree. Rahab demonstrates why He came...to pour out His grace on a lost and dying world. Last week I played golf for the first time this season and I took Ben and Aaron along. I’m not very good. That’s why one of my favorite rules of golf is the Mulligan Rule. I even taught it to my boys this past week. The rule goes like this, say you approach the tee on the 2nd hole, select your best driver and proceed to hit the ball and watch as it takes off at a 90 degree angle, landing in the river, or just rolls about ten feet. The Mulligan Rule means that you don’t have to count that one. You can pretend it never happened. It doesn’t go on your scorecard. You just get another ball and try again. It’s a clean slate, a fresh beginning. That's the Mulligan Rule. May I suggest that it’s a “grace note in an otherwise unforgiving game.” Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to take mulligans in other areas of life? Young people, wouldn't it be great if your Algebra teacher let you know that you had flunked your final exam, you could say, “I'll take a mulligan on that one.” And she said, "No problem!" Or adults, think how wonderful it would be if you wrote a check for groceries and it bounced, but when they called, you said, "I'll take a mulligan, please." and they said, "Sure, by the way, thanks for shopping at Pick ‘N Save!" Wouldn't it be great if we could simply begin again when we forgot to send in our taxes, blew up at our kids, or said something unloving to our spouses or made a huge mistake at work? It would be great but the problem is mulligans don't work in real life. Because life keeps score! Life is not a game. It's for real! The reason I can be so liberal with mulligans when I play golf is that the game really doesn’t matter. But mulligans don't apply when the game really counts. In the real world there has to be justice. There has to be an accurate accounting. If you're playing Tiger Woods for the Masters and you're tied on the final hole and you dogleg your drive, you can't say, "Uh, Tiger, I'll take a mulligan here." No, there are no mulligans on the PGA tour. The integrity of the game counts. The rules matter. And that’s the way it is in life. You reap what you sow. Your score is a brutally honest reflection of what you did. In Job 8:3, Job asks a rhetorical question, "Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?" And the answer is, of course not! As Isaiah exclaims, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts!" God is just! So He won't say to murders or liars or gossipers or thieves or adulterers, "Take a mulligan. Let's pretend it never happened." No! Someone must pay for all the wrong on the scorecards of our lives. The wonderful news is that Someone has! Jesus paid our debt. He took the consequence of our sins upon Himself. Because of that God yearns to forgive us and help us start over. As John Ortberg says, "If there is one way that human beings consistently underestimate God's love, it is perhaps in His loving longing to forgive." God offers His gracious forgiveness to everyone. He yearns to forgive us and help us to start over.  That’s what He did for Rahab and that’s what He does for us, if we let Him. Friend, when you remember Rahab, remember the Rewards of Grace. Rahab's faith graciously took her from her sinful past and placed her alongside other heroes and heroines of faith; Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and David. After the fall of Jericho, she was taken back to live with the people of Israel. She married a man named Salmon whom tradition says was one of those two spies, and they had a son named Boaz. Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and he was the father of King David, who was her Great, Great, Great grandson. And as Matthew 1 reminds us, of the line and lineage of David came Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. Rahab shows us that we can turn from our sin and come to GOD...just as we are and when we do, He will do great things in and through us. Conclusion: Rahab demonstrates how accepted grace will have true faith, righteous works and rewards. She began as an enemy and ended up in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, all because of the long reach of grace. One of last summer’s blockbusters was Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, that movie focused on a shallow love triangle, generally Disney‑fying the "date which will live in infamy." Let me close with a wonderful story of Grace’s Incredibly Long Reach from the tragedy of Pearl Harbor that most movies neglect, the story of Mitsuo Fuchida. Mitsuo Fuchida grew up loving his native Japan and hating the United States, which treated Asian immigrants harshly in the first half of the twentieth century. He attended a military academy, joined Japan's Naval Air Force, and by 1941, with 10,000 flying hours behind him, had established himself as Japan’s top pilot. When Japanese military leaders needed someone to command a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, they chose Fuchida. His was the voice that sent his aircraft carrier the message "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!) indicating the success of the surprise mission. Later, he too was surprised when he learned that, of the 70 officers who participated in the raid, he was the only one who returned alive. He had another close call when he was shot down during the battle of Midway in 1942, but despite serious injuries, he survived again. By 1945 he was the Imperial Navy's Air Operations Officer. On August 6th as he was eating breakfast in Nara, Japan, he heard about a bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He flew to investigate, then sent a grim report to the Imperial Command. On that same day, an American P.O.W. named Jacob DeShazer felt moved by the Holy Spirit to pray for peace. DeShazer had been in captivity since 1942, when, as a member of Doolittle's Raiders, he dropped bombs near Tokyo and then was forced to parachute into China. While imprisoned, DeShazer had become a Christian. He found his heart softened toward his Japanese captors. After being liberated, DeShazer wrote a widely distributed essay, "I Was a Prisoner of the Japanese," detailing his experiences of capture, conversion, and forgiveness. Mitsuo Fuchida and Jacob DeShazer met in 1950. DeShazer had returned to Japan in 1948 as a missionary. Fuchida had read DeShazer's testimony, bought a Bible, and converted from Buddhism to Christianity. DeShazer had recently finished a 40‑day fast for revival in Japan when Fuchida came to his home and introduced himself. DeShazer welcomed the new convert and encouraged him to be baptized. While DeShazer continued to plant churches throughout Japan, Fuchida became an evangelist, spreading a message of peace and forgiveness in his native country and throughout Asian‑American communities. Mitsuo Fuchida died over 25 years ago, on May 30, 1976. Like dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, who wished his legacy to be one of peace rather than destruction, Fuchida wanted the message of his changed heart to supersede the memory of his infamous attack. He wrote, "That morning (December 7th)… I lifted the curtain of warfare by dispatching that cursed order, and I put my whole effort into the war that followed...(But) after buying and reading the Bible, my mind was strongly impressed and captivated. I think I can say today without hesitation that God's grace has been set upon me." Mitsuo Fuchida, like Rahab, was an enemy and yet became a trophy of God’s wonderful grace. As we close this morning, let me ask two questions: 1) Are you an enemy of God today? God is reaching out to you in grace? He wants you to come to Him in faith. He wants to do works of righteousness in you and He wants to reward you for all eternity. But you, like Rahab, must accept His gift of grace. 2) Is there an “enemy” in your life? Someone that you consider unreachable. Rahab was the most “unreachable” person in Jericho, yet God’s grace reached her. Can I challenge you to start praying for the unreachable person in your life? And ask God if He would give you the privilege of reaching this unreachable person for His glory!