Midweek Bible Study | Joshua 1:10-2:24 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] joshua chapter one is where we're going to be and uh because we are still in chapter one we're going to pick it up at verse 10. we only have gotten through the first nine verses but for that reason since we're still in chapter one i'm going to just quickly run through the three slides related to the introduction of this book and then we'll we'll pray and then we'll start to read starting at verse 10 of chapter one it is the first book of the bible named after a person joshua the birth name of joshua was hashia meaning salvation but moses changed his name to yahushua the lord is salvation in numbers 13 verse 16 the same name that our lord was uh born with that was his given birth name yahashua he was called moses's assistant joshua was in exodus 24 13 and will later become his successor by the way that is a correction i've been on the past couple weeks saying uh the reference was numbers 2413 and tyler pointed out to me that's about balaam it's exodus 24 13. so nothing like a smart alex son for uh a pastor but anyway so wanted to make that correction to you that he was moses assistant named there in exodus 24 13 later become his successor the book covers about 25 to 30 years and concludes with the death of joshua at 110 years of age the book is broken into three sections with an epilogue uh chapters one through five it's about entering the land the land of israel the promised land chapter six through twelve it's about conquering the land because it's been occupied by people who were pagan worshipers and then chapters 13 to 21 it's about dividing and settling the land and then the epilogue chapters 22 to 24 detail joshua's farewell and his death so let me pray and then we'll start reading here in joshua chapter one starting at verse 10. let's pray first lord we thank you for this time that we can share together in your word thank you for this pause in the middle of our week to just kind of recalibrate to settle our hearts before you it's good to be in your house tonight and to open up your word together so speak to us we thank you for how you reveal yourself through the pages of the bible and we pray that we would not just be hearers only but also doers and lord we thank you for the encouragement of these chapters as we come upon the end of chapter one and into chapter two and just see your wonderful redemptive plan in the life of one rahab and what a picture it is for all of us lord of your wonderful redemption available to us so thank you for this time and your word we praise you together and it's in jesus name we pray and everybody said amen joshua chapter 1 verse 10 it says then joshua commanded the officers of the people saying pass through the camp and command the people saying prepare provisions for yourselves for within three days you will cross over this jordan to go into possess the land which the lord your god is giving you to possess so joshua has taken over the leadership role after moses has died that's the end of the book of deuteronomy and the people now are poised to actually enter into the promised land for the last 400 years they have been serving as slaves in egypt and by god's providential hand god has delivered the hebrew people out of slavery after 400 years they have left egypt because of their rebellion for 40 years they wandered in the wilderness which is basically the egyptian sinai peninsula and then eventually they make it right here to the border of the promised land at the jordan river now just to kind of get our bearings straight and i'm kind of visual learner like this so here's a map to orient ourselves this is basically a satellite view of israel you have the mediterranean sea to the west that borders the western coast of israel you have up to the north the sea of galilee and then you have down to the south here the dead sea and what joins the sea of galilee in the dead sea is the jordan river running down through the jordan river valley what you're looking at by the way is the lowest point on the face of the globe the dead sea is the lowest point on the on the face of the earth and uh the sea of galilee is the uh lowest fresh body of water on the face of the earth the dead sea of course by its name uh it is 34 salinity it is the most concentrated salt body of water on the planet the great salt lake of utah is only 17 it's about half our ocean the atlantic and the pacific is only about three percent uh salinity so this is 10 times that the dead sea and when god delivered the hebrew slaves out of egypt and they wander in the sinai peninsula they're actually going to end up coming into the promised land going from the east to the west they're actually going to come up if you see this arrow here they come up from under below the dead sea and and to the west rather to the east of the dead sea so now they're on the eastern side of the jordan river which is today on a map the country of jordan and they are situated here just north of the dead sea and what we're going to learn a little bit later into chapter two is a a town called shatim or in the new king james i'm reading from it says the acacia grove the acacia grove acacia trees are flowering thorny trees uh that sometimes they're even described as shrubs they're not huge growing trees but apparently there were plenty of these acacia trees that were growing in this vicinity and so the whole the town was named after them because shatim in hebrew means acacia tree and so this is where they are are located here we're going to find out in a moment and they're going to go again they're going to go from right to left they're going to go from east to west into the promised land so they didn't hug the coast of the mediterranean you know if you if you just simply walked from where they were in egypt and hugged the coast of the mediterranean on just you know a general pace they could have made it to the promised land in 13 days but it's taking them 40 years because they were led by a man and he never stopped to ask for directions because guys don't do that we don't ask for directions uh but anyway so but they end up at wandering for 40 years because of their disobedience they didn't believe god and so they you know they they took the hard route how many of you understand that's that's kind of life when we disobey god we end up having the harder route we bring it upon ourselves we make a life more difficult for ourselves when we walk in disobedience that's the way it works proverbs tells us that the way of the transgressor is hard and so when we walk in the ways of the lord it goes better for us isn't to say that it's perfect because we still live in a fallen world there's still plenty of hardships there's still plenty of difficulties there is tribulation small t jesus told us you will face tribulation in this world but take heart i've overcome the world so there's enough tribulation small t that we encounter uh we don't need to bring more into our lives by virtue of our disobedience the jewish people the hebrew people they brought more hardship into their lives more tribulation into their lives because they walked in disobedience to god and so an entire generation will die in the wilderness they will perish in the sinai peninsula and only joshua and caleb from that generation and the children of the generation that sinned will end up going into the promised land and joshua as their leader is going to take them and cross the jordan river so that orients us now and you if you go back to your study here with me in verse 12 it says and the reubenites the gat the gadites and half the tribe of manasseh joshua spoke uh saying remember the word which moses the servant of the lord commanded you saying the lord your god is giving you rest and is giving you this land your wives your little ones and your livestock shall remain in the land which moses gave you on this side of the jordan but you shall pass before your brethren armed all your mighty men of valor and help them until the lord has given your brethren rest as he gave you and they also have taken possession of the land which the lord your god is giving them and then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it which moses the lord's servant gave you on this side of the jordan toward the sunrise okay toward the sun rises the east sunrise and the east sets in the west so he's talking about exactly what we see on the map behind me they are located there on the eastern side of the jordan river and he gives joshua gives this speech remember there are 12 tribes of israel and he gives this speech to two and a half tribes to the reubenites to the gadites and to half of the tribe of manasseh now it was already told to us uh in in deuteronomy that these two and a half tribes wanted to stay on the eastern side of the jordan river when the lot a lot when the land allotment was given to the jewish people two and a half tribes asked moses hey when we get to the promised land we'd prefer to stay on the eastern side of the jordan river and moses obliged and so he gives that instruction to joshua when you get there the reubenites the gadites and half of the tribe of manasseh want to stay on the eastern side of the jordan river the other nine and a half tribes uh wanna go over to uh nine ten eleven twelve yeah i had to do quick math two and a half nine and a half that's twelve all right um they want to they want to go to where the the intended promised land is which is on the western side of the jordan river but moses said to joshua go ahead and and let these two and a half tribes stay on the eastern side which again would be in modern jordan in biblical times it was called moav or moab and one of the things that joshua says to them here is you're free to stay on this eastern side of the jordan river however you have to help your brethren the other nine and a half tribes get settled on the western side which is the original intent of the promised land and so you're you're going to have to all your armed men your men of valor which would be any guy 21 years and older will have to take up arms you're going to have to go to the western side and help your brethren settle the land because there are a lot of pagan nations that have taken over the property in the last 400 years while the jewish people have been slaves in egypt so going back means you got you got to kick out the people have overtaken your land because they're pagan worshipers and god has been patient with them for 400 years and i'm going to tell you because some of you had the question like well how would they even know about the god of the bible to be able to turn to god i'll get to that when we get to chapter two but god's patience has reached its limit after 400 years these pagan people living in on the western side of the jordan river their time is done they've had time to get right with god so joshua says to these two and half tribes you got to go in with your brothers you got to fight to take the land once the land has been settled then you can go back over to the other side to where we are here on the eastern side of the jordan river and there you can settle and there you can live but you got to fight for your brothers first now it tells us later on in chapter 4 verse 13 that there were 40 000 fighting men from these two and a half tribes so 40 000 of these fighting men are are going to have to do their work to help their brothers settle the land now you know i i don't want to over spiritualize every nuance of the bible sometimes that's dangerous you look at every little thing and you try to make a spiritual point out of it but i think there is something to be said there uh in that um you know as brothers and sisters in christ we're in this together and and when you see a brother or a sister in need you you go to their aid you know you help them you fight for them uh sometimes they they will be in a place and maybe you're here tonight and you're kind of in this place where you're having a faith struggle you're feeling kind of weak you're feeling down you're feeling maybe you're you're engaged in a lot of you know temptation and and uh it's it's difficult sometimes just kind of you know occupying the land until jesus comes which is what the bible tells us to do live out your lives here be like salt and light in the earth until jesus comes and sometimes that can be hard and you can grow weary so fight for your brothers and sisters come alongside of them you know minister to them love on them encourage them because we're all in this together and so that's what joshua basically is saying here you're gonna have to help your your brothers uh take the land and get settled and then you can come back over here to live and so it tells us keep reading with me there in in verse 18 and and so they answered joshua saying all that you com sorry it's verse 16. so the answer joshua is saying all that you command us we will do and wherever you send us we will go and just as we heeded moses in all things so we will heed you only the lord your god be with you as he was with moses whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words in all that you command him shall be put to death only be strong and of good courage and we mentioned how that phrase there be strong and of good courage is recorded four times there in chapter one and here joshua is you know he's already a fighting man we see him in scripture as being a valiant warrior and as i mentioned last week sometimes even the most valiant among us every once in a while need to be encouraged like stay strong be of good courage because there's this very fine line between faith and fear and it's really easy to go from faith to fear and so we have to just really press into the lord and be men and women who are strong and have good courage and walk in faith and not in fear so into chapter 2 it says now joshua the son of nun sent out two men from acacia grove that's what we're talking about here in the map shateem to spy secretly saying go view the land especially jericho so we're introduced to jericho and just again a quick reference point on the map so jericho is directly opposite shateem on the western side of the jordan river and so he's they're eventually going to cross the jordan river at this point and go into the promised land and the distance between shatim and jericho is about 14 to 15 miles shatima's about 12 miles east of the jordan river jericho's about another two miles three miles west of it and so that's the distance between these two points and joshua's gonna send out two spies uh into jericho so they're gonna they're gonna you know travel the 14 15 miles from shatin the the camp of a couple million uh jewish people are staying there in campton shatin while these two spies go into jericho now remember joshua was one of the original 12 spies that moses sent on the first recon mission that failed because 10 of the 12 spies came back and had this fearful report spread fear throughout the whole camp that's what led to the rebellion and why that generation never went into the promised land except for joshua and caleb the two spies who came back with a good report only 2 out of 12. i suspect that joshua learned from that don't you think he's like i'm not sending 12. because that didn't work out last time you know it's hard to get 12 people to agree how about just two people maybe two people could agree on this and so they're unnamed the bible doesn't say who these two spies were but they leave the camp and they go into jericho some scholars and jewish tradition says that one of the spies may very well have been caleb caleb was only he and joshua were part of that original generation who came into the promised land and other um bible commentaries other theologians suspect that the second spy may have been a guy by the name of salmon and salmon will have a pivotal role in this story here as we get to the story of rahab but truth be told we don't know we don't know who that's all speculation who those two spies might have been but they come here on this mission to jericho they're going to spy out this is the this is a fortified city and um in order to take the promised land they're going to have to take jericho now jericho historically is the oldest known city in the world now the only slight exception is damascus syria damascus is considered to be the oldest continually occupied city in the world but in terms of its date jericho predates damascus it's the oldest city in the world known to man it is mentioned more than 60 times throughout the bible the word jericho in hebrew is actually spelled with a y there's no j in the hebrew alphabet it is jericho yeriko translates fragrant because in this place was grown beautiful balsam and cypress trees and it was known for its spices and the fragrance that was associated with it also they say that roses were grown there so it's a very fragrant city yeriko that's what it means fragrant and it was considered in the day impenetrable um my first visit to jericho was in the year 2000 now in 1994 there was an agreement between israel and the palestinians for jericho because it's located within what is called today the west bank for it to be absorbed under palestinian authority so in 1994 that transition was made in fact a friend of mine amir sarfati who has who's been here um not in the new building but in the old building he was here to teach for me um he was the um assistant governor who was part of that transition in 1994 to bring jericho under the palestinian authority but my first visit there to jericho was in 2000 it was it was the first place that my wife rode a camel in her life for me it was the first place where um i was offered so in the marketplace there in jericho in the old part of the city i was offered this thick black arabic coffee that you could stand a spoon up in right it's like it's like pudding um and uh and then these these arab guys were like you smoke hookah with us smoke hookah smoke hookah you know and and you know the and if you know anything about the hookah it's you know it's got this you know um it uses a water filtration thing and then there's this tobacco stuff on the top and coals that that heat it up and then there's this tube this rubber tube with a mouthpiece okay now i'm not a germaphobe i'm just germ aware and so they're like smoker with a smoke cooker with us and i'm and you know i'm looking at that at that thing and i'm i'm thinking of a couple things you know like instagram probably not a good picture right but i'm also thinking uh you know how many other arab men have been smoking the end of this hookah pipe here and so they keep saying to me salaam salaam which means peace you know in arabic salaam salaam i kept saying saliva saliva you know what i mean so like no thank you no thank you but um but otherwise i mean you know jericho is a wonderful place and the the arab people there the palestinian people are wonderful people in jericho but but this is that ancient city the oldest uh place um known to man on the planet it is also called a couple other places in the bible the city of palms now don't think um palm tree like you know miami think palm tree date palms uh and they're in the same family but they just look a little different they don't these kind of palms don't have coconuts hanging from them they have dates hanging from them and so jericho was also a place where these beautiful and still to this day these beautiful palm trees date palm trees grow and so this is that that jericho by the way just another historical point herod the great you remember here the great was the one who issued that order for all the baby boys to be killed in bethlehem trying to kill the baby jesus at the time herod the great dies in jericho and so it says to us here that joshua again verse one son of nun sent out two men to spy from acacia grove to spy secretly saying go view the land especially jericho so they went and came to the house of a harlot named rahab and lodged there and it was told the king of jericho saying behold men have come here tonight from the children of israel to search out the country and so the king of jericho sent to rahab saying bring out the men who have come to you who have entered your house for they have come to search out all the country all right paul's there for just a moment we are introduced to uh rahab here but uh but before we talk about her note if you will that she is new king james says a harlot she is a prostitute and so then the question often becomes why would these two israelite guys go to the house of a prostitute i mean they're supposed to be spying out the land you know and is this a detour or you know what's going on here is something shady going on like well you know forget the spine out jericho let's just go to the town hooker i mean what is happening here now before i answer that a little bit about rahab in hebrew her name is actually with a v instead of a b it's no offense but her name in hebrew means wide or broad rehab now you know don't think slang right because you know what a beautiful broad it's not like that rahav broad or wide is in the sense of pride insolence arrogance that's what the word means wide in the sense of like you know puffed up proud that's what rahav means so i don't know why your parents would think oh what a what a wonderful name let's just name our kid puffed up with pride but that's basically what rahav means wide or broad in that sense of like proud and arrogant and so we're introduced to her here and she's going to play a pivotal role not just in joshua chapter 2 but in human history she's going to play a role in the life of jesus for those of you who already know you're already ahead of me but but i'll come to it in a moment when we talk about her inclusion here she's going to be going to become a proselyte to judaism but she is so that we understand clearly she is a canaanite which is gentile she's not jewish she is um a prostitute so this is already in terms of modern um in terms of this this time but this modern time that we're reading about the bible this is this is she's she's considered a complete outcast she's she's as a prostitute and a foreign a gentile i mean she's completely considered uh unredeemable and as in terms of like you know the jewish mindset but there's a wonderful thing that happens here with her and so uh here she is running this uh house of prostitution and uh these spies end up here and somehow the king of jericho finds out about it i mean you know news travels fast i suppose when people are coming and going uh through the house of rahab here and so the king of jericho finds out about it he sends word now it's it's going to tell us later in the in the chapter that her home is connected to the actual wall of the city which was pretty common in the day where where you would build the wall of a city and then the wall of the city would serve as an exterior wall of homes and so homes would be built along the perimeter of the wall and so you your house would sometimes share uh the the wall of the city itself and we find out that's the case here with rahab she even has a window out of the walled a city because it's part of her home and so it's likely that the spies went here because not for not for any shady business but it's likely that they went here because back in the day look where do you go for town information where if you're on a recon mission and you want to find out what is happening i mean this is like uh a tavern in the day um but don't don't believe you know some liberal theology you can read some commentary saying well she wasn't really a prostitute she was just a you know an in she ran an inn she was an innkeeper she's a prostitute the word harlot is used here and she's mentioned three times in the new testament and twice in the new testament out of the three times she's still designated as a harlot they want us to understand and look don't don't sugarcoat it because it makes the story of redemption even that much better when you realize the life that she lived and yet god's redemption in her life it makes an even more beautiful story here so that's who she was and these spies know that they can probably get some information because there are a lot of travelers who come in and out of that house and so they go there the king of jericho finds out sends messengers rahab get those guys out kick them out send them back well it tells us in verse four and then the woman took the two men and hid them so she doesn't get rid of them and so she said to these people sent by the king yes the men came to me but i did not know where they were from lie we'll find out later she knows and it happened as the gate was being shut she says when it was dark that the men went out lie where the men went i do not know lie they're on your roof pursue them quickly for you may overtake them it says in verse six but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof and then the men pursued them by the road to the jordan to the fords and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out they shut the gate now there's an ethical dilemma here isn't there rahab is lying to these guys she's hidden them on her roof now it tells us she hid them under stalks of flax that also tells us what time of year it is they would harvest flax which is a grain it's a gluten-free grain in the month of april so this is this story is happening right around the same time of the year that we're living in right now and flax were long stalks that were cut down and then they were taken up typically to the roof of a home and they were all laid out and they were dried by the sun and flax is still you know it's a valuable commodity even today it's an important nutritional value some of you all love flaxseed or or flaxseed oil they'll take the seeds of flax and they will press it and get oil out of it it's very healthy it's high in omega-3 that's no extra charge and i'm not selling anything i'm just reporting the information um and and and but in this day what it was typically used for and still can be used today for this they would take the flax it would dry out in the sun and then they would beat it and they would make linen products out of it you make linen out of flax and so it was up there drying and she hustles these two guys up to the roof of her house and hides them under the flax stalks that's where she hides them and then when she's confronted she lies about their whereabouts says oh no before the gate was shut they left and sends these guys who were sent on behalf of the king on a wild goose chase now the ethical dilemma she lies here uh don't read everything in your bibles and think oh there's a principle here no this is not teaching us a principle you know the fact that the bible is reporting this it it's it describes what she did but it doesn't prescribe what she did it's just reporting that she lied let's remember you know she's not redeemed yet she's a gentile prostitute she's probably lied a lot in her life oh you're a real stud to all her customers you know what i'm saying to you she's used to that some guy walks in oh you're a hunk of hunk of love aren't you and he looks like danny devito no she's been she's been lying all her life so when the bible's not condoning this the bible's not saying hey take a lesson out of the page of joshua chapter two if it's convenient just lie okay it's the ninth commandment you shall not bear false testimony we're not supposed to lie that said and i'm going to be careful in how i try to say this okay there are some things in life that on the moral scale are weightier all right now just hear me out again i'm not encouraging anybody to lie the bible doesn't condone lying but there are some things on a moral scale that are weightier for example and it's just a random example your husband's having a heart attack could die you are driving in excess of the speed limit his life is in danger do you really care that you're breaking the speed i mean you don't want to hurt anybody and you don't want to be reckless but you're not really that concerned about obeying the law because at that moment your husband's life is more valuable than than driving you know 45 and a 45 you can go 55. you i'm not encouraging i'm just saying this is what anybody would do you know if my wife is in imminent danger and needs medical attention and i'm at a place where i don't have time to call an ambulance and she's in my car i'm i'm the higher moral the weightier moral moment is her life not that i might get a ticket because i'm in excess of the speed limit and these kind of things happen at times where there's this conflict and one has to decide where is the what's the weightier moral implication here that needs greater attention and obedience and thus you're not bound by the legalism of every law in the moment when there's a higher calling of a more important weightier moral matter uh this is the kind of thing that that we have to decide from from time to time and so in this case she has lied to protect lives um you you're gonna have to sort this out yourself because this is again very you know difficult it's a fine line here i'm trying to thread the needle carefully and and we shouldn't make excuses but there are times when we are confronted in life with moral choices and sometimes we opt for a weightier moral response because it in in that moment it's it's more necessary in her lying she saved these guys lives their lives were more important in that hour than necessarily her words so again you'll have to sort that out let me give you an example from real history and many of you are familiar because i've quoted corey ten boom multiple times over ministry because she's just a wonderful example of a godly woman but the ten boom family if you if you know anything about the story and a whole movie in a book was written at the hiding place the ten boon family in amsterdam were hiding jews in their home against the law to protect them from nazi germany they were lying about it and one can look and say that's the ninth commandment you're breaking you're breaking the law of god you're you're lying they were protecting lives and and now they got discovered for it and they would suffer for it uh i mean you know corey ten boom would make it out eventually from the prison camp where she would be sent her sister betsy would die there her parents would also die but she would survive and eventually make it out and as a living testimony they were doing it because of their faith in jesus christ they did it because as believers they understood that the lives of those jewish men and women that they were hiding in in secret chambers of their home was more valuable than us telling the truth to nazi germany so my point is that there are some times when there are weightier moral matters that have to be considered in the moment so i'm not necessarily justifying what she did here but on on the other hand she's a gentiles not even a believer yet and so non-believers do what non-believers do but there are times that sometimes we will be confronted with a higher uh moral um conscience in different matters by the way on the topic of lying however you might be interested to know that according to a nationwide survey 91 of americans say they lie regularly 91 say they lie regularly you know what that means it means nine percent were lying that's what that means like do you do you live regularly oh no no i don't lie yeah that nine percent said no so they're lying too on average sorry guys men tell six lies a day while women average three lies a day yeah you're looking at each other like is that true so guys apparently lied twice as much as the women do college students admitted to lying twice a day is that all 83 percent of american teenagers admit that they have lied to their parents about something significant 64 admit to cheating on a test i don't know how you can even believe any statistics about lying don't people lie about that stuff but it is what it is and so she lies here she sends these guys on a wild goose chase she protects the lives of these jewish spies and then in verse 8 it says now before they lay down she came up to them on the roof and said to the men now listen to her story here i know that the lord now notice in your bibles it's all capital letters l-o-r-d this is the proper name of god this is yahweh she knows she's a gentile prostitute and she knows i know that the lord yahweh has given you the land that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you for we have heard how the lord dried up the water of the red sea this is when they came out of egypt remember the lord dried up the red sea we heard about that she says for you we heard about how the lord dried up the water of the red sea for you when you came out of egypt and what you did to the two kings of the amorites who were on the other side of the jordan saihan and og whom you utterly destroyed and as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you notice for the lord your god he is god in heaven above and on earth beneath did she know that i mean there's no internet there's no social media how'd she know this because the word of the reputation of god and god's people had spread far and wide which is why they are without excuse this answers the question some of you emailed because i had said a couple weeks ago god was patient for 400 years with the canaanites living in the land and the amorites and the hittites the people living within the promised land who had paganized it in the absence of the jewish people who were enslaved in egypt for 400 years they had left israel 70 only 70 jacob and his the 12 tribes his twelve sons because of the famine they left they were then enslaved by pharaoh so they spent the next 400 years there and when they try to go back home it's been completely paganized but god waited 400 years for those pagan people to turn to him and you say well was there a prophet was there somebody who informed them where it had already spread they knew they just didn't believe and respond to it you see so they're culpable rahab here says we've heard this we've heard the miracles we heard the story we know and we know she says here and she makes this personal profession here for the lord your god he is god in heaven above and on earth beneath beneath this is amazing to think that a gentile would know the truth about god but see he has made himself known he has circulated the word so god could use people and today technology but he is always faithful to make himself known and so that men are without excuse you read in the book of romans first couple of chapters the book of romans god says he testifies to us through conscience through commandments and through creation so that men are without excuse we have a conscious awareness of god then he's revealed himself to us through the commandments through scripture and he's revealed himself to us through creation even though man has corrupted the creation story and tried to replace god with an evolutionary theory so that man is central to the story instead of god being central to the story man's just inverted it and made man at the top instead of god at the top and evolutionary theory is an attempt to really deny god because it's an attempt to not have to be accountable to god if you have to acknowledge god then you're accountable to god if you think that god doesn't exist and we all just crawled out of a pond that eventually evolved and we're the center of the universe then you're only accountable to yourself so once you begin to realize creation speaks of a creator and you begin to see the handiwork of a divine designer behind it it's that old story about a watchmaker right you can't look at a watch and say that just suddenly came together randomly on its own through long periods of successive years no there's a designer there's a watchmaker behind that watch and so it is when you look with inquisitive hearts and minds open to the truth and looking at the universe and the intricacies of the universe and the interdependency of the universe and the cosmos it screams about not just intelligent design it screams a divine designer and his name is lord god almighty and thus and thus man is without excuse because conscience commandments and creation testified to the existence of god rahab she was informed by one of those different methods and means and god made himself known so that she can make this bold assertion about who god is now look at what she continues to say verse 12 now therefore i beg you swear to me by the lord since i have shown you kindness that's the hebrew word is mercy that's what god shows us right says i have shown you kindness that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father my mother my brothers my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death she pleads with them she says i recognize your god is the true god of heaven and earth would you please show he said kindness mercy to me as i'm showing mercy kindness to you and so the men answered her our lives for yours if none of you tell this business of ours like don't don't go around chatting about this and it shall be when the lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you and then she'd let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall she dwelt on the wall and she said to them get to the mountain lest the pursuers meet you hide there three days until the pursuers have returned afterward you may go your way and so the men said to her we will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down and unless you bring your father your mother your brothers and all your father's household to your own home so shall it be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street his blood shall be on his own head and we will be guiltless and whoever is with you in the house his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him and if you tell this business of ours then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear so here's what these guys say to her they say okay you've shown us kindness we're going to show you kindness when we come back in a few days and we wage war against this city your life and the life of your family members will be spared so long as couple of things all of you are in your home if you go out the door at the front door we're not responsible blood's gonna be on them but we will take responsibility to protect you and the lives of all your family members if you stay within your home because we're gonna come back and get you but you have to all be here in this home and here's the second thing you have to tie the scarlet cord around the window and so the instruction is this red cord has to hang from your window it's going to mark your house as the house that we're going to come back to now why the scarlet cord perhaps they have in their minds when they left egypt the homes were marked with the blood of the lamb the red that marked the homes were the homes that were protected by god and lives were spared regardless of what they had in mind when they gave her the scarlet cord tie it to your window to mark your home and your family what it paints for us is a picture of jesus he is the scarlet cord the red blood that christ shed on the cross that marks us as belonging to him when we put our faith and trust in him is what will spare our lives see he died to rescue us it's this beautiful picture here and rahab is the picture of every single one of us sinners saved by grace people in need of god's love and redemption and forgiveness this is rahab she's a picture of every single one of us the scarlet cord is a picture of jesus that separated her life and her family from everyone else that she and her household might be spared and so verse 21 let's finish out the chapter and then she said according to your word so be it and she sent them away and they departed and see right away and she bound the scarlet cord in the window and she's not wasting any time she's like i'm not going to forget this or lose this i'm tying it right now and i love the way it simply says there and then she said according to your words so be it you know what she didn't do she didn't debate them does it have to be a red cord can it be a blue cord how about yellow you know it's a little narrow minded for me to do the red cord thing i want to be more free and open to other thoughts and ideas [Laughter] you know why she didn't debate and argue about it i'll tell you why there's only two reasons that are necessary for you to come to believe that jesus is the only way to be saved that you believe that god is god and number two that you see your desperate condition that's all that was going on with rahab she believed that god was god of heaven and earth and she saw her own desperate condition and when you have those two things if you have only one without the other it won't be a connection but when you have both of those things god is god of heaven and earth and i'm in desperate a desperate place i need a savior you won't argue and debate you'll just be thankful that god made the way which is the only way to be saved and you will embrace it and you will receive jesus and you won't try to debate and argue the whole thing because you believe that god is god and you understand your own sinful desperate condition that's what she had there and that's why she was she was quick to say i'll do whatever i'll do whatever see when people don't get to that place of surrender to be honest with you they're just not desperate enough and sometimes it takes some stuff that god will allow to get you to that place of desperation you can come easy or you can come hard but you'll come one way or another and it's a whole lot easier to come when things aren't so tough surrender can be hard it can be difficult and god loves us so much he'll keep putting on the squeeze until we come to that place where we see our own desperation and it says in verse 22 that they departed and went to the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned the pursuers sought them all along the way but did not find them so the two men returned descended from the mountain and crossed over and they came to joshua the son of nun and told them all that had befallen them and they said to joshua truly the lord has delivered all the land into our hands for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us we'll pick it up there next week let's pray lord jesus we thank you that you are the scarlet cord and that by your sacrifice you saved us we were just like rahab sinners far from you distant and yet you made a plan to redeem her just like you made a plan to redeem us through the sacrifice of jesus through his scarlet blood that was shed on the cross through faith in what jesus did we can have our sins forgiven we can be rescued from death and given life we're grateful lord for the cross we're thankful that you love us so much that you sent jesus to die forgive us when we try to analyze and intellectualize everything instead of just humbling ourselves being thankful for the way that you made possible for us to be saved lord i pray tonight for those who are here or listening online who don't know you in a personal way maybe some of them have felt like rahab that maybe they've just done too many shameful things how's it possible that you would love them and receive them but yet you do every single one of us you died on a cross for every single one of us for every sinful shameful thing we've ever done or said or thought there's no one outside of your redemptive love so even for that one tonight who just needs to know how much you love them that you died for them that you shed your blood for them i pray you would open the eyes of their heart to receive you to just humble themselves and to just pray a prayer like this just to say jesus i thank you that you died on a cross for me that you made a way possible for me to be saved to be forgiven come into my heart lord take over my life forgive me of my sins and save me in your name lord that's how simple it is you call us to come to receive you by faith and we thank you that you are our scarlet cord we praise you together in jesus name and everybody said amen and amen god bless you all

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 21,161

Rating: 4.8238344 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

Id: zgMeCbuGuU8

Length: 51min 31sec (3091 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021