Well, I invite you to turn in the scriptures this morning to Joshua chapter 2. We're continuing our study in the book of Joshua, and now we come to chapter 2, the story of Rahab the harlot, and I'll be reading the 24 verses of chapter 2, found on page 210. Let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord. And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, Go, view the land, especially Jericho. And they went and they came to the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land. Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no spirit left in any man because of you. For the Lord, your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death and the men said to her our life for yours even to death if you do not tell this business of ours then when the lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you and she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was built into the city wall so that she lived in the wall and she said to them go into the hills or the pursuers will encounter you and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned then afterward you may go your way the men said to her we will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear behold when you come into the land you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down and you shall gather into your house your father and mother your brothers and all your father's household then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street his blood shall be on his own head and we shall be guiltless but if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house his blood shall be on our head but if you tell this business of ours then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you've made us swear and she said according to your words so be it then she sent them away and they departed and she tied the scarlet cord in the window they departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing then the two men returned they came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun and they told him all that had happened and they said to Joshua truly the Lord has given all the land in our hands and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us and there will end the reading of God's word well what we need in our day more than ever is a bold and courageous church people who are willing to count the cost of what it means to follow Yeshua as we've been studying here that play on the name of Joshua taking us all the way to the New Testament name of Jesus but I'm not sure if we can have have we've appreciated that like we should what does bold and courageous faith look like take for instance um my own experience in life if i may do that for a moment raised in the church by parents who believe the gospel i truly did have all kinds of spiritual blessings that the average person simply did not get in this life i grew up hearing the gospel i had the scriptures we had multiple copies of them in our house my entire life really if i could testify of life was one spiritual blessing after another that's the story of chris gordon's life but i'm not sure how thankful i've always been for this not sure i've properly understood and looked at how rare this is if anything the great propensity for me and i speak even as a pastor has been what i described last week what was israel's problem as we looked at last week in the wilderness unbelief yes but sloth and indifference to the promises the danger is that i've heard the gospel so much in my life that i don't really realize how blessed i am even if i say it and if there's anything that we learn from israel it is that it's very easy for us to be spiritually indifferent to all these blessings that God has lavished upon us. When the God who has delivered us has only done good to us, favored us, fed us, cared for us, Been with us in all affliction. Delivered us out of all sorrow. Loved us with an everlasting love. Made a covenant with us and our children. You know we can yawn through that. This is our challenge. This is what the church is challenged with. And what God does in the Scriptures, which is so helpful to us, is to stir us up out of apathy. to embrace the promises is he gives examples to us he gives helps to us with in this particular case you'll look at the very last words of the last chapter israel be bold and courageous what does that look like what does that look like we need encouragements to this end we need helps of this in and at times we need rebukes and god when he's doing his work and things are moving forward as we have studied in joshua we see it's time for them to cross over no more wandering in the wilderness what we begin to see in the people as we looked at last time is a revived energy in the people leadership actually steps up and leads there's a deep sense of his favor upon us and so we go forward you're not going to go forward unless you know that and believe that you will mull around in the wilderness and you will be a complainer that's our that's our default mode so i ended last week with that great call think of what the leaders were saying it last time, one of you really were caught by that, the leaders were telling Israel, be bold and courageous, we're going in. I don't think we can appreciate what follows with Rahab the harlot until you see that God was demonstrating this for them. Until you see that God was showing them and raising up a mother for them in the faith. We'll come back to that. Think about that. God had said, I'm going before you. I'm with you. Wheresoever you go, I will not leave you nor forsake you. And that no man will be able to stand against you in this conquest. And what we immediately have, first scene out of the gates, after the great commission, if you will, of chapter 1, The first scene is the example of Rahab to energize the people as to what it looks like to be bold and courageous. To follow with renewed zeal his promises. And what that looks like in the kingdom and in the church. So I want to look with you this morning at this example briefly of Rahab's boldness and her faith and then her deliverance. So if you're a note taker, there you go. Boldness and faith and deliverance. are the themes I'm working with here to encourage us in the same as the kind of bold faith that pleases God. Israel is about to enter the land and we pick up where we left off where the previous generation had failed. Remember? Spies had been sent out and the people had cowered in the first sending of the spies you'll remember that even in numbers 13 the lord had commanded this send me um moses the lord spoke to moses saying send to spy out the land of canaan send men to spy out the land of canaan which i'm giving to the people a command had been given send the spies remember what happened they came back oh this land it's it's full of milk and honey it's full of fruit. It's amazing. We're getting the land, but the giants are there. The Canaanites are strong. Sons of Anak are there. We can't beat them. Well, you remember what happened. Probably the most important event in Numbers 13 and 14 was what Hebrews picked up as we've been looking at the rebellion the rebellion in the wilderness and we'll come back to that new generation that generation has died fresh young generation in front of us they need to be renewed in the promises they've been renewed in the promises God has raised up leadership among them who are going to go out and fight but something needs fixed something needs fixed so obviously joshua keeping president and honoring the book of the moses of moses that's what was just said you are to follow what the book of moses says joshua sends out the spies again believing divine command and some would say that's wrong but i i can't get away from the original intention of god's command why did god send out the spies to test them and to encourage them that they would look to him so the spies are sent out and they come to the first city of Canaan which is Jericho a long history of Jericho in Jesus day a very important city a notoriously wicked city a military outpost that sat right on the border of the land with atrocious evils here's where I think we've read the narrative so much in our lives it'd be really fun to have someone hear this for the first time as opposed to us hearing it over and over and over over the years that it loses its effect. The first thing that is said is they come to the house of a prostitute. Stop. Did you hear this? What language do you need to use today to communicate this a whore see that gets a little more offensive doesn't it a little more uncomfortable somebody who makes their living selling their body for sex this has led many uh to question the integrity of the men as they have suggested that their commission began with a stopover at the prostitute's house and i don't think that's fair to the intention of the narrative at all and what's going on here. The Lord had just promised He's going to go before them in divine providence and lead them. And isn't it something that God chooses a prostitute to bring them to right up front? We'll come back to that. Reports come. The men of Israel have come to search out the land and the cities of Canaan were obviously on high alert because there are millions of people standing at the border and as we'll see, they've all heard about the God of Israel. They are in great fear and in trepidation knowing that the God of Israel is coming, not Israel. The king sends to Rahab and demands that she bring out the men who had come to her. But immediately the author here grabs and focuses on the actions of Rahab. We're told that she hid them. And then when having given answer to them, true, the men came out to me, but I didn't know where they came from. So when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I don't know where they went. Pursue them quickly. Now I'm not spending my time on the vast amount of discussion here as to whether this lie was just. I really think that we've spent so much time answering that we've missed the narrative itself um i do believe in the beneficent lie and um i don't believe there's a shred of evidence that is presented in scripture that she's doing something wrong here in the way that the new testament treats her but you can disagree with me on that point i really don't want you stuck there for a minute i think it's important to see how the text and the scripture showcase her faith and boldness she feared god and so she had taken them and she had hidden them in the stalks of flax on the roof and then sent the men on a wild goose chase into the wilderness i mean it's kind of funny in some ways when you come to a text like this you always have to stop and ask why is god revealing it if you don't get to the why of God's revealing it you miss you miss the purpose of what's happening and why a glorious story like this that's so well known in the history of the church is so important for the church what's been Israel's problem beloved no courage no faith remember what they said all the reports the Canaanites are too strong why is the Lord bringing us into the land to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will become prey. Choose another leader. We're going back. That's not bold. That's not courageous. Now think of the scenario. A little prostitute in defense of Israel just stood up to the entire king of Jericho. who unjustly wanted to murder them. Do you know what would have happened to her if she would have been found out? If the men said, we don't believe you. Jericho's a military outpost. Had she been found out, she would have been dragged out in the middle of the city square. She would have been tortured to death, limbs pulled off and made an example because this prostitute wasn't worth a little penny to anyone. Now, do you see the tie? Be bold and courageous, Israel. What an example to an entire generation of Israelites who had seen the mighty works of the Lord and who were cowering before the enemy and who were slothful and apathetic to everything. They seemed to have entirely forgotten that it was not because it was their righteousness that God decided to pull them up out of Egypt, but that he had decided to show them mercy for his namesake. listen to me, Rahab just stood against the whole world as she knew it. This is contramundum at its best. Against the world. Isn't it interesting that God would pick a prostitute for that? The worst of sinners to demonstrate before Israel what contramundum looks like? i'm not sure how many times god has inspired in his word do not fear you know i didn't do the count this week if some of you are bored you can try it i don't think you'll make it next week it's everywhere god is our refuge and our strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear. The reason God wants us absent of all fear and anxiety is precisely because he's with us. And because he's absolutely sovereign over the events of human life. And because everything that happens is under his divine control. And that nothing happens apart from His will. And to trust Him looks like this. I know of none of us who have been in quite a situation like this, so it's kind of easy to picket Rahab a little bit here for figuring out the lie. But it's the courage the Scriptures are looking at. It's the faith the Scriptures are looking at and the willingness of this little prostitute to fear God. Right now, we're almost faced every day with whether we'll believe God's word to be true. You know, that's our day. We're really tested with it and to listen to him. And the church faces a huge test in all of these movements and ideologies that are coming at us right now. We've talked about human sexuality. It's truly a Nebuchadnezzar in moment. An image has been set up in the culture. You will bow to it or else. What does bold and courageous faith look like? It's in the surprising statements that she makes. What's driving her? Verse 8 says, Before the men lay down, she came to the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. I have heard. We heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you came out of Egypt. And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no spirit left in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Wow. I mean, you should stop and say, wow. What a testimony. What's driving her? Faith. Beloved, what did she have? She didn't have the church to come to every week and listen to sermons. She didn't have the gospel like you have it preached to you. She didn't have a covenant made with her and her family of the God of heaven and earth that included her and her children. she didn't have Sunday school teachers to train her in the faith all the way back from the earliest of days her parents were pagans she didn't have godly parents to raise her she didn't have the Bible to read she didn't have I mean just go down like the Christian school she didn't have spiritual blessings none of it but I know is that the Lord has given you the land. We've heard He did all these wonderful things for you. See the connection? What was Israel's entire attitude to God and His worship? Apathy, indifference, sloth. They wanted to be entertained, unbelief. They could barely get to worship. They didn't fear Him. And they saw it all with their eyes. The Red Sea heaped up in front of them. What nation on earth had ever seen such things like that? I know. With what little resource she had. Never seeing any of it. Listen to this. I know that the Lord your God is the God of heaven and earth. He made everything. He made all us. He created everything that we're living under and in. He's the only true God. This shining example meant so much to the New Testament authors that she makes it into the hall of faith. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given friendly welcome to the spies because she believed. In the same way, James, was not Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? What is the conclusion? That boldness was a great fruit of faith. Even faith is of a mustard seed. But look at what it accomplished. Isn't this just what John said? This is the victory that overcomes the whole world, our faith. This is the fear of the Lord at its best. Because you're believing every circumstance is so under the sovereign control of God that you cannot move or be moved, that your decisions will be based on what the Psalm 16 says, I've always set the Lord before me. He's always going before me. He's directing all of it. So, I will follow, I will believe, I will trust. And that's your God, beloved. Listen to me, that's your God. The God of our fathers. The God of our childhood. The God who has always been with us. And the God who's done all these wonderful things, who split the Red Sea in the death of His Son putting him on the cross for you so that you might live the God who loves you? It's your hard heart that's in the way. Why do those who've been given everything often are the last ones to realize it? Isn't that a fair question? Do you realize who stands with you? Realize who's with you. When I was in college, there was a famous activist named Julia Butterfly Hill. I'm curious if anyone knows about her. She was up in Humboldt County. In her protest of clear-cutting, she went up into a tree and she named it Luna. I've told this story before. She married the tree. She worshipped the tree. She lived in that tree in devotion for two years. in the top of a little tree. Storms almost blew her off. Luna was the tree name. Scenario, it would be just like God to save someone like Butterfly and put her right in the middle of the church and somebody who would have no fear vocally standing with the Lord and confronting the world of all of its idolatries and serving the creature rather than the creator. To wake up a church that's asleep in devotion to him. Quiet about idolatry because it fears the world. Look at the faith of a harlot who had nothing. The most defiled of sinners who was willing to lose everything because she feared the God of Israel. I'm going to close with one more point and then we'll come to the table. Short point. She is an example of boldness. She's an example of faith. She's an example of deliverance. She asked this next. This is a really fascinating moment. Would you make a covenant with me and my household? Can I please be in the covenant? Is there a way for me and my household to be brought into Israel? A lot of people have questioned how these men could have made a covenant with a Canaanite since Moses specifically commanded against it? I think the answer's simple. God not only directed them to her. What's clear here? She's not a Canaanite. What do I mean by that? She's a true Jew. In other words, she has the inward circumcision of the heart. Her honoring of her covenant commitment proved it. She's the prototype of what God would do for you. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. Look at God's love for her. She lets down the spies out of the roof and says, go into the hills for three days. And they say, well, if you keep your promise not to reveal us, we'll come back into the land and here's what you are to do. You're to take this little scarlet cord and you are to hang it from your house. attach it to your house knowing you and your family are inside but when we come they can't go outside or else we'll destroy but we'll look for the scarlet cord that's familiar isn't it that's how israel was saved when god's wrath came upon egypt they had to paint blood on the door post of their house and they had to stay inside and when the angel destroyer passed over they and their household and their children were not destroyed and they hand her a red brilliant colored cord and say attach it so much so when they come they looked at the red and they said they're spared joshua six will say rahab the prostitute in her father's household her and her children all belong to yeshua i'm quoting yeshua saved them and she lives with israel to this day joshua six a good report comes back to joshua the lord's given the land into our hands and all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us. You know, God gets absolutely assaulted in our day from all the wise men of our times for the harem warfare here. God wiping out Canaanites. You know why? Because few believe in judgment anymore. None will escape the judgment apart from faith. But what's the shining thing that happens in the opening scene of Jericho that everyone should be talking about? That God showed mercy and saved a prostitute and her family and brought her into his covenant as a whole prototype of what would happen and a type of what would happen when the fullness of the Gentiles would come in. Is there any coincidence that as Israel rejected Jesus that his first act of deliverance would be to a foreigner, a woman, meeting a woman at the well who was a prostitute? You've had five husbands. By all definitions, the Jews would have said that. When Jesus told the parable about entering his kingdom, he said Israel made excuses and wouldn't come in. This good man who threw the feast. This really good man. Invited them. Come into the feast. And they all said. We're too busy with life. That's shown today in people who don't have any heart to worship the king. Too busy with life. We're making money. Don't burden us with the invitation. And then he said. go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. None of those could get there on their own. And then Jesus made an application at one point. Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you, O Israel. So what does Rahab do us? Depends. Rahab's a warning to those who refuse to live by faith. In his promises who have everything. And God extends out his hands and he says, Come to me. Believe. Join my feast. Join the kingdom. We're crossing over. We're going to the promised land. Come along. But Rahab is a great encouragement to great sinners. To those who really struggle. To those who feel like living in this world, they don't know how to do it. This is the kind of faith that overcomes the world. So believe. Trust Him. And look to this great example that God encourages us. God does this all over the Scriptures with women to encourage us. Think of the one who said, Mary, she will be a memorial to all. join the feast we should study rahab and see what it means to be bold and courageous and see the kind of faith that pleases god and god's willingness to save to himself sinners great sinners prostitutes whores who've by far missed the mark and guess what That's all of us. But who will respond to such a great salvation with faith and love and fear? Fear of God. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word to us today and thank you for encouraging us with this marvelous story. Help us, O Lord, to be believing. Wake us up out of apathy and dullness to your promises and let us see who is with us, who has blessed us, who has fed us, who has given us everything in Christ. May we come to the table now with boldness, knowing that you are feeding our souls with the true bread from heaven. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.