SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Eric, for that testimony and that song.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's what we're going to look at today.
SPEAKER_01: So if you'll turn we it in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 2 as we continue our study on Joshua, we're going to study a story that tracks along with that testimony and the words of that song.
SPEAKER_01: And as we've been singing this morning just about how good it is that God, through his mercy and grace, saves us and provides salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see one of the most beautiful pictures in the Old Testament of what salvation looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to see this that God's eternal purpose is redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And it is all throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It is all woven throughout the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: The Old Testament is the story of bringing Jesus as the Savior to the world.
SPEAKER_01: The Gospels are the story that Jesus came, died, and rose again, conquering death and sin.
SPEAKER_01: And the books of the New Testament after that are how the gospel is spread and how we live in victory with Him as our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Here in the book of Joshua, chapter 2, we're going to see the story of Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you've been in church any amount of time, you've probably heard of Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible story.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason that it is very famous and one of the most famous stories in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It is filled with intrigue, it's filled with spies and all kinds of stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great story, but it is also one of the most beautiful pictures of redemption through faith in the Lord and his plan of redemption that you will see in all of Scripture, the Old Testament or the New.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to read with me here, beginning in chapter 2, verse 1, and we're going to read through this entire chapter.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that long, but I want to make sure that we get all of this incredible story.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua, the son of Nun, of course, we know that Joshua is the leader now of the children of Israel, after Moses has gone to be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that secretly he sent two men as spies from the Akasha grove, saying, Go and scout the land, especially Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is an important part of the book of Joshua here.
SPEAKER_01: As you know, if you've been in Scripture or we've talked about the last couple of weeks as we've begun this story, Joshua is a unique character in this redemption story.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible, if you'll remember, tells us that the children of Israel lived in Egypt in bondage, and God raised up Moses as his leader to lead the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: He through all that stuff with Pharaoh and the plagues and all that business, probably felt a little bit last night in the river valley, like Old Testament sort of, you know, plagues and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: He leads them out of bondage and he leads them to the Jordan River, which is a barrier, geographic barrier of the land of Canaan in this Old Testament time.
SPEAKER_01: There they park and camp on the banks of the Jordan River, and Moses calls out twelve men to be spies.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua and another man, Caleb, are two of those spies.
SPEAKER_01: They go in, just as Joshua has done here, to spy out the land.
SPEAKER_01: And if you know the story, what happens is they come back and they describe the land of Canaan being every bit as blessed as God said it would be.
SPEAKER_01: It was the land that flows with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells a story about they picked grapes off the vines, and they were so huge that men would have a tree in between them.
SPEAKER_01: So I would have on my shoulder, and someone would be in front, and the grapes would be hanging in the middle, and it would bow the tree trunk they were using to carry them.
SPEAKER_01: It was breathtakingly fertile.
SPEAKER_01: It was an incredible place to live.
SPEAKER_01: All twelve gave testimony of that.
SPEAKER_01: But then the ten told the children of Israel, listen, there are giants in that land, and we cannot get in.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot defeat them.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to die if we go into there, into that land, and we try to conquer that land.
SPEAKER_01: We are just not able to do that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he says, we're like grasshoppers compared to those giants.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua and Caleb, those two men, they disagreed with that.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Listen, people, God is on our side, and if God is forced, no one can be against us.
SPEAKER_01: Do not let your hearts be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: God has promised us this land.
SPEAKER_01: It is filled with his blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go get what God has promised us.
SPEAKER_01: But those ten men, the Bible says, they made the heart of the people melt.
SPEAKER_01: And in and in a lack of faith, they step back from the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_01: They say, We're not going in.
SPEAKER_01: And God then judges that generation of Israelites and says, You will wander in the wilderness for forty years.
SPEAKER_01: I will raise up your children and I will teach them faith and to follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And then forty years later they come back to the banks of the Jordan River where we find them now.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua, one of those two spies, is now in charge of the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He is God's anointed leader.
SPEAKER_01: And his time he has learned from the past.
SPEAKER_01: There were two spies who were faithful.
SPEAKER_01: So Joshua sends two spies into the land.
SPEAKER_01: No more twelve, none of the other ten.
SPEAKER_01: These are two men, and he sends them in as a matter of faith to go and to spy out the land.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible also says they're going to specifically spy out the land of Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you look at a land map of the nation of Israel at that time, if you crossed over the Jordan River, there was one major highway that ran through a valley right in the middle of the nation, and Jericho was the fort city established on the crossroads that you would need to go north or south or east or west in the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: And so it is a fortress city blocking their way.
SPEAKER_01: But even more than that, God is establishing the pattern of how this is going to work.
SPEAKER_01: He is going to lead his children and he is explaining to us in a spiritual way the picture of what is going to happen as they go into the land and as he leads his people to the inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And so it really sets up a type and a picture and a pattern for us to follow throughout the book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to read with me as we continue to read in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: So they left, these two men, and as they sneak their way into the city of Jericho, the Bible says they came to the house of a woman, a prostitute named Rahab, and stayed there.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there are modern people who have tried to somehow make this like she was an innkeeper or something like that, and most of the scholarship says it is exactly what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: She was a prostitute.
SPEAKER_01: And in those days, sometimes those things were mixed.
SPEAKER_01: This is also sort of the red light district of the city, obviously.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're spies and you're sneaking in to spy out the city, this is going to be the area where you would go, where you would want to hide and not be found.
SPEAKER_01: And so they find their way there, and they find their way to this hostess of ill repute, if you will, a woman named Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: And she they stay with her.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see that in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: So the fact that these men have snuck in and spied in, someone has found it, something fishing going on.
SPEAKER_01: They go to the king of this fortress city and they tell him what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: And so you see this intrigue begin to play out.
SPEAKER_01: The king of Jericho was told, look, some of the Israelite men have come here tonight to investigate the land.
SPEAKER_01: So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: They suspect that these men are there.
SPEAKER_01: This is the place that you would look for spies to hide out if you were doing that.
SPEAKER_01: He sends word to Rahab and he says, Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they came to investigate the entire land.
SPEAKER_01: But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
SPEAKER_01: So she said, Yes, those men did come to me, but I didn't know where they were from.
SPEAKER_01: At nightfall, when the gate was about to close, the men, they went out, and I don't know where they were going.
SPEAKER_01: If you hurry up and chase after them quickly, you can catch up with them.
SPEAKER_01: So in other words, she's lying.
SPEAKER_01: And there's been some discussion about this whole thing, whether she's lying or not, or whatever, but let's continue to walk through this and we'll talk through some of those things.
SPEAKER_01: She had taken these men up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had arranged on the roof.
SPEAKER_01: The men from Jericho pursued these guys, they took her advice, went running out of the city, and they pursued them along the roads to the fords of the Jordan River, because they figured they must be going back to the children of Israel on the other side of the river.
SPEAKER_01: And as soon as they left to pursue them, the gate to the city was shut.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't not aware of that, cities like this often were built as a fortress, and the main homes of the people and the merchants and all of that were inside the city, and they would even build houses along the edge of the wall that surrounded the city, and it was for protection against raiders and other people groups in that time.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8 before the men fell asleep, she went up to the roof and she said to them, Now listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the twelve spies forty years ago, the heart of the people melted because they were afraid of the quote giants.
SPEAKER_01: She said to these men, I know that the Lord has given you this land, and the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you, the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sion and Og, the two Amorite kings, you completely destroyed across the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone's courage failed because of you.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God is in heaven above and on earth below.
SPEAKER_01: Now what happened to the weird grasshoppers in the lie in light of the giants?
SPEAKER_01: Here you have the people of God with the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: Forty years ago, they come to the Jordan River, they look over into the land, they send these spies out, they know God has promised them, they see the blessings of all that, and they are terrified because they don't have enough faith in their Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the pagan nations in Jericho and the surrounding areas around Canaan, they had more faith in the God of Israel than the Israelites had.
SPEAKER_01: It's always struck me as incredible that the people of God in that moment did not understand that when God had given them victories, he had projected that through the land of Canaan and was paving the way as a part of his provision and protection for his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me just, I don't have time to park on this point, but just let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: How many times have you missed a moment because you weren't trusting of the Lord's provision?
SPEAKER_01: How many times has God called you to witness to someone, to share a testimony with someone?
SPEAKER_01: How many times has he called you to teach a Sunday school class, to get involved in church?
SPEAKER_01: How many times has he placed a moment in front of you to live for him?
SPEAKER_01: And we backed away in fear because we were looking at the circumstances from our perspective instead of as a matter of faith, looking at everything around us as the people of God through the promises and provision of God?
SPEAKER_01: How many times do we back away?
SPEAKER_01: How many times do we not step out in faith?
SPEAKER_01: How many times do we slow down or hesitate because we are not placing faith in the plans that God has put in front of us?
SPEAKER_01: And you see that played out here.
SPEAKER_01: And now when these men come, can you imagine what they think?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: My mom and dad made us grow up 40 years in the wilderness, and they were terrified of us all along.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible when you see that.
SPEAKER_01: So she makes this profession that because God has put his thumbprint on all these victories, and because he has been guiding his people, that she has recognized the gods that we worship here are not the true gods.
SPEAKER_01: The God of Israel is the true God, and I'm going to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12, now please swear to me by the Lord that you will also show kindness to my family, because I have showed kindness to you.
SPEAKER_01: Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my mother, father, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death.
SPEAKER_01: The men answered her, We give our lives for yours.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't report our mission, we will show kindness and faithfulness to you when the Lord gives us the land.
SPEAKER_01: Then she let them down by a rope through the window, since she lived in a house that was built into the wall of the city.
SPEAKER_01: So her house abutted up against the wall, and she goes into a window and drops them down outside the wall, and they're able to escape.
SPEAKER_01: She says to them, Hide yourselves there for three days until they return.
SPEAKER_01: Afterward, go on your way.
SPEAKER_01: The men said to her, We will be free from this oath.
SPEAKER_01: You made us swear, unless when we enter this land, when they come to conquer the city of Jericho, you tie a scarlet cord to the window through which you let us down.
SPEAKER_01: Bring your father, mother, brothers, and all your father's family into your house.
SPEAKER_01: If any one goes out the doors of the house, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be innocent.
SPEAKER_01: But if anyone with you in the house should be harmed, his blood will be on our heads.
SPEAKER_01: And if we report our mission, we are free from the oath you have made us swear.
SPEAKER_01: Let it be as you say, she replied, and she sent them away.
SPEAKER_01: And after they had gone, she tied the scorlet scarlet cord to the window.
SPEAKER_01: So the two men went into the hill country, and they stayed there three days until the pursuers had returned.
SPEAKER_01: They searched all along the way, but did not find the spies.
SPEAKER_01: Then the men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_01: They went to Joshua, son of Nun, and reported everything that had happened to them, and they told Joshua, The Lord has handed over the entire land to us.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who lives in the land is also panicking because of us.
SPEAKER_01: And they report, as Joshua and Caleb did, they report in a way that builds the faith of the people, and prepare them in a few chapters to go across the Jordan River and to attack the city of Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: And as you know, if you've been in church any amount of time, you know what they did.
SPEAKER_01: They go there, and God tells them, You're gonna for seven days walk around the wall of the city of Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: On the seventh day, you're gonna walk around seven times, and you're gonna shout, you're gonna blow trumpets, and God's gonna bring the walls down, and you're gonna go conquer the city.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us in chapter six, when they do that, makes it very clear that Joshua affirmed the agreement and the oath that these men had made.
SPEAKER_01: He instructed all the people before they went in to conquer the city of Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: You are to look for Rahab and her family, you are to find the scarlet cord in the window, and you are to rescue them.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says they even sent some men in specifically for the purpose of rescuing them because of this oath.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me show you just a couple of things here from this story.
SPEAKER_01: It's an incredible picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing I want you to see is that God's redemption plan is woven through the entirety of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: This is an Old Testament picture of salvation through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: All throughout Scripture, you have not only prophecies of Jesus, but you have pictures of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You have stories that are told and events that happen that God orchestrates in such a way that they illustrate salvation.
SPEAKER_01: For example, the Ark, Noah and the Ark.
SPEAKER_01: The Ark is an Old Testament picture of salvation in Jesus and how we're saved.
SPEAKER_01: Events in the life of Moses are places where we see layered in the pictures of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: If you know the story of Abraham, God promised in his old age that he would let him have a son miraculously, a picture of Jesus' miraculous birth.
SPEAKER_01: That son was Isaac born to Abraham and his wife Sarah in their old age.
SPEAKER_01: There's a story later on in Abraham's life when Isaac was a young man that God tells him to go up into the mountains and sacrifice Isaac to him.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes and takes him up to the mountain and he lays him on an altar, and he is about to sacrifice him as a picture of Jesus dying for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And then God provides a ram in the thicket there.
SPEAKER_01: And he, Abraham and Isaac, take the ram and they sacrifice that ram to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And again, it's a picture of the provision of Jesus of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: All throughout Scripture, you see that.
SPEAKER_01: This story right here is yet another picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at the ways that is in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what's important about it.
SPEAKER_01: As we study this moving into the land of Canaan, as New Testament Christians, we understand this is an Old Testament picture of how we receive Christ as our Savior and how we live the abundant life that Jesus has promised us through salvation.
SPEAKER_01: God has orchestrated this entry into the land of Canaan to teach his people what he's doing, to teach his people what they're about.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first battle and moment as they walk into the land of Canaan, and so that all of the generations after Israel who would read this, all of them would see and understand that is a prophecy of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: The Messiah is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And as they live as New Testament Christians and look back and study the Old Testament and see these pictures of Jesus, they realize what it means that God has done and He's been faithful and provided salvation.
SPEAKER_01: As they enter into the land of Canaan, it is important to understand that God orchestrated a redemption story as a part of the first victory of entering the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: Also, you see the authority of the spies to offer redemption to this woman.
SPEAKER_01: These two men are selected because they are men of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Joshua has learned the issues that they face, learned from the issues they faced the first time with the twelve men.
SPEAKER_01: This time, because two were faithful, he picks two and he sends them in as trusted men of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And they understand why they are going into the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: They understand the mission of the children of Israel is to go into the land of Canaan, and there God is going to establish them as a nation to bring the promised Messiah to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And because that happens when they find this woman and she professes that she has rejected the gods of her people and have as trusted in the God of Israel and Jehovah God, they understand in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: This is faith in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We are here to show what faith in the Lord looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And so they understand in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: And there on the fly, make this oath of redemption for her because ultimately they know that we are here to be a part of God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible when you see that picture.
SPEAKER_01: And then we understand that judgment, as God pronounces judgment on the people of Jericho and on the evil nations of Canaan, we understand that they are being judged because they have rejected God.
SPEAKER_01: Look, it is very clear in her testimony here that the people in that city of Jericho, and by extension, you can see the reactions of other nations in Israel, those pagan nations.
SPEAKER_01: You can see she understands that God is God.
SPEAKER_01: She understands that he has put his thumbprint and protected his people and provided.
SPEAKER_01: The others, they reject God as God.
SPEAKER_01: And they cling to the evil gods that they worshiped in that pagan nation.
SPEAKER_01: There are times that people talk about this, especially in today's culture in light of recent events, saying, Man, I just don't understand the God of the Old Testament that He would just cause genocide with all those people.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, as we walk through the book of Joshua, we will.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about that some more, but understand this.
SPEAKER_01: These are pagan nations, and their worship is vile.
SPEAKER_01: They are killing and sacrificing babies and children and sexual promiscuity and temple prostitutes and just the worst form of evil as a part of their culture and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And so what you're finding as God brings his children in, his plan is redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And when you see folks like this, like Rahab, who are not Israelites by birth or by nationality or by race, and yet they turn to the God of Israel and the God of redemption, you see God's grace and He forgives and draws them in and brings them in.
SPEAKER_01: You have lots of Gentile folks, if you want to use that term, non-Israelites, who are brought into the family of God as they acknowledge and repent him.
SPEAKER_01: And it is the nations that attack the children of Israel and they blaspheme the name of God and they take these horrible forms of worship and they are in evil, and God is judging evil and removing it as a picture of what he does through salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And here, as you see this city of Jericho and their rejection of God, it reminds us that God judges sin.
SPEAKER_01: That all of us are sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice, and that God must, as a holy God, judge sin.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, in that work of judging, sin is always the redemptive work and heart of God to forgive those who turn to Him.
SPEAKER_01: Truth number two, I want you to see how this story is layered with pictures of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: It is incredible the pictures of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, the very name Joshua, as the leader of the children of Israel, moving into the promised land, which represents for us the abundant life in Christ, and we know Jesus our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua's Old Testament name is Jesus in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same name, and it means Yahweh or God saves, or God is our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You see the covenant of the two spies.
SPEAKER_01: How read again with me how they say this in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: When she calls out to them to save her family because of the kindness she has given and the profession she has made that the God of Israel is God, they say, We give our lives for yours.
SPEAKER_01: Is that not the covenant of salvation with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: He gave his life for us on the cross so that we could be saved.
SPEAKER_01: When we take the Lord's Supper in our church like we did a few weeks ago, we hear Jesus say, This is the covenant in my blood, which was shed for you.
SPEAKER_01: And salvation is God's promise through the shed blood of Jesus who gave his life for us.
SPEAKER_01: And you hear the nature of this oath and covenant they make.
SPEAKER_01: It is a picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: They tell her, take this scarlet cord and hang it from the window.
SPEAKER_01: And when we see this scarlet cord, we will know that you are protected by this oath.
SPEAKER_01: This scarlet cord.
SPEAKER_01: Why was it not purple?
SPEAKER_01: Why was it not gold?
SPEAKER_01: Why was it not blue?
SPEAKER_01: Why was it not white?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus shed his blood for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And this cord is scarlet and it represents the shed blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You see Rahab's complete redemption that occurs.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: At Christmas time, we talk about it, but sometimes we miss it when we're looking at these other stories.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us in the very lineage of Jesus that Rahab marries into a tribe of Israel, becomes an Israelite, and her children and her children's children and the generations come down, and Jesus flows through the lineage of Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: What an one of the most beautiful pictures of salvation that there is in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: That this woman whose life was spent in a place of judgment as a prostitute and all of that, here when she confesses her faith in the Lord God and he sends these men and she is redeemed, she is so completely redeemed that God adopts her and places her as a picture of redemption in the very lineage of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the most beautiful pictures in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, even when you get to the walls of Jericho and they march for seven days around the walls of Jericho, one time the first six, on the seventh, seven times.
SPEAKER_01: The number seven in Scripture represents the number of completeness.
SPEAKER_01: It is God's work to step in and complete his work, his intervention to complete his work.
SPEAKER_01: It starts with creation when he speaks and creates for six days, and the Bible says on the seventh he rests.
SPEAKER_01: And then you begin to see that.
SPEAKER_01: So here what you're getting in this moment where they enter, God is making the statement, I am completing my promise, and I am intervening in this plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: This story is chopped full of these layers of redemption so that we understand from the very first moment the children of Israel walk into the land of Canaan, this is a part of God's plan to bring the Messiah and the Redeemer into the world.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, let's just look at her salvation testimony.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we talk about how to share your testimony here.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're telling someone about how you met Jesus, how you become a how you became a Christian, we talk about it in this way: this is who I was before I met Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is how I met Jesus, and this is who I am after I, Jesus, has saved me and what he's done in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Who I was before I met Jesus, how I met Jesus, and who I am after Jesus has saved me.
SPEAKER_01: You can take that very same picture of a testimony and you can apply it here in the life of Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: Watch this beautiful picture of salvation in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, this is what Jesus came to do for you.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, you see God's plan in leading spies to her.
SPEAKER_01: Was it an accident they showed up at Rahab's house?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and he knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says not that we loved him first, but he first loved us and gave himself to be the payment for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: When you put those together, what that means is Jesus knew you before you were formed.
SPEAKER_01: He had a plan for your life all along.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus brought these men into her life to give her the opportunity to place her faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He brought them there as messengers of Him and His redemption to work in her lives and to be that tool that bring her into the family of God.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, it is not an accident that you are hearing the gospel today.
SPEAKER_01: If you tune in on television or you're on the internet or you're here, it is not an accident that you are hearing the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: God has placed you here and He placed these songs and the testimony that Eric has and this particular passage of scripture focused on redemption in your life to call you to trust in him as your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you've given your life to Christ, it is because Jesus pursued you and loved you and came to save you.
SPEAKER_01: He placed in front of you the picture of his redemption and the message of salvation and told you how much he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit comes into our minds and thoughts and he helps us understand, listen, I know you think you're alone, but Jesus loves you, and if you'll trust him as your Savior, he'll never forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: We may have this moment of guilt and we're struggling with guilt and we don't know what to do with it.
SPEAKER_01: And it is this picture of salvation and the message of the gospel that God orchestrates to bring into your life, and the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and says, Listen, give me that guilt.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're hurting, but Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you hear the gospel because God brings it into your life and into your path.
SPEAKER_01: And it is an incredible picture of the grace of God that He brings these men into Rahab's life so they can she can understand and learn what faith in God means.
SPEAKER_01: And here you see this sense of repentance in her life.
SPEAKER_01: Again, she says, When we heard about all that God had done for you as people, we lost heart and everyone's courage failed because of you, for your God is God in heaven, in heaven above and on earth below.
SPEAKER_01: She recognizes what we're doing in Jericho is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: What they told me about those gods is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm seeing people do, it is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: This life that we live here, it is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And I know it is because I see the picture and the work of the one true God.
SPEAKER_01: And she repents of her past, and she repents of those pagan gods that she had grown up being trained to follow, and she commits her life to these men in a way that she risks her life for them.
SPEAKER_01: Then you see the promise of the spies.
SPEAKER_01: And again, we talked about the nature of that covenant, their lives for hers.
SPEAKER_01: And they commit their lives to be for her.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, what you see is a picture of Jesus in this statement, our lives for yours.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think they go hide for three days and nights in the woods before they go back?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's an Old Testament picture of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection on Easter morning on the third day.
SPEAKER_01: Then you see her act of trust to place the scarlet cord in the window.
SPEAKER_01: She trusted in the promise of God, in the redemption of God, in the promise to save her and her house because of her act of giving her life and risking her life and surrendering all to them.
SPEAKER_01: She placed all of her future and hope in the promise of these men, and she hung that scarlet cord, which is a picture of what we do when we give our lives to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: When you come to place your faith in Christ, you do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: She charted the entire course of her family and her future by hiding these spies.
SPEAKER_01: When you give your life to Christ, you take everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be, and you give it all to Jesus Christ, and now it is all his and is not your life anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You have taken everything that you know and you have placed it all in front of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You have surrendered your life to him because you recognize that he gave his life for you.
SPEAKER_01: And you then trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to pay the price for your sins.
SPEAKER_01: When she did that, she was redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible makes it clear.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua sent those men in chapter 6 to bring her family out and redeem them because of her faith in God and the covenant of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And as we talked about, not only she wasn't just tolerated when they took her in, they took her and her family in, and they loved them, and they she married a Jewish man and had Jewish children, and down through those generations, God grafts her into the very lineage of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater affirmation of the abundant life in Christ in the extent of that salvation, of what it means when you place your faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask you this morning, is that what you see?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever given your life to Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Have you charted your course and you have placed your life on his because he gave his life for you?
SPEAKER_01: Have you said, listen, I know that all those things I used to think, all those things I used to do, all those things, man, there is nothing but death there, and Jesus is the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And I am going to place my hope and trust for all of my future on the person of Jesus and what he did for me when he died for me on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever repented of your sin and say, Lord, I know all of that stuff I was doing?
SPEAKER_01: It's the wrong direction.
SPEAKER_01: Life only rests with you, and I commit myself with you as my Lord to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever trusted Christ as your Savior?
SPEAKER_01: If not, in just a moment, I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_01: God's people are going to stand and sing, and we're going to invite you to come in and give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you're already a believer, if you're a follower of Christ already, listen, I pray that it's been a blessing and an encouragement to you to walk back through the power of what God did when He saved you, the extent to which He loved you, the mercy that He applied in your life through the blood of Jesus, as Eric and the choir sang about.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I want to encourage you this week to rest in the truth and the depth of what it means that Jesus saved you and let it change your focus for your future.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to bow your heads.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, in a moment we're going to stand and sing.
SPEAKER_01: Pastors will be at the head of our aisles.
SPEAKER_01: I want to invite you to come and to trust Jesus and to give Him your life.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you for this moment.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for this picture.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for how clearly you will not let us miss the message of redemption and your redemptive work here in this book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: That we see and can project all throughout Scripture the coming of Jesus and the promise of salvation through him.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray this morning if there's someone who's never been saved, that you will use these incredible pictures in Scripture that only you could write to draw them to you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray, my brothers and sisters in Christ, you will challenge, encourage, and excite us moving forward with your incredible mercy and grace.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we pray these things in the saving name of Jesus and all God's people say.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.