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FEBRUARY 18, 2024

GOD ON MISSION

JOSHUA 2
REV. MICHAEL DENSMOOR                   SERIES: UNSHAKEABLE

The transcript below has been slightly edited to make it easier for reading.

Father, we ask that You might bless our meditation of Your Word, that it might now penetrate our hearts and be food for our souls. As we struggle and live in this world, we need to hear from You be strengthened by You. Father, we ask now that You might speak and that we might listen, that You would work in our hearts. We commit these next few moments in Your hands. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen. 

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Last night, I had some ministry in another part of Jakarta. I was driving through the city and realized again how much Jakarta has changed. I remember when I first arrived in Jakarta more than 30 years ago, what a large and overwhelming city this was. Well, in this time of 30 years plus, Jakarta has more than doubled in size. As I drive through the city, I see roads, buildings, and bridges that used to not be there when I came and certainly people that weren't even born yet. You start to feel old when people ask you for example, “How long have you lived in Indonesia?” and I say, “Longer than you have.” Then I start realizing, “I've been here a while…” Actually, I've been here longer than most of you have been here in Indonesia! I realize that the world is changing. A lot is happening. 

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When I reflect on the church and my ministry over 30 years, I wonder what impact have I had. I left America and came all the way to Indonesia because God called me to bring the Gospel to the people of this country. After 30 plus years of giving everything I've had to working as hard as humanly possible, to praying as much as I can pray, have we even made a dent? Has what I've done had an impact at all on this country? 

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Oftentimes, I struggle with this voice in my heart. I think this passage today is a passage that helps answer this question. It's very easy for us, as Christians, to take one of two approaches. Either this is “Mission Impossible”: Jesus gave the Great Commission to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel, but it's “Mission Impossible,” so I'm just going to go through this life, cause no ripples, get to the end, have a nice Christian family, with a nice Christian income, with a nice Christian ministry, and just be finished and nice. 

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The other response is a lot of people try to pour themselves fully into it and say, “I'm going to impact this world for Christ,” and they end up becoming discouraged because it seems like the other side's winning. When you go to work or your high school on Monday morning, does it seem like the other side's winning? Does it seem like the Gospel isn’t impacting the world the way we were promised it would or the way we thought it would? 

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I think when we reflect on the words of Scripture here, there’s a message that is given to us to comfort us. God has birthed you in this age, at this time of history to be His witness and representatives. He's placed us here for this purpose. It's not “Mission Impossible,” it's just “Mission according to God's timing, not according to your schedule.” I want us to reflect on what does it mean to be unshakable Christians, to have this unshakable faith despite the opposition, despite the things our eyes might be seeing and telling us, “The world is winning. Satan's kingdom is winning.” 

 

What I want you to do is look with eyes of faith, because what we see is that God has already gone before us. God has already prepared the way, the harvest, and His kingdom that is coming amongst us. Today I want us to look at what kind of faith an unshakable Christian has. An unshakable Christian realizes that he is a man or woman on mission with God. Our God is a god who's on mission. 

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Joshua is relating this account of how the people are entering the Promised Land. After chapter one, where they begin to describe how God has prepared them, now because of His presence and His promise, He says, “Go and do it.” They take the step of faith. As they're packing up their stuff, we have chapter two, which is a bit of an interlude - a bit of a big picture in which God is trying to tell us that, “In a moment, you are going to see the great destruction of lives in the land of Canaan.” But don't think God is a god of wrath. God is a god of love. He's given people an opportunity for tens of years, for generations, to repent. In the story we see, against all odds, God had already prepared a Rahab - prepared her and her family to believe and follow. â€‹

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Evangelical Spirit

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What kind of Christian has this faith? What kind of Christian will step into their offices Monday morning, will go to their broken marriages, and proclaim the name of Christ in the midst of these tremendous difficulties? It’s the kind of person that has the faith that we read about in Joshua chapter two. 

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To start with, I think this faith is a faith that is based on the evangelical spirit. The evangelical spirit is one that says, “I believe God and His Word. I will base my life and all my actions on doing the very things that God has promised to me.” It's easy for us to say, “I believe in Jesus. I sing and praise Jesus's name. But do I really believe it when I'm face to face with the walls of Jericho? Do I believe when Jesus says, ‘My kingdom is coming and the gates of hell cannot overcome it?’ Do I believe these things?” Because with my eyes, I often look at the situation around me and I go, “I know what the Bible says, but it's not matching my reality, God.” 

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The evangelical spirit begins by having men and women who say, “I will stand on all the promises of God.” Every single promise that God has ever given are answered, “Yes,” in Jesus Christ. God has never failed to fulfill a single one of His promise to you. All His promises, that He will bring you to heaven, are promises that He will continue to keep until you meet with Him face to face. The evangelical spirit is one that is anchored in the Word of God. We believe the Word of God. We believe what He’s told us and we are willing to stake our life on this. 

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It's also, though, a faith that sometimes needs to be assured, because we live in reality. “I believe these promises are certain, but you know what? I sometimes need to feel like they're certain.” I know when I go to my places of ministry, I often hear these voices in my head or around me saying, “Don't go there. Don't do this. Don’t proclaim this,” and I need this sense of assurance that what I'm doing is really the very heartbeat of what God wants. 

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Joshua, in our passage, wants a sense of assurance. He wants to know that these walls of Jericho, that are insurmountable obstacles before him, won't stand to the power of God. So he sends these spies into the land. He had sent spies before. He had been a spy before. Moses, 40 years earlier, had sent 12 spies into the land - and Joshua was one of them. He saw with his own eyes that God had prepared this beautiful land. Yes, there was great opposition, but like Caleb said, “We can definitely do it.” Joshua and Caleb were the only two that opposed the others and said, “We can enter.” Now once again, in the same place, Joshua is the one sending the spies. It's not that Joshua's faith is wavering. For 40 years, he has kept this confidence. It's that Joshua wants to assure the people that God has already gone before them and has prepared a harvest, has prepared a victory for them. So he sends these spies. 

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It's sort of like when you get married. This year will be 30 years of marriage for me and my wife, Maria. When I got married, I said to my wife, “I love you.” She looked in my eyes. I looked in her eyes. We held hands. I said, “I love you.” Since then, to my surprise, I have had to repeatedly tell her every day, “I love you.” I already told her - I announced it before the entire church, “I love you,” and made a commitment. I signed a piece of paper. I put a ring on the finger. I have told her everything, “I love you and I will never stop.” But for some reason, she likes to hear me say it and I like to hear her say it. “I love you.” “I love you too.” Why? It's not that my confidence in her love for me has wavered. It's not that I no longer believe that today she doesn't love me. It's because I like to feel that she loves me. 

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So too with our evangelical spirit. I know God has a plan. I know God's kingdom is coming - we pray for it every week, “Your kingdom come.” We know it's happening. We've got the Bible. It explains all the end of the story for us. This is going to happen, brothers and sisters. But I need to feel it sometimes. I need to become connected to this promise. That's where the evangelical spirit is. “I'm willing to do it. I'm willing to live my life based on the promises of God. But God, I need Your presence with me. Speak into my life.” God says, “Don't worry, My kingdom is coming. Do not be afraid. Be strong and courageous.” Joshua, over and over again, needed to hear these words from God, “Be strong and courageous.” Why? Because we live in a world in which we struggle. God continually speaks to our hearts. His kingdom is coming. 

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We also see that faith isn't just a faith that believes these promises, but it's a faith that steps out and acts based on these promises. If I know it's true and I know His kingdom is coming, I am going to live differently. One of the biggest tragedies of our age is that the Christian life is almost indistinguishable from the life of the rest of the community. We spend our money on the same things, we spend our time on the same activities, and we have values that are so similar to the world’s that they don't see a difference. We're losing our saltiness as a church. 

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The evangelical spirit is one that says, “I understand the promises of God. I come to God so that I might have this assurance that this promise that He’s speaking to me will happen. Then I am willing to stake my life on it. I’m willing to live it out in the marketplace. I'm willing to live it out in my school and in my family, because I know that this is true.” 

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God has already promised to Joshua in chapter one, “Every place the sole of your foot will tread, I will give to you. Every place.” Joshua says, “Amen. I've been waiting for this. For 40 years I've been waiting.” Joshua certainly could go back into a tent, close the flaps, and pray and say, “Come on, God. You promised. Where's my land?” God could have just gone and made Jericho fall over. He could kill all the people in the land without the Jews ever crossing over. But He asks us to have the kind of faith that doesn't just passively wait for God to do His work, but a faith that engages with God in the very work that God is doing. 

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That's the evangelical spirit. That's the spirit that doesn't just presume that God's will is going to happen, but says, “Because God has a plan and God is on mission performing His plan, I am going to invest all that I have. I will invest my family, I will invest my resources, I will invest my time, and I will invest my vacation days to make sure I prioritize the kingdom because I know that that brings glory to Him.” So we see in our evangelical spirit that it first begins by being men and women who act on the promises of God. 

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But it's also a spirit which needs comfort from God. These two spies are sent into the city of Jericho because Joshua told them to go there. They cross the river Jordan, and the first thing they see of the city of Jericho is the gateway that’s keeping all the roads so they can protect the whole land from invading armies. It's a formidable city. So the spies go there first because they've got to go past the city. They have to conquer the city and Joshua wants some modern intel on the situation. So they act on faith, they go by faith, and they step out into this land. When they get there, they find themselves facing a situation in which it's not enough just to act for God, but you also need to experience God's comfort in the midst of these struggles. 

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If they made this passage into a Hollywood movie, it would be incredible, wouldn't it? These two spies go into the city, and immediately the story turns as a surprise happens. These spies get to the city and first they go to the house of Rahab because she's a prostitute. We don't like this story in Sunday school, because we don't like stories about prostitutes for our children.

 

She is a prostitute who has a place in which visitors stop in. Everyone passing through spends the night there, so it's not uncommon for two visitors who are unknown to the city like these spies to go there. It's a great place to get intel. If I was going to try to get intel, I would go here because all the travelers could tell me where are the armies, where are the checkpoints, how many gates are in the city - they can get all the lay of the land very quickly from the other visitors in this brothel. 

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It's shocking because the minute they get there, the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring them out. There are spies here who have been sent to check out our land.” This is shocking because these spies just arrived. They haven't even done anything yet, and immediately they are discovered. These are probably the worst spies in the history of espionage. All they do is arrive and already their cover is blown. They haven't even had time to interview anybody. They haven't scoped it out. They probably haven't had kebab and hummus yet at the corner markets. They are just trying to just unpack their stuff in the room, and immediately the secret police has arrived at the door, SEAL Team Six is at the door, because these spies are already discovered. They probably wore shirts that said, “We're Jews! God rules!” and probably had a church logo on their on their arm. This is the kind of spies that Joshua sent. Surprise number one, the incompetent spies are immediately discovered. 

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Then in our story, there's a second surprise that happens. The second surprise is Rahab, this Canaan prostitute who is an enemy of the Jews, instead of turning them over, protects them. The king sends SEAL Team Six to the door. They're at the door and they knock. Rahab answers the door and they say, “Where are the spies? Hand them over!”She's got a choice to make. She can either turn them over and get a reward -she would be paid handsomely. She could easily explain it away, “I put them upstairs so that they are away from the other visitors. Easy to capture. Don't worry about collateral damage. I've been luring them in and making them sleepy with wine, so they're not going to be able to oppose you.” She could explain this and turn this whole tale to her benefit to get lots of riches. 

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But instead of siding with her own people, she sides with the Jews. People she's never met before. People who could give her nothing. Instead of saying to the SEAL Team Six at the door, “There they are. Go get them,” she says, “They're not here. They were here, but they took off. You know those holy Jews, they don’t like prostitutes so they they took off. They weren't comfortable here. They didn't like my clientele. They're gone.” 

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Another twist to the story is in verse seven. After she explained this all that, “The men were here and they left,” it says in verse seven: 

So the men pursued after them on the way

Surprise number three: SEAL Team Six, the Jericho secret police believed her story and didn't even search the house. We don't just have the worst spies in the history of espionage, we now have the worst special forces in the history of warfare. “We know they're here,” and this prostitute at the door goes, “Oh yeah, they were here. They left. You hurry, go on your way.” They go, “Okay miss,” and off they run. This is literally what's happening here. What would it cost them to say, “You guys go. We're going to check out the house?” If they had gone in there, on the top of the roof (which is flat) where you spread out grain (which is flat) you’d easily see a couple little lumps, wouldn’t you? Shocking! When we read the Bible, try to read it realistically because it's not just all these spiritual things. This is just shocking. If they were making a Hollywood movie out of this, they'd make a lot of money. 

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God had promised the city to the Jews. God had promised all this land to the Jews. Now they’re scoping it out and the situation goes from bad to worse. But God overrules all of these problems. So what's the point that God is trying to tell us? What's the point for our evangelical spirit? The evangelical spirit says, “I believe God's Word. When I act on God's Word, God comforts me. I'm not foolish in my faith, but I'm confident in my faith. I'm confident that if I do what God promised that He will do, and if I live my life to do the very thing that is the heart of God in His mission, all of my incompetencies and all of the world's strengths will be neutralized because God's kingdom is coming and God's will is being done on earth as it's being done in heaven.” 

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The point we're supposed to get from this whole story is that you shouldn't be filled with anxiety or be concerned about how the world's turning. You should rest in the very sovereignty of our God. The rock that the evangelical spirit sits on is that our God is a sovereign god. He controls the mouth of a prostitute. He controls the the desires of the secret police. He will control everything because His mission is moving forward. 

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When we talk about what it means for us to follow Christ, when we talk about what does it mean for us to have this evangelical spirit that says, “I want to be involved in God's kingdom-building,” it says that, “I start out of a position of faith in the sovereignty of God's plan.” That's why we turn to God's Word each week. That's why we rely on Him day-by-day, because we know that His plan is a perfect plan. Even though His promises might still be a ways off, His promises (every single one of them) are being fulfilled. 

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Biblical Faith

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Secondly, in this passage I see a very important thing in the faith of Rahab. I see what is biblical faith. We are the Reformed Evangelical Church. What we mean by “evangelical” is this Spirit of evangelism, the spirit of believing, and living our faith in this world. But the reformed faith reminds us that it's a biblical faith that is anchored and rooted in God’s grace. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. 

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That's exactly what we're seeing in this passage. What's really remarkable is when you get to the end of verse seven and she says to the police, “Go, they ran off to the hills. Run! Pursue them! You'll catch them before they get there,” immediately they go and the city gates are shut. We're all sitting here at the end of our seats (if we're watching this movie) thinking, “Oh no. They have escaped the immediate capture, but now they're stuck. They're locked inside a city. Eventually those soldiers are coming back and will say, ‘They weren't out there, they must still be in here.’” We're left with this question: how are they getting out of the city? That's the big question we're waiting for an answer to. How is God going to save these people? 

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Before we get to that answer, it's like the whole movie stops and says, “Before we continue our movie, we’ve got some announcements to make,” and everyone goes, “Oh no, announcements.” But it's not quite an announcement. Rahab stands up and gives her testimony. This is the central point of the passage. This is the very heart of what God wants us to see. He saying to us, “Those spies that are trapped, don't worry about it. God’s sovereign.” Remember, we're resting in His sovereignty. God's got a way out for them. It's not important what it is, because it's already taken care of. 

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God has a plan before the spies even went there. Rahab, years ago, had three houses she wanted to buy and she chose to purchase the one in the wall that had a window, so that these spies years later would have an escape patch. God said, “I took care of it years ago! That's old news. I’m thinking way ahead of you all. But listen, Rahab's got something important to tell us. Listen to what she has to say. This is the point of it all.” 

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The point of it is that God, in this Canaanite pagan city, in a brothel, in the heart of a prostitute has put saving faith. That's the point. God has already worked ahead of us. God is on mission and He's already working. He's asking you and I, “Do you want to join Him? Do you want to be a part of this mission?” The evangelical spirit says, “Yes, I believe the promises. God is on mission, I'm going with Him.” Then the biblical part of the faith says, “I will do this because this faith is the only faith that can help another person. This is the only way that anybody can ever be restored to a relationship with God. This is the only way they can ever enter heaven.” 

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So what do we learn from this conversion of Rahab? What do we learn from her faith? The first is, when we look at the faith of Rahab, she realizes and is aware that she is perishing. Rahab knows that she is defiled. She works as a prostitute. Every day when she is at work, she recognizes, “I am doing sexual sins.” Sexual sins in the Bible are used over and over again to describe spiritual adultery. Just as you are to be faithful to your spouse, so too we are to be faithful to the one true God. Rahab is isn't just plying the trade of sexual sins, but she is also a pagan who is worshiping idols. She knows that she is defiled spiritually, as well as physically. 

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But it's not enough that she just knows that she's defiled. She also knows she's doomed. Remember, these spies are discovered and they're in her house. They're easy to capture. She could get rid of this whole problem, but she turns and says to them, “I know that God's already given this city to you.” She knows it. She knows her fate is sealed. She is doomed to destruction.

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A lot of people are perishing. Actually, everybody outside of Christ is perishing. The problem is, they don't know it or they won't admit it. When you're in your office on Monday morning and you see how people are dressed, how they talk, their confidence, and their overwhelming actions, it's hard for us to believe that this person is perishing. But in reality, they're lost. They might be champions in the area of finance. They might be at the top of their game, politically. They might have resources that you'll never have in your life. But there's a reality that spiritually they are perishing, they just don't know it or they don't want to admit it.

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Biblical faith starts from people not just knowing that they're perishing, but admitting they're perishing, knowing they're a sinner. If you don't know you’re a sinner, there's no reason for you to repent. The people of Jericho felt confident. They had big walls, a big city, an army, a king, and safety. Why would they need to repent? But they were all perishing. They were all doomed.

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In fact, it's really interesting because they had the same amount of information Rahab had. Rahab is going to go on to relate to us how she knew about what happened 40 years earlier with Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea and how God killed the Amorite kings just a few months earlier. She's got the old information and the newest information. She knows it all. For 40 years, all these travelers coming into into Jericho from different places have been bringing reports which have told her that trouble’s coming. The Jews are going to conquer this land because their God is a powerful God.

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For 40 years, Rahab heard this information and it led her to a sense of, “Woe is me. I'm a sinner.” For 40 years, the rest of the city of Jericho heard this same information and they just said, “Don't worry about it, look at my walls. Don't worry about it, look at my political connections. Don't worry about it, look at my bank account. Don't worry about it, I'm young and healthy. I'm going to live a life that I want to live. I’ve got nothing to fear.” Saving faith begins by people not just being under this penalty, but being aware that they are under this penalty.

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Secondly, we see that Rahab wasn't just perishing and knew it, but she was also saved and believed it. It starts by her saying that she has knowledge about what God's doing. In verse 9, she says, “for we have heard.” Saving faith comes from knowledge. Saving faith comes from hearing, not from miracles or phenomena. What's really interesting is, for 40 years Israel had miracle, after miracle, after miracle in the desert, but they didn’t believe. Rahab, for 40 years in the city of Jericho, had no Bible, no Sunday School lessons, no teacher, no miracles, yet God put in her heart. Why? Because faith comes from hearing. She heard, so she believed. She heard what God had done, so she put her faith in it.

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It’s the same thing when you're dating someone. The purpose of dating is to discover things about that person. As you discover things about him, you can identify, “Is this the person that God has prepared for me? Is this the one that I am to covenant myself to and marry?” So the purpose of dating is for hearing and learning about the person. I find it really interesting how people date in Indonesia. They go to a restaurant, they sit on the same side of the table, and they look at the TV on the other side of the restaurant. I find this really interesting because in America, when we go on a date, we go to a place that’s quiet, we sit on opposite sides of the table, and we talk to to each other because the purpose is trying to discover and learn.

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Saving faith begins with knowledge. After you learn, saving faith then starts by knowing. You hear, so you know some truths. What are the truths that Rahab has learned? As she has heard and listened, she learned some things about God. She says, “I have learned how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Red Sea, killed Pharaoh's army, and Israel had passed through on dry land.” She has heard this. What did she hear? She heard that our God is a God who saves.

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Pharaoh had Israel cornered: mountains on the left, the sea on the right, and Pharaoh's army bearing down from behind them. Then Moses lifts his staff, parts the sea, and two million Jews could cross through on dry ground. Then when Pharaoh's army and his chariots went into the parted sea, the land became mud for them and they weren't able to pursue quickly. Eventually, once all the Jews had passed through, the waters closed over and all of Pharaoh's army drowned. Rahab heard this and came to the conclusion that God, Yahweh, is a saving God.

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She also had heard that the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan in Sihon and Og, were devoted to destruction. It's interesting, “devoted for destruction” is a religious word. They were dedicated to the Lord for judgment. These two Amorite kings came against Israel and God defeated them. So once again, Rahab, who's paying attention, now knows that God doesn't just save, but God judges. He devoted them for destruction. They are under God's judgment, just as she knew she was under God's judgment.

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Then she learns this third thing. She says:

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.

She has realized that the God of the Jews, Yahweh, is so much different from the idols she has been worshiping. She has realized that there is one true God. People used to think that this idol had an area that he had power over and was effective in this land. But if you went to a different country or a different province, it was no longer effective. You needed a different god to be there. So depending on where you were, you worshipped different idols. What Rahab has realized after hearing the armies of Egypt and the kings of the Amorites were defeated (and all the other stories she has heard for these 40 years), she has come to a conclusion that Yahweh, the God of the Bible, isn't a provincial god. He's the God over all - the one true God. He's a God who reigns.

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So what has Rahab learned? She's learned God judges sinners because He is the one, true, powerful God. But God saves people who are His. That's saving faith. That's the kind of faith that the Bible proclaims. It's the kind of faith of men and women who say, “I am under God's judgment, and unless God saves me, there is no way for me to be saved.” The only one who can save you from the wrath of God is God Himself. The only one who can save you from the wrath of our Judge is God Himself.

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Thirdly, we see that she confesses it. If you look in your Bibles, in verse 11 “Lord” is all capitalized. That's “Yahweh.” That is God’s covenant name. So now she's taking on her lips the name of the Jewish God, not just any God. She is proclaiming that this Yahweh, the Lord, the God of Israel, is God in heaven above and on earth below. This is the very confession of faith that was taught to Israel by Moses. She has adopted Israel's confession. It's not just saying, “Oh, I believe in God.” But it’s, “I believe in God who’s revealed to us in the Scripture.” That's why there's only one way of saving faith for you and I - it's calling out on the name of Jesus. There is no other name given to man by which they might be saved, apart from the name of Jesus.

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We read in Acts 4 that it's the only name and confession that will save you, the only one to call out on. All the other gods of this world - your political connections, your money, your philosophy - none of that will help. Only calling on Christ, only knowing that He is different from the other gods of this world, only knowing He can save us from the wrath of God can help.

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But that's not enough. Rahab does something else. She clings to this God. She devotes herself, puts herself fully in the hands of this God, and clings to him. A quote from Tim Keller was shared earlier, when the judge says to the criminal, “You're free, you may go,” and God says at the throne of grace, “Come, you are free. Come.” I actually think it's different. I think God says to us, “Grab hold of this throne because I'm grabbing hold of you.” It's not just, “Come to the throne of grace.” It’s, “Cling to it in every situation, in all the hopelessness, in all the future sins you do.”

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Every time you sin, Satan is going to say to you, “That was one too many sins. God's never forgiving you. The other ones He forgave you, but you've pushed it. You're over the limit. Hopeless…” He's trying to drive you from the throne of grace. Biblical saving faith says, “I am running to God and grabbing hold to Him.” Just as the prodigal son, who returned to his father, held on to his father and his father hugged him, so too we come knowing that there is mercy in our God. There is mercy for all those who turn to Him.

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That's why we see repeatedly like in verse 12, “that dealt kindly with me.” This phrase is heard over and over in this passage. It's the most important word you’ll find in the entire Old Testament. It's hessed in Hebrew, God’s covenantal love. Saving faith says, “I'm a sinner. Only God can save me from the wrath of God.” Saving faith confesses Jesus as Lord and then grabs onto Him and says, “There is no other God but You. I am Yours and Yours forever.” Jesus says, “I love you unconditionally with My covenantal love, and I will bring you safely through this life.” Rahab, she was perishing and she knew it. She’s saved and believed it.

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But we also see that Rahab was adopted and demonstrated it. Rahab didn't just believe, but things changed entirely in her life. A lot of people are happy just to be saved. For Rahab, it wasn't enough to be saved. Something else happened: she now became a member of a new community. She had a new status. What’s really interesting is, Rahab is mentioned in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 of all those people who had faith.

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What happened is, after Rahab (who was found saved underneath the scarlet cord) was brought out safely from the city of Jericho, it says in the Scripture that she was given to the son of one of Israel's rulers to be his wife. Isn't this remarkable? Rahab didn’t just get saved to be the servant, the maid, or to just go live in another place. Rahab's entire status was changed. She was no longer an outsider. She was no longer a pagan. She was now the wife of a prince of Egypt - a new status. God's covenant blessing of salvation changes our lives. We were slaves to sin, but now we’re given a new status as a child of God. We're adopted into His family. We are brought into His family so that you and I become a new creation in Christ.

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It's not just a new status that we'll be given, but we're also given new desires. Rahab no longer had a desire to go back and identify with those idols. She no longer wanted to go back to the old life. She was looking forward to the new life and her new desires. That’s exactly what happens in your life and mine when we come to saving faith in Jesus. We no longer want to follow the desires of the flesh, but instead we begin to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.

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God changes your heart. Before you used to think exclusively about yourself, you used to think you were the center of the world, and that everyone existed to serve you. Now you realize that, “I am God’s, Christ is mine. I am called to live for Him. In order to do that, I want to please Him. I've been adopted as a child. All that I say and do, I do so that I might be pleasing to Him.”

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A new status, a new desire, and new deeds. You and I begin to live and act differently and perform the works that God has created us to perform - the good works that He has laid out for us. That's really interesting because if we talk about a new desire and new deeds, because we're all reformed, we love to get into the little debates of theology. What about her lying? If she had all this great faith, why is she lying to the police? Where is her great faith in God?

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Let me just tell you very simply, the writer doesn't talk about it. Why? Because Rahab sinned. Everybody knows it was a sin. But God is sovereign and overcomes our sin. She was never once in Scripture commended for her lying. She's always commended in Scripture for her faith. You and I who are adopted, who are becoming children of God, we will constantly struggle with our sins and desires of our flesh. But we're never commended for sinning. We're always commended because we cling to Jesus. We cling to Him day-by-day.

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The big question for us sitting here today is, do I have this biblical faith? I might have heard these stories, I might have known this for a long time, I might have often heard and been taught, but have I ever confessed? But it's not just have I confessed. Have I actually run to Jesus, grabbed hold of Him, and in my whole heart said to Him, “I am Yours?”

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Rahab was told put this scarlet thread out her window. Why a scarlet thread? It's because the buildings were brown. They were dirt brick buildings. A nice red cord is going to stand out. Everybody can see it. So when they come to attack the city and wonder where Rahab's house is, nobody’s guessing. It's got this big mark on it: this big red cord in the window that everybody can see.

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God says to Rahab through these spies, “If you are in the room with the cord, you will be saved.” It's the same thing God said to Noah, “If you are in the ark when the judgment comes, you will be saved.” It's the same thing God said to Israel in the Passover, “If you are in the house with the blood of the lamb over the door, you will be saved.” He says to Rahab, “If you are in the house with a scarlet cord, all those under the cord will be saved.” Today God is saying to you and I, “Come under the blood of Jesus. Come to Him because He is the only one who can save you. He is the only one who can atone for our sins. He is the only one who can bring you safely through this life to the next.”

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Unstoppable Movement

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That’s biblical faith. That's the faith we proclaim to the world: there is one God and one God alone. Only He can save. Biblical faith, the evangelical spirit, is faith that believes in the one Gospel that can save you. Faith alone, in Christ alone, through grace alone. But the evangelical spirit also says, “I believe that God is using me to tell this to others.” That's why we see what the result of biblical faith in an evangelical spirit is: an unstoppable movement of God. When we combine these to salvation in Christ, and when we believe that God is using us to pull and call people to Himself, what happens is an amazing thing. Men and women start to come to faith in Christ.

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It starts by reaching your own Jerusalem, reaching the people around you. People who are saved and know it are people who think primarily about, “What about my family? What about my loved ones? What will happen to them?” Repeatedly in our Bible Study on Friday with the Persian speakers I hear the question, “What about my family in Afghanistan? What about my family in Iran?” That's normal. That's what all of us should be thinking. When I come to saving faith in Christ, when my life is transformed with the Gospel, I should be thinking about those closest, dearest relationships and saying, “What about them?”

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Rahab could have easily turned to these spies and said, “Great, I'm saved! I'm putting the scarlet thread at my door.” But she doesn't ask for herself. She says, “Will you save my mother, father, brothers, and sisters? Will you save them?” I don't know about you, but I think Rahab's family was probably very irresponsible. If I was Rahab, I probably had a lot of hurt feelings towards them. Imagine, they have allowed their child or their sister to work as a prostitute. Either one of two things happened. They either sold her into prostitution so that she could help feed the family, let her ruin her life, destroy herself, so that they could be comfortable. Or they didn't care enough about her to come and have an intervention and take her out of this life. Rahab probably had bitterness in her heart. She could very easily have thought, “Why would I want to be with these people ever again after what they did to me?”

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But what's interesting is when Rahab came to saving faith in Christ, her first thought was, “The very people that maybe hurt me the deepest, I want them saved as well. I know the power of the Gospel. If the power of the Gospel can make someone who's defiled like me into someone holy, can take away all my past sins and give me a new status as a child of God, I want this for them as well.” Instead of turning her back on her family, she doesn't hold against them all the things that happened in the past. Instead she says, “Save them as well.”

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The second part I see in this message for us is that salvation is also for our Samaria, not just for our Jerusalem (the people around us). Salvation is also for those other people: the enemies of ours, those who are excluded, those who we think don't even count to be neighbors. People who are saved aren't just thinking about themselves, they're thinking about the people around them. They too need to hear this. They too need to be saved.

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It's like when Jesus went to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. A Samaritan a woman who’s there in the middle of the day because she has seven husbands. Most likely, she was a loose woman or a prostitute. But she had a bad reputation. Another non-Jewish woman who has sexual sins in her life - a great parallel to Rahab, a Canaanite, a pagan, a prostitute. She has all the strikes against her for why she shouldn't be saved. But those are the very ones that the Gospel penetrates to.

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Don't go out of church today thinking the Gospel is for nice people like us. That was the problem of the Pharisees. The Pharisees thought that the Gospel was for those who followed the rules, looked the part, said the part, put the church bumper sticker on their cars, said “Hallelujah” every time you finish your WhatsApp messages, send a praying hands emoji, etc. We think those are the good people. Those are the ones we should evangelize.

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Saving faith realizes the Gospel is for those Canaanites, those females, those pagan-idol-worshipping people, prostitutes, etc. That’s who the Gospel is for as well. Quite honestly I couldn't be happier if this church was filled with homosexuals, drug users, people who have tattoos, etc. The church is for broken people. Sometimes I think that our problem is we just like to be around nice, clean, neat sinners who we can pretend are just good people, even though when they close their door it's obvious to everybody they’re sinners. People who are saved realize it's for everybody that God is inviting, even the excluded and broken, and bring them in.

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We also see that salvation is for all nations, for all people, to the ends of the earth. Why is this story in the Bible? It's because as the Jews are now going into the land of Canaan and are going to conquer it, God says, “Don't be mistaken. For 40 years I've been preaching the Gospel to them. All who believe, I will save.” In the city of Jericho, only one family believed, but they were saved. So too we see that God is fulfilling all His promises that He has made. Through Jacob, the blessing of the Gospel will go to all nations.

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What's really interesting is not only did Rahab get saved, not only did Rahab marry a Jewish Prince and became part of Israel, but Rahab had some children. When you read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, you find something really interesting. Rahab is one of Jesus’s ancestors. Through Rahab, Christ will be born. Through Rahab, the Savior of the world will come.

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This picture, this story, of the Gospel going into an impossible place is finally fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. When He comes and steps into our Jericho, this world under judgment, He comes and saves those who are excluded, those who are lost, those who are doomed, and those who are perishing. He gives an invitation, “Cling to Me. Grab hold to Me. Today, believe in Me. Come under My blood and I will give you eternal life.” Jesus came through Rahab. The greatest gift God could give the world. God saved us through her descendants.

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Father, we thank You for this great salvation that You are extending to our world. Perhaps some of us today have been sitting here thinking, “Well, I've heard all these things before. I know all these Bible stories. But I've never confessed. I've never, from my heart, cried out to Jesus and asked Him for this covenantal love to cover me.” So Father, today I want to invite those who today who might be struggling in their hearts with whether they have ever come to faith in Christ, to now step into the room with the scarlet cord, to come under the blood of Jesus, to confess with your mouth that there is one God and one Savior alone: the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank You for this great salvation. Lord we pray that You might give us this confidence to be on mission with You, to know that You have saved us for this purpose, to use us to multiply the Gospel into the communities around us, into our Jerusalem and our Samaria. Use us so that the Gospel might go to the ends of the earth. Father, we thank You, for You have not left us alone. You have not orphaned us, but instead You are with us always as we seek to bring Your kingdom. Bless us, Your church. We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

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