She Lied Because She Believed

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Well, again, I want to take a moment before we hear the word of God to just offer up a word of thanks.
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I've been very blessed to have men who have been willing to take the pulpit for me during this month as my wife and I have welcomed our fourth child and it's been a nice opportunity to take somewhat of a sabbatical.
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But I look forward this morning to hearing my brother Rod.
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Rod Hendricks is the pastor of Word of Life Community Church.
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Right, Word of Life Community Church.
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He and his wife, Ms.
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Charlene, are here with us this morning and he's gonna come and bring to us a word from the book of Joshua.
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So brother, come.
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And we're thankful to have you and look forward to hearing the word of God through you.
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Good morning, everyone.
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Good morning.
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Thank you, Pastor Keith.
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It's truly an honor to be here with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
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I must admit that I was a little intimidated coming here considering who's the pastor.
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And I've listened to him and I must admit, Keith, I am truly intimidated.
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But I always feel this type of humility when I handle the word of God.
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But I'll be remiss, first and foremost, if I didn't, again, introduce my lovely wife for 25 years.
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As a matter of fact, we're celebrating our 25th anniversary this Monday.
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And I don't know how she put up with me for 25 years.
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That just lets you know.
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Just in case you're an atheist and you don't believe God exists, okay, there's proof right there.
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She has been a wonderful gift of God for me and I wouldn't be here now where I am if it were not for God using her.
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So, thank God for my wife, Charlene.
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And also, I have one of my ministers that served with me in the faith in Christopher Williams.
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If you will stand, Chris, raise your hand.
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That's a handsome guy there and his son, Dion, and came to make sure I don't say anything foolish.
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They know I'm old and I'm liable to say anything.
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And I do take fish oil tablets, capsules, and they do help.
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Could imagine if I didn't.
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So, with that said, I know I have your pastors, preachers, we can talk all day.
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So, I wanna try to get right into the text.
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And before I read about it, I wanna bring a message that I really entitled, She Lied Because She Believed.
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And it's a story that's really a biblical record that's really endearing to me when I think about Rahab herself in Joshua chapter two and how the grace of God worked in her life.
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And so, when Keith called, and how should I say, sent a message that he wanted me to preach, that was the first thing I believe the Spirit of God laid on my heart.
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Because I can identify with a sinner like Rahab.
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And I can understand the tremendous grace of God in my life and how he changed me.
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So, it's an endearing story to me as well.
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And if you'd be so kind this morning as to turn your Bibles to, again, to the book of Joshua chapter two, Joshua chapter two.
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And again, the title of my message, again, is She Lied Because She Believed.
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And once you've found Joshua chapter two, if you'll stand in reverence to God's word, we'll just read some of it to get us started.
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And then you may be seated.
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So, Joshua chapter one.
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And I'm in the New King James Version.
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I'm kind of antiquated a little bit.
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I'm going to transition to the ESV eventually.
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But one of the reasons is, I got my New King James Version all marked up.
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And you know you hate to go to a new Bible because you got to start over again.
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So, Joshua chapter two, verse one.
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Now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from the Achaia Grove to spy secretly saying, go view the land, especially Jericho.
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So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there.
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And it was told the king of Jericho saying, behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country.
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So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out, spy out all the country.
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Then the woman took the two men and hid them.
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So she said, yes, the men came into me, but I did not know where they were from.
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And it happened that the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out.
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Or where the men went, I do not know.
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Pursue them quickly for you may overtake them.
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But she had bought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof.
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Then the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the forest.
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And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate.
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Now, before they lay down, she came up, Rahab came up to them on the roof and said to them, said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you.
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For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
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And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted.
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Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you.
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For the Lord, your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
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Now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also would show kindness to my father's house and give me a true sign.
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And spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death.
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You may be seated.
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And may we pray briefly.
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Gracious Father, we just thank you for this opportunity to break the holy writ, the holy word of God.
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And we thank you so much that you choose sometimes the worst individuals, Lord, to use as your vessels.
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And I pray that you will use me today to rightfully divide your word.
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Pray that you will prepare all of our hearts because I as well learn as we dig into your word.
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Reveal the infinite depths and truth of your word to all of us.
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And Lord Jesus, we give you all praise, honor, and glory because we know you sit at the right hand of your father and all authority is in your hand.
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And we give you praise, honor, and glory to the glory of your father and our father.
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And it's by the power of the indwelling spirit, we understand and know these things.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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I'd like to start this message out this morning with a disclaimer.
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I am not advocating that lying is admissible, nor am I advocating that true believers should tell lies.
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Lying is a clear violation of God's ninth commandment as recorded in Exodus chapter 20, verse 16.
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Jesus commanded even in Matthew chapter five, verse 37, with these words, but let your yes be yes and your no, no.
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For whoever is more than these is from the evil one.
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What I believe we have here in Joshua chapter two, verse six is the wonderful biblical record of an immoral, pagan, Gentile, Canaanite woman who experiences the mercy and the grace of God, the God of Israel in the midst of his divine judgment upon the city of Jericho.
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As I was studying about this woman, Rahab, I came across a quote in the Bible knowledge commentary, and I wanted to read that in light of Rahab, which literally means broad, her name means broad or wide.
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And the quote goes from the Bible knowledge commentary, God's purpose for the visit of the spies to Jericho include more than securing military information.
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A sinful woman was there who God in his grace purposed to spare from the judgment soon to fall on the city.
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So the Lord moving in a mysterious way brought together two secret agents of the army of Israel and a harlot of Canaan who would become a proselyte to the God of Israel.
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Some from the time of Josephus to the present have attempted to soften the situation by arguing that Rahab was only an innkeeper.
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But the New Testament references to her in Hebrews 11.31 and James 2.25 indicate that she was an immoral woman.
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This in no way impugns the righteousness of God, thank God for that, impugns the righteousness of God who uses such a person in the fulfillment of his purposes.
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Instead, this incident serves to bring his mercy and grace into bold relief, close quote.
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Now see, I don't know about you, but that means a lot to me.
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And I remember my past life and I can identify with Rahab and the grace of God been poured out on me and his forgiveness has been clearly evident in my life.
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And I thank him for that.
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Much debate is, much is debated concerning the lies of Rahab the harlot, rather than what really motivated her to lie.
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And this is what I meditated, what made her lie to the king's representatives.
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And I mean, it's not unique in the Bible because when we think about Exodus chapter one, remember the Hebrew midwives? And remember that Pharaoh commanded that they slay all the baby boys at birth? And in Exodus chapter one, the Hebrew midwives actually concocted a tale and said that the Hebrew women were much more lively than the Egyptian women.
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And when we got there, the babes were already born, so we couldn't execute them.
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That was a lie.
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What motivated them to mislead Pharaoh? In Exodus one, it said, they feared God.
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They feared God.
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And that's what motivated them to mislead Pharaoh.
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You see, here in Joshua two, the true motivation for her lies was her faith in the Lord God of Israel.
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I remember Jesus, Keith, in John chapter four, met a Samaritan woman at a well, and she talked about the false worship that they had been involved in for so long.
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And Jesus said, salvation comes from the Jews.
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He met this woman, a Samaritan woman, just as Rahab is.
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You know, in my research, when we think about misleading government officials, in my research concerning this passage, I came across a story of a woman by the name of Corrie Ten Boom.
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She was a Dutch Christian, a woman who hid the Jews by using deception to save their lives.
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And I pulled up just an excerpt of her life that I want to read.
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And it says, in May 1942, a well-dressed woman came to the Ten Booms, they got a name, Ten Booms, Ten Booms.
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Went with a suitcase in hand and told them that she was a Jew.
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Her husband had been arrested several months before, her son had gone into hiding, and occupation authorities had recently visited her, so she was afraid to go back.
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She had heard that the Ten Booms had helped their Jewish neighbors, the Wheels, if I pronounced that right, and asked if they might help her too.
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Casper Ten Boom readily agreed that she could stay with them.
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A devoted reader of the Old Testament, she believed that the Jews were the chosen people, and he told the woman, in this household, God's people are always welcome.
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The family then became very active in the Dutch underground, hiding refugees, they honored the Jewish seven.
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Thus, the Ten Booms began what was called the hiding place, where they would hide Jews from Nazi persecution, and obviously death.
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Says, Corey and Bessie opened their home to refugees, both Jews and others, who were members of the resistance movement, being sought by the Gestapo, and its Dutch counterparts.
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With so many people using their house, the family built a secret room, in case a raid took place.
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They built it in Corey Ten Boom's bedroom, because it was on the house top floor, hopefully giving people the most time to hide, and avoid detection, as searches usually started on the ground floor first, or the first floor.
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A member of the Dutch resistance designed the hidden room behind a false wall.
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Gradually, family and supporters bought building supplies into the house, hiding them in briefcases and rolled up newspapers.
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When finished, the room was about 30 inches deep, the size of a medium wardrobe.
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A ventilation system allowed for the breathing to enter the secret room.
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A person had to open a sliding panel in the plastered brick wall, under a bottom bookshelf, and crawled in on hands and knees.
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In addition, the family installed an electric raid warning buzzer.
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When the Nazis raided the Ten Boom's house in 1944, seven people were using the hiding place.
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And let's conclude with this paragraph, the Jews whom the Ten Booms had been hiding at the time of their arrest, they were arrested in 1914, in February 28th, 1944.
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The Jews whom the Ten Booms had been hiding at the time of their arrest remained undiscovered, and all but one, an old woman named Mary, survived.
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And what a wonderful story of a woman who believed that life was more important than actually hid the people, hid Jews, to save them from the Nazis.
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And we have a picture here of Rahab being the same way.
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What motivated her to tell her lie? Though Rahab's lies were sin, clearly in violation of God's ninth commandment, it was her faith in him that the Lord God of Israel honored.
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He honored her faith.
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In Hebrews chapter 11, very familiar verse, you've heard it.
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It says in Hebrews chapter 11, verse six, it says, but without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
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And it's interesting that there is no rebuff or rebuke of, I see in the entirety of scripture, about Rahab's lie.
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We know it was a sin, but what she's honored for is her faith.
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She's honored for her faith.
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The grace of God through faith that saves you and I brings to mind some of the most tremendous New Testament verses, and I just wanna go through several of them before we dive into Joshua.
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In Romans chapter three, familiar passage, verse 21, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
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Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth as a propitiation, a satisfaction by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ.
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In Romans chapter five and beginning in verse 19, it reads, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous.
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Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.
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But where sin abounds, grace super abounds, abounds much more, I don't know about you, but that's one of my favorite verses.
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So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Another favorite one of mine is Galatians chapter two, verse 16, it says, knowing that a man or a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
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Even we, Paul said, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, for by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.
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In Ephesians two, I got a lot of favorite ones.
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Ephesians two, it says, but God who is rich in mercy, not just merciful, rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ.
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By grace, you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
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For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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In Colossians two, verses 13 and 14, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
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And finally, Titus chapter three, he says in verse three, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts, desires, and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
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But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, who he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
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What wonderful verses that tell us of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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So now we go back to Joshua chapter two, and let us examine this wonderful, divinely inspired record of God's grace displayed to a prostitute by the name of Rahab.
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First, I'd like to point your attention to the first seven verses, which I have entitled Rahab's Deception, Rahab's Deception.
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In verses one and two, we see the spies are dispatched, it says in verses one and two, now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from the Archaea Grove to spy secretly, saying, go view the land, especially, specifically Jericho.
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So they went out and they came to a house of a harlot, and notice it identifies her as a prostitute.
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You know, I'm a former sinner, in a sense, you know, as believers, we still sin, but I don't want to be called a former prostitute.
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But yet, that's exactly what the Bible does, it calls her a prostitute.
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And even, I'll show you shortly, even in the New Testament, she's still labeled, in a sense, as a prostitute to show the grace of God and that he saved her from her prostitution and her sexual immorality and made her a saint of God.
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And every one of us has a story.
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What is your form? No, don't tell anybody.
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Now, it's one thing to let God know and he forgives and forget, people don't.
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So bring glory to God by how we live.
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Now, he says, the spies are dispatched here in verses one and two, then we see in verses three, we see the king's decree.
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In verse three, he says, so the king, well, let me go on verse two, and it was told the king of Jericho, saying, behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country.
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Spies have been sent from Israel to spy out the country.
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And then verse three again, so the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land, to search out the country.
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And this would not be unusual because antiquity tells us that prostitutes were, especially in any city, were involved in espionage to some degree for the government.
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And so the king sends to Rahab, he feels that the men may have gone there to blend in to a house of irrepute, to a woman of irrepute.
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Then we see in verse seven, four through seven, we see Rahab's deceit.
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Now Rahab clearly, clearly lies.
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This is clear, there is no argument.
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And this was not uncommon in that culture to lie.
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Maybe it's not uncommon in our culture to lie.
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Have you been listening to any of the politicians lately? If their lips are moving, they're what? Lying.
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And so we see in verse, beginning in verse four, we see Rahab's deception.
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It says in verse four, the woman, then the woman took the two men and hid them.
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So she said, yes, now listen to this lie.
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And this is a whopper.
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And she must have been totally convincing.
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The woman said to the two men who represented the king, she said, yes, the men came into me, but I did not know where they were from.
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Lie one, that's part of it, the whole lie, but I call it a full part lie.
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Now, but she said, yeah, I don't know where they were from, verse five, and it happened at the gates was being shut when it was dark that the men went out.
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Element two of the lie.
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Where the men went, I do not know.
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Did she know where they were? Absolutely.
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Element three of the lie.
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Then she sends them on a wild goose chase.
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Pursue them quickly for you may overtake them.
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It'll be difficult to overtake men that were hid on your roof.
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And it says in the parenthetical, verse here six, it says, but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof.
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Then the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the forest with shallow parts of the Jordan River where they could wade across.
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And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate.
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So this is a masterful deception.
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This woman has clearly lied.
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But the question becomes, why did she lie? What motivated her to lie? Most people when they lie, it's for some type of selfish benefit.
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We can lie.
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And I know nobody in this crowd of holy people and Christians would ever lie, right? None of us lie anymore, right? Right? Is everyone still alive? Well, you wouldn't dare lie, would you? Young people, would you dare lie? Tell a fib? Or deceive someone, would you? No, far be it from us.
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So we see, this was a masterful deception.
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In the New Ungers Bible Dictionary says, a strict truth, either in Jew or heathen, was a virtue so utterly unknown before the promulgation of the gospel.
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I mean, everybody just lied.
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It was a pattern, it was a habit.
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So we see her deception is masterful.
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She should have received an Academy Award.
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The men trusted her.
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And they ran off looking for spies that were on her roof.
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She sent them east and later she'll send the spies west.
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So we see Rahab's deception in verses one through seven.
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But secondly, I want you to notice what motivated her.
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Rahab's declaration.
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What was her motivation? Why did she come up with this masterful scheme of deception? And this is what I love.
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This is what I love.
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And this is what God honors.
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The lies she would be forgiven are because of the grace she had and the faith she had in God.
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Because of the faith she had in God, that lie would be forgiven.
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Again, I am not advocating lying.
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But I am telling you, if it meant to save one baby from abortion, I'd lie.
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I'm telling you that now.
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I'll come up with a whopper.
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Just to save someone's life.
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And so we see, beginning in verse eight, I want you to notice Rahab's confession.
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This is why she deceived the men, beginning in verse eight.
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Now, before they lay down, these were the spies, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, notice now, notice what she says.
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I know, not I think, I know that Yahweh has given you the land.
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She uses the covenant name of God, Keith.
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I know that he has given you the land.
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She had more faith in the Jewish inhabitants when they came out of Egypt.
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The Jewish people, and the fact that when they sent 12 spies in, 10 came back with a bad report.
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They didn't believe that God was giving them the land, and yet here's this Gentile, pagan, prostitute, Canaanite woman who voices this.
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Now, she didn't come to this conclusion on her own.
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This was God's grace upon her.
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I know, where did you know that from, Rahab? Who told you this? I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror, or the fear of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you.
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She says, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, the Amorites, whom you utterly destroyed.
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And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted.
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Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord, your God, is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.
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This is coming from a pagan woman, and this is her motivation.
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She was actually committing treason against her own government, and had they found out, had she been discovered, she would have died.
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She would have been executed.
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So her life was on the line as well.
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She must have been, again, as I mentioned, trusted because you notice that the representatives of the king never thought second about what she said, nor did they search any part of her establishment, or her house.
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She confesses that in verses eight and nine, notice she says, I know.
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In verses 10 and 11, she says, she heard.
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She knew that God was the God of heaven and earth, and she heard about this God.
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She saw how God had delivered the Israelites from Egypt, the miracles that he had performed, and how he had defeated Sihon and all these two Amorite kings.
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Only God could have revealed that to her, and this was her motivation, and at the end of verse 11 again, she says, he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.
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You know, it's really reminiscent of another pagan who said something very similar to that.
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A king by the name of Nebuchadnezzar.
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Ever heard of him? Isn't that a name, Nebuchadnezzar? Wonder why we don't name any of our kids Nebuchadnezzar.
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You know, Nebuchadnezzar did not believe God was prideful, as Keith mentioned earlier this morning, and God had him out there like an animal, feeding on grass for seven years, and then that pride was broken, and I love these words, and I've read them at times, and they really bring tears to my eyes.
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Beginning in verse 34 of Daniel chapter four, and I want you to listen to this pagan Babylonian king, and at the end of the time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the most high, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion.
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Now, notice the specifics that he mentions.
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I mean, he is declaring biblical truth, accuracies about the God of Israel, the God of heaven and earth.
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He says his kingdom is from generation to generation.
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Verse 35, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
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Wow, he does according to his will in the armies of heaven.
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He understands his sovereignty.
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He understands that we are nothing.
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As Paul said, there's none good, none righteous.
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There's none who seek God.
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He says we all are unprofitable.
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He understands that.
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He says at the end of verse 35, and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can restrain his hand, or say to him, what have you done? Verse 36, and at the same time, when my reasoned returned to me.
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You know, when we're lost and sinless, we're out of our minds.
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We're not in our, it's only when we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ that we become sensible.
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And he says at verse 36, and at the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me.
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My counselors and nobles resorted to me.
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I was restored, I should say, to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.
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Now listen to the end, the final verse, verse 37.
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Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt, extol and honor the king of heaven, all of whose works are true, and his ways justice, and those who walk in pride, he is able to put down.
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This is coming from a pagan king who was full of pride.
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It's reminiscent of what Rahab says about the true God, and only the spirit of God can reveal that truth to us.
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I'm reminded of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter two, one of my favorite verses, verse 14.
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He said, a natural person cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually appraised, discerned.
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And then he goes on to say that true believers have the spirit of God dwelling in them.
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And Jesus said in John, in his, I call it the upper room discourse, that the spirit of God leads true believers into all that is true, that which is true.
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So God had to reveal this to Rahab, just as he had to reveal it to Nebuchadnezzar.
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And this is the wonderful truth, is that she lied only because she had faith in God.
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And that's where the focus really should be, is on the faith that had been given to her by Almighty God.
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So we see Rahab's deception.
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Secondly, we see Rahab's declaration of faith.
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Beginning in verse 12, I want you to notice, thirdly, Rahab's demands.
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You know, there's two verses, well, actually, one great truth that came to me in my studies of the Lord, the spirit of God revealed to me that are so important.
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And that's the two great commandments.
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Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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With your entire being, love God supremely over anything and anybody.
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And what is the second great commandment? Love one another as we love ourselves.
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We get that vertical right, and the horizontal will be right.
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And you see this here in literally any passage with true believers, you see this.
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A love for God.
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Here she puts her life on the line.
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She could be founded out and executed, and yet she does it anyway.
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She has the sides with the people of God.
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And why? Because of her faith in the true God, her devotion to the true God.
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He has been revealed to her, and even her life is not important anymore.
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But notice, secondly, if the first four commandments of the 10 commandments here are displayed by her declaration, then how are the second six commandments displayed? Well, look what it says there beginning in verse 12.
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It says, now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house.
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It's not just her.
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She's thinking about her father.
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And give me a true sign, in verse 13, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our, what? Lives from death.
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Not only does she make this profession of knowledge of God and love of God and belief and faith in the God of Israel, but she's also concerned about others.
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She's concerned about her family.
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You know, when I think about us today, and we live in a society where the nuclear family has been literally obliterated.
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And I see it running in many Christian services, and I'm sure Pastor Keith sees it, that professing Christians don't teach their children to fear God.
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They're not concerned about them and their relationship with God, with Christ.
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Solomon, the second wisest man that ever lived, behind Christ, said at the end of Ecclesiastes, here's the conclusion of the whole matter.
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Fear God, keep his commandments.
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That's the whole duty of man.
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That's my duty.
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Since Christ has forgiven me for every sin because of faith in him, my duty is to what? Revere God, respect God, fear God, and keep his commandments.
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Remember when I was studying, things are coming to my mind now, I got to get going.
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Things are coming to my mind.
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And I remember in the account of Genesis chapter 18, when Christ and the two angels came to visit Abraham, and he asked Abraham, he was actually, in a sense, thinking, should I reveal to Abraham what I'm about to do as far as Solomon Gamorrah was concerned in Genesis 19? And it was something interesting that was there, and he says, should I tell him what I am about to do, seeing I have chosen him to teach his children and his descendants after him? And it made me think, every true believer who really loves God teaches their children to fear God.
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They know that's the most important thing that they can do.
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And not only teach them, live it in front of them.
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There's nothing worse than hypocrisy.
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To say one thing in church and raise the hand and say hallelujah and then go home and live like hell.
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The children see that duplicity.
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That was free, I'm not gonna charge you for that one.
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Rahab the man, she requests the, salvation of her family as well.
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It's interesting, the Greek word, I mean the Hebrew word there for kindness is mentioned some 250 times in the Old Testament.
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It means loyal, steadfast, or faithful love based on a promise, agreement, or covenant.
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And it was used of God's covenant love for Israel as well as us.
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So we see a request.
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In verses 15 and 16, we see Rahab's instruction to the spies quickly.
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Verse 15, then she led them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall.
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She dwelt on the wall.
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And she said to them, go to the mountains, lest the pursuers meet you.
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Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned.
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Afterward, you may go your way.
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You can make the significance of three days.
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Since we know our Lord and Savior stayed in the earth three days and three nights.
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But nonetheless, she sent them west while she sent their pursuers earlier east.
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We see not only her instruction to the spies, now the spies instruct Rahab.
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And we see that in verses 17 through 21.
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So the men said to her, we will be blameless of this oath of yours, which you have made us swear, unless when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you led us down.
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And unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home, so it will be that whoever goes outside the door of your house into the streets, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be guiltless.
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And whoever is with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads if a hand is laid on him.
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And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath, which you have made us swear.
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Chesed, kindness, she makes a covenant with them.
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Verse 21, and she said, according to your words, so be it.
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And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet cord in her window.
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And the scarlet cord reminds us of the red, the blood of Christ, what saves us, his sacrifice that saves us.
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It reminds us, reminiscent of the Hebrew children before they came out of Egypt, remember, and the Passover, and the act of faith was to believe that the blood painted on the lintel of the door would cause the angel of death to pass over.
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That was an act of faith.
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If you did not believe the blood was, if you believe it was ineffective, you would not have painted your door, would you? Kind of goes back to what Hebrews 11, six says.
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Everything that we do should be by faith.
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It is faith that pleases God.
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The sovereign God tells us, prohibits us, or tells us to do things that we obey based on what? Faith.
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We see in verses 22 and 23, the spies return.
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They departed and went to the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned.
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The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them.
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So the two men returned, descended from the mountains, and crossed over, and they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them.
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And they said to Joshua, listen to what they say.
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Truly, the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are faith-hearted because of us.
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And God had told him that in Exodus, and you don't have to turn, but I'm gonna turn to Exodus chapter 23 and verse 27.
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This is what God said concerning them.
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I will send fear, my fear before you.
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I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
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In Deuteronomy chapter two, verse 25, it reads, this day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heavens, who will hear the report of you, and will tremble, and be in anguish because of you.
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And so we see the fulfillment of that there in verse 24.
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They come back and they say the people are afraid of us.
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Isn't it interesting that Rahab was, said that they were afraid, we heard, and we were afraid, and yet, she was the only one that repented.
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And it's always a theme in scripture to me is the, as Jesus says, many are called, and few are chosen.
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We can go back to Noah, where there's only eight that survived an entire world.
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We can come to Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, and only three, 12 spies go in, two spies come back with the truth.
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Many are called, few are chosen.
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Literally, in the city of Jericho, only Rahab and her family will survive the judgment of God.
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We see Rahab's deception, we see Rahab's declaration of faith in the true God.
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We see Rahab's demands that her family, her father, mother, father, and her sisters and brothers all be saved, her father's house.
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And finally, I want you to turn to chapter six and see Rahab's deliverance.
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We see Rahab's deception, Rahab's declaration, Rahab's demands, and finally, Rahab's deliverance.
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The God of Israel delivers them, beginning in verse 15 of Joshua chapter six.
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But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning, and we remember them marching around the wall.
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Says they rose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times.
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This is that final day where they marched around seven times, quiet.
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On that day, only they marched around the city seven times.
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And the seventh time it happened, when the priest blew the trumpet that Joshua said to the people, shout, for the Lord has given you the city.
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Now the city will be doomed, it was cursed by the Lord, to destruction.
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It's sort of a first fruit, the first fruit to God of this land of Canaan on the west side of the Jordan.
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It says, and again, verse 17, now the city will be doomed by the Lord to destruction and all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot.
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Only, well, Joshua, you might wanna drop the harlot, wouldn't you? But yet he calls Rahab the harlot.
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You know, I'm a harlot, in a sense.
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Don't take that literally now.
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In that, I'm a former, I'm a sinner saved by grace.
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So you can title Rahab the sinner, saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
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He identifies her by saying, only Rahab the harlot will live.
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She and all who are in, are with her in the house because she hid the messengers that we sent.
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And you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, he tells them here.
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Don't touch any of the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel accursed and troubled.
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But all the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord.
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They will come into the treasury of the Lord.
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So the people shouted when the priest, in verse 20, blew the trumpets.
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And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpets and the people shouted with a great shout that the walls fell down flat.
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Then the people went into the city, every man straight ahead before him, and they took the city and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both men and women, young and old, ox and sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword.
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But Joshua had said to the two men who spied out the country, go into the harlot's house and from there bring out the woman and all that she has as you swore to her.
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And the young men who had been spies went in and bought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had so that they bought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel.
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But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire, only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
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And finally, verse 25, and Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father, household, and all that she had, so she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua was sent to spy out Jericho.
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The Lord delivered her because of her faith.
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No mention of the deceit, no mention of the misleading or the deception.
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You know, Joshua's name translated in the New Testament is Jesus, Yeshua, the Lord saves.
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And we are pictured here as well.
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We've been delivered.
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Now, as you said, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
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You know what a wonderful truth? Do we have faith to believe that? Do we have faith that as the Hebrew writer says in quoting Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, that the Lord will give us a new mind, a new heart, and we'll remember our sins no more? And though we may sin in time right now, our sins are all under the blood of Christ because we are in Christ.
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And here's a perfect picture of a woman who was a prostitute who involved others in her sin.
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And yet the grace of God super abounded and saved her.
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And this may not mean a whole lot to you, but it means a lot to me because I can identify with a Rahab.
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I am like Paul in Romans 7.
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Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank the Lord Jesus.
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I thank you, Lord Jesus.
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What is the testimony of scripture concerning Rahab? As I conclude.
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Well, let's see what God says in Matthew chapter one and verse one.
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There is a genealogy of Jesus.
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And if you're here with Keith, I know you already know this.
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I'm not bringing anything new to you.
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Verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
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And you drop down in verse five, and it says, Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab.
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Boaz begot Obed by Ruth.
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Two pagan women, Gentiles.
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Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.
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Rahab, the harlot, is in the genealogical line of Joseph, the surrogate father in the sense of Christ, the legal, Christ's legal heir to the throne.
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The Bible's not finished with her.
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We go over to Hebrews chapter 11, and she's mentioned again as one of the heroes of the faith.
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Verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.
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Verse 31, by faith the harlot Rahab did not perish because of a harlot.
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The harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.
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She's mentioned again in James chapter two as one who acted on her faith.
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Her faith was not a dead faith.
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Why did she lie? Because she believed God.
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And so it says in James chapter two, verse 24, you see then that a person is justified by works and not by faith only.
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It is not the works that save, you already know that.
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It is the works that indicate the salvation, that one believes God.
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Verse 25, likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way.
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And she's mentioned in James, she's mentioned as the hero of the faith, and she's in the genealogical line of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Wow.
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You know, I was, I'll close with just a couple of other things real quick.
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I was looking at a quote about Rahab and it says, according to, it was out of the Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
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Listen to this, according to the rabbinic tradition, Rahab was one of the four most beautiful women in the world and was the ancestor of eight prophets, including Jeremiah and the prophetess Huldah.
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Wow.
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What is the status of our faith toward Jesus Christ? Have we repented and believed upon Jesus alone by faith for salvation? She lied because she believed.
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Here's the Bible.
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Gracious Lord, so many of the things I could have said added to that, but I thank you for what you have revealed in the life of this, our sister in heaven with you, Rahab.
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And the truth be told, Lord, all of us have a story like Rahab.
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It may not have been as bad as Rahab, but nonetheless, it is a sin against you.
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And as Paul said, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and yet you made true believers alive, sensitive to you.
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You've made us new creatures to do good work.
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We thank you for this great salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, who even now as our prayer is sitting in heaven, at the right hand of you, Father, with all authority and power in his hand, he will judge the living and the dead.
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He will judge and condemn those who have rejected him and secure those who believed in him.
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He has, according to your prayer, Lord Jesus, the authority to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given you.
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And I thank you for this, these great truths that you have, and infinitely, infinitely great truths that you've given to true believers.
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The natural person doesn't understand these things, but you have revealed them to those whom you've chosen.
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And Lord, sometimes we're not grateful for what great truth that we understand, what you have revealed to us.
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May it never become common to us.
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May we always revere it and love it and thank you for this word that you've allowed us to understand.
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And I pray, Lord, if there is someone here who doesn't, has not come to believe in you by faith, that you will open their eyes and open their hearts.
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We thank you that you've given us who do believe the privilege and the permissions to come boldly to your throne.
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And just as Abraham prayed on Lot's behalf, we pray on their behalf.
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We can walk with you.
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We can talk with you.
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And we just thank you for that honor and that privilege.
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And it has nothing to do with us.
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We're nothing but a bunch of Rahab's, we're nothing but a bunch of Rahab's, the harlot.
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It's all about you.
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Show the glory of your kindness, the glory of your grace, the glory of your mercy, your love, it's all about you.
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And so we thank you again for this time and this opportunity to reclaim your word, Lord.
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And if I said anything that was incorrect, Lord, please forgive me.
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I thank you for my brothers and sisters here welcoming me and my family and one of my fellow ministers.
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We thank you for the man of God who you have placed over this house providentially.
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He's a father, he's a son, he's a brother, he's a faithful man of God who loves you and loves your people.
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Give us greater ministry, both of us, Lord, that in these last and evil days we can proclaim Christ and him crucified.
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We pray that everything that we've done here this morning has been pleasing in your sight.
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And Lord Jesus, we give you all praise, honor, and glory.
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It's all to the glory of your father, our father.
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And it's by the indwelling of the third person of the triune God, the spirit of God who dwells in every believer.
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We pray, amen.
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Well, thank you, Brother Rod, for a wonderful message.
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I wanna invite you all to stand now.
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We're gonna sing a song.
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And if you have a need for prayer, I'll be right here in the front if you wanna come.
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Let us sing.