Bibles again to Joshua 2. If I can wear this microphone, I
may as well turn it on. Go. Bonnie and I were here Probably
6.30 or so yesterday, finishing up the unfinished project back
there. And I got home, and I was still kind of full of energy,
and must have been running on adrenaline or something, mowed
the grass, and actually went to bed at a reasonable hour.
But I got up, and I don't know, I guess when you overdo it at
my age, you pay for it the next day, feeling kind of tired and
sleepy. Thought I'd have me a cup of
coffee there. I had to have some crunchy coffee. I've got one
of those Keurig coffee makers in there. But the little thing
in the bottom that pokes a hole isn't working. And the only way
I could make coffee is just open up one of those pods, dump it
in the cup, and put some hot water on it. So you can chew
your coffee as well as drink it. Hopefully, though, the caffeine
will still do its thing. Let's pray. Gracious Father,
thank you for this opportunity to look into your word and find
Christ in it. Open our eyes to see him, and
it's in his name we pray it. Amen. Now, the beauty of scriptures
is that if God has given you an understanding of the scriptures,
you recognize it as having a single thing. The Bible is not a complex
book. The Bible does not have many
messages or many subjects. It has one subject, one message. It just tells that same message
in many different ways. I remember a few years ago when
we did a Bible study on the book of Revelation, and the introductory
remarks about it, I made this point, there is nothing in the
book of Revelation that you can't find somewhere else in the scriptures.
It's not saying something new, it's saying the same old thing,
a new way. And we approach all the scriptures
that way. They are all for the purpose
of revealing Christ, who he is, what he came to do. And it reveals
it to this end, as the Apostle said to Timothy regarding the
Scriptures, they are able to make you wise unto salvation. So unless salvation is our desire,
and unless we understand that all salvation is in Christ, the
Bible is going to become an incredibly complex book And the more you
read it, it's like you're juggling, and there's more and more balls
being added to the bunch that you're trying to juggle. Once,
though, you realize it's Christ all the way through, from beginning
to end, it becomes a much easier book to understand. Now, you might illustrate this
point by saying that Well, you remember the phrase, all roads
lead to Rome. And back in the days of the Roman
Empire, that was pretty much the way it was. But it might
be better to see it this way in regard to Christ. And of course,
in the scriptures, you might say all roads lead to Christ,
but in another to look at it and maybe better understand it,
is all roads emanate or go out from Christ. And that's because all that is spiritual points
to Christ, but it does so because all that is spiritual flows from
Christ. Now think about that a minute.
Everything spiritual points to Christ, but that is so only because
everything spiritual flows from Christ. Now, you mentioned all
roads lead to Rome, but I guess we could look at it this way
regarding the scripture and the spiritual things in Christ. It is, in a sense, a two-way
street. All things are toward Christ,
but then all things are coming out of Christ. They are connected. And so when we look at this scripture
in Joshua chapter 2, the story of Rahab, the harlot, and the
spies, we know as we read it that whatever there may be of
this story that is spiritual, and seen as the scripture, we
understand that all of it is spiritual. Whatever is spiritual
comes from Christ and points us to Christ. Now, we're focusing
today on the scarlet thread, rope, cord, whatever you want
to call it, depending on the translation you're using, the
scarlet cord that Rahab was told to hang out the window. Now,
as near as I can tell, this was the same cord or rope by which
she let down the spies. And they said, you leave that
hanging out the window, and when we come, when the army comes,
you gather together, your mom and dad and your brothers and
sisters and their families, you get them all inside. And when
we come, as the arm of God's vengeance against Jericho. We see that cord. We will do
no harm, no harm. And so she hung that cord out,
that scarlet cord. Last week we looked at several
things. that were demonstrated in that cord, but this time we're
going to devote our attention as that cord represents Christ
and salvation in him. Now, that cord that hung out
the window there, was for the salvation of Rahab
and her house, and as such is a picture of the effectual blood
of Jesus Christ. Now, I say the effectual blood.
Effectual is kind of an old word. You could say effective. I think
that probably carries the same meaning. But the blood of Jesus
Christ shed on the cross actually accomplished something. It did
not make anything possible. it accomplished something. Now
most people, most of what's called evangelical Christianity, believes
that the blood of Christ made salvation possible. That salvation
becomes actual only if and when a sinner believes. Until then, whether or not that
sinner's going to be saved is undecided. Well, that's not true. Maybe from our perspective it
is. That is, we perceive the blood of Christ, and we say this
of the blood of Christ. If God intended it, it is certainly
sufficient for the salvation of every man, woman, and child
that ever lived. God has chosen a people He will
save, and He sent His Son to redeem them. But let's say for argumentation, if God had chosen
twice as many people, and we don't know how many God has chosen,
that's not our business, but if He had chosen twice as many,
Jesus Christ wouldn't have had to suffer twice as much. You
see, it's not the amount of suffering that made the blood of Christ
effectual. It's the kind of suffering it
was. It was the suffering of the wrath of God, but more importantly,
it's who it was that was suffering. That's what makes it effective.
Is there anything that Christ did that was not effective? Did
he ever look at a demon-possessed person and say to the demon,
come out, and the demon didn't? Did he ever come to a tomb like
Lazarus' tomb and say, so-and-so, come forth, and they didn't come
forth? Every word and action of Christ accomplishes precisely
what it was intended to. In the book of Isaiah, it says
that God's word, which goes forth from his mouth, will always accomplish
the purpose for which it was sent. Now we normally take that,
and I believe this is the sense in which Isaiah was saying it,
that if God speaks or if through any of His prophets His Word
is distributed, His Word will accomplish exactly what God intended
to accomplish by it. But remember, our Lord Jesus
Christ is called the Word of God. All the Word of God as it's
described by words, is embodied in Christ. So if the spoken words
of God always accomplish what they were intended to accomplish,
how much more the living, breathing Word of God? Whatever He came
to do, you can be certain it got done. Our Lord says in John 6, this
is my Father's will. that of all that he has given
me, I would lose none, but raise him up in the last day." Now,
is the Lord going to fail in that work? Certainly not. But
this cord hung out the window, it represents sure and certain
salvation of all those who are under the blood And it also ensures
condemnation to all those who are not under the blood. It says here, verse 19, if anyone
goes outside, this is what the spies are saying to Rahab, if
anybody, those who, you know, you gathered to your house, the
cords hanging out the window and all that, if anyone goes
outside your house into the street, His blood will be on his own
head, we are not responsible. So now that cord hanging out
the window was a sign of sure, certain salvation to those that
were in that house, inside that woman's house. And it was also
a sign of sure condemnation to all those who were outside of
it. You see, Jesus Christ is the
place of certain salvation. There's no question about it. Outside of Christ, sure and certain
condemnation. This picture of Christ in this
scarlet cord, of course, scarlet being the color of one of the
versions of red, And this scarlet dye was made from crushing a
kind of worm or maggot. And so in order to make the dye,
there had to be death. So the blood of Christ, this
red cord, it speaks of the sufferings of Christ's soul, which were
completed in his death. Finished, he said. Finished. There's no more dying to be done
with regard to the sins that he bore. The wages of sin is
death. And he received those wages in
full for the sin that he bore. Only the crushing weight of God's
wrath may exact the punishment that is due to sinners like you
and me because of our sins. You know, we're raised, and I'm
sure this is true in virtually every country, but you're kind
of raised to think that the culture you live in is the way all cultures
should be. And in some respects, I would
call myself a patriot. I love this nation. Maybe I should better say I love
what it's supposed to be. It has never lived up to its
ideals, and that's understandable. It's always good to have ideals
that are higher than anything you can reach, because if you
have ideals you can reach, eventually you've got nothing to do. But
the ideals set forth in our founding documents, we've never really
gotten there. But I nonetheless love this country,
and I do The culture I was raised in, and of course we have a good
many different cultures even within the United States, but
I was raised primarily as a West Virginia hillbilly. And while
I've spent more than half my life here, there's still a lot
of that mountain boy in me. And the kind of life that we
had, that seems natural to me. That seems, quote, common sense. And everybody's kind of like
that. And we even get the idea, and
many countries hold this, that not only is our way the best
way, it's especially pleasing to God. And we do not perceive
ourselves to be the sinful creatures that we are. I am thankful for
the level of civilization that we enjoy here in this nation. So unfortunately, I've got to
be honest in this, I see what might be called the foundations
of a good civilization crumbling. And when the foundations crumble,
the walls can stand for a while, but eventually they'll fall.
Some of the most nonsensical things are being embraced as
the truth, even as the very idea of truth is being denied. And so how long our country can
stay like it is, I don't know. But let us never think that in
whatever way we may think our nation to be superior, that that
arises from the fact that we are better than people from other
countries or other civilizations, other cultures. Whatever we have. and whatever
we do and whatever values we ascribe to, which may seem closer
to what God calls for, it's only because God's grace
has caused us to be that way. You know, God's grace of salvation,
the grace of God that brings salvation is upon his people,
and none else. But that does not mean that God's
goodness does not extend further than the elect. In fact, you've
got to understand this, everything this side of hell is an act of
unearned goodness on the part of God. But we are sinners, you
and me. We, our sinners, in ourselves,
were nothing more than that. And nothing less than the wrath
of God poured out in completeness will ever satisfy for our sin. Now, this scarlet cord that Rahab
hung out the window showed that the salvation of Christ was exclusive
but not prohibitive. Now, I realize that, you know,
I think everybody here probably grew up within a reformed tradition
of one form or another. I grew up in freewillism of the
South. Down there, if you say that God
chose who would be saved, they immediately say, oh, well, then
you're making it so that if a man wanted to be saved, he couldn't
be saved if God didn't elect him. Well, that's not what election
is like. Election never prevents anyone
from finding salvation in Christ. Do you know what prevents men
from finding salvation in Christ? The fact that they're spiritually
dead. The fact that they're spiritually blind. That in their hearts they're
rebels against God. They don't want the salvation
of God that's in Christ. Nobody wants it naturally. Christ is there. The blood is
on, you know, is before the Lord. The door is open. Anybody who
wants to is at perfect freedom to come to God through Christ.
That is, they're in perfect freedom so far as God has put no obstacle
in their way. But the fact remains, they're
dead. And dead people can't do anything. So that cord was hanging out
of Rahab's window, but only Rahab's window. And yet there was a door
to the street. And anybody that wanted to come
through that door could have. But nobody on the other side
of the door wanted to. People on the other side of the
door were not even aware of the danger until it was upon them. the ones on the other side of
the door had no desire to worship the God who was being represented
by the army of the Jews. And so it is with Christ. Anybody
that wants to can. The problem is nobody wants to.
So when we talk about God choosing a people to be saved and that
Jesus Christ died for them and the Spirit calls them effectively,
we're not saying that God excludes people. We're saying that God
looked at the whole human race who by nature and practice was
already excluded, every one of them, and he chose to save some
of them. The scarlet cord represents the
fullness of salvation in Christ. When that army came, and of course
they had an odd way of conducting a campaign, They marched around
the city. Usually, you know, when you come
up against a walled city, they do their best to, I don't know
if they had anything like catapults back then, but they do what they
can to either tear down the gates or just starve the people out
by not, you know, by closing up the city, laying siege to
it. But they came against that city
and encircled it and eventually blew The horns and the city walls
fell. And all the city walls fell except
the part of the wall where Rahab lived. There it stood. And everyone
in that house was as safe as if there had been no War waged against it. Everyone
in that house, they didn't come out of that house just barely
alive. They didn't come out of that
house coughing and spitting out the dust that accumulated there. They came out as though nothing
at all had happened. I'm reminded of a story. three
Jewish men who were thrown in the fiery furnace. And King looked
in there and it said he saw a fourth man looking like a son of the
gods. Well, the reason he looked like
the son of the gods is he was the son of God in there with
them. And he Commanded those men be
brought out and they came out and I like this particular point
that was made Said their hair was not singed There was not
even the smell of smoke upon them. That's the salvation that
Christ provides We're not going to as it were Stagger into heaven
barely alive. We're not going to be crawling
into his presence as though we just crossed a desert with no
water. We will be presented in his presence faultless and full
of joy. And then this scarlet cord is
a picture of the preaching of the gospel. The cord was publicly
displayed just as the gospel is declared to all creatures.
But the meaning of that scarlet cord was important only to those
to whom it had been revealed. We've been here as a church now
for almost 36 years preaching this gospel. I've never preached
anything else. And those who have come and stuck
around, they understand what's being said and they rejoice in
it. We've had some come and then
leave. They thought they heard something,
it seemed exciting to them, but then something else got their
attention. I, generally speaking, don't
make a habit of chasing people down. You know, if people come,
come for a little while, and then they leave, well, they came,
they heard, and they said, that's not what we want. And you know, when that Rahab
hung that scarlet cord out the window, In reality, the only ones who
knew it was there was Rahab and her household, and then the army
that advanced on the city, and then one other, God. Now, if that scarlet cord represents
the blood of Christ, we are then taken back to the night of Passover. And God said to them, there,
you know, in Egypt, said, you take a lamb and you slay it. And then using some hyssop, you
put the blood on the lintel and on the doorpost of your house,
and then you go inside. And now notice how the Lord puts
it. He says, when I come through Egypt and I see the blood, I
will pass over you. You know, in the story of the
Passover, it was the firstborn of the household who was at risk,
right? That's who the curse was on.
That's not who put the blood on the door. It would have been
the father. Fathers were the priests of their
family. So, so far as we know, the one who was saved by that
blood never saw it. But that was not the important
issue. The important issue is that when God came through in
judgment, He saw the blood. And when He saw it, He passed
over. Now, when we, by faith, see the
blood, it gives us assurance. But our safety doesn't come from
us seeing the blood. It comes from God seeing it.
because God is just and there will never be double punishment
for any sin. And that blood on the outside
of the doors in the households there of the Jews in Egypt, that
was a testimony to God. Judgment has already passed here. So God would move on. And when
the Jewish army advanced on Jericho, They were representative of the
wrath of God against rebels. And when God, as it were, saw
the scarlet cord, what did it say? Wrath has already been here. As Augustus Toplady wrote in
one of his hymns, he's the one that wrote Rock of Ages, but
he also wrote one that says, judgment, payment will not twice
demand. First, at my bleeding surety's
hand. and then again at mine. If Jesus Christ bore my sins
in the presence of the Father, I never will." Just as surely as that cord hanging
out Rahab's window was a testimony to God that judgment had already
passed there. So the blood of Christ upon my
soul by the work of God is a testimony
to God. Judgment's already passed on
me. And God will not demand I pay the penalty if Christ himself has paid it. All right. week. No Bible class
at 945, but we'll start again the following week.