I want you to turn with me to
Joshua chapter 2. I appreciate your dear pastor. He has preached for me several
times, got me out of some jams, and I've always found him, and
I think, I know the pastors that you're tonight will verify this,
that he's always, always preached Christ. Always preached the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. appreciate him invited me here
and i appreciate that being here last year looking forward to
this year and may god give me thoughts tonight and words to
speak to you from his word that would instruct you and encourage
your heart in the lord i want to read sort of a lengthening
a lengthy passage it's concerning ray ab the heart And I want to
read here in chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, down through verse
21, then I want to look three or four verses in chapter 6,
if you would read along with me. Beginning in verse 1 of Joshua
chapter 2, And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two
men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho,
They went and came into the harlot's house, named Rahab, and they
lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho,
saying, Behold, there came in in hither to-night of the children
of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent
unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee,
which are entered into that house. For they be come to search out
all the country. The woman took the two men and
hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wish
not whence they were. And it came to pass about the
time of the shutting of the gates, when it was dark, that the men
went out. Where they went I don't know. Pursue after them quickly,
for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to
the roof of the house, and hid them with a stalk of flax. which
she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after
them the way to Jordan and to the forts, and as soon as they
which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the
roof, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord has given
you the land, that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all
the inhabitants of the earth faint because of you. For we
have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for
you when you were come out of Egypt, and what he did unto the
two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan,
Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we
heard these things our hearts did melt, neither did there remain
any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
he is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath. Now therefore
I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed
you kindness, that you will also show kindness to my father's
house and give me a true token. And that you will save alive
my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all
they have and deliver our lives from death. and the man answered
her our life for yours if you utter not this our business and
it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land we will deal
kindly and truly with thee then she let them down by a cord through
the window for her house was upon the wall and she dwelt upon
the wall and she said unto them get you to the mountain lest
the pursuers meet you and hide yourselves there three days until
the pursuers be returned, and afterward may ye go away. And the men said unto her, We
will be blameless of this thine oath which you made us to swear. Behold, when we come into the
land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window
which thou hast led us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father
and your mother and your brother and all thy father's household
home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out of the door of thy house unto the street, his blood
shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And whosoever
shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head,
if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this our business,
then we will be quiet. which thou hast made us to swear.
And she said, According unto your word, so be it. And she
sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet lie
in the window. Now I want to read, I want to
finish this story over in chapter six. This is where Israel was
ready. They were marching around Jericho
ready for the walls to fall. In verse 22, But Joshua said
unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go unto the
harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that
she has, as she sware unto her. And the young men that were spies
went in, and brought out Rab, and her father, and her mother,
and her brethren, and all that she had. And they brought out
all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. And
they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein, only
the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass, and the
iron, they put into the treasure of the house of the Lord. And
Joshua saved Rahab, the harlot alive, and her father's house,
and all that she had. And she dwelleth in Israel, even
to this day because she hit the messengers which Joshua sent
to spy out the land. Now I could read that and sit
down. It's self-explanatory. What a
wonderful story that is and what makes it so wonderful is it's
true. All of these stories are true. But they got a wonderful
message behind it and that's what I want to just look, I don't
want to forget what happened. I think what happened is the
gospel itself. We see the gospel in what happened.
We don't have to look at it as a picture or a type. It is the
gospel itself, isn't it? Self-explanatory. It had been
40 years. The children of Israel had been
brought out of the bondage of Egypt, the terrible bondage.
They had crossed the Red Sea into the wilderness and spent
40 years in that wilderness. The first generation had died
and this was their children that had crossed the Jordan River
seven miles from this great city. Had a mighty king, had a mighty
army. They were rich in gold and silver
and brass, beautiful garments. And the Lord had appointed this
city to destruction. He told them beforehand what
was going to happen to this city, that the walls were going to
fall down. The Lord tore them down. The
city was appointed to destruction. And the king was going to be
killed. His mighty army was going to
die. The men, the women, and children were all going to die. When the children of Israel left
this place, All that was there was this smoldering ruins, these
fallen walls, and the smell of charred bodies. But outside those
fallen walls, outside the ruins, outside the
danger, there in the edge of the field, stood Rahab. rahab's father rahab's mother
her brothers and sisters and all that was in her house she
was delivered you and i often talk about the gospel and how
these brothers last night did a wonderful job in defining to
us the gospel my my my what two wonderful messages i rejoice
in my heart that's what we do we seek to define the gospel
we seek to tell it out in words We have our favorite passages,
don't we, that we quote. The Son of Man came to seek and
to save that which was lost. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. We go over in the epistles of
Paul and we say this is the gospel and we set it forth as plainly
as we can. But you know sometimes we come
here And we see the gospel of the sovereign grace of God in
Jesus Christ illustrated in such a wonderful way that
it's better than trying to explain it. It's better than trying to
set forth the blessed truths of the doctrines of it. Do we
have a gospel of sovereign grace? Here it is. Here it is. I think it's very telling that
the first person that was saved in this new country, in this
land of promise, the land where the temple was going to be built,
where God was going to reveal Himself, His Shekinah glory was
to come down. The nation of Israel was to worship
him generation after generation until God incarnate came and
walked this land. I think it's very telling, brothers
and sisters, that the first person that was converted, that was
saved, that was regenerated in this new country was a harlot. Isn't that amazing? just to tell
us, just to show us, Jesus Christ did indeed come into this world
to save sinners. I was reading some commentaries
on this harlot, Rahab, and I'm always amazed at these commentaries,
how they try to explain things away. I was reading, too, on Rahab
the harlot. And they give different reasons
for not believing that she was a harlot in the true sense of
the word. They said, we earnestly believe
that this is an innkeeper. Or, at most, she kept a nightclub
or a bar. She was a server of drinks. And
they give two reasons for saying that. Here's the first one. It was speaking on Matthew 1,
the lineage, our Lord Jesus coming out of her lineage. And here's
what he said. To all this may be added, that
as our blessed Lord came through the line of this woman, Rhea,
it cannot be a matter of little consequence to know what moral
character she sustained. It is not very likely that the
providence of God would have suffered such a person of such
a notoriously bad character to enter unto the sacred line of
Christ's genealogy. Surely, surely the Son of God
would have never allowed such a woman as this in His lineage. Well, I want you to hold Joshua
chapter 1 and turn over to Matthew chapter 1. Joshua chapter 2 and
turn over quickly with me to Matthew chapter 1 and let's look
at this. This is very familiar. All of
you have read this. Our preachers have preached this
and showed this passage to us several times. But you are the
genealogists. Look in chapter 1 of Matthew
verse 1. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat
Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brother,
and Judas begat Phares and Zerah of Thamar. You remember who Thamar
was? You remember her? This was Judas' daughter-in-law. Let's be honest about it. Let's
be frank. Let's just be vulgar about it.
She enticed her father-in-law to have sex with her. She became
pregnant and had two sons. What do we call that? Incest?
It's sort of vulgar, ain't it? Why
in the world would the Son of God, why would God in His providence
allow such a thing to happen in the lineage of the Savior?
But there it is and it can't be denied. Let's read on. In verse four, and Aram begat
Abimadad, and Abimadad begat Naasan, and Naasan begat Salmon,
and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. That's the one we're studying
on. And look on. Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. You remember who Ruth was? She
was a Moabite. Remember where we get the mole
bites? Remember their lineage? Remember when they traced their
family tree back? Remember how their family started?
Lot and his daughters. His daughters got him drunk and
had a baby. His name was Moab. She came out
of this incest. There's two cases of incest.
Why would God, in his providence, allow Jesus Christ to come out
of such a lineage? But there it is, it can't be
denied. Look in verse 6, And Jesse begat David the king, and
David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife
of Uriah. Here we have murder, don't we?
Here we have adultery. incest, murder and adultery. And now here's this whore. Here's
this harlot in verse 5. Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab, the
harlot. Brothers and sisters, what does
this tell us? What does this tell us? Doesn't this tell us that Jesus
Christ is willing to be identified with sinners? He came and He came and He told
the Pharisees. He said, here's what's happening
to you fellas. You've got me all wrong. You
completely misunderstand who I am and why I've come What I've
come to do and who I've come to do it for. You come to me and you try to
impress me. You try to tell me that you've
kept the law from your youth up and I know your hearts. I know your hearts. You justify yourself before men,
but God knows your heart. And he said, this is what's going
to happen to you, fellas. You're going to see publicans,
and you're going to see harlots enter the kingdom of God before
you, and you're going to be cast out. You're gonna see their sins forgiven
them. All sorts of open and profane
and blasphemous sins forgiven them. I'm gonna save them from
those sins. I'm gonna put you in hell. There's
no way you can escape the damnation of hell because you're saying
we don't have any sins. We don't know what you're talking
about. We've always walked in the right way. God is our Father. We love Him. We're good people.
You know there are churches. There are churches that appeal
to moral people. Their whole reason for being
a church and all their programs is to appeal to people who are
good people, to our moral people, educated people, upstanding in
the community. But when Jesus Christ came, who
was it that heard Him? Oh, it wasn't that He turned the Pharisees and the scribes
away, but they didn't want to have anything to do with him.
But the publicans and sinners heard him gladly. And that accusation against him,
this man receiveth sinners, oh, what a blessing. Aren't you glad,
aren't you glad, that when Jesus Christ come to this earth, he
was identified with sinners, real sinners. That's why he allowed these people
to be in his lineage. I think some commentators, bless
their hearts, would have preferred Rahab to have been a Pharisee
as a heart. I love it. I love it when he
identifies with sinners because that's what I am. I have no doubts in my mind that
the Lord Jesus Christ has any problem whatsoever and is repulsed
whatsoever by coming to the heart of a poor sinner and cleansing
that heart and abiding there forever. I have no problem believing
that. Why? Because He identifies with
sinners, real sinners. That's the first reason people
say, well, surely, surely in the lineage of the Lord Jesus
Christ, God in his providence would have never left. Therefore,
she couldn't have been a harlot. She had to be an innkeeper or
something. No, she was a harlot. She was a harlot. Some of you here tonight may
have fit that character. Some of you here tonight may
have been fornicators, adulterers, idolaters. Aren't you glad that
Jesus Christ identified with sinners? This man receiveth sinners. The second reason is this. Another
commentator said this. He was arguing along the same
lines as the first commentator, and this is what he said. But
what completes, in my judgment, the evidence on this point, that
she was in the Harlem that this very way who we call it was actually
married to sell a jewish prince and it is probably that the prince
of judah would have it is improbable that the president would have
taken to be his wife such a wall no believer no prince would have ever taken such a
woman to be his wife. I wonder if they believe that
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. That old things
are passed away and all things are become new. I don't care
what we are. We may remember it. We may finish
the rest of our life ashamed of it. But when the Lord receives
us and watches us, our past is gone. If you're here tonight and you
was a young man and you were looking for a woman to marry,
to spend the rest of your life with, and you wanted a godly
woman, you wanted a woman you knew that loved the Lord, that
you could fellowship with and she'd go to worship with you
in private and public. And you heard about this woman.
And she followed the Lord everywhere He went. She ministered unto
Him of His substance. And when she went to His tomb
early in the morning, she had taken with her this huge bag
of expensive perfume to anoint His body. And when He rose from
the dead, she was there. She was the first one to see
Him. And she is the first one to preach about Him raising to
other people. When you say, man, that's the
woman I want. Oh, let me be joined to her.
That's the one. What if you found out that she
had had seven devils? Would you still want her? Take this case. What if you was
looking for a woman to marry? And you found out there was a
woman who the Lord Jesus Christ had talked to while he sat on
a well. And he not only offered this
woman living water, but had gave the water to her. And she felt
the power and the refreshment of it to the point that she got
so overwhelmed and excited, she ran and told others, I found
him. Come see the man that told me
everything that ever I did. You see, there's the wife. Oh,
there's my wife right there. Yes, sir. Oh, I'd love to. I'd
give my arm for her to bury my children, boy. That's a woman
you can trust. She'll be faithful. I want a
woman who knows the Lord and has tasted this living water.
What if you found out that she had had five husbands already?
Would that make any difference? Oh, when the Lord saves a man,
when the Lord saves a woman, their past is gone. And I bet
you, Selman, I bet he looked there and saw this harlot, and
he saw how the Lord had saved her, and what a heart she now
had, and he said, there's my wife. But you're a prince. Yeah, she's a saint. And I want
her. And he married her. And had children. Ain't that wonderful? Look how all this happened. Look
back over here in my text. It's amazing how all this began
here. And we're told about it in the
second chapter. And here in verse 8, you begin
here in verse 8. Boy, some things were going on. Going
on in darkness. in private. Before these men laid down, she
went up and she spoke with them. She began to talk with them. Told them she knew who God was. We know what he's done. We know
he's killed these two kings. He's a God of judgment. He's
destroyed them. And he's coming here to destroy
us. He's going to destroy this city. But you see, all this was
done in the dark. This wasn't published. Nobody
knew what was going on in this house. She was speaking with
these spies, and she was talking to them in a low voice. Nobody
was supposed to hear this but them. What begins to take place in
a poor sinner's heart? I tell you there's thoughts.
There's thoughts that he begins to think. There's light that
begins to shine in his soul that at first he don't tell anybody
about. He don't know how to tell anybody
about them. He becomes disturbed, you see. You know, I don't like this.
I don't like this conversion where men are saved without being
lost. where men are healed without
being first wounded, where their bones are set that never was
broke. It's a wounded soul and not a
whole that truly trusts the Savior. And something was going on in
this woman's heart. It was going on in secret. Brother
Don and Donnie both referred to it last night about what was
going on when you were a teenager. in your soul how you were afraid. You know I'm glad we don't continue
there. Thank God we don't continue there. But aren't you glad we
were there? Aren't you glad God made us afraid? Aren't you glad
he began to make us to question these things? Oh, I went through
my teenage years just like you did, How many nights I prayed
myself to sleep, not thinking what I'm going to do with God.
What's He going to do with me? And it may be this night His
judgment comes to me. And I feared and I feared and
I tried to save myself. I tried to deliver myself. And
boy, what was going on in my soul was between me and I and
myself. Nobody knew. And it happens a
lot, doesn't it? You hear people testify of this
a lot. Well, I went on my job, and I was working, and I was
trying to pay attention to what I was doing, but nobody knew
what was going on in my soul. Oh, my wife didn't know it. My
husband didn't know it. My children didn't know it. But
in my soul, I was restless. I was fearful. That's what was
going on with her. But it was in secret. Nobody
knew anything about it. That's where it starts, isn't
it? That's where it starts. Very few cases are like the Philippian
jailer. A quick conversion. Most of them are just like this
lady here. A lot of this secret work is
going on in the soul. I'm afraid. I'm afraid. What brought this concern? This
is so important. There in verse 10 and verse 11,
as soon as we heard these things, as soon as we heard these things,
she never did become concerned in her heart until she heard
what God had did for the children of Israel. You know why we preach
that God is sovereign? You know why we preach that He's
God in heaven and God in this earth? You know why we preach
that He does according to His will there in heaven and among
the inhabitants of this earth? And nobody can stay His hand.
You know why we preach God is sovereign. Nobody's gonna fear
Him until they come to know that. As long as men think they've
got God over a barrel, As long as men think they've got his
hands tied, as long as men think that God would do something if
we just let Him, as long as men think they're God and God is
just a man, they'll never fear Him. When they come to see, your God
is God in heaven, and He's God in this earth. That's what men
fear. That's what men fear. Christopher
Hitchens, most of you have heard of him. He's one of the big atheists
of our day. He just died a short while ago.
And he detested men like Jerry Falwell and Billy Gray. And he fought against those guys.
He fought against their God. You and I have been doing that
for years, haven't we? He wasn't so much fighting against
God, the God in heaven, he never heard about Him. He was fighting
against Falwell's God. He was fighting against Billy
Graham's God. And let's be honest, their God's
not our God. Our God is God. in every sense
of the word, everything that means, in the widest application,
He's God in heaven and He's God in this earth. He's God. And the minute you put a bud
in there, He's no longer God. Let a man hear that. You let
a man hear that. You let God make that known to
a man. And that's what happens. You'll
be just up here preaching like I am. And boy, suddenly the Spirit
of God takes it home to your heart. And He comes there with
power and you can't get away from it. He'll arrest you. And
the work begins in your soul. He's God. He's really God. Where does that leave me? In
His hands. To do with me what He will. I
have no claims on it. Oh, man, that scared me to death
when I found that out. That's why I prayed myself to
sleep half of my teenage years. Oh, God, don't kill me tonight.
Don't kill me tonight. He's God. He's God. How can a man believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ until he's heard of Him? That He's accomplished just what
He said He's accomplished. the eternal redemption of His
people. That He's pleased His Father.
That sin has been purged. And the evidence of it is that
God set Him at His own right hand and said, My son, it's finished. I love you. Sit down here. You've
secured, you've saved your people. You're a successful Savior. I
don't know of anybody that ever believed on the Son of God to
the saving of his soul who at the same time thought he was
a failure. I'm sorry, I just don't, I can't
see that. When we heard. That changed your life, didn't
it? You can trace your conversion, you can trace where God began
to deal with your heart right back to that time if you can.
that you blind barnabas you heard a commotion
he said what's going on they said well they're having a cowboy
church they're coming by got their cowboy hats on their spurs
we have a cowboy church up on we don't they do up there When he heard, it was Jesus. Then he began to cry out, Thou
Son of David, O the King on David's throne, Son of David, have mercy
upon me. When he heard, when he heard.
This is why we preach the gospel, isn't it? How shall they hear
without a preacher? And notice this. What she had heard was mixed
with faith. We know that for two reasons.
The scripture tells us. By faith the harlot Rahab perished
not with them that believed not. She believed. She believed. It was mixed with faith. She really heard it. There was
a lot of people disturbed She had a lot of people disturbed.
Some of them, they'd all heard these things. She said, boy,
the people, this town is shut up. They're shut up. They're
scared to death. They'd heard about what God had
done. They'd heard really probably the same thing, a lot of the
same things she heard. But theirs weren't mixed with that. When
she heard that God was God in heaven above and in the earth
below, she believed it. She believed it. She must have
heard something about love and kindness. Here was the Lord's
people that had been delivered out of Egypt. The Lord had saved
them from all their enemies. Boy, he must be mighty in mercy. And in kindness, she believed
it. She believed it. Look how it affected her as opposed
to everybody else. That's how you tell if you believe
or not. How does it affect you? Oh, I believe. We believe what
you folks believe. I believe the same gospel you
do. I believe that God is God. I believe
that God chose who He was going to save. I believe that Jesus
Christ died for His sheep. But what are you doing hiding
behind the wall over there? What are you doing with your
rocks piled up? What are you doing standing there with your
sword in your hand, ready to make war on God and his people? I was talking with a young lady
and I was telling her about election. And she said, my pastor don't
preach that. I said, I've never heard him preach it. I said,
well, here it is. I showed it in the scripture too. I said, you
go ask him why he don't preach that. She came back and he said,
well, he said he believes it, but if he preached it, it would
confuse people. He don't believe it. Any truth you're afraid to
preach, you don't believe it. When you hear that God is God
in heaven and God is God in this earth and you don't bow to him,
you don't tremble in your soul, you don't believe it. Here's
what you do when you believe it. You seek for mercy. Mercy. Your heart melts. There's no more courage in you,
bud, to fight him. Old Brother Scott says you pull
up your weapons at his feet. The pride's gone, the courage
is gone, the free will's gone. God is God and you bow. That's the way you know you believe. We know she believed it not only
because of the way it affected her, She bowed to him. She owned
him. Boy, she came out of the camp,
didn't she? There's another way here we found out that she believed
it. It was so serious to her. She
believed not only that God was God, there had to be deliverance,
there had to be kindness in this God. But the case was so serious. She not only wanted to be delivered,
she said, this is so serious. I believe my situation is so
serious. Not only do I want to be delivered,
I want the assurance of it. That's what she said. She made
these fellows swear. This was a matter of life and
death to this woman. I'm going to die. I'm going to
die under this judgment, this awful judgment. my father's house
and all that's here is going to die under this judgment. We're
going to die and not live. You're able to save us, our lives. You're able to save our lives.
Boy, when it comes down to that, I tell you what, this is a matter
of life and death, ain't it? This is a matter of spending
eternity in glory with the Son of God and the angels and the
spirits of just men made perfect. are being cast away from him
forever. These are eternal matters. These
are eternal issues. Boy, I think when we begin to
see a little bit of that, man, I don't want to face living and
dying without some assurance. I've got to have some assurance. I often wonder if there was times in this lady's
life, in her future, that sometimes she hitched the old mule to the
buggy and came out here to look around. I just wonder if that
happened. She was raised here. She lived
here. She had friends. that died here. She may have
knew the king of this place. I just wonder if sometimes she
didn't come here and get out of the old buggy and walk around
the place and there it was in ruins. There's a ball, a human
ball. Who is that? Is that the barber? Is that the clerk? There's a bone there. Who is
that? And her mind goes back. Her mind goes back to when these
men entered her home. And they give her a true token that they would deliver her.
And there she stands in joy, fills her heart. and amazement
all of these it's gone they're gone they went out into eternity
and here I am living with hope in my soul and oh how thankful
she was that she only not only was delivered
but she lived in the Asherah look what she said quickly in
verse 12 now therefore I pray you swear unto me by the Lord
since I have showed you kindness that you'll show kindness unto
my father's house and to me and give me a true token that you
will save alive my father and the last portion of that verse
and deliver our lives from death would you swear to me that you'll
have mercy upon us when you come back to destroy this city. And notice three things here
their oath had to do with. Three wonderful things that their
oath had to do with. They swore to them. Look in verse
14. And the men answered her, our
lives for yours if we don't save you when we come back. We'll forfeit our life if we
don't save it when we come back. We'll give our lives. We'll let
our lives be a surety to it. You're gonna be saved. And in verse 17, their honor. The men said unto her, we will
be blameless of this thine oath which you have made us to swear. These were honorable men. They
weren't like those ten of those first spies. He remembered that,
didn't he? Joshua remembered the first spies
that sent out. Ten of them were liars. But he
picked these two. Honorable men. Men who feared
God. And he said, you fellas go search
out the land. And they said, we will swear
upon our honor. We'll deliver you. We'll be blameless. We've taken an oath and we'll
die before we'll live in the guilt of blameless. And the last thing in verse 19,
look at this, how serious this was. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out of the doors of the house into the street, his
blood shall be upon him. And whosoever shall be with you
in the house, his blood shall be on our heads if any hand is
upon him." Boy, this was serious, wasn't it? They said, if we don't
deliver you, your blood's gonna be on our heads and on our hands. God forbid. God forbid. Rahab knew what kind of men these
were. That's why she said there in verse 21, according to your
word, so be it. That's enough. That's enough. You've swore to it. You'll forfeit
your life if you don't do it. You'll bear the blame forever.
My blood's gonna be on your hands. You're men of character. I believe
your word. Now go on your way. That's enough.
That's enough. And she bound that scarlet line
in the window and she waited for deliverance. Ain't that a wonderful story?
Ain't that the gospel? I want you to look over right
quickly, if you will, in Hebrews chapter 6. Let me close with
this. Look in Hebrews chapter 6. look here in verse 11 Hebrews chapter 6 in verse 11
we desire that every one of you show the same diligence to the
full assurance of hope until the end that you be not slothful
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear
by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, bless me, I will bless
me. I think you'll find this in Genesis
chapter 22, when Abraham had offered up Isaac, the Lord spoke
to him from heaven. And he got Abraham's attention
this way. He said, Abraham, I swear, I swear, Man, wouldn't that get
your attention? I swear by myself. Found no rocks
big enough. Wouldn't swear by heaven and
earth, that's not enough. I swear by myself. Now whatever follows that, you
can take to the bank. Whatever follows that oath, you
can rest your soul upon it. God took an oath, and here's
what it said. Bless them, I will bless them. I am going to bless you. In your seed shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. Abraham, I swear, I swear, I
will bless you. Through your seed. Who was that?
It was Christ. Galatians chapter 3, to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He said, not to seeds as
of many, but to thy seed, one which is Christ. In Jesus Christ, God has sworn,
he has swore by himself, that all the heirs of promise are
going to be blessed. with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. Now, I'm finished. I don't have
time to go into the blessings. Brother Donnie wouldn't get a
preach and you wouldn't get into bed tonight if we got into that
with you. You'll have to look for yourselves. Look at the promises. Look at the promises of life,
salvation, forgiveness of sins, justification, imputed righteousness. all these heavenly eternal blessings
god has said i swear by myself and i'm going to bless you with
all of them they're yours i swear to it what was the old black guy's
name that used to preach? john jasper he's better preacher
than some of these white masters He loved assurance. He went around
all the time. He was such a happy man, full
of assurance. And somebody asked him one day,
said, Mr. Jasper, you're so sure that the Lord's gonna receive
you into heaven? What if you get up there and
the Lord turns you away? He said, well, if I get to heaven
and the Lord turns me away, I am the loser. I'll tell you that,
I'm the loser. I'll lose my soul. But he said, God will lose more
than I do. I have put my trust in his word. I have believed
him. And if he turns me away, he's
the loser. Ain't that so? Why would God
take an oath to these blessings? Isn't him saying, I'm gonna bless
you, is that not enough? Sure it's enough for him. but
our poor, unbelieving hearts." So he says, listen, you poor
fools and sore of heart to believe, listen to me, I swear by myself. And he sends the blessed Savior
to save us. And he raises him from the dead
and here's what he says, I swear and will not repent, you are
a priest forever. Now what does that mean? That
means that he'll never reject anybody that comes to God by
him. That's what a priest did. He
could have compassion on the ignorant and on those who are
out of the way. Do you fit that case? Then come to God by him.
He'll never refuse you. He's a priest forever by an oath
of God. You know who this is for? The
Parish of Promise. Let me quote this and we'll read
this and we'll quit. Verse 16, men verily swear by
the greater, and that oath for confirmation is to them, that
end of all dispute, all strife. Were in God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the unchangeableness, the immutability
of his counsel, his purpose, his will, he confirmed it by
an oath. that by two immutable things,
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of our souls,
sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil
where the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus. made and I preach forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Oh, brothers and sisters, you're
in Christ tonight. Have you fled to Him for refuge?
Are you in Him? Then God has swore to it before
the world ever was that He's blessing you. Thine
that scarlet thread of the blood of Christ in the window of your
heart. And as sure as God is God, you'll
be delivered at last. Amen.