All right, brethren, if you will,
let's turn to Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2. That was precious. Thank you, Bob. Even if we take
a scenic route, it still ends in good news, don't it? I like
that song. I was on it tonight, buddy. My
timing foot, like whenever Jimmy Buffett broke his leg twice,
my timing foot's my right foot and I can't keep time. I was
right with it. I want you to stay still, unless
there's an emergency. That's my brother, Andre, he'll
listen to this. If you're around bombs and you
see him running, you run the direction he's running. If this
place don't catch on fire and there ain't an emergency and
you just can't, I mean, absolutely bear from it, stay right where
you are. This whole message, this one's for me, but I'm gonna
let y'all listen in. I'd literally like it too if
you'd stay with me. If not, I got a brother that prayed for me
and he'll be with me, he'll listen to this message too. I couldn't
preach John 14. I got a lot ready on it and what
he's coming to, and I just didn't have the right spirit. I had
the wrong spirit to preach it. That ain't wise. And I couldn't,
I wanted something loving and tender. And I asked the Lord
to give me a cup of water for you. And boy, did y'all see on
the news that fire hydrant down in Little Italy? It was shooting
up five stories. Somebody run over a fire hydrant.
I've got so much water, I don't know what to give you." It's
like me getting a ladle down there and be like, uh, drink
something. You'll see. I want to look at the title of
my message. A good friend of mine preached,
he's preached about as long as I've been alive. He said, sometimes
the church service, the worship of God, it's not family friendly.
Now it is. We're just too uppity and too
religious to think that it ain't. There's some hard things sometimes.
You may have to go home and explain some questions. Children may
have. I pray God's made me equip you for that over the years.
Title of my message, The Head Harlot. The Head Harlot. What's a harlot? What's a harlot? I tell you all the time, it ain't
a Disney character. That's a lady. that sells all that she has for
personal gain. She sells herself for personal
gain, whether that be money, or power, or position, or pleasure. Some of them just like it. That's
what a harlot is. You know, there's some harlots
listed in these scriptures. If you was gonna write a book,
I've heard some of y'all's histories. I've heard about your families.
What am I gonna tell you? I'm gonna tell you about generals
that are in my family and legislators and founders. We love founders,
don't we? Somebody founded something. Do you know how I can tell you
that that's wrong and pride is coursing all through that every
time we open our mouth, every time I open my mouth? Do you
know how I know so? Because it's the exact opposite
of what our Lord's lineage is. He gave his family history. In
Matthew 1, did you know that? He did. In Matthew 1, it says,
Judas beget fairies, and Zamar and Thamar. Who's that? Tamar. She wasn't a harlot, but
she sure did dress up like one, didn't she? For game, she acted
like it. And Salmon beget boos. That's
Boaz of Rakeb, of Rahab. She's a harlot. You don't have
to look it up, I'll read it to you. And Boaz Obed of Ruth, who
was that? Well, that was that Moabitess
woman. What'd she do? She went and gleaned and she
found the richest fella in town that she was related to, and
she knew she'd get a kinsman redeemer, and she went in at
night and laid down by his feet and said, I'll do anything you
want. What's that sound like? And then King David, Jesse begat
David. They had Jesse. They had Obed.
Obed had Jesse. Jesse had David. And David begat
Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. Bathsheba. What'd she do? Well, she's just
an innocent woman, wasn't she? Hogwash. She went and bathed
out in public so the king would see her. And then he said, I'm
gonna kill your husband. She said, have at it. She's a harlot. That's our Lord's
lineage. That's the women that he mentions
in his family tree. Do you have a good handle on
if harlots are good or bad? Do I? Maybe God will teach us
something. I got an attention getter for
you. That's a good thing when you're teaching a class. We talked
about teaching classes the other night. I didn't bring my dry
erase board out, but I'm going to get you attention. Hopefully
you stay with me. You ready? My brother tried to fight me
one time and he's going to get me to hit him first. And he said,
you ain't nothing but a $2 lying whore. I'm about 14 years his junior.
And I said, that's a lie. I ain't worth $2. Then he hit
me. I want to give this to you in
chronological order. I'll try to be as brief as I can be. Joshua,
Joshua means savior. Joshua two verse nine, this will
be in chronological order. And she said unto the men, we
know the story, right? Two spies were sent in to Jericho
to spy it out. And this is Rahab the harlot
speaking. And she said unto the men, I
know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror
is falling upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you four. Because we have read in a really
old book and we figured it out by ourselves. Is that what it
says? That's not what it says. For we have heard. We all there? Joshua 2, verse 10, we got it? For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt. This is about 40 years later,
she's about 60 years old. And what you did under the two
kings of the Amorites, which were on the other side of the
Jordan, sigh on an ogg, whom ye utterly destroyed. Word had
traveled fast, didn't it? From the time they left Egypt,
40 years earlier, and they walk through that Red Sea, and they
show up Jericho. Word had got to a harlot in Jericho. Someone had told this woman about
what the Lord had done. Oh, to be an unnamed preacher
of the truth. She'd heard about those plagues
that came upon Egypt, didn't she? She heard about that water
turning into blood. That's number one. That's the
first thing that happened. Remember that? We ain't got to it yet,
but we'll remember it someday. And there was frogs that came, and
there was lice that came, and there was earwigs that came.
It wasn't earwigs. Boy, I think about them every
morning. They're all over my toothbrush, and this ain't plague level,
but we're getting close. There was bulls, and there was
locusts, and there was pestilence on the cattle, and there was
the firstborn. A-double-L, the firstborn, you
think you were old as children. Dead. God killed him. She heard that. She didn't hear
that like, you know, buses fell out of the sky or everybody got
some disease. God killed him, the firstborn. What'd that begin
with? Blood. Blood was everywhere. What'd that end with? I'll tell
you what, buddy, you kill the firstborn of everything and everybody,
there's going to be a lot of blood. It began and end with
blood. Sion and Og, they went after
that and defeated those. Sion, Moses had sent letters
to him and said, hey, we're coming through town. We don't want nothing
to do with you. We ain't gonna drink out of your
wells. We won't eat your food. We won't touch your people. We're
just gonna stay on the interstate and keep trucking. And he said,
no. And he says, you know what, you
just made me mad. So he gathered together an army
and come after Moses and the children of Israel. And God said,
kill every one of them. And they killed every one of
them by the edge of the sword. And then Og, they just said, well,
well, that poor, that whole, everybody died. Let's just go
around Og. We don't want to mess with that
king. We'll spare him. And he said, why'd they avoid me? And
he chased them down and they slew every one of them. God said,
kill them. And they killed every one of them. She'd heard about
these things. Somebody preached to her. God
sent her a man to preach to her. And it ain't done worked in her
yet, but boy, there's a foundation laid. There's a foundation laid. God ain't gonna save through
a lie. And if there's breath in someone's lungs, there's hope
that he may save them. He may give them a new heart.
He may show them they ain't nothing but a harlot and save them, maybe. Now, chronologically, verse one,
Joshua 2, verse one. And Joshua, the son of Nun, sent
out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, go view the
land, even Jericho. And they went and came into a
harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. They went to a
house of ill repute, a certain harlot's house, and they lodged
there. You know what that means? That
means exactly what it says. They went to the city, they went
straight to a harlot's house, and they stayed there. Went straight
to Rahab's house. There's some commentary, and
you know, one of them old brothers, buddy, he missed it the longer
winded he gets. Well, now this, the version and
that version, you just don't know. Just say it. God said it. They went straight to the red
light district. They didn't pass a goal. They didn't collect $200.
They went straight to Rahab's house. Oh, Kevin, how could you
say such? You better hope he comes to your
house. Bear hope you're harlot, God
makes you know it, and he comes to where you live at filthy residence
of yours. That just don't seem right. That
couldn't be right. Well, what's God say about it?
I will bring the blind by way they know not. I will lead them
in paths that they have not known. You didn't know nothing about
that, did you? I will make darkness light before. That's a dark place.
Now, that's light. What'd he tell Peter? Rise, kill,
and eat, and don't you dare cause something unclean that I said's
clean. Now, did we go down there and intermingle with them? No,
but if the Lord saved them, you better hush your mouth. We'll
see it later on. How many spies did he see? Two.
Two, he sent two spies. He sent them out two by two,
didn't he? Or the Lord did in the New Testament. What else
could this mean? Well, a whole lot of things. Does it mean the
law and the prophets? Yes, that's what it means. Does it mean the
Old Testament and the New Testament? Yes, that's what it means. Like
Simeon and Levi. Is it the hearer and the preacher?
Yes, that's what it means. Two eyes? We're made in the image
of God, ain't we? How many eyes you got? You got
two? He had two eyes, doesn't he? He sees the evil and he sees
the clean, doesn't he? He sees everything. He's the
all-seeing God. He says his eyes are his word.
His word's coming, isn't it? What came to? The warning. That
comes first. They didn't go into that town
and say, hey, everybody, God loves you. He's doing his best
to save you. Just like Jonah, 40 days and
Hamel's gonna be destroyed. Oh, man. I'll hear about that
tomorrow. It came with a warning, didn't
it? Tell you what else these two were. Grace and mercy. Grace
and mercy. Surely goodness and mercy. One
going ahead, one coming behind. Lord's watchdog, isn't it? You
think it's that? You better believe it is. You better believe it
is. Or it could just be two preachers.
I've seen that my whole life. I saw Brother Don and Henry drive
all over the Eastern United States. And I've seen other preachers
travel together. And I saw Donnie Bell and Scott Richardson. And
I've seen this one and that one and that one and this one. And
guess what happens in this day? Me and my brother's going to
be preaching up in Rescue here soon. And me and another brother's
going down to a little speck in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas.
And they're going right now. There's two brothers preaching
in Ashland. John Reeves up there, ain't he? They lodged there. They made their abode. Well,
if she didn't take men, dust your feet off and go. Well, they
don't want nothing to do with them. They won't receive them.
They don't love them. See you. Verse two. And it was
told to the king of Jericho, there's always pictures of death
in this world and evilness. It was told the king of Jericho
saying, behold, there came men hither to the night of the children
of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent
unto Rahab. They had good intel, didn't they?
Saying, bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered
into thine house, for they become to search out all the country.
That king of darkness, the prince of darkness, the king of Jericho,
sent word. He got word that the Lord's messengers
were worth a person and he wanted that to end ASAP. I mean right
now. Make it stop. He accuses us,
doesn't he? You got them people with you.
He wants to sift us, doesn't he? He wants to remove us from
the Lord and remove the Lord's people from us and just split
it wide open. He said, you send me them people.
What's it worth to you? What do you need? How much you
want? I saw people sell out, and I don't mean sell out for
that pearly great price. It's a shame. My heart yearns for
them. Sometimes it's money, sometimes
it's women, sometimes it's glory, sometimes it's a bigger church,
better position. They sell out. Give them up for the child of
God, not for nothing, never happened. Uh-uh. King come to your house,
said, give me that Lexus. Nope. This is important, this is valuable
to her, isn't it? Verse four, and the woman took
the two men and hid them and said, thus, there came two men
unto me, there came here, but I was not whence they were. I
don't know where they came from. Men come and go out of here all
the time, you know that. It came to pass about the time
of the shutting of the gates when it was dark, the men went
out. Where the men went, I walk not, I don't know. Pursue after
them quickly. They said some fellas came, they
left right before it got dark. I think they went that way. Go,
you might catch them. Run, for you shall overtake them. Verse six, that she had brought
them downstairs deep in a basement. Is that what it says? It don't
say that, does it? What does it say in your Bible? And she had brought them up to
the roof of the house, up to the roof, and hid them with stalks
of flax, for she had laid an order upon the roof. It was orderly.
She had prepared ahead of time, and she exalted them and esteemed
them above herself. You esteem your brethren above
yourself? Are they better? Do they know more than I do?
Have they been at this longer? You reckon maybe God taught them
something? Maybe, just maybe. They have
to be better. Me, I ain't nothing but a two-bit
prostitute. And a liar at that, and everybody
knows it. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan,
under the fords, all the way to death. How far we, how we
got that wolf on our tail? Is it here, is it come and go?
It's 24-7, night and day, all the way to Jordan. And they ain't
going in. to the Fords, and as soon as
they, which pursued after them, were gone out, they shut the
gate. They locked it up, but they're gone. She was a lying
prostitute, but God. But God. Was she a liar? Did
she lie? Yes. North-South. Yes, she lied. Was she a harlot? Yes. Yes, she
was a harlot. We know what we think about that,
don't we? Do you watch them? Y'all got
the internet machine? I bet it's on the internet machine
because I know it's on the news. What do you have opinions about
this? We didn't know this great story. Oh, Ray, have the Harley.
What about in our day? Huh? Is there a prostitute that lies
to the government or about government officials? Or don't keep their
mouth shut? Is that happening? There's some
stormy things going on in our nation right now. You got opinions
about that? What's God say about that? What's
God say about this liar, this harlot? What's he say? By faith,
the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believe not. That
means she believed when she received the spies with peace. She received
them. Did she bucket every word that
they said to her? And then go grab one of her johns
and one of her tricks and take them up by saying, here's what
really should have happened. Now hold on, I ain't gonna say nothing
to her. She didn't do that, did she? No. She received them with
peace. How she listed with Abraham and
Moses and Jacob and Joseph there in the hall of faith. in Hebrews
11. How is it? How is it? She was
just like them. Do you know that? She ain't no
different Abraham. She ain't no different than Moses.
She ain't no different than Jacob or Joseph or you or me. She's
saved just like them. Rahab was saved the exact same
way. It was absolute no different. A sinner saved by the tender
mercies and the triumphant grace of the Almighty God of heaven
and earth and being put in Christ and covered in the blood. And
he said, when I pass over, I'll see that blood, I'll pass over.
I'm gonna kill everything. I see that blood, I'll pass over
you. Anything different? What about you? Got you a pledge
card in your purse or pocket or something? Ain't no difference.
That's how God saves sinners, isn't it? Well, she had received
the two spies. What was the two spies? The Lord's
eyes, the Lord's words, the Lord's mercies, the Lord's warnings,
the Lord's grace, the Lord's law and prophets, every word.
That's what we're gonna see in John 14. I keep your word. A brother texted me something
this week and I texted him back to the verse that he just said.
I keep it. I was telling the camera this
week, if I'd wore nothing but green ties my whole life, And
I love green ties, and I always wore green ties. And then I read
somewhere in the Psalms, it said, only God wears green ties. You gonna make every excuse underneath
the book and keep bucking and bowing, or bucking and fighting
and gnawing, or I'm gonna go home and throw the green tie
I have away. I keep his word, I didn't know that. Take that
thing off, throw it away, burn it. Learn it. He taught us something. A qualification for teaching
is that you didn't know something. That's what I guess I said when
I grew up. They said, I'm going to learn
you something. You already learned it. I'm just going to learn you again.
She received those spies. The eyes, the words, the warnings,
the mercy, the grace, the law, and prophets, the preachers. Every
one of those declared Christ, didn't it? That's all him. and
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Does
that mean he does not turn away from what he gives and those
that he calls? That's exactly right. And I'll tell you what
else that means. That means if he gives you something or he
calls you, you ain't going to turn from it neither. You can
kick and fight and all you want. If he's going to save you, you're
going to be plumb saved. And you ain't going to undo it.
This whole time, she hit him up there, she lied, and she sat
downstairs and she pondered this. Would you be saved? Would you?
That ain't something to take lightly, is it? Is this a fire
escape parachute religion? This is eternal life and death,
and she took it so she stood on it all evening, didn't she?
If she helped Jericho and the king, Israel's coming, she's
gonna die. And if she went against the king
and helped Israel, well then the king's gonna kill her. She's
gonna die. You know anybody that's still alive from 200 years ago?
We're going to die. We're going to die. She had only
one hope. Before she went to bed that night,
she knew that this day is the day of salvation. What's that
mean? Right now. God made her realize that. I believe for decades. I don't
care. I'm only alive right now. Well,
I did a whole, but I preach, I preached over 500 messages.
Who cares? Right now. She couldn't sleep. She couldn't
sleep. Look at verse eight. And before
they were laid down, these will go sleep like babies, calm as
Hindu cows, ain't they? Before they laid down, she came
up unto them upon a roof. She came up to them two spies,
and she said unto them men, I know that the Lord hath given you
the land, and that your terror is falling upon us, and that
all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. Your terror's
on us. Oh, some wisdom's coming. She's
afraid. She's gonna die. Fear's a good
thing. Fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. My daddy always told me, he said,
you spank a child, because God tells us to, and they're going
to physically fear you. If I do something wrong, mommy's
going to whip me, bust me up. And then as time goes on, we
learn about a holy God, we're going to die. I deserve to go
to hell the rest of my life, for eternity, right? And then
as time goes on, he teaches us, and we see his long suffering,
now we honor him. We don't want to make our parents
disappointed in us. We don't want to make them mad. We don't want to let them
down. We honor them because of love, don't we? Fear the Lord's
beginning of wisdom, and there's conviction of sin, and it's our
inability and the Lord's ability. Verse 10, for we have heard how
the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you. when
ye came out of Egypt, and what ye did unto the two kings of
the Amorites that were on the other side of the Jordan, Sion
and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these
things, our hearts did melt." There's a holy, almighty God. How's that make you feel? Your
heart melt? Does it burn within you? God's people, it does. Sets you
on fire, won't it? Our hearts didn't melt, neither
did they remain any more courage in any man because of you. For,
because the Lord your God, He is God. I want to come back here
about a couple more weeks in a row. The fire hydrants burst and water's
going all over the place. I didn't know how much to scoop
up. For the Lord your God, He is God. Your God's God. in heaven
above and earth beneath. As soon as we heard about the
Lord ruling in Israel and for Israel and by Israel, our hearts
burned within us and we laid down our weapons and we quit
fighting God and his people and I quit kicking you spies in the
shin. We surrendered heart and body,
didn't we? From the king to the prostitute, We cry the same. It don't matter if you're an
earthly king or you're a two-bit whore, you cry the same thing.
You know that? That's what a harlot said. Your God is God in heaven and
in earth beneath. Is that what it says right there
in verse 11? That's what it says, doesn't it? Who else said something like
that? A king said that, didn't he? At the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding
returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and
honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
A-double-L. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? That's a little more long-winded.
Kings can be that way. Same thing. Is that burning your
heart? That's the first time he lit
a match in my heart. I read Nebuchadnezzar. I said, that's my brother. I
know that fella. What do you do when you come
in contact with a God like that? I'm gonna tell you what to do. Can I give instruction or do
I know enough? You reckon maybe I know something
and maybe I'm here to tell you something? Tell you something.
Beg for mercy. You come into a contact with Be-God, who is
God, you bow, say, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I ain't
give you no prayer list, some kind of prayer list, or what's
that? Say the sinner's prayer, some
heathenistic, heretical crap like that. You fall down on your
face and worship him. What if he kills me? He deserves
to be worshiped anyway. Well, if I go to hell forever,
so what? He's a holy God, and I ought to worship him, and you
ought to too. Verse 12, now therefore I pray you, swear unto me by
the Lord, you tell me the truth, make a promise to me, since I've
showed you kindness, that you will show kindness unto my father's
house and give me a true token, a true token, I wanna know for
sure. I don't want some doctrine, I
don't want some testament of faith that's super old, I wanna
know from God, I wanna know for sure, I need a token and It ain't
all. You gonna swing for the fences,
buddy. You gonna take it to the Lord?
Take everything to it. And you will save alive my father and
my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all they that
have and deliver our lives from death. I want a covenant of mercy. I have to. What's the scripture
say? The violent take it by force.
And I'm violent. I'm a gentle man. That means
I have the full utter capacity for violence and also have the
capacity for gentleness. But if this is desperation, it's
an absolute necessity. I must have it at all costs. And if there's someone you care
about, if you know the value of your soul, you will do it.
I've seen it happen. I've watched it. God gave me
that. I've watched it. They put their money where their
mouth is and their feet and their hands and their prayers and everything
in them for those that they cared about because they want it for
them too. They did everything they could
to get them under the sound of the gospel. I might offend them. God might
kill them and send them to hell forever. What's more important?
You're worried about your feelings. If you know the value of your
soul and you care about people, you put them underneath the sound
of the gospel. Do anything you can, don't you? You want for
them to- How can this be possible? What good news is there? How
can- Everybody's gonna die. That's all that's ever happened.
A sword come out and everybody died. How can everybody die and
I still live? Verse 14. The man answered her.
Our life for yours. You take your highlighter and
highlight that, and then you underline it, and then you circle
the highlighting and highlight the circle that you circled the
highlighting with. Our life for yours. You see that? You see
that? Substitution. That's what that is. The man
answers her, our life for yours. Yet or not, this our business. And it shall be when the Lord,
don't be wishy-washy. You stick this out, it'll prove
through. And it shall be when the Lord hath given us this land
that we will do kindly and truly, kindly and truly with thee. And she let them down by a cord
through the window, for her house was upon the town wall, and she
dwelt upon the wall. Why do you reckon he said that?
You think that's important? Rahab dwelt in Jericho, that
city of destruction, and her house was all the way out there
on the wall. So it's by the edge. At any moment, that house could
be over. All my possessions are just about
to die at any second. It's just about to be out of
this city of death. And she dwelt upon the wall. I've been like that forever.
I might meet God right now. Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
I need to update my will. I need to do that this week.
God may take me today. You ready to leave? Or are we
clinging just as hard as we can to this earth? What's our actions
say? All her earthly possessions were
on the edge of leaving this earth. She was going to burn up. She
dwelt as one about to leave at any moment, didn't she? Verse
16. 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 go you away. That's freedom after that. Did
she have a handle on the gospel? Was she doctrinally sound? Was
she? What did she say to them? Did
they prompt her to this? Go to the mountain. What you tell them?
Get to Calvary. Get to Calvary. Or you're gonna
die. Cause the law's coming. That's
what we said when the police was after you. Where I grew up.
Law's coming. Law's after them. Law's after
us. You get that? You go to Calvary,
you're gonna die. The law's coming. You hide there.
You get inside the cleft of the rock. How long? Three days. Three days. You stay in there, completion
and perfection, until the pursuers be returned. What's Jeremiah 50 saying? Those
days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found for, because I'll pardon
them whom I reserve. Get to Christ. Dwell there. Stay there. Run to him. Is that
bad advice? I ain't backing off of it. Go
to him. Stay there. Hide in him. And
you'll live. If not, everybody's gonna die. Verse 17, and the man said unto
her, we will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast
made us swear. Behold, when we come into land, thou shalt bind
this line of scarlet thread in the window, which thou didst
let down by, and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and
thy brethren and all thy father's household home unto thee. You
know what that line of scarlet is, don't you? We've been at
this a minute. That's the blood of Christ in
the window of our hearts. Is that agreeable? Brother Scott Richardson, somebody
prayed too long or got a little too long-winded when he's real
old. And so I don't know if it was like dementia setting in
or if he was grounded and grown in faith. He'd take his hands
real easy like this, clasp them over that pew in front of him
and put his head down and go, ah! I don't think the Lord's gonna
let me live too long. Verse 19. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out the doors of thy house into the street, his blood
shall be upon his head, and will be guiltless. You get in Christ.
That building's Christ. Whoever's in it's gonna live.
We'll watch them. We'll see that blood, that red. We ain't gonna
touch them. You have God's word on it. You
get them in there. If they go out from us because
they're not of us, that's their own blasted fault. And I won't
hear it from nobody else. It's their fault. God's guiltless.
You understand that? Here's good news, too. And whosoever
shall be with thee in the house, his blood be on our heads if
a hand laid upon him. He stands to lose more than we
do. You're going to go to hell forever if God's lying. His glory
is going to be tarnished. That's worth much more. He swore by his name, he could
swear by no higher. Get in Christ. If you're not
in him, you're going to die. If you're in him, you'll live.
And it's coming. It's coming. Verse 20. And if
thou utter this business, then we will be quit of thy oath,
which thou hast made us swear. And she said, according unto
your words, so be it. And she sent them away and they departed
and she bound the scarlet line in the window. She tied it right
then. And they went and came into the mountain about their
three days and the pursuers were returned and the pursuers sought
them throughout all the way but found them not. So the two men
returned. and descended from the mountain
and passed over and came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him
all the things that befell them. And they said unto Joshua, truly
the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land, for even
all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us. You know that story, don't you? Have you lived it? I'm gonna
put this in shoe leather. This is for me. I've always heard
my whole life, I don't know, 35, 40 times. I tried to give
it an accurate guesstimate today. You think Ray had checked that
cord every few minutes? Make sure it was tied good. If
you were responsible for having a clove hitch on that, would
you be up for that? Or would you check it? If you
don't know knots, tie lots of knots, all right? I understood that as a young
man, as a young believer, 20-some years ago. I can enter into it
as a father now. Her daddy was there. Your only daughter is a prostitute.
And not just that, the head harlot. She's the king over the head
one in town. What pain that would be. What
prayer that would be over that. Or, as was just normal for us,
don't talk to them. And that don't mean act like
you don't talk to them. I mean, cut them off. Ring, ring. Hello. Hey daddy. Hold on. I'll
get your mother. I grew up seeing that too. Years. Don't speak to them. I don't
know. People's used to dealing with
men that's wishy-washy or boys that can shave that are wishy-washy.
Say something and stick to it. But you pray over that daughter.
You love that daughter. And then she comes to you and says, Daddy,
everybody's going to die. You saw that mess out there? They're
going to kill everybody. You've heard the same things
I've heard. Now I've talked to them men. You get in this house
and you'll live. And you're that father. Now you're
in that house and you believe. And then day one happens. All
of Israel marches around them walls, carrying that ark, blowing
them trumpets. Oh, this is real. This is real. What do you reckon
that father did? Honey, Rahab, one more time,
you tell me what that fella told you. Tell me one more, now what, is
that all they said? Now we got to, you think she
checked that corridor, everybody in that house? Now if it's Todd
there, they see it, we ain't gonna die, they're out there
now. They're circling. That first day, wasn't it? What
about day two? They circled again. And the second day they compassed
the city once and returned to the camp. So they did six days. Kept circling, kept circling,
kept circling. Tell me again, Rahab. Tell me
again, Rahab. Tell me again, Rahab. I have
to hear it one more time. This is life and death. It's
serious. I know self-righteous people that won't listen to God's
preachers because they can't see past their past sin that's
in them. You hear me. The only one preaching
the gospel in Jericho was the head whore and nothing's changed. You go to any city in this world
where the truth, where the gospel is preached, not some two-bit
knockoff, where God sent men to tell you who God is and what's
coming and who to get into, who to bow to. What do you reckon
that happened with Paul? Apostle Paul? It's a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation. That means you accept it, shut
up and take it. That Christ Jesus came into world
to save sinners of whom I'm chief. I'm the head one. I'm the head
one. Joshua means savior. It's a Hebrew
word for savior and for Jesus. Did he make good on his word?
Turn over chapter six, Joshua chapter six. Verse 20. Those people on that seventh,
they kept going around and blowing them trumpets, didn't they? Verse
20, Joshua 6, 20. So the people shouted when the
priest blew with trumpets. And it came to pass when the
people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted
with a great shout, the wall fell flat so that the people
went up into the city and every man straight before him and they
took the city. and they utterly destroyed all
that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and
ox and sheep and ass with the edge of the sword. Everyone died. That wall fell. Wasn't her house
part of that wall? There's one little tower standing,
wasn't there? But Joshua said unto the two men that had spied
out the country, Go into the harlot's house and bring out,
thence the woman and all that she hath as you swear unto her.
Just as that covenant says, go get them. Well, she came out
on her own free will and accord. She was fetched. They took her
by the hand and pulled her out. Just like the ark. Remember Noah's
ark? It ain't something we got on little kids' walls and coloring
books and make curious art about and draw little pictures of it,
just abominate. It looked like a big old black coffin. With
pitch all over it, big rectangle, floating in the sea, wasn't it?
Ugly. That house was Christ. In that final day. Now Kevin,
that was a cursed house. Now it's in a red light district.
You can't say that, yes, he was made a curse for us, wasn't he? This is good news to harlots. It's all boring, funny day stuff. I'm over at the king's house. Verse 25. Who did the work? And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot
alive and her father's household and all that she had as she dwelt
in Israel even unto this day. Well, I mean, that was a day,
like, you know, a long time ago. Is he lying? Where's she at right
now? Dwelling in Israel, isn't she?
Who saved Rahab alive? Joshua. Jesus. Savior. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Where's Rahab this day, today,
right now? She's dwelling in Israel. Who
gets the glory for all that? Well, I packed a couple buckets
of water with me. Verse 27. So the Lord was with
Joshua and his fame was noise throughout the country. And they
said, boy, guess what good old thing Rahab did? Nope. Nope. She just went to him, didn't
she? She went there and Joshua, our Lord will receive all the
glory and all the praise. There was some fellas ask our
Lord one time and I tripped up his words and it was just it
was a mess. It was a. There's what authority do you
have to say such things? Who said it was a who told you
it was OK to do? He said, well, thank you, let
me ask you a question. A certain man had two sons and
he came to the first said, son, go to work today in my vineyard. Now get after it, do, good work. And he answered and said, I will
not. Why this man reign over us? I ain't doing that, no. But
afterwards he repented and went, I'm sorry, daddy, I'll go. And
the second son, he said likewise. He said, you wanna go down to
the vineyard to work? And he answered, said, I'll go, sir. Hello, heavenly
father, yes, of course I'll go. Burning incense, a bunch of hogwash,
and went not. It was just lip service. He said,
oh, daddy, yeah, I'll go to the vineyard right now. Oh, get my
shoes on. Went right back to bed, because he's lazy. He didn't
get up early and go, did he? Whether the twain, did the will
of his father. Of these two people, he asked
the scribes and pharisees, which one of them did the will of the
father? And they said to him, the first. Like he repented,
he didn't want to go, but he saw what he did wrong. He saw
his error. And that's just easy servants,
isn't it? No, Jesus saith unto them, verily I say unto you that
publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before
you. I'm much better, I've overcome
those things. I love that. Holy's down there. I've only
been there once. I want to go again. It says up top, right down by
the movie theater, the Public House. That's what we call a
pub, a bar, right? It's a public house. Well, people
run into publicans. Publicans in the center. They
collect the taxes and sell booze out the back. It's a public house. The publicans and the harlots
going to the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in
the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not, John the
Baptist. But the publicans and the harlots, they believed him.
And ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterwards that
ye might have believed him. It was just some old fellow talking.
Didn't pay him no word, did he? Pay what? Them mafiosos and them
hookers. They saw that it was wrong, and
they bowed to him. It's what must I do to be saved?
Believe God. All right, let's get baptized.
I want to obey. Is that good enough for you? Father, forgive us for what we
are. Lord, make us know our end and make us know our inability
and put in our hearts the power of your son. Joshua, who shall
save his people from their sins. Lord, promise to us, make our
eyes see your words to us. That you will preserve us. You
will keep us. You will cover us in that blood
and you'll accept us in Christ. Make us see those things often
Lord, burn them in our hearts. Forgive us for what we are. Thank
you for this day and be with those that are sicken the soul among us, and
those that ain't Lord make them so. Teach us. Thank you for this hour. It's
in Christ's name only, because of him, because of that blood
that he willingly shed, him coming to us, that we ask these things.
Amen.