Joshua chapter 1. Both messages
today are very similar because the same message is throughout
the scripture. All of God's word is about God's
sovereign mercy and grace and saving sinners through Christ.
The names are different, but the story is the same. The first
message is about Joshua. Saving a sinner named Rahab. The second message is about our
Lord saving a sinner named Jacob. Joshua. Joshua chapter 1. Go
there. Joshua 1. Aren't these pictures
of our Lord wonderful? Just wonderful. Joshua means
Jehovah saved or God our Savior. And you know that's the Hebrew
name for the Greek name Jesus. Our Lord God the Father had His
Son in the flesh named Jesus. For He shall save His people
from their sins, the Scripture said. He is God our Savior, Jesus,
like Joshua was Rahab's Savior. Joshua, the book, the whole book
of Joshua bears His name, doesn't it? Well, the whole book, the
whole Bible bears our Lord's name in it. He's called the Word,
the Word. Moses spoke of Joshua to the
people and wrote of Joshua and spoke to Joshua. Well, our Lord
said, Moses wrote of me. And Moses spoke to him on that
Mount of Transfiguration where they talked about that death
or decease which he should accomplish for sinners. So this whole book
and this whole story is about our Lord Jesus Christ whom Joshua
represents. Chapter 1. Read with me verses
1 and 2. Now, after the death of Moses,
the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto
Joshua, the son of Nun. And Nun means perpetual. Perpetual
father. He spake to Joshua, the son of
Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arrive. Go over
this Jordan, thou and all this people, and the land which I
do give to them, even to the children of Israel. So Joshua
was Moses' successor. He was raised up in the place
of Moses. Well, and Moses could not take
the people into the promised land, could he? Because the law
can't save us. Christ must save us. And so our
Lord came in the volume of the book that is written of him.
He came to do God's will. God gave him a body. The law
of God cannot save us. It only reveals sin. But Christ
came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and bring his people
in. He is the successor of Moses. The law came by Moses, John once
said, but grace and truth, salvation came by the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're dead to the law. This was after the death of Moses,
when Joshua was raised up. We're dead to the law by the
body of Christ. Okay? So he's Moses' successor. Verses 3 and 4, God said he would
give to Joshua everything and everyone. Everything and everyone
in his path. Look at it, verse 3. Every place
the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto
you, Joshua, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness, from Lebanon,
even to the great river, the river Euphrates, All the land
of the Hittites, the Gentiles, under the great sea toward the
going down of the sun shall be your coast. Oh, I'm giving it
all to you, Joshua. Take it. It's yours. What does
the Lord say to our Lord in Psalm 2? Ask me. I'll give you the
evening for your inheritance. And because Christ lived and
died and rose again, he became Lord over all. He's Lord. He
owns everything. Because he made himself of no
reputation, took upon the form of a servant, was obedient to
death, even the death of the cross, God gave him a name above
every name, and God gave him this whole world. He owns it.
And over in Revelation, it talks about the kingdoms of the world
are the kingdoms of our Lord. They belong to Him. So Joshua
was possessor of all. Joshua was a mighty man. Verse
5. Powerful man. Verse 5. There shall not any man be able
to stand before thee all the days of thy life. Was it Malachi that says, He
comes, who shall abide His coming? Who shall stand when He comes?
It's like a fuller's fire, or a refiner's fire. No one should be able to stand
before Him. All power, He said, is given
unto me in heaven and earth. Power over all flesh. Jesus Christ has power over all
flesh. And He said in verse 5, I will
be with thee. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself. He said, I will not fail thee,
nor forsake thee. And Christ did not fail, did
He? He shall not fail or be discouraged, Isaiah wrote. But now, here's
where the type doesn't always fit, does it? Our Lord was forsaken
of God, wasn't He? on Calvary's tree. And you know
why, don't you? So that we won't be forsaken.
And so here he is, the provider and divider of all things for
his people. Verse 6, be strong. and of good
courage. For unto this people shalt thou
divide, Joshua. You're going to divide the land
for an inheritance to the people, which I swear unto their fathers
to give them. I swore to give them this, and you're the one
that's going to do it. You're going to give them the
land. So, our Lord says in Isaiah 53, I don't want to misquote
it, it says concerning Christ, that he says he'll see the travail
of his soul be satisfied, that is, God shall. By his knowledge,
Christ, he'll justify many, he'll bear their iniquity. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide
the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul
unto death, numbered with the transgressors, and bear the sin
of many. and made intercession for the transgressors. So Joshua
is the one who's going to obtain the land, the promised land for
these people. He's going to conquer it. And
our Lord said, in this world you have tribulation, but be
of good cheer. I have overcome this world. I own it. I bought
it. It belongs to me. And the new
world, the new heaven, new earth, I'm going to give it to you,
to God's people. So he divides it with his people. Now look
at verse 7 and 8. He's the law keeper. Josh was
the law keeper. Be strong, very courageous, that
thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my
servant, commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right
hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper with us wherever
thou goeth. And this book of the law shall
not depart out of thy mouth. that thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all
that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy
way prosperous, then thou shalt have good success." It's up to
you, Joshua. You want to keep the law. These
people can't. You're going to keep it for them.
And you're going to magnify the law for them, to them, and you're
going to bring them in. Moses can't. You will. What a
picture of Christ. Oh, there's not a clearer picture
of Christ in it. I already quoted in the volume
of the book. It is written of me, Lo, I come
to do thy will, to keep God's law. He's our law to keep written. And He magnified that law and
made it honorable. He honored it. He kept it perfectly. He established a righteousness. And we are saved literally by
the faith of Jesus Christ. His faithfulness to God. His
keeping the law for us. He's going to bring us in. And
that righteousness is imputed to our charge, to our account.
He's the law keeper, Joshua. He's captain and commander. Look
at verse 10, Joshua 1. And Joshua commanded the officers
of the people. He chose and he commanded officers. And he told them what to do.
And he said, go through and feed the people. Prepare a bitch to
feed the people. Three days. Three days? In three days, we're going to
pass over. Now you know that story. We looked
at it in Joshua chapter 3. They all passed clean over. Look into Joshua in the Ark.
Well, our Lord, He said, He that believeth Me hath eternal
life. He that loveth Me and keepeth
My commandments. We listen to Him. We take our
commandments from Him, don't we? He is the Captain of our
salvation. That's what Hebrews talks about.
He's made perfect. Captain of our salvation. Like
Joshua. Better than Joshua. All right,
Joshua was conqueror and destroyer of everything and everyone in
his path. This whole book, if you've ever
read it, no one could stand before him. He was a conqueror. He was a destroyer. Now, hold
on. Joshua didn't kill one innocent person. Not one. If you read this, it says the
people came out against them. It says all the kings, all of
them, got together to make war with Joshua. And that's what
Revelation says. They make war, the whole world,
the rulers, everybody makes war with the Lamb and God's people,
like Joshua and Israel. Alright? Who's going to win? Joshua won every battle. He didn't
lose one. He defeated every foe. He conquered
every king. He cut their heads off. There are 31 kings' names over
in chapter, I forget which chapter, Joshua. But he was a conqueror,
a destroyer. And listen to this. It says,
let's see, 1 John, oh, Christ was man of man. I want to misquote
this. He came into flesh for this purpose,
1 John 3.8, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested
that He might destroy the works of the devil. He came to save
sinners, but He had to destroy the works of the devil, didn't
He? This is the woman's seed. He's
going to crush the serpent's head, and He's going to do that
by the sacrifice of Himself, by taking sin in His own body
on the tree. and overcoming for us the works
of the devil. And then it says in 2 Thessalonians
2 that Christ is going to destroy the beast, the dragon, false
religion, everybody and everything by the brightness of his coming
and destroy it all. But not his people. Not his people. So he's the conqueror, he's the
destroyer. But he's the savior. Josh was
the savior. Always a mighty man in him. Powerful
man in him. He took everything and everyone
in his path that came against him, he destroyed them. He conquered
them. He cut the heads off of whoever
didn't whoever came against him. But Joshua was a merciful man,
a kind man, a gracious man. How do you know? He saved every
sinner that asked him. But there's only one in this
book of Joshua. Go there. Go to chapter 2. This
is the story of Joshua saving a harlot. Nobody in that city did Joshua
save but a hermit. Imagine that. What did our Lord
say when He came to this present evil world? Now, our Lord came
to us, Joshua came to a city that was destined to be, that
was under the curse. Jericho was under the curse.
Jericho is a city of destruction. And this world is under the curse,
starting at Genesis 3, is under the curse. And Christ came, yes,
to save sinners. But the world's under a curse,
and the only way he could save sinners is by being made a curse
for them. And yet he called this world,
this present evil world, and Peter said he's going to destroy
it, everything, the earth and the world, everything in it,
the works thereof shall be burnt up by the Lord. He came to save
sinners the first time, but the next time he comes, like Joshua,
he's going to destroy it up. Okay, but he's going to take
his people, like this one sinner, out. How? Joshua came to this
city that was cursed, and he sent, verse 1, spies and said,
Go, view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and they went
straight to a harlot's house. Now why did they do that? Because
this was of the Lord. because they are they which testify
of Christ. And our Lord said to the Pharisees
and the scribes and all those people that came out against
Him, He said, the harlots and the publicans are going to enter
the kingdom of heaven before you do. See, I didn't come to
call the righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance.
He's going to destroy the self-righteous. He's going to save every sinner
that asks Him for mercy. Isn't that good news? The cheapest,
the hardest. There's no way to gloss over
what she had done to herself and everyone around her that
loved her, her parents. Huh? The life, if you want to
call it that, she was dead in sin. She was sold to sin. She sold her body to anybody
that would have it for money. Have we done any less? Have we
not lived for the flesh, in the flesh? Have we not? Before God
came through the gospel and convicted us of our sin, did we not live
for the flesh? Did we not sell our souls and
our bodies and everything for money, for pleasure? Did we not? Were we not taken with everyone,
anyone and everyone? Especially ourselves. Oh, Rahab
the harlot. And we brought this out before,
and it's so wonderful. She is called the harlot for
the rest of her days. Rahab the harlot, Rahab the harlot.
Over in Hebrews 11, all those people are sinners, no better
than Rahab, but none of them have... Rahab's the only one
that has That to her name. And Rahab the harlot. Harlot. What do you think of Rahab when
you think of her? Do you think of her as being
a no-good, worthless, sinful, wretched woman? Oh, how could
I? I'm better than her. No, no,
no. You love her, don't you? I can't wait to meet Rahab. Wait a minute, who is she? A
harlot. Saved by grace. He's just like
me. See, this gives me hope. They
give you hope. We're going to be honored to
stand by Rahab. Abraham, she's sitting with Abraham. She's sitting with Moses. We're
going to see in a minute, she's still there with Joshua. In true
Jerusalem. She's sitting right there with
Joshua. And Joshua's honored to be with her. And she with
him. See, where sin abounded, grace
is much more abounded. Her sin, which she was ashamed
of, honored the putting away of her
sin, the forgiveness of her sin, honored her Lord. What an honor. What mercy and grace that Joshua
would choose one person in that city and send his two best men to
go to that house. And you dwell there. And you
don't come back until she's calling on me. And that's the gospel. These men represent the gospel.
It says they were spies. In Psalm 11, forgive me, we would
hear the gospel every time with wet eyes. Every day it's of the Lord's
mercies. We're not concerned with it. But in Psalm 11 it says,
The eyes of the Lord. Verse 4. The Lord is in His holy
temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. In Psalm
14, across the page, it says, The Lord looked down from heaven
to see if there were any. Did he understand? for any seeking
after God. In this big city of Jericho,
hundreds of thousands of people perhaps, maybe more. Are there
any? These spies came in. Is there
anyone here who's heard of Joshua? Is there anyone here who fears
God? God's going to destroy this planet. These spies came to seek out
the land, to search, to see if there were any. And to bring
back the report, and it was an evil report. Like, I remember
Joseph, the evil report of his brethren. But they came back
and they spied out the land, and it was to warn It was to
seek, to search out, is there anyone here who fears God, who
knows Joshua's coming, that needs mercy? Anyone? Yes, there's one. Now how did
she know? How did she hear? Everybody heard,
but she said that. She said, we've all heard of
you. Well, they all didn't fear. They weren't all calling, were
they? How did she hear? The Lord gave her ears to hear.
The Lord gave her a heart of repentance. The Lord gave her
this precious... She obtained this precious faith. Precious faith. These spies were
sent to search, to witness, to warn, to seek, and to save. These spies were the means of
Rahab's salvation. They brought the message of Joshua,
a conquering, reigning, sovereign king, coming to destroy, and
yet merciful, gracious, kind, forgiving, and He will spare
the guilty. Anyone who calls, He'll spare
them. They came to give this message
of salvation. And Rahab heard, and she believed. Look at it in our text, Joshua
chapter 2. She received them. They lodged
in her house. She received them into her house.
And verse 6, 6, she brought them up to the roof of her house and
hid them in the stalks upon the roof. She didn't put these men
in the basement. She elevated these men. She exalted
these preachers of the truth. Put them in a high place because
she highly esteemed them for the gospel's sake. And she hid
them. And David said, Thy word have
I hid in my heart. God's the one that put it there.
God's the one that did this for Rahab. And down in verse 8, now
she goes and she seeks and she asks and she calls. Verse 8,
she couldn't sleep that night. She had no trouble sleeping before
and she was in sin. None whatsoever. She never had
a restless night. sold herself. You just fall asleep
in a drunken stupor or something, you know. But well, that's this
night when these men came to her with this message of warning,
this message of salvation. And she fears the Lord and she
can't sleep. And she gets up. She arises at
midnight to call, to ask, to seek what? Mercy. Look at her. Before they lay
down, she came up unto them upon the roof. Come unto me, Christ
said. Oh, you that labor and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. She said unto the men, verse
9, I know the Lord has given you everything that your terror
is falling upon. She feared. She feared the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. She's calling on the Lord. We've heard, verse 10,
we've heard what you did. And verse 11, as soon as we heard
these things, our hearts did melt. Salvation's a hard work. I heard the gospel when I was
a young boy. And I heard it and I believed
it in my head. And I believed I was a sinner
in my head. But it didn't bother me. He didn't bother me. I believed
it, and I could argue it. I'd say, yeah, I'm a sinner.
We're all sinners. Salvation is by grace. Salvation is by
the sovereign mercy of God. And fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. But I didn't fear Him. And I didn't call. Blessed God. He called me. He came to me. He stopped my wild career like
Rahab. came to me and said, you're coming
with me. You'll fear me. You do fear me. You believe me. She received
them into her house. Oh, as many as received Him,
they were born of God, blessed by God. And they called upon
Him. Whom He foreknew, He predestinated.
Whom He predestinated, He called. and justified by faith. She called
on them because the Lord is calling her. And verse 11, her confession. She was guilty. She needed mercy. She called. She came. She confessed. She said, I know
who you are. I know who Joshua is. And she
said, because of you, the Lord is your God. He's God of heaven
and earth. In verse 12, she's praying. Now
I pray you. I pray you, swear unto me by
the Lord. Make an oath that you'll show me kindness.
That's the Old Testament word for mercy, for grace. Unto my Father's house, and give
me a token. Show me kindness, show me mercy,
and give me a token, something that will assure me, something
I can keep, something I can lay hold of when you leave that will
assure my heart that I can think on and remember your word to
me, your oath, your covenant with me that you'll save me alive. And not just me, she said. My
mother, my father, my house, my brothers, my sisters, everybody
in my house, we're all destined, we're all going to die if you
won't save us. You know, it's true, isn't it?
It really is true of us and our children, and if we believe that
in our heart, and not just our head, we would be begging the
Lord to save us and our children. Wouldn't we? Would you please deliver our
lives from death? And here's what the men said,
verse 14. They came not only to seek, to search, to witness,
to warn, they came to promise. There's warnings, there's promises. And these men said, oh, we can go home after this message. Our life for yours. If you die, you can't die. We're going to
give our life for yours. We will lay down our lives to
make sure that you live. It shall be. It shall be. It sounds like there's no doubt
in their minds. No, there's not. And all the
promises, brothers and sisters, in Christ Jesus are what? Yea
and what? Amen to the glory of God by us. It shall be that when the Lord
hath given us this land, he's promising, we will deal kindly
and truly with them. We will. You have our word upon
it. Have our word upon it. She said, but what about the
token? Well, down in verse 18, they said, in verse 17, we will
be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear.
What does Hebrews say about an oath and a covenant? God swore. He could swear by no greater.
His oath, His covenant. And what else? Blood. This is the sure token. This
is an absolute certain token that God will save sinners. How do I know God loved me? Because
it says, it's not that we love God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation, to pitch you, to cover you in
His own blood. This is the token. And these
men said in verse 18, when we come into the land, bind this
line of scarlet thread. They went over and looked and
grabbed, there was a scarlet line hidden in the house of Rahab. And they pulled it out of that
basket or whatever and said, this scarlet line. She said,
where'd that come from? I've never seen that before.
That red scarlet line. It was there all along. in her
house. Are you with me? See, the blood
of Christ, even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. The blood was over the doorpost
and the lintel of Abel, Adam, Eve, Enoch. The blood was there. They didn't see it. They didn't
see him die, but he did for them. That scarlet line was in Rahab's
house, and she didn't know it. I said, look at there. And so
they said, mind this. They hold of it, Rahab. This, I titled it one time, The
Sinner's Rope. Somebody wrote me and said, is
that a misprint? You mean, see hope? I said, nope. Rope. And yes, hope. This is the sinner's
hope. The sinner's hope. It's the line
they went out on. It's the line that they're going
to bring her out on. They're going to come back up
this line and get her and take her out the same way. Look at
verse 18, it says, the window. There was one window and one
way out. And one hope, one rope, for everybody
that was in that house. And they told her, they warned
her, verse 19, don't leave that house. Do not leave that house,
whatever you do. And anybody in that house that
needs mercy, like you, anybody. And Rahab could attest to the
fact that he'll save anyone. And you know, her mother was
probably a decent woman, probably a moral woman. She probably moaned
and fretted over her daughter like the woman did over her daughter,
Vexal the Devil. Oh, she prayed for her and she
hoped, but that woman knew just as surely as Rahab did that I
need mercy just like her. I know she's my daughter. Why
does she turn out like that? Because she came from me. And
they knew. Everybody in that house knew.
We're just a bunch of sinners. No better than Rahab. And if
God saves any of us, it'll be one way. That's right. One way. And so, verse 21, she said, according
to Your Word, so be it. You know what that means? Amen.
She said, Amen. Okay, and she bound that scarlet
line in that window. How tight, you reckon, did she
bind it? She laid hold of Jacob. We're
going to look at Jacob. Jacob, somebody came and laid
hold of him. What did he do? He wrestled back. He said, I ain't letting go of
my hope. Don't let go of the rope. But, you know, Joshua didn't
come back for a long time. Joshua chapter 6. It doesn't
say how long it was. It could have been months. It
does not say. What's she doing in the meantime?
Living by faith. She has never seen Joshua. Margaret,
she's never seen him. She has no way of looking. But
she believed him. She feared him. She's waiting
on Him. She's waiting on someone she's
never seen. She believes someone she's never seen. She loves someone
she's never seen. She's thinking about, talking
about, to her family, someone they've never seen. And they're
living by faith. And don't you know, everybody
in that city, like Noah in the ark, what's wrong with you people? Look, the sun's shining. Everything's
fine. Jericho's a fine city. We're
all a bunch of fine people here. God's not that holy. We're not
that bad. Joshua loves everybody. Yeah,
Joshua loves you. That sign's everywhere. Joshua loves you. No, he doesn't. He's gonna kill you. Unless you're
in the house. Because Joshua, like God, is
a consuming fire. But he's merciful. Well, what happened? One day, one day, you remember, trumpets
started blaring. And the people in the city said,
what's that sound? And it's a joyful sound to me.
It's the sound of my salvation. She's lifted up her head. Her
redemption has drawn nigh. And the people said, tell him
to stop. And Joshua said, no, tell him to do it louder. You
hear that, Mom? You hear that, Dad? We're going
out. We're going out. And she did. Joshua gave the
command, verse 22, sent the spies in again. And they brought her
out. Go into the harlot's house, bring
out that woman hence, and all that she hath, as you swear unto
her. Just like you promised. Just
like I told you to tell her. Bring her out. And they did.
And verse 25, I love this, says Joshua saves Rahab, the harlot,
alive. She didn't die. Everybody in
the city died, not Rahab. You know what our Lord said?
He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe that? And it says,
don't you love Him? It says, all that she hath, and
she dwelleth in Israel to this day. It sounds like she's there
right now. She is. I want you to turn to
Matthew to close it. Matthew chapter 1. This is not
the end of the story. You see? She's going to see Her seed. His seed. God. And, oh my, life has begun. She doesn't die. Her life has
just begun. She gets married. Matthew chapter
1. And she married a man named Salmon. Verse 5. Matthew chapter 1 verse
5. Salmon begat Boaz. See Rahab
married a man named Salmon. And they had a boy. They named
him Boaz. Okay. Well, Boaz married a girl
named Ruth. Mama, I want you to meet Mama
Rahab. I want you to meet my new wife.
Her name is Ruth. She was a Moabite, and the Lord
had mercy on her, brought her to me, and Ruth said to Rahab,
Oh, Mother Rahab, I'm not worthy to be a member of your family.
And Rahab said, Honey, you just don't know. You just
don't know. Welcome to the family. We're
all sons here, Ruth. Well, Ruth had a boy named Obed. He had a boy named Jesse. Jesse
had a boy named David. And the end of this whole line,
this lineage, at the end of this whole story is a boy born in
Bethlehem thousands of years later. His name is Joshua. Jesus, Savior. And everybody
in that tree, He's the tree. And everybody in His tree is
going to the Promised Land by Him.