I invite you to turn with me
this morning to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and then I want you
to also to find Joshua chapter 2 again because we're going to
use some verses out of Joshua 2 in our message this morning. But I want to read Hebrews chapter
11 verse 31. Verse 31 of Hebrews chapter 11.
By faith The harlot Rahab perished not
with them that believed not when she had received the spies with
peace. Let me read that one more time.
By faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not
when she had received the spies with peace. I believe the Spirit of God led
me to this chapter this morning, and what I'm to do with it will
be shown us as we go along. I do hope this morning that you
came here to hear something from the Lord, that you have a heart
that is tender toward God, tender toward His Word, that you have
a desire to hear something in your soul that would edify your
hearts. Now we read here in this second
chapter of the book of Joshua that there were two spies sent
out by Joshua to go into the land of Jericho and spy out that
land. The children of God were going
to take over the land of Canaan. They were going in to the land
of Canaan and so the spies were sent in to check it out, to discover
what kind of situations existed in that land. And they went,
the scripture says in chapter one, and came into an harlot's
house named Rahab, and they lodged there. Now, we take note here
of the fact that, and we shall discover as we go along this
morning, that Rahab, that she was a believer in Jehovah God. She was a believer
in the sovereign God of heaven and earth. She became a believer
and trusted the Lord and did works of faith. We'll see that
pointed out clearly here and in other places in the Bible
this morning. But I want to say at the very
outset in answering the question, and I guess this would be our
first point, on who is this woman? Who is this woman? Well, the
Bible says that she was a harlot and her name was Rahab. Now,
she was no mere hostess of a hotel. Some people, some Bible commentaries,
and I think nothing but distaste for the free grace of God would
ever, would ever prompt any commentator to deny that this woman was what
the Bible says she was. There are those that don't want
to accept the fact that Jesus Christ came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. They don't want to accept the
fact that our Lord came to seek and to
save only that which was lost. And they do not want to accept
the fact that God, by the same grace in which he justifies the
morally upright and the morally righteous, that He also justifies
those who have fallen into great sin and have sold themselves
out to sin. But God, by His free grace, justified
this harlot. God saved this harlot. and he
saved this harlot and washed her in the blood of the Lamb
of God that was to come into the world just like he saves
any sinner and all those that are his elect. He saves them
all in the same way. And so Beloved, she was no mere
hostess She was a real harlot. That's what she was. That's what
the Bible tells us here that she was. And I think that this
magnifies the riches of God's grace. I think it exalts the
grace of God. She was a Gentile. She was a
Canaanite woman. She was an Amorite of the race
and seed, which in general was given over to destruction. And
it was a miracle of mercy. Her people were to be exterminated. They were to be eliminated from
the land. And it's a miracle of grace and
a miracle of mercy that God sent these spies to her house because
He purposed to deliver this woman and to spare this woman and her
family and to save this woman. It's a miracle of mercy. Now,
the Lord will have mercy on whom he will. That's what Romans chapter
9 says, whom he will. God's sovereign and he will have
mercy where he will have mercy. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but it's God that shows mercy. Mercy
is God. And he's sovereign in the bestowal
of that mercy. And God can save whomever he
will. And so the Lord does just that. And this is an exercise
of the sovereign mercy and sovereign grace of our God. Now this woman
was universally known, she was notorious, but God, the Bible
says, is no respecter of men's persons. God does not determine
who He will show mercy to based on whether or not they're good
enough or whether they are in some way or another something
that would commend them in some way or another to Him. We know
that the only thing that commends us to God is our sin. Our righteousness, our self-righteousness,
will not commend us unto God. It will not. It will damn us. It will send us to hell. But
it will not commend us to God. So whatever good that you think
you have in your life, you might as well junk it because that
is not going to commend you to God. Your sin is what gives you
a right. And you may be here this morning
in this service and you may not feel that you're worthy to stand
next shoulder to shoulder or sit beside the people of God,
those that have been saved, those that have been redeemed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You may not feel worthy to be
in that position, but if you're a sinner and you know yourself
to be one, then, beloved, you are sacred in that that the Spirit
of God has taught you that you are a sinner. And you have a
sacred right to be among the people of God, because we're
sinners here. We know that the blood that flowed
from Emmanuel's veins, that it created a bath for blackened
sinners. for sinners who were black, for
sinners who were hell-deserving, for sinners who were wretched.
And we know that the garment which was woven from top to bottom
by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that that
was for the naked. It was for the naked, not for
those who are a tailor themselves, or not for those who feel like
they have clothed themselves some way or another that God's
going to take notice of them, But it's for the naked that the
Lord Jesus Christ wove the garments of salvation. Beloved, grace
is a marvelous and wonderful thing. And when you think about
the grace of God, and people talk of grace as if it were something
they could use. And we know there's many, many
people who have this idea about grace. But I want, if I can,
to make it crystal clear to you this morning of how grace operated
upon this harlot. Now, grace is not an influence that we can use. It's not something
which we can improve ourselves with. But grace improves us. It employs us. It works on us. And men cannot take the grace
of God and employ it in turning themselves from darkness to light. The light does not come to darkness
and say, use me. But the light comes and drives
the darkness away. Life does not come to the dead
man and say, use me to be restored to life. The spiritual influence
does not come to the dry bones and say Ezekiel's dry bones.
Use this power to clothe yourself with flesh. But it clothes them
with flesh and the work is done. Grace is a thing which comes
and exercises influence upon us. The sovereign will of God,
the poet said, alone creates us heirs of grace, born in the
image of His Son, a new created race. Beloved, the grace of God
came on this woman. We can't explain all that took
place, but I believe that God had done a work in this woman's
heart, and the Lord had planted faith there. The grace of God
had mightily operated upon this woman, and there were great things
that come from this. Now then, what she did? Well,
what did this woman do? Now, beloved, this woman, she
hid the spies. Look in verse 4. In verse 1,
we read, well, they came into her house. And then in verse
4, the woman took the two men and hid them and said, thus,
there came men unto me, but I wish not whence they were. We see
here that this woman told those that came from the King of Jericho,
she told them, I don't know anything about where these men are. Now
we're told that she had taken them up and that she hid them
under the stalks of flack, in verse 6, which she laid in order
upon the roof. She hid these two spies. And
she hid them because she believed that they had come out by the
providence of God, by the will of God, and she did this in faith. You say, preacher, how do you
know that? Well, turn with me to the book of James, the book
of James chapter 2, and I'll read to you a verse of scripture
that will satisfy our hearts. Look in verse 25 of James chapter
2. Likewise also was not Rahab the
harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers
and had sent them out another way. Now here we see that Rahab
the harlot, she was justified by her works. In that, that she
sent out the spies another way. She lied to those that came from
the king of Jericho, told them a falsehood, said that these
men had already left, and that if they would send out some people
after them, they'd surely catch up with them, but she had hid
them up on the roof, because she believed that they came out
from God. We read in verse 11, and as soon
as we had heard these things, she's talking about how that
They had heard about the Red Sea parting for the children
of Israel and what they had done in battle to the Amorites and
on the other side of Jordan. And you know that the children
of Israel at this time, this very time, were camped on the
other side of Jordan. And there was no bridge across
the Jordan River for the children of Israel to get over into the
land of Canaan. But this woman said, Well, we
heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea. Well,
the Lord was going to part the waters of Jordan and the children
of Israel were coming over and she said, doesn't make any difference
if there's no bridge, doesn't make any difference how wide
the river Jordan is. We believe, I believe that that
you're coming over and you're going to take over this land.
She believed the testimony that she had heard about the children
of Israel and God's wonderful providential work in their midst
and for them and on their behalf. And as soon as we had heard these
things, she said 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 earth beneath said we didn't
have any more courage in us because God is with you God is your God
and she said the Lord your God is God in heaven above He rules
in heaven. She believed what Daniel said
about about God being sovereign and God being God in heaven,
and that the heavenly host all being obedient to Him, and that
He was God on earth and in earth. And she said, and in earth beneath. God doesn't only light the lamps
of heaven at night. God doesn't only send the stars
out. God doesn't only take care of heaven, but He's also God
in this earth, and God is with you people, and we are going
to be overcome by you, and I'm on God's side. I'm on God's side,
and that's why I've hid you." And she wanted them to protect
her and her family and to save them a life, which they agreed
to do. But beloved, there's a couple
of things required, I think, to render any action or any good
work in the sight of God. Now this woman rendered a good
work. The Bible says, James said, she was justified by what she
did in that she sent the spies another way. She let the spies
down over the wall with that scarlet rope and let them go
or told them to go another way. She had hid them and then sent
them out another way. Well, beloved, we know that faith
is required to do that which God commands. Faith is required. This woman believed God and she
believed that God was working in this situation and that Jericho
would would fall, make no difference how big the walls were, how high
they were, she believed that the Israelites were going to
conquer the land. And so she believed and therefore
she acted. And then not only that, but we
know that a work of faith or a work that is good is one that
must be commanded of God. Now I don't know what it is that
God's going to ask you to do. I know that in my life, as a
believer, God's asked me to do some things. There's been some
things along the line that God said, this you must do. And if
you're going to be my disciple, then you must obey me. You must
follow me. You must do what I want you to
do. And this is what I want you to do. Abraham was a man of faith. God sent him out into a place
that he would after show him. Abraham obeyed and went out.
And God often speaks to his people and say, this is what I want
you to do. I've got something here and listen to me now. It
may not happen the first year you're saved. It may not happen
the second. It may not happen in the first
10 years. It may not happen in the first
20 years. But somewhere between the time
God saves you and the time you leave this world, the Lord's
going to cross your path and he says this thing here I want
you to do. This you've got to do. And here's
old Rahab. and she's up here on the wall
in the house on the wall she's got a terrible reputation but
God has visited her and God said this is what I want you to do
I want you I want you now somebody said was was God the author of
the lie that she told here to the to the those that came from
the from the king of Jericho Well, Thomas Matten said her
lie was an infirmity pardoned by God, and it was not to be
exaggerated by men. It was an infirmity. It's always
wrong to lie. But shouldn't this woman have
done what she did? Well, she was walking by faith,
and I believe that she did what she was supposed to. Now, in
that, it seemed that, you know, the scripture says in Romans
13 and 1, that we ought to obey those that have the rule over
us and submit ourselves to the higher powers, but she betrayed
the higher power in that situation because the command of God or
because what God was leading her, ensuring her to do, loyalty
to the Lord Jesus Christ or to God, loyalty to God and His servants
were called upon here and so it was necessary in this situation
in that like it was in Acts chapter 5 you know in Acts chapter 5
the brethren were told not to preach anymore in the name of
Jesus and they said well whether it's right in the side of god
to to to uh... obey you or not we're just gonna
obey the lord we're gonna go ahead and preach because we believe
that we all obey god rather than men and there are times that
week she knew this government was falling she knew it was gone
she knew it was over she knew that god was going to lead his
people in and the israelites were going to take over the land
of jericho she knew that god had shown her plainly that And
so the only way she could spare these spies was to tell them
uh... that uh... or to tell those that
came from the king of jericho these men were gone they were
gone and get out there and pursue them and so what she did i believe
was right and i think she should have done exactly what she did
and according to what james said that's the way she justified
herself before god and so this was a work of faith god laid
it upon her heart now i don't know what god's gonna ask you
to do i know what he has asked me to do down through the years
But I don't know what God's gonna ask you to do. But if you're
a child of faith, if you have the faith of God in you, if God
has given you the gift of faith, He's gonna try that faith, and
He's gonna lay hold of you one of these days, and He's gonna
say to you, this is what I want you to do. This is what I want
you to do. And beloved, this is so important
to see this. This is the way that you are
going to justify yourself by works. in the side of men in
this world is by obeying what God tells you to do when he crosses
your path, whatever it is. That's a private matter between
you and the Lord. It's not something that everybody's
going to be called upon to do in the same way. It may be something
particular, it may be some situation that will be altogether different
than what God asked somebody else to do. But the Lord, if
you walk with Him and if you trust Him, He's going to lay
it on your heart and He's going to show you what to do. And so
this woman, when God delivered her and saved her, she had this
command from God. You spare. You take those My
servants up on that roof and you hide them and spare their
lives. And in that way, her own life
and the lives of her family were spared. That's why she did it.
She believed God. And God gave her the faith. And
she was the only one in Jericho who had any faith. The only one. God singled her out. She was
the only one that had faith to believe. And maybe when God calls
upon you to do a thing, maybe everybody else says you shouldn't
do that. I don't think you ought to go to all that trouble. I
don't think you ought to put yourself out like that. I don't
think this would be the thing for you to do. But beloved, this
woman risked, she risked by faith her life before God and did that
very thing which God commanded her to do. Now then, I want to
ask a question or two here. There's some things very interesting
about this woman. What came of this? What was the
result of her doing this? Well, along the way, I guess
I've said a few things that lead you to believe that this was,
that it ended in the saving of herself, her physical life, as
well as her soul, and also It resulted in her family being
saved and kept, and kept from being destroyed when the Israelite
army came in. But you might ask yourself, what
about this woman? What ever become of this woman?
Did she just continue right on as a harlot after God saved her?
Well, no. She did not continue on as a
harlot after God saved her. The Lord saved her and there
was a difference. She married, listen to me now,
just look at this, she married Salmon, the prince of Judah,
and became the great-great-grandmother of King David. This woman that
was a harlot there in Jericho, she married the Prince of Judah,
and she became the great-great-grandmother of King David, and she is put
down among the ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me
read to you something that Arthur Pink said, and he just pointed
this out. There's nothing that is remarkable
about it. It's just the truth, and let
me read it to you. He said, it is very remarkable
that in the pedigree of Christ that there should be so many
women with blotted characters, that there should be an incestuous
tamer, a harlot Rahab, an idolatrous Ruth, an adulterous Bathsheba,
he says christ has descended as to his earthly parenting g
from the loins of centers how matchless is the condescending
condescension uh... redeemer the lord jesus christ
and so beloved we see then that god has included these uh... as uh... arthur pink call them
uh... women with blotted characters
in the ancestry of our lord Now, I wondered about this faith that
she had. you know uh... i believe it that
god gave it to her and this is what moved her and i wondered
about it how would we know if we had true faith how would we
know if we had the faith of god how would we know if we if we
really believe god or if god had given us this faith that
rahab had and i thought of four things that i think would be
telltale signs of whether or not we had this faith that Rahab
had, this faith that moved her to hide these spies, that moved
her to send them out another way, that justified her by works,
this faith that justified her own soul from sin. Well, first
of all, let me say that I believe that this faith, if you have
it this morning, is a faith that acknowledges and confesses personal
depravity sin and guilt. There's one thing I'm sure of
this morning that there isn't anybody going to heaven except
those who are sinners and those who acknowledge themselves to
be sinners. Those who confess that they took
part with Adam when he fell in the Garden of Eden and when he
transgressed against God and when he revolted against God
Only those who are guilty. You know, in Psalms 51 verses
3 through 5, David confesses that in sin, he says, my mother
conceived me. He said, he acknowledged, he
acknowledged his sin. and said that before God, I have
sinned. Before God and Him only, he said,
I have sinned. And in John 1 and verse 9, it
says if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the blood
of Jesus Christ, 1 John 1, verse 7, cleanseth us from all sin. Those who go to heaven are washed
in the blood. Their sins are put away. But they are sinners. And we
must confess and acknowledge our depravity, sin, and guilt.
And true faith in you will fix it up so that you are not always
talking about what you are in that you are moral, upright,
and that you're one who is very good as far as your life in this
world. Your life is lived according
to the golden rule. We know there's so many self-righteous
people, but the church is not a station where self-righteous
people come together and congratulate each other on how moral and upright
and good they are. But this church is a rescue station,
a yard from hell, and the people that are in it are sinners. say
justified centers and we all acknowledge that if you've got
the faith of god in you you will acknowledge i am indeed what
the bible says i am and i am a sinner i have seen and i confess
that i'm a sinner before god true faith will move you to do
that and then in the second place true faith trust christ alone
for acceptance with god Now in the book of Acts chapter 8 verses
26 through 37 we have the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip
preaching to that eunuch. And Philip preached Christ. He
opened his mouth and preached Christ unto this Ethiopian eunuch. And when he preached out of Isaiah
53 uh... this unique uh... received the message and he believed
the message and they came to some water and uh... the unique
said see here is water what the intermediate baptize and philip
said if they'll believe us with all mine heart now makes if you
believe on the son of god if you believe on this one i've
been testifying to you about out of i was a fifty three the
uh... substitute the suffering substitute
if you believe in him thou mayest be baptized and listen to what
the eunuch said the eunuch said i believe that jesus christ is
the son of god now beloved true faith that's what true faith
believes and confesses i believe that jesus christ is the son
of god and whenever you come to the place Your life where
you can make that confession. I believe in my heart. I believe
in my heart of hearts I believe in the depth of my soul that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God When you can believe that and
when you can confess that then my friend you can lay claim to
salvation You can say I believe that I'm saved. I believe that
God's given me the gift of faith because faith is will move you
to confess your sinnership and it'll move you to confess that
the only way of acceptance with God is Jesus Christ alone for
justification, sanctification, and preservation and ultimate
glorification Christ alone is sufficient and so if you believe
Him, if you trust Him, you have true faith. Now then, in the
third place, true faith surrenders to follow and obey Christ as
Lord in all things and over all things. Let's take a look at
this woman. Now she didn't know, Rahab didn't,
that there would come a time when people would read in the
Bible about her being a harlot. She didn't know that. She didn't
know that all the world would know her situation and what she
was. She didn't know that. And she
didn't know that anybody was ever going to hear about what
she did there up on that roof and hiding those servants of
God, those people that had come out, those two spies that had
come out from the Israelites. She didn't know that. But, beloved,
what she did was she put her life in God's hands. And she
said, I'm just going to do what God lays on my heart to do, what
I must do. And she surrendered completely
and entirely to follow the Lord and obey the Lord in all things. And I'd like to read to you out
of the book of Luke. If you have your Bible and would
turn to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, let's just read
here verses 25 through 33. 25 through 33. And there went great multitudes
with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to
me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of
you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether ye have sufficient to finish it? lest happily after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all that behold it began to mock him, saying, This man began to
build, and was not able to finish it. Or what king, going to make
war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against
him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath, He cannot be my
disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt
have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither
fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it
out. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear." So our Lord here very clearly spells it out, that if
a man comes after Him, that he must hate, that is, that he must
not consider his father, mother, wife, children, and brothers
and sisters, consider them above him, and give consideration to
their desires and ambitions, but he must live, he must hate
his own life also, not give consideration to his own desires, his own ambitions
in life, and says that you cannot be my disciple unless you do
this. You can't be my disciple. You can't walk with me. You know
the word disciple comes from the word discipline. And you
cannot be the Lord's disciple unless you discipline yourself,
surrender yourself to do that which God calls upon you to do. Surrender yourself to His Lordship,
to obey Him. Discipline yourself and take
up your cross and Come after him he said in verse 27 whosoever
does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple
and So our Lord says that true faith will surrender and it'll
obey Christ It'll obey God and that woman, you know, she'd been
found out they'd have killed her They'd have killed her if
she'd been found out that'd been the end of killed her and her
family both But she obeyed God and trusted God and later a life
on the line later right on the line beloved you know there's
and I've noticed this among the people of God that there are
those that are involved as believers and then there are those that
are committed involved and committed and I think that's best illustrated
by the ham and egg breakfast you know the chicken is involved
in a ham and egg breakfast but the hog is committed the hog
is committed and beloved for believers we're not just involved
in this thing we're not involved we're to be committed to this
thing committed to it I mean it's your own life also hate
your own life also you're committed to it and that's what true faith
does and that's what true faith did for this woman it just said
this is all of it This is all of it. You lay down your life.
This is it. You lay it down. You hide them spies. You send
them out another way. Anybody finds it out, they'll
cut your throat. But this is exactly what you do. And so she
surrendered herself and submitted herself. The believer's submission
to Christ in this life is not perfect, but it is to be sincere
and it is to be entire. God's children are not rebels
to Jesus Christ. They do not rebel against His
doctrine, His will, or His word. They submit to Him, and they
submit to Him willingly. And so that's what true faith
will do. You say, do I have true faith? What's your attitude about
the will of God? What's your attitude about doing
what God wants you to do? What's your attitude about it?
Well, true faith also, let me say this in the last place, True
faith loves Christ. It loves His people, and it loves
His Word. Look in 1 John chapter 5. 1 John
chapter 5. I want to read the first three
verses here. True faith loves Christ. We're
already told earlier in the book of 1 John that we know that we
have passed from death. So this is one of the evidence
that we got faith, or we have faith, is that we love the brethren. And faith always works by love.
Where love is absent, faith is absent. Where genuine love is
found, faith is there. Listen to what this says. Whosoever
believeth, 1 John 5 verse 1, Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him." You see
that? Everybody that loves God the
Father loves those that He saves, those that are begotten of Him,
spiritually speaking. By this we know that we love
the children of God, when we love God. When we love God, this
is how we know. If we love God, then we love
the children of God, and keep His commandments, keep His Word,
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments,
and we keep His word, and His commandments are not grievous. What God commands you to do is
not grievous. You do what the Lord commands
you to do. and this is the way you submit yourself to God and
this is the way you show that you love God and the way that
you show that you love those that have forgotten of Him. So
true faith then will move you to love God and His people. Do you love the Lord? Do you
love the Lord? Well, do you love His people?
If you're saved, then I believe that you will show it in this
way. Now there's a couple of poems
I want to share this is an old song says come ye needy come
and welcome God's free bounty glorify true belief and true
repentance every grace that brings us nigh without money come to
Jesus Christ and buy and then there was another one I had here
somewhere that I thought was uh... I don't know maybe I've
lost it I guess I have I guess I didn't bring it but there was
another one that I I wanted to read you, but we'll let it go
this morning. Sometimes the Lord allows me
several days to know ahead of time what I'm going to preach,
and then sometimes He doesn't. Sometimes it's ten minutes till
nine on Sunday morning before I get clear in my mind what the
Lord wants me to talk about, what He wants me to preach. It's
much more comfortable to know two or three days or a week ahead
of time. But I don't always know that. And so I'm not as comfortable
this morning as I'd like to be with this subject. I'd like to
have been able to spend a whole lot more time in getting it ready. Because there's one thing about
it, I don't ever want to waste your time, and I don't want to
waste mine. And when I get up to preach, I want to know right
where I'm at all the time, and I want to know that I'm doing
that which God has called me to do. But this morning, I had
to go with what the Lord laid on my heart. So about 8.30, 20
minutes till 9, I was just led right to this chapter. I just
said, the Lord just, as it were, just said, this is it. You talk
about that Rahab the harlot. And so that's what we did. And
I hope this morning the Lord will bless you. Now I'm going
to be away for two weeks. I'll be away longer than that,
but I'll only be gone two Sundays, God willing. God willing. And you know we ought always
to say the Lord wills. I was telling somebody the other
day a story that I heard sometime back about a fella He had a mule,
he had a big mule. And he talked to a fella in a
little town near him about selling the mule. And this fella agreed
to buy it, he agreed on a price, and so the fella left to go deliver
the mule to town. And he come by the neighbor's
place, And he told the neighbor. The neighbor said, where are
you going with that mule? He said, I'm taking him to town to sell him.
And the neighbor said, you ought to say if the Lord wills, you're
going to take that mule to town and sell him. He said, well,
the Lord's will got nothing to do with it. I've already talked
to the fellow. We already agreed on a price. And the fellow's
already got the money. He's waiting on me right now.
The fellow said, you ought to say if the Lord wills. you're going to go to town and
sell that mule. So they talked back and forth, and the fellow
with the mule insisting that the Lord's will had nothing to
do with it. So he left, took his mule and went on down the
road. And in about four or five hours, well, he'd come back.
And he was dragging one leg behind him, and his clothes were half-tore
off of him, and he was bleeding, and had a black eye, awful shape. And the neighbor met him out
at the end of the lane and said, Well, what in the world happened
to you? Well, he said, I stayed here
and argued with you so long, about whether it's the Lord's
will or not, I'd get to town and sell that mule and I had
to take a shortcut. I went across the fellow's pasture
and he thought I was trespassing and he shot the mule and the
mule fell on me. It took me an hour to get out
from under that mule and here I am in this awful shape I'm
in. And the neighbor said, well, what are you going to do now?
He said, well, I'm going home if the Lord will. I'm going home,
if the Lord will. So if the Lord will, I'm going
to be back in three weeks. But I'll be gone two Sundays.
But listen to me. Brother Marshall Smithson said
he would come up next week if you wanted him to.