Hope Church LV Sermons
Not by Sight:: An Amazing Story of Grace through Faith
Have you ever heard the phrase "the story within the story"? Last weekend I told you a little bit of the story of hope and we talked about as a church family the story we've been on for the last decade, God's story that He's writing through our church and over the last 10 years we've seen over 2,500 people that have come to Christ. We've had the privilege of being involved in planting 10 new churches, 8 of those here in Las Vegas and we talked about the fact that we're working on four different continents around the world on the behalf of the opportunity to train thousands of national leaders every year pouring in to men and women of God that are expanding His kingdom globally. That's the story of our church corporately but within the story of hope there are hundreds probably even thousands of God's stories. But at work in the lives when we talk about people's lives being changed and families being put back together, every one of those is an individual and unique story and if we had the time this morning to take a microphone and just pass it around and let you stand and give testimony of what God's done in your life or the stories of God's life change and transformation in your own life personally, there's a lot of stories within the story. For example, this week I'm on Twitter. I don't know how many of you, how many of you are Twitter, how many of you are familiar with that? It's kind of like Facebook a little bit. It's not quite as involved as Facebook. I think that's why I like it. You're limited to 140 characters. I like that. But on Twitter I follow some people, one of the young men in our church I follow on Twitter and listen to what he put on his Twitter page this week. He said, "Five years ago I would have been dealing with my situation by swimming in a bottle. Now I swim in God's word and grace. Thank you Lord." You know what that is? That's a God's story. That's a story within the story. That's part of what God's doing in and through the life of our fellowship. I had the privilege this week of having a meeting in my office with Cody Huff. Some of you know Cody and Heather and Cody and Heather have been attending our fellowship for a number of years and a few years ago God stirred in their heart and birthed in them a desire to begin a ministry called Broken Chains. Cody's somebody that God saved and redeemed out of homelessness himself and so he had a passion to begin to reach out to the homeless in our city and God began to change his heart and his wife's heart and they began this ministry called Broken Chains. Did you know that last year, Cody told me this Wednesday, last year, Broken Chains fed 4,000 people in Las Vegas and saw over 200 people trust Jesus Christ as their first Lord and Savior. That's glorious. Let me tell you what that is. That's the story within the story. Well last weekend, as we continue our study through Hebrews chapter 11, if you got your Bible, go ahead and open it to Hebrews chapter 11. As a family of faith, we are studying through Hebrews chapter 11. And Hebrews chapter 11 tells us the amazing stories of the lives of men and women of God who live not by sight, but by faith. And through their journey of faith, we're able to learn unbelievable truth about God. And last weekend, we looked at one of those stories. It was the story of the children of Israel taking the city of Jericho. We talked about last weekend, those mighty walls falling down, how the children of Israel marched around the walls of Jericho all those days, and on the last day they shouted and the walls came down. And what an unbelievable story, and most of us have heard the story of Jericho. Hopefully, most of you for sure have heard it because I know all of you were here last weekend, right? Yeah. We all have heard the story of Jericho. But there's a story within the story of Jericho. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 30 tells us the story of Jericho. Verse 31 begins to tell us the story within the story, and it is an amazing story of God's grace through faith. Now this whole series that we're doing is about living by faith. And every weekend we've asked the question, what does it mean to live by faith, and every weekend we put up on the screen the definition and ask you to read it out loud in response, right? Well, I'm going to ask you to say it without putting it on the screen. Yeah, pop quiz Sunday morning. All right. So what does it mean to live by faith? I'm going to help you, but I'm not going to put it on the screen. Here we go. To live life, not trusting in myself, but resting moment by moment in his very life in me. Hey, give yourselves a hand. You did pretty good. That's not too bad. That's what it is to live by faith. And one of the incredible joys of living by faith is experiencing God's amazing grace. Aren't you thankful for the grace of God? Wait a minute, wait a minute. I said, aren't you thankful for the grace of God? Well, Hebrews chapter 11 verse 31 is an unbelievable picture of the grace of God. I want to read it for you. Look at it on the screen. If you don't have a Bible with you this morning, Hebrews 1131, by faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Could there be five more unlikely words to begin a verse of Scripture? By faith, Rahab the harlot, you don't read that very often in the Bible, right? A picture of God's amazing grace, Rahab. What do we know about her? Well, there are two things that we know for sure. Number one, we know where she lived. Rahab lived in the city of Jericho. That's why the story of Rahab is the story within the story. She lived in that city that we talked about last weekend where the children of Israel came in to take over the city of Jericho as the beginning point of their conquest of the land that God had given them all the way back to the promise of Abraham. Rahab lived in the city of Jericho. Jericho was made up of a people called the Canaanites. The Canaanites were a polytheistic culture. Means that they were a very spiritual culture, but they didn't just worship one God. The Canaanites were a culture that worshiped many gods. They had what's known as a pantheon, a list of gods. And within the list of gods that the people of Canaan worship, there was somewhat of a pecking order. There was a God that was kind of at the top of the list, the top of the pantheon of all the gods, and he was the God named Baal. As you read in the Old Testament, you'll read many places where the people of God were in conflict with or in battle with the worshipers of Baal. This is one of those instances in the city of Jericho. The people of Canaan, where Rahab lived, worshiped the God of Baal. Now Baal was the God of fertility. So for that reason, him being the preeminent God in this polytheistic culture, the Canaanite religion celebrated four annual religious festivals. These four festivals were celebrated every year in worship of the God Baal, and they contained revelry, drunkenness, and sexual excess. And I'm talking about the kind of festival that would have made Mardi Gras look like a tea party. So matter of fact, Bakers Encyclopedia of the Bible says this, "The Canaanite religion was evidently the most sexually depraved of any in the ancient world." That's where she lived. A city that had given itself to the God of sensuality and pleasure and sexuality, and at least four times a year, they opened the doors of their city to celebrate in public fashion. Now the second thing we know for sure about what Rahab is what she did. We not only know where she lived, we know what she did for a living. The Bible tells us that Rahab was a harlot. It's a word that simply means prostitute. Rahab is mentioned four times in the Bible, three of the four times she's mentioned we get this description of her, Rahab the harlot. Now more than likely, Rahab is what was called a temple prostitute. You see because the city had set itself up to worship the God of sensuality and sexuality, the God of Baal, the city and the religious leaders had temple services where they offered temple prostitutes and his acts of worship to the God of Baal, you could visit the temple prostitutes and that's more than likely who Rahab was. So here's the bottom line. Rahab lived in a city that was dominated by sin that expressed itself predominantly in sensuality and the pursuit of physical pleasure and she herself even built her life around the same pursuits. Does that sound vaguely familiar to the place where we live? A city that is dominated by sin. You know we have a nickname outside of the region here called Las Vegas, right? You know people have a name for us. You know what they call us? What do they call us? Sin City, right? We're a city that is known. Now in reality our city doesn't have any more sin than any other city. We just advertise it. We use it as marketing plan, right? Most cities sweep it under a rug. We print brochures and hand them out about what's wrong with our city. But we're a city that is dominated by sin and particularly sin that revolves around sensuality and the pursuit of physical pleasure and many even in our own city have built their lives around those same pursuits. Rahab was a center among sinners and yet we find her listed in Hebrews chapter 11 which by many is considered to be the Hall of Fame for our faith. We find her listed alongside of people like Abraham, Moses, Enoch, Joseph, great men and women of God aren't you thankful for the amazing grace of Almighty God that is in the business of changing and transforming lives? God can take us no matter where we are and what we are and make us an amazing testimony to His marvelous grace and that is exactly what we find in the story of Rahab. It's like what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. Corinth was another city in society and that time in history that was given to much sensual pleasure. It had many of the same gods, different names but same types of gods and Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Now before I read this text of Scripture when Paul's writing to a church he's writing to save people. People that have come to know Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul writes to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at it on the screen. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor feminine nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Thank God he didn't stop with that period, amen? Because if he'd stopped with that period we'd all have to say, "Oh me, we're in trouble." But he didn't stop with that period. Listen what he says, "Such were some of you, but you were washed." Isn't that good news? Hey, that's who I was, but you were washed. But you were sanctified, set apart. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. No wonder, no wonder when John Newton who had given his life to the slave trade, no wonder when John Newton was overwhelmed by the grace of God and the forgiveness of God and turned from his sin and surrendered himself to the almighty grace of God. No wonder in response to the grace John Newton on a ship sat down and he penned these words, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found was blind, but now I see." The story of Rahab is a beautiful story of the amazing grace of God and I want to, out of her story, give you three truths that we learn about the grace of God. Here's the first one, God graciously pursues us. God graciously pursues us. Here's my point, Rahab did not go looking for God. God came looking for Rahab. Rahab lived in a city that was given to sin. She built her life around the same pursuits of sensuality and yet God sent his message into that city. The story of Rahab is that Rahab was in the city of Jericho and what happened is Joshua and the children of Israel sent two spies into Jericho to check out the lay of the land and they found themselves at Rahab's door and Rahab invited them in and when the government came with the city of Jericho to try to kill the spies to thwart this attempt to be taken over by the children of Israel, Rahab hid those spies and she protected them because she believed in the message of God that she'd heard and then she sent those spies safely on their way and the spies made her a promise if they would keep secret the plan. She would keep secret the plan of the children of Israel to come and take over the city that they would spare her and her family if she would hang a scarlet thread out of her window and that's exactly what she did. But God in His grace pursued her. Let me give you a couple of evidences of that in His text. Rahab had heard the message of the truth of God. We don't have time to read all of it but turn over to Joshua chapter 2. If you want to read the whole story of Rahab, read Joshua 2 to Joshua 6 and you'll get all the story of Rahab. But in Joshua chapter 2 the spies have come to her house and she's about to hide them on her rooftop and listen to what she says to them in Joshua 2 and verse 8. Now before they lay down she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, "I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard," you hear that, "for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, the Saihan and Ag, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you." Now listen to what she says, "For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." People says faith comes by hearing. Rahab heard the truth about God and she responded in faith. Now in light of her circumstances, a polytheistic culture, worshiping many gods and she herself being a prostitute in the temple of worship. In light of her circumstances, how did Rahab ever hear the truth about God? Let me tell you how. God loved her so much that through His amazing grace He pursued her and brought the truth about Himself to her very ears. Not only that, Rahab believed. The implication of these verses, the way she says it, it's as if everybody in the city heard the truth about God, but only Rahab believed. But in His grace brought the truth to Rahab and then God in His grace even gave her the ability to believe and respond in faith. Let me ask you a couple of questions. You ever thought about how you heard the truth about God? There's 7 billion people on planet earth, 2 billion people have no access to the truth about God in their language at all. That's almost one-third of the world's population today has no access to the truth about God at all. Even if they wanted to hear there's no access to the truth about God in their language yet. There's another billion plus that although they have access have still yet to hear the truth about God. Almost one-half of the world's populations never even heard the truth about God. Have you ever thought about why you heard? Why weren't you born in the country of Yemen? Why is Yemen not America and America not Yemen? Why does Yemen not have the truth about God in their language and yet we do? There's only one answer, grace, grace. Why did you believe? How many times did you hear the truth about God before you finally believed and surrendered? You're like, "What made the difference that day?" 95% of our city is lost. Why have they rejected the gospel? Over 6 billion people in the world have yet to receive the gospel. Even those who have heard the truth about God have yet to surrender their life. Why is it that I have believed? Is it because I'm smarter? Is it because I'm holier? Is it because I'm better? Is it because I'm prettier? Let me show it to in the Bible, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, 4 by grace. You have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it. Now it is very important there. It refers to the whole process of salvation, the whole by grace through faith. Every aspect of salvation, the reason that I am a child of God today is the amazing, marvelous, infinite, unbelievable grace of Almighty God. It is all a gift of God. God's grace pursues us. Not only did God and his grace get the message to Rahab, but he orchestrated events in her life to draw her to himself. Is it just coincidence that the two spies happened upon Rahab, the only person in the city of Jericho that had responded to the truth that she had heard? Is that just coincidence? No. They sent these spies in. Why did they do that? You know, I question sometimes why Joshua would have even thought about sending spies, because 40 years earlier, he'd been a part of a spy group that went in and it turned out not to be a very good plan. Ten of the spies came back and said, "There's no way we can take this land, so God sent them wandering in the desert for 40 years to kill off an entire generation of people who didn't believe." So after 40 years of manna in the desert, they wind up back at the same place they started, the walls of Jericho, and why in the world would Joshua even – I mean, he definitely reduced the size of the committee from 12 down to 2 – but why even risked that again? John Walford said it this way, "God's purpose for the visit of the spies to Jericho included more than securing military information. A sinful woman was there whom God and his grace purposed to spare from the judgment soon to fall on that city." Aren't you thankful that God's grace pursues us? Listen, I did not find him. He found me. The scripture says, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Let me ask you a question. What's your response to the grace of God? If you're here today and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, there's only one legitimate response to the grace of God, and that is to surrender, to surrender. If you're a Christian today, what's your response to the grace of God? Listen to me. When's the last time you just thanked him for being saved? We think he owes us so much more, and the evidence of that is the demanding spirit with which we go into his presence when things aren't exactly the way I want him to be in my life, I go into God's presence as if he owes me something. He owes me nothing. Everything I have is because of the amazing grace of God, and my heart attitude should be one of a deep sense of gratitude that I even know the truth about this great God. God's grace pursues us. Let me give you the second truth about God. God's grace demands a response, demands a response. The only proper response to the loving grace of God is absolute surrender, and it's the first step on the journey of faith. We're talking about people, men and women of God who lived their lives by faith. The first step on this journey is absolute surrender, and it's evidenced in our lives primarily by two things, and we see both of them in Rahab's life. When you see absolute surrender and a surrender, an appropriate response to the grace of God, you primarily see two things. Number one is repentance. Number two is obedience. Whether it's a genuine response to the grace of God in my life, a genuine turning in faith to God's grace, number one, you see repentance, and repentance was evident in Rahab's life. What is repentance? It's important we understand it now. It's not a popular word in the contemporary church in America. We don't like to talk about repentance very much in the contemporary church because it makes people feel uncomfortable, but repentance is a biblical word. We need to understand what it is Jesus came preaching the message of repentance. Let me tell you what repentance is. It's a change of mind about sin that produces a change of action towards sin. You see repentance is walking in one direction and recognizing the truth and not just being sorry, repentance is sorrow that produces a change where I turn and begin to go in a different direction. It's a change on the inside in response to the grace of God that produces a change on the outside, repentance. You say, "Where do you see that in Rahab's life?" Well, you see it in two ways. One very explicitly is her repentance and her belief system. Rahab had given her life to the worship of false gods and yet her own testimony when these spies come into her home is, "Your God is THE God of heaven and of earth." There's a repentance in her belief. She turned from the belief in false gods to a genuine belief in the true and living God. But I think you see it also in another way in her life. I want you to look at Joshua chapter 2 and verse 6. Joshua chapter 2 and verse 6 I think gives us a beautiful picture of repentance. Look at this verse on the screen, "But she, Rahab, had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof." You're wowed by that spiritual truth there? That's your memory verse for the week right there, right? I mean, that one just got you. Did you hear repentance there? Let me show it to you. Scholars tell us that flax was laboriously gathered by industrious women who would then soak that flax in water for three to four weeks to separate the fibers. After three or four weeks of separating out the fibers, the flax would then be laid out on the rooftops in that dry arid climate to dry. And once the flax had dried, they would then use that flax for spinning and weaving linen cloth. The Bible, which records no useless information. That's important. There's no useless information in the Bible. The Bible says of itself in 2 Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 16, "All scripture," all. It means every, the whole, every single word of scripture is inspired by God and profitable. It means that every word of scripture is useful in our lives to deepen our intimate fellowship with God. The Bible, which gives no useless information, tells us very specifically that Rahab herself laid this flax on the roof. And it's interesting that she had enough up there to completely hide two grown men underneath it. I can't prove it dogmatically, but when I get to heaven, I can't wait to ask her. She's going to be there, by the way. Here's what I believe. I believe personally that she'd already left the life of being a harlot and was now pursuing another means of providing for her family and her household by being a maker of linen cloth through the process of drying out and harvesting and spinning and weaving flax. And again, the Bible recording no useless information in Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31 is that text of scripture that we find that describes the virtuous wife and mom, the virtuous woman, the godly woman. In Proverbs chapter 31, the text opens by saying, "An excellent wife who can find for her worth is far above jewels." In verse 13, listen what it says, "She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight." I believe already we see the evidence in Rahab's life of a woman who was pursuing as best she understood following this new god that she'd heard about. The evidence of repentance. But secondly, there's the evidence of obedience, where there is genuine response to the grace of God, there's always the evidence of obedience. When these spies came, Rahab welcomed them into her home, listen to me, at the risk of losing her own life and the lives of everyone in her family. She embraced the spies. She told them what she'd heard. She gave testimony of her belief in their God. And then they gave her instructions to hide them, to keep their secret. And they said, "If you'll do that, when we return and take over the city, we'll protect and spare your family." And let me tell you what you see in Rahab's life. You see radical obedience to what she was told. James 2 is a wonderful chapter in the New Testament, misunderstood by some, but wonderful chapter in the New Testament that teaches us the powerful truth that the real evidence of genuine faith is always obedience. He says faith without works is dead, meaning that where there is genuine faith, where there is a genuine response to God's grace, there is always the evidence of that in the way that we live our lives. And James 2, the writer of the book of James, gives two examples of genuine faith. One of them is Abraham. Let me read you the other one. James chapter 2 and verse 24, "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And the same way was not Rahab the harlot, also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For just as the body, without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." Here's what the text says. You know how you know that Rahab's faith was genuine, you saw it in the way that she lived an obedience to the commands of God. Where there is genuine faith in response to God's grace, there is always the evidence of repentance and obedience. Are you rightly responding to God's grace in your life? Is there evidence of repentance? Is there evidence of obedience? Third thing we learn about grace, love this one. As grace changes us in that good news, changes us. Three ways it changes, it's number one, it changes our life. We've seen it in Rahab's testimony, in Rahab's story, God began to change her life. Now, listen to me, I'm not saying Rahab got it all perfect from that point on. As a matter of fact, even as you read this story, there's some parts of the story where she did some things that were contrary to the way God would ever do it, but she was a new believer. She didn't have all this. If you go back in my life 20 plus years ago when I gave my life to Christ, there's some stuff I used to do. I don't do anymore, even as a Christian, because I just didn't know. As you grow, listen, there's some stuff I'm doing right now that if you listen, I don't know. God shows us stuff and he draws us closer to himself, but here's the point. I may not be all the man I'm supposed to be, but thank God I'm not the man I used to be. God's grace is changing us and drawing us to himself. He's changing our lives. Listen to me. Secondly, oh, I love this, God's grace changes our legacy. I'm so excited about this next part of the message. I can't wait for you to hear it. Joshua chapter 6 and verse 25 tells us the end of Rahab's story. Listen to what it says. However, Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all she had, Joshua spared and she lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. I don't know how to happen, but here's what the text tells us. Rahab's house was on the wall. Now, I don't know if God tore down the whole wall and left a golf tee with her house sitting on it, or if he just gently let her house fall down and rest on top of the wall. I don't know how I did it, but somehow God spared her house. She hung that scarlet thread out and the men came and they took Rahab and her family and she settled with the children of Israel and the Bible said it changed her life, but listen, what Joshua doesn't tell us is what happened next. Rahab, Rahab met a man from the nation of Israel and Rahab was married. Rahab had a son whose name was Boaz. You ever read the book of Ruth? The book of Ruth is the whole story of this man Boaz serving as the kinsman redeemer. The word Boaz, the name Boaz means man of virtue, man of wealth, and man of nobility. Most Jewish scholars believe that Boaz became one of the judges of Israel. Here's what that means. The judges of Israel were the men that so understood the law of God that all of the nation of Israel would come to them so that they could teach and expound and apply the truth of God to their life. In one generation, God took a woman who lived in a city of sin and who'd given her life to the pursuit of sensuality and in one generation made her household a dispenser of the truth of God for a nation. Boaz had a son whose name was Obed, Obed had a son whose name was Jesse, Jesse had 12 sons. The youngest of them was a little, a shepherd boy named David. The Bible says of David, the only man in all the Bible. The Bible says of David. He was a man after God's own heart. Let me introduce you to his great, great-grandmother, Matthew chapter 1. In Matthew chapter 1, Matthew is writing the line and lineage of the Messiah. Listen to what he writes in Matthew chapter 1 verse 5, "Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king, and you skip on down to verse 16. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. Some of you in the city like Las Vegas, you've come to Christ late in life. And I know you know that he saved you, and you're grateful for that. Some of you think, "Pastor, God can't use me." Pastor I heard you get up there and preach, and you were raised in a Christian family. Your dad was a pastor. God can't use me. I got too much past in my life. God I've wasted all these years, have too many scars, too many memories of things that I've done and places that I've been. Let me remind you where she lived and what she did, and forever now she is recorded in the line and lineage of the Savior of the world. Grace can change your legacy. Some of you have children, some of you have grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Grace can change your legacy. God may give you the next bullwads. Lastly, Grace changes our eternity. You can't read Hebrews chapter 11 without reading the first part of chapter 12. Chapter 12 begins with the word "therefore." I've told you before, whenever you see the word "therefore," you need to what? You can see what it's "therefore," right? Because the word "therefore" means based on all that I've just said. So he's referring to all of chapter 11. Let's see what he says, "therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding Him," let me tell you what he's writing about. He's writing about Abraham and Moses and Joseph and Rahab who are in heaven as witnesses to the grace of God cheering us on that we run the race with endurance, fixing our eyes on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Rahab's eternity was destined to be separated from God because of where she lived and what she did. But God and His grace changed her eternity. I want to close by reading one last passage of the description. It's not going to be on the screen. I want you to just listen. Ephesians chapter 2, listen to what it says in verse 1, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." You're not talking about Rahab, he's talking about you and me. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formally live in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and we're by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest, describing what we were. Verse 4, "But God, being rich in mercy." Those of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. Listen, "And raised us up with Him." Notice the past tense. It's as if it's already done. He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, grace through faith. [end]