Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
240630 The Faith of Rahab - 2024/06/30
[ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] >> Morning. >> Morning. >> And Terry, I'm sure you're streaming in now, but it was kind of screwed up this morning, but it will take the appropriate, but glad to have you with us, Tim, and Mom, and Chris, and others. Welcome this morning. We've got our family, our congregation, and all of them on there for their lives. And I think this morning we will open up with just recognizing that this week is the declaration of the signing of the independence. And it's much more than just quote-unquote a "free" of the freedom of a nation, which it certainly was. But this document, along with the Constitution of the United States, were signed by Godly men. We live in a country with revisionist historians who seek to try to take the Christianity out of the declaration of the independence. What it all means, we've been told and we understand that we are not a Christian nation as a word that, like the Jews have a nation, they have a country. The United States of America is not under a covenant as it were. But nonetheless, it is the United States, and by Godly men signed the documents by which they swore their lives too. That brought about, and these men were Godly men, and this document was based upon Godly principles. And these Godly principles protect us all these many years. And we live in a country that still work our prayers and still with the freedom to fight because it fought against paganism. And we'll talk a little bit more about paganism coming up. But this world is uglier than what anyone could ever see it. And you talk to many people and they talk about how the world's getting worse, the world's getting darker. No ladies and gentlemen, the United States is getting darker. It's getting because we were born in a blessed country of nations under God. And the founding fathers wrote this document and it set itself against, under Christian principles, against the paganism of this world. And while the rest of the world remained dark and the third world countries, we had a Christian base within this country. If this country is getting dark, it's for one reason that we are pushing away from our Christian roots and the influence. And I believe that most certainly is the case. It's not about politicians. It's not about how this, or we've been invaded by this, or that you can blame everything and under the sun. But it comes down to one principle, one basic principle that that influence, that government influence, that govern us all these many years that we are moving away from. And when you move away from God, when you move away from the principles of blessing, the only way that this country can be blessed for all these many years, you move away from life and where do you go, you move right into the dark. So I want to start this morning and I'm going to change up the music just a little bit. I have on there and over the end today was going to do battle hammer republic after I read the Declaration of Independence. Listen up. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bans, which connected them with another. And to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's gold entitled them, a dissent respect to the paintings of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to a separation. To hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. And they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers, from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. And it's to do to a new government laying its foundation on such principles. And organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely established should not be changed for the light of transient causes. And accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more dissolved to suffer. While evils are sufferable, then to write themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurations pursuing inevitably the same object to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security, such constraints to alter the form of systems of government. The history of this present of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurations, all having a direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his ascent to laws and most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forgiven governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation to his ascent should be obtained. And when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to them, attended them. He has refused to pass other laws for accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature. A right in his death, in his death, go to them, and formable to the tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distinct from this pository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into the compliance with its measures. He has dissolved the representative of houses repeatedly for opposing with many feminists his invasions of the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers and capable of annihilation have returned to the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of the East states for the purpose of obstructing the laws of neutralization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations heavily and raising the conditions of the new operations of land. He has obstructed the administration justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount of payment of their salaries. He has erected the multitude of new offices and sent tethered swarms of offices to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us the times and peace-standing armies without the consistent sense of the legislators. He has afflicted to render the military independence of the superior of the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws given his assent to the acts of pretended legislation. For cornering large bodies of armed troops among us were protected them by a mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states. For cutting off our trade with parts of the world, for imposing tax laws without our consent for deriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial and jury. For transporting us beyond a cease to be tried by pretending offenses for abolishing the free system of English laws in the neighboring province. Established there in the arbitrary government and enlarging its borders so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our government. For suspending our legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abicted government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has pondered our sea, ravaged our coast, burned our towns and stored the lives of our people. He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and proof of fatigue, scarcity, parallel in the most various ages. The total unworthy, the head of the civilist nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens, taking captive on high seas to bear arms against their country to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves in their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections among us and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers. The merchants Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished declaration of all ages, sexes, and conditions. At every stage of these oppressions, we have partitioned for redness and the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury of Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be ruler of a free people. Nor have we been waiting in attentions to our bridge brethren. We have worn them from time to time of attempts by their legislators to extend an unwornable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our immigration and conjured them to the ties of the common kindred, to disavow these assumptions which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been left to the voice of justice and that continuity. We must therefore appoint us in the necessary which denounces our separation and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies, and war, peace, and friends. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America and General Congress, assembled appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Replitude of Our Intentions, do in the name and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly, publish and declare that these United colonies are and of the right ought to be free. Free and independent states which they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them in the state of Great Britain is ought to be totally dissolved and that as free and independent states they have full power to levy war conclude peace, contract alliances, established commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may have the right to do. And for the sport of the Declaration with a firm reliance on protection of divine province, we maturely pledge to each other our lives, our fortune, our sacred power, signed by order and on behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President. That is the declaration of independence in a free country that the gospel goes out. You see where there is freedom, there is also responsibility. And with that freedom, the question always lies with what do we do with the freedom that we have been given to us. Let us rise and we will see the battle hymns of republic and then remain standing pretty open for prayer. I'm sorry, that will be 569, 569. I know I've succeeded in the glory of the government of the war. He has trampled on the finish when the breaks around the sport. He has been thankful like God, his narrow bones with sword, his heart is beating up. Oh, the people, the others, the others. Oh, the people, the others. Oh, the people, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others. Oh, the people, the others, the others, the others. Oh, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others. Oh, the people, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others. Oh, the people, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others. It's the people, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others. Oh, the people, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others. Oh, the people, the others, the others, the others, the others. Oh, the people, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others, the others. That's great. I don't have a thank you for this opportunity. This is more a thank you, Heavenly Father, for those men, those great men, that went against the green, that stood up, that they pledged their life, their wealth, they pledged everything. They put everything on the line, their well-being and everything. In order, they, by faith, they knew, and they, being godly men, they knew the direction that they were going. And they knew where, as our forefathers, they looked through the future for a free country for all of us. And I pray this morning, Heavenly Father, as we continue to live in a free country, that our hearts will continue to press forward. May our prayers continue to be with these United States. May we stand up for freedom. May we look within ourselves, the freedom that was paid for by the blood of others and the sacrifice of others. May we have a personal sense of obligation to continue to live as free men, but not freedom to do whatever we want, but to recognize the responsibility that we have. And one of those responsibilities, as we come to our study this morning, is to take in your work and to continue to go on near to the open our hearts, your study this morning, Christ, and the great Kingdom. Take a seat. And good morning to you. We are a little short on people, but not in the spirit. And let me let you talk quietly about yourself. I'm going to pass. I'll grab the bottle. I'll start with you. The world which God created, we are, our study, continues to be in Hebrews, that's 30 Hebrews, chapter 11, please. This week will be out at 11. We'll have two more chapters to go. It is Lord, well, and spirit God. We are looking to be done with Hebrews by September, where we want to start with Revelation. Let me say also this morning before some announcements. First of all, prayer. A thread of my Gary Longhorn has, thank you, Lord. Gary Longhorn said, he sent me a message saying that he is doing a funeral two-state for an unsaved man, and that he asked for prayer, and made there be those that within that congregation, that they may hear the gospel here clearly. And those are hard funerals to go through, because when he presents the gospel, there will be those that will recognize their loved ones, probably in hell. And that Gary is not going to solve coding. And so be with them for Tuesday. And George and Bach Rebkah will be with us on November 11th, November 11th. We'll be here with us July 11th, Thursday night at 7 p.m. If you go to buy, stop by. It's a wonderful Bach Rebkah. She'll sing for us, and George will give us a prophecy update. So he was gracious to give me a call yesterday, so he's going to be in the area. So we are excited about that. And our next upstate Bible chapter will cover. I think we're going to stick with three chapters, and we'll have three other to be announced chapters, but three chapters in Daniel. We're going to be working on Daniel in light of our revelation study in September. And in our website, we'll be looking at it, so I haven't changed some of the promos here, but it's g-r-chapter.org. Alright, let's go back to study here. The world, which God had created in the beginning. When that is that last verse in Genesis chapter 1, and God saw all that he had created, and it was very good, that world, when man stepped away from God, you see God is light, and when you step away from God, you step away into the darkness. When you move away from God, you move away from blessing, and you move away from cursing. Man is no man in creation. It's not in independent ages. God did not wind it up and just set it off on its own. We need God. And when man moves away from God, he moves on into darkness. And that darkness is hideous. That darkness is ugly. Make no mistake about it. Before and even after the flood, as man distends himself from God, it became a dark and evil, a sickening world. And if you take the Ten Commandments, so for instance, if you take the Ten Commandments, and I'm starting with, there will be no other God that you shall worship the Lord God alone. There will be no other God supporting. And you go through the Ten Commandments. You will see what the world looks like. Then just switch, just take each of these Commandments and see what the people were doing. You see what changed about this world was a radical change starting with the bringing in of a godly people. And God called a godly people. It wasn't that, and I've been hearing more lately, and it's a misnomer. Out that God, in a sense that God called people, we didn't call the people through Abraham. He called Abraham. But this wasn't unique people. This was a unique race. You see, Israel did not, Israel didn't come out of it. A bunch of other people coming together to form a nation. When we find in the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah tells us, and God says, "I've borrowed you. Barah. Barah is creating out of nothing." He created a people, he established their people, called Abraham out of the Earl Caledes, and through Abraham he brought forth a people. It stood, and this people stood in the face of the paganism of in that day. For example, we know that Abraham took his son, by God, God said, "Go sacrifice your son." And we made in our day feel that that was preposterous. But paganism, with no respect for life, that thousands and maybe millions of people were being sacrificed to gods, to children. The sexual debauquers, the debauchery, the values of human humans, those who were created, man was created in the image of God. And Satan must have been living it up. But Israel became a light on a hill, a bright shining city on a hill. It provided something different, it provided something unusual. Because morality, and even morality, while it's not this spiritual life, nonetheless, it brought something to the table that pagan world could not bring. The world of paganism was being conquered by God. God was invading the Devil's World, which became the Devil's World at the point that went out of surrender to sin. And the children of Israel were created, who was created by God's hands, a nation that did not originate from any other people's group. But by God, and that nation was to be set apart from all other nations. It was a covenant nation. No other nation was covenant, and still to this day, the United States is not a covenant nation. No nation was is a covenant nation. What do I mean by covenant? I mean that God creates a contract, a binding contract between him and his people. Israel is the only covenant nation. We live under it as a state of reform. The United States of America is a nation under God, and we are who we are. We rose to our heights, not because of the ingenious of man or anything else, but because of our devotion to our God. And we are losing the United States of America, because we are once again going back into gold. It's kind of like having water on a pot, water on an oven, and it eats up. And it comes to a boil, but it's warm, but you take that off the heat, off the stove, and what happens to it, when you take the heat away, it goes to room temperature. I'll give you a Biblical example. That Biblical example goes to the Church of Laosia that we find in Hebrews, or not Hebrews, Revelation, Chapter 3. This city, Laosia, or they are Laosia, had hot spring, and it would pipe down the hot water, but their idea was to pipe down the hot water from up in the mountains down into the city. But by the time it got down from its source, where it was hot, to the city, it was looking warm. The further it gets away, the further we go away from the source of the heat, the colder we get, and that's the way it is with God. When we were a nation under God, recognizing God. And we had a pivot of the leavers and churches, and the advancement of the gospel, and missionary activity, and growing. You see, it used to be a time in our United States, where even in the youngest, the youngest was able to articulate and talk about the things of God more than what adults can today. So if you wonder why the world hates Israel, it is because of this. While the world is involved in every evil, Israel continues not only to be a conduit of blessing upon the nations, but it's also a conduit of cursing. And somebody said the other day that I was reading that, no, it was during the passage of the name of God. That if you can imagine that even a decadent nation as Israel is today, and they are still a step at people, imagine the blessing that's when you come to them in the world when they repent. And this is 3, 12, 3. And these are the words getting out of covenant made by Abraham given to his people, or to God to Abraham. Genesis 12, 3. And I will bless those that bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of this earth will be blessed and wait until that nation again. They are still a conduit of blessing and conduit of cursing. For those that bless our biggest fault as a country is turning our backs on Israel. And as we do, we invoke the cursing that is stipulated in Genesis 12, verse 3. The children of Abraham themselves will be threatened with extinction, as it would be enticed to cohabit and intermingle with the world. And it's evil, but by the will and the grace of God, and for the sake of his own name, Israel will be a priestly nation, and will continue to be, God will not disown his people. It will continue to be must be continued to preach. And in church, and listen, if you are listening in, and your church is teaching this hideous replacement doctrine that the church is Israel, and God has abandoned Israel, that is such a lie. And you need to remove yourself from that church because you are under false doctrine. God will discipline his people. Yes, God will bring judgment down on his people. And nations will rise, they will rise up nations as he did before, like Babylon and Assyrian, to bring discipline down on his people. But there are still his people, and they have a future. This will be the ones, let's just fight this way, the people who are God's people, Israel. They were brought out of paganism. You go to Joshua, when Joshua says, "Choose this day," I think it's Joshua 25, it might be 24, but I think it's 25. Choose this day who you will serve, whether the gods, whether the gods of your fathers across the river, the pagan, because they came out of a nation, they came out of a pagan culture. Choose this day, you go back and be with them, if that's what you choose, those gods. But as for me, my house will move in forward. Joshua says, "I'm moving forward." And for those of you who have this up on your walls or on your doors or whatever, consider it, because if you're, you can either go back, to the way you used to be, that you want to go back the way we were, we're moving ahead. Regardless of where you are, listen, you may be, you may be low, some low, from your back to the state, from your identity, from where you grow up. Listen, you enough, listen, friends, you may be, you may be at the end of your means. You're at the bottom and you're, you're ready to go out. You feel that your light is a complete failure, which, make a decision today, who you will serve. Because if you make your decision today to serve the Lord, it's pressing forward. And it may not take away all the consequences of your bad decision, but it certainly puts you in the right perspective of how to deal with it. And you're pushing forward, pushing forward into the light. These people, they left the paganism out of Earth, how these, and it's to this day, it's still essential of paganism, world, world paganism. And it's, battle was coming back to Babylon, and calling Abraham out of it, a people group was called out. And this people group, who was set apart from the world, they were a holy people, and holy means distinct, set apart, they're not like the world. They're set apart from the world. Set apart to die. And they were a peculiar people. They were, they were, they were a people of the law. That was no longer, that it was no longer a nor. To commit murder, as in, as in the, um, sacrifice, that was murder, and religions were doing it. A doctor taking another bad life or something, something I forget about, go stealing. Again, take those Ten Commandments and just see what these Ten Commandments spoke up against. These Ten Commandments were their declaration of independence. They were set apart from the world. So when, when they moved away from it, when they began to move away from it, they went back and they got cold again. And it was these people that would, they not only wanted a king like the rest of the world, but they also wanted their paganism like the rest of the world. They began, they went right back. You see, if you're not connected with God, you're going to drift. And they went back and they, they began to worship Baal. They began to participate in orgies. They began to, um, sacrifice their children to this, this Baal God. So they will be the ones during the conquest that will go into land with instructions. When, you see, when it came to the Egypt, well, the people, it was that first generation that died. It was, and why did that first generation die? They were, they were, they were taken out of Israel or Egypt. They were brought into the wilderness and God says, "I will take care of you." At this point, they aren't covenant people. And God said, "I'll take care of you." And they had to learn to trust in the Lord in that difficult circumstances of the wilderness. And we, and in the book of Numbers, they had the opportunity to look over into the land. They came just close to moving in and taking the land, the land in which it was promised to them. But when they received back the message of the giants and those, and what was in the land and the challenges, they wept, they cried, they said, "We don't want." There was only two people, Joshua and Taylor. They were saying, "Let's go. Let's move in." They, these are the men who had faith because they trusted in their God, but not rest. And though these people were free from Egypt, they were not free from the evil and the sin that was in their hearts. So when the, this first generation moved into and crossed the river, by the way, Moses didn't go in there either. And they were, it was time to take the cities. It was time to take their, under the leadership of Joshua, Gerald Joshua. It was time to take the land. And if they were to move into Jericho, that was the first city that they were from the conference. And they were, they were to move in and they would be, the Lord instructed Joshua. He says, "When you go in, everything's under a ban. What does that mean? That means everything within that city. You're not going to take any plunder. You're to kill every man, woman and child, every beast, everything all animals is to be wiped out. And the treasury is to be put into the Lord's treasury. You are not to take any of it for yourself. Now, people say to the end, and this is important. You need to remember this and be able to answer this question, because people will bring this up to you. Maybe you've got this in your mind as well. How can a loving God tell his people, tell Joshua to get instruct Joshua? Think about it, Joshua, and you need to be able to answer this question. No, shouldn't code it either. Joshua, you're to go in and you're to kill every man, woman and child. Yes, you are to be baby killers. I'll say that again. You are to be baby killers. You are to put them to the sword. You are to wipe them out. You are to, without court or that you are not to take any prisoners, you are to annihilate them. Because the question will be, how can a loving God do this? The pagans of today will be mowing the fact that Israel was genocidal to wipe out cultures. They will ask you what kind of God, what kind of loving God would call for the extermination of an entire people in cultures. That is right. You have one thing right there, pagan world, that he is a loving God. And a righteous God. And a just God. A God of grace and a God of mercy. But there's some distinctions here. God is God of love. God is a just God. And God is a righteous God. Those are love, justice, righteousness, are God's. And Henry, it's his part of his holiness, part of who what God is. Grace and mercy, what's grace and mercy? Grace and mercy are not God's attributes. We sing amazing grace and certainly there is amazing grace. And God's mercies are renewed each and every day, certainly they are. But grace and mercy are God's prerogatives. It's what God chooses to do. God says, the Lord says, I will have grace on whom I have grace. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. God chooses. It is grace and mercy. And listen, when the grace train pulls out, the judgment train pulls right behind. And these people, in Genesis chapter 15, you find that Abraham tells, or God tells Abraham. He says that 400 years, remember Abraham is asleep. And he tells Abraham that my people will be brought out of the nation. And I will bring them into the land and they will be in the nation in Egypt for 400 years because the iniquity of the Amorites were not yet complete. See, the pagans think that we should be able to do anything that we want. The anything that we please, whatever is good, that we should have the freedom to be outside of any type of moral code, of any morality whatsoever. If you wanted to rape, kill, pillage, and burn, you should have the freedom to do that. These people, and when a people get as, as that is, they possibly can. By their own volition, thumbing their nose at God, worshipping other gods. Don't think that a God of justice is not going to come down and destroy a people. Yes, man, woman, and child. These people have reached the point of no return. If we could see what these people were doing in their sexual debauclers, debauchery, mixed with their human sacrifices and every other human debirability. And folks, it don't take much imagination because look at the world and the policies in which we are moving forward. This is, get it out of your mind that this is something new. This is nothing new under the sun. So I'm going to say there's nothing new under the sun. What we are seeing is the moving into the darkness, and this is what is in the darkness. Stop thinking that we're seeing something today that we've never seen before. We're just going back to where it was before. It is a right of a loving, righteous, and just God to destroy cultures and civilizations that have fallen under it. And before you start blaming Joshua and God for killing little children, take the responsibilities to their fathers that separate themselves from God. False where it is. The God has a right. He is the Creator God. He is the Sovereign God. He has every right to crush sin, and he will crush sin. Well, what did little babies do? Well, where was the authority said was protecting those little babies that should have been with families, and families and parenthood, and families that were to protect and to isolate their children from such mess? No, they participated in it. And before you start blaming God for killing babies, by sending Joshua out to do it, maybe you better take a look at history and see that they were sacrificing their own babies. Man is inherently evil. You'll hear the lie that man's heart is inherently good. No, it's not. It is as evil as you can make it. You can't make it, but it's as evil as it can be. Be warned. God's MO has not changed. He will still destroy a nation. Mercifulously. That means his mercy is removed. There comes a point where there's no return. As in Romans chapter 1, that when a man's heart becomes so evil, he turns them over to the prayed heart, and they will rollercoast right into their own destruction. God's MO has not changed as the world is going back to what it once was. He was brought out of that dark world for a while because Judaism and Judaism, and with Christianity, the influence by what it brought. The first generation of Israelites had died into wilderness, and it was that second generation that was coming in. They were coming in to, first of all, white-out Jericho. That would be the first targeted nation. Let's go to Joshua 5. And Joshua is about the conquest of the land. They have come through the wilderness, and now they have crossed the Jordan. And I see it. It dropped down to six. Now Jericho was tightly, or was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, "See to it, I have given Jericho into your hands." Okay, let's back up, this is what I want to look for. Let's go to this spot. Okay, here we go. As you were, let's drop back to two. Joshua chapter two, "The Joshua, the son of none, set two men as spies, secretly in the shed of Chateen, saying, "Go, you land, especially Jericho." So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab and Elijah there. It was told to the king of Jericho saying, "Behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land." And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab saying, "Bring out the men who come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land." But the woman had taken the two men and hid them, and she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but they did not know where they were from." It came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark, that the men went out, and I do not know where the men went. They pursued them quickly, or you will overtake them, but she had brought them up to the roof and hid them in the stalks of plaques, which she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan, to the porch, and as soon as those who were pursuing them were gone, they shut the gate. Now, before they lay down, she came up to the roof, and said to the men, "I know the Lord has given you the land." That's stopped right there. Hebrews, we're looking at Hebrews. Hebrews is talking about the faith of this harlot. So hold that faith in Joshua. Let's go to Hebrews 11. Verse 30, Hebrews 11 verse 30, "By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, eight Rahab, the harlot, did not perish along with those who were disobedient, but she had welcomed the spies in peace." Here it is that Rahab makes the hall of faith. Now, you might say this. How can she be a faithful woman when she lied? Is it lying a sin? Isn't that one of the commandments? But yet the Hebrew writer declares her to be faithful. Well, listen. In combat, in war, there is deception. In combat, in war, there is misleading. In combat, in war, there is deception of the enemy to turn them the other way. It is not based upon one's integrity to be a liar, but it's using the very instruments by the enemy to turn them into another direction. She misled them. For this reason was to protect God's men, to protect God's spies. And she did it out of fear. She did it. She recognized the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Come back to our passage in verse 2, or Joshua 2, verse 8. Now, before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to them, "I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you had fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. 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 are beyond in Jordan, to Cihon and Og, whom you early destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted, and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you. For the Lord your God, he is the God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now, therefore, please swear to me that the Lord, that by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my Father's household and give me the pledge of truth. Revelation, a harlot, receives revelation. She receives information as what revelation is. It's a revealing. And she had heard, and she has responded to what she has heard. And while others may be in fear of the people, they may be in fear of Israel. There were those who, like Rahab here, who was afraid of Israel's God. How do I, how do I myself reconcile? You see, Faith, how do we know that she was a believer? How do we know that Rahab was a believer because she hid the spies? Because there was a response, there was a response to her faith. She recognized that God is going, she knew, with all faith, that Jericho is going to be handed into the hands of the Israelites. With all certainty. And it made her, it terrified her because she knew what was coming. And by God's grace and God's mercy, he led these spies to the harlot's home. Let's continue. In verse 11 again, when we heard it, our hearts melted and our courage remained in any man, any longer because of you. For the Lord, your God, he is a God in heaven above and on earth be let me. Who else? What other Gentile said words such as similar to this? It also said to a Hebrew. Here it was, the spies, we generally believe that these spies are Hebrews, Jewish. How about Nebuchadnezzar? When Daniel interpreted his dream, your God is the God. And I think Nebuchadnezzar was also a, came to be a believer because of the light that Daniel brought to him. And here's a light that these two spies bring to, and an opportunity, an open door opportunity. See, a pagan world is lost. In this dying world, you may say what you want, you may pass as all your judgment, and you see a person as pagan as pagan can be. That person is dying and going to hell. There is no chance for them at all apart from the gospel. And you may come into a person's life like that, and you may be a door that presents the gospel, that they, that the opportunity by presenting the gospel, that this one, you might be able to pull one, two, three, whatever, that one. But it doesn't matter how many, but that person may have a testimony instead before the Lord Jesus Christ one day and said if it wasn't for that one person that shared with me the gospel. You know, I recently, Ben's dad showed me a video of a preacher, he was a very charismatic preacher. He was a very charismatic preacher to a lot of hiccuping, you know, and he was doing quite a bad hiccuping, and, you know, the Lord taught me, you know, kind of like that, you know. But the message was, his message was profound. And he was talking about going into getting a hair condition, he was sweating all over the place and doing all that in his presentation. But, you know, I'll tell you on a normal, I won't tell you on how he said it. But it was a compelling testimony what he gave. He walked into this place to get a haircut. And to meet this girl, that was to cut his hair. And the first time he ever seen her, he talked about the first time he saw her, he had tattoos and piercings, and she was just hideous. And he said it was as close to a demon that he's ever been to. And, and she was just, she was just a mess looking. And then, so he wanted, what he wanted to say, you know, well, there must be some mistake. I'm not him. I'm not your appointment guy. He, I think he just laughed or whatever. He was just sitting here doing it to make some excuse. But he didn't, and he stayed there. He was getting this haircut and see that like any barber or whatever, she was a conversation. "Oh, where do you work?" Because I worked down at the admission place, church or one. Oh, and doing this, and she came home. I was just there the other day. And she said, and one, one question, another question just, I won't go. I can't remember all the conversation, but he opened one door after another. And next thing you know, she was, it was just the door that she said, "I wanted to know who this Jesus is. Can you tell me?" And from there came a discipleship thing. So, this painting where people are going to help, but our mission is the same. They're always been going to help. And it's the gospel message that brings them out of that, the gravity. So, she has faith. There was an open door here. There was an opportunity. It was the best day in Rahab's life. And when she knew that her city was getting ready to be destroyed, and she knew that she had no one going to be despaired. It was a universal condemnation. She wasn't, she's a harlot. She's a part of them. But she recognizes her to poverty. She recognizes that she's going to die with them. And praise be to God. Here comes an opportunity for her to say, "Help me. Help me to avoid this." The condemnation that's coming because I'm no better than anyone. I am a Jericho light. Whatever you call them. I'm a Canaanite. I'm a Canaanite. And I'm under destruction. I'm under the ban that I'm going to be destroyed. We are all under the ban. We are all going to be destroyed. We are all going to die. We are all subject to that judgment. The day that Abrahams took from that tree. And when we heard the gospel, and by faith we received it, we knew little about God, but we knew there was a God. And that was the worst thing ever to know that there's a God in that we were in the hands of an angry God taking it from Edwards. We are sinners in the hands of an angry God. And when he comes, his justice is when all mercy and all grace is going to be out of it. His righteous judgment is going to come down on men, women, and children. It's called the great and terrible day of the Lord. And I don't want to know part of that. And so when I, I myself, and you've got your own story, when I walked into that Nazarene church, and I heard the gospel, it was, I saw the opportunity to escape. The universal judge, what did I know about it? How he knew this, that there was a God, and that was a horrifying revelation, because I also knew I was a sinner. And intuitively, I knew I was judged. Intuitively, I knew that I didn't have a chance that my goodness, that there was no goodness in me that's going to get me. How did I know all that? I think God puts his, on Bible says that he puts the law into our hearts. To finish off the, the independent, the, our independence day message. I was a prisoner of sin. And you may claim your independence that you don't, that you're not under any authority. And you may think that you're free, and you owe nothing to no one. But the truth is, you are of the devil, you're his. You're under him, you're under your oaths in nature, you're under the dictates of your fallen nature. You're depraved, you're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die. That don't sound like independence to me. It wasn't independence for me, because we were all born into this world, physically alive, but spiritually dead. We were children of wrath. Until that day, that the Lord, he bought our freedom for us. He had that door, number one. And then it was the spirit that opened up that heart to give us that gospel message through the mouth of some friend, some relative, some man in a pulpit, some priest, some deacon, whatever it was. He told us that Jesus Christ provides eternal life, and that eternal life is liberty, that eternal life is freedom, that eternal life is forever. And I've been set free the moment that I've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Amen. And then, but I took the next step at one point. It wasn't that, and recognizing that God, and then come to recognize his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have been set free, free indeed. I have been given liberty. And let's go to Galatians 5, Galatians 5. It was for freedom, Galatians 5.1. It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore, keep standing firm, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Rahab was a sinner, destined for destruction, along with the rest of the Canaanite people. But it was by faith she recognized and out, and she took it. I was a sinner. Forget about whether I was moral or immoral or anything else like that. There's good sinners, there's bad sinners. There's our death row, you may have the most moral of persons that they're still on death row. But the moment that I trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, I was set free. And as it is living in a free country, I have a responsibility. And I recognize the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ from that moment on. Now, am I perfect? No. Are you perfect? No. But I recognize that I've changed allegiance. And though I'm independent from the, I've been set free, I've been given liberty from the evil of this world. I've now claimed dependency upon the one who set me free. I vowed need to him, and I am a slave to him. A slave, as Paul would say, a slave to righteousness. A slave that loved his master. And by faith, not only was faith that which was the instrument by which saved me, it's also the faith by which I lived by. Again, it was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Therefore, standing firm, do not keep standing firm and do not become subject again to the yoke of slavery. What's he saying? Say, don't fall back into the darkness. Don't fall back. Your first big step was coming into the light. If you've been a Christian for some time, and you've been growing in God's work, and you've established your spiritual priorities, don't fall back from it. Don't return back to the darkness, because it's going to be worse than what it was when you first left. Our closing hymn this morning will be because he lives. That will be 2/13, and here it is that we have been made free by the blood of Christ by his sacrificial life. And that we do not serve a dead martyr when Jesus died. It seemed like that, and Jesus was the last hope for humanity. The disciples thought that he would be the Messiah. And these disciples, the 11 of them, all 12 of them were there, but one chose his own direction to this. They would promise so many things, the Kingdom, that there would be rulers over them. They would have thrones over the 12 tribes of Israel. What happened to all the parables? What the Kingdom of Heaven, if Jesus was not the Messiah? When Jesus died on the cross for those three miserable days for those disciples, they thought that all was lost. And it was the resurrection that changed everything. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow the problems of the day. Because he lives, and our occupation with him gives us a personal sense of destiny to continue to fresh forward. So, let us stand, and let me make sure this turned on first of all, so we quietly for it to munch yourself. And the life turns off. Okay, let's sing, let's stand, and 2-13, both of us. [Music] God sent his son. They called him Jesus. He came to love. He lived for good. He lived and done, to find my father dead. And then he prayed, 'cause then to find that he goes up. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I don't give up. And my father made me just because he lived. How he lived? Oh. I do believe, that we will come. And we will come. But we used him. Let us cover your arrest. Then his child can face a turn of days. Because he lived. Because he lived. I can face tomorrow. Because he lived. All fear is gone. Because I don't give up. He holds the peace, truth, and life is fun. Because he lives, and it was dead. I'll cross the river, out by my son. Don't go to bed. And then and then. Don't wake your victory. I'll see the light. Don't read it. Don't read it. Because he lives. I can face tomorrow. Because he lives. All fear is gone. Because I don't give up. He holds the peace, truth, and life is fun. Don't read it. Because he lives. That's break. Father in Heaven thing, the greatest day of any of our lives, is the day of our declaration of our independence. When we made that decision, actually it was when our Lord Jesus Christ died on the sin, crossed for our sins. That was the high ground. That was the high ground of victory. And the greatest day of my life, or any of our lives as Christians, is the day that we accepted the more Jesus Christ for our eternal life. Through which we received liberty, eternal life. I pray Heavenly Father that where it was faith that brought us through that door may it be that faith that we live by each day. Taking responsibility for our actions where we've been wrong may it be that faith turns us around. And the call upon the Lord to name our sins with full faith that we can be restored just as God is promised. Let us live a life that is worthy to the freedom that was paid for on Calvary years ago. We pray these things in Christ's name. Alright, we will gather again on Tuesday evening. And as we continue on with our study in Hebrew, we will be finishing up for the lowest birth of God in Hebrews, chapter 11 of this week. We shall find day in the Lord and a happy, fourth, independent state. [Music] Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my Lord, you're the best. You're my Lord, you're my right to stand. And I love you. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]