Spies and Allies (Part C)

Wherever there is a Rahab, stuck in sin, ignorant of righteousness, but ready to submit to God, then God will take His hand and lead them to His Son, the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son. These three are one and everything they do is united.

They are all over this. And we want very much to be, so what good is saying that to a Christian if we don't add, but we have to be part of the process? This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with his study called Spies and Allies in the second chapter of Joshua. All the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you.

This is remarkable. She cites, she points to God's will. She knows that Jewish army is out there, but that's not going to be the army that's going to take the city, it's going to be God's will. I know that Yahweh has given you the land.

I mean word got around. The four women of the Old Testament to me that are outstanding, Ruth, Esther, Abigail and Rahab. They are just outstanding women because of the situations they found. That doesn't take away from Sarah and all the others and they may be your favorites and you'll have to work on that.

But these three were just put into situations that were life and death. Even Ruth. I mean, what's Ruth going to do? I have nowhere to go. I can't go back there.

I have to go with you, Naomi. Just courageous, wonderful moments. But anyway, back to this. If you have an urge to feel sorry for the judgments that's coming upon Jericho and the Canaanites, it's a natural, not a spiritual pity. It's misguided. Natural men are often quick to advocate, to come to the support of wickedness that needs to be dealt with and judged. In fact, we say, Lord, how long are you going to let them get away with it? Well, these aren't getting away. We're getting away with it. They're going to get theirs now. That's where we are. In verse 10, for we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

Yeah, the emphasis is critical. She's saying we know the record. Word reached us. You can't conceal two million people in the wilderness very easily. In fact, God, not only did he not make an effort to conceal them, he made an effort to publish where they were. They had this big pillar of fire at night around them and this giant cloud in the daytime.

You couldn't miss them. How many people would be out there with their sheep or just taking a walk in the desert, seeing if they could make it, and see this and want to see what is that and go closer and find out and interact with some of the people on the outskirts of the camp? God made no effort to hide his people. Rahab made it clear that the judgment of God from 40 years ago, that record is retained. They still have it like we have our Bible. The others in Jericho knew the same story. They're not behaving the same way. She knew it was time to repent and to reach out to God. What would have happened if the king of Jericho said to all the people, this is a judgment from God, and we have to find a way to get right with God like they did in Nineveh when Jonah went there? But of course, they become adamant as the world often does.

You can show the world prophecies. You can refute all their arguments and still they double down. I will not believe it.

I don't want to hear it. That's not reason for us to give up on them because we don't know who's unreachable and who is and who is not. And so instead of turning to God, they've turned away.

God knows who's reachable and he hides it from us unless he has a cause or he makes it obvious we are to always stay open. Verse 11, and as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for Yahweh, your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

And so she says when word got to us about the record from 40 years ago, it was fresh to us. We knew that if God did that to Egypt, the sea parting, and those kings, Og and Sihon, if you could take them out, we're done for. We're toast. And again, it's reason, rational to submit. The men of Jericho, they were terrified. In other words, they shared the conviction. They knew, okay, they were convinced these people are going to conquer us. And then they have this insane response to it.

Let's rebel. Deuteronomy 2 25, this day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you. Well, that's right out of the book of Acts chapter 2. Word got around, people were fearing the Christians because the Christians held a truth that they didn't have. And there should be some of that left for us today.

It's possible on an individual level for sure. Individual Christians can carry themselves in such a way that those around them have great respect even if they don't like them. They're just okay. If you argue with that Christian, they're going to win. They're going to make you feel very bad about yourself and you will have nothing to say in defense. And when it is over, you will be the one with your conscience bothered, not them.

That happens quite a bit. And wherever you find Christians ready to engage the crazy views of the world. Would to God that this church of people, if anybody was against us, that they would say, yeah, but you better watch out because God is with them.

Who would not want that? Lydia was a businesswoman. She was the first convert to Christianity on Europe's soil. Rahab, a businesswoman also, is the first convert to Judaism in the promised land's soil.

Mary Magdalene, she of course, the first disciple of Christ to see the Lord risen. Of course, that took place in Jerusalem. So it's interesting. I thought that, you know, throw that. It was in my notes from years ago. I figured I'd share it. Verse 12.

Now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by Yahweh, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sister and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. Now, I think it's fair to believe more took place than what we have here on record. There was some other dialogue perhaps.

Maybe one of them, because this is another generation coming into the promised land and they're pretty, they're solid spiritually. Things like, you can't bring your idols with you. I mean, they don't have to give us every detail.

They're giving us the overview of what took place. But if you, in preaching the gospel to others, and they're involved in certain dastardly deeds, you would say you can't keep doing that. You have to repent. Repent means change. It doesn't mean you continue to do that. If you're speaking to someone who pushes, you know, illegal drugs, you're going to say, it's okay, you're under grace.

Of course not. So just keep the story real, at least to me that's real, because confession alone is not enough for salvation. Lip service is not enough. We're not saved by words alone, though words are part of it.

And they don't have to be spoken because that would rule out the mute. They have to be meant in the heart. Surrender to Christ, Romans 10 verses 9 and 10. And incidentally, if you ever get a chance to lead someone to Christ, there's nothing wrong with you opening your Bible and saying, I'm going to read this to you right out of God's word. And if you are in line with this, then the salvation you know that you are entering into comes right out of God's word. Romans 10, 9 and 10. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That is the evangelical side of our faith, the reaching out to others and bringing them into the kingdom. In verse 14, so the men answered her, our lives for yours if none of you tell this business of ours, and it shall be when Yahweh has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you.

See, these aren't those spies from 40 years back, the 10. These men, they are men of their word and they are decent. They have faith. They believe God's going to give them that land. When God gives us the land, he's not saying if we conquer Jericho, we've got a good chance at things.

They still got to get across to Jordan. But if God saved this sinner who believed in him, he could save the king of Jericho. But the king of Jericho has to come and get it.

And he doesn't want to come and get it. And anyone else in that city. And of course, I believe the family would be lining up with Rahab.

It apparently was a close knit family. So wherever there is a Rahab, stuck in sin, ignorant of righteousness, but ready to submit to God, then God will take his hand and lead them to his son, the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son. These three are one and everything they do is united. They are all over this.

And we want very much to be. So what good is saying that to a Christian if we don't add, but we have to be part of the process? I mean, should God say, you know, I really wish I could send somebody to save you. I can't find any.

I'll have to do it. And he's got a whole church full of people singing songs to him right down the block. Now, I'm not saying we go out and, you know, jam the gospel down people's throats. We don't cast pearl before swine.

That's ill-advised. But we can certainly cast our prayers to the Lord and say, Lord, here I am. Send me to share the faith. And it shall be when Yahweh has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. She's going to be in a new environment and that's going to be good for her when she gets out of Jericho. And so this immorality that she's accustomed to will die of attrition. It will starve to death. The Jews won't put up with that lifestyle, not this generation.

So that's another good thing for her. And we are there's nothing wrong with sharing that if you lead somebody to Christ and they are around the wrong circle of friends. You've got to tell them you've got to get new friends or else they're going to drag you back down. You have to be brutally honest if that's what is required. A lot of folks, you don't have to be brutally honest.

Just be honest. Verse 15, then she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall and she dwelt on the wall. So, see, having a rigging background is irritating to me because every artist I've looked at has a woman holding this red rope and these guys just call me like Rapunzel or something. I mean, you know, if you pull on Rapunzel's hair like that to climb up there, you yank her out the window on you. It's just physics.

It's nothing complicated here. But there's a lot you can do with a rope if you know what to do. You make a couple of round turns and you secure it. I mean, this is just a little thing, but she had a hoist there.

I'm convinced of it. All rotted because it was all made out of wood and rope now, but you'll never find it. But they had ways of getting that stalk up on the roof and we move on. I would like to stay and talk about the rigging.

I'm just letting you know. For her house was on the city wall, she dwelt on the wall. I already mentioned there's another benefit that would make it a natural loading dock for the donkeys to come by. Verse 16, and she said to them, get to the mountain lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way. I would have said to her, you don't tell me what to do.

You're not my father. Okay, it's childish, but it's still funny. So she's giving, not only hiding them and misleading the soldiers looking for them, now she's giving instructions that are wise instructions. She's not yet a virtuous woman, but she is a resourceful woman. She is no dummy and she knows, you know, what to do and they take her advice. She had chance enough to betray these men, enrich herself even. But she doesn't.

And so we'll get to some of the lies refuted by this woman. Verse 17, so the men said to her, we will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear. Verse 18, now unless when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers and all your father's household to your home, salvation has terms and they're not pushed out of the way. When we offer salvation through Christ, there are terms with it, repentance. And unfortunately, we have churches loaded with people who claim Christ is Lord, but they're not stopping.

They don't have any, they have no interest in stopping their sin. It's not, I'm struggling with this. It's not that. It's not, no, this works for me. We live together like this and, you know, this is how we are. Well then, then your salvation is in jeopardy.

I don't know what to say about something like that, except you're excommunicated from the, from the assembly until that gets fixed. I mean, what if you had a guy moonlighting as a bank robber? I mean, you know, but he has a good heart. He loves the Lord.

You should really see him play the piccolo. Anyway, the line of scarlet here, three different words are used in the Hebrew. The first one for line is actually hope, also translated to hope in other sections.

And I guess if you're going down that line, you're hoping it doesn't break. Ephesians 2 is really not a big point, the three different Hebrew words for rope. We could make it a long discussion, but you wouldn't really come away with, wow, that was deep. Verse 12 of Ephesians 2, At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant, covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. As I speak, and I know that there are young Christians in the room, under 20, I worry about you. I worry that you're going to stick with the Lord. Are you just coming to church because your parents? Is it your faith? You love the Lord.

Is he real to you? Or is it you just can't wait to get your hands on that doomed Jericho outside these walls and sin, sin, sin to your little hardest content and then go to hell? And you say, well, you're trying to scare me. Yeah, I'm trying to scare you. I'm trying to make you feel happy going to hell. Oh, you should see it.

There's flame everywhere. There's nothing redeeming about hell and there's nothing fun. There's nothing amusing. Most of us have been out in the world and we've traded against it because it's not better.

It's worse. I wouldn't go back to the world for anything. I'm with Christ now. And even though it's still hard, I mean, I wish he, you know, just made it a lot more easy for me.

And everybody can say, wow, look how easy he has it. Kidding. Let's move on. Verse 19.

One more note. So you younger ones, we're going to see and we are rooting for you. We want you to be courageous for Christ. You have no reason to believe what the world is telling you. They lie. They don't have the truth. You do. And when you start digging into scripture, you're going to find out, man, they really don't have a leg to stand on.

The arguments are all hot air, really, insisting on things that really aren't hiding behind their credentials. Verse 19. So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head. And we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. Well, the scarlet cord, now the emblem of her only hope. She wastes no time when they leave putting it up. It will take disciplined troops to spot that cord, to remember what it stands for and to honor it. And they do.

And that is, again, a distinction between this group and the other generation, the discipline that they exercise. Achan will be, of course, a setback, but that will be overcome also. If anyone in the house left the protection of the scarlet cord, it would be to their destruction. So Rahab would have warned her family, like I'm trying to warn our youth, you stay with Christ. You stay inside. You stay with the terms of salvation because if you go out, there's a sword waiting for you. Verse 20. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from our oath which you made us swear. They're very thorough, these guys. They're fair, they're reasonable and simple.

You don't tell anybody, you stay in the house. You got that. You got, okay, we're good. Who you got?

Who you got? You got one of the Hebrews from Brooklyn there, from Williamsburg. Verse 21.

And she said, according to your words, so be it. And she sent them away and they departed and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. Now, Balaam and King Balak, they also knew God's blessings long before. And they just ignored it. And they will perish because of it. We'll get to Balaam's execution much later. But they died in their sins opposing. But it tells us again in Hebrews that Rahab did not perish. Rahab the sinner did not perish. And she only looked at those armies across Jordan and then joined them. Verse 22. They departed and went to the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way but did not find them. The mountains, as you know, in Israel, they make a new mountain every day. There's mountains everywhere.

So this finding a hiding place would not be that difficult. There are at least four excuses used to resist God and Rahab tramples all four of these. One is, I'm not so bad off. I really don't need religion in Christ. I really have a good life.

Maybe they won't say that but they're thinking that. Why would I change things? I made it this far. I'll make it all the way. When I die, I made it this far.

I'll be all right. Well, the king of Jericho, he could say that up to a point, to the point of that sword that went through him, or that wall that fell on him. Another one is, I am too bad to be saved. That's just dumb. But they don't know that. We have to tell them. That's just dumb.

Just tell them. We're all bad. Filthy rags, our righteousness.

If our good deeds are like very filthy rags, what are our bad deeds? Yet God still loves us. Another one, I don't know enough about the Bible to come to God. Which all she knew is that God blessed those Jews and they were coming in that direction. And all we need to tell people is you're a sinner and judgment's coming in your direction.

And you can tie this cord around your window and be saved or perish with the rest. And then the fourth one, what will people think? What will my family think? Well, preach to them. If any of them want to believe, I mean, that was the case with Lot. He lost some good part of his family. Daughters didn't want to leave and their husbands, they perished. And the other two made it out.

The mother made it out and looked back in defiance of what she was told and she perished. And so we have a very serious faith. Should it be otherwise? What is holiness to the Lord supposed to mean if it's not serious? So verse twenty three. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain and crossed over. And they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them.

And so they make their report. And Joshua is just, wow, this is incredible. He needs this. God told him to be strong. No fighting has started yet with anyone in the Promised Land. There's not been any battles yet. The Jews have had battles and they've won, but not in the Promised Land. They'll cross over Jordan, camp out at Gilgal, and then they'll march, literally, Jericho to death. Verse twenty four. And they said to Joshua, Truly Yahweh has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint hearted because of us.

Great encouragement. Joshua again knew that this was going to be a victorious campaign, but he wanted to make sure if he was any bit of a righteous man, and of course he was, he wanted to make sure that his behavior was totally in line with his God, as do we. We don't lie to people to try to get them saved.

Ever. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua right here on Cross Reference Radio.