Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville North Carolina. This is not speaking on the later years of marriage. This is something totally different. Heard a man one time talking, I guess joking about his wife, said she's not the mayor she used to be. That was the last time he said that. I'm going to promise you that right now.

She's not the girl she used to be. I'd have to start this off to say this. When I was here at Kerwin the first time, and for those of you new ones, I caught my first tour duty. When I was here the first time, I lived in the corner house.

Jacob and Jessica Jarrell live up there. And I lived in that house. And the first time in my life I ever lived on my own and different things. I grew up with my mom and dad. My mom was one when we traveled to different places. She carried her own rugs, her own lamps. She took her own everything.

Wherever we went, I mean we stayed in some rat holes in evangelism. But mom always had it looking nice. It always had it looking cozy.

And you say why is a grown man saying that word? I don't know how else to describe it. She just had it looking cozy. And it felt like home wherever we were. It didn't feel like a cold room. It felt like home.

I didn't realize how much that would mean to me until today. And I think still part of me is still trying to make everywhere I go cozy. My whole life I lived a different place every week of my life just about.

But mom made it home. And I'll never forget when I had moved up here, I had to buy a refrigerator. I bought my own fridge when I moved in that house. I had no furniture. The junior church chairs down underneath here, that was my living room.

I took five or six of those junior church chairs. I took every dime I didn't even have to get a fridge over there and just try to move in. We didn't get nothing when you came here back in those days when I was here.

You know, here's the house. Thank God for it. And I was blessed. I bought my own fridge.

I bought my own stuff. Our staff now, man, they get fridge and a stove and everything else. And bless God they're spoiled rotten.

No, they're not. Our staff works hard. So anyway, I lived with that until a while. I finally went to West Virginia. My mom and dad were in a meeting up there and they had a furniture store owner. And I went up there and bought a couch and chair. Gave me a good deal on that and it started from there.

Well, my bedroom where I slept, I just basically had a bed. And I went to Virginia with mom and dad. Surprised them one night in a meeting.

Let me tell you how dumb I was. I asked brother Joe that Sunday night. I said, brother Joe, my mom and dad are preaching in Stafford, Virginia. And I said, can I go up and surprise them? I'll go up tonight.

I want to surprise them. I'll just be there for the service Monday night in the revival and I'll drive home. I'll be back at work Tuesday morning. We didn't get days off for things and stuff. And I said, I'll just do that.

Can I just have that one day off? He said, yeah, okay. So I left that night. I got into Stafford. That was after church Sunday. I got into Stafford, Virginia probably about 3, 3.30 in the morning. My mom and dad were staying at a motel. I had called the pastor that afternoon to find out their room number because I wanted to surprise them. Now how dumb is it for 3.30 in the morning to go And buddy, you talk about when they found out it was me, they were mad and then they were glad, but they were mad. It was a very dumb idea.

You say, are you just having a meltdown? Why are we going through all these details? We went to a mall there that next day. My mom bought me a comforter. A blanket. The thing that goes on your bed for you men, okay? And so I brought it home. When I put that comforter in that room, it was a brand new comforter.

You know, a real nice whatever. It looked out of place in that bedroom. And I was like, well, I got this nice comforter now and here's, well, you know, I need some lamps to match it. So after about a month, you know, I got enough money, I went and got a couple lamps.

Well, then I need tables to put those lamps on, you know, and well, it needs to match that. By the time it was done, I painted the room, I put crown molding in the room, put new chair rail in the room, and you know, many of you that joke with me years ago, you see me always out in the backyard working on something, painting something. I had money to go buy stuff.

I would find stuff, yard sale, paint it up, fix it up, whatever I could do. And you know what? That newness in that room made the rest of the room look bad. Because when you have something new that's nice, all of a sudden everything else looks even worse. And you've got to clean up the whole room because of the new thing that you brought in. Does that make sense to you?

Okay. That is the story of Rahab. Now let me give you a little bit of historical significance, if I can, before we begin reading in Joshua chapter 2. The Israelites were about to enter Canaan, and it was, they were getting ready to claim their promised land.

They'd been at it for 40 years, wandering in different things. And if they could just take this city, it would help them, and here's why. The city of Jericho was a walled city. So if they could just take this city, it would divide that, and it would make it much easier for them to go ahead and get into the promised land. And before they go about the business of defeating Jericho, Joshua sent spies into that city, as he often did in numerous other occasions, as you well know. And these spies entered that city, and they went to a harlot's house, a prostitute named Rahab. Now you say, why do these men of God go into that city as spies into the house of Rahab, which was known as a harlot's house? Because obviously that's the last place anybody would look.

Nobody would expect that. She obviously had a reputation. Everybody knew that. And so the spies went to her house, because they thought that would be the best way to sneak into the city to spy before trying to take them. But what they found, when they entered into that home of Rahab, who had had a reputation of being a harlot, a reputation of what we call ill repute, when they entered into that home, they found something very, very different. They found a woman that had been saved by the grace of God.

Her reputation was different than what she was now. When they went in, they found out that it wasn't the Rahab they thought that they knew. That brings us to Joshua chapter 2, and we're going to begin reading in verse 1 in just a second. But I want you to understand this morning for us, Rahab is a picture of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to transform any life that comes to Him by faith. Every person sitting in a pew this morning, and if you're sitting in a pew, and if you're sitting that means you're in a pew, you ought to say amen right there.

The power of God to transform any life that comes to Him by faith. Some of you would be embarrassed if people knew what you did before you got saved. Some of you would be embarrassed if your own children knew what you did before you got saved. Dear friend, the power of God and only the power of God can take a life and make something totally different out of it.

How thankful I am. As I preach this message this morning, if you're saved, you ought to be a lot more grateful and thankful by the time we're done for the transforming power of Christ. And if you're not saved, I want you to know God can take your life and remake it and restore it and totally change it. This is an exciting subject to preach on, isn't it?

It's an exciting subject to listen about. Joshua chapter 2, look at verse 1. Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men despised secretly saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into an harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho saying, Behold there came men in hither tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee which are entered into thine house. For they be come to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men and hid them and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wish not whence they were. And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate when it was dark, that the men went out.

Whither the men went, I want not. Pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. She's helping, obviously, the Israelites here, these two men. She's helping them. She says, she warns them. She says, If you go now, you can overtake them.

They won't even get word back to the king. Look at verse 6. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords.

And as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land. What do you mean the Lord?

This is a harlot. I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. She'd been hearing about the children of Israel.

She'd been hearing about what God had been doing for them. Notice, if you would, verse 9. And she said unto them, I know that the Lord hath given you the land.

I know that God has done this. Look at verse 10. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. Here's an old harlot that had heard what Jesus did, who had heard what God did for the children of Israel. She had been hearing all these sayings and thinking, my goodness, is that true?

Did that really happen? And she'd been hearing, isn't it amazing how news can spread when God does the work? Notice, if you would, verse 11.

And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now therefore I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my Father's house and give me a true token, and that ye will save alive my father, my mother, my brethren, and my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. And the man answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this, our business. Look at verse 17. And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread, red thread, in the window which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father, thy mother, thy brethren, and all thy father's household home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head. Look at verse 21. And she said, According to your word, so be it.

And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line in the window. Look at verse 23. So the two men returned and descended from the mountain and passed over and came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all the things that befell them. And they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land.

A lot of reading, but you've got to kind of hear it all. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. We need you this morning. In your name we pray. Amen.

I want you to notice number one this morning. Rahab the corrupt girl. Rahab the corrupt girl.

First under this I want you to notice her spiritual condition. Rahab was a harlot. She was engaged in a wicked lifestyle. She sold her body to men.

You and I would think, I just cannot believe that. Dear friend, you have no idea how far sin will take you. By the way, we talk about a harlot. We talk about somebody like this.

Can I tell you something? The Bible says, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. There's a whole bunch of harlots around. There's a whole bunch of evil, wicked people even sitting in church.

The thoughts that go through our minds. That old flesh is so rotten and wicked. And I just say that to say this before you and I would pass judgment on a woman that's doing something like this. You have no idea where you or I would be if it wasn't for the grace of God. Her spiritual condition.

Listen to me and I want you to get this. She was living a depraved life. She was spiritually dead.

Do you know that she is a picture of every person without Christ? Spiritually dead. You don't have to be a harlot to be spiritually dead. You don't have to be a wicked, evil, rotten, vile person.

You don't have to be involved in a whole bunch of mess and sexual impurity and different things. You don't have to be involved in any of that to be a person lost and on their way to hell. She's a picture of everyone.

Secondly I want you to notice this. Not only her spiritual condition but her spiritual condemnation. She lived in a city that had been condemned. God had already said that he was going to give the children of Israel the city of Jericho.

Listen to me. She lived in a land slated for destruction. Now all those people in that great walled city of Jericho felt safe and they felt secure and they felt that they would be safe from any harm that might come to them. But little did they know God had already passed judgment.

They had already been condemned. And she is a picture of a person without Christ because the Bible says, dear friend, he that believeth not is condemned already. You and I are a condemned city without Christ. You might think you're safe and you might think that your life's just fine and you might think you've got a good job and enough money in the bank and you've got a good car and a good house and hey you've got a good job and you think you're fine and you think we don't need God and I don't need him and I don't need this old salvation stuff. I don't need church. I don't need to be faithful to church.

I don't need all that Bible stuff and all that preacher stuff. Dear friend, you've been condemned already and you don't even know it. Her spiritual condition. Her spiritual condemnation. Thirdly I want you to see God's spiritual compassion.

I'll tell you something very interesting. Notice verse 10 if you would. This is what Rahab said, For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. When she heard that story she knew that God would deliver them.

God would bring the victory. That was 40 years earlier. That means as soon as she heard about the judgment of God, God had still given her 40 years to get things right and he still had given her a few more days before Jericho would fall.

By the way folks when that walled city fell it annihilated them. So here you've got to understand here's a woman living an evil wicked lifestyle living in a city that thought that they were free from all evil, thought that they were safe and yet they were condemned already. She lived this and still in the middle of all this, God had enough compassion to give her the chance to be saved.

Dear friend I want you to know something. God has shown you compassion this morning. If you're here and you don't know for sure that you're saved guess what? God has kept you alive to give you another chance. In the words of God, I haven't kept you alive, I've kept you alive. Oh listen to me dear friend, God's kept you alive. God's spiritual compassion. Let me ask you something friend, how many years has God given you? How many years did God give you before you finally said yes to Christ?

Some of you lived an evil lifestyle before, speeding cars, driving drunk, all kinds of mess that we know about and none of us are perfect, all of us got skeletons in our closets. Imagine the amount of times God could have taken your life but he left you alive and had compassion on you and gave you another chance to know him. What a great God. If you're here this morning you could have died a thousand times by now but God's kept you alive and shown you compassion so you could find him. Rahab the corrupt girl.

Oh dear friend we're all corrupt in our hearts and in our minds. Oh thank God for the grace of God. Second I want you to see Rahab the converted girl. Verse 2 we find interesting as we read all the way through verse 11 I find something interesting. As you notice verse 10 she said this, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water.

Look at verse 11, and as soon as we had heard these things about what God had done, about the judgment of God our hearts did melt. The converted girl, number one under that you got to see, number one she heard the word. She heard the word. Guess what you're doing this morning? You're hearing the word.

What is that word that she heard? Judgment is coming. Dear friend I'm here to tell you today, judgment is coming.

Not just to America but to this whole earth. Judgment day approaches. What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact that Jesus left a perfect heaven, gave himself willingly, came to earth, lived here 33 and a half years gave himself, died on the cross for our sins, laid in a grave for three days but triumphantly overcame death, rose from the dead, triumphantly reentered heaven and is waiting at the right hand of God until the day comes where he comes back to receive his church.

Dear friend all you have to do is two things. Number one, you have to hear the word. I'm asking you today, would you listen? Would you hear the word of God? Would you hear the gospel? Would you hear what God has said? Second, she heeded the word.

Do you know what that's what salvation is? Hearing the word and heeding the word. Hearing what God said and believing it.

Putting what you've heard, putting it into action, accepting him, receiving him, trusting him, putting your faith in Jesus Christ. She heard it and she heeded it. Notice if you would verse 9. She said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion and Og whom he utterly destroyed. Notice the end of verse 11. She's telling them all these things. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven and in earth beneath.

She made a claim. In other words, I heard what God did but I believe that he is God of heaven and of earth. Listen to me dear friend. Salvation isn't knowing all that God did. Salvation is believing that he is.

She heard it and she heeded it. That's how simple salvation is. Salvation is simply taking by fact and by faith that what God put in his word is true and I am going to put my faith in trust and I'm going to believe that he is God. Oh dear friend, the converted girl. Let me give you a verse.

Romans 10 servantine says, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. She heard the word and she heeded the word and she went from a corrupt girl to a converted girl. By the way everybody in here that's been saved by the grace of God you went from a corrupt individual to a converted individual. It doesn't mean you're not corrupt still in that old mind, that old flesh. It means that we've been converted. We've been forgiven. Third, I want you to see Rahab the completed girl.

This is where I get excited. Here's Rahab a harlot. She was known. By the way when Joshua sent them into that city he said I want you to go to the harlot's house Rahab. She must have had quite a reputation.

Everybody knew about it. She's probably just wicked and evil enough that everybody don't go over there. That's the harlot's house. That's Rahab. She obviously had had a reputation. Her fame obviously had always been for the evil that she had done. Notice thirdly, Rahab the completed girl. I want you to notice first the proof of her completion. Look if you would in verse one through seven we find that, for the sake of time I'm not going to read it all, but verses one through seven we find number one that she labored for the Lord. You know one of the proofs that she had put her faith in Jesus is that she labored for Him.

She immediately began to go to work for Him. She immediately hid those men and helped the cause of God. She labored for the Lord.

Listen to me dear friend. You and I don't get saved because we labor for the Lord. We labor for the Lord because we're saved. Good works doesn't save you, but good works points out who is saved.

The Bible says faith without works is dead. Dear friend there was a proof that she had been converted and it was by the fact, number one, that she had labored for the Lord. By the way, the Bible says she hid these men on her rooftop.

And guess what I think personally. The Bible says that she hid them a number of rolls of flax. Now why is that important? I believe that she had stopped being a prostitute. I believe because she had heard what the Lord had done, because she had heard the word and she had heeded the word, I believe that she was now doing something different with her life. Flax was used in the production of linen.

I believe she had a whole bunch of flax on her roof because she had gone into business elsewhere. When you get saved, you ought to go into business elsewhere. Things ought to change.

Did nobody hear that? Things ought to change when we give our hearts to Christ. The Bible says we're a new creature. I believe that probably she had left that lifestyle. I believe that now she was probably trying to earn a living in the right way, probably was making linen and different things. It probably might have been that her life had been so radically changed that her reputation was still what her reputation was, but it didn't represent her anymore because now she was a converted lady trying to do right. Listen to me, dear friend. You can do wrong and you can be evil and you can get saved.

It doesn't mean you're not still going to have a bad reputation for all the things you did, but you just have to make sure that that reputation doesn't represent you now. Who cares what people say? The only thing that matters is what God knows. She labored for the Lord. You say, preacher, I don't know about this whole thing of works.

You're talking about works. Let me give you some verses. James chapter 2.

Just listen to me. James 2, verse 24 and 25. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way. Now what does that mean, preacher? It doesn't mean that her works saved her. It means that that was proof that she had been converted.

It was the proof in the pudding, so to speak. Dear friend, if you've been saved by the grace of God, are you living for God? Saved people ought to live like saved people. You can't crucify a preacher for saying that, can you?

Isn't that what the Bible teaches? Let me give you another verse. Matthew 7, 19. Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. That means this, if I'm saved and I've got a connection to the vine, Jesus obviously being the vine, we're the branches, that means that I ought to be bringing forth good fruit.

That means that that fruit is proof that I'm connected. Let me give you another verse. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. I'm so glad you keep asking for verses.

Ephesians chapter 2. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. She labored for the Lord. Dear friend, are you laboring for the Lord? Are you completed? You might have been converted, but are you completed? Are you doing what you were converted to do? Secondly, she labored for the Lord.

Number two, she loved the lost. Look at verse 12 and verse 13. Notice what she says in verse 12. Now therefore I pray you swear unto me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that ye will show kindness unto my father's house. Verse 13. Save alive my father, my mother, my brother, my sisters and all that they have.

Notice this. She believed in the judgment of God and she said because I'm doing this, is there any way that you could possibly save my dad and my mom and my brothers and my sisters? Could you prevent them from being killed? First thing, because of her faith in Christ and God and the Savior to come, she said hey, would you help me with my family? They're lost.

They can't save themselves. Oh dear friend, immediately she began concerned for the lost. That's proof of her completion. She labored for the Lord and she loved the lost. Imagine the risk she placed herself by telling her family, by gathering them into her house so that they could all stay there safely. Imagine that. I want you to think about this and I thought this got me excited. Secondly, the payoff of her completion.

The proof and the payoff. Alright, she was corrupt. Now she got converted. Now she's completed. Now she's serving the Lord. She's laboring for the Lord. She loves the lost. What's the payoff?

How did that pay off for her? I'm glad you asked. I want you to turn real quickly to Joshua chapter 6 and you know that normally when I preach, I like to end on the high point. God's Word is just written that way. There's just always something that is just all good and then all of a sudden God just drives something home and it just almost knocks you over. You're just so excited about serving God. Look if you would at Joshua chapter 6.

The payoff of her completion. Joshua chapter 6. Look at verse 20 if you would. So the people shouted when the priest blew with the trumpet and it came to pass. When people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. This is what we were told is going to happen to Jericho. The wall fell down flat so that the people went up into the city. Every man straight before him and they took the city and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city. Verse 22. But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out of the country, go into the harlot's house and bring out fence the woman and all that she hath. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.