Joshua and Rahab could not be more different from one another. Yet they are included together in what's known as the Hall of Faith. for their exemplary devotion. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah returns to Hebrews 11 to shed more light on this dissimilar duo.
from his series Ordinary People, Extraordinary Faith. Here's David to introduce the conclusion of his message, the courage of faith. Whenever you have faith in God and you believe His word and you believe what He is saying to you in your heart, He will ask you to do things that will enable you to set yourself apart from the rest of those with whom you. Normally, congregate, you will be asked to do things that will make you stand out and step forward. It will take courage.
And today we have from two Bible characters examples of the courage of faith from Joshua. and from Rahab.
So be sure and stay with us as we open the Bible and finish our discussion of these two heroes. One a hero, one a heroine of faith. They speak much to us as we study their lives. Thursday and Friday we're going to conclude Hebrews as Hebrews does with a reminder of all of the other people who have not merited a paragraph in Hebrews 11, but nonetheless find their names mentioned and their exploits described. And we are all ordinary.
and we all have the opportunity to have extraordinary faith. It's been my privilege during the month of November to tell you about a really great little book that we think will be helpful to you. It's a book called Where to Go in the Bible. 89 Topics Scripture Reference Guide, and it takes you to the Scripture, and it doesn't just answer your question, it prints the answers from the Scripture out on the page. And the verses that answer that question are printed together one after the other.
And it is a powerful tool to use when you're talking with other people, when you're meditating on these things in your own life. It's a book that we Want you to not just read, we want you to use. And I'm sure that you will do that. It's available only from Turning Point, only for the next two or three days of this month.
So before you do anything else, make sure you sit down and send a gift to Turning Point. And when you do that, ask for your copy of the book, Where to Go in the Bible. Here is Part two of the courage of faith, Joshua and Rahab. In the middle of this parade, the people saw this huge box being carried on the shoulders of the priests. They didn't know that God was teaching his people the mighty lesson that at the center of every victory is the Lord God Himself.
Because you see, the Ark of the Covenant was placed at the very center of the parade to show everyone that God was in the midst of his people. The Ark of the Covenant was the one piece of furniture from the tabernacle and the temple that, more than any other piece of furniture, represented the presence of Almighty God. And what this said to the Israelites was: make sure you keep God in the center of your parade. Make sure you keep the presence of God focused in your thinking. God will give you victory if you keep Him in the place of honor.
If you keep him in the place where he belongs. And we must never forget, men and women, that our only hope for power in our church is wrapped up in the presence of the Almighty among us. Just as the Ark of the Covenant was in the center of the parade, let us covenant together as the people of God to experience God at the center of our worship. We will keep God's presence through worship and the study of His Word and the understanding of who He is in this church. When God is the center of what we do, we are on our way to victory.
If we move him to the perimeter and we get caught up in all of the market-driven stuff that's going on in the name of church today, we have no reason to believe that God has any interest in what's happening when we gather together. But when we put God at the center of the parade. And when they say, What's going on over there?
Well, God is at work. God is at work among his people. And you say, well, how do you keep God at the center of a church? You start by keeping His Word at the center of the church. I mean, God reveals Himself through His Word.
I've actually been, and some of you come from churches like that, so humor me for a moment, where they have the pulpit over at the side. I preached in a church like that one time and I felt guilty for a week. I think the pulpit belongs in the center. Not so that the preacher can be in the center, but so that the Word of God can be in the center. That's why the pulpit's in the center of the church, to remind everybody that the most important thing we have when we come to church is God's holy word.
I know they do it over there for a reason. I forgot what it is, but I know that we do it for this reason: so that the Word of God is in the center of the church. That's where it belongs. Just like the Ark of the Covenant. was in the center of the parade.
And then let me give you some of the precepts of faith. The promise of faith, the plan of faith, the principle.
Now, here's three things I've learned already from Joshua and his entrance into the hall of faith. Number one, God's ways are not man's ways. Amen? Isn't that true? God's ways are past finding out.
Don't ever stereotype God. Don't ever say, well, God, you did it that way for them. Why can't you do that for us? I found two verses in the scripture that are both pretty much alike: one from the Old Testament and one from the New. I'm going to give them to you.
Job 9, 10 says, God does great things. past finding out. And Romans 11:33 says, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. And his ways passed.
Finding out. Could I just take some stress off of all of you? Don't try to figure out God. You are not intelligent enough to do it, nor am I. And the Bible says that God's ways are past finding out.
God is God. He does what he does. He's not obligated to do for you what he's done for someone else. He's got a better plan for you. Don't be running all through your life thinking, well, God, you did this for them.
Why don't you? Because God has something else for you. If you get so fixated on what he's doing for someone else, you'll miss what he wants to do for you. His ways are past finding out.
So just accept them as they come. And know that God comes with his ways. Here is how one commentator explained this truth. The uniform witness of military history is that the foe is conquered by force. City walls are cleared by bombardment.
Once they are scaled by ladders and ropes, gates are smashed by battering rams, troops are taken by sword. Cities do not usually fall by mystics making bad music on ram's horns. Amen? But that was God's way. It was past finding out.
That was God's strategy. 1 Corinthians 1 says, God has chosen the foolish things of the world. To put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty. And Isaiah 55, 9 says, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.
and my thoughts than your thoughts. God's ways are not man's ways. Number two, God's weapons are not man's weapons. God can take down a city with trumpets, voice, and marching. God can take Gideon's army of 32,000, parent down to 300, and go and win the war.
The Bible says that the weapons have to be different because we fight a spiritual war. And 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. In the church of Jesus Christ today, I think we've fallen in love with a lot of the weapons of the world. I mean, I need to tell you folks, you can have church without. the big screens.
You can have church without Public address. You don't have to have Cushy seats to sit in. You don't have to have carpet on the floor, speakers hanging all over. You can have church wherever God is. If you want a good illustration of that, take a trip to the mission field.
When you go to the mission field, you find that God is doing some great work without all of the accoutrements that we have thought to be necessary in order for us to worship Almighty God. His weapons aren't all the things.
Now, is there anything wrong with that? No, we should use every tool we have to communicate the Word of God. But woe be us if we think the power in church is in all the stuff we bring to the table to make it wonderful. The power of the church is in the hearts of the people and in the preaching of the Word of God. That's where the gospel lies.
That's where the power is. The people of Israel learned real quickly that they were not going to win the war in Jericho because they were mighty swordsmen or great soldiers. They were going to win the war because they followed God's plan, which was a very unlikely plan. God's ways are not our ways. God's weapons are not man's weapons.
God's work is not man's work. Joshua six sixteen And the seventh time it happened when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, shout! For the Lord has given you the city. And the victory truly was the Lord's, and it was accomplished by faith. And that's why you read in Hebrews 11:30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled seven days.
And that's why Joshua got his name in that chapter. He believed God to do something extraordinary. And in his faith, God accomplished. The task. But I've left some time to tell you about the other person in this story, this woman by the name of Rahab.
The first part of this lesson is Joshua surrounding the walls of Jericho. The second part is Rahab living on the wall of Jericho. The thing that unites these two people apart from their faith is the wall. When Joshua was preparing to fill God's commandment to conquer Canaan, he sent two spies into the land of Jericho to check it out. I know you know this story, but let me refresh you.
Once the two spies entered the city of Jericho, the Bible says that God led them to a house of a woman named Rahab. According to the Bible, Rahab was an Amorite. Notice, hold on to that term. She was an Amorite. She also was a prostitute.
The Bible calls her a harlot when she which is the Bible's nice word for a prostitute. Rahab hid the spies in her condo on the wall. and even lied to the king in order to protect them. And so while faith was being expressed outside the wall of Jericho during the seven days. Faith was also growing in the heart of one unlikely woman who lived on the wall that was about to come down.
Hebrews 11:31 says, By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.
Now, how did that happen? Notice the confession of her faith. What you may not know about Rahab was that God had been working in her heart before Joshua ever got near the city of Jericho. She has now hid these two spies in her house. At her own risk.
And the scripture says, Joshua 2:8 through 11.
Now before they lay down, she came up to them. They were up on the roof of her house. and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you Jericho, the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us. I guess so, they're watching it happen. and that all of the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you.
How did she know that? For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and we have heard what you did to the two kings of the Amorites. She had relatives among the group that Israel. took out right across the river. Who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted, neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you.
Now watch this. For the Lord your God is God in heaven, above, and on earth. beneath. Rahab heard the report. Of the great victory of Jehovah God, and she became a believer.
Now Apparently Some people wonder how she would have heard. But remember what she did for a living. She had regular guests coming to and fro throughout the whole day.
Some of them surely had been where the war was or near the front, and they brought these stories to her. And so here is a prostitute hearing the story of God's power from her customers. in the little brothel she'd set up on the wall of Jericho and through her customers She hears about God, and God puts faith in her heart, and she believes that this God, who has destroyed her nation, the Amorites, and has caused the Red Sea to dry up so they could cross it. She believes this. And faith enters her heart.
And in the sense that we would know it from the Old Testament, she becomes a follower of the Almighty. People ask me all the time, was Rahab a Christian? As best a Christian can be in the Old Testament, she believed the content of faith that God gave her, and in believing that, she was justified in faith. The confession of her faith.
Now, the covenant of her faith. In Joshua 2:12 through 14, and 17 through 21, we learned that Rahab was willing to take care of the two spies. But she asked them for something in return. She said, In return for not revealing your business here, I want you to take care of me when the judgment comes on this city. And I could only imagine what would have been going on in Rahab's heart as she made this promise to these two spies.
I mean, so many questions swirling around in her mind. Surely, fear was a part of her faith. Fear and courage are not antagonists. You know that, don't you? People don't understand what courage is.
I wrote down a few thoughts. Eddie Rickenbacker said, Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. Harold Wilson said, courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death. John Wayne said, courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.
Mark Twain said, Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. The two men said to her, If you will not tell of our being here, if you will protect us, when the judgment of Jericho comes, we will protect you. We want you to hang a scarlet cord in the window on the outside of the wall of the city. When we see that cord during the judgment, we will protect you and keep you alive. But watch the symbolism here.
It reminds me of what it says in the book of Exodus.
Now, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. In other words, just like the Israelites in Egypt put blood on the doors, and when the death angel passed through the land, taking out the firstborn of every family, when they saw the blood, the death angel passed over that house, and the firstborn of that house was saved alive.
Now, when the death of the city of Jericho is about to take place, there's a little scarlet cord hanging out from one of the condos on the wall. And the spies say when we see the cord, the red scarlet cord. will pass over you in judgment. That cord hanging out the window signified that she was under the blood. She was a believer.
Even though all that city was going to die, she was going to be kept alive. That was the covenant that God made with her, and she made with these two men.
Now notice the completion of her faith. Joshua 6, 16 and 17. Let me just read the story. Joshua said to the people, Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, and all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. Verse 22.
But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house. And from there, bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her. And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had.
So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had.
So she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. I don't care where you are today. This is one great story. Out of that city, this one lone family was spared by faith. Do you see now why Rahab is included in the Hall of Faith?
She put her life on the line to believe what she had no reason to believe except by what she had heard and by what faith had implanted in her heart. What a singular, courageous faith she had. She heard about God. She heard about God's wonderful works. And on the basis of what she heard, she opened her heart in faith and she became a believer.
and the scarlet cord that was hung in her window Was the sign that she was to be spared on the day of judgment. How many of you know when you're under the blood, the death angel passes over your house, passes over your life? When Rahab was spared from destruction, listen to this, the story's not over. She was absorbed into the nation of Israel. And she married a Jewish man by the name of Salmon.
And we read about Salmon in Matthew chapter 1, verses 5 and 6. Salmon. begot Boaz by Rahab.
Now begot means they had him as a son. Salmon and Rahab had Boaz as a son. And Boaz married Ruth, and they had Obed as a son. And Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king, and David the king begot Solomon. You got that?
Now The story's still not over. When you come to the New Testament and the writer of the New Testament record Is giving us the genealogy all the way to the end, you will find the record of the birth of Jesus. God honored Rahab by allowing her to be in the line of descent to the birth of the Messiah. from a prostitute to the legacy of the Saviour. Here is Rahab the harlot, saved out of Jericho by faith and now honored by Almighty God to be included in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rahab believed God. She had faith in what she knew to be true from what she had heard, and God had given her the faith to believe. And now this woman of ill repute forgiven of her sin. Is merged into the line of descent that runs. All the way.
From Her son. to the Son of Almighty God. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. If you don't get anything else out of that, let me tell you something. No matter how low you've been, there's no limit to how high you can go.
If God forgives you and cleanses you of whatever it is you have done that has caused you to be separated from Him, He can lift you up. and honor you as he did this woman. When we believe God, God honors us for our faith. And so it should come as no surprise that the legacy of Rahab continues even today. Consider this story from Christianity Today.
Which is entitled, Thanks to Brave Ministries, Prostitutes Are Still Entering the Kingdom. In Costa Rica, Juanita was sold into slavery by her own mother at the age of four. While other children went to school, she worked in a brothel, earning her mother the higher rates paid for young children. Eventually, as she grew older, she had two children of her own whom her mother took from her. With no education and no other skills, she continued working in the brothel.
In the process, becoming addicted to alcohol and drugs, One day a customer grew enraged when she wouldn't do what he wanted her to do and hit her on the head with a baseball bat. And she ended up in the hospital, laying in a hospital bed, desperate. She finally got the strength to get out on her knees and pled with God. She said, I wanted somehow to escape to become a real mother to my children, and God gave me a vision, which often happens in that part of the country. And the vision said, look for Rahab Foundation.
She said, I didn't even know what the word Rahab meant. She found the organization's phone number, and a few days later, Juanita showed up, bruised and bandaged, at Rahab's door. I need help, she said, sobbing. I'm dying. I can't take it anymore.
And a kindly woman named Merliana took her in and told her about God's love. I couldn't believe the hope on Mariolana's face, Juanita recalled. She smiled and she hugged me and she gave me a clean bed and flowers in the room and a promise that no men would ever hurt me again. She taught me how to be a real mother, and now I am studying a trade so that I can live for the glory of God. May these words from the lips of Jesus both be a warning and a hope and a testimony to the power of faith.
I hear Jesus saying, Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but tax collectors and harlots believed him. and they will be in heaven some day. It's not about what you did that's bad. It's about whether you've confessed it to the Almighty God and received forgiveness.
And it's neither about how good you think you are. Because you may be as good as good can be. If you haven't accepted Jesus as your Savior, you will be on the outside looking in. When heaven is in stake.
So let me ask you this question: Is there any reason why you shouldn't trust Jesus Christ as your Savior? You say, How do I do that? The same way, by faith. Faith is believing what is taught about Jesus Christ. Faith is not waiting until you have a feeling.
Faith is making a decision. There came a day in Rahab's life when, having heard what she heard, she decided it was true and she believed it. Mister, you need to make that decision today by making the decision to trust and believe. You say, Well, I'm not sure I feel it all yet.
Well, that's nothing to do with it. Feelings follow faith. They don't precede it. If you make the commitment, if you make the choice. And you Put the key into the ignition switch and turn it on, faith begins to operate.
And what follows is the things that most people think they should get first. The sense of relief and belief and confidence in Christ.
So what's keeping you from putting your trust in him today? Make the decision. Determined to do it. Be unashamed of it. Step out in the invitation and say, I'm coming.
to make my decision to trust Jesus Christ. I've made the decision today. Ladies and gentlemen, whenever we follow the Lord, there's always some action He will ask us to take. And in our obedience to His strong command we find the confidence that we need to go forward. We're living in a day where it is impossible to be a Underground Christian to be a silent witness.
God is asking us to stand up and be courageous, even as Joshua and Rahab illustrate and the other people from this chapter. And I'm challenging you and myself. Let's be strong. Let's don't sit down. Let's stand up for our faith and be counted for all that God has called us to do.
We will find joy and victory and a wonderful sense of the Spirit of God in our lives when we do that. Tomorrow we will take the first part of the kind of concluding chapter verse here in Hebrews 11. And I hope you'll join us then. We continue to rejoice in the privilege of bringing the word of God to your heart, nourishing you up in the good word of God. What a privilege.
See you next time. The message you just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. If you're growing because of this ministry, we'd love to hear from you at Turning Point PO Box 3838 San Diego, California 92163 by visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or calling 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's newly updated scripture reference guide.
Where to go in the Bible when. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app to instantly access our content. Or search in your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries. Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Ordinary People: Extraordinary Faith on Turning Point.
