Two Spies & a Harlot Live Service | Sunday, March 5th

Amen! Praise God; He is so good. Praise the Lord! Good morning, thank you, Christian and team. Good morning to you all. You can have a seat. Welcome to Cross Connection Church. We're so glad that you're here with us to worship this morning.

Before we get into the Scriptures, which we will do in just a moment, we will be in the Old Testament book of Joshua. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one even now. If you don't own a Bible, you can keep that as a gift to you today. We'll be there in just a moment.

Before we do, I wanted to share a few things. First, I want to address this service specifically, the second service. You are our second service here at Cross Connection, which implies we have a first service. I want to invite any of you who might be slightly more of an early riser. Next week will be even more difficult because it's spring forward, so you're going to lose an hour and then lose another hour and a half if you come.

The second service is often the service that a lot of visitors come to for the first time if they're visiting Cross Connection Church. We are receiving a number of visitors right now, which is awesome! Great to see you. Welcome if you're a visitor here. But if this is your home church and you maybe get up a little bit earlier, I would invite you to come to the 8:30 service so that we have some more room here at the 10:30 service.

The second thing I want to share with you is a new resource we have for you here at Cross Connection Church. It's called Right Now Media. You can think of this almost like Christian Netflix. You can add this app on your phone, tablet, or smart TV. If you just search for Right Now Media, you'll find it. They have thousands and thousands of resources, including our studies that are available as videos.

We will be using this tool for some groups that we will be sharing about in about a month, starting in April. This is free for anyone here at Cross Connection Church. If you go to lifeinconnection.com right now, you can register online for free and add this to your phone, tablet, or TV. You can browse through all the different Bible study resources that are available.

If you have kids, they have a whole bunch of content produced by Right Now Media and other Christian production companies. This is content that you can put in front of your kids without worrying about what they might see. This is like a God-glorifying Disney Plus, which can be hard to find. So, this is free for you here at Cross Connection Church. Check it out at lifeinconnection.com right now. Praise the Lord! It's a blessing to be able to offer that to you.

I wanted to share with you that over the last couple of Sunday nights, we've been gathering together here at six o'clock in the evening for a time of worship and prayer. We're going to do that again this week, and you're welcome to come if you don't have anything else going on this evening. We'll be here tonight at six o'clock, spending some time in prayer and worship. I'd love to see you here if you are able to come.

With that, if you would take out your Bibles, we are in the Old Testament, which is the first two-thirds of your Bible, specifically in the sixth book, the Book of Joshua. Just last week, we made the shift from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, which comes right before Joshua, to the Book of Joshua. We will be spending some time this year going through this book, as there are a lot of great things in this passage.

As a way of introduction to what we're going to look at today, it is important to place this book contextually in the historic timeline to understand exactly what is going on here. The children of Israel are just about to step into the Promised Land, the land that God had promised to their ancestor Abraham 400 years prior. They are about to take possession of that which they have been looking forward to, hoping for, praying for, and anticipating for literally generations.

However, 38 years prior to this point in the story of the children of Israel, they were at the exact same place. They were at the border of the Promised Land, in a different location, but ready to enter. At that time, in the Old Testament book of Numbers, which is a couple of books before the Book of Joshua, Moses, the leader of the people of Israel, sent 12 spies into the Promised Land. For 40 days, those 12 spies went throughout the entirety of the land, observing its fruitfulness and examining its fortifications. They then returned to the camp of Israel to share their report.

I want to read to you from something we looked at just a few weeks ago in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 13. It states that the 12 spies returned from spying out the land after 40 days. They departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation, or the camp, of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, which is at the border of the Promised Land. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. They brought back a huge bunch of grapes to demonstrate the land's abundance.

The fruitfulness of the land was evident when the spies reported back. They said, "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit." Nevertheless, they noted that the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, they saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South, the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the Sea along the banks of the Jordan.

In verse 32 of Numbers Chapter 13, it is stated that they gave the children of Israel a bad report. Ten of the twelve spies provided a negative account of the land they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and the people whom we saw in it were men of great stature." They saw the giants, the descendants of Anak, and declared, "We were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

As a result of this evil report from the ten spies, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for the next 38 years. For four decades, that entire generation of people, whom I have called the Exodus generation, passed away. This included every single person 20 years old or older who had come out of bondage and slavery in Egypt, who had crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground, and who had been at Mount Sinai. They all died in the wilderness, except for two individuals.

The only two individuals from that Exodus generation who survived were the two faithful spies. In Numbers Chapter 13, twelve spies went into the land. Ten of the spies returned with an evil report, while two of them, Joshua and Caleb, came back and said, "Yes, all that these other guys say is true. There are giants in the land, there are fortified cities, and there are issues and problems. But God has given all of it to us, and we are to go into the land and take possession of it."

Unfortunately, the people listened more to the majority report than to the minority report of the two spies. As a result, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and that entire generation died in the wilderness. However, once again, that generation is gone, and a new generation stands at the border of the promised land, looking in.

The land, and God has exhorted their leaders, specifically Joshua, one of those twelve spies. God has told him, "I am with you; I will not forsake you." Therefore, He says, "Be strong and of good courage to go into the land."

As we looked at last week, at the end of Joshua chapter 1, this leader, Joshua, went to the heads of the tribes of Israel. There were twelve tribes, and he talked to all of the leaders of each of those tribes. He said, "Pass through the congregation of the land." Joshua chapter 1, verse 11, says, "Tell all of the people in your camps to prepare. We are going over to the promised land within three days. Get provisions ready; begin to break up camp because we are going to cross over to go into the promised land to take possession of it."

Immediately after Joshua says that to the people, we read this in Joshua chapter 2. Hopefully, you're there. Joshua chapter 2, verse 1, says, "Now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from Acacia Grove or Shittim to spy secretly, saying, 'Go view the land, especially Jericho.'" So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and they lodged there.

The story that we're going to look at today in Joshua chapter 2 is kind of like a parenthetical break from the storyline of what we have here in the Book of Joshua. It's a curious parenthesis that slows down the story. Joshua says to the leaders of the camps of Israel, "Listen, within three days, we're going into the promised land." Then we have this moment where everything slows down as Joshua gathers to himself two individuals whom he sends into the land to spy it out secretly, specifically to go to a city right near where they were called Jericho.

There are those who, when you look at this passage, will see that it's not necessary to have some sort of Bible training or degree to understand what's going on here. The story is very simple and clear. However, it does slow the storyline or the narrative down a little bit, causing a number of questions to arise. If you were to look at some of the commentary on this passage of Scripture, you would find several questions that commentators ask about what is going on here. Some Bible teachers have raised these questions as well.

The first question that comes to mind as you look at this is: Why did Joshua send these spies into the land? What is he doing? Is he experiencing, at this moment, a lapse of faith? Is he, at this moment, lacking strength?

Courage is the very thing that God has exhorted and encouraged Joshua to have. Now, because of his lapse of faith or a lessening of strength and courage, he decides to send some spies into the land. One of the questions that people ask about this passage of Scripture is whether he is lacking courage.

The second question that arises, as we will see as we go through this passage, has to do with the two spies that Joshua sends into the land, specifically where they go and where they stay. The passage I just read from chapter 2, verse 1, states that they went to Jericho and stayed at the house of a harlot named Rahab. This raises a question among Bible teachers and commentators: what were they doing at the house of a Canaanite prostitute in Jericho? Was there anything untoward that happened there? Some may find this a strange question to ask, but we will see why it is raised in a moment.

The third question, which I am giving a little bit of the story away here, concerns Rahab. She does something that many people object to, claiming it is an unethical breach of the commandments of God. Was she justified in what she did? This question is also raised by Bible teachers and commentators.

The fourth question that comes up when we discuss the city of Jericho—something we will explore more fully in a few weeks—is that Christians for millennia have regarded this as a historical event, not just a fictional account created by Moses thousands of years ago or some other group of writers. Christians believe this is a historical account, which raises issues when we consider an actual location at a specific period in time that can be investigated by archaeologists.

The question arises: does archaeology and the study of this place and region actually validate what we read in the Scriptures, or does it raise more questions than validations? You can go and investigate the ruins of Jericho, which is very near the Dead Sea today in the nation of Israel. What does archaeology say? Does it validate what the Bible states? There have been those who claim it does not, but there is some impressive archaeological evidence that seems to support exactly what we see in this passage. We have a specific place at a specific time in history, around 1400 BC.

Years ago, we should be able to investigate and see if it aligns with what we find in Scripture. We have at least four questions that come up as you read this kind of stall in the narrative of the story of Joshua. These are important questions to wrestle with, and we're going to consider some of those today.

Before we do, I want to suggest that it is very important, when studying a passage like Joshua chapter 2 or anything you come to in the Scriptures, to keep in mind some key points that are essential for understanding what is happening here. First and foremost, what we discover in a passage like Joshua chapter 2—this little incidental happening, this small story that occurs in the storyline of the conquest of Israel taking the land of Canaan—exists within a much bigger and greater story of what God is doing in the world.

As Christians, when we study the books of Scripture, we recognize that the Bible is a book of books. There are 66 books contained in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It has been said that these books were written over 1,500 years by at least 40 different authors on three different continents and in three different languages. Yet, they have a cohesive storyline from Genesis, the first book, to Revelation, the last book.

I have shared about this before; we sometimes refer to this as the meta-narrative of the Bible—the big overarching story of the Bible. It exists in four phases. The first phase is creation. Genesis chapter 1, the first book of the Bible and the first chapter, gives us the creation account of God in Genesis 1 and 2. We begin with a creation that, according to God's assessment, is very good, as stated in the very last verses of Genesis chapter 1.

However, a couple of chapters later, in Genesis chapter 3, we move into the next phase of this story. It transitions from creation to the fall. Because of humanity's disobedient and sinful actions, not only did humanity fall into a place of curse and sin, but all of creation has been affected by the stain of sin. This is why we have all the problems we see in the world today. If you look around at natural evils or moral evils, at all the different things that happen in this world that are not good, we remember that God said all He made was good, and now it is not good. How did it become that way? Genesis chapter 3 answers that question.

We move from creation to the fall, and that leads us into the largest section of this storyline of God—what God is doing in the world—and that is the story of redemption. The phases are Creation, the Fall, and Redemption.

At this moment, we exist in the Redemptive Mission and plan of God. Ultimately, the last book of the Bible foretells when God will bring about a great restoration. This is what all of creation is looking forward to, including you and me. This is why, as we grow older and our bodies—this tent, as one New Testament writer calls it—start to fall apart, we begin to yearn and hope for a new body.

Does anyone have some holes in their tent? We all start to long for restoration. This is why literally tens of billions of dollars are being invested right now by some of the wealthiest people in Silicon Valley into projects aimed at prolonging life and improving our experience in this body. People are trying to achieve eternal or, at the very least, longer life. I think you would probably agree that while I would love to have a long life, I wouldn’t want it to be in a broken and debilitated body. This holy tent is not meant to be our permanent dwelling.

We are all yearning for that restoration. The Bible promises a future restoration, and that is why the church for centuries has cried out, "Come, Lord Jesus, come!" That is what we are looking forward to. The bigger story encompasses creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

When you read a passage like Joshua chapter 2, which we will look at today, it is important to recognize that this small story exists within that larger narrative. This small story contributes to the bigger story, and I want to suggest that this is something we should really consider.

As a little aside, every single one of us goes through small, incidental stories on a daily basis in our own lives. I want you to recognize that God is actually using what you experience daily in His bigger story. The story of redemption leading to restoration is not yet complete; God is still at work, and you are a part of that, as we will see in the story we explore today.

That is the first thing I want you to think about when studying a passage of Scripture like this in the Old Testament. The second important point to keep in mind comes from one of the New Testament writers, the Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, specifically in First Corinthians chapter 10. I have shared this passage with you many times before. In verse 11, as Paul discusses the children of Israel who lived during the time after the Exodus out of Egypt and entered the Promised Land, he states that all these things were written about this group of people for our admonition and instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

The age has come for us to live in this last age of God's redemptive plan, which has been going on for a while now. During this period of time, the things that God inspired to be recorded have been documented with a purpose: that we would learn from them. We learn what God does, how God works, His works and His ways. We learn His word and how the people of God respond to Him—what they do right and what they do wrong. We learn from their mistakes. How many know that it's wise to learn from other people's mistakes and not just your own? It's a good thing to learn.

However, one of the problems is that far too few Christians, especially in our time, pay any attention to the first two-thirds of the Bible. They often say things like, "I'm a New Testament saint," and while that is true, they fail to recognize that all these things were written for our admonition and instruction. Keep in mind that when you're studying something like this, it exists within the broader story of God's great mission of redemption and speaks to that. It also has application for us. He inspired the writing of these things not just so that we would know what the world was like in the ancient Near East during the late Bronze Age, but so that we would understand how we are to live in the days in which we live.

Joshua chapter 2, verse 1, says that Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men to spy secretly, saying, "Go view the land, especially Jericho." So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and they lodged there.

As I said, there are four questions. The first question is: Does this event and Joshua's actions here, as he sends a couple of spies into the land secretly, indicate that he was actually having a momentary lack of confidence and strength? It's a valid question. It seems like in this story, we should ask why this detail is shared with us. I want to suggest to you that I don't think this was a lack of faith on Joshua's part. I don't think he was lacking courage and strength in this passage.

I want to propose that God was actually at work behind the scenes. At this moment, when these things happened, it may have been in the mind of Joshua that he was trying to be a prudent leader. He was trying to be wise and do the right thing that a leader should do, so he decided to send a couple of spies in.

I find it fascinating that he chose to do this, number one, secretly, and number two, he chose to send two spies and not twelve. Maybe in his mind he was thinking, "I've been down this path before." This kind of reminds me of version 1.0, when he was on the team of the twelve spies, one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, from the heads of the tribes. He was with that group, and he knows, because he understands Jewish custom, law, and tradition, that he can't just send one. Although I’d kind of like to, because one is like, "Well, he's probably not going to have a problem," and I'm going to send him secretly. Nobody else knows about this covert mission, so he can't send one. In Jewish law and tradition, everything is established by two witnesses, so he's got to send two.

So, all right, we're going to send the absolute minimum. Last time it was just two spies that were the wise guys, the good guys, so I'm just going to send two. Maybe he's doing it prudently because we don't know the previous spies. The twelve spies were sent out with all the knowledge of the heads of the tribes of Israel; they all knew about it. It's not secret. Yet this time, Joshua is kind of doing a little covert mission. Possibly he wants some advanced intel; he wants information about where they might camp when they come over the Jordan River into the land. He wants to get some advanced information about this city, Jericho. Whatever the case, in his mind, he was doing something that seemed practical and maybe prudent.

But again, I want to suggest to you that behind the scenes, God was inspiring this because God sovereignly had something that he was seeking to accomplish. At the very least, I think that God's mission in this is two specific things. First, remember that this incidental story exists in the bigger story of God's redemptive plan. What we're going to see in this passage is that there was a person in Canaan, in Jericho, whom the redeeming God wanted to redeem. This is a story of a redemptive plan for a woman with a maybe not-so-great background by the name of Rahab, who had been a harlot.

So, what we have here is a redemptive plan. That's the first thing God is doing. We're going to see that in this passage, God has a redemptive plan because God is a redeeming and rescuing God. The second thing we're going to discover in this passage is that God, I believe, wanted Joshua, the leaders of Israel, and all of the people of Israel to hear the report of this woman, Rahab.

First, there is a redemptive plan for Rahab. Second, I believe there is the issue of dealing with or receiving the report from Rahab. He sends these spies to go and spy out Jericho.

As I mentioned, Jericho is a place that we still know about today. If you go to Israel and travel down near the Dead Sea, about eight miles to the north, just a little bit northwest of the Dead Sea, you will find the city of Jericho. The word "Jericho," or the name "Jericho," means "the city of palm trees." This is a very arid and dry place; it is the lowest point on land in the Earth, with the city of Jericho sitting at 900 feet below sea level. It is arid and dry, resembling the lay of the land and the look of Anza Borrego. If you go out to the desert here, it looks identical to this part of the world. I have been there several times, and in this region is the place called the city of palm trees, Jericho.

Now, where do palm trees grow in the desert? They grow by a source of water, near an oasis. Just outside the walls of the ancient city of Jericho is a spring of fresh water that has been there for millennia. In fact, archaeological evidence in that region shows us that there has been civilization gathered together in the form of a city going back 6,000 years. It is one of the oldest areas of known civilization in all the world, the city of Jericho. This would be the very first city that the people of Israel would encounter when they came into the Promised Land.

Jericho lies at a strategic point at the crossroads of the north-south and east-west roads in that region. If you go to the Sea of Galilee to the north and follow the Jordan River valley down to the Dead Sea, you will find the path, or the highway, that people in ancient times would follow if they were traveling north or south in that region. When you reach the Dead Sea, you would turn to the right and head toward the Mediterranean Sea. This is where the crossroads for the northwest, north-south, and east-west areas was located, at the city of Jericho.

Just 15 miles to the west of Jericho, but about 4,000 feet in elevation change, is the city of Jerusalem. This is a key city, a key location, and the children of Israel are going to encounter this place first. God sends, I believe, even though in Joshua's mind he has no idea about this. He is just prudently trying to plan and move the people into the Promised Land, while God is sovereignly directing this.

Because He has a redemptive plan for Rahab, He wants His people to hear the report of Rahab in this passage. So, that's the first question: Why did Joshua send them? Prudence on his part, maybe, but behind the scenes, God is at work. Again, I want to suggest that in the incidences of your life and mine, we encounter situations and circumstances that, in our own minds, we try to plan prudently. We go through these things, but recognize that if it is true that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and still works as He did three or four hundred years ago, He might be working behind the scenes in your life and in the situations that you're going through right now. Keep that in mind; it's very important.

That brings us to the second question. These two spies, it says, came to the house of Rahab the harlot and lodged there. There has been a question about this for a long time because when you read the word "they lodged there" in the Hebrew, that word can have a wide variance of meaning. It is translated in other places in the Old Testament with an implication that there was more than just hanging out. Catch my drift? I don't need to go into detail here, but the word has an implied meaning that there could be more going on than just having a glass of water and hanging out at Rahab's house.

So, people have asked: Was there something immoral going on between one or both of these two spies at the house of Rahab the harlot? Now, there are those who object and say, "Hold on a second," because the word "harlot" can also be translated, and this is true, as "innkeeper." So, she's just an innkeeper, okay? But the New Testament says of Rahab, twice in the books of Hebrews and James, that she was a harlot.

Now, the question comes up: Does this mean that they did something wrong? There is nothing in the text to assume that. Again, I want it to be recognized that God is working a redemptive plan in the life of Rahab. What comes of that? Well, from this point on, Rahab will no longer be known as a harlot. There is a change and a transformation that takes place in this woman in this passage. There is redemption, and there is transformation, and for that, we should rejoice. Why? Because at the end of the day, when all is said and done...

Though you may not be guilty of the same kind of sin as Rahab, all of us have untoward backgrounds. God is the one who redeems, transforms, and restores. For many of you here this morning, that is your story. It may not be identical to Rahab's, but it is your story.

This is something that the Apostle Paul reminded the Church of Corinth of in First Corinthians, chapter six. He talks about a long list of sinful behaviors and lifestyles. Paul says that if you live after this pattern and continue to perpetually do these things, you will not inherit the blessings and Kingdom of God. While that list is something that many Christians focus on, pointing fingers at those who have checked off items on this list, the most important part of that passage is not the list itself. The most important part is when Paul says, "And such were some of you, but you were washed."

You see, our God redeems, transforms, and restores. That's what He does, and that's what we see here in this passage. I don't think anything strange was going on with these two spies; they happened to come to the house that was accepting guests.

This reminds us of point number one, if you're taking notes: the ways and works of God often seem strange to us. Can I get an amen? God often does things in a way and works after a pattern that seems strange to us. In fact, many mornings, I have had conversations with God where I let Him know that what He is doing is the wrong way.

Has anyone else felt this way? There are many times when I find myself saying, "God, this is not what You should be doing right now. We could do this so much better." I know this because I am totally omniscient, and I believe it could be done better. So, the ways and works of God often seem strange to us, even to the point that sometimes we are tempted to reject what He is doing.

Because it just seems crazy to me, but Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men to spy secretly, saying, "Go to the land, especially to Jericho, and view it." So they went, and they came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and they lodged there.

It was told to the king of Jericho, and I love this: this situation was a secret to everybody in Israel but to nobody in the land. You can be certain that the people of the land of Canaan had been watching what was happening on the east side of the Jordan River. A huge camp of people, who they had heard about and knew about, had been camped there for weeks and months, just about five or so miles to the east of the city of Jericho. You can be certain that there was a 24-hour-a-day watch from Jericho upon that group of people.

Now, two spies crossed the Jordan River at the place that was easiest to cross, and they came into the land. It was told to the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country." So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country."

Then the woman took the two men and hid them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, true, but I did not know where they were from." This was probably not true. It happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out. This was definitely not true. She said, "I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them."

But she had brought both of them to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax, which she was probably drying there, used in the making of linen. She had laid them in order on the roof. The men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords, the place where you would cross. As soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate.

This confronts us now with the third question that comes up in the study of this passage of Scripture. Bible commentators and ethicists have wrestled with this passage for a while because of Rahab.

This passage appears to present a problematic situation. In Exodus chapter 20, we are given the Ten Commandments, and the ninth commandment states, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." In other words, we shall not lie. However, what did Rahab do? She bore false witness. Proverbs, I believe it's chapter 6, says that God detests and hates certain things, and among those things that God hates is a lying tongue.

There are commentators and biblical ethicists who wrestle with this passage. They look at it and conclude that Rahab bore false witness, and there is no way around it. This raises the question: Was Rahab justified in this light? Is it ever okay to bend the truth? In this case, she didn't just bend the truth; this was a flat-out lie. Is it warranted? Are there ever circumstances that justify it?

This brings to the surface stories that many of you have likely heard before, particularly those from the Second World War during the Holocaust. Many Christians in Germany and other places hid individuals from the Nazis, who were predominantly seeking Jews. I think of the stories of Corrie ten Boom and others who lied to the authorities. The question arises: Is this wrong?

When discussing these matters, there are generally two camps. One camp argues that it is never justified to lie. They assert that the Scriptures say, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," so we must always tell the truth and trust that God will do what He intends. Either He will bring salvation another way, or in the realm of time, those people may not survive; they might die. But the stance remains that we must always tell the truth.

The other camp counters that there may be times when a lie is the lesser evil, intended to prevent a greater evil. They argue that there may be circumstances where it is justified, right, and okay to lie. So, who is right? How should we respond to this? I think, at the very least, we should...

A lie is always the breaking of a commandment of God. We have to conclude that His commandment is, "Thou shall not bear false witness; you shall not lie." Therefore, we should regard a lie as the breaking of a commandment. Yet, this is where it gets kind of challenging. Apparently, there are times that God permits it.

I'll go a step further, and this is the point at which some of you are going to say, "Oh, Pastor, hold on a second." There are times that God permits it, and occasionally, there are instances where He counts it as righteous. You may wonder how that is even possible. Well, I can only tell you what the New Testament says about this passage in the Book of James.

In James chapter 2, verse 18, the Apostle James writes, "But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.' You believe that there is one God; you do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"

Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered Isaac, his son, on the altar? Pause right there for a moment. This goes back to the Old Testament, specifically the Book of Genesis, chapter 22. Abraham had one son at that time, by the name of Isaac, born to his wife Sarah, the son of the promise. God said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him to Me as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will tell you of."

In the Scriptures, God forbids human sacrifice; it is against the commandment of God. Yet, in that instance, God said to Abraham, "Sacrifice your son." We look at this and say, "Well, hold on a second; this doesn't make sense." I suggest to you that it probably didn't make much sense to Abraham either. But what did he do? He rose up early in the morning. Genesis chapter 22 says he prepared the wood, he prepared his donkey, and he went on a three-day journey to a place called Moriah to offer his son.

Now, in the end of the story, God did not allow it to happen, thank God. But He says here, "Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by his works..."

Faith was made perfect, and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Faith and works work together in the economy of God.

Then he says this: this is where we get to the point. James chapter 2, verse 25 states, "Likewise, in like manner, was not Rahab the harlot also justified, made righteous by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?" For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

God's ways and works often seem strange to us. Now, I want to say, as a rule, or maybe we should say as a commandment, we should endeavor to live our lives after the commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." We should recognize that God has commanded us to live and walk in truth, and as a rule, we should always endeavor to not lie. Yet, on the very rare occasion, as in the instance of Joshua chapter 2, apparently God permits it.

The dilemmas in this passage abound. Should Joshua have sent the spies? Shouldn't he have just trusted in God and moved forward? God said, "Be strong and courageous; move forward." Should he have sent the spies secretly? That's a dilemma for some people. Should the spies have gone to the house of this known harlot and prostitute, a Canaanite woman from a shameful background? Or should they have done something different? They should not have been associated with a scandalous woman. Should Rahab have lied or told the truth about the spies? These are the dilemmas that people wrestle with.

One great commentator, John Calvin, commenting on this, said, "When the object is to rescue one's life from injury, violence, or robbery, provided that be done without offense or harm to anyone, necessity excuses it." Maybe that's the answer people wrestle with. But we do recognize that God is working, and God has an amazing way of working with broken vessels.

One of my friends likes to say, and I love this, so I'll just steal it from him: God often draws straight lines with crooked sticks. That's a bunch of us. I don't always understand how He is able to use what you intended for evil for good, but that's what the Scriptures say in the later chapters of Genesis. I don't always comprehend or understand how He is able to work all things together for good because not all things, in my view, appear good.

But I do know this: one of my favorite passages is in Isaiah chapter 55. God tells His people, "My thoughts are not your thoughts; my ways are not your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Point number two, if you're taking notes: God will accomplish His will and plan and can redeem in spite of our shortcomings. Praise God, because every single one of us here has abundant shortcomings and failures, and God is still able to work.

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about the story of the movie "Jesus Revolution," which has to do with the heritage of our church. We are part of the Calvary Chapel movement, and it has brought to the surface an individual by the name of Lonnie Frisbee, who had some issues and problems in his life and background. A lot of people have questioned this. He died of AIDS in March of 1993, thirty years ago this month, and so people have a real hard time with this.

What does the life of Lonnie Frisbee tell us? God will accomplish His will and plan and can redeem in spite of our shortcomings. To Him be the glory! Praise God that He can do that. He's doing that with you and me right now. We are abject, utter failures, and God still uses us. Praise God!

He has chosen to use the weak things, the foolish things, the base things of this world. Why? So that no flesh would glory in His presence and that He would get the glory in all things.

I have zero time, but I'm going to keep going. I previously said that Joshua sent the spies into the land, maybe because of his own prudence, but behind the scenes, God was working.

Sovereignly, God brought about the redemption of a woman that He was seeking to redeem. He was leaving the ninety-nine for the one, and also so that the people of Israel would hear the report of that woman.

In chapter 2, verse 8, we read: "Now before the spies lay down, Rahab came to them on the roof and said to the men, 'I know that the Lord has given you the land, and the terror of you has fallen on us. All the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted, even the giants. They are faint-hearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea forty years before when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.' As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain in any of us courage because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath."

This is so important. Thirty-eight years before, ten spies spied out the land and came back to the people, saying, "We cannot go in because the enemies in the land are too great for us, and they will destroy us." That was the view without faith of the ten spies. What was the perspective of the enemies? They were dead. They were terrified, knowing what the Israelites had done to Egypt; they crossed over on dry ground.

So, what does this mean? It means that Israel should have and could have taken possession of the land thirty-eight years before. Instead, they wandered aimlessly in the wilderness and died in unbelief for no good reason. Sadly, I think there are far too many Christians who have been redeemed and rescued by the power of God from sin and death, yet they wander aimlessly in the wilderness, never fully moving into the victory and rest that God has for them. This is often due to their own inability to have faith and believe in God, filled with fear when it’s all there for their taking. God says, "Come; all you have to do is believe."

Step into it. The people of Canaan were overcome. How were they overcome? They were overcome by the power of God through the testimony of His people. How is the enemy overcome today? By the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of God's people. Revelation chapter 12 says this.

Point number three: God's power to accomplish His will is far greater than we comprehend. Rahab makes this wonderful confession of faith. Note this: the Canaanite prostitute had greater faith in God than the entire Exodus generation. So why did God send the spies into the land? To hear the report of the prostitute.

The second reason for her redemption is found in verse 12. Now therefore, I beg you, she says to the two spies, "Swear to me by the Lord, by your God, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token. Give me your promise and your word, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver us from death. Would you save us from the judgment of your God?"

So the men answered her, "Our lives for yours. If none of you tell this business of ours, it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you." Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall; she dwelt on the wall. She said to them, "Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you." Remember, she sent them to the east towards the Jordan. She said, "You go to the west, hide there for three days until the pursuers have returned. Afterwards, you may go."

The men said to her in verse 17, "We will be blameless of this oath you have made with us unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in your window. I wish I had time to talk about this; I don't. There's a red cord in the window. Bind this in your window, the one that you let us down through, unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your household into your home. So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be upon his own head, and we will be guiltless."

The house, his blood shall be on his own hand. If any hand is laid on him, and if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from the oath which we have made you swear. Then she said, "According to your words, so be it. Amen." She sent them, and they departed.

This is a Passover picture. Just as the blood on the doorpost of the house protected all within, the scarlet cord in the window protected those in the house. It all points to Jesus. They departed, went to the mountain, and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them along the way but did not find them.

So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over. They came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. They said to Joshua that they needed to hear the report of Rahab. They declared, "Truly, the Lord has delivered all the land into our hand, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us."

Why did Joshua send the spies into the land? Prudence and wisdom on his part, perhaps. However, he had no idea that God was doing something much bigger—so much bigger than just what was happening at that moment. God has a much larger redemptive story than just the particular story of the report of Rahab and her redemption.

We know this because of what is written in Matthew's Gospel in the New Testament, chapter one. It reads: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon. Nahshon begot Salmon, and Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab."

Wait, what? Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.

Are you telling me that a Canaanite prostitute was redeemed and rescued by God and became the great-great-grandmother to the greatest king that Israel ever had? No, that's not what I'm telling you, because David wasn't the greatest king that Israel ever had. She became the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother to Jesus of Nazareth. Did you just get what I got? Yeah, God is doing something bigger in the little incidental things of life.

Point number four, and I'll finally close: never underestimate the greatness and power of Almighty God. Never underestimate this little incidental thing that you're going through, a thing that bothers you, frustrates you, whether on the construction site, in the office building, on the school campus, in your neighborhood, or in your family. That little incident—God wants to bring His redeeming power. He is doing something much bigger, something more than we generally see. Oh God, open our eyes to see; He is doing something far bigger. Amen.

Let's stand together and close in prayer. Father God, I thank You for Your Word; it is living and powerful. Lord, I thank You that You work in, by, and through it to bring transformation and redemption. God, in our lives, there are people that You're trying to reach right now—the Rahabs that we interact with, those that we think are so far beyond ever coming to You. You want to do a work in reaching them through our lives.

So God, would You work in spite of our shortcomings, in spite of our failures? Do a work, God, so that You receive the glory. Pour out Your Spirit upon Your people. God, we pray that You would work mightily in our day. Holy Spirit, move, we ask.

And now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The love of God the Father and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all.

Today, some of our prayer team leaders are going to be here to pray with and for you. I would encourage you to take some time to fellowship with one another. I hope to see some of you back here tonight at six o'clock. We're going to spend some time in worship and prayer.

God bless you. Have a wonderful day.