Standing on the Promises: Unexpected Grace in Unexpected Places | Joshua 2

1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado.

Will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?

So I'm going to be reading from Joshua 2.

The first section is 8 through 15.

It says how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to Sion and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.

But when we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you.

For the Lord, your God, is God in heaven and on the earth below.

Now, then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.

Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death Our lives for your lives.

The men assured her.

If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.

And then, 22 through 24 say when they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days until the pursuers had searched along the road and returned without finding them.

Then the two men started back.

They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua, son of Nun, and told him everything that had happened to them.

They said to Joshua the Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands.

All the people are melting in fear because of us.

Lord Jesus, this morning, would you speak to us by your spirit, through your word and, lord, we are dependent on your spirit for transformation, for teaching, for growth.

Lord, we need you and so, lord, let us learn this morning, more than ever maybe, what your redemption looks like.

And would we leave this morning rejoicing in the gospel and we ask this in Christ's name?

Amen, angely, thanks so much for reading a portion of our text.

In Lehigh, utah, in 1987, a company was born.

At the time.

You know this was before internet logging online, but at the time it was all paper.

You mailed in what you needed.

They mailed you back your results.

This company grew and grew and got more popular until in 2023, over 25 million people have utilized this company in over 128 countries.

This company that is now online is Ancestrycom.

Maybe you're in the room and you've used the services of Ancestrycom or another company like it.

I think we all ask the question of where did I come from?

Not maybe in the deep philosophical sense, but even more, what's my family like?

If I go back my grandparents, great, great and on back, where do I come from?

What are we like?

Who are they?

And maybe you've done one of these services and you loved what you found.

Or maybe you've done one of these services and said, hey, my family is as interesting as I thought they were gonna be.

But we love to ask the question of where am I coming from, what's my family like?

And I wonder this morning, if Jesus logged on and sent in his information for Ancestrycom and filled out his forms and got his results, what would we find in the family tree of Jesus?

Who would we find in the family tree of Jesus?

Who would we find in the family tree of Jesus?

Surely it must be the best and the brightest, the impressive, the ones we would expect to come from someone such as Jesus.

Except for this morning we're going to see one individual from the family tree of Jesus.

That very much is not what we expect, but I think through this learn this morning that God is in the business of redemption.

I want us to see today a few things a sinful vessel, a sensitive spirit, a saving act and a steadfast God.

A sinful vessel.

I want to look at chapter 2, verses 1 through 7.

And Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying Go view the land, especially Jericho.

And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.

And it was told to the king of Jericho Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.

Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.

And she said true, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out.

I do not know where the men went.

Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.

But she had brought them up on the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof.

So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers were gone, I want us to see first a sinful vessel.

Now, as we look at verse 1 and 2, I'm truly and I hope you know my heart I'm not in the business of coming down on anyone that is just wanting to serve their God faithfully and want to be about the mission of God.

But I will say these may be the two worst spies in the history of spies, if you look with me again.

Verse one they are sent out secretly into the land.

Verse two the king knows right where they're at into the land.

Verse two the king knows right where they're at.

They made it a verse and I have no experience in spying out anything, but I just feel like I could have made it to verse three.

I really do feel like that.

But they made it to verse two and the king knows right where they're at and it's interesting, they're at the house of of Rahab the prostitute.

Now, to say this gently, nothing in the text tells us that they are there because of the profession of Rahab the prostitute, but really because of the profession of Rahab the prostitute.

She would be one, we would imagine, that knows the comings and goings of the town, she keeps her ears to the ground, she knows what's going on in the city of Jericho and it's a little bit of a shady place to show up for these spies.

But they know they can get the information that they need and so they come to Rahab the prostitute.

They're in her house, they know the king has sent men to find them and Rahab does this incredible act to hide them on the roof.

But that name Rahab, it's not just Rahab In the text we see, it's Rahab the what the prostitute.

She has this name, this title, this designation that seemingly has followed her and continues to follow her.

Her guilt and her sin and her shame of her profession has followed her.

And in this town she is not just known as Rahab, but she is known as Rahab the prostitute.

Even later on in scripture we see in James, chapter two, and James is very much complimenting Rahab but refers to her as Rahab the prostitute.

In Hebrews, chapter 13, the hall of fame of our faith, the author of Hebrews is very much complimenting the faith of Rahab and yet calls her Rahab the prostitute.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

This is a designation that does not leave her.

This is a designation that does not leave her that in Scripture most of the time when we see the name Rahab, we see the name Rahab the prostitute, because it seems that in our world her sin has followed her, her designation, her title has stuck and she is known by the sum total of her sin.

And I just have two questions for us this morning.

Are we ever tempted, you and I, to see others as the sum total of their sin, to see others by the mistakes that they've made?

And maybe we'd look and we'd say, of someone, surely God couldn't use them, surely God couldn't do a great work with that person.

Or we might say that individual is just too far gone.

You know, it's interesting throughout scripture what we see time and time again is broken sinful vessels.

In fact, in that whole book there's only one guy that shows up.

That's not a broken sinful vessel, it's really exclusively who God uses.

I remember being in a preaching class in seminary and our professor, this wonderful, wonderful man, would sit in the back corner and he had this deep, booming voice and when he speaks you just listen.

And as one individual was preaching, dr Smith, was in the back of the room and the preacher that day started naming people in Scripture who had been used by God, even though they had rough beginnings.

And from the back of the room, in this booming voice, Dr Smith just says call the roll son.

Those were his words.

Call the roll son, because all through Scripture, when you call the roll, that's all we've got.

There's Abraham, used greatly by God, but every chance he had he lied about who his sister was.

There's Jacob, who's quite literally the heel grabber, the deceiver, the trickster.

You've got a guy like Moses, who literally saved the people from Egypt, yet long before that was a murderer himself.

A guy like David, who the text says a man after God's own heart.

Yet we see in 2 Samuel 11, there's adultery, there is murder, there's so much going on.

We see a guy like Paul, the greatest missionary in the history of the church, yet long before that he was the greatest persecutor of the church.

All throughout scripture, these are the people who God uses Sinful vessels.

So I wonder, are there those that we're tempted to define by their sin?

But also ask this question Are we tempted to define ourselves by our sin?

And maybe we don't have to look outward, but we can look in our own mirror and say, surely God couldn't use me.

Because, god, you know what I've done, you know where I've been, you know the mistakes that I've made, and I don't know if you're like me.

Maybe you are, but I can understand that others could forgive me.

I can.

Oh, I'm so thankful for the grace of God that he can forgive me.

You know, what I struggle with is forgiving myself, is allowing myself to taste and see the forgiveness of God and embrace that so that I can believe what the gospel tells me, to believe that if I confess my sin, he's faithful and just to forgive me my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

First, john one nine I struggled to believe that, but I've got to look in the mirror of my own life and for every one, look at me, take a hundred up to Christ and know that I am forgiven, that I am, and so I'm a sinful vessel.

I would imagine you are a sinful vessel, rahab is a sinful vessel, but what we are seeing in this moment is that God will use this sinful vessel because, secondly, we see this a sensitive spirit.

We saw Ainsley, just a moment ago, read this part of the passage where Rahab now begins to speak about who God is and this sinful vessel.

We start to see that she is opening herself up to the things of God Within her heart, within her head, within her spirit.

She's starting to see that Yahweh himself is on the move and God is doing a mighty work.

I like how Dale Ralph Davis explains this part and I like it maybe just as a preacher because he uses all the same letters.

He talks about Rahab speaking of the might of Yahweh, the majesty of Yahweh and the mercy of Yahweh.

Sometimes you read people's outlines and you just wish you could have made that up first and taken credit for it.

But that's his Verse 10, rahab talks about the might of Yahweh.

Look at this, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

First, the might of Yahweh, rahab says we've heard the rumors and the rumblings of what you've been up to, how your God is leading you.

You're kind of a ragtag group of people and yet incredible things have happened.

There must be a powerful God that is walking with you.

We see the might of Yahweh.

Then she talks about the majesty of Yahweh Verse 11, and as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted.

There was no spirit left in any man because of you.

For the Lord, your God, he is God, is the God who reigns.

You know, I've seen Rahab might say I've seen a lot of lowercase g gods made of wood and made of stone.

They can't do what your God can do.

There is majesty there can do.

There is majesty there.

And lastly, the mercy of Yahweh.

In 12 and 13, as we see this moment where Rahab actually asks for mercy from these two spies.

There's something that Rahab senses in these two individuals and it must point back to what she senses about Yahweh.

God that says this may be a merciful people.

This must be a merciful God that maybe, if I ask, if I cry out for their help, maybe they can give me and my family mercy when they come into town in a few weeks.

I hope you're encouraged by the might, the majesty and the mercy of God, seeing God as this high and lifted up and yet also near.

I like to think about it like this that we serve a God who is great and a God who is good.

He's great, he's mighty, he's holy, he's all powerful, he's all knowing, he can do all things and yet he's also good, he's near, he's close, there's intimacy, there can be a friendship there.

Now, when we go to one of the two extremes, we mess up.

If I just believe our God is great, that he's mighty, he's holy, he can do anything and everything he wants, that's a good thing.

But if I miss the goodness, then that God is high and lifted up, but he can't know me.

And if I just, on this end, go all the way and just say no, no, no, he's just good, then I have a friend, this intimate friend with God.

But he's not powerful to save.

But we serve a God who is great and good, he is transcendent and imminent, where, at the same time, he's holy above all.

Yet he intimately knows us that's good news.

Intimately knows us that's good news.

And so Rahab has a sensitive spirit to what God is doing.

And so what does she do next?

She does a saving act.

Look with me Verses 15 through 21.

Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall so that she lived in the wall.

And she said to them Go into the hills where the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned.

Then afterward you may go your way.

The men said to her we will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear.

Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down and you shall gather into your house your father, your mother, your brothers and all your father's household.

Then, if anyone goes out of the doors into your house, into the street, his blood shall be on his own head and we shall be guiltless.

But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.

But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made a swear.

And she said according to your words, so be it.

Then she sent them away and they departed and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

So Rahab, who is a sinful vessel yet has a sensitive spirit, now is willing to provide the saving act for these two spies.

To me, this is the moment where the head, the head knowledge, the head moves from the heart and to the hands, to the place of action.

We already saw that earlier.

She told these officials that they weren't there, that they had already gone that way, and yet now she carries out this plan to completion as she helps these two spies get away so that they can return to the people of Israel and give the report they need to give.

Again the head, the knowledge of who God is, now turns to the heart and to the hands, to the place of action.

She's willing to put her faith in God to work.

And this is risky because what if she is found out as one who is harboring these spies or helping them get to safety?

It would be real bad news for her.

It's very risky.

She could have taken the easy way out and maybe even gotten praised by the king and turned these men over.

It's very risky what she was doing.

But in this moment faith won out that there's something in the mercy of this God that leads me from the head to the heart, to the hands, to put into action what God has called me to do.

I remember spending two summers working at a summer camp when I was a freshman, sophomore, junior.

I don't remember exactly in college working at working at a summer camp and I loved my time there.

It was a lot of fun.

I remember at free time each day, your campers.

They would have so many ideas of what they wanted to do and there were so many opportunities at camp.

They wanted to do all kinds of things and my job as a camp counselor was to manipulate them in such a way where they pick what they want to do.

But really it was my idea, but they think it was their idea and what I wanted to do was indoors or in the shade or just in some kind of water, and so, you know, we plant a little seed in their head.

We're going to the pool today, so I'm like you know that's what I wanted to do.

But one day I remember being on the ropes course and often they want to go to the ropes course, which I love because it was completely it was like the most shaded spot at camp.

And I remember so many days going to the ropes course with kids and from the bottom, I got to tell you they were so excited From the bottom.

I got to tell you they were so excited From the bottom they were getting harnessed up.

This was going to be the greatest few minutes of their lives.

When they got to the top they were not near as excited.

And I remember we all remember anybody that worked there sitting on the edge of the zip line for hours, hours with a kid I mean, basically, it was a pastoral counseling session as a kid as tears are streaming down their face, they're harnessed in they.

Honestly, they can't go back, even if they want to.

They've got to go forward down the zip line and they are just absolutely losing it.

How in the world can I do this?

And I remember telling them and this was true, if they told me this, I hope it's true they said you know, this rope, this carabiner, can hold the weight of two school buses.

That's the truth, I think.

Two school buses.

And I would look down at the kid and make a joke with him hey, you know, surely you're not as heavy as two school buses, are you?

And he'd look with tears in his eyes and laugh and say no, and so I think you can do this, I think you can do this, and we'd probably sit there another 48 minutes after that and then finally, either because he got the courage or because, literally, free time was over and, buddy, you don't have a choice, we're going he would finally go, he would step off and to a person, what would happen is they would get to the bottom, a huge smile on their face, and they'd look back and the first words are let's go again.

Every time the head knowledge wasn't the problem, was it.

Those kids knew, or at least they believed me enough to know yeah, it can hold a school bus, it can hold two school buses, certainly it can hold me.

When did faith kick in?

It was when they stepped off.

It's when they let the rope and the carabiner and the zip line do what it was intended to do.

I wonder if in our own lives we have those places of faith that the head knowledge is there and God is looking at us, wondering are you going to step off?

Are you going to step off the ledge?

Maybe it's that place of service or ministry that you know God has been calling you to and you know God has gifted you in this way and he's calling you to take that step or serve in that way.

Maybe it's something in the church, maybe it's something outside the church and he's calling you to serve and the head knowledge is there.

God, I know you're able, I know you're with me, but you haven't gotten to that point where you can just step off and trust Jesus in this moment.

Maybe it's the conversation you need to have.

Maybe it's a gospel conversation with someone at work or even in your own home.

You want to have this conversation, but, but God, what if they ask me a question I can't answer?

What if they're offended by the fact that I'm bringing this up?

Maybe it's the conversation that you need to have with someone because you know they're living in a way that doesn't honor the Lord.

But God, what if they're offended by this?

What if they don't want to talk to me anymore because of this?

And, and maybe God is just saying, can you trust me in it and can you step off?

Maybe it's that forgiveness that you need to offer, and for years you've been praying about it, but God, you don't know what they did, or you don't know how that hurt me, or God don't you know?

They're not even sorry about it, and yet God is calling you to forgive, and maybe what you need is to pray to the Lord for his help, to just step off and put your faith in him.

There's these moments in our lives where the head knowledge is there, and maybe God is calling us to put our faith into action, from the head to the heart and to the hands.

And that's exactly what Rahab does.

I'm going to trust God and I'm going to trust God's servants, I'm going to lead these men to safety and I'm going to put me and my family in God's hands.

It's a beautiful act.

So we see a sinful vessel, a sensitive spirit, a saving act.

But I want to end right here.

Now we see a steadfast God.

Look at verse 22 through 24.

They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned.

The pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing.

Then the two men returned.

They came down.

Now I want to stop right there, before 24, because, if you remember, 40 years before, some spies came back with a report, and 10 of them came back with a report and they said we can't do it, they're too big, they're too mighty.

They literally say we will be like grasshoppers before them, we cannot go take the land.

Now what is the report 40 years later?

Verse 24.

And they said to Joshua truly, the Lord has given all the land into our hands and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.

These spies give the report of a steadfast God who, as we saw last week in chapter one, a steadfast God who is going before his people, who has already given his people the land.

Now they have to go take it.

Who is faithful to his promises?

That's the report these spies give.

We can do it why?

Because God's already done it.

We see the work of the steadfast God.

It was the steadfast God behind the scenes throughout this whole story who put Rahab in place to protect these spies.

It was God's work for these spies to return safely to get the report of just how good our God is and that he's able and that we can have success because God is with us.

This is our steadfast God and this is what he's up to.

But the steadfast work of God continues.

We're going to see in a few weeks.

In chapter six, the people of God do take Jericho, the walls do come down and in that moment Rahab and all of her family is saved.

But I want you to know this the steadfast love of God does not end in the book of Joshua.

In fact, the steadfast love of God runs like a thread through this whole scripture, because the work of Rahab, the work of these spies, really the work of God here in Joshua, leads the way forward to something even greater that our steadfast God is doing.

I want you to turn with me to Matthew, chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Matthew 1.

Because the good news is, jesus has gone to ancestrycom, he has gotten his report and he was willing to put it on the very first page of the New Testament.

Matthew, chapter one one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Now walk with me to verse six.

We see, at the very end of verse six, we see David the king.

Now, david's a special king.

He's not perfect, we already know that.

But God makes a covenant with David that from him an eternal king and eternal kingdom will come.

And so David had a father named Jesse.

You scoop back to verse 5.

Jesse, obed was his father.

And who are Obed's parents?

Look at this Boaz and Ruth.

They're in the middle of verse 5.

Boaz and Ruth.

So let's stop right there.

Boaz and Ruth, as we read of in the book of Ruth, are the great grandparents of David, this special king from whom the eternal king will come.

Now here's what I want to ask who are Boaz's parents?

Verse 5, and Salmon, the father of Boaz, of Boaz by Rahab.

It may be hard to make the connection because her full name, as we know it, doesn't get listed, jesus sees fit in his lineage to leave the designations behind.

This is not Rahab the prostitute.

This is Rahab, the mother of Boaz, the great great, grandmother of David, the great, great great, on down, on down, on down, grandmother of Jesus Christ himself, humanly speaking.

This is who Rahab is.

This is the story of how Jesus can use broken vessels and that Jesus is not ashamed of broken people within his lineage.

So not ashamed again.

He put it on the first page of the New Testament.

He's showing off the fact that broken people are in his line and even going forward.

Now, you and I, these same kind of broken people, we can count ourselves, if we know Jesus Christ, as those who are in the family of God through his redemption.

But how I'm excited for August the 26th, because I think history may be made, and to give you the context here I'm going to back up.

In June 26th, a baseball game was played between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox.

An MLB game was played June 26th, toronto Blue Jays Boston Red Sox.

They play a game, they get to the second inning and all of a sudden a massive rainstorm comes.

Theyx, they play a game, they get to the second inning and all of a sudden a massive rainstorm comes.

They have to postpone the game.

The game now will be made up on August the 26th.

They will start right there from the second inning on August the 26th.

Now, normally I wouldn't really care about a game between Boston and Toronto, but I may tune in that day and let me tell you why.

Because two weeks ago a catcher named Danny Jansen was traded from Toronto to Boston and so he has a chance to make history as the first player in MLB history to play for two teams in the same game.

To play for two teams in the same game, two teams in the same game.

He started for Toronto a month ago.

If he gets to play in August, two teams, the same game why?

Because this trade has happened.

I want to tell you I woke up excited this morning, all week really to get into this pulpit to tell you some simple, simple news that at the league offices of eternity, a trade has taken place that you and I and Rahab, we wore a jersey and we weren't real proud of it.

Prostitute, sinner, broken.

It wasn't Boston, it wasn't Toronto.

It was guilty, condemned, ashamed.

That was the jersey that we wore, but he became sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

A trade has taken place, because the sinless one took on our sin and our shame.

And so now, in Christ, we can take off that old jersey, the old person that says sinner and broken and ashamed, and instead we can quite literally be clothed in a much better jersey, which is the righteousness of Christ.

And that is now how we are seen in the heavenly places, because the world sees us by our sin, but God himself sees us by his son, and we are redeemed and we are his, no longer wearing the designation of the former life, but letting the son, jesus Christ, speak a better word over us.

I'm thankful for the redemption found in the gospel and I wonder this morning if there's one that for the first time wants to know Jesus wants to know that your sins are forgiven, that you can walk away from the old life, that you're not the sum total of all your mistakes but instead you are, through Christ, all he has made you to be by the cross, by his forgiveness, through his resurrection.

Maybe you need to respond this morning.

Maybe you need to respond right where you're at, in your pew, and you need to pray.

You need to ask God, like we talked about earlier.

God, give me the willingness to take this step of faith, give me the willingness, even as a sinful vessel, to go where you called me to go.

Or maybe you just need to sit in your pew or sing along with Amazing Grace in a moment and you just need to pray and say Lord Jesus, thank you, thank you for the gospel.

However, you need to respond.

I'll be right here.

I pray that you do it.

Let me pray for us and let's worship together.

Lord Jesus, thank you for redemption.

We are unworthy, we don't deserve it, but, lord, you have freely given it.

Lord, we couldn't earn it, we couldn't be good enough, but your son came for us.

So thank you for the gospel, thank you for the hope that is found there.

Lord, if there's one that needs to respond this morning, I ask, lord Jesus, that they would.

Whether that's salvation for the first time, whether that's just spending time in prayer, just making things right, doing business with you, god.

However, someone needs to respond this morning.

Maybe someone wants to come join this church.

However, that is, god, would you give them a boldness to do it now?

We ask this in Christ's name, amen.

Would you please stand as we sing.