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[0:00] Joshua chapter 2 will start reading at verse 1. It says, In Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shidem, two men back to spy secretly saying, Go, view the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into a harlot house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to King of Jericho saying, Behold, there came men and hithered to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the King of Jericho sent under Rahab saying, Bring forth the men that have come to thee, which are entered into thine house, for they have become to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men and hid them and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wish not, whence they were. And it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark that the men went out. Whither the men went, I what not, pursued after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.

[1:11] And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan under the fords. And as soon as they which pursued after them were going out, they shut the gate. And before they laid down, she came up unto them on the roof. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terrors fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.

[1:39] For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt, and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, psi on and awe, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts didn't melt, neither did there remain any more courage than any man becaus of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. And we'll stop reading right there for a moment. So again, we have this woman, Ray Habb. She's a harlot in the city and Joshua sends out two spies. Now if you recall earlier in the Bible, there were there were 12 spies that were sent in to the same land, they were sent into the same promised land. But here Joshua, he cuts that down, he sends only two spies into the land to spy out the land and to see exactly what's going on.

[2:45] God has already promised them the land. There was there was no need for much concern, but Joshua was still as a leader of these people. He was still practicing caution. He was still using discernment and still using the good sense that Almighty God had given him by sending these spies into the country. And it says that these spies, they came under this house of this woman Ray Habb, who was a harlot within the city. Now folks remember this was Jericho, this was in the land of Canaan, a bunch of Canaanites that were heathens. They lived in a pagan culture. The profession of being a harlot was not looked down upon very much at all to that particular culture that they were in.

[3:34] It wasn't looked down at all by the people, by the heathens that was running her in pack. There were temple prostitutes in the heathen cultures back in those days. They felt like they were consecrated under the gods, which they worshiped. They felt like they were doing those gods and those goddesses a service by doing so. This woman harlot in the culture she was in and in the land of Canaan that she was in was more than likely consecrated to a goddess named Venus at the time.

[4:07] But regardless of any of that, regardless of those things, these men they went into the city and they found this house to go into that belonged to a woman named Ray Habb. Folks, I don't think that those two Jewish men sought out this woman. I believe it was the divine providence of Almighty God that sent them there because this woman here wound up being the only believer in Jehovah God of an entire city of a bunch of pagans that did not believe in the God of the Israelites. She told them here in the scripture she said, we have heard that God has dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you folks that was 40 years before these men ever came in to the city of Jericho. But the tale of what God had done for his people was still fresh in their minds. He had dried up the waters of the Red Sea. He had helped them, the Greek armies that others thought were undefeatable.

[5:17] Thank God, done that for his people and he will do the same for us. Hallelujah. These folks came into the city. They went under Ray Habb's house. They didn't know Ray Habb. They wouldn't purposely sicken her out. But they got there. The men of the city, the king received word, King of Jericho, received word. These men came in. There were two men came out of the city tonight. They went to Ray Habb's house. He sent under Ray Habb. Folks, Ray Habb must have had quite the reputation. She must have had quite the name for the king to know where Ray Habb's house was and for the king to send people directly to her for someone to come to the king and say, hey, they went into this house out there in the city. We need to go do something about this. We need to investigate these men.

[6:07] The king sent under her. Now folks, I cannot justify what Ray Habb did as far as lying to the king's men. When the king's men showed up, when they showed up to her house and she said they went out another way they left a while ago. If you take off this way, maybe you'll catch up with folks.

[6:28] That was an outright bold-faced lie by this woman, Ray Habb. But once again, she was in the middle of a pagan culture, a pagan, a hedonistic society and she let dead and not only that, but how many lies have you told since Almighty God saved your soul? Hey, hey, none of us sitting here with halos over our head. This woman had some faith. It wasn't very strong. It wasn't very deep. But she believed in the God of these spies. She was trying to protect him. And folks, she put her life on the line in doing so. Put her life on the line in doing so. Hey, folks, I've heard it preached and I've heard it taught that Ray Habb. That Ray Habb ain't going to be in heaven. Ray Habb was a Harley. Ray Habb was a liar. Ray Habb was this. Ray Habb was that. I read in Hebrews chapter 11 where she's one of the greatest people of faith in all of the scripture. God's not going to include something like that in his word. If I am not going to meet this woman, Ray Habb, one of these days, she was no worse, no more of a sinner. Her sin was no more wicked, no more black than anything that God has forgiven me of. Hallelujah. But I intend to see her one day. You read in Hebrews, it says that she believed what she heard said, by faith, by faith, Ray had believed among all those that believe not.

[8:06] That whole city of Jericho had hundreds of gods, maybe thousands of gods that they worshiped. They were polytheistic. They had a God for everything, much like the Native American culture here in America, much like the Greeks did, much like the Romans did, like almost every pagan in the back in the Bible days. Hope they had a God for sand, they had a God for mud, they had a God for wind, for the sun, for the moon, for the stars, maybe even for each individual star. I'm not sure but they had hundreds of gods and this woman, Ray Habb, hey, by faith, by faith, it is by faith that we are saved and by nothing else. It is by faith that when God came to us that we believed what he was showing us, that we were sinners and that he was willing to save us. This woman heard the stories. I've heard what God's done and she believed, she believed, but it's like Abraham.

[9:07] Folks, when Abraham, when God told Abraham, you grab Isaac, you take him up yonder on the mountain, you offer him up to me. Abraham believed what God had said, not only take him up there on the mountain, he wasn't only obedient to that, but what did he promise Abraham? He said there's going to be, there's going to be one come from your loin, there'll be a seed come from you and I'm going to multiply as the sand of the seashore and as the stars of the heaven. That's what Abraham believed.

[9:38] He knew even if God had him kill his own son, that God had power to raise him from the dead to make good on his promise. This woman Ray Habb here, she had the same faith that Abraham did.

[9:55] She believed the same God that Abraham did and she believed for the same reasons that Abraham did because she had heard of the work of God. Abraham had seen some of the work of God. He had fallen witness to the work of God in his life at Ray Habb here. She was falling witness. Folks, what do you think these spies told her when they came? I don't think they just went in her house and she knew what to do. I think they had to whisper something to her. In fact, the book of James says when she received the messengers. That's how James describes these spies as messengers. Messengers to who? They didn't go out and broadcast in Jericho what their intentions were, but they had to have been messengers to somebody. They were messengers under this woman Ray Habb and because she received the message, because she believed whatever message they brought, that destruction was coming, that doom was coming, that God is the one that was bringing it, her and her family were spared. It was her faith.

[10:59] She believed the message. She believed the message. That's where the problem lies nowadays. People don't believe the message of the gospel when they hear it. People and there's different areas of that that they don't believe. They either don't believe that they are a sinner, which we are. Everyone else is. Everyone else is. Y'all know my first grandbaby was born Wednesday.

[11:29] Seven pounds, 11 ounces worth of sin came out of the world. That's all we are. We're sin. Our flesh is sinful. Our bones are sinful. Our muscles are sinful. The blood that courses through us, it is sinful. Everything about us is sinful because it was cursed by God in the garden. That curse has passed on to every man and woman that has been born ever since we are sinful creatures. But to believe that we can be forgiven, we must first believe that we need to be forgiven. This woman here, Rahab, she believed the message. These men come in to the city, says that she hit them underneath the flags that was laid out in order on her rooftop. Folks, this woman, this woman, Rahab, she may have been a harlot. I don't know if she was a temple prostitute. I don't know if she was just a prostitute, but the Bible says that she was a harlot, but she had faith to believe. In fact, she had so much faith to believe that it not only saved her, as I said, it got her family, said they were saved from the destruction that came on all of Jericho when the Israelites came into the city and God had them marched around the walls of the city. They marched around seven times over the course of days. And on that last time, they blew the trumpet and the walls came in.

[12:52] It wasn't the wind coming out of their trumpet. It was God saying, this city is yours. I've delivered it into your hands. They went in, they saw that scarlet thread. We didn't read that far.

[13:06] We didn't read that far, but that was the sign. That was the sign she was to leave a scarlet thread hanging out of her window. And that was to signify to every Israelite, every Israelite coming into the city. You don't mess with that one. You don't go in that window. You don't go in that house.

[13:22] You don't kill those people. You don't take them hostage. You don't do anything with them. God has spared them. Folks, really and truly, as far as the conquest, I know there was people Genesis through Deuteronomy. There was people, Gentiles that came into belief of Almighty God, but as far as the conquest into the Promised Land, Rahab was the first one. She was the first one delivered by God. A Gentile, she was the first Gentile delivered by God. And folks, when God delivers someone, he doesn't do it halfway. When he saved my soul, he didn't save me a little bit here and a little bit there. He saved me completely, utterly, and totally right then and right there where he did it. And he picked me up, set my feet upon the side, rock established my goings, and I've been training that way ever since when God saved, he saved praise God. This woman, Rahab, you go on to read about her, on throughout the scripture. She went on to marry a man named

[14:31] Salman. Who was Salman? You read over in the book of Ruth about a man named Boas. Salman was Boas his father. You read about Boas. Boas and Ruth had a man, had a baby named Obed. Obed had a baby named Jesse. Jesse had a baby named David and Jesus Christ ascended from the seat of David.

[14:50] Jesus Christ is the promised king that his kingdom will never end. This woman, a Gentile, Rahab, this harlot, she is in the very black line of Jesus Christ because of this instance where she believed. That's why she's there. That's why she's there. She believed. That's why I'm where I'm at.

[15:16] Folks today, Dan and I were talking about when it come through the door about grace. It ain't nothing I've done. It ain't nothing that read. All she simply did was believe the report into how Isaiah 53 starts out. Who has believed her report? Who has believed these things? Who has believed in God? Who has believed in Jehovah? Hey, go on to the New Testament. Who has believed in Jesus Christ? Who's believed in the sacrifice? Who believes that he is able to wash away all sin?

[15:50] I believe those things. That's why I'm on my way to heaven. Nothing to do with what I've done, either before I was saved, when I was saved, or after I was saved. It is all a gift of grace by Almighty God. We sing it constantly that by grace he will lead us home. Why don't we believe it?

[16:11] It's by grace we'll make it. That's the only way. Now, we let work start getting into the picture. We'll get proud about ourselves. We'll get proud. This woman right here, I don't think she had a bit of pride about her. Not from what I can tell. That man, Solomon, that she married, he was the leader of the tribe of Judah at the time. What tribe was Jesus from? What do we call him? The Lion of the tribe of Judah. This man, Solomon, he was a leader of that tribe now. There's no Bible to back it up. He very well could have been one of those two spies that came in to begin with.

[16:58] Joshua chose from, or when the twelve spies went in, it was leaders from each of the twelve tribes. So, Solomon could have very well been one of those two spies. I don't know. Folks, it don't really matter.

[17:11] It doesn't matter. What matters is this woman, a sinful person, a Gentile that was without hope, a Gentile that had hundreds of God instead of the one true and living God, a Gentile whom we would look down on in our society nowadays as a prostitute. But God looked at her and he said, I can redeem this.

[17:34] I can do something with this. Hey, this woman that's consecrated herself to the God of herself, to the God of her fathers, to the God, or to the gods of everything around her. Hey, I can do something with this. He done the same thing when he saved your unworthy soul. He looked down, saw how broken you were, saw how sinful you were, saw what a wreck we had made of our life, but he saved our soul. He done the same thing for Rahab. He saved this woman and he put her into a place and God ordained that marriage. He put her into a place where she was in the very bloodline of Jesus Christ. You got Solomon, Rahab, you got Boaz, you got Obid, you got Jesse, you got David, and all the way down to Jesus Christ, all the way down to Jesus Christ. She's in the very bloodline and those people, those Christians out there, those church govers, those people that hate that fact.

[18:41] There's people out there that can't stand that fact, that there was something that was so unclean in the family of God. Folks say, he's unclean, that's all throughout the family of God. I was unclean when he saved me and now the only thing that makes me clean is the blood of the only begotten of the Father. I cannot make myself clean. Rahab could not make herself clean, but when she heard what happened, she believed what she heard, therefore she was spared. Hallelujah, it was no different for you or for me when I heard it. I believed it. Rahab was no different. Once again, this was the pagan culture. Hathens, worshiping self, worshiping all these, all these gods that weren't real.

[19:34] Fast forward up to the time of Jesus, just a little bit in your mind for a second. Fast forward to that. Who did Jesus come calling? God called Rahab. You like it or not, God called Rahab. But you fast forward when Jesus was calling the disciples, hand picking them. Who did he pick? He picked Peter, doing what? He was fishing. He picked Matthew, doing what? Collecting taxes for the Roman government.

[20:01] Matthew's own people, the Jews hated his guts and the Romans hated his guts because he was a Jew. But Jesus looked beyond all that. Jesus was the only one that gave Matthew a second glance in that day. And he hand picked Matthew. You look through the disciples. You look at the people that Jesus healed. You look at the lepers that he healed. You look at the blind eyes that he opened. You look at the man that the man's friends let him down through a broken tile. And through a tile they removed in the roof. Jesus healed that man, forgave that man. But it wasn't because of that man's faith.

[20:35] It was because of the faith of his friends. He had his faith that gets this thing done. Not our words. They could have left that man out. That was the word what I was just talking about.

[20:48] They could have left him out. On the sidewalk at the front door, at the back door. They could have left him plumb across town. And Jesus Christ could have still healed him because of those men's faith.

[20:59] They could have came in and said, hey, there's a man laying over the honor of two, three miles this way. He needs a touch. He needs help from you. Hey, the Centurion had that kind of faith. He said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should open that you should come into my house. That you should enter into my house. But you say the word and my servant will be healed. And his servant was healed from that very hour. It was the faith of the Centurion. It was the faith of those men's friends. It was the faith of Peter, of John. It was the faith of everyone who believed why they are in heaven right now.

[21:37] Not the room works. You take this culture they were in. Back to Reh. Back to Reh. Take the culture they were in. And that culture continued all the way up to the time of Jesus. All the way up to the time of Jesus. And that culture continues all the way through the first millennium AD. The second millennium AD where we're at right now. Or the third millennium AD where we're at right now. The first one was zero to a to 999. That was the first. Then you got the second 1000 and 2000. We're in the third millennium AD right now. The culture has not changed. It's still pagan. It's still heathen.

[22:19] But there's still a religion. There's still a belief. There is still the faith that a few fishermen had. Folks, we're talking about the day when philosophy ruled the globe. We're talking about the day when people would flock to philosophers. And they would listen to what these philosophers had to say. And if somebody that sounded just a little bit dumb or a little bit stupid, they would leave that philosopher and go and find one that they could relate to. Go and find one that they could listen to and think this man's got some intelligence. This man here's got some clouds about him. It's the same culture now. We live in a society now. Roger talked about the seasons that we live in this morning. We live in a season now where the world says I'm too smart to believe in a God. I'm too smart to believe in a creation. I stick with evolution as opposed to a creator. The culture has not changed. God has not changed either. He is still the creator.

[23:24] He's still the master, the maker. And he is still the one that will bring judgment unto all who do not believe. Amen. He's still the same God. But the belief, the religion, these bunch of fishermen went out and the spies' tax collector went out. And they talked about this man Jesus. They said, this man's the way. This man's the truth. This man's the life. And I know Jesus said that in John 14, but they were saying the same thing. Jesus sent them out to proclaim those things after a while. All throughout the book of Acts. What are they doing? They're preaching Christ. They're preaching Christ to the Jews. They're preaching Him to the Gentiles. They're preaching Him to everybody that they come in contact with. Folks, it was a bunch of worthless people that began there that this religion was began with. And I say religion very loosely there because religion ain't enough to get any of us to heaven. It is faith in Almighty God that will get us to heaven. It's a relationship with Jesus Christ, not our religious practices that will get us there. Folks, we can show up every Sunday at 11, every Sunday at 6, and every Thursday at 7 until we're blue in the face. We can sing our songs. We can have prayer requests. We can do all these things. That is religion. But when the service begins and when God breaks loose, hey, that is the relationship. That is God. That is the relationship with Jesus Christ. And that is God to take place at some point in the service. This woman right here had a relationship with who knows how many men and not to burst anybody out, probably women too, because that's what prostitutes done, and particularly if she was a temple prostitute.

[25:23] It didn't matter who come that way. That was her consecration to her God or her goddess, was I'll do whatever with whomever to honor that God or that goddess. It's untelling how many partners quote unquote she had. God still saved her. God redeemed her place. Hey, he put her into his own family. He put her into the Jewish family. The Jews who were promised this land that Rahab lived in here. Hey, Rahab said, I know that the land is yours. I know that God is giving it to you. He is the same God in heaven that he is in the earth. She believed in this God and God rewarded her for her belief. Put her directly into the bloodline of Jesus Christ.

[26:14] She said, we have heard, I read the last two verses again, we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when he came out of Egypt and what you did. I know the two came to the Amorites. They were on the other side of Jordan's sign and all of them, he utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt. Why was that? Folks, when they crossed Jordan, now listen, she says as soon as they heard these things, it was unheard of for a seed to split. There's a bunch of that's why it took them all night to get through. We see it in the movies, we see it in pictures, we read it in books that, you know, it was within a half an hour, there was all across. Folks, they had not only themselves, but they had the possessions as well.

[27:00] They had the stuff that the Egyptians had given them over there, that God had caused the Egyptians to give them. They had all these things to get across, but they heard that God had done that.

[27:12] They heard that God had helped them, had assisted them, had basically destroyed these Amorite kings on behalf of his people. It says our hearts did melt. That would have included Rehabtard. That would have included her, her family, and everyone in her household that was saved. The only differences, she was the only one with her heart melted. When her heart was pricked with the truth, she is the only one that believed. Unfortunately, the sermon after sermon goes out, and the truth goes out, and Cross the Nymph crucified goes out, Cross the Nymph resurrected goes out, Cross the Nauturnal Life goes out amongst the crowds, and people won't believe it.

[28:04] They will not believe it. Either you hear that or they'll believe it halfway, folks. We believe this book, Genesis 1, 1 to Revelation 22, 21, or we won't believe it at all. We have got to believe the entirety of Scripture, that our hearts didn't melt. Neither did there remain any more courage than any man. And Rehab seemed to be the only one to take heed to that. My courage is left. Why?

[28:34] Because there's a God out there. There's a God that's working on behalf of these people. We stand no chance. There's no hope for us. That's what Rehab would have been thinking. And it says our heart didn't melt. And they thought these things, but evidently some self-courage ballooned up on everybody else. They thought, we can do this. We can handle this, folks. When God says doom is coming, I can assure you doom is coming. When he says destruction's coming, it is coming. When God says, when God's Word says a hell is real, hell is real. And praise God, I ain't going. There's destruction coming on this world one day. The world has never seen.

[29:18] It was a bad time. He knew his day when the world was flooded. But folks, there's destruction worse than that. Coming into this world and it will be brought by the same God that brought the flood.

[29:30] He promised over in Genesis that he would never flood the world again. There's a much more violent destruction that's coming. He's not going to flood the world. He will destroy it with fire. And that fire will come from him. It'll come from heaven. Hey, I know in the account of Noah and the flood, not only did the rains fall from above, but it says that the fountains of the deep, they were broken up as well. The water came from above and below. Hey, we live on an earth right now.

[30:00] We've got lava. We've got melted metal. We got all these things underneath where we're at right now. God, I believe, is going to bring fire from the heaven and he's going to bring it from underneath.

[30:11] He's going to destroy this entire world with fire. One of these days, the word of God says that the very elements will melt when they firm it. Hey, I'm glad I'm a child of the king because my Bible says that I am not appointed unto wrath. I will not have to suffer that. I won't have to see that.

[30:33] I will be in heaven with my God. Hallelujah. But destruction's coming. Oh, yeah. It is coming. And the world don't believe. The world don't believe. They're gearing up. They're gearing up.

[30:46] You read, you read in Daniel. You read in Ezekiel. You read in Revelation. The world will gear up against God. They're going to come against God. Kings will come against them.

[30:59] Citizens will come against them. Enormous armies are going to come against God and God will slaughter them. Every one of them with a sword from his mouth, with his very word, and the boughs of the air will come and feast on their flesh. For the Lord or God, he is God in heaven above and earth beneath.

[31:20] This woman believed Jehovah God and God rewarded this one, folks. I believe that scripture backs up and yes, once we're saved, we'll have a reward in heaven. Jesus said, lay not up for yourselves treasures on there. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't corrupt.

[31:42] Where thieves can't break through and destroy. They do that here, especially back in Jesus's day. Hey, most of their, most of the huts that they lived in, they were made out of earth. It didn't take a whole lot for somebody to go over and just take their fist and break a wall in the side of the house. They could reach through, grab whatever they wanted and take off.

[31:59] That's the breakthrough and, and, and steal part. Nobody be able to do that in heaven. There'll be no sin there. There'll be no thought of sin there. No thought whatsoever. The folks, this woman believed what she heard. Do we believe what we heard is what it boils down to. Do we believe what we hear? Do we believe that we are sinners? Do we believe that God is the Savior?

[32:23] And do we believe that we need salvation? If we believe those things, what's the Bible say? I say it all the time, praise God, because it's also scripture Romans chapter two. If we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, we confess with our mouth and we believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's all it takes. Hope this woman right here, she was saved because she believed she was saved because of her faith. She was saved because she believed what she heard about Jehovah God. She believed whatever message that these spies brought into the land brought into her house. The destruction was coming. But they told her, they said, you hang that scarlet thread out your window and destruction won't come anywhere near you. Death will not come near you, old man. We will leave you all alone. But folks, it was Rahab's heart. It was Rahab's fault. It was Rahab thinking about her family that brought that whole fault into formation there. God made a way for her through her belief, for her and her old family to be saved. Hallelujah.

[33:28] God made a way through Jesus Christ. Everyone else could be saved. Everyone else could be saved. Who saved those who believe? Not those who act, not those that do the deeds, not those that work, those who believe what the Bible says. They say, only believe. Jesus said it himself, only believe.