The Gospel of Spies

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Good morning. We are glad that you're here with us this morning. We want to start, before we get into our opening prayer and our Scripture reading, we want to read together our verse that we're working on memorizing this week. So if you would go ahead and read with me from James, it says this, "Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger." And in just a moment, we're going to read from the 86th Psalm together. of celebrating God's steadfast love. It's a prayer of David in the moments where he is struggling. And so we're going to go ahead and stand and we'll read from the 86th Psalm together. It says this, "Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God. With my whole heart I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love for me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol." This is the word of the Lord. Let's have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for your steadfast love. And we ask this morning that you would teach us to walk in your ways, that we would walk in truth, that you would have us, as we read a moment ago, consider our words and how we listen, how we speak, and that you would guide us with your steadfast love, that we might show that steadfast love to others. Be with us this morning as we worship. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to begin by singing about the hope that we have in the gospel.

How great the chasm that lay between us! How high the mountain I could not climb! In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name. Into the night. Then through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished. The end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of kings calls me his own. Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living home. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living home.

Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Oh God, you are my living hope. We have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. What needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden? Cumbered with a load of care. Precious Savior still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee. Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll take and shield thee. Thou will find a solace there. You may be seated. We're going to move into our prayer and share time. If you are watching online, we will have a short video playing, and there will be a number. You can text us with your prayer requests. We'll see you next time. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Amen. As we prepare for our time of communion, we are going to sing, "All Who Are Thirsty."

"All Who Are Thirsty." "All Who Are Weak." "Come to the fountain." "Dip your heart in the stream of life." "Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away." In the waves of His mercy, as deep cries out too deep. "Come, Lord Jesus, come." "Come, Lord Jesus, come." "Come, Lord Jesus, come." All who are thirsty, all who are weak, come to the fountain. Dip your heart in the stream of life. Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away. In the waves of His mercy, as deep cries out too deep. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. As deep cries out too deep. As deep cries out too deep. As deep cries out too deep. As deep cries out too deep. Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come.

In the 107th Psalm, a psalm we spent some time in a few weeks ago begins like this, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands, from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south." And then in the 107th Psalm, it begins to go and list the places and the people who were gathered in. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty. Their souls fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way until they reached a city to dwell in. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works

to the children of man, for He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry He fills with good things. And what we find is that in our lives we are searching for something to fill our hungry souls. And we try a million different things, and everything sort of habitually leaves us unsatisfied. And so we try going deeper, we try going bigger, we try finding new things, and we jump from thing to thing, hoping that we will eventually stumble upon the thing that will give us rest and leave our hearts satisfied. But we find in Scripture that there is only one thing that will satisfy the longing of our soul. And that is the steadfast love of God. And so this morning as a church, as we come to the table, and as we take this little piece of bread that carries with it such a

weighty picture of the sacrifice of the Son of God on our behalf and for our sins. And as we drink this cup, which Jesus says is a new covenant given to us for the forgiveness of our sins, we want to be reminded that the satisfaction and hope and contentment that we find in this life is not from the things we acquire, or the things we do, or the things we have, or the places we go, but that our hearts are only satisfied when they find their home in the good news of the gospel. So let's pray, and then we'll partake together. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus and for grace. I thank you for how you have cared for us. I thank you that you take hungry and thirsty souls, souls lost in the wilderness, and souls who are longing for a place to belong. And you bring us in, and you feed us, and you satisfy us,

and you bring us to contentment. So help us in this moment to fix our eyes and our hearts on you, that our heart would be fixed on the good news of the gospel. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Matthew will record this. As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it, and he gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat. This is my body." Let's partake together. And then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, "Gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'" We are in Joshua, the second chapter this morning. We're spending just sort of a few weeks, probably about five, I think, in Joshua, and then we'll take a little break, and then we'll come back to the next section of Joshua, and take a little break, and then come back again to the third. And one of the remarkable things of this book is how it directs

us to the good news of the gospel. We looked last week at how Joshua, strengthened by God and called by God to lead his people into the land, ultimately should direct us not to ourself and our ability to be strong and courageous, but to Jesus, who is strong and courageous on our behalf and has brought us in to the city of God. And so we're going to take a look at Joshua chapter 2, and if the first chapter points us to our Savior Jesus, the second chapter points us to the people who need to be saved. And so it's sort of a remarkable way that this book, you know, more than 1,000 years before Jesus, tells us so clearly about the one who came to save us. So let's pray, and we'll dive right into it. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for grace. I thank you for how you have cared for us. I just ask that you would be with us this morning as we unpack this section of Scripture that you would

of Scripture, that you would help us to see your grace and your love, that you would help us to see how you take broken, sinful, and hurting people, and you bring them in, and you make them a part of your community and how you use them for the proclamation of the gospel. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And so one of the things that I've been thinking about as I've been reading through this chapter is how sometimes when we're younger, there are things that maybe we don't quite understand. And I was thinking about those this week is I had all the kids in the car, and I was getting ready to get on the interstate. And when I was little, I remember various adults saying this, you know, in the middle of traffic, and they'll say, "Hey, kids, be quiet. We're trying to drive here." And I always thought that was ridiculous, because what does all the noise in the car have to do with being able to navigate traffic? And then here's the kids. They're all asking me a question at once. You know, there's cars coming this way. There's cars this way. There's cars behind me. And I'm like, "Just everybody be quiet."

I'm trying to see the drive here. And it's like, "Well, what connection do my ears have with my eyes?" And I became the very thing that, as a child, I thought was completely ridiculous. But what happens in life is that we go through these moments where we realize that maybe what we understood as a child, we didn't quite understand as deeply when we began to look a little more closely. And for me, at least, Joshua, the second chapter, is one of those places, right? I've always sort of seen this chapter in sort of the Sunday school class lesson when you're like in third grade, and you got these spies, and they sneak in. This really nice lady whose last name happens to be Harlot helps them sneak out of the city. And it's just sort of this cool story about sneaking in, sneaking out, and then God ends up saving the nice lady.

The reality of Joshua chapter 2 is a little bit more gritty. It's a little bit more, I think, deep than just simply a Sunday school lesson. And those aren't bad, right? That's how we learn the Bible. But one of the great things about the Bible is that as we grow, we get to go deeper and deeper into it. And so one of the things I want us to do as we dive into this is there's a couple things. I want us to see this story for what it is. We may be familiar with it. Maybe we're not. But secondly, in this chapter, there is a remarkable amount of connections to the rest of Scripture, both before Joshua chapter 2 and after Joshua chapter 2. And so as we move through this, we'll point out sort of how this ties Scripture together. And this isn't just true of Joshua chapter 2.

As you and I read the Bible, one of the things that we need to be aware of is that this book is remarkably unified, written by more than 40 authors over a couple of millennia, and somehow God ties it all together beautifully. But most of all, I think I want to deceive in this chapter the goodness of the Gospel. And so we begin in the first half of verse 1. And there is this sort of secret mission going on. And it begins like this: "And Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, 'Go and view the land, especially Jericho.'" And so in the previous chapter, God has called Joshua, and it appears that Joshua doesn't waste any time in getting to work. And so Joshua immediately picks two trusted men, and you see that Joshua, in his life, has learned a little bit

in terms of his age and experience and wisdom. Because remember, he was one of two spies, right? A group of twelve, and he and one other were sort of the good spies. And so he picks two men, and he sends them into the land. Now he sends them secretly, and I think there's a couple reasons for that, and I think they're all wise. First of all, Joshua wants an approximation of what's in front of him. So, just like Nehemiah, when he begins to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, secretly goes out at night and prepares, sort of looks through and sees what needs to be done, right? We need gates here, and bricks here, and mortar over here, and sort of surveys what he's getting into. Joshua is a good leader, and he wants to be prepared, right?

He doesn't just sort of want to walk into the promised land, but he puts his faith in God's promises to work, and he begins to scout out the land so that, as they move forward, he is not surprised. Second reason for the secrecy is that Canaan seems to be on high alert. When we get later on in the chapter, these spies, they walk into Jericho, and they're almost instantly alerting the authorities because everybody's on the lookout. And so they're sort of engaging in some operational security here to sort of keep that circle small so the word doesn't get out that they are out spying in third. The last time spies came back and reported publicly and immediately for God's people, it didn't go well, right? Because God's people begin to jump to conclusions. The message was this land is inhabited by giants.

They're way bigger and way stronger, and the people panicked. And so Joshua wants to hear what they're up against, knowing that God will help them win this victory. And so he sends these spies in secretly, right? Now, almost immediately, in the second half of verse 1, this begins to take a surprising turn. I'm going to read down through verse 6. "And they went and they came into a 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 tonight to search out the land. The king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house, and have come to search out the land. But the woman had taken two men and hidden them.

And she said, True, these men came to me. But I did not know where they were from, and the gate was about to be closed at dark. And the men went out, and I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them." But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. And so our first surprise in this is, immediately, there is this woman named Rahab. And Joshua chapter 2 calls her a prostitute. Now, over time, people have tried to sort of lessen the impact of that word. And so, you know, Josephus will talk about how she's an innkeeper. But the word here used for her occupation is the word that's used elsewhere in Scripture for a prostitute.

When she's referred to in the New Testament, the word that's used for her is porne. She is a prostitute. Here is a lady whose occupation goes against the very standard of what God has laid out for his people. And so, almost immediately, the central character that we see in here is somebody that sort of stands against the standards of God, right? She's a Canaanite, so she's far from God's people. Secondly, her occupation is one that isn't just immoral, but encourages immorality in other people, and here she is. The next thing that sort of jumps out is how do the spies end up in the house of a prostitute? Now, some people have said these spies are making bad choices, and that might be. We don't know. But the second thing that sort of happens in this time period is these houses of ill repute, the place where Rahab lived and worked.

Oftentimes, in addition to being sort of a house of immorality, it was a place where people would gather, especially strangers, from outside the wall. These are exactly the kind of places where spies and people who are up to no good tend to congregate. In fact, in the law code of Hammurabi, the Persians, he will talk specifically about those prostitutes who harbor spies and who begin to let plots form in their establishment. And so, where you have outsiders and people are talking back and forth, this is a good place to go and to get some information. It's also, as we learn, sort of a great location on the city. It's in a poor district of Jericho, and archaeologists have uncovered these kind of sections of walls where you have sort of an outer wall, inner wall, and you have rooms built between them.

And evidently, they were maybe hoping for a place where they could escape if they had need of. But it's also possible, too, that Rahab, in sort of executing her trade, one of the ways in which you would drum up clientele in this time period, you see this in the book of Proverbs, is you would sort of walk through the streets looking for people who are likely customers. And it's possible that Rahab, it seems like she knows, and she's pretty tied into the political events in Jericho, she knows what's going on, knows that there's people looking for spies, and so she sees these men, and maybe it's not anything immoral, she's just simply trying to protect them. We don't know how they get there or why they get there, we just know that it's a really surprising situation.

The third thing that is surprising is these guys walk through the gates in the wall, they show up somehow in Rahab's place, and immediately the king knows that they are there, whether it's an informer in Rahab's house, whether it's somebody who sees these people, maybe the word is out in town. Right? And so immediately the king sends his sort of counterintelligence agents to Rahab saying, "Give us these spies!" And then she begins to say, "Well, they're not here, they went this way, they went out there, send your men out there, maybe you can catch them if they're quick enough." And one of these big questions that people have often raised in these verses is you see Rahab just blatantly lying to these people. And people have asked, "Is it okay to lie in these situations?"

And they use Rahab as an example. Keep in mind that at this point Rahab is not a member of the people of God. She doesn't live by the Ten Commandments, doesn't likely even know about the Ten Commandments. She hasn't heard God say, "Thou shalt not lie." And the author of Joshua here is not giving her to us as an example saying, "Be like her," but rather what he's saying to us is, "This is what happened." Right? There is a difference between recording history and saying, "This is how you should live according to that history." One of the interesting things you see at the very end of these verses, and it's one of those places where this ties back into the early part of Exodus, as Rahab takes these spies up on her roof, where you have flax, which are these long reeds, and sort of has them all piled up nicely for processing,

hides these spies under them. The word here used to say hide, the word translated hide, up until this point in Scripture is only used in one other place. And it's when Moses' mom takes this little baby, right, and takes him out to the reeds, and covers him up and hides him there in the river to protect him. That in this moment, this surprising person, Rahab the prostitute, an immoral outsider to the people of God, is behaving to these spies exactly like Moses' mom did to him. And in verse 7, we find the spies are now trapped. "So the men pursued them on their way to the Jordan as far as the fords, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers have gone out." So the pursuers leave town, they lock the gates to keep anybody else from going out, right? So attention has been diverted, but now you're trapped in a city, and how do you get out?

You can't spend the rest of your life just hiding under the reeds. It's only a matter of time until you are caught. And in verse 8, we hear Rahab move from protecting to pleading. "So before the men lay down, they were hiding under the flax, she came up to them on the roof and said to them, 'I know the Lord has given you the land, and the fear of you has fallen upon us, that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water 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. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any

man because of you, for the Lord your God. He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign, that you will save alive my father and mother and my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death. And the men said to her, "Our life were yours even to death. If you do not tell this business of ours when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you." And as everybody else in Jericho panics and tries to protect and tries to counterattack and tries to figure out what's happening, Rahab throws herself upon the grace and mercy of God. And in verse 15, "Then she let them down by a

rope through the window, for her house had been built into the city wall, so she lived in the wall. And she said to them, "Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you. And there hide three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterwards you may go your way." And 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 and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of 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 this house, his blood shall be laid on our heads. And if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear. And she said, "According to your words, so be it." Then she sent them away and departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. And here, in addition to this oath or this covenant that is made between Rahab and the spies, you find this scarlet cord. And people have always asked, "Where did this scarlet cord come from? Did the spies bring it with them, hoping maybe to use it as some sort of signal? Did Rahab have it?" But one of the things that's remarkable about this little scarlet cord that signals where Rahab lives to the people of Israel when they

eventually take the city, is that in Scripture, it's not the first place we see this kind of picture. In fact, in Genesis, the 38th chapter, there's a woman by the name of Tamar, and she has twins. And as the twins are being born, the firstborn has his arm, and they wrap a scarlet cord around it so they know which one of the twins is the firstborn. But then there's a fight, and the second twin is born first, and God switches the firstborn for the secondborn, one who will eventually be in the family line of Rahabah. We'll read that in just a few minutes. But also, there's a picture not just back to that, but to Passover, right? Where God marks the house of the people by having them put blood over the doorway. If you're in the house, you're safe. If you're out of the house, your blood is on your own

head. And in many ways, what is happening to Rahab right now is her Passover, her exodus from the pagan Canaanite religion and immorality into the people of God. The spies make it back safely. They depart and return to the hills. They remain there all their days, three days, until the pursuers returned. And the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. The two men returned. They came down from the hills, passed over, came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him what had happened to them. And Joshua, they said to Joshua, "Truly the Lord has given all the lands into our hands, and also the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us." Now this text, while maybe interesting how it connects the Bible, you have a picture of Passover. You also have pictures found in the New Testament. Scholars have identified

things that point ultimately to Jesus in the New Testament. These three days in the wilderness, this red cord, the promises and covenant, the substitution of the spies for Rahab. There's all of these pictures, but for many of us, this feels a little bit distant. It might be an interesting story with some interesting trivia fitting it into the Bible. It may be surprising in some ways and exciting in others. But what about us? And one of the things that I would have you consider this morning is how do we react when we see the just judgment of God? And one of the things that happens when we see the just judgment of God, when we realize that things are not the way that they should be, and that we are in trouble, and not only are we in trouble, but we're responsible for it. One of the things that

we try to do is we try to fix the problems that we have created. In fact, much of the controversy, in fact, even in the political world, is how do we fix the problems in this world, right? And what are we trying to do when we do that? We're trying to fix the problems that we, as sinful people, have created. But then sometimes what we try to do is we hide ourselves from the problems we've created, right? We distract ourselves, we entertain ourselves, we keep ourselves busy. And then other times we try to sort of accomplish our way out of the problems, right? We understand that we have messed things up, that we are the problem. We think, well, if I can accomplish this, right, I can outweigh all of my brokenness with all of my goodness and all of my achievements. And

regardless of whether we're here trying to fix it, whether we're running and hiding from it, whether we're trying to accomplish our way out of it, whether we're making excuses or pointing blame to somebody else for it, ultimately you and I have to face the consequences and the responsibility of the fact that we have sinned against God and we deserve just judgment. You see it in Jericho. As the just judgment of God is coming, these people understand it, right? Their hearts are melting within them. And some people are fortifying a city, some people are trying to prevent it by catching spies. I imagine others are raising up armies and sharpening swords. Some people are stockpiling food, right? Here comes the just judgment of God and we will figure out a way to save ourselves from it.

Just like we do, right? Here is the just judgment and I can save myself. But here in Joshua chapter 2, what does Rahab do? She doesn't try to save herself. She says, "I know that your God is God and I know that the only help that I can expect comes from Him through His people." And what Rahab does is she throws herself on to the mercy of God. And it changes her life, right? Her faith in the God in Israel. And remember, she doesn't have a Bible. She doesn't have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the only parts that have been written so far. She has just seen what God has done and she throws her hope and her future into His hands and then she puts her faith into action. Listen to Hebrews chapter

11. "By faith people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled by seven days. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given friendly welcome to the spies. The reason she welcomed the spies, the friendly welcome, was because she believed and she had thrown herself onto the mercy of God. In the book of James where he's talking about the relationship between our faith and how that faith plays out practically in our life. In the same way also, Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received messengers and sent them out another way. For as a body apart from the spirit of dead, so

is faith apart from works dead. Rahab didn't just say that she trusted God. She lived it. She didn't just say, "Yes, I believe in this." Right? She took that belief, and it was in her heart, and it came out through her actions, and she sought to save the spies, not to earn a place with God, but because she had already trusted Him. The call in this text for us, as we face the just judgment of God, as we all will, is to stop running, to stop hiding, to stop distracting ourselves, and throw ourselves onto the mercy of God. And what you will see is that your faith in the Almighty God will transform you. He will transform you. One of the lessons in Joshua chapter 2 is to stop running, stop hiding, and throw yourself

upon the grace of God. The remarkable thing that victory does not end with her being commended for being faithful, for trusting the God that she had only heard rumors about, and living out her faith in a practical way. But what's remarkable about Rahab is that God takes her, this pagan prostitute, this immoral outsider, the one who couldn't be further righteousness that God has given for His people, and He does something wonderful with her. Let me read to you in Matthew chapter 1. And one of the remarkable things is we see her family saved in Joshua chapter 6, but her story doesn't end there. This is from Matthew chapter 1. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah

by Tamar. Perez, the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Aminadab. Aminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz, the mother of Obed by Ruth. Obed, the father of Jesse. Jesse, the father of David. The king. And then her story keeps going. And this genealogy ultimately culminates in Jesus. Do you see what God does? This pagan prostitute who throws herself on the mercy of God, finds her life transformed. But not just her life, her legacy. God takes her. He doesn't just say, "We'll keep you alive," but He takes her, and He brings her into His plan. She becomes great-great-grandmother to the greatest king, and she becomes the great-great-great-great-great- keep going with the greats, grandmother to Jesus, our Savior. See how God changes

people? There are times, I think, when we look at our brokenness, especially in terms of the righteousness of God, and we might say that there is no way that God could love me, or use me, or want me. The story of Rahab says that we are wrong. That God loves you, wants you, transforms you, and changes you, and can use you to do something wonderful. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace. As we see this picture of hope, we see this picture of salvation, this picture of faith, this picture of wisdom, this picture of faith in action. Would you remind us that you are our hope, and that we throw our hope on you. Help us to not just hold this as an intellectual exercise, but to put it into practice like Rahab did,

and help us to see how you welcome broken sinners into your family. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand, and we're going to sing in Christ alone. And one of the things that I've been thinking about about Rahab all this week is that Jesus could have chosen anybody for his family, right? He's God. And he could have chosen anybody, and in all of this, he chose Rahab. So let's sing about Jesus and about our hope. Amen. In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my soul. This cornerstone, this solid ground firm through the fiercest drowning storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are still, when strivings cease. My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I stand. In Christ alone,

who took on flesh the fullness of God in helpless faith, this gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save. Till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on Him was laid here in the death of Christ I live there in the ground His body laid light of the world by darkness slain then bursting forth in glorious day up from the grave He rose again and as He stands in victory sin's curse has lost its grip on me I am His and He is mine brought with the precious blood of Christ no guilt in life no fear in death this is the power of Christ in name from life's first cry to final breath Jesus commenced my destiny no power of hell no scheme of man

can ever pluck me from His hand till He returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ I'll stand no power of hell no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand till He returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ I'll stand I want to thank you all for joining us this morning. We will be back on Wednesday night as we're moving through this series on the gospel and how it practically plays out and how we live. So I would invite you and encourage you to join us on Wednesday nights. We've had several good sessions and some good discussions, so I would encourage you to come and join us as we do that. We're going to have a word of prayer and then we will practice our verse one more time

as I was thinking about this verse from James over the last couple days. It's one that seems to be pretty relevant as we talk about be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, especially in a world where everything seems produced to make us, to get a reaction from us, to make us angry, to be quick to give our opinions good wisdom and a good reminder for us. So we're going to pray, and we'll read that together, and then we will sing the doxology. Father in heaven, I thank you for grace. I thank you for how you take broken sinners and bring them into your family. I thank you for this account of Joshua, as we have seen this picture of our hero who brings us into salvation, and we've seen how you

save the broken and the hurting and those who are far from you. with us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's read together. Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Let's sing the doxology.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.