THROUGH THE BIBLE - Joshua 2..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Dear brethren, Joshua chapter 2. And as we started last week with this book of Joshua as a church, we take each one of the books of the Old Testament and one by one, we read a chapter and we try to give a brief Christological overview of the meaning of that chapter.

And we have been doing so from Genesis 1. And now we found ourselves in the book of Joshua now, Joshua chapter 2. And as I said to you last week, if we were going to summarize this book, there are many ways in which we can summarize the book of Joshua. But if we were going to summarize it with one word, one statement, that would be the fulfillment of God's promise. The fulfillment of God's promise.

And it happens that the promise of God, as I said to you last week, is a promise of rest. The people of Israel had been captive for many years in Egypt, and they had been rescued by the Lord, and they were walking through the wilderness in their pilgrims, and they were expecting that this Lord, who had freed them from Egypt, will fulfill the promise of rest. That is, that they will cross the Jordan and enter into this land, and they will settle there, and they will become the nation of God, finding rest, everything that they needed. Now we know, my dear brother and my dear sister, that this promise of rest given to Joshua was a temporary promise. Because the book of Hebrews speaks to us in chapter 4, that if Joshua had given the people the consummation and the fullness of rest, there would have been need of another rest, another day of rest.

And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it's only in the person of Christ that the person can find the fullness of rest. It is in Christ that we find the inheritance and the land that is not a physical land, but that is the person of Christ himself, where righteousness dwells. And of course, there's going to be new heavens and new earth given to the people of God. This book of Joshua, I'm trying my best to keep your attention, my dear brother and sister.

This book of Joshua, my dear brother and sister. Does it bother you a little bit? It's all good? This book of Joshua, my dear brother and sister, once again, the fulfillment of that promise of rest. It happens in different sections.

The first section of the book is the taking over of Moses' ministry in chapter 1. That happened last week. The taking over of Moses' ministry by Joshua, who is the one that is going to be now the leader of the people of Israel. After that comes the planning and the crossing of the Jordan River. They need to cross the Jordan River to make it into the Promised Land.

Once they have planned and, of course, crossed the Jordan River, once they are on the other side of the Jordan, they need to take or conquer the land. And the way that the people will conquer the land will be through the sword. It is through battle and it's through war that the Lord is going to command the people of Israel to take possession of the land. Once the people have taken possession of the land, it will come the distribution of that land. Because the people are not living as a unity now, but they are going to be scattered or spread through the land that they have conquered, distributed among the 12 tribes of Israel.

And once Joshua has completed his ministry in providing to the tribes their allocated portions of land, then he will finalize this book with his prophetic ministry, similar to Moses, who concluded the book of Deuteronomy preaching. Then Joshua is going to conclude this book in the same way. Last week, we addressed the first part, that is, the taking over of Moses' ministry. And I wanted to speak to you about the promise of the Lord. Now we move on to the 2nd section of this book, that is, the planning and the crossing of the Jordan River, before they start to conquer the land by war.

And that is what we have in chapter 2. In chapter 2, we have the planning, moving or leading towards the crossing of the Jordan River to take possession of the land. And here in chapter 2, my dear brother and sister, we have a very famous and very well-known story. And that is the story of Rahab, the prostitute. And what I want to do, my dear brother and my dear sister, is to speak to you about the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of Rahab.

the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of Rahab, the prostitute. And if we are going to speak about the salvation of the Lord, in the sovereignty of the Lord, in the salvation of Rahab, then we need to pay careful attention to the details of chapter 2 as we are going to read them. And that is because Rahab was not only physically saved, that is that that she's going to be rescued and she's not going to be destroyed with the people of Jericho, but also that she was spiritually saved. I want us to pay attention to those details. So let us read together, my dear brother and sister, chapter 2, in light of the sovereignty of the Lord, in the salvation of Rahab.

Joshua chapter 2. Let us read together these verses, and then the Lord and the Spirit may guide the meditations of our mouths and our ears. Joshua chapter 2. And Joshua the son of man 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 enter your house, for they have come to search out 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 the men up to the roof and hid them with the stalls of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the man pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the forts, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. Before the man lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you the land.

and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and 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 kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Ach, 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, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death. And the man said to her, I lie for yours even to death. If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. Then she led 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, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way. The man 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 mother, your brothers, and all your father's household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the streets, 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 uswear." 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. They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned.

And the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them. 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." Amen.

My dear brother and sister and friend, this is the reading of God's Word. And as I said, I want to speak to you about the topic of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of Rahab. Rahab, a woman, a prostitute hidden, was saved by the Lord God of Israel. The Lord God of Israel, who was interested in freeing the people of Israel from Egypt and taking them through the wilderness. He cared and He was interested in this soul.

Rahab, who is not only going to be saved from the destruction that will come upon Jericho, but also saved spiritually. Even to the point that this woman is going to marry into the genealogy or into the tree of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we are told in the New Testament that it was by faith. that the things that have taken place in this chapter took place. This woman was saved not only physically, but this woman was also saved spiritually.

And her salvation, my dear brother and sister, we can learn a lot about the sovereignty of the Lord. And my dear brother, that is precisely the main point of the Spirit of God when He was giving this portion of the Scripture to us, to speak about the salvation of Rahab. I have to emphasize that that is the main point of chapter 2, to show us that there is a woman, a prostitute in Jericho that is going to be saved and that is going to be rescued. And that through her salvation and her rescuing, the people of Israel will take over the city of Jericho. The reason why I have to emphasize that is because, at times, we can be tempted in the flesh to answer the question of why Rahab lied.

Why did she lie? Is it okay for her to lie? These people came to her and she basically lied. She said something that was not true. She said that they had gone, they were there.

There is a lie. And I want to give you that warning because at times we might be tempted in our flesh and in our carnality, only to ask that question, to find for ourselves a biblical excuse for us to engage in lies. Our behavior as Christians, as the people of God, has to be ruled by the Holy Spirit in us. To the question, do we have to lie or do we have to tell the truth when we are oppressed? The answer to that question is given by the Holy Spirit ruling in Christ in our hearts.

If the person is completely governed and walks in the light, as the Lord is in the light and the Holy Spirit is leading each one of the steps and each one of the decisions, then that person will have the freedom of conscience to act according to the will of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we are so concerned about the external things that we have to do, and the Christian is to be more concerned about the things that we ought to be in the heart, because when the Holy Spirit is guiding us and leading us, then we're walking and living the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was, of course, not the purpose of this chapter. And that's why in the New Testament, when in Hebrews, or when in the book of James, Rahab is remembered. She's not remembered because of her lie, but she's remembered because of her faith.

because it's the salvation of Rahab, which is the main point of chapter 2. And as I said to you, I want to speak to you about the sovereignty of the Lord in her salvation. And when I say sovereignty, my dear brother and my dear sister, I mean about the ruling power of God over absolutely everything that takes place. God is sovereign and He is in control of absolutely everything that takes place. And not only the many big things that we see with our eyes, but absolutely everything.

The Lord is the one who governs the hearts and the intentions and the emotions and everything that takes place. Man plans, but the outcome is of the Lord. That is the sovereignty of the Lord. And not only in a general sense, my dear brother and sister, but the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of people, as we're going to see it here with Rahab. God is absolutely sovereign in the salvation of every single person, not only when they first believed, but he is suffering through the whole life of the person who is genuinely saved.

The sovereignty of the Lord is perhaps the most important pillar of the peace that the Christian can experience just by virtue of being united to Jesus Christ. If we know not only with our minds, but if we know with our hearts that God is absolutely sovereign, not only on the things that take place, but also in our lives and in our salvation, then that should not produce any other thing that rather that He is in absolute control of everything. And there is this glorious promise that He works all together for good, for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, my dear brethren, the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of Rahab. And there's just a couple of few thoughts that I want to point your attention to.

The sovereignty of the Lord. The first thing that I want you to see is that God is sovereign in leading the steps of His people. The sovereignty of the Lord is manifested in the fact that He leads each one of the steps of His people. If you pay careful attention to the beginning of this chapter, we are told that Joshua chooses two men to be spies and to go into the land to spy precisely, and more importantly, the city of Jericho. And we are told in the second half of verse 1, And they went and came into the house of a prostitute.

These are the two men that had been sent by Joshua. And they went and came into the house of a prostitute, whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. Of all the houses of Jericho, of all the places that they could have gone and that they could have entered, Of all the places that they could knock or simply go and enter and lodge there, the Lord was leading the steps of His people to go into this house. And it happened that this house was the house of Rahab, the prostitute. The Lord is in absolute control of each one of the steps of His people.

Words such as coincidence, or words such as luck, or words such as chance, are words that are not to even be in the mind of the Christian. Because, my dear brother and sister, there is absolutely nothing that happens by luck, or something that happens by coincidence, or something that happens by chance. The Lord is in absolute control of each one of the steps of His people. And he pleased the Lord that in the consummation, only the bringing about of the fulfillment of his promise for the people of Israel, the initial step in conquering the land will be that these two men will go to a place. And that place was the house of Rahab, the prostitute.

Each one of our steps, right or left, each one of our breath, our hearts beating, everything that we do, even though we are not fully aware of it. The Lord is in absolute control of everything that takes place in our lives. And as I said to you last week or the week before, there is a sense in which we are immortal until the day that the Lord has decided that it will be our last day. Because if the Lord has not decided that it's our last day, then we will continue to live. And there is absolutely nothing that will change the sovereign purpose of the Lord for the leading of each one of the steps of His people.

The Lord leads the people. Now, the second thing that I want to show you from here is that the Lord is rescuing in incredible ways His people. It says in verse 15, verse 15, pay attention to them. It says, Then She led them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall. It happened that the Lord did not only appoint these two men to find this woman, Rahab, a prostitute.

But it happened that the woman that they are going to choose to lodge and to be, lives in a house that is in the city wall, because the city is going to be destroyed. And these people, these two men, are going to make it out of the city through the house of this woman. We're told in verse 7 that the gates of the city were completely shut. That is that no one who was inside of the city was going to be able to go out of the city, except done through the wall. And the Lord, in His providence, does not only lead each one of the steps of His people, but He finds the way to rescue each one of His sons and daughters in ways that, at times, we are completely unaware of.

But perhaps one of the most important things that I want to show you here is that the Lord, who is sovereign in leading each one of our steps and in protecting us and in rescuing us when we need, that the Lord, my dear brother and sister, is sovereign in making His name known." The Lord is sovereign in making His name known. Pay attention to the words and to the speech of Rahab. It started in verse 8. We started in verse 9.

It says, "...and she said to the man..." This is the speech of Rahab. I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you." And then in verse 10, she's going to give the reason.

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. And he continues to speak of the majestic things that they, verse 10 says, for we have heard. The people in Jericho, apart in geographical distance from the things that had taken place in Egypt, living in times in which they had no phones, or no communications, or no internet, or no YouTube, or anything to send the message. The people who were living in Jericho had heard that this God of the people of Israel had done majestic works and deeds of liberation taking them from the land of Egypt. And the question is, who told them?

Because those are not the people of Israel who were going to go and take over the land. It is other people, apart from the people of Israel, who would have told them about the majestic works and deeds that this God of Israel had accomplished in Egypt and taking them through the wilderness and sent messengers. People who would have known or seen and heard of the majestic works that God had accomplished in the land and sent messengers. Not like the messenger who is sent and who has to take the message because he has been entrusted with the message. But these people were taken captive by the majestic works that they had seen, with their eyes open and with their ears open to these majestic works that the God of Israel had accomplished.

And only the majesty of those accomplishments was enough to move them, as unsent messengers, to go through other lands and to other nations, to speak of the things that this God had done in the land of Israel, or in the land of Egypt, and for the people of Israel. Unsent messengers, because the Lord is sovereign in making His name known. And not only the great works that He had done in the land of Egypt, but we are told by Rahab, that the hearts of the people of Jericho melted and they were filled with fear because of the things that they had heard. The Lord is sovereign in making His name known. And not only His name, because if you pay attention to verse 2, my dear brother and sister, it says, And it was told to the king of Jericho, the king of Jericho, Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.

The king of Jericho did not only know, together with the whole city, of the majestic works that this God had done in the land of Egypt, but he knew that this was the God of the people of Israel. He is sovereign in making his name known. And he did it in that case with unsent messengers. How much more, my dear brother and sister, is the church to make the name of the Lord known as messengers who have been sent? And how much more the church and the new covenant is to be diligent in the duty and in the glorious task of making the name of the Lord known through the proclamation of the gospel.

What happened in Egypt and what happened through the wilderness does not compare in majesty to what happened upon the cross. Yet in the old covenant, unsent messengers were amazed by what took place and the things that God did rescue the people of Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness, so amazed that they took all of these words unto other nations to speak of what God had accomplished. How much more the church knowing of the greatest work that took place and died upon the cross. And then the final thing that I want to show you, my dear brother and my dear sister, is the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of Rahab, as I said in the beginning. The Lord was completely sovereign in the salvation of this prostitute woman.

What hope was this woman going to have? What hope could a hidden, gentile, unclean, profane, prostitute, abominable woman have of ever knowing the Lord? The only one who can rescue the soul of a person apart from the sovereignty of the Lord. And that is what the New Testament says to us. Because in the New Testament, we're clearly spoken about her faith.

And there's something very interesting there that I want to show you. So if you come with me, please, quickly to Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 11, we are told of this Rahab, the one who sent the messengers other way so that the spies will survive and will go back to Joshua to give the report of the land. We are told something very interesting in Hebrews chapter 12 or 11 better about this Rahab, the prostitute. And I think that now we can Speak a little bit lower.

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 31, my dear brother and sister, it says, pay careful attention to each one of the words. Verse 31, speaking of Rahab, by faith, Rahab, the prostitute, that is the woman that we have just read in Joshua 2. By faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient. because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. In other words, she sent the messengers of the king other way, and she basically saved the life of the spies so that the spies can return to Joshua and give the report, right?

But something very interesting, two categories of people in the first statement of verse 31, it says, By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient. You see? Those who perish in the city in Joshua chapter 6, when the walls are going to collapse and they are going to perish in the city by the taking over of the Israelites. Those are, according to the scriptures in Hebrews chapter 11, those are considered to be disobedient. That means that the person who did not perish was a person who was obedient.

And then the question that one will ask is obedient to what? Obedient to the spies coming to her and getting into her household and then obedient to just sending the messengers of the king other way. Was Rahab saved by what she did? Or was Rahab saved by faith? It seems to be that faith is together put with obedience and disobedience in Hebrew chapter 11.

Well, if we go to James chapter 2, we are going to be told of something very important that will tell you, my dear brother and sister, something very powerful about the sovereignty of the Lord, not only in the salvation of Rahab, but also in the salvation of every single person. We remember in James chapter 2, where there is a controversial passage that sometimes people will use to speak of the necessity of works for salvation. And we completely deny that. And we say that salvation is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, that a person is saved by grace through faith. And that genuine faith is that which will produce works of righteousness.

But a person does not need to work righteous on their own in order to be saved. And here we have this controversial passage that at times is misunderstood in the flesh. But let us just read something very interesting here, my dear brother and sister, because we will be told something of Rahab. It says in verse 18 of chapter 2 of James, it says, But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that God is one? You do well. Even the demons believe and shatter. So do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? In other words, genuine faith will always come with works.

It says in verse 21, here the example comes. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? He had already believed before that in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17. He had already believed. And in Genesis 22, they justify in faith that he hat produces justifying works.

Not that works justify, but that are the result of justifying faith. Just simply what Paul says in Romans chapter 14, that which does not proceed from faith is Sin. That is that the saint now has justifying faith and what the saint does is considered by the scriptures as justifying works, not said by works, but said by faith. But let us continue. You see that faith was active along with his works.

That is the summary of what I have said. You see that faith was active or alive along with his works and faith was completed or made perfect by his works. 23, and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. That is back Genesis 15, before the offering of Isaac. Verse 24, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

And then one will be conflicted there with the Scriptures, but if one understands that justifying faith will produce works of righteousness that ought to be rooted in genuine faith. Romans chapter 14, the last verse. Then one will understand that when the scripture considers justifying works, it refers to the works that are the result of genuine justifying faith. So we understand in the example of Rahab in verse 25. And in the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

Something very interesting, because now here what Rahab did in Joshua 2, my dear brother and sister, was a justifying work that was the result of an existing faith. Come back to Joshua 2 and we finish there and I'll show you that. It says in verse 10, this is the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of your soul. This is the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of any soul. This is the sovereignty of the Lord in the salvation of Rahah.

It took that an unsent messenger would know, see or heard the things that God had done in Egypt for the people of Israel. It took that this unsent messenger, whoever that was or whoever those people were, would be moved by the majestic works that they had seen, observed or heard, and that they will be moved to go to another place providentially or just going. And it took that when they saw their people that their hearts and their emotions would be will be moved to open their mouths to speak of the things that they had heard, seen or observed a witness in Egypt and to speak of the great things that this God of Israel had done. And it took also the sovereign providence of the Lord to ordain all of these things for a prostitute, a woman of Jericho that had no hope of salvation, that had absolutely no hope of knowing the God of Israel that would here. And it says in verse 10 of chapter two for we have heard it says for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water for we have heard she does not say I have heard but she says for we have heard because he was not only her and her family but as we know also the king and the people of Jericho had heard of the majestic works that God had done yet there was only one person in Jericho who was not disobedient to the message that had come but rather Their heart melted that they responded and said, we know that the God, or I know better that God is the God of heavens above the earth and everything.

It was only Rahab, the one that responded in faith. And because she responded in faith, when she heard of this report of these unsent messengers, that faith saved that woman so that when providentially and sovereignly, she would have been perhaps praying or even asking, who is going to rescue me? Who is going to save me from the destruction that comes? It would happen that from among all the houses of Jericho, that from the whole amount, perhaps, of prostitutes that there were, that the Lord would have appointed for these men to go on her door. So that when they enter into her door, she will respond in obedience.

I have heard of the things that God will do to the city. And I know that that God is the God of heavens and earth and everything in them. And I know that He indeed will accomplish. And because I know, I fear this God more than men, even if the men that are coming to my door are sent by the king. So I will send them other way.

Go and tell or go and give your report. But when you go, have mercy upon me, upon my household. And it was not the people of Israel that was having mercy upon her. It was God himself. so that by her salvation she will not be only preserved and kept to live, but her name will be even in the genealogy of the one who had rescued her soul when she heard and when she believed the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord is sovereign over salvation. Everyone who will come, will come. And everyone who comes will be with the Lord. And praise God for that. Amen.