The Book of Joshua | Week Five | Joshua 2

Good morning.

Hope you guys are well. Hope you had a good week. How many of you watching the Masters? Who you pulling for? Scotty.

He got a long way to go, but he might get there. He can do it. He can do it. Anybody else? All right, so Scotty, Rory?

That's a pretty good bet. Maybe. We'll see. All right. Anyway, just thought I'd break the ice.

It's always awkward. So today we're going to be in the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter one, or Joshua Chapter two. I'm sorry. And we've been going through this and spent a lot of time in the first part of Joshua, and now we're going to kind of start moving through these chapters a little bit quicker each Sunday, and it'll carry us through chapter 11 in this series. And it's really been a series where we've been looking at spiritual warfare in different ways.

And by doing this, we've been looking at literally going to talk about 12 different truths throughout this series that the enemy doesn't want us to know. And so today, out of Joshua, chapter two and some other passages of scripture, the point that I really want you to see and the truth that I believe the enemy does not want us to know and really grab hold of and understand is, is this, that we really are saved by faith. We really are saved by faith. It is by faith in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And the enemy loves to come and to steal that from us.

And we'll get into this, but what it does is it causes us to continue to work for something that God's already given us. And there's a big difference in working, working for something and working from something. And so we were going to look at that this week and actually carry that thought over a little bit into next week. But let's read Joshua, chapter two. It's about when Joshua sends some spies into Canaan and they end up running into a prostitute by the name of Rahab and how they ended up at the house of a prostitute.

We're not going to get into that today, but we are going to talk about Rahab and her revelation of God and how this changes things for her. So Joshua, chapter two, verse one. Then Joshua, son of nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim. You got to be real careful how you say that. I don't even know if it's really pronounced shittim, but I figure that's a pretty safe way of saying it.

Go look over the land, he said, especially Jericho. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, look, some of the Israelites have come here to spy out the land. So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab, Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.

She said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.

But she had taken them up on the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan. And as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. So listen to this.

She says, I know the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you fall on us. She says, we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. And so God's reputation has preceded him. She has heard these things, and she's realizing that this is the one true God, that there is no one who can stand against him. She said, when we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you.

For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I've shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and. And all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death. Our lives for your lives, the men assured her, if you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.

So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. She said to them, go to the hills, so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way. Now the men had said to her, this oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family into your house, if any of them go outside your house into the street, then their blood will be on their heads.

We will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you have made us swear. Agreed, she replied, let it be as you say. So she sent them away and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river, and came to Joshua, son of Nun, and told him everything that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, the Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands, and the people are melting in fear because of us. We'll get into this more later when they actually take over.

But if you go to Joshua chapter six, what you find is that the Israelites do exactly what they said, that they send the spies to go and save this lady Rahab and her family. And it says in verse 25, but Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute with her family and all who belong to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho. And listen. And she lives among the Israelites to this day. Not only does she live among them, but if you go, read Hebrews chapter 11, which we oftentimes refer to as the hall of Faith.

It talks about people of great faith in the Old Testament. What we see is she is actually mentioned there for her faith in hiding the spies of she came to a realization that Yahweh is the one true God. And in that she hid the spies. She changed her allegiance from the God of Jericho to the one true God, Yahweh. And she's actually mentioned in Hebrews 11.

We see that she is actually part of the lineage of Jesus after this. And so it's a powerful picture of God's redemption and the way that he works in us when we come to a place of saying yes to him. And realizing who he is. And so I want us to pray and then I want us to get into this message and see what the Lord might speak to our hearts. So Father, I thank you for your word.

It's truth. I thank you, God, that you take sinners like me, like us, like Rahab, like Abraham, like Isaac and Jacob, like King David, Lord, you take sinners like those first disciples, Peter and James and John, Lord, you take sinners like Paul.

And God, you redeem us through the work of Christ, through our faith in him, through the work that he did. You give us new hearts and you change us and you begin to work from the inside out, Lord. And we thank you for that. We thank you that there's none that you can't save. And so, Lord, I pray today, if there are any in this room who aren't saved, who don't know you, who've not yet believed in you and trusted in you and surrendered to you to follow you, Lord, that today you would open their eyes.

We know that the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers. But we also know, Lord, that when the gospel is preached, your good news is preached about Jesus, that God, blind eyes are opened. So would you open eyes today to see who you are and what you've done? And for those who know you, Lord, would you encourage us in our pursuit of you?

That God, we would grow closer to you, to know you, to love you more. We thank you for it, Lord, in Jesus name, amen. Amen. So as we look at this and we look at this story, it's pretty incredible to see. And you know, we see this reality throughout Scripture, and we're going to see how this actually begins all the way back in the very beginning of God's plan for establishing relationship with human beings, with mankind.

We're going to see how this plays out. But the first question I really want to answer, because we're in a series about spiritual warfare, is this aspect of our faith, this is so crucial. How is the fact that we are made righteous, we're made right, we are saved by grace, through faith alone, that it is really by believing, by trusting in the promise of God that we are saved. How is that spiritual warfare? And I think this is really the answer until we've settled in our heart that our relationship with Jesus is secure and unchanging because of our faith in him.

The enemy is going to continue to hinder the God's work in us by causing us to continue working for salvation rather than working from it. And There's a big difference in that. Until we've settled in our heart that our relationship with Jesus is secure and unchanging because of our faith in him, the enemy is going to continue to hinder the work of God in us by causing us to continue to work for salvation, not to work from it. We will not win the battles in our lives until we surrender ourselves and we surrender the fight to Christ.

How many of you, when you grew up, at some point, you probably had a bat and ball, right? How many of you played T ball when you were little? At some point, most of you probably played T ball. Okay, not as many as I thought, But I think some of you just aren't raising your hands, because I know some of you, and I know you play T ball. A bunch of liars.

And so. But you play T ball. And here's where I bring this up. So you start out playing, and for most of us, we played T ball at some point. You know, we had our first child, and as soon as he could play a sport, we were like, we're doing it.

So we get him in T ball. He's like three, four years old, and. And we were all fired up about it. And by the time we had our third child, he's like 8. And we're like, does he have to play?

Like, you know, can we just skip this whole thing? Cause, you know, it's like you kind of are excited at first, and then you're like, this is a lot of work. Like, we live at Mill Creek. And so anyway, you start out with T ball. And here's the thing that happens as you get older and you even get to, like, the major leagues, right?

These guys are still hitting off a tees. And the reason they do that is because it's so foundational for their swing. It's so foundational for hitting a baseball. It's where they work on mechanics. It's where they really refine and get their muscle memory down so that when they're facing 100 miles an hour, they're not thinking about their swing.

It just happens. But what happens a lot of times when we're growing up, we get to this age where we're like, I don't want to hit off the tee anymore. That's what little kids do. They hit off a tee. And like, now I don't want to hit off a tee.

And you're like, but, like, the greatest hitters on the planet hit off a tee. And so when we look at this, it's one of those things where we throw away something that's very foundational. And so many times for us, where spiritual warfare comes into this is we lose something that is very foundational to our existence as Christians, to our ability to move forward with God for us to not continue to kind of chase our tails. And that is this, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone, period. Like, it doesn't happen any other way.

But what the enemy does is he comes in and causes us to begin to question that everything around us tells us that if we're going to be saved, then we've got to do a certain amount of good works. But works are the result of faith. They don't cause it. Works are the result of salvation. They don't cause salvation.

You can go look. And James talks about this in James, chapter two. And he makes his statement of, can such faith save you? And right before that, he's talking about favoritism and all these different things. And he's like, can such faith save you?

And then he even asks the question, does faith alone save you? It makes his statement. And like, if he had put this on X like back in the day or like social media, the whole Christian world would have been like.

Because it was known, like, this is how we're saved is by faith in Jesus. And what James is saying is not that you have to combine works and faith. What he's saying is if you really come to faith in Christ and Christ's spirit lives in you, then works and good things are going to be produced out of you. Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10 tells us that we are Christ's handiwork, prepared to do good works, made to do good works that he's prepared ahead of time for us to do. So, yes, we do good works, but the order of this is very important.

We don't do the good works so we will be saved. We do the good works because we are saved. We don't do the good works to receive the Holy Spirit. We do the good works because the Spirit of God is working through us. We don't do good works so we will be accepted.

We do good works because we have been accepted. We don't do good works so we will be loved. We're compelled by the love we've already received, and it's a very big difference. And, and what the enemy loves to do is get us just chasing our tail like a dog, where we're consistently trying to attain salvation and maintain salvation when we could never get it on our own to start with. It was always by faith.

And we see that with Rahab that she came to this place where she realized that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the one true God. And she said, because of what he's done, we've heard about him. You know, it's the same way that you came to faith. If you're a believer, you know what you heard. You heard an old story, right?

Of Jesus who went to a cross, who had no sin but became sin, so that we can become the righteousness of God, who went to a cross and took up our sin upon himself, who went to a cross and took our punishment upon himself. He went to a cross and became a curse for us, who went to the cross, and all of God's wrath was poured out upon him, who went to a cross and died the death that we should have died. You heard this story. You heard this account. You heard this reality of what God has done for us through Jesus.

You heard how he died, how he breathed his last, how he said, it is finished, how. How they took him down, how they put him in a tomb, how they covered up that tomb, how three days later they went to go find his body, but it wasn't there. It wasn't there because it had been stolen. It wasn't there because of some kind of swoon theory that he really wasn't dead. And so he just got up and rolled the rock away and walked out on his own.

He wasn't there because God raised him from the dead.

And then he ascended to heaven and he sent back the Holy Spirit. And one day, you heard that story. If you have come to faith in Jesus, you heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and the same Holy Spirit that raised him from the dead opened your eyes that the God of this age had blinded. And all of a sudden you realize, this is the truth. Not only is this the truth, but the reality for my life is I need him.

And you came to faith. You realized, just like Rahab, he is the one true God. And the one true God has made a way for me to come to him through Jesus Christ. And there is no other way. There is no other way.

Every other religion you can name any religion you want to name. You can name any philosophy you want to name. You can name whatever way you think you can get to God. Every single one of them says, work your way to God. Only Christianity says God did all the work for you because you couldn't now accept what he gives you.

And when we look at this, Rahab comes to this place of realizing, and I love this, she comes to this place of realizing that any God, anyone, any army, any city that stands in resistance to the one true God will ultimately fall under his judgment and will ultimately be destroyed. And here's the hard truth for us. If we stand in opposition to God, if we continue as enemies of God, which we are born as enemies of God, we are born separated from God. If we continue to resist him, we are no different than Jericho. We stand under his judgment and we one day will be destroyed.

But here's what's incredible. Rahab comes to this place of realizing who he is. She changes her allegiance from Jericho and the God of Jericho to Yahweh. And in her faith, in her belief, her trust, her surrender, she moves out from under his judgment and into the family of his people. So that we can see in chapter six that she lived with them.

Even at the recording of this story, that she is mentioned in the hall of Fame faith, that she was even part of the lineage that brings the Savior into the world.

Her confession, her surrender, her belief made her one that would no longer be devoted to destruction, but had been saved and brought into the kingdom of God.

But here's the challenge for us. We have even greater insight than Rahab. We have the gospel, the mystery of the gospel. This thing that the Apostle Paul said had been hidden for generations has now been revealed to us in Christ. We can see God's plan of reconciliation.

But there's still something so innate in us, so instinctual in us, this self preservation that is in us, this desire to save ourselves from harm and death, this self righteousness, that I want to be able to do this and control this on my own. I want to be able to make this happen. There's something in us that surrender is just not typically a part of our nature.

And we see it. If you go all the way back to the very beginning, there's something that happened in sin that caused us to be this way.

We see in Genesis chapter 3 that sin enters the world.

The Lord comes walking in the garden. He calls out to them, where are you? He wasn't saying, where are you? Because he didn't know he's God, but he's given them opportunity.

Then Adam says, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid. And he said, well, who told you you were afraid or you were naked? Who told you you were naked? And then he does what every man has done since.

He blames the woman.

And so they're there hiding From God.

Not only were they hiding from him, but the Bible tells us that they had sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. And their nakedness represents really their sin, their shame, their guilt. And somehow there's something innately in them that says, we can try to make this right. And so they get fig leaves and they cover up their private parts, like this is going to fool God.

And yet there's something inside of every one of us that even after we come to faith in Christ, we still feel like somehow we can do enough good stuff when we screw up that we can make it all right. And reality is this the same way you were saved by faith in Jesus, by turning from sin and turning to God through Christ is the same way that when we mess up in our life, when we sin in our life, it's the same thing. The way you started in relationship with God is the same way you're gonna finish in relationship with Go. When I realize that I have turned and gone the wrong direction. Because sin is not just an action.

Sin is a direction of life. When I come to my senses and I turn around to come back to God through Jesus, that's how it works from the very beginning to the very end. It does not work because all of a sudden I just say, all right, I really screwed this up, so I'm going to do enough good stuff. I got to get my act together. If I can clean this up.

No, no, no. It's the same thing. I realize I messed up. I turned to Jesus. I realized I sinned.

I turned to Jesus. I realized that I didn't do this right. I turned to Jesus.

And by walking in relationship with him, he does the cleansing.

But the pattern of humanity is such that we think that somehow we can cover it up, we can make it right. We can preserve ourselves, we can make ourselves righteous, and you just can't. Does that mean that we just go about sinning? No. No.

Why would we do that?

Our hearts, our allegiance now belong to God.

But our tendency is to continually turn to ourselves rather than turning to Jesus. Right now, some of you are dealing with things, with struggles, with condemnation, with issues. And listen, you're still trying to make things right on your own. You're still trying to convince your own heart that you're forgiven or that you can do enough good to make it right. And the reality of it is you're never going to be able to do that.

But the only thing you really are able to do, and it's the good news is surrender, believe, trust, turn to Jesus and give it to him.

Doesn't mean there are no consequences. Doesn't mean. But I can tell you this. You'll never find peace as long as you're the one trying to make it right.

It's always been by faith. It's always being made right by faith. We see it all the way back to Abram in Genesis chapter 12. Here's what we need to see and understand Genesis chapter 12. If you go read this, and this is so far before the New Testament.

This is centuries before the New Testament. New Testament happens. And so God is already beginning to establish relationship with his people. But to understand this, we really have to understand the context in which God comes to Abram. Abram ends up becoming Abraham.

And then you have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all that and all the history that finally comes to the point of Jesus. But if we don't understand the context of this, this just seems like God is just randomly, you know, kind of. He just picks this guy and it is what it is. But there, this is incredible. When you begin to understand what's taking place right before God comes to Abram.

We think about the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden. But MANKIND, there's really three major rebellions that happened before Genesis chapter 12. One of them is in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve. One of them is Genesis 6, where it talks about the sons of God, these fallen angels, actually having sex with women. It gets deep.

I'm telling you. Go down that rabbit hole. That's crazy. And then you get to the Tower of Babel, where you got these people who've come together for the exact opposite reason for which they were created. They're rebelling against God to build a tower for themselves, to make a name for themselves.

And then God comes to this man a few generations later, named Abram, and he establishes this covenant with him. It says in Genesis 12:1, it says the Lord had said that Abram gave. Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land. I will show you. He says, I will make you into a great nation.

And I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

You look at verse seven. He says this. It says, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your seed is literally what it means, I will give this land.

And so he comes to him. Here's what I want you to see, because this is such a Great, amazing picture of the heart of God, right? So we see this rebellion. How many of y' all were little rebellious children? Y' all were little rebellious little devils.

That's what y' all were, sinners. Yep. How many of you were like perfect little angel?

Some of y' all lied. Some of y' all lied. You go to hell for lying. We're gonna pray for y'. All.

But we see this place, right where Abraham is, or Abram is. He's not yet called Abraham. There's a name change that happens later. But we see this place where God comes to him. Well, Abram was from a place called Ur, Ur of the Chaldeans.

And I did a little research and found out this ur was about 140 miles from Babel. The best place they can locate it to. Where Babel was, where the tower would have been was about 140 miles. So when you look at it, Babel and Ur would have been about a little bit further than here to Macon. Macon's about 120 miles, so maybe Forsyth.

So in all this time, they've been scattered. All this time this happened, and Abram has made it to Forsyth. Okay. You would think, like, if God's going to pick somebody, I'm going to get away from kind of Babel, I'm going to get further away. Like, it just really ain't that far.

Right. What's so amazing about this picture to me is that God goes, and there's nothing special about Abram. There's nothing special about him. We look back at him now and he's like the patriarch of the faith. He's this, he's that.

He did all these great things, but there's nothing special about him. He is a pagan who worships a pagan God. And God goes almost to the center of man's, one of man's greatest rebellions. And he says, I'm going to take this man and I'm going to use him to bring forth the seed. The seed.

And Paul talks about this in Galatians, one seed, and he's pointing to Jesus Christ. I'm going to use this man to bless many nations through his seed, which is Jesus Christ. I'm going to go to the center of man's rebellion and choose out for me a people who glorify me in the nations. And this is what's so crazy to me. God doesn't do it the way we think he would do it.

I mean, look at this. Just in the two people we've really looked at, Rahab was A prostitute. And Abram was a pagan God worshiper who lived 140 miles from the center of one of mankind's greatest rebellions. And God goes, yep, they're both going to bring forth the Messiah.

And I look at that, and I'm like, God never quits pursuing us. Like, who can he not save, right? And we look at it, and he calls Abram and he tells him that you're gonna. Through you, all peoples on Earth are gonna be blessed. You're gonna be the father of many nations.

He tells him that it's through your seed that you know all of this is gonna happen. You get to chapter 15, and it's another picture of how we are made right by faith. And it says in chapter 15, it says, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.

But Abram said, sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliza of Damascus? In other words, even if you give me all this, God, there's nobody to pass it to. You said, I'll be the father of many nations, but I don't even have any offspring.

He said, you've given me no children. No servant in my household will be my heir. Then the word of the Lord came to him. This man will not be your heir, but a son who is of your own flesh and blood will be your heir. He took him outside and he said, look up at the sky and count the stars, if indeed you can count them.

Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. How did righteousness come to Abraham? Was it because he could count the number of stars in the sky? Was it because he worked so hard?

Was it because he came from a perfect lineage? Was it because he had worshiped God so long? No, it came to him because he believed God's promise.

He also said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land, to take possession of it. But Abram said, sovereign Lord, how can I know that I'll gain possession of it? So the Lord said to him, bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram brought all of these to him. This is going to sound so weird, but I'm going to try to explain to you.

This is really awesome.

Abram brought all of these to him. Cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other. So he cuts these things. There's a sacrifice. Think about that.

There's a sacrifice. Just like you go all the way Back to Genesis 3:21. Adam and Eve try to cover themselves with fig leaves. God says, it's not going to be sufficient. It's always going to take a sacrifice.

So he kills an animal and he clothes them with garments of skin. That's Genesis 3:21, where we come up here to Genesis 15. There's another sacrifice. Blood is shed. If you go all the way forward to the cross.

When our sin was paid for, there was a sacrifice. Blood was shed. There's a theme that runs all the way through the Bible from Genesis 3 all the way to the cross.

When we look at this, he brings these things and he piles them up. He cuts them in two and he piles them up. One stack here and one stack here.

He cut them in half, and then the birds of the prey came down on the carcass. This is verse 11. But Adam drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, know for certain, and he's telling him what's going to happen to his descendants, to his offspring, as they begin to bring forward the Messiah.

He says, know for certain that for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation. They serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

Now listen to this. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen. Now Abraham is in a deep sleep, and a dreadful darkness has come over him. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. What?

Like, how many of y' all have just read the Bible before and you just went, yeah, I don't understand. I'm just gonna keep on reading. Right? Like, you get to those places, you're like, that don't make sense. So this pot just appears and then a fire, and it passes between the pieces.

On that day, the Lord made a covenant. A covenant? A covenant. It's huge. It's important to understand that God is making an agreement with Abraham.

God is making a binding agreement with Abraham and said to your descendants, I give this land from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, and the land of the Kenites. Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Raphaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.

Y' all could applaud. That was pretty tough. Just give me a minute to catch my breath.

I don't think I said any of those right, but the smoking pot with torch, with a fire appears. Now, understand, in those days, when a covenant was made, there would be a sacrifice made, a treaty, an agreement between two parties, two people. And they would take and they made the sacrifice. And they put a pile here, and they put a pile here and here. This is what would happen when they came to an agreement on how things were going to be, how things were going to go.

Both parties would then pass together between the sacrifices. And this put them in a binding agreement. If one of them broke the agreement, that person, that party, would be punished for breaking the agreement. They would be responsible for breaking the agreement. Here's the thing.

God is making an agreement with Abram. He is telling him, I'm going to give you this land, and from you is going to come one who will be a blessing to all nations. He's telling him this, and Abram says, how do I know this? Abram is put into a deep sleep. He can do nothing.

All Abram's doing is sleeping. And the God of the universe reveals himself to Abram as this pot with a fire. He's a consuming fire. And this fire, this flame, is there, and it passes between the two sacrifices. Here's the thing about it, guys.

God is saying, abram, you're not going to be able to do this. The people that come from you are not going to be able to uphold their end of this agreement. And he's saying, so this is what I'm going to do. This is going to be what's called an unconditional covenant. I'm passing through this thing by myself.

That means if this covenant is not upheld, if this agreement is not upheld, I'll be the one who gets punished. But I'm going to make sure that this agreement is upheld. I'm going to make sure that what I promise comes true.

And when we fast forward and we get to the person of Christ, you know what God did? God said, israel, you haven't held up your end of the bargain.

He could say, brandon, you haven't held up your end of the bargain. He say, all of you, you haven't held up your end of the bargain.

But I made a promise that through Abram, through his seed, meaning one, meaning Jesus Christ, all nations would be blessed. And God himself.

Said, if this can't happen, if this doesn't happen, I'll take responsibility for.

And Jesus came to earth.

And Jesus did exactly what was required. He took responsibility for what we could not do. He gave his life so that what God promised Abram could come to pass.

Because in and through us, it couldn't happen. It was never going to happen. Even when the law's given 400 years later or whatever, God knew they can't uphold it. The law was never going to save. The law was never going to fulfill this covenant.

The law was never going to be able to do it. Not because there was something wrong with the law, but because there was something wrong with us. But this God who pursues prostitutes and who pursues pagan worshipers. Listen, he says, I've got a way. And his way is his name is Jesus, and this is the only way.

But if you'll come to him, you can have life. And you, like Rahab, you, like Abraham, you can move out from under this place of judgment into the kingdom of God.

But there is no other way. It had to be done by God, or it wasn't going to be done.

And so Jesus took on flesh. He became like me. He became like you. He lived a life we could not live. He died the death we should have died, And in doing so, became an acceptable sacrifice for humankind once and for all.

And the Bible tells us that now he sits at the right hand of the Father, no sacrifice needed, because he paid the price once and for all. When I think about Abram in this deep sleep, I think about Ephesians, chapter two. It talks about how we were spiritually dead, our sins and transgressions. Understand this, and make no mistake about it, apart from Jesus, we are spiritually dead. It's like when Abram is there and he's in this deep sleep and this dreadful darkness falls upon him.

It's almost like that in itself is a picture of death and our current situation apart from Jesus. And yet when we come to faith, it says that we are made alive with him. We talked about this last week. We're raised with him. We're seated with him.

But the only way this happens is through faith in Jesus. The only reason it. The only. The reason it can only happen through Jesus is because he's the only one who's ever done for us. What had to be done.

Nobody else ever has, nobody else ever will. Nobody else can.

His through him and his sacrifice.

It is by grace the apostle Paul writes that we've been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Nor in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

You know, there is no room for boasting in our own salvation from what we've done.

There's only room for gratitude and thankfulness for what God has done for us. Because in and of ourselves, we could have never done this. It is only through Christ. And guys, the point of me showing you this from Genesis to Abram to Rahab and then all the way forward to the New Testament and Jesus and the New Testament with writings like Ephesians, Chapter two, where it so clearly tells us it's by grace you've been saved. It is the free gift of God given to us in Christ.

It is by faith alone in Jesus that we can't boast. The whole reason for me going back and showing you this is I want you to understand that the good news of Jesus didn't just get created out of thin air. It goes all the way back to the very beginning of time. Time. This was God's plan from the beginning.

It is rooted in eternity.

Even before God began to speak and create in Genesis 1, this was the plan.

Even before Adam and Eve sinned, this was the plan. And he has executed his plan through Jesus. And there is no other way.

You can work as hard as you want to work. Make yourself as good as you want to be. You can try to be God's good little boy or good little girl, or you can just say, hell with it all and just go live for the devil. But either way, this is what I can tell you. You will never find fulfillment in your life.

You will never find the power of God in your life apart from Jesus Christ, Period.

He's the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to him through the Father, except through Him. There's one name under heaven by which we must be saved. And his name is Jesus.

By works of the law, no one will ever be justified in the eyes of God.

It is only through Christ, Christ and relationship with him that your eternity becomes secure, that you move from judgment to being right with God. That you are no longer an enemy of God, but you become his child.

Who here today. You've never said yes to Jesus.

Never been made right by faith. What is faith? Look at Rahab. What did she do? She believed, she trusted, she surrendered.

What did Abram do? He believed, he trusted, he surrendered. What did the disciples do when Jesus was walking the earth? They believed, they trusted, they surrendered, they followed. What did the apostle Paul do when Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus?

He believed, he trusted, he surrendered, he followed. It's the same thing for us. How many of you have never come to faith in Jesus? You've never said yes to Jesus. You've never believed, trusted, surrendered and followed.

You've never given your life to him. You've never come to life. You're still living life in this deep, heavy sleep, this almost terrible. It's like a nightmare. And yet Jesus offers you life, but you keep rejecting.

Yet you keep rejecting. Yet you choose to live under judgment rather than living in the life that Jesus offers. I don't know how to make it any more clear than that. I mean, you're either going to live under judgment and destruction or you're going to live under the life that God gives.

And the one who brings us into alignment with God is Jesus.

How many of you today you'd say this? I don't have a relationship with God through Jesus, or I didn't when I walked through these doors. But right now I know this, that I need Jesus. I'm putting my faith in Jesus. Meaning I'm believing, trusting, surrendering.

I'm going to follow Jesus for the rest of the my life. I'm going to live in relationship with him and I'm going to let him finish what he starts today. How many of you would say, I don't have a relationship with him. Or I didn't when I walked in. But today I'm saying yes to Jesus.

And today is the day of my salvation. I want you to raise your hand right now and say, this is me today. Today is the day of salvation for me. I'm saying yes to Jesus Christ. And we're going to celebrate with you.

And it may feel awkward and it may feel strange. I don't really care. But this is what I can tell you. It's the most important thing you'll ever do in your life. And it doesn't happen here.

This is not the end. This is the beginning. Thank you. Right here. Somebody pray.

We're going to pray. Pray with you. We want to pray with you. Because what I Was about to say. Will you raise your hand one more time?

I got 50 year old eyes so I can't see you. Very good. Would you put your hand up so we can pray with you, please? Back there. Thank you.

But here's the thing. This is not the end. This is the beginning. This is not the end of the story. Now good.

I get to go to heaven. Now good. I move out from under judgment into life. This is the beginning of a new life. It's the beginning of us becoming alive in Christ.

It's the beginning of us finally entering into our purpose. It's the beginning of us finding true freedom. And so last time. Y' all got to get yalls kids. So last time.

Today's the day of salvation.

All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you for this morning. I thank you Lord, that you move in our hearts. I thank you God, that you draw us close to yourself. I thank you father, that you never quit pursuing us.

I thank you that you give us illustrations and examples like Rahab and Abraham. People who were far from perfect and yet you fulfilled your purpose and your work through them. I thank you God, that you took this upon yourself and the responsibility for it. Because, God, we could have never done it. I pray that we could live in gratitude for who you are and what you've done, God.

I pray that we can escape the trap of the enemy, of continually trying to earn salvation again and again. And that we can move on, Lord, to walking in your spirit and living and out the fruit of your spirit, Lord. As you work in us, Lord, let us fix our eyes on you, the author and perfecter of our faith, Lord. The beginning and the end of our faith, Lord. I thank you for that.

Let us run the race, Lord. You set before us, God, that we would be able to accomplish that. Let us stand on your truth. Let us stand in your word. Let us resist the enemy because we know when we resist that he flees from us, Lord.

Because we stand not in our own ability, in our own strength, but we stand in the image of Jesus, us and Lord, we know, God, that he cannot. Stay where you are. We love you, Father. We thank you. In Jesus name, amen.