Hebrews: Hall of Faith

Please sit down and, would you take your Bible and turn to Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2. That's in the old testament. It's right towards the beginning.

And then to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. That's the the other end. So Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2 verse 1.

Then Joshua son of nuns secretly sent 2 spies from shittam. Go. Look over the land, he said, especially Jerichoo. 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 tonight to spy on the land.

So the king of Jerichoo 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 2 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 gates, they left.

I don't know which way they went, go after them quickly. You can catch up with them. But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. So the men set out to pursue the spies on the road that leads to the fords of of 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 this land to you 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. 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 Siho and to aug the 2 kings of the ammonites east of the Jordan whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, Our heart sank, and everyone's courage failed because of you. For the lord your god is god in heaven above and on the 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 and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death. Our lives for your lives the men are short 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 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 that the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there for 3 days until they return and then go on your way. Now the men said to her, this oath that you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when you enter the land, you have tied the 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 the house. If any of them go outside your house into the streets, their blood will be on their own 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 made us swear. Agreed, she replied. Let it be as you said.

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 3 days. Until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. Then the 2 men started back They went down out of the hills, forwarded the river, and came to Joshua's son of nun, and told him everything that had happened to them.

They said to Joshua, the lord has given us the whole land into your hands. All the people are melting in fear because of us. Now let's turn to, Hebrews chapter 11, and we're reading verse 30 and 31. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 30 and 31. By faith, the walls of Jerichoo fell after the army had marched around them for 7 days.

By faith, the pot prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies was not killed with those who were disobedient, Tom. Alright. Thank you. If you could, make sure you can see both of those bible readings. My name is Tom.

I'm 1 of the pastors here. Great to welcome you this morning. And, this is a series that we've been going through over the summer. We've been working our way through Hebrews 11, looking at the different stories and the biographies that are recorded for us in that chapter. And, we've been learning all about the sort of faith which the lord loves, the sort of faith that he commends, and we've been helped and inspired as we've been looking at these stories together.

So make sure you can see this story of Rayhab. We're gonna bow our heads. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would please as we come to this remarkable story, this remarkable woman. We pray that you would speak to every single 1 of us here.

Help us to learn about her, to learn about the faith which you gave her, and please would you inspire us to trust you even in the costly parts of life and we ask you in Jesus name. Oh, man. In his, autobiography, c s Lewis, who was a great English writer and author recounts his journey to faith. He became a Christian in the late 19 twenties, early 19 thirties. And before that, he was an atheist He was very influenced by atheist thought and atheist philosophy.

And, in his own words, He was a man who didn't believe in God and didn't want to believe in God. Just have a look at this quote. From the book surprised by joy. Hopefully, really, if you could stick that up, it'd be good. He says agnostics will talk cheerfully about man's search for god.

To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat. In other words, here was a man who did not want to discover if there was a god. He didn't believe, and he didn't wanna believe. What cat in its right mind would want to discover the existence of a cat? He didn't he didn't want that.

He didn't want to be influenced by god. He didn't want to be interfered with by god. He didn't want to know if there was a god. But he had been reading alongside his atheism. He had been reading lots of Christian thoughts and Christian ideas and been wrestling with the Christian message until eventually in 19 29, he simply says, God closed in on me.

Here's a quote, from the book, surprise by joy. You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, which is a a college at Oxford night after night feeling whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady unrelenting approach of him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the trinity term of 19 29, I gave in and admitted that god was god. And I knelt and prayed perhaps that night the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.

Fantastic, isn't it? Here was a presence. Here was a person that he had been trying to resist that he had been arguing against, that he had been suppressing the knowledge of and arguing away. He didn't believe in God. He didn't wanna believe in God until eventually God closed in on him.

And it might be that you're here this morning and you would say that your journey to Christian faith was a little bit like that. Perhaps you weren't running through the doors of heaven at the first invitation but rather that god in his kindness closed off every other avenue as you explored it until eventually he brought you to your knees, and you realize God is God Christ has risen. And he closed he closed in on you. The most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England. That was c s Lewis.

Well, if c s Lewis was the most reluctant convert, we are gonna meet somebody today who I think was the most unlikely convert. You see Lewis for all of his atheism, did had the blessing of a broadly Christian upbringing. He grew up around Christian morals. He had access to Christian literature, but this woman was born and raised in the most depraved part of the known world. And she herself was part of that depravity.

She was not an innocent bystander. She could well be the most unlikely convert on planet earth at this time, but here she is in Hebrews chapter 11. You see the shock of this might be lost on us, but you think about it if you're a Jewish Christian who loves your Jewish heritage, reading Hebrew's chapter 11. This author has been rattling through all of your favorites. Abel, praise the lord for Abel.

Enoch, praise god, the mysterious enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, Rahab, If you were playing a game of Jewish top trumps with your friends, this is the card that nobody wants, right? She wins under no category. But look at her Hebrews 11 verse 31 by faith, the prostitute Rahab. When the author wrote this chapter, he passed over many other names. He passed over many other good candidates for this chapter.

How did this gentile canaanite, amorite prostitute Find herself as an example of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. How did she get qualified for such a list. That's the question. So just turn back with me then to joshua chapter 2 and here's the first point This is Rahab and her godless world. Rahab and her godless world?

What was it like? This world that she inhabited that she lived in? Well, let me give you a flavor of it. This is deuteronomy, chapter 18. It will come up on the screen chapter 18 verse 9.

This is a description of what her land was like. When you enter the land, the lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no 1 be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire who practices divination or sorcery interprets omens engages in witchcraft or cast spells or who is a medium or a spiritist who call who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the lord because of these same detestable practices the lord your god will drive out those nations before you. So 500 years Before this moment in Joshua 2, god had promised Abraham that 1 day his descendants would inherit the land.

They would be slaves in Egypt for 400 years, but then they would be rescued out from under the hands of pharaoh, out from slavery, and they would be given an inheritance a land, a place to possess that they could call their very own. What was it like? What was it like? That's what that's what it was like. That's who lived there at the time.

It's quite a community, isn't it? Full of violence. It was full of sexual immorality. If you look at leviticus chapter 18, you'll see a list of pretty unspeakable sexual sin that characterized the canaanites and the amorites. They were into experimental worship on children They sacrificed their children and experimented on their children in worship.

They were into the occult, into demonic worship, into the casting of spells, into omens, and witchcraft. In fact, this land was so bad that god said that even the earth itself would 1 day vomit them out. It's quite a visceral image, isn't it? If you've ever had food poisoning, you'll know you take something into your body and everything in you cram up and pulls in in order to eject this disgusting poisonous material from inside you. The Bible says that the land of Canon was ready to vomit out its inhabitants.

It was sick of them. It was sick of them. They poisoned the land. They were making the land itself and the soil and the rivers vomit. They were sick.

And it was time for them to go. And sadly, where is Rayhab in all of this? Well, verse 2 of Joshua 2, So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there Hebrews 11 31 by faith the prostitute Rayhab. It's interesting that in both cases, what is it that comes first? Is it her name or is it her profession?

It's her profession that comes first. This is the prostitute Rahab. This is her world. And you notice where she lives in Joshua 2 verse 15, her house is built into the city walls. Which is kind of symbolic, isn't it, I think?

Her house is built into the city walls. She is a part of the structure of this place. She is a thread that has been woven into the tapestry of this place. She she lives within it, she is built within it, She is part of it. This canaanite amorite world is her world.

So you imagine yourself. Yeah? You sat down with your old testament. Who are you gonna choose for Hebrew's chapter 11? You want you want an amorite.

Really? You wanna choose an amorite, a canaanite. Is that who you're gonna put in there? This is Rahab and her godless world. And here's the thing, although Joshua was written probably 3000 years ago from today.

The Bible is a timeless book. And therefore, the Bible never just describes what cultures were like. It describes what culture is always like. And If we're honest, how different are we from the godless world which Rayhab inhabited? Could we say, for instance, that we are in a culture which sacrifices and experiments on children so that we can pursue the gods of sexuality gender identity, human freedom.

Could we say that we do that to some degree? We we could. We could say that. And do we hear stories in our culture of breathtaking violence, committed against people, even the youngest and most vulnerable people in our society. Do we live in a world that is anything like that?

We do. And do we live in a world which looks to witchcraft and to the occult and to false gods and to manifesting things into existence. And to guidance from crystals and other kinds of demonic worship, we we do. It's very interesting, me and their Laura, We're watching on Friday a documentary about about Andrew Tate. And lots of you will have heard that name.

Lots of you will be familiar. With his YouTube channel and with some of his social social media content, but what I didn't know, what we didn't know was that at the very of his organization is this inner, elite circle of of men. And the more content of his that consume, and the more courses of his that you pay for, and the more you access and give your money to and you take the deeper you go into this inner circle until you eventually become something called a member of the war room. And the war room is this inner circle of elite men, and this is not an exaggeration. You can watch the documentary on BBCI Plan for yourself.

It is run by an occultic priest, a man who uses demonic mind control and spells and manipulation and brainwashing in order to get men to learn how to make women sexual slaves, they can use on on online to to make money off them. He's he's a self confessed, a witch who uses these strategies on on this group of men. And you know, when you think that teenage boys in this country, more of them know who he is, Andrew Tate, than who Rishi Sunak is And when you think that over 11000000000 people, men are cons I've consumed his videos you realize that this occultic demonic brainwashing turned women into sex save sort of philosophy is behind the Andrew Tate machine. Are we in a world that bears any resemblance to this world? We are.

We are. We are in this world, and that's because the Bible never just describes what culture was like, but what culture is always like. And therefore, only the most foolish and lost person would stand up and say, dear god, I thank you that we are nothing like the people of Jerichoo. I thank you God that I am nothing like the inhabitants of that city. That I'm a good person, I'm a great neighbor that I do all things well.

Thank you God, that I'm not like those people. Rather, with a clear mind, we should say with Isaiah, I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the lord. I am a man of unclean lips. I'm part of it.

I've committed violent acts with my mouth and with my hands and in my heart. I've committed immorality in my head and in my heart. I've done oppressive things. I've taken the lord's name in vain, and I live among a people of unclean lips. I have got real estate in the walls of this world.

And part of it, we will never ever get the joy of Rahab's story if we don't see that her godless world is our godless world. And so the question is, is there any hope for her? There is. Secondly, let's look at Rahab and her growing faith. In other words, what changed?

Rayhab and her godless world, Rayhab and her growing faith. Here's Joshua 2 verse 2. Let's have a look. The king of Jericho was told. Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.

So the king of Jerichoo 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 2 men and hidden them. Now, it's hard to know for sure How the spies and Rahab first crossed paths? I mean, I would imagine that Rahab had a bit of a reputation in the town for having the sort of door that was open to traveling men. And so maybe the spies heard about that and they decided to go there assuming it would be the kind of place.

That they would get asked less questions about their business. It would be a safer place for them to go. We don't know how exactly they met. But clearly these men are not going to be like her normal visitors. Rahab was surely used to being used and abused and dumped and manipulated and paid for.

But these men are different. And at some point, they tell Ray have who they are, or maybe she works out who they are, and then she makes a decision which will change her destiny forever. Have a look at verse 8. Why does she do it? Before the spies lay down for the night, She went up on the roof.

She had chosen to hide them and she 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. 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 2 kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan whom you completely destroyed. 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 on the earth below. Why did she choose to hide the spies?

She was not motivated by politics She didn't fancy a change in the government. She was not voted motivated by her own personal profit and by the success of her business. She did what she did as an act of faith. It was an act of faith. And don't you think that her theology is just remarkable?

What she says there? You see, who has she come to believe in verse 9? Not just a god in general, but the capital l o r d covenant god yahweh. That's who she's come to believe in. And what does she now think about him?

That he is god in heaven above and on earth below. Now, that is a remarkable thing for a pagan to say. Because they would work under a system where there were lots of gods that occupied various different realms. So would you have the storm god and the sea god and the fertility god and the harvest god and the mountain god. She says there's only 1 god.

There's only 1, in every realm, in heaven, above, on Earth below, in the mountains and the season, it's yours. It's yours. The lord your god is the only god. We've heard of your redemption, how you've been saved from slavery, and you were led through the red see and you've been your god has done amazing things. We've heard about the judgement that has fallen upon the nations that have opposed you.

And she says, we are all of us here from the prostitute in the city walls to the king in his palace. We're petrified. Verse 9. A great fear has come upon us. We're melting in fear.

We're like cubes of butter in a hot pan. We're dissolving We're melting. We don't know what to do. But here is what I've been thinking, says Rahab. I don't actually wanna run from your god in terror.

I wanna move toward him in faith. I too am afraid, but I think I'm getting what proverbs would call the fear of the lord. Not just terror, but the beginnings of love and trust in such an awesome god. What she does with the spies and we just gotta appreciate this. What she does with the spies runs counter to her whole life.

She has made a living profiting of the evil in her culture. There is no good reason for her to do this. I mean, why not just sell them for money? I reckon she could have made a lot of money off them. Yeah.

I know where they are, but it's gonna cost you. Why why not just hand them over to the authorities? Why does she take such a massive risk? I mean, if they search her house, she's done. She's done.

Because verse 8 to 11, her allegiance has changed. And as we'll see in a minute, that new loyalty and that new love only continues to grow. But first, let's go back to verses 2 and 3 because it is a little bit of a pothole in the road. This, isn't it? Her report and what she chooses to say and what she chooses to not say.

Have a look with me again at verse 3. So the king of Jerichoo 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 2 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, they left. They didn't leave. I don't know which way they went. She did know which way they went. And what's interesting about this is not so much what's recorded there in Joshua 2.

But how the new testament understands what she does here. So here's James chapter 2. It won't be on the screen. I'm afraid, but this is James chapter 2, and you can turn to that if you want. James says, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous, for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction.

Hebrews 11 by faith, the prostitute Rayhab, and what's he gonna what's he gonna dwell on here? What's he gonna highlight? Because she welcomed the spies was not killed with those who were disobedient. So the new testament sees this as an act of faith. Even though parts of her report are plainly untrue.

Tom. So anyone wanna come and have a go. I'm trying to square that square that circle. Now it would surprise you to hear that commentators take very different lines on this. So some commentators would say, no.

At this point, She tells an out and out clear lie. She's lied to them. Rahab was in the process of changing her allegiance to god. She was on that journey, but at this point, she could've, she should've, She should have trusted god with the outcome, told them the truth, and let the chips fall where they may. That would be 1 way they would take it.

Other commentators would say, no. No. No. No. This this moment here, at the point she gives this report.

She is the most truthful she's ever been. Her life before this was a total lie. She'd been living a lie, but this is the moment. This conversation is the moment when she publicly steps into the truth and says I am now aligned with the true people of the true god, and I will not have them killed under any circumstances. So that's about the split of it.

Either she's a complete liar or she's an utter hero of truth in this in this particular moment. So how do we make sense of it? Well, of course, we know don't we from reading the Bible that the God that we know and love is allergic to lying. He hates lying. He's against false testimony of any kind.

But as Hebrews and James look at her life, including what she did with the spies, they say that she was righteous for what she did. And to be honest, I'm not sure that we can say much more than those 2 things. And I don't think this is written to answer that question and I really don't think it's written to justify little white lies in our in our lives. But here's 1 last thing I will say on it by way of illustration and it may it may help at least somebody. Before my grandfather died in 2011, he had been married to my grandmother for 67 years.

They married on the 20 sixth of March 19 42, and they stayed married until he died on January the nineteenth 2011. They were faithful to each other. They were faithful to each other for 67 years. Now, does that mean that every single desire of his heart and every single thought in her mind and every single motivation was always only faithful all the time for 67 years. No.

But as we as our family look over those 67 years, we can say without reservation they were faithful. I don't feel the need to qualify it. I don't feel the need to go through their lives and identify at every point they may not have been faithful. But I stand back and look at 67 years and I say praise the lord, they were faithful. Rahab is counted righteous in James 2.

Rahab is a heroine of faith in Hebrews 11. Now does that mean that everything she did was always righteous all the time? No. When the new testament reminds us of her prostitution, is it recommending that to us? No.

And if her report at this point was a lie, is god recommending that to us No. But can we confidently say that what Rahab did in Joshua 2 was an incredible act of faith at great personal cost as she pinned all her hopes on the 1 true god We can. And can we also say perhaps above all things? That in the end, this is a testimony to the grace of God. Who looks at our lives with all of our sin and with all of our failure, even the sin that we rack up post conversion And he looks at it all and he says, in my son, righteous.

Righteous. Righteous. We can. We can. So did you see the godless world that she lived in And do you see how her faith was beginning to grow?

Well, now we're gonna see thirdly, her glorious salvation. Thirdly and lastly, her glorious salvation, and here's the bud that just flowers in the rest of the chapter. Verse 17, have a look, Joshua too. Now the men said to her, this oath you made 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, their blood will be on their own 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 made us swear agreed. She replied, amen. Let it be as you say. So she sent them away and they departed and what did she do? Straight away, she tied the Scarlet cord in the window.

It's very, very interesting because as we've seen, her faith was beginning to grow in this chapter. But in light of those verses that we've just read there. Rahab could have done all of that work. She could have hidden the spies She could have covered up for them. She could have melted in fear and sent the spies off in a different direction.

She could have done all of that, all of that work. And then gone down inside the walls of Jerichoo. In order for her to be saved, Some symbol on the outside of her house was required. And the key is in this exodus language. It is remarkable this.

Have a look at verse 18. Get your family, your brothers, your sisters, your uncles, your aunt, get them all into the house when judgment comes. What does that remind you of? That reminds you of the plague of the firstborn. When the Lord said to the Israelites, get your house, get your family into your house, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, make sure they're all inside.

And then what does he say? Verse 18? Put something red on your window. Now, what does that remind you of? It's that very same night.

The plague of the firstborn, the destroying angel will come, and he will only pass over those who've done what. Who've put the scarlet blood of a sacrifice on their walls are on their windows. Only then will they be passed over. And if you go outside, what's gonna happen, verse 19? You're gonna die in judgment.

What does that remind you of? That same light, when the destroying angel would come and anybody who was not found safe inside under the blood of the lamb would be caught up in the judgment. In order for the Israelites to be saved that night, They had to shelter as families and little churches under the blood of the lamb or they would be destroyed. Well, what does Ray have need to do to be part of this new community? She needs exactly the same.

You see, you think about it. She could have had she could have had fridge magnets with Bible verses on her fridge She could have had a shelf full of Christian books. She could have had devotional apps on her phone, She could have had posters of bible verses up around her house. She could have had Christian music playing on her MP 3 player She could have done all of that, all fine, but only the sign of the blood. Only the mark of sacrifice would save her family This idea is is so important to us.

Everybody in Jericho had heard of the true god and was afraid of him, but not everybody applied the sign of blood to their windows, They went down. She was saved. And so the question is not, are you religious this morning? Not are you a god fearing respectable sort of person, but are you trusting in the blood of Christ? And that alone for your salvation.

That is what the red rope and the passover lamb are picturing. They are imaging for us the blood of Christ shed on the cross as he took the weight of our wickedness and paid for our jericho light sins, as he as he died for them, and by faith, we shelter not in the works of our hands the things we have or haven't done, we take shelter in the blood of Christ and that alone for our salvation. We must have the mark, the red rope on our walls, and on our windows. If not, we can be as up standing, we can be as religious as we like, but in the end, we will fall with the cities of this world. And we will be inside them as they do.

They might feel super strong to us at the moment. But then so did Jerichoo. And in just 1 blast of a horn, it came down in dust and ash. Those walls, which were so strong, were tested by the holiness of God and they were discovered to be like that aerated concrete that everybody is so worried about at the moment. It looks strong.

But tested by the holiness of God, it's full of decaying, rusting metal, it's full of saturated holes, and it will crumble and collapse under the pressure and the weight of the holiness of God. Rahab saw that. And so verse 21, she sent them away and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. She could not have known on exactly which day the army would arrive, but she wanted to be ready on any day. And so she tied the cord in her window.

And just look how her story ends. How's this? Go to chapter 6 of Joshua verse 25. Nily done. Oh, it's on the screen.

It's on the screen. Joshua spared Rayhab the prostitute with her family and all who belong to her. Because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho, and where is she now? She lives among the Israelites to this day. And you know what happens her in the end?

She married a man named Salman, which I just love. I just love that she got married. With all of her checkered sexual history and all of the abuse that she had suffered. She was made new. She was purified she was made whole again by Jesus.

And a man called Salman married her, and then they had boaz and Boaz was the father of obed, and obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of king David. And on and on it goes until Christ. From from Amorite, canaanite, prostitute to the mother of our lord. Rahab lives in Israel to this day. She lives in the church to this day.

And she says no matter what you have done or what culture you've belonged to or what sin you have committed or what sin you're still committing, if you will put your trust in the blood. God can take hold of your life. And he can change your destiny forever. The first person that we meet in the promised land is the most unlikely convert in the whole world. And yet she was saved.

Because ultimately, the line was never between the different cultures and the different races. It was always between those who would trust in the true god and those who wouldn't. That still today is the 1 line that cuts through every culture in the world. Will they trust and shelter in the blood of Christ? Or will they not?

By faith, Rahab found herself on the right side of that line. How about you? How about you? Are you gonna be safe when the walls come down? Is the blood of Christ on your home?

Because if it is, then let this example of courageous, costly, unlikely growing faith inspire you to follow the lord. By faith, the prostitute Rahab because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who are disobedient are men. We go now in the name of the great father and the son and the Holy Spirit. And we're so grateful for this gospel that comes into a wicked world, even into our own wicked hearts, and brings us to be the children of god, in line with Christ. We thank you for these things, and we go in his name.

Ah, Ma'am,