 Okay, Joshua chapter 2. So here we have a story where they're getting ready to go into the promised land, they're getting ready to go over the cross of the Jordan River and claim the land from the Canaanites and all the foreign, the pagan people, the heathen people across the river where God has basically given them the land, the Israelites the land. And it's the seemingly simple story that happens here. They send these two spies in and they meet this woman. But there's a lot here that I want to show you from the Bible this evening on just the ramifications of this story, what it has, you know, the ramifications of this story for the rest of the Bible and a lot of symbolism in this story as well. So look down at Joshua chapter 2 in verse number 1. So of course we looked at who Joshua was. Joshua was going to lead the children of Israel after the 40 years wandering in the wilderness after they came out of Egypt. They wandered for 40 years in the wilderness after, you know, they were, they lacked faith in God when they spied out the land the previous time, you know, 38 or 40 years earlier. And now he sends spies in again to check out the first city that they are going to meet once they cross the river. So look at verse number 1. And Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly saying, go view the land even Jericho. And they went and came into a harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to King of Jericho saying, behold, there came men in hither to the night of the children of Israel to search out the country. So first of all, you know, it's not a secret that the children of Israel are across the river obviously from this verse. They get these two men, they sneak in and there's obviously people watching the walls and watching who comes and goes out of the city. They're a little bit on high alert here because they immediately somebody finds out that these two men came and they're staying with the harlot Rahab. You know, yes, that's what that means. She was a harlot. She was a prostitute as the Bible tells us here. But people are clearly watching, you know, giving us an idea that they're concerned about the Hebrew army across the river. Okay, look at verse number 3. And we get a little bit more clarity about that in coming verses. And the King of Jericho sent under Rahab saying, bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house, for they become to search out all the country. And the woman, he says, they're spies. And the woman took the two men and hid them and said, and said thus, there came men unto me, but I wish not whence they were. So she is now saying to the King's men, she says, yes, you know, men came to me, but I don't know where they came from, she says. Okay, and it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate when it was dark, that the men went out, whether the men went, I whatnot. This is still Rahab talking. Okay, pursue after them quickly for she shall overtake them. She tells them they went away and where they went, I don't know, she says. So she's clearly right off the bat, she is defending these two spies right away. Look at verse number six. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house and hid them with the stocks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof and the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords. As soon as they, as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they were laid down, they came up upon them to the roof and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror is fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For 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 unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. So first of all, turn to Numbers chapter 21, let's look at this story real quickly. So first of all, all these people in Jericho, all these people on the other side of the river, they've heard all of the stories about the Hebrews. They heard about how God parted the Red Sea. They knew that they were wandering in the wilderness for the 40 years. They knew that they were there. They knew this the whole time. And then just recently, there was kind of a war before the war that happened here. And they heard about that as well. Look at Numbers chapter 21. So they've already defeated these two kings that she brings up on the other side of Jordan. Not on the west side, but on the east side of Jordan. In Numbers chapter 21, look at verse number 21. And Israel, look, they didn't mean to get in a fight with these kings. It just happens that it was so. And Israel sent messengers unto Sion the king of the Amorites saying, so they're just passing through. And they send messengers, let me pass through thy land. We will not turn into the fields or into the vineyards. We will not drink of the waters of the well, but we will go along by the king's highway until we pass by thy borders. They just asked to just pass through the place. They said, we won't take any of your resources. I mean, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people here. They're not going to take anything. They said, just let us pass through. And Sion would not suffer Israel to pass through his border. But Sion gathered all his people together and went out against Israel into the wilderness. And he came to Jihaz and fought against Israel. And Israel smote in with the edge of the sword and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabok, even to the children of Amon, for the border of the children of Amon was strong. Skip down to verse 33 for the sake of time. Now look at Og, the other king. And they turned and went up by the way of Beishan. And Og the king of Beishan went out against them. He and all his people to the battle at Edria. And the Lord said to Moses, fear him not, for I have delivered him into thy hand. And all his people and his land, and thou shalt do to him as thou did unto Sion, the king of the Amorites, which dwelled at Heshban. So they smote him and his sons and his people until there was none left of him alive and they possessed his land. So basically, you know, here was, they were just heading towards the river, heading towards the promised land. They came through this land of Sion and Og. And these guys wouldn't let them pass. And they went to war against them. So they, you know, God delivered them into their hands and they defeated them and now they have all their land. I mean, talk about a poor choice. You know, I mean, they could have just let them pass through and nothing would have come of it. But by the way, this, as we talked last week, this is the land that Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh saw as they went through the land. They're like, hey, you know, this is pretty good grazing land for cattlemen. This is good enough for us. But they still decided, or they still said that they would go help fight. So this is the land. This is where that came from. Okay? But the point is, back to the story in Joshua chapter two, everyone had heard of these exploits. And these were powerful kings. They were among the giants, the Bible says. Play, you know, it played to their favor when it came to the city of Jericho because everyone was shaking in their boots when it came to them, you know, coming across the river. Look at verse number 11. Now verse number 11 is super interesting and super important in this story. So here's Rahab again. And she says, as soon as we heard these things, so she's talking to the two spies. She's covered for them. She hid them in the roof. The soldiers went out searching for them towards the Jordan River. And now she's talking to these two spies. And as soon as we heard these things, all these exploits that you had done, neither did there remain any more courage in any man. She's like, everyone's terrified of you, because of you. And then she says, for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. There's a profession of faith right there from Rahab. Okay, that's super important. So look, first of all, it shows that the gospel appeals to the heathen right here. Okay, it shows that even these people across the river, they had heard about this and they heard about the exploits and hear, this woman, she believed. She believed in the one true God. Look at verse number 12. Well look at how that plays out in a few minutes. But look at verse number 12 of Joshua chapter 2. Now therefore I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness that you will also show kindness unto my father's house and give me a true token and that you will save my father alive and my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, our life for yours, if he utter not this our business and it shall be when the Lord hath given us this land that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window for her house was upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, get you to the mountain lest the pursuers meet you and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers be returned and afterward you may go your way. And the men said unto her, we will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father's household home unto thee. So this is super important too. So she lets them down and she says, hey, save me and my father and my mother and they say, if you don't tell anybody we'll save you. And then she lets them down and it's important to note that they give her a scarlet thread. They gave her the scarlet thread. They gave her the scarlet thread and they said put this in the window. And when we come to take over the city when we see the scarlet thread we will save everyone that is in your house but only the ones that are in her house. So let's look at the significance of the scarlet thread for a few minutes. Turn to Leviticus chapter 14 in the Bible. We see pictures all over the Bible of things to come and there's a big picture here of things to come and I want to show you that. I'm not going to go to everywhere that scarlet is used in the Bible I can just tell you that the priests, their garments head scarlet in it the temple curtains head scarlet in it but look at Leviticus chapter 14. Leviticus chapter 14 in verse number 49 the Bible says this this is talking about a sacrifice that is to be made after when a house needs to be cleansed when a house needs to be cleansed which is interesting that they gave her the scarlet thread I mean that's just a that's a sub interesting point there's all kinds of interesting points here but this is to cleanse a house that's been plagued with sickness so somebody had leprosy or some kind of sickness they were supposed to go through this ritual to cleanse the house look at verse 49 the Bible says and he shall take to cleanse the house two birds and cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop so three things cedar wood scarlet and hyssop and he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over the running water and he shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet and the living bird and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water and sprinkle the house seven times and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird I mean like if you miss like the purpose of the blood in the Bible I mean the blood the blood the blood it's all about the blood you shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird a clear picture of the blood of Christ cleansing us okay and with the running water and the living bird and with the cedar wood and with the hyssop and with the scarlet so why cedar why scarlet why hyssop I think I brought this up before but in the sense of scarlet let's look at Exodus chapter 12 real quickly let me just show you another place where hyssop is used in Exodus chapter 12 in verse number 21 the Bible says then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto him draw and take you out of lamb according to your families and kill the Passover and he shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood again that is in the basin and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning once again you know the blood so the hyssop here was used with the blood to cover the house so you know God would pass over and not kill the firstborn son in this case alright so we see that there's scarlet here there's hyssop here in Leviticus chapter 14 and as far as the cedar I mean we see a clear picture of Christ is what I'm getting at I mean the Bible doesn't say in the New Testament exclusively what the cross is made of but I mean it's cedar I'm just going to tell you that because I mean it's a clear picture here that you know this is a picture of Jesus his blood and the cross it's pretty much right there look at Matthew chapter 27 let's get back to scarlet let's get back to scarlet they gave her a scarlet when fair as in Zahra were born Zahra stuck out his hand and he was they put a scarlet thread on his hand to mark him with that just another point of scarlet but here's a big one look at Matthew chapter 27 and verse number 28 Matthew chapter 27 and verse number 28 and they stripped him this is when Jesus is being mocked and tortured and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe a scarlet being you know the color of royalty you know this dark red color to signify a king go back to Joshua chapter 2 so we see that the scarlet here has a lot of meaning a lot of pictures that point towards Christ just like scarlet in other parts of the Old Testament are also pointing towards Christ look at Joshua chapter 2 and verse number 19 now it gets even more interesting just about the scarlet thread pointing towards Christ look at verse number 19 and it shall be this is them talking to her they give her the scarlet thread they give her the scarlet thread and they say put this in your window and then they said to her and it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street his blood shall be upon his head and we will be guiltless and whosoever shall be with thee in the house his blood shall be on our head if any hand be upon him so first of all they're saying to her you do exactly what we say here is what they say to her and we aren't going to take down look they said we're not going to take down the address of your relatives and we're not going to you know come into the city look they were to kill everything including the animals when they came into these cities that's exactly what they did in Jericho they killed every single man woman and child and all the animals in Jericho and they're supposed to destroy the cities utterly and they said look if you don't have them inside this house they're going to die turn to John chapter 10 turn to John chapter 10 you better have them all here or we will be blameless they said we will be guiltless look at John chapter 10 in verse number 9 John chapter 10 verse number 9 they're telling them hey if you're not in the house you will be destroyed I don't care who it is they better be in the house they better be in the house that has the scarlet thread in the window look at John chapter 10 in verse number 9 it's interesting because Jesus says I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pastor look at Matthew chapter 25 Jesus says I am the door and if anybody enters this door they shall be saved look at Matthew chapter 25 in verse number 8 interesting parable here the bible says this is the 10 virgins who want to get into the wedding and the bible says this it says and the foolish in verse number 8 the foolish said unto the wise give us of your oil for our lamps are gone out so some of them were ready and they had oil in their lamps and they could go and then there were some people who weren't ready and they couldn't go they had to go get oil for their lamps but the wise answered saying not so as they're not being not enough for us and you but rather you go to them that sell and buy for yourselves and while they went to buy the bridegroom came and they that were ready with him went into the marriage and the door was shut afterward came also the other virgins saying Lord, Lord, open to us but he answered and said verily I say unto you I know not watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour where the son of man cometh this is saying you know the day of salvation is today don't wait around because when the door is shut the door is shut and there's only one way there's only one house there's only one door ultimately what they were telling Rahab was this they were telling her the kind of destruction that was coming and it's complete destruction it was complete destruction look the whole thing is a picture of Christ the whole thing is a picture of Christ it's not just the scarlet turn to John chapter 14 turn to John chapter 14 now I mean you probably heard John chapter 14 verse number 6 maybe a billion times and maybe even you know people quote it all the time but they don't use it in the sense that I think that it should totally be used most churches anyway look at John 14 verse number 6 the Bible says Jesus said unto him I am the way the truth and the life I mean you hear that all the time you hear that constantly Jesus I am the way the truth and the life that sounds great look Jesus is saying I am the way the truth and the life but you can't don't forget the last part says no man cometh to the Father but by me look there is no other way anybody that is outside that house you better be inside that house with the scarlet thread in the window and you better be in there when the door is shut and you better be in there or it's complete destruction that is that is the gospel right there this is the gospel in Joshua chapter 2 anybody that's not in the house no it's not it's not all he's really nice but he's out in the street it's not oh you know but we knew this guy and just say no if he's not in the house he's destroyed that is the gospel look the gospel is the good news okay the good news that you can have salvation it's free believe on trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and that's it you're saved but if you don't you are damned to hell that's the other side of that coin and that is the picture that is being shown here in Joshua chapter 2 no man cometh no man Jesus is the only way the scarlet thread in that house was the only way out of the destruction of Jericho it's a picture of salvation there's no save my neighbor or that person right there on the street there's only one way the whole story is a picture of Christ look back at judges chapter 2 look at verse number 20 look at judges chapter 2 and verse number 20 the bible says this it says and if thou utter this our business then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear so look if you tell anybody then we're out of this you've broken the oath so turn to James chapter 2 turn to James chapter 2 so it's interesting here that if Rahab didn't if she didn't keep quiet if she went and she she you know she ratted them out to the king or if she didn't put the scarlet thread that they gave her in the window then this was all off so the point I'm trying to get to here turn to James chapter 2 is that her works mattered her works mattered here they would only the honor the promise to save her if she followed through look at James chapter 2 in verse 25 and this explains James chapter 2 in verse number 25 because a lot of people will take James chapter 2 in verse 25 and they'll be like see there's salvation by works right there but look at verse 25 likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and sent them out another way question mark look yes she was justified by works to those messengers she was justified by her works to those men she was justified by her works to men that's the whole point of James chapter 2 is that our I mean the only way you can show me your faith because I'm just a man I can't see your soul and I can't see yourself I can't see what you believe you know what I can see though I can see your works that's how Abraham was justified by works that's how Rahab was justified by works it's not saying that they were spiritually saved by works saying they were justified to these men she had to do these things otherwise she wouldn't have been physically saved by them I mean the fact that they got away was proof that she was quiet and they saw the thread justified her to them she justified herself to them look at Joshua chapter 2 in verse 21 Joshua chapter 2 in verse number 21 and she said according unto your word so be it and she sent them away and they departed and she bound the scarlet line in the window and they went and came under the mountain abode their three days until the pursuers were returned and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way but found them not so the two men returned and descended from the mountain and passed over and came to Joshua the son of none and told him all the things that befell them and they said unto Joshua truly the Lord that delivered into our hands all the land for the inhabitants inhabitants of the country do faint because of us I mean that's a little different report than the 12 spies you know 38 40 years earlier I mean they gave this positive report coming back saying everybody is terrified of us coming so that is Joshua chapter 2 I want to go back and I want to point out some interesting thoughts about Rahab this evening though and how that applies to us first of all she's mentioned a couple of times in the New Testament and we already looked at James but turned to Hebrews chapter 11 in verse number 31 I mean she was justified to the Hebrews by the scarlet ribbon and by the fact that she did she kept her word if it would have been any other color if she would have put some other thread of her own in the window she would not have survived this is a this story is a physical picture of salvation you see it's a physical acting out of spiritual salvation it's a beautiful thing in the Old Testament but it's also a picture of being justified through the blood of Christ look at Hebrews chapter 11 in verse 31 now look what the Bible says it says by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace so do you notice right away at the beginning of Joshua chapter 2 there wasn't like a big like debate on whether or not she was going to bring these guys in I mean there wasn't like she thought about it or she talked to some people who are these guys and you know where did you come from she brought them in right away she knew who they were she knew who they were and she told them in verse number 11 what she believed that is what Hebrews chapter 11 in verse 31 is talking about by faith the harlot Rahab she had that faith before they came to her door so Rahab look Rahab was not a Hebrew but she essentially became one is what I want to explain to you this evening look this is the first story of a convert that is documented in the Bible right here it's likely not the first this interesting brother Tito asked me the question on Sunday he said you know well when they came out of Egypt you know I'm sure there was probably some Egyptians that went with them I mean maybe there was I mean it's likely that there was maybe maybe not the Bible doesn't say but the Bible does say this turn to Exodus chapter 12 the Bible does give the Hebrews in the wilderness you know directions on how to handle somebody that comes from another nation and wants to join them in Hebrews chapter look at Exodus chapter 12 so Rahab was the first you know person in the Bible that we see that's actually documented that this happened but it's obviously not the first since Exodus chapter 12 details out this this commandment look what the Bible says in verse 48 and when a stranger sells sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover to the Lord look that that right there you can underline that in your Bible that is saying look when the stranger comes and wants to stay with you and will keep the Passover unto the Lord that's a physical sign right there of their spiritual salvation that's a physical sign that they have joined them spiritually let all his males be circumcised and then let him come near and keep it and he shall be as one that is born in the land for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof one law shall be look you shouldn't even treat him any different it says one law shall be to him that is home born and to the stranger that's sojourn sojourneth among you look it's just like he's one of you it says at that point once he believes and once he you are of the same faith it's just like he's just like you all the same laws apply everything you know it's basically once they're famed it doesn't matter where you came from is what the Bible is saying right here okay thus did all and then it says in verse 50 meaning they did this they did this this is before the story of Rahab thus did all the children of Israel so they did it okay look this is not about race here this is about belief in Exodus chapter 12 Rahab left her nation there's such a misunderstanding about this idea of race I mean you can think of this idea of all these different nations in the Bible and just replace that word with all these different cultures that's what it is the Bible says in Acts I mean I've already read it for you on Sunday morning or Sunday night or whenever it was there's one race there's one blood there's one race yet we've invented all these races look there's many cultures there's many cultures there's one race the human race welcome to it but there's many cultures and Rahab look but Rahab left her culture she left her nation she left her nation turned to it there's other converts in the Bible did you know that turn to Ruth chapter 1 do you know that Ruth Ruth is I mean probably the woman in the Bible that has the best light maybe other than Mary you know shined upon her in the Bible is Ruth and you know she was not a Hebrew she was not a Hebrew she was not of the Hebrew nation okay look at Ruth chapter 1 verse number 1 the Bible says now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land of Bethlehem Judah went to Sojourn he went to stay in the country of Moab he and his wife and his two sons in the name of the man was in the name of his wife Naomi the name of his two sons Melon and Chilean Ifretis and of Bethlehem Judah and they came into the country of Moab and continued there and in the name of Naomi's husband died and she was left and her two sons and they took them wives of the women of Moab so these two sons married these Moabite women and the one was Orpha in the name of the other Ruth Ruth was a Moabitis and they dwelled there about 10 years then of course Ruth you know is just professes her faith again and says to Naomi you know I will go with you and your God will be my God and they go back to you know the promised land she goes back with Naomi and then she marries Boaz and the story continues but I mean there's a convert right there so look the point is here is that in another lesson from Rehab the Harlot here is that the most significant event in your life is being saved after that I mean your past doesn't matter after that look at Matthew chapter 1 I mean if you got saved nothing else what's behind you matters I mean you say you say Rehab it was a it was a Harlot I mean it was a prostitute you know I mean you know that's you know that's not good you know I mean how could you know how could she be accepted into you know the the nation of Israel you know how could you know but look she was not only accepted look at Matthew chapter 1 and look at verse number 5 the bible says in Matthew chapter 1 this is the lineage of Jesus Christ right here Matthew chapter 1 and verse number 5 and Solomon begat Boaz of Rehab Rehab that's who that is and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth and Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David the king and David the king begat Solomon it had been wife of your eyes not only was Rehab accepted into the nation she was Ruth's mother-in-law she was David's great-grandmother and they're both in the line of Christ of the Messiah of the savior of the world proving that God neither cares what nation you came from he doesn't even see it he doesn't even see it or about your past while you were in that nation he doesn't care the key is that you were saved and what you do going forward turn to Luke chapter 7 turn to Luke chapter 7 Jesus himself said this Jesus himself said this Luke chapter 7 look at verse number 39 now in the Pharisee which had bitten him saw it he spake within himself saying this man if he were a prophet this woman was trying to touch Jesus would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him for she is a sinner probably the same type of woman as Rehab was and Jesus answered saying unto him Simon I have somewhat to say unto thee and he said master say on he says there was a certain creditor which had two debtors and one owed 500 pence and the other 50 and we had nothing to pay he forgave them both so one owed 500 and the other owed 50 and the master forgave them both and we had nothing to pay he forgave them both and which of them will love him the most Jesus said the guy that he forgave 500 or the guy that he forgave 50 and Simon answered he says suppose he to whom he forgave the most and he said unto him thou hast rightly judged that's Rehab for you right there look God only cares what you believe all that mattered was verse number 11 where she said for the Lord your God he is God in heaven above all that mattered was a profession of faith so let me give you some parting thoughts on these cultures or nations and I've got there's some upcoming sermons in the next two maybe even three weeks where we're going to be talking about culture I mean like I said the Bible refers to nations there's only one race it's really just cultural clashes that we're seeing all over the place okay so look let me give you some thoughts on putting off your culture and give you some lessons from Rehab here okay look unless you grew up in the perfect Christian home unless you grew up in the perfect Christian home there is plenty wrong with the culture everyone here grew up with you need to realize that you need to realize that you need to realize that and you need to learn to kick off you know when you learn the Bible you need to learn to kick off that culture that you came from because the Bible is teaching you a culture you know this is how I mean this is how I haven't you ever wondered haven't you ever wondered how you end up with with Christian brothers and sisters in an organization where they're together what do you call that a church right where we have like this church where you know normal people like people from the outside world would look at like you know me and brother Francisco I grew up in Nowhereville, North Dakota he grew up in Nowhereville, Mexico and here we are and we're just like brothers and people in the outside world would be like what do you two have in common well I don't know everything because we have the same culture because we need to kick off the culture that we came from we're going to explore this in depth in the next few weeks you know to be a church that's going to be full of people from different cultures different cultures out there you need to learn to recognize first recognize first and then throw off certain things because look there will be remnants that remain there will be remnants turn to Genesis chapter 15 turn to Genesis chapter 15 let's go back 450 plus years earlier let's look at Rahab's culture look we are going to have remnants that remain of the culture that we came from even as we're in this church and we need to do a good job of getting rid of those remnants and just following the Bible look at Genesis chapter 15 look at verse number 3 13 I'm sorry verse number 13 and he said unto Abram know of a surety this is God giving promises to Abraham know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years there he's prophesying the slavery in Egypt and also that nation whom they serve will I judge and afterwards shall they come out with great substance so he's prophesying to Abram the things that Abram will never see he's prophesying the captivity in Egypt he's prophesying the escape from Egypt the exodus from Egypt and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace thou shalt be buried in a good old age but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full this is talking about the people that Rahab was from this is talking about the Canaanites all the people in the promised land saying 450 years earlier he's saying these people in the promised land this is what he's saying he's prophesying what's going to happen to Abram at this point Abraham he's prophesying he's saying your people they're going to be you're going to get this land they're going to be in captivity then they're going to get out of captivity he's like but look it's not going to happen for a while because the iniquity of these people that I'm going to give this land to they're not bad enough yet is basically what he's saying he's like they haven't made me mad enough yet but they will and 450 years later we see that it is full in Rahab's time the judgment is coming upon these people you see oh it seems bad they go in and they just kill everybody that was the judgment on those nations that was the judgment on those nations not only did God promise Abram this land and hit God's people this land but he said look it was a judgment on those nations because they just Leviticus 18 is all about everything that these people are being judged for the whole list of the perversion and wickedness and I don't know how many times the word abomination is used in Leviticus 18 that is what these people were being judged for 450 years earlier it wasn't bad enough yet but in Rahab's time it was that's Rahab's culture that's where she came from from that time when their iniquity is full from the time when the things of Leviticus 18 were just she grew up in that she grew up in that stuff and she had to put it all off but here's the thing all the things from your culture the same thing now you've joined wherever you came from you've joined this nation just like Rahab joined the nation of Israel you joined this nation look it shouldn't matter what culture you came from and look many of the cultures that we came from were justifying the same things that Rahab's Rahab's the reprobate wicked things but you know certainly fornication and all these other things they're glorifying the same things look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 so Rahab had to put off this all that to say that she was living in an extremely wicked culture folks a culture that was so bad it was as bad as you can get before God completely destroys your nation that's how bad she was right at that edge where God's just like I'm destroying the whole nation obviously we haven't gotten there yet we're trucking towards it pretty fast 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 we have to do the same thing we have to put off our culture and come into this nation 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 look at verse 17 therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature but he's not just a new creature old things are passed away old things are passed away behold all things are become new look this was easy for Rahab this was easy for Rahab why because her whole culture was destroyed everything was destroyed turn to Numbers chapter 14 here's your problem right here Numbers chapter 14 everything was destroyed of Rahab's nation of her culture it was all gone nothing remained for you the temptation will remain to return this is the problem look at Numbers chapter 14 right after right after the spies that got them into the 40 year desert wilderness wandering this is what the children of Israel said 40 years prior look at verse number 4 Numbers chapter 14 verse number 4 and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night this is after the spies came back and they said their giants they're huge we're like this to them we're like grasshoppers we're all gonna die and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation said unto him would God that we died in the land of Egypt or would God we had died in this wilderness and wherefore had the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword that our wives and children should be a prey were it not better for us to return into Egypt and they said let's run to another let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt look things got difficult here and they wanted to go back into Egypt the same temptation will be there for you look your culture I doubt your culture has been completely destroyed but you know what maybe you need to get a little further away from it if it's such a temptation to go back maybe you need to not be right next door to Egypt in your life because guess what it wasn't when things were great it wasn't when they had all this land and there was no battles to be fought and they just had all this land all the land of milk and honey look they didn't want to go back then they wanted to go back when things got tough they wanted to go back when things got difficult look your life is gonna get difficult there's nothing in the Bible that says and if every single time that the Christian life gets hard you want to just run back to Egypt you're not gonna make it in the Christian life that doesn't mean you're not saved nothing's gonna stop you from ever nothing can make you not saved but in order to live the victorious Christian life you gotta stay out of Egypt you gotta leave that culture behind you gotta put some distance between you and Egypt especially if you're the kind of person that's just kind of like ahhh Egypt if you're just constantly wanting to go back you're super strong you can live right next door to Egypt you can hang out in Egypt nobody can do that Rahab's culture was completely destroyed your temptation will be that's why we preach so much on separation because the temptation will be for you to want to go back to Egypt so we're gonna look at this we're gonna look at this idea of this culture here but this is the nation this is the culture that we're shooting for and the better you can do the better you can do just in general in your Christian life by the way of just being like you know what it's just in the Bible and that's just what I'm gonna do and I understand that it's better than you will do because look it's gonna be Egypt wants you back many of you Egypt doesn't live that far away and Egypt wants you back and people don't like when you leave Egypt you know who doesn't like when you leave Egypt the people still living in Egypt they don't like when you leave Egypt so we're gonna talk about getting out of Egypt and how you do that in the next few weeks it's just a great example Rehab Rehab is a beautiful picture of salvation that story is a physical picture of the spiritual salvation through Christ and it's also a great example of how your nation doesn't matter where you came from doesn't matter what matters is that you're saved and that you're moving away from Egypt and you're not going back let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer