James Chapter 2 Review

Okay. Well, today, we're going to have kind of a, we're going to review Chapter 2. And actually, what we're also going to do is, Andrew had prepared a section on RAHAB, which he didn't get to do. So I'm going to have him do that at the end of the review. Hopefully, we can do this all in 45 minutes. It's going to be challenging, or 50 minutes maybe. It's going to be challenging, but we'll give it a shot here. So we're going to have kind of a, the review, which I'm going to do kind of in the, overview fashion. Actually, I'm going to ask questions, which is kind of not typically what we do. Okay, call me Bob. Whatever you want to do. That'd be great. Okay, so let's. All right, so here we go. All right. So actually, let me just put this whole thing up here. This is a oops, I went too far.

This is a attempt actually by not attempt but a View if you will of James and this covers the first three chapters and kind of looking at it from the temptation perspective you know James talks about in chapter 1 19 and 20 about the temptation to respond in a certain way and he talks about temptations and in 22 and 25 to be here's the word not doers the word and then temptation and to criticize others, but the part I like here about the, we've been studying Chapter 2, he kind of divides it, which I thought was really interesting. There's a natural division between 1-13 and 14-26, but thinking about the fact that this is really a temptation, we're tempted, we're tempted to show partiality and favoritism, and we're tempted, you know, from the context it seems like in the second part in 14-26, we're tempted to boast about our faith with works. So kind of a little bit different view of chapter two and then we're going to see them as we get into chapter three about from this temptation perspective, temptation to misuse and not restrain our tongue and temptation to walk in human versus divine wisdom. So it's kind of a little different look at James than we've had. We haven't really used this as a template but just kind of some thoughts for today. So here's my, here's what I used. I'll just put the whole thing up. Oops, too far.

Okay, so actually I divided James into these parts here, talking about the condemnation of favoritism, 1 through 4, results of favoritism, 5 through 7, favoritism, the royal law, and the law of liberty, which I kind of lumped into 18 through 13. And that's kind of the first major section, 1 through 13, this favoritism and all its ramifications we're only going to talk about in the review just the first four verses because I wanted to get down the last part I think is the key part which we all have focused on a lot about faith and works and so I'm going to look at the introduction the expansion of the introduction and then the two illustrations I'm going to do one and Andrew's going to pick up the last one on Rahab And my approach of this one, since this is a review, we've already kind of had a, if you will, a deep dive into each of these sections. We've gone through them pretty exhaustively. But Andrew's going to, he has a little deep dive into Rahab. It's really an interesting section and hopefully to complement what Bob did last week.

Okay, with that said, we're going to start into the first four verses here. And if you have questions, you know, please speak up. Okay, so let's, the first four verses, I was going to ask that somebody would read that. Maybe I can talk to him into reading it. Or someone, I don't know. Is this chapter three? Chapter two, one through four, or I can read it too. Chapter two, one through four. I got it. Okay, go for it.

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord of Glory with partiality. For there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, you sit here in a good place. And then you say to the poor man, you stand there or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Great. Thank you, Marner. Okay, so So the first thought is why, you know, he poses that question, my brethren, and again, as we notice with all of James, he's talking to believers here. Why is there this tension between personal favoritism and our faith? Why is there a tension there? He obviously saw that there was a tension.

And actually, to see that, it helps. The Wyss translation brings that across as follows. The Wyss, you know, tries to bring out the original language. And it puts in an interesting little phrase at the beginning. My brethren, stop. So it's actually an action that's already going on. So James is talking to his brother in here and he's saying, stop doing this. You're showing partiality. And brother Hal from 2004 said, there's a temptation there. You're showing partiality.

So that's at odds with our walk of faith in the Lord. Personal faith baptism is something that is not to be part of our life in Christ, right? So he states that as a problem. And I think that verses 2 and 3 kind of expand upon that. He tells us what that looks like, right? He gives the example of the... and we'll look at that in a second a little bit more. Any additional comments about this first part? So this section, which I'm not going to spend a lot of time with, these 1-4, really talk about this personal favoritism.

I was kind of thinking about our body of believers, and I couldn't think exactly of this situation happening. I can think of some situations that are close to this but not exactly where people that come into our bodies are welcomed and they can sit, you know. The example isn't quite the same because it seems like in this time period maybe there were favored seats or something like that. We don't have favored seats that I know of. Except people in our body do. Yeah, and if some stranger comes in and sits in one of those seats and then the person comes, that's right. Well, actually, there's another one that I thought about the fact, it's actually the reverse of this almost. The prime seats, I can't believe it, are the back row. The back row usually is filled out. You know, we have, what, 20 rows in this church? What does that tell you?

I'm not going to judge my brothers and sisters in Christ. You got something? Yeah, he's dead. No, I just said, so that's universal everywhere you go in the world. Hey, the background is the priority. Yes. You know, I was going to say, in terms of holding our faith with an attitude of personal favoritism, you know, we all entered on the same ground, on the same basis, you know. And where's the room for personal favoritism and not, right?

Right. Amen. That's great. That's a good observation. Okay, so I don't want to spend a real long time on this, so two and three kind of expand that. So let's go on. I have a part two to this chart, and part two is what does it mean to pay special attention? And I think the verse really tells it. You're saying this particular person, for whatever reason you perceive, May he's a dignitary. And you say, well, he deserves special treatment.

But as Miles points out, we all come the same way. We all come by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So there's no room for that. And that's not consistent with who we are in Christ. Roger. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I think, I mean, it points to judging people by their looks as opposed to what's in their heart. Exactly. Yeah. Well, I can think of one funny example. And this gentleman, maybe you'll remember, this is maybe 10 years ago, maybe even longer.

We had a biker. He rode a bicycle, like a bicycle man. And he rode here from somewhere, I don't know where, and he didn't change his clothes. So he had his bicycle uniform on. And so, He came in, sat down, he went to Sunday School class, he was here for many, many Sundays dressed that way.

And I thought, well, couldn't he have packed away something? I mean, in my mind, I was judging him maybe, but I thought, couldn't he have just taken the time to, you know? But he didn't, and he stayed with us maybe, I don't know, actually it was quite a while, maybe a year, I don't know. But he was here and then eventually he went on to someplace else. So that's something that occurred to me about personal, I don't have anything against him. He seemed to want to learn and he was interested in what we taught and so it was great. But he was different and so that's a temptation.

Somebody's different and you want to categorize them. Okay. So then the good place, you know, one's a place of honor, one's a place of, the footstool is a place of dishonor, if you will. And then the last part, I want to make one comment about the last part.

We're not to judge one another with evil motives. And it just reminded me so much that our Savior, He's the one that God has appointed as judge of the living and the dead. He's our judge, not ourselves. But there's a warning in Matthew about judging one another. Don't judge one another, or you'll be judged. Of course, in the context, that's in the gospel, so you have to be careful about your interpretation, but that's a good reminder. We're not to be judging one another. Well, that's in the context for the specific purpose of condemnation. Exactly. We are to judge between what is right and wrong. That's true. That's a good point.

That's good point to clarify that right also. Also. We're not done about the spec my brother's I versus you know We're not doing the same way we look at something and we really have the same fault But here's this maybe we think is a little bit bigger than ours our spec and so well. We don't see our faults no Everybody else does but we don't yeah, you have your mic on oh Yes, I do.

Good, good, good. Excellent. Okay. No, I agree with you. Absolutely. It's amazing. Don't you see it in this world so much that it's just... You know, on the other side of the coin, we don't see our great abilities either. Okay. It's easy to condemn yourself because you don't see all the greatness that God has worked through you. So we might see our faults, but we don't see our greatness. That's good. That's good. And that's where knowing who you are in Christ is so critical. If you don't see that you're in Christ, there's no tension between you and Christ now. Positionally, you're with Him. You're seeing with Him in the heavenlies. So there's not a tension there.

A lot of believers don't see that, and they're still working on that aspect of their Christian walk, which is sad. Well, some of us don't have thoughts, we have quirks. Okay, I like that. That's good. Alright, okay, so now, I apologize for kind of zipping along here. Okay, so now let's jump, we're going to jump over the sections, the remainder of that section through verse 13. And I wanted to get into faith and works. Just, you know, really important to kind of review this and remind ourselves. So, would someone like to read these four verses? or I can read them out.

What use is it, what is the prophet, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, And one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed, and be filled. And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body. What use is that? Or what is the profit? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

OK, great. Thanks, Carolyn. OK. So again here, the person being who's addressed, there's kind of two questions I had kind of together in verse 14. A lot of questions, too. Who's this addressed to and for what reason? The brother. Okay, okay, good. So that's key. This is a believer. To the body. To the body, exactly. And then what's kind of hidden there, and the reason I put the brackets in there, if you look at the actual original text, it's the word prophet is used in there.

And I think it makes it much clearer because he's actually talking about the profit to a believer, or you could say, is Christian life, you know, what benefit? Yeah, there's other words. So, actually I tried to do that here. The question is, what profit or benefit is resulting in your faith? And there is to be profit or benefit. There always is. Just think about it. I was, you know, if you broaden this to your view, your faith has tremendous results, right? It saves your soul, for starters. I mean, that's huge, right?

I mean, faith, and he's not saying, faith just doesn't sit alone. It just doesn't, and this is, when I had the privilege of, I was overseas in England with Ronnie and I rode there for five years at a U.S. base, and I came to be a believer during that time period, and I heard this expression, faith and faith alone. And I just said, you know, as a young believer, I said, I don't understand what that means. Faith and faith alone. You're having faith and faith.

Well, faith has to have an object. And that concept is sort of what's kind of made behind the scenes here, where not to have faith by itself doesn't mean anything. Faith has to be in something or some person, the Lord Jesus Christ, for salvation. And it has to do something. It has to benefit or profit something. So it really helped, I thought, to put in the idea of profit in there. And that wasn't my idea originally. Merriman kind of got me going on that one. Okay, so question number two. And this is a little bit tougher.

What aspect of salvation is being spoken about? in the B part of the verse, and it says, can that faith save him? So what's your first thought when you see, can that faith save him? What aspect of salvation do you think about when you first see that? And I'm going to talk about, I'm going to review, there will be a little review session about this. There's three aspects of salvation taught in scripture. So what's your first thoughts? Can that faith save you? From the power of sin. Let's go ahead. Jimmy's talking. Salvation from the power of sin.

Okay, good. Excellent. You're well trained. It's probably not the first reaction of most people who get to that because most people turn to this verse and say, you know, you're not a quote-unquote real believer if you're talking about justification. I agree with Jimmy though. Exactly. They go off down that rabbit trail, I'll call it. Can I say one other little quick thing? Sure.

I look at this as a rhetorical argument from James, and I think it's impossible for a believer not to have some level of works. They may be very minuscule, or they may be profoundly great, but every believer that has Christ in them has some work coming out of them And I think what he's getting at is, in our condition, let the works flow out. Let the Lord flow out. And don't just sit back and not...

Anyway, that's how I was looking at that. Okay, that's good. That's good. Okay, so just to... And you guys all know this, but let's just review the three aspects of salvation. And so you can phrase it this way. We have been saved, the past aspect of salvation, we've been saved from the penalty of sin. Our sins have been paid for when we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Titus talks about that. And I won't read that just in the interest of time. He says, He saved us not on the basis of our deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing and regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

So that's the one that most people think this verse is talking about. But as Jimmy said, it's really talking about we are being saved from the power of sin. Because this is a believer, right? And here's this tension, or here's this issue that he has brought to the table, that James has brought to the table, so to speak. And he says, we're, you know, If you say you have faith, where are your works?

Your works have to follow that. That has to be the natural progression. And so, or what profit is it? There should be some results. And so that's a question about your Christian life. About your full sanctification or the present aspect of your salvation. You're being saved from the power of sin. And Corinthians talks about that. who are being saved, but to those who are being saved is the power of God unto salvation.

And then the third aspect is the future aspect. We will be saved from the presence of sin, and that's in 1 John 3, 2, which talks about the fact that it says, Beloved, now we are children of God. It has not appeared as yet what we will be, but we know that when He appears we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. So those are the three aspects, and this particular verse 14 is talking about being saved from the power of sin.

And it's all wrapped up in this idea of profit or benefit. There ought to be some output in the believer's life. And Roger, it's a good thing to bring up the word profit or benefit because I think when pay attention to the fact that James has the body in view here. It's the body of Christ. I think if we keep the unity of the body of Christ as a whole in view, then we understand that that profit or that benefit is accruing to the whole body. It's not about benefit for me, but what James has in view. is the benefit of the entirety of the whole. And that's what the life of Christ flowing out through me, the works, His works through me, is a benefit to the whole body. Right. That's good. Thanks, Miles. That's great. Okay, so here's a few more questions.

What should be the believer's relationship with his faith and works in 16? So 16, this is his hypothetical case or whatever. If a brother or sister is without clothing and daily food and one of you says to him, go in peace and be warmed, be filled and yet does not give him what is necessary for their body, what use is it or better, what profit is it? So it brings up this situation.

And then the question is, why is it so important? Why is it so important that there be a benefit or a profit? And we've kind of talked about that already. That's how God has designed it, right? Our faith is to, at many levels, it's to be encouraging one another, it's to save our souls, if you will. At every level, faith is to have something that results from it. And that's kind of his point. He has the example of doing something in the physical realm of helping your brothers and sisters.

And then I think of Ephesians 2.10, the wonderful verse that talks about that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that God is foreordained that we should walk in them. So God, our works, our good works, God has plans for us. And we're simply to exercise faith in those works and walk in them. And Roger, don't you think what he's trying to say here in several different ways is that these works come from your faith.

Exactly. These works are not human generated because you want to impress people. Exactly. But he keeps saying it in different kinds of ways. Exactly. produces the works. Right. That's exactly right. That's what produces the works. It's not you. If you produce the works, they're not of faith. That's you producing them. Exactly. Well, if you produce the works, it's from your flesh. Right. Absolutely. And it's filthy rags, right? Anyway. No, that's great. No, I agree. Actually, it's helped me a lot. Actually, this kind of dovetails nicely.

We get into works about what we're doing in the main service in Romans, and we're going to see that tie in here in a bit. But it's Because faith is one thing that God, isn't it amazing as we're learning in Romans there, we're justified by faith, we're declared righteous by simply, I shouldn't say simply, by basically trusting, putting our trust in another.

And nothing else will satisfy the Holy God. If we enter into any works in there, so we come back and the works aspects can be a negative. If those works come in, it's not faith anymore. But in this case, he's saying, but works flow out of faith. So we got two things in Romans we're talking about. Works can't enter into your salvation, enter into your faith.

In this case, we're saying that works flow out of your faith. So I think that's pretty cool. Okay, the last question I had here is just, the last verse is really interesting. It talks about the necessity of having works, if you will. It says, even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself. So what does this tell us? It tells us one thing, that faith is not alone. That last part, being by itself, you can't have faith and faith alone. Faith cannot stand on its own. First of all, it has to have an object in terms of salvation, and faith has to produce something. And we talked about that already a little bit. It can't stand by itself.

And then you have this idea of death, or being dead. And death, as we know, Death is separation in almost all its uses. So in this case, what's happening is that he's saying, faith, if it has no works, then you've separated the function of faith. Faith is to have works, and it's dead in the sense that you're separated, you've been separated, you've separated the works from the faith. Because faith is to have works.

Okay, any other thoughts on that? Well, I think that's another verse where Reformed guys go to claim that if you don't have certain works, then you're not a real believer again, right? But I think it's so important to connect that, verse 17, with what he says in verse 26, that that death, being a separation, is just a work, faith, being separated from what naturally flows out of it, is useless. Right, right. Just like a body without breath in its lungs is useless. Right. You know, faith without any work flowing out of it is useless. It's not a dead spiritual state. Faith is the thing that's dead here, not the believer. Right, absolutely.

Like you said, we're going to see that in the next section here in verse 20. Verse 17 and 20 kind of complement one another. It talks about death or separation of your works of faith. And then we're going to talk about the uselessness of your faith without works shortly here.

Roger, I was going to say that faith connects us to our Savior, connects us to our life in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our life. He's in our mouth. He's in our words. It says in Hebrews. And when we're walking by faith and we're animated by his life, which is our life, then works flow out of that. Yes. All right. Okay. Actually, I'm just going to put the rest of these up here because I realize we're running out of time here if I don't. So this section kind of expands what we talked about.

It says, But if someone may well say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith with the works, and I'll show you my faith by the works. You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

So this is another section where we have a dialogue going on, this hypothetical dialogue. And the problem is, it's between, if you look carefully, right, it's show me, we say, it's all this dialogue between men, right? God isn't in the picture. You know, God isn't, this isn't talking about our, I'm trying to show something to God for my faith. This is two men talking. Oh, I have this and you have that. It's a dialogue between men.

And the only way, another aspect of this is we're going to see clearly in these illustrations coming up of Abraham and Rehab that man can only see the works. God only sees the faith, right? So we can't see the faith. We see the faith in the works. Okay, so what else do I want to say about this? And this brings in the fact about the uselessness. The last part, verse 20, talks about the fact that the uselessness of faith without works. And it also brings in the fact that the one who does not work but believes, that's what saves it.

So that would kind of mention some of these things already. I'm trying to leave a little time for Andrew here. I apologize for this. Okay, so let's go on here. So basically, as I pointed out, verse 20 and 17, one talks about the use of the word death and one talks about the word useless. So that's kind of the contrast there. Alright, so I want to go on. So now the illustration of Abraham. So we talked about this a couple weeks ago. Was not Abraham our forefather justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works. As a result of works, he was perfected. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.

So as I mentioned before, what's interesting here, James, I didn't do a total search, but justification by works, he brings forth that term, if you will, right? Because we see justification by faith. We see that in Romans and other places. He brings home that term justification by works. And we want to be careful. and not assume that you can be justified in salvation by your works. It's justification as other men see you. But it's not able to save you. Justification. He's not proposing that.

But he's saying that in terms of men, man saw Abraham's faith. And so we have the two examples of Abraham's faith. We have the one in Genesis 15-6 where God took him out and he said, look at the stars in the sky. And Abraham believed that he would be, his assemblance would be, he believed God. And it says, it quotes verse 23 there, it says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

So that was his justification by faith, if you will. But then 40 years later, we have the encounter with Isaac, right? And so that's what man couldn't see. his justification by faith with God out in the stars, but they did see, or were told about, his justification where he was going to kill his son. But that was a public situation. So that was what we would call justification by works.

And the idea here about perfection, it's the idea to bring to completion, that's the goal. The goal of the Christian life is that we're to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him. So the goal of our faith is to be a complete fit. We grow and come to know Him better and we walk by faith and that results in works that glorify Him.

Okay. All right. Andrew, are you there? Yes, sir. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Oh, good. Okay. Actually, to save time, I have your slides in my presentation. So it's a little bit awkward, but I have the clicker, and you're the talker. Sure, okay. And why don't you turn it on so we can see you? Well, my video isn't working. Okay, all right. Okay, that's all right, too. Well, we'll overcome all obstacles here.

So, yeah, the backstory on this is I thought I was teaching last week, just because I made a mistake. I didn't check the latest schedule. So I had prepared a bunch on rehab. And then I saw Bob up there. What's Bob doing up there? And then I saw Miles in the class. And I thought, am I in the wrong class? So I got it all straightened out. So I went in a deep dive with rehab. Andrew, do you want me to put up all the bullets? Can you still hear me? Can you see them out here? Do you want me to put them all up at one time? Uh, yeah. Yeah, put it up. Okay. So... Okay. And Bob covered up to...

He covered Joshua chapter 2 up until verse 8. And then he skipped over, because you have to skip over Rahab's story a lot. And I found, I picked it up from verse 9 in Joshua chapter 2, and we'll go into that. So with Rahab, Joshua sent two spies to assess Jericho. So we're doing a background on Rahab here.

But why was that in secret? Why it says it was in secret? And the reason is this prior to 40 years before, there's this debacle at Kadesh Barnea. Israel was supposed to go into the land right then. But They sent in spies, 12 spies, and they said, no, don't go into the land. And the question about the land was the land of Canaan. You know, they were supposed to report what's it like? What are the people? Are they strong or weak? Are their cities fortified or open?

And that's from Numbers chapter 13. The spies came back and ten of them, I think two, Caleb and Joshua, gave a good report. The other ten spies came back and said, well, the land is wonderful. It's flowing with milk and honey. It's a wonderful land, but there are people, it's fortified, and there are giants there. There's Nephilim.

And we were like grasshoppers in their sight. And so that was the report from the spies. And because of this, God in punishment kept them in, wandering in, in the wilderness for another 40 years. And so you all remember all that. So that's some of the background. Okay. And then go on, Roger. Okay. And then, so after 40 years, Israel came back.

And now they're at that bank of the Jordan River. In Joshua chapter 3, they cross the river on dry ground. As you remember, the priests had the ark in the middle of the riverbed and the water heaped up and so they could cross on dry land. In Joshua chapter 4, God has placed memorial stones, 12, at their camp as a remembrance of them crossing the Jordan on dry ground.

In Joshua chapter 5, the sons of Israel, they're circumcised, so they're consecrated to enter the land and they're blessed and they're commissioned by this messenger who comes with a drawn sword and Joshua says, are you for or against us? And then the messenger said, Joshua, take off your sandals. This is holy ground. This right here, Gilgal, this is where you guys are going to enter the land.

Joshua chapter 6 is the command to march around Jericho for six days. And on the seventh day, they... Why don't you advance it there, Roger, again. On the seventh day, they... The walls fall. They march around seven times. The walls fall. But before that, you go back to Joshua chapter 2 and it's those spies.

They go to Rahab's home. They end up with her. She shares her home with her mom, brothers and sisters, and her brothers. And the king knows that Rahab has these spies, or they stayed with her when they came to spy out Jericho. And she uses subterfuge and spycraft, and she says, oh yes, they came, they stayed here, but boy, they left after dark, and now they're gone. But if you pursue them, you'll catch up to them. What she did is she, and we covered this last week with Bob, she hid them on the roof, And then she let them down on a rope. And so they got away.

So Rahab adeptly controls this whole situation. And she's really smart about it. And she controls the whole situation. And she arranges an oath for them to save her mother and her father and her brothers and sisters. And the reason why the spies really wanted the brothers and the dad to stay in her house while they went in and they took care of all the living people in Jericho. So they wouldn't fight against them. So she made a deal with him and they all lived.

So that's all good news. Okay, go on Roger there. So how, we know that Abraham was reckoned righteous by faith, you know, and that's what it says in Genesis 15-6. But what about, and that's the question I had. I couldn't I couldn't answer that for myself, so I went into this deep dive, but I found this section here in Joshua 2, 9 through 13. And as I said, Bob went up to 8, and then he skipped around.

But look at this, what she says to the men before they before Jericho is taken, she says, I know the Lord has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land where you came from in the wilderness have melted before you. She says, for we have heard how, one, the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and then two, what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And there she says again, we heard it and our hearts melted, no courage remained in any man any longer because of you.

And then look at this affirmation of faith she makes here. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now please swear to me by the Lord that you'll deal kindly. I've dealt kindly with you and you'll deal kindly with me and save my household.

But if you see that, I think right in there, there's She believes, so she believed on God before the Israelites ever got there because she's heard about them all her life. So if you compare that to Romans 10, 17, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So does not she say that she's heard about what God has done with the Israelites?

It's kind of cool there. And that Sion and Og, those are two kings that you see in the narrative there. And what they did is Israel was going to pass through their land and they nicely sent some messages to these kings and said, hey, we're going to pass through and we're not going to eat anything. We're not going to go to the left or right. We just want to just let us pass through. We won't stop at Denny's along the way. We will just let us through. And instead of these kings, instead of letting Israel do that, they attacked them. They came out with their armies and they attacked them. And that so angered God that he in his rage that he had Israel destroy them.

And that's the backstory with Sihonah and Og there that you see. Okay, Roger, advance it there. So therefore, yeah, I conclude that Rahab had heard of God's power and protection over that 40-year period. You know, she's a young girl, but she's been hearing about this all her life. And she had an awe, I think, of the God of Israel. And I think she believed long before they got there.

And so I asked myself, did I think that this was a work that God prepared Rahab to do beforehand, like in Ephesians 2.10? which is, you know, we are creating Christ for, we're in His workmanship, creating in Christ for good works. And I think, yeah, I think God had picked out Rahab to do this work.

So apart or alone or idle, I like that word idle from faith, the work of Rahab was no better than Abraham's trial. If done without God, and this is William Kelly, as this object in spring and the author of the work, both of these works were of no value or abominable from man's viewpoint.

Because if you think about it, what if Abraham went through and did kill Isaac? That would have been an awful thing, right? He was the son of promise. He was He was Isaac means laughter or God's joyful work as Roy pointed out a few weeks ago. And so for a father to slaughter his own son of promise by man's viewpoint would have looked awful, but yet it was a work of God.

And then advance it there, Roger, again. And so Rahab's work And this bothered me for a while. She betrayed her city and her king and all the inhabitants of Jericho went to their death, right? Because of the report that she gave the spies. So J.B. Stoney says, one was a father going out to put his son to death. The other, a bad woman betraying her country.

And he says, neither are what man terms as good works done from a kindly nature. You see what he's saying there? It's kind of an interesting thing. But yet these are works of God. And Rahab is in this Hall of Fame, James Hall of Fame, along with Abraham. She's also in the Hebrews Hall of Fame of Faith. She's in that one. So she's in two Halls of Fame of Faith. And then, on top of that, she's in the lineage of Jesus Christ himself. You know, so this, God likes this Rahab. And, you know. Amen. Yeah. So, but these two works that look awful from the man's viewpoint, if you think about their works of God.

So, Abraham, 2,000 years prior to Christ, was demonstrating that Isaac, that what he had him do was to type an event of what was to come to save Israel and the world. And that was the sacrifice of Christ. And then in Rahab, she provided the green light or the all go, all clear for Israel to finally take their land. And she, whereas of 10 spies before said, Oh no, it's a no go. And so, you know, this one woman put these guys to shame. Because if they would have gone in at Kaddish Barnea, they would have had victory too. They just melted away.

So, I think this might be Darby here. He says, the works aren't pretty, they aren't lovely, but they are divinely inspired works. They're divinely orchestrated and they had the full faith and credit of God himself. Let's see if I... Do I go on there, Roger? No, that's it. That's the last thing. Okay, great. Any last things you want to... Last thoughts?

It's interesting how the spies saw the people of Jericho as giants and and unapproachable, but Rahab, who was looking at her people through faith, saw them melting away before God's people. She saw them in a different light, and it's very cool. If you're the United States, you don't want Rahab as part of your CIA or something. He gave away all this intel.

She said, oh yeah, their hearts are melting. We're shaking in our boots. Yeah, you can come in here and take these guys. It's easy. So, yeah. That's great, Andrew. So, I hope you folks, this is kind of a combination of review and then a little more amplification. I thought it was just outstanding. That's why I wanted him to do it. So actually, unfortunately, we probably should give thanks. Andrew, thanks for sharing with us. his information? You have it. Oh, we do have it. You have it. It's in your handout. I sent it out this morning. Yeah, it's really good. I thought it really complimented that really well. Okay, so let's, you know, kind of jam-packed session here. So let's close.

We thank you, Father, so much for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have. We thank you for the life of Abraham and for Rahab, too, Lord. In our minds, quite different people, but in your plan, just your servants to accomplish your goal, Father. We thank you for that. Quite the same, thanks.