The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: By faith, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will bring Jesus into your heart, into your mind, into your thoughts, into your life, into your family, into your home. It'll all start with you. What a responsibility, but what a wonderful privilege and opportunity.

Guest (Male): Psalm 107 verse 20: He sent His word and healed them. Welcome to the Healing Word. Here's Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: Salvation's Scarlet Cord. This is one of the great stories of the Old Testament, of the entire Bible. A great story of a woman who put a scarlet cord, a red rope, out the window to the saving of her soul and the souls of her parents and her brothers and her sisters and the family members. Verse 21 of Joshua chapter 2: "And she tied the scarlet cord in the window."

My prayer this morning is that as you hear the word and as you come to this holy table, that somehow by faith in Jesus, you will tie or retie that scarlet blood of Jesus over your soul and experience Him in a new and living way to the forgiveness of sins, to the healing of hurts, to whatever your need is.

The people of Israel were camped and ready to go into the promised land. For 40 years they had wandered in the desert under the leadership of Moses. 40 years, that's a long time. And now they're ready, tiptoe ready, everything is packed up and they're ready to move across Jordan and claim the land that God promised their father Abraham many, many years prior to that event.

God spoke to Abraham and told him if he could name or number the stars or count the seashore sands, he would be able to number the people of Israel, his posterity, that "This land, Abraham, that you're walking on will belong to your posterity someday."

Well, the day had come. For over 400 years, the people of Israel had lived in the land of Egypt, somebody else's land, not their land. God says, "You have a land, you have a promise. It's a good land that flows with milk and honey. Someday you're going to move into that land and claim it. It'll be yours. The blessing of God is there. The blessing of God will be upon you."

Well, that promise, a long time in becoming a reality, but the day has finally come. They're ready to go, ready to move into the land. Now Moses died. His successor was Joshua, the mantle of leadership fell on Joshua, who would guide this migrant nation, a great nation, maybe two and a half million people.

And Joshua was ready, but just before he decided to give the call to march forward, he sent two spies to go over there and check out the land and strategize the attack. They're ready. When you're ready, you're ready, right? When you're ready, you want to go and get it done. And then of all things, a three-day delay.

400 years down there in Egypt, 40 years of wandering in the desert, and now a three-day delay? What's going on? There's a soul over there to be saved. Now listen, friend, God will stop a nation. He'll hold up a whole nation for one person. You're one person. You're one person. I see a whole lot of one persons here today.

Think of Jesus and the one. Jesus tells us about the shepherd who left the 90 and nine and went after one, just one. There was a poor woman sick for many years, spent all of her livelihood trying to get well. She was no better off than when she started; actually, she was worse off, she was more sick now than she was 12 years ago.

And she presses through the crowd and touched the hem of Jesus' garment, and what did Jesus do? He stopped. Friend, let me tell you something, you can stop Jesus in his tracks today by calling out to him. He will hear your prayer, he will bless your soul, he will minister to you, but you have to reach out and touch his garment by faith, by prayer, by that request. You have to do something.

And he's here for you to do it. He's going to answer your prayer. And Jesus was on his way to Calvary. But think about it, Calvary was why he came. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. But he would stop the process and progress toward Calvary for one poor sick feeble woman hemorrhaging. She's going to die anyway, but Jesus is going to take care of her, just like he takes care of us.

On another occasion, Jesus on the road and a blind man calls out: "Oh Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me." Now what the disciples couldn't get him to do, what that mob that was around him couldn't get him to do, the cry of a poor blind man stopped him.

Friend, God is listening for you to cry out or to present something, whatever that is, that need, to help you, to bless you, to minister to you. There was one woman on the other side of Jordan, her name was Rahab, and God would hold up this nation three more days to get her soul saved.

Isn't that amazing? I've read that story so many times and I'm still amazed at the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The woman's name was Rahab. She had a bad reputation. She was a harlot. Now listen, God doesn't care about your background, he cares about you. He cares about you right now and your need.

Those spies, two of them, were sent out to spy out the land, to strategize the attack. That's what they thought they were sent out to do and they did that, they tried to do that, but that wasn't the reason that God was sending them out. Even Joshua didn't know why he was sending them out. God had a divine appointment for Rahab and a mission for these two spies.

And these spies met this lady whose heart was ready. Now listen, friend, if your heart is ready for God's blessing, the blessing of God will come. But if you have been so active, or I have been so active, which has happened many times to most of us during the week, and the week has just drained us out, and we got up and hurried off to church, could hardly get our clothes on, the clock was ticking and we just ran in here and sat down—friend, you're not ready yet.

But if we have prayed and we have sought the Lord, even driving to the house of God, the house of prayer, the house of communion with the Almighty, if your heart is ready, I want you to know God is ready also and he has been ready. Friend, this is the day the Lord has made and he's made it for you and made it for me.

This woman, let me turn over here to Joshua chapter 2 verse 11. This woman had heard about Israel and what God was doing. And as Reverend Dave Williams said a moment ago, faith comes by hearing. Say that: "Faith comes by hearing." What are you hearing right now? The word of God. Faith is building right now in your heart and I believe God's going to move and act upon your faith, address your situation, bring glory to his name, and bring blessing to you.

Now, God isn't glorified until he blesses and God wants to be glorified, so he wants to bless, but you and I have to decide: are we ready for that blessing? Listen to what happened here. Rahab said to those two spies, "When we heard of it, heard of the deliverance from Egypt, when we heard of the plagues and the miraculous things that God did, and when we heard how God led you out and how Pharaoh changed his mind and wanted you back, and when we heard how God opened the Red Sea"—you see, she heard. She heard, and it was in the hearing that brought faith to this harlot's heart and prepared her to receive what God had already planned to give to her.

"When we heard, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below." How did she come to that conclusion that God was the God of heaven above and on earth below? How did she come to that? She heard. You're hearing. You're hearing. This is a faith-building day for you to receive God's blessing. I'm excited for you. I really am excited for you. God's going to do something today. I've come with expectation, I believe you have come that way also.

Now this lady is noted for three things, this woman Rahab. Number one, she's an ancestor of Jesus. Doesn't that sort of stagger your imagination? Well, look it up, Matthew chapter 1 verse 5, when you see the genealogy of Jesus, Rahab's name is there. Yes, this harlot, this harlot was an ancestor of Jesus.

God makes all things new, particularly people, when people are ready to receive him and the blessing. So she's noted for being an ancestor of Jesus, she's noted for her faith, and she's noted thirdly for her good works. This woman was ready. Ready to receive the blessing of God.

Now these two spies, I think of them somehow getting into the city of Jericho. Now Jericho was on the other side of the Jordan River. Jericho was the first city for them to come to in the promised land, the first city that had to be destroyed, the walls had to come down. You're going in to possess the land, take it over. It's yours. And all these promises in God's word, all of them are yours.

God didn't have to promise himself anything, but he took it upon himself to promise you and me a land of blessing. It's all recorded in the word. And here come these two spies, somehow they get in, and they got into her house and it was on a city wall. I wonder if they really knew whose house they were in. I mean, this was not a bed and breakfast. This was a harlot's house. And these were godly men. Well, I don't know whether they knew where they were, but that's where they were, in this woman's house.

Again, they thought they had been sent out to strategize an attack, but all the while they had been sent out to reach this one soul for Jesus. That's how important you and I are to Christ. This one soul for the Lord. This was a divine appointment. Well, the King of Jericho heard about it, I don't know how he heard about it, but he got wind that two spies had come and his heart melted. He was frightened.

He'd heard the story too. But friend, you can hear and not believe. You can come to church and go home like you came to church with nothing happening. Rahab heard, believed, and received and was saved and all her household. The King of Jericho heard the same story and he didn't believe it and didn't receive it and he died under divine punishment. Friend, you and I have a big choice today.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. With the heart, man believes, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Friend, this is your day. Hey, I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, "This is your day." Come on, turn to a neighbor. This is your day. God is in his house. We have come to church for a purpose.

God is here to do something great and beautiful and wonderful. And that's all God does: great and beautiful and wonderful things for his people. Saves us and then he brings us into the milk and honey blessings of his divine grace. Well, when the King heard that there were two spies there to spy out the land, somehow he thought they might be in Rahab's house and he sent his police over there and she hid them on the roof and then later she let them down over the wall through a window.

Now Rahab's request, hear her request. Let me go back over here to Joshua chapter 2. Here she's talking to them. Friend, listen to me today, please. You have to request whatever your need is, you have to request it. You have to ask God for it. God is waiting to be gracious. Listen to her request, she's talking to these spies.

She says, "Now then, please swear to me by the Lord"—now you will notice the word "Lord," L-O-R-D, all cap letters, that means Jehovah, God Almighty. That woman has come a long way in her faith already. She knew that there's God behind all of this, that this is the hand of God that is about to move against that city.

"Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign, verse 13, that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, that you will save us from death." That's exactly, basically, fundamentally right to the point. She didn't beat around the bush so to speak. "We need saving." And that was her request, that's what she asked them.

And here's what the spies answered her. Now listen, verse 18 of that same chapter, they answered her, "Unless"—and in my Bible I underscored it, I took a red pen or red pencil and I underscored it, that word "unless"—"unless when we enter the land you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which we let you down, and unless"—there's that word again.

Friend, unless you pray, unless you ask, unless you do something, God's not going to be able to do anything. But when you do, okay, listen to this. "Unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house, if anyone goes outside your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head. We will not be responsible."

Her request was answered. She was told exactly what to do. God tells every one of us in his word exactly what to do. It's very plain. The scriptures, we complicate it. We really do, we complicate it. Now I remember that night, it was a Sunday evening. We used to have Sunday evening services. My sister came up and knelt down, and after she'd knelt down and prayed, she got up.

She said to me, she said, "Jack, I've heard you preach a lot of sermons. But that sermon you preached tonight got to me." And it was just the message of the coming of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, the virgin birth, and why he came. And when the service was over, I walked to the back and there stood Jimmy, her husband, holding my nephew Gregory, a little tiny boy. Big tears in his eyes. Their marriage was in a state of conflict.

I knew that and I said, "Jimmy, your wife just knelt at that altar and gave her heart to the Lord. You give your heart to the Lord. Be married in Jesus. God will bless your union, God will help you." Big tears just welled up in his eyes. Six months later, both of them were killed on the Baltimore Beltway, had a terrible car accident. They're in heaven.

Then my mother. I remember my mother. She didn't always go to church. After she got me started, there was a breakup in our family, my parents divorced, and my mother became bitter. My mother was very bitter after my sister's death. And I prayed and prayed for her. The family's gone, it's just me and Mom now. And I definitely want her to go to heaven. And she was dying. She died when she was about 92.

And I spoke to her and I said, "Jesus died for you and me." Friend, you don't have to know a whole lot of theology to be a soul winner for Jesus. You don't need to go to seminary to bring your children to Sunday school or to have a family altar or to come to church. You just need to know that Jesus died and took our sins on the cross for himself.

Spurgeon, the great pastor of yesteryear, Prince of Preachers, he said he could sum up his whole theology in these words: "Jesus died on a cross for me." He said, "That's my theology." Friend, that's all you need to know. You want to know more than that as time goes on, you want to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord. But I said to my mother, I said, "Jesus died for you and me." And she repeated it back to me, "Jesus died for you and me."

So now my nuclear biological family is in heaven. I married a Christian, and my son and daughter and two granddaughters are in heaven. Friend, way back there, I put a scarlet cord over my house and over my family, and I kept at it by the grace of God, only the grace of God. I'm not boasting, only boasting in him. God helped me to be consistent all these years until I saw them one by one by one coming into the kingdom of God.

You don't need to raise your hand, but I need to ask you, do you have some family members who are unsaved? Well, let me ask you this, are you saved? Do you have the scarlet cord over your life? God's looking for something today and that's the blood of Jesus. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." The blood of Jesus. Make this a renewal, a new commitment to God. Calvary covers it all. All praise to the one who ransomed my soul. Calvary covers it all.

Jesus paid for your redemption, for my redemption. Friend, I have sinned, you have sinned, every living human being with the exception of Jesus has sinned. But God hears and answers prayer, forgives sins, puts sins away and gives new life to the person who will ask. Where you are now, ask Jesus to come into your heart and he'll hear your prayer, forgive your sins, and give you new life.

Yes, you can have a new beginning, a fresh start by looking to Jesus. He can do for you what you can't do for yourself and nobody else can do for you. That's how much he loves you. Redemption through his blood.

Guest (Male): If today's message strengthened your faith, we invite you to stand with the Healing Word through your prayers and your generous support. Every gift helps us take the gospel to more people who desperately need to hear that Jesus still saves. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.