The Great Rescue Story

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Everybody Needs to Be Rescued"

"How to Become a Girl of Loyalty"

"The End Is Just the Beginning"

-------------------

Dannah Gresh: Did you ever watch the cartoon Mighty Mouse? It was produced in the 1950s . . . I guess I'm aging myself here. In the opening theme song of each episode, Mighty Mouse sings . . .

“Here I come to save the day!”

Okay, that wasn't anything like Mighty Mouse sounded. But does it bring back the memory . . . yeah. I think the opera voice is funny! And yes, I’m aware: that song has been used in other contexts since Mighty Mouse.

But here's the deal: the concept resonates with us, because deep down, we all know we have a huge problem. We need to be rescued.

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m your host, Dannah Gresh.

It’s true, isn’t it? Do you feel it on the inside, at the core of your being? There’s a hole that can’t be filled with anything. Maybe you feel like you’re drowning. Maybe you’re trapped in an addiction that feels like a heavy chain on your soul. Maybe your friends and family have abandoned you. Maybe you’ve made such a mess of your own life by your wrong choices that you just feel hopeless.

Can I tell you something? Not only is there hope, but you have a Rescuer who’s already at work. He’s put His rescue mission into motion, and He’s not just here to save the day, He’s here to save you.

Let’s start by hearing about a woman in the Old Testament, a woman named Rahab. She was a prostitute. She was living in Jericho, a community that was opposed to God and God’s people. Her past was full of shame. She knew she was in danger. And so, in her desperation, she helped two men escape being captured. She knew they were on God’s side, and she asked for mercy. And you know what? God gave it to her. The men told her to hang a red cord from her window so she could be rescued when Jericho was taken. You can read the whole story in the Bible in Joshua chapter 2.

Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth to explain what Rahab’s rescue has to do with you and me.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The grace of God is such that there are no hopeless cases. There is no sinner God cannot save, and that’s what the story of Rahab tells us. If God could save someone like Rahab with her history of immorality and idolatry, He can save anyone.

I think of Charles Colson. He and his wife Patty have been dear friends to our family for many years. He was the counsel to President Richard Nixon. He was known as the White House hatchet man. Some of you are old enough to remember this. In 1974 he was indicted for conspiring to cover up the Watergate burglary.

He was born again shortly before he started a prison term that lasted seven months. Now, I want to tell you what born again means. It means you get a new identity. You’re a new person. You’re not who you were.

When news of Mr. Colson’s conversion to Christianity leaked to the press, The Boston Globe reported, “If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody.” Amen! And Mr. Colson would agree.

So the story of Rahab reminds us there’s no sinner God cannot save. Let’s make it a little more personal than that. The story of Rahab reminds us that you can be saved regardless of your past. You may feel, you may think, as you remember what you’ve done and where you’ve been and who you’ve been, “God couldn’t save me. My sin is too great.” Or maybe you think, I don’t know enough about this Christianity thing.

I want to tell you Rahab’s testimony takes all those excuses away. Rahab was the least likely. Her position, however, was no better and no worse than ours. We are all Rahabs. We were all born rebellious against God. We were all born going our way, doing our own thing. Some have done it with prostitution. Some have done it by substance abuse, drugs and alcohol, and some have done it with pride and self-sufficiency and religion.

But we’re all moral bottom-feeders, hopeless and helpless apart from Christ. You may be thinking, Well, I don’t really relate to Rahab’s story. I haven’t done the kinds of things she did. I’m not a prostitute. Galatians 3:10 tells us that, “It is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”

So you don’t have to be a prostitute to go to hell. You can be sitting in the front row of church every Sunday and still be under the judgment and the wrath of God. What’s the qualification? If you don’t abide by everything that is written in the Book of the Law to do it.

You say, “Well then, everybody’s hopeless!” You’re right. There is no hope for any human being apart from the grace of God. The intervening mercy of God, that scarlet cord, the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed in our place as a substitute and in payment for our sin.

Rahab’s salvation was not based on her character or anything good that she had done. She lived in a wicked city. She practiced a wicked lifestyle. She was saved, not because of her goodness, not because she cleaned up her act, but by the grace of God. It was undeserved.

That’s what the gospel is all about. The gospel is the story of abounding sin—Rahab the prostitute—and super-abounding grace. That’s the good news. Charles Spurgeon in his message on Rahab says, “The chief of sinners is as welcome to Christ as the best of saints.” We all need Christ.

I think about John Newton who lived a rebellious, profligate life in the 1700s. He was a slave trader for years. He’s the one who wrote that hymn "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." I want to tell you what, if you’ve never known yourself to be a wretch, you won’t really be able to sing "Amazing Grace" because not until you have felt the weight of how your sin separates you from God will God’s grace seem to be amazing to you.

Near the end of Newton’s life—he was, I think, eighty-two years of age at the time—he said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things—that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.” That’s all you need to know. You can forget everything else but remember those two things. I am a great sinner. Newton never got over the wonder of the fact that God would have saved him.

My dad never got over the wonder of the fact that God would have saved him. Throughout his Christian life until he went to heaven, when he would talk about where God found him and how God had delivered him from his past life, he would tear up because he knew he was a great sinner, but he knew that Christ was a great Savior.

I want to tell you ladies, you and I do not deserve an iota of the grace of God any more than John Newton or Rahab did. We’re no better off. Psalm 14:2–3 tells us, “The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

You’re no better. I’m no better than Rahab the prostitute; than John Newton, the slave trader; than Charles Colson, the White House hatchet man. We are all, all, all under God’s judgment apart from His intervening mercy.

Are you getting that message? Is it precious to you?

Let me just say as we close here that not only can you be saved regardless of your past. The story of Rahab also reminds us that the most hopelessly lost people you know can also be saved—friends, loved ones you’re burdened for, children, a mate, a sibling, people at work, neighbor.

I’m astounded as I read the story of Rahab at the lengths to which God will go to redeem and rescue hopelessly lost sinners. Think about the fact that God sent those two spies into Jericho. The information those spies got from that trip really wasn’t necessary. I mean, God knew how He was going to take that city and the information they got had no bearing on how the city was conquered.

So why did God send them there? To find Rahab, to rescue her from destruction. What a redeeming God we have who will spare no expense, will go to any lengths, any means to the point of sending His Son Christ to this earth to bring about your salvation.

It’s a miracle. It’s a wonder. And it’s available not only to her, but to you and me. Praise God.

Dannah: Rahab had shameful sexual sin in her past, but God rescued her. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been reminding you: you can be rescued, too!

There’s more to Rahab’s story. She married a Hebrew man named Nahshon, and they had a son named . . . Boaz.

There’s a rescue story that involves Boaz, too. Here’s a portion of a True Girl podcast episode where Staci Rudolph and I talk about that amazing story. We were helping our “true girls” take a deeper dive in the book of Ruth.

-------------------

Dannah: In chapter 4, Boaz had to go to the town and make sure that the leaders and another family redeemer would allow him to marry Ruth. The other family redeemer was allowed to pick first and marry Ruth if he wanted to, but he passed on a great girl. Because of that, Boaz was allowed to marry Ruth! Was it God or the people who “determined her steps”?

Staci Rudolph: We know by now that that too was God.

Dannah: Right, you are my friend. You know something else, Staci?

Staci: What?

Dannah: In the same way that God was writing the story for Ruth, He

is also always involved in our lives. Unless we’re looking for where God is working in our lives every day, sometimes the things He does can go unnoticed. Don’t let that happen. It’s important to stop and look for where He is working. When we look for the ways God is working in our lives, we can see how much He loves us!

Staci: So, when God was planning the story of Ruth, He did it with a specific purpose in mind, huh? Not only did He want to teach us loyalty and show us how loyalty can affect our lives, but He wanted to show His loyalty to us!

Dannah: Exactly. Remember that loyalty is an act of love. When we see and recognize God’s work in the story of Ruth, we see how much He loved her. And how did He show His love? Let’s read Psalm 34:19 to find out.

Staci: can read it for us.

The righteous person faces many troubles,
but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.

God comes to the rescue each time! Does that sound like our definition of loyalty or what?

Dannah: Yep! God continues to show up for us over and over again. Ruth faced many troubles, but she remained loyal, making her a righteous person.

Staci: And she did get rescued from her troubles. She was an outcast in that country with no way of living a comfortable life there. No one liked her because she was different. She couldn’t make money because she was a woman. She had to work hard all day to even get enough food to eat for dinner every night. Talk about troubles!

Dannah: Yep, but the story didn’t end there. God didn’t let it.

Instead, He introduced Ruth to Boaz. Boaz accepted Ruth and loved her. He married her and changed her life from being a time of trouble, to a time of celebrating!

Instead of being bullied and rejected, Ruth was accepted!

Instead of never having enough to eat, Ruth now owned the whole farm!

Instead of having no family, Ruth now had a husband, and she had a son!

God loved Ruth, so He sent Boaz into Ruth’s life to rescue her. Boaz was Ruth’s family redeemer. He gave her a new life.

God wanted Ruth’s life to turn out that way because He wanted to remind us of His love for us. Do you know God was trying to use this story to remind us of another story? I’ll give you a hint: it’s the story of Ruth’s great, great, great, great (times a ton more “greats”) grandson: Jesus!

Just like Ruth, we’re living a life that has a lot of troubles. I bet it’s not very hard for you to remember a time when you felt really sad, hopeless, lonely, or even afraid. You’ve probably felt all of those feelings, just like Ruth did! But that’s not the end of the story for Ruth, and whatever you’re facing right now is not the end of your story either.

God sent Boaz to rescue Ruth, and He sent Jesus to rescue us. Jesus Christ is our family redeemer! Have you ever heard of Jesus called our Redeemer?

Staci: Yeah, I have. And that makes so much sense. That connection is so amazing and so true! When we were separated from God by our sins, God’s providence sent Jesus to protect and provide for us.

Now, you may ask, “What is Jesus protecting us from?” Jesus is protecting us from death. I know it’s not the happiest thing to talk about, but death is a sad reality in our world. The book of Ruth starts with death. And each of our lives will end with physical death, but we do not have to die spiritually. Jesus has protected us from that.

Dannah: And this brings us full circle, Staci. Earlier in our study of Ruth’s story, we talked about how Jesus’ life is the best example of loyalty, and I shared John 3:16 with us. Let me read it once again.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus died for us so that we don’t have to die spiritually. He did this to remain loyal to God the Father’s desire to have a relationship with each of us and to remain loyal to His love for us. There’s no greater example of loyal love!

You’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m Dannah Gresh, and that’s an excerpt from one of our True Girl episodes on the book of Ruth. To hear more of anything we play on this program, just head to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, and select this episode. We have links there for you.

As Staci and I mentioned, Boaz was a picture of our great Redeemer, Jesus. He’s our lover who rescued us from our slavery to sin. Erika VanHaitsma talked about that in a series on the Passover. She says the actual rescue is only the beginning. Let’s listen.

Erika VanHaitsma: In many ways, it’s the classical love story. The hero, an amazing man who’s willing to overcome any obstacle to rescue and win the heart of the woman he loves. The bigger the obstacle, the stronger the hero’s love appears, doesn’t it? And oh, how we rejoice at the end of the story when the bad guy is defeated and finally they come together. The good guy wins, and the girl is free to be with the one who has proven his love.

Our God is a Lover. And one level of Scripture is that it’s a love story—a story of a God who’s so passionately and intensely in love with His people that He would rather die than live without her.

We saw this in the exodus, as God came bounding over the mountains and leaping over the hills to set Israel free from Egypt and Pharaoh. He gave them Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread to remind them of their new status—no longer slaves to Pharaoh, now slaves to God.

And according to God’s amazing plan, it was around the time of the Passover celebration that our Passover Lamb was slain, but His blood was too precious to be put on doors. His blood gets applied to us.

It was on the cross that God took us, that God took you and God took me, from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. The decisive blow to the power of sin was given on the cross. Its ownership of mankind was destroyed. And in the resurrection, death has been defeated. It no longer can hold us. The last major obstacle between God and His people has been removed.

First Corinthian 15 states, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 'Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?'” (vv. 54–55). God has come down once again, bounding over the mountains, tearing heaven and earth, but this time the mighty powers of sin and death have been cancelled forever.

Because of the cross and the resurrection, we now have a new owner. We now belong to God. It’s because of the cross, God the Father is able to say of you, “She’s Mine. That one right there, she belongs to Me.”

Romans 11 talks about how we have been grafted into this covenant between God and Israel. We are now part of the people of God. So as disciples of Jesus, as citizens of God’s kingdom, we, too, have been called to join in with Israel and remember this night, the night our God set us free—but not from Pharaoh—from the kingdom of darkness, from the power of sin and death.

Because of the faithfulness of Jesus unto death, the spirit of the living God resides in you. No longer in a building, God’s presence is in His people. We have access to the very throne room of heaven because of this. That’s an amen!

One thing that frustrates me about Hollywood—their movies and, honestly, their real-life romances—is that they seem to stop once the couple gets married. Have you noticed this? Once they come together and have a wedding, it’s like everything is downhill after that. You never get to see what happens afterwards.

But in God’s view, that’s just the beginning. Unlike the typical Hollywood story, the biblical story doesn’t end with just the beloved one coming to rescue the girl. If the Bible followed Hollywood’s story pattern, then the exodus would go something like this: God and Pharaoh would have that showdown. Pharaoh would be defeated and a broken man. God and Israel would go walking off into the sunset hand-in-hand, and the last scene would probably be the sun setting over them, and then boom, the movie goes black, the curtain comes down, the story is over.

But there’s more to story than just that, isn’t there? The Book doesn’t end in Exodus. It continues. The marriage is not the end. It’s the beginning. God’s not done. The relationship hasn’t fully been consummated yet for one thing. The dwelling place of God is not yet with man. Even after the exodus, God’s not able to intimately dwell with His people, is He? There’s still a Tabernacle, a Temple. They still can’t see His face.

Even for us, the Bible says the Holy Spirit has been given as a down payment, a guarantee that something greater is coming. In other words, getting saved is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning. Just because you know Jesus doesn’t mean the excitement is done and you just get to kind of float around until you die and be with Him. There’s so much more!

Song of Solomon chapter 2 describes the coming of the Lover as bounding and leaping. This Lover is excited. He is anxious, wanting to be with his beloved. Why does he come? The poem continues, “My beloved spoke and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me’” (v. 10).

The Lord comes to be with the one He loves, to enter into the most intimate of relationships, to take her hand and walk every single day with her.

God didn’t redeem Israel from Egypt and then leave them to wander around. Neither did He instantly transport her up to heaven, did He? He left them on earth, and He brings them to Mount Sinai to begin this relationship.

And once they’re in this covenant, He still doesn’t take them out of earth. He leaves them and comes down to be with them, to walk with them. The relationship is to begin here and now we serve the same God, and we, too, have been saved for the same purpose.

God’s not American, and He’s not a revolutionary. He’s God. He’s interested in you personally. He loves you deeply. But can I humbly suggest He’s not interested in your personal rights and freedoms.

His ways and thoughts are much higher than that. He knows He’s God. He knows what He deserves. He doesn’t have to win most popular. He doesn’t have to get enough votes. All the world could cry “foul” against Him, and He would still be a good God.

Salvation is not about simply getting away from hell and getting to heaven when you die. It’s not a type of fire insurance. This amazing God rent the heavens, not only so that you could be set free from fear of eternal punishment, but so that He could be with you today, so you could know Him intimately right now.

The Creator of the universe set you free from slavery to sin so He could take your hand and walk with you. Remember, you’ve been brought out so that you can be brought in. The power of sin and death have been removed so that you can belong to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son right now and have true intimacy with God today.

You are now part of the covenant people of God. You now have a new Master. Your eyes can now see Him. Your legs can walk after Him. You can hear the voice of your Beloved calling you, “Arise, come walk with Me today.”

Second Corinthians 5:17 states, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone. [Egypt has finally been left behind] The new has come” (paraphrased). (That new loaf of bread we’ve been celebrating.)

Just like Israel, you also have been made new. You are to put to death the old and begin again. You are not a slave to sin. You are not bound by the fear of death. Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Sin can no longer control you. Death no longer can keep you.

But that also means you’re not your own. You’ve been bought with a price. You, too, belong to someone.

So what does the Lord your God require of you?

• To fear the Lord your God.
• To serve Him only.
• To be like Him.
• To love what He loves and to hate what He hates.
• To forgive as He forgives.
• To serve as He served.

But it’s to come from a heart of love—love for this amazing God who did so much to save you.

It’s about the relationship. God’s not interested in robots. God is a lover who wants a relationship, to walk with you, to talk with you today. He wants you to set aside times each day to be with Him, each week to focus on Him, even now in the midst of the craziness of your busy, unending, every-moment-has-something-planned life. God wants you to stop and just be His, being transformed into the image of His Son even now, and then one day we will see Him face to face.

Dannah: An encouraging word there, from Erika VanHaitsma.

Where are you in the story? Have you been rescued by Jesus? If not, cry out to Him. Just tell Him, “I need you. I need to be rescued! Help!”

Or maybe you need to grow in your love for the One who rescued you. What steps can you take today, this week, to increase the level of closeness between you and the Lord? Think about it.

Well, that whole love story of history, the overarching story of Scripture, is something we’ll look at in greater detail this fall at True Woman '25 in Indianapolis. Our theme will be: The Word: Behold the Wonder. And let me tell you, you’re not going to grow closer to our redeeming Lover, Jesus, until you grow in your wonder of God’s Word.

I hope you’ll sign up today. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will be there; I’ll be there; Pastor Kevin DeYoung will be there . . . and so many more. It’s October 2–4 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. All the details are at this website: TrueWoman25.com. Hope you can make it!

We started out this program chuckling about Mighty Mouse coming to save the day. Then we saw that Someone way better than Mighty Mouse has come to actually rescue us. But you know what? We still live in a fallen, broken world. Our Hero isn’t finished putting all the wrongs to right . . . yet. So, in the meantime, we still have sorrow. We still grieve. We go through hard things.

Next week, we’ll talk about how believers in Jesus can be what the apostle Paul called “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” I hope you’ll join us for that.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.