WEBVTT

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 - Men, this morning I'm preaching on these 10 gates

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 that we just saw enumerated in Nehemiah chapter number three.

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 And as I said in my sermon last week about the wall,

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 as Christians, there should be a separation

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 or a difference between us

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 and the rest of the world around us.

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 The whole point of going to church

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 is to be around like-minded people

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 that believe the way that we believe,

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 and kind of have an oasis of sanity in an insane world

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 where our thoughts and our worldview

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 are conformed to the Word of God.

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 And our lives, we're gonna live our lives differently

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 because we're following the Bible,

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 as opposed to just being heathen out there,

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 doing whatever's right in our own eyes.

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 And so the wall kind of represents that separation

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 or demarcation or distinction between us

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 and the rest of the world at large.

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 Well, in this chapter, they're going through

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 and they're repairing the wall.

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 And it gives the detail as they repair the wall

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 that they build these 10 specific gates

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 or repair these 10 gates that had been there previously.

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 And so I'm gonna talk about the symbolism

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 that these gates could represent.

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 We got the sheep gate, the fish gate,

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 the old gate and so forth.

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 And so these could be seen as like aspects

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 of the Christian life or aspects of Christian growth

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 or aspects of distinction between us and everybody else.

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 So let's go ahead and look at these.

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 And obviously I'm gonna give an interpretation here.

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 This is not the only interpretation

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 because the Bible is so deep.

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 There are so many layers upon layers of meaning

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 that obviously you could just keep reading the Bible

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 and keep finding new things and new imagery

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 and new symbolism, but this is an interpretation.

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 This is a legitimate interpretation, of course.

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 But look if you would at chapter three, verse one,

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 the Bible reads, "Then Elijah the high priest rose up

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 "with his brother and the priest,

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 "and they builded the sheep gate.

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 "They sanctified it and set up the doors of it,

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 "even under the tower of Meah,

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 "they sanctified it onto the tower of Hananiel."

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 So number one, the sheep gate could represent salvation,

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 becoming a sheep as opposed to being one of the goats.

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 Because let's face it,

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 there are two kinds of people in this world

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 and there's nothing in between.

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 There are people that are saved

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 and there are people that are not saved.

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 This is a binary distinction.

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 He that hath the son, hath life.

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 And he that hath not the son of God, hath not life.

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 And you are either saved or you are not saved.

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 If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ,

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 if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ

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 as your savior, you are saved.

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 And if you have not trusted Christ as your savior,

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 you are unsaved.

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 It is that simple.

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 There are the sheep and there are the goats.

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 You're either in or out, saved or unsaved.

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 So the sheep gate could represent that distinction

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 of being saved, being one of the sheep.

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 Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them

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 and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life

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 and they shall never perish.

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 Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

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 So being saved is being the sheep.

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 But number two, we have the fish gate.

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 Now what could the fish gate represent?

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 Well, if you would flip over to John chapter four,

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 John chapter four, but in verse number three, it says,

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 but the fish gate did the sons of Hassanah build,

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 who also laid the beams thereof and set up the doors

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 thereof and the locks thereof and the bars thereof.

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 Now, when we think of the fish gate,

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 the first thing that probably comes to mind is evangelism.

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 So winning because when Jesus is first picking out

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 his disciples, some of whom were literal fishermen,

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 he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

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 And so this is the first work that he gives his disciples

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 and says, look, you are going to be fishers of men.

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 He said, the son of man has come to seek

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 and to save that which was lost.

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 And then at the end of his ministry,

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 at the end of his life, he said,

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 as the father had sent me, so send I you.

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 And so we are supposed to be out there seeking

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 and saving the lost fishers of men, winning people to Christ.

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 And if you think about the order here,

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 and I'm not saying that all of these gates

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 are necessarily going to follow a perfect order,

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 but if we think about the order, it's like,

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 get saved, sheep gate, fish gate,

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 get soul winning right away.

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 I don't think there's any reason to wait on evangelizing.

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 I mean, if you're saved, you're ready to evangelize.

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 You should get out there and start evangelizing right away.

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 You say, I don't know, I need to clean up my life more.

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 I need to get the sin out of my life.

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 Look, first you bring forth fruit,

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 then God will purge you

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 so that you bring forth even more fruit.

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 But you start out by bringing forth fruit ASAP.

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 The sooner you get out soul winning, the better.

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 The sooner you evangelize, the better.

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 You say, well, I have to know the answer

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 to every false religion question.

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 What if I'm out knocking doors

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 and somebody hits me with something

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 and I don't know the answer?

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 You know, in some ways,

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 this almost can make beginner soul winners

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 even better than advanced soul winners

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 because sometimes the advanced soul winner

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 knows so much about the Bible

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 that when some bozo wants to argue with them about doctrine,

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 they're just like, oh man, I got,

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 I've trained my whole life for this.

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 It's like, I got this guy and I'm gonna nail him.

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 And they could get sucked into foolish questions

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 and vain jangling and arguments and contentions, right?

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 Whereas the beginner is just like, well, I don't know, man.

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 Let me just finish what I'm preaching to you here.

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 And let's just get back on track

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 and let me just preach to you the gospel.

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 Let's talk about that later.

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 And by the way, that's what you should do

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 if you're advanced too, right?

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 If somebody brings up some off topic wild question

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 about ancient aliens and whatever,

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 you know, the best thing to do is just say,

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 hey, let's talk about that later.

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 Or why don't I answer that question in a moment?

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 But first I just want to kind of get through

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 what I'm saying here about salvation,

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 about the gospel, right?

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 And keeping it on point with that.

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 So no, you don't need to be super smart,

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 super advanced, super knowledgeable,

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 super holy in order to get started evangelizing.

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 Obviously in the long run,

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 you want to be all those things, right?

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 You want to study to show yourself approved.

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 You want to learn the Bible.

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 You want to clean up your life.

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 But you know what?

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 Evangelism can start at day one.

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 A lot of people will say this.

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 Well, I can't evangelize

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 'cause I don't want to be a hypocrite.

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 Hold on.

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 What is it that you're preaching for people to do?

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 You're preaching for people to believe on Jesus

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 as their savior.

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 Have you done that?

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 Yeah.

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 Then you're not a hypocrite telling people to do that.

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 Now, if you were going around preaching work salvation,

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 if you were going around teaching,

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 oh, you have to live to this high standard

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 in order to be saved,

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 and then you're not living to that standard,

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 that would make you a hypocrite.

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 But guess what?

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 Work salvation is a false gospel.

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 And so no, you're not preaching works.

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 So whether you're living for God or not living for God,

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 if you believe in Jesus

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 and you're preaching for people to believe in Jesus,

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 that can never be hypocrisy.

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 The only hypocrite would be the one

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 who doesn't believe the gospel,

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 and he's going out and telling people to believe the gospel,

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 and he's not gonna get anybody saved anyway

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 'cause he's a bogus Judas at that point.

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 And so the Bible says here in John chapter four,

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 this is the woman at the well story,

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 it says in verse number 28,

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 the woman then left her water pot

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 and went her way into the city and say it to the men,

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 come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did

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 is not this the Christ.

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 Then they went out of the city and came unto him.

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 So this woman has just met Jesus.

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 And then the first thing she does,

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 she leaves her water pot,

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 she drops everything she's doing,

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 goes to the city and goes and starts telling everybody

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 about Jesus, and then they come and they meet Jesus.

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 And then look what it says in verse number 39,

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 and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him

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 for the saying of the woman which testified,

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 "He told me all that ever I did."

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 And so the symbolism here is the idea

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 of someone meets Jesus and then right away,

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 they're bringing other people to Jesus

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 and those people are getting saved, right?

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 That's the symbolism.

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 So again, there's no need to wait on soul winning.

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 You can get out soul winning right away.

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 And by the way, you know,

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 when somebody shows up at our church for a soul winning time,

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 they start out being as a silent partner.

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 And just, that's how I started out.

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 The first time I went soul winning,

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 I'd been saved for many, many years.

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 But when I was 17 years old, got into a soul winning church,

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 I showed up and I was paired up with somebody

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 who knew what they were doing.

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 And I just followed that guy around and just watched him

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 work and I'm praying in my heart for people

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 that they'll get saved.

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 Maybe, you know, trying to help eliminate distractions,

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 doing all those things that the silent partner does,

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 but you know, you can just show up and be a silent partner.

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 Some people are a silent partner for many months.

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 And if you're a silent partner,

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 you can keep on being a silent partner

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 for as long as you want.

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 You know, there's nothing that says

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 you can't be a silent partner for months or even years.

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 You know?

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 Now, here's the thing about that.

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 I think eventually you're gonna wanna do the talking.

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 'Cause here's what happens.

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 You got soul winning as a silent partner long enough,

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 you're gonna get paired up with some bozo

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 and you're gonna be like, all right,

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 I think I can do better than this.

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 No, that was a joke, but kind of true though.

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 So let's look at the third gate, the old gate.

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 Look at verse six in Nehemiah.

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 If you wanna just stay in Nehemiah three,

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 we're gonna be there the whole time looking at these gates,

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 but it says in verse six,

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 "Moreover, the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Passiah."

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 So what does the old gate represent?

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 Well, this could represent the fundamentals of the faith,

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 the foundational teachings of the faith,

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 the old fashioned way, the old paths and so forth.

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 Let me read you a couple of scriptures on this

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 about the old gate.

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 Jeremiah 6, 16 says, "Thus saith the Lord,

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 "stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths

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 "wherein is the good way and walk therein,

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 "and ye shall find rest for your souls,

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 "but they said we will not walk therein."

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 And so the idea here is that the old paths

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 are the right paths, the good paths.

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 If it's new, it probably isn't true, okay?

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 Here's what the book of Hebrews says in 13, nine.

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 "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines,

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 "for it is a good thing that the heart be established

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 "with grace, not with meats which have not profited them

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 "that have been occupied therein."

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 So the Bible says don't be carried about

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 with divers and strange doctrines.

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 We don't wanna be tossed to and fro

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 with every wind of doctrine.

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 Another way of saying this would be trendy doctrines, right?

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 What we want is fundamental doctrine,

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 old-fashioned doctrine, old-time religion,

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 not just being carried about with every exotic, fun, cute,

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 trendy, new little doctrine.

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 Folks, we need to be established and grounded

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 in the core fundamentals of the faith.

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 And look, I'm not talking about opening some history book

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 written by Catholics and figuring out, you know,

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 what did the church fathers say?

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 What are they, you know, a bunch of guys in dresses,

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 baptizing babies, century,

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 I don't care what these people think.

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 That's not what we're talking about.

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 There were false prophets then,

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 there are false prophets now.

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 Just 'cause something's old doesn't make it right.

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 You know, Hinduism comes along and says,

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 hey, we're the oldest religion.

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 Yes, Satan goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

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 The Tower of Babel is pretty old too.

00:11:36.540 --> 00:11:37.780
 And so, no, I'm not impressed

00:11:37.780 --> 00:11:39.920
 by just something being super old

00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:41.990
 because the devil's super old.

00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:43.910
 All these false cults are super old.

00:11:43.910 --> 00:11:47.620
 I mean, Buddhism is 500 years older than Christianity, right?

00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:48.660
 It's trash.

00:11:48.660 --> 00:11:50.450
 It's of the devil, it's satanic.

00:11:50.450 --> 00:11:52.680
 And so the point is not just,

00:11:52.680 --> 00:11:57.050
 oh, we gotta go find some really old ancient history book,

00:11:57.050 --> 00:11:58.960
 again, written by Catholics

00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:01.270
 who are burning everything that they don't agree with

00:12:01.270 --> 00:12:05.030
 and just preserving all of their idolatrous pagan garbage.

00:12:05.030 --> 00:12:06.370
 That's not what I'm saying.

00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:11.310
 What I'm saying is there has been a chain of believers

00:12:11.700 --> 00:12:14.240
 and Christians from the time of Christ until now.

00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:15.740
 There's never been a time on earth

00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:18.950
 where the gospel just fell off the face of the earth.

00:12:18.950 --> 00:12:20.900
 Now there are obviously certain geographies

00:12:20.900 --> 00:12:23.410
 where it could have died in a certain geography.

00:12:23.410 --> 00:12:25.190
 There are places now where it's pretty dead

00:12:25.190 --> 00:12:26.570
 in certain geographies,

00:12:26.570 --> 00:12:29.740
 where there are very few people saved whatsoever

00:12:29.740 --> 00:12:31.270
 in certain geographies.

00:12:31.270 --> 00:12:32.090
 But you know what?

00:12:32.090 --> 00:12:34.150
 There's always a righteous remnant.

00:12:34.150 --> 00:12:36.020
 There are always people who are saved.

00:12:36.020 --> 00:12:38.330
 There are always Bible believing Christians.

00:12:38.330 --> 00:12:39.170
 And guess what?

00:12:39.170 --> 00:12:42.960
 Somebody got us saved and somebody got that person saved.

00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:45.480
 And my parents got saved and went to,

00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:48.190
 my grandparents got saved and went to church.

00:12:48.190 --> 00:12:49.030
 And you know what?

00:12:49.030 --> 00:12:52.360
 Those type of things that have stood the test of time

00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:54.770
 for the decades of our lives

00:12:54.770 --> 00:12:56.680
 and that Christians have believed

00:12:56.680 --> 00:12:58.920
 that have basically been a lot of the doctrines

00:12:58.920 --> 00:13:00.920
 that even built America.

00:13:00.920 --> 00:13:01.720
 Because you know,

00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.190
 America has been built on Baptists

00:13:04.190 --> 00:13:06.090
 and evangelical Christians.

00:13:06.090 --> 00:13:06.930
 It's true.

00:13:06.930 --> 00:13:08.790
 Go all the way back to 1776

00:13:08.790 --> 00:13:11.900
 and you'll find that the mainline Protestant denominations

00:13:11.900 --> 00:13:14.770
 were already dying in 1776.

00:13:14.770 --> 00:13:17.000
 They were declining in membership.

00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:20.030
 Things like the Lutherans

00:13:20.030 --> 00:13:23.860
 and the Episcopalian Church of England.

00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:27.290
 I mean, that obviously wasn't popular in 1776.

00:13:27.290 --> 00:13:30.760
 And then you have the Presbyterians and everything.

00:13:30.760 --> 00:13:33.510
 Those things were already declining in 1776.

00:13:33.510 --> 00:13:37.860
 You know what the two hottest religions were in 1776?

00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:38.670
 I'm not making this up.

00:13:38.670 --> 00:13:41.090
 I got the scholarly sources to prove it.

00:13:41.090 --> 00:13:42.590
 Come see me after the service.

00:13:42.590 --> 00:13:45.990
 If you're doubtful, O thou of little faith.

00:13:45.990 --> 00:13:49.320
 The two hottest religions in America in 1776

00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:52.420
 were the Methodists and the Baptists.

00:13:52.420 --> 00:13:54.560
 Methodists are a bunch of false teachers

00:13:54.560 --> 00:13:56.450
 teaching you can lose your salvation.

00:13:56.450 --> 00:13:57.890
 And they're a bunch of holy rollers

00:13:57.890 --> 00:14:00.170
 like the modern day Pentecostals.

00:14:00.170 --> 00:14:03.150
 Doing a bunch of wild ecstatic utterances

00:14:03.150 --> 00:14:05.040
 and all the wild things that today

00:14:05.040 --> 00:14:06.960
 we would associate with Pentecostals.

00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:09.970
 That's what the Methodists were like in the 1776,

00:14:09.970 --> 00:14:11.340
 early 1800s.

00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:13.540
 They were like the Pentecostals of their day

00:14:13.540 --> 00:14:15.140
 and the Baptists are the Baptists.

00:14:15.140 --> 00:14:17.930
 So there's kind of nothing new under the sun.

00:14:17.930 --> 00:14:21.020
 But the point is today we have evangelical Christianity.

00:14:21.020 --> 00:14:23.040
 We have a bunch of non-denom churches

00:14:23.040 --> 00:14:25.250
 and pretty much half of them are Baptists

00:14:25.250 --> 00:14:27.840
 and half of them are Pentecostal.

00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:30.530
 The Pentecostals are preaching damnable heresy.

00:14:30.530 --> 00:14:33.240
 The Baptists are preaching right doctrine.

00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:35.670
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.

00:14:35.670 --> 00:14:38.880
 Salvation by faith alone, eternal security of the believer.

00:14:38.880 --> 00:14:46.070
 I'm here to tell you that our doctrine, our belief, our gospel, it didn't originate with

00:14:46.070 --> 00:14:47.070
 us.

00:14:47.070 --> 00:14:53.840
 It is an old, well-trodden path that our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, they

00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:54.840
 had this.

00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:59.800
 Obviously, the further we go back, history becomes sparse and it becomes unreliable.

00:14:59.800 --> 00:15:03.320
 The most reliable history is the most recent history, okay?

00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:05.990
 That should just be kind of common sense.

00:15:05.990 --> 00:15:08.730
 And so what have we seen over the last few hundred years?

00:15:08.730 --> 00:15:15.960
 We've seen Bible believing evangelical Christians preaching the gospel, winning the laws, getting

00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:16.930
 people's...

00:15:16.930 --> 00:15:24.170
 We need the old paths, not cute trendy doctrines that just came out in the 21st century.

00:15:24.170 --> 00:15:25.300
 Brand new.

00:15:25.300 --> 00:15:30.050
 You want to know something that I never heard of as a Christian who, you know, when I was

00:15:30.050 --> 00:15:37.280
 a teenager and a young adult man, I ate, breathed and slept the Bible and church and soul winning.

00:15:37.280 --> 00:15:41.470
 There was a time when I was going to church almost every day because I was going to my

00:15:41.470 --> 00:15:43.940
 normal church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:47.600
 I was going to a Bible study on Monday night, different Bible study on Tuesday night.

00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.750
 I found a church that had Thursday night services.

00:15:49.750 --> 00:15:52.580
 I went to that on Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night.

00:15:52.580 --> 00:15:56.690
 I was usually doing youth activities with one of my four churches that I was attending,

00:15:56.690 --> 00:15:57.780
 you know.

00:15:57.780 --> 00:16:00.610
 And so look, I was pretty into it, man.

00:16:00.610 --> 00:16:05.070
 And I was going to the independent fundamental Baptist church and I was dabbling in some

00:16:05.070 --> 00:16:09.410
 more watered down evangelical type circles just for social reasons.

00:16:09.410 --> 00:16:14.320
 But let me tell you what I never heard in any of those churches, any of those Bible

00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:19.610
 studies, "Yahweh, Yahweh."

00:16:19.610 --> 00:16:25.070
 Never even heard of that because it was not a thing.

00:16:25.070 --> 00:16:32.790
 That is a new, strange new pronunciation reading come up by a bunch of German unbelieving Christ

00:16:32.790 --> 00:16:37.440
 rejecting scholars, so-called, making things up, coming out.

00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:43.120
 And by the way, when I was a kid, we thought that Jehovah's Witnesses were a cult.

00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:46.700
 We thought they were a cult because we thought that evangelical Christians, you know, we

00:16:46.700 --> 00:16:49.830
 call God, we call him the Lord.

00:16:49.830 --> 00:16:52.290
 We don't even say Jehovah, do we?

00:16:52.290 --> 00:16:56.330
 I mean, how often did we even hear preaching using the name Jehovah?

00:16:56.330 --> 00:16:57.320
 Well, I don't know.

00:16:57.320 --> 00:17:02.310
 In the King James Bible, the Lord is used over 7,000 times.

00:17:02.310 --> 00:17:06.680
 Jehovah is used seven times in the entire book.

00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:11.540
 And so when I was growing up, we emphasized the name the Lord and barely ever even used

00:17:11.540 --> 00:17:16.810
 the word Jehovah because of the fact that we're basing our beliefs on the Bible.

00:17:16.810 --> 00:17:19.840
 Is everybody listening?

00:17:19.840 --> 00:17:20.810
 The Bible.

00:17:20.810 --> 00:17:23.580
 What's the Bible say over 7,000 times?

00:17:23.580 --> 00:17:24.990
 The Lord.

00:17:24.990 --> 00:17:27.270
 You say, "Well, that's just the King James version."

00:17:27.270 --> 00:17:33.720
 Okay, how about the Greek New Testament that never says the word Jehovah a single time?

00:17:33.720 --> 00:17:41.850
 The Greek New Testament in all 27 books calls God the Lord, in Greek, obviously, "okirios,"

00:17:41.850 --> 00:17:43.160
 but it's still the Lord.

00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:45.440
 Does everybody understand what I'm saying?

00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:47.920
 Now all of a sudden we've got people coming up, "Oh, no, no, no, it's not the Lord.

00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:49.530
 We can't call him the Lord.

00:17:49.530 --> 00:17:51.600
 It's Yahweh."

00:17:51.600 --> 00:17:55.530
 First of all, that's a made-up word.

00:17:55.530 --> 00:17:58.710
 It's totally foreign, historically.

00:17:58.710 --> 00:18:02.960
 Foreign to our parents, foreign to our grandparents, foreign to our great-grandparents.

00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:07.960
 But number two, even if that were the right pronunciation, you know what?

00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:12.400
 Wouldn't we stick to the way the New Testament authors did it and say the Lord instead of

00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:13.960
 pronouncing that name?

00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:18.680
 The only reason it's even mentioned Jehovah a few times is just to let us know that there

00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:21.100
 is a proper name out there.

00:18:21.100 --> 00:18:25.720
 This is the name, and in certain scriptures it wouldn't really make sense to translate

00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:28.810
 it into the Lord, so they'll leave it as Jehovah.

00:18:28.810 --> 00:18:31.840
 They're like leaving it in the original language, in a sense.

00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:36.330
 But again, going to church now, they're just singing hymns about Yahweh, they're preaching

00:18:36.330 --> 00:18:42.530
 sermons about Yahweh, they'll say the word Yahweh 20 times in a sermon, new Bible version,

00:18:42.530 --> 00:18:43.530
 just came out.

00:18:43.530 --> 00:18:50.980
 Folks, in the 500 year history of our language, there's been no mainstream Bible ever released

00:18:50.980 --> 00:18:56.970
 that said Yahweh in it, until like a couple years ago, this new legacy standard Bible,

00:18:56.970 --> 00:18:58.700
 Yahweh, put in there.

00:18:58.700 --> 00:19:00.520
 Folks, let me tell you something.

00:19:00.520 --> 00:19:07.330
 That is a made up word, that is a wrong doctrine, that is a wrong translation, that is a diverse

00:19:07.330 --> 00:19:12.640
 and strange doctrine, and if they can get you to just swap out the name of God willy

00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:16.780
 nilly, then they can get you to swallow anything, right?

00:19:16.780 --> 00:19:22.480
 No, for 2,000 years, it's been the Lord, the Lord, from the writers of the Greek New

00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:27.500
 Testament all the way until now, all the translations, right?

00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:29.150
 It's been the Lord.

00:19:29.150 --> 00:19:31.350
 That's what we should say, that's what we should do.

00:19:31.350 --> 00:19:37.630
 Give me that old time religion, not this newfangled, trendy garbage.

00:19:37.630 --> 00:19:43.450
 And you have these brand new views on eschatology coming out, Satan's little season, Jesus is

00:19:43.450 --> 00:19:45.920
 up at the North Pole waiting for us and stuff.

00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.370
 Folks, this is garbage.

00:19:48.370 --> 00:19:55.560
 Do not fall down these weird rabbit holes on YouTube or whatever of strange new doctrines.

00:19:55.560 --> 00:20:00.210
 We need to stick with the old paths, the old Bible, the old doctrine.

00:20:00.210 --> 00:20:04.670
 We need to be fundamentalists.

00:20:04.670 --> 00:20:05.650
 The old gate.

00:20:05.650 --> 00:20:09.810
 Or I could go about that all morning, but I want to get through the rest of these gates.

00:20:09.810 --> 00:20:12.530
 Go through with Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 13.

00:20:12.530 --> 00:20:18.620
 It says the valley gate repaired Hanen and the inhabitants of Zenoah, they built it and

00:20:18.620 --> 00:20:20.690
 set up the doors thereof, etc.

00:20:20.690 --> 00:20:22.140
 And so we have the valley gate.

00:20:22.140 --> 00:20:23.120
 What could the valley gate represent?

00:20:23.120 --> 00:20:28.880
 You know the valley gate could represent going through trials and tribulations in the Christian

00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:31.740
 life and/or chastisement, right?

00:20:31.740 --> 00:20:34.950
 So the valley gate represents low points in the Christian life.

00:20:34.950 --> 00:20:39.230
 As we go through our Christian life, there are going to be mountain peaks where we're

00:20:39.230 --> 00:20:43.640
 just at the top of the world, doing awesome, and then there are going to be other times

00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:49.090
 where we hit a low, where we're down in the dumps and really just struggling and hanging

00:20:49.090 --> 00:20:50.350
 on by a thread.

00:20:50.350 --> 00:20:56.150
 And so we need to, as Christians, grow through that where we can handle those valleys and

00:20:56.150 --> 00:20:59.920
 not just expect to be at a mountain peak all the time.

00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:01.120
 There will be low points.

00:21:01.120 --> 00:21:03.730
 And by the way, this is how it is in marriage too.

00:21:03.730 --> 00:21:06.770
 Marriage is going to have the mountain peaks and the low points.

00:21:06.770 --> 00:21:07.700
 And you know what?

00:21:07.700 --> 00:21:08.850
 You got to keep going.

00:21:08.850 --> 00:21:10.140
 Don't quit.

00:21:10.140 --> 00:21:11.540
 Don't quit on the Christian life.

00:21:11.540 --> 00:21:13.000
 Don't quit on marriage.

00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.180
 Don't quit the church over just, oh, we're going through a hard time.

00:21:16.180 --> 00:21:17.700
 We're going through a low point.

00:21:17.700 --> 00:21:19.360
 You got to hang in there.

00:21:19.360 --> 00:21:21.670
 Trials and tribulations are temporary.

00:21:21.670 --> 00:21:25.520
 One of the best verse on this is one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible from

00:21:25.520 --> 00:21:26.500
 Psalm 23.

00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:33.310
 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

00:21:33.310 --> 00:21:38.240
 for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they come for me."

00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:42.010
 So when I'm going through the valley of the shadow of death, I know God's with me even

00:21:42.010 --> 00:21:42.990
 in the valleys.

00:21:42.990 --> 00:21:44.290
 He's still there.

00:21:44.290 --> 00:21:49.120
 Even if I can't see him or perceive him or feel him, he's still with me and so I will

00:21:49.120 --> 00:21:50.380
 fear no evil.

00:21:50.380 --> 00:21:54.620
 But then he follows up with, "Thy rod and thy staff, they come for me."

00:21:54.620 --> 00:21:57.450
 Sometimes low points are just trials and tribulations.

00:21:57.450 --> 00:22:00.030
 Sometimes low points are periods of chastisement.

00:22:00.030 --> 00:22:05.600
 When we as Christians are being chastised by God, when God is punishing us for things,

00:22:05.600 --> 00:22:09.920
 you know, that can feel pretty painful and be a low point for us spiritually where we're

00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:14.180
 struggling to get through that valley, but we've got to push through those valleys, right?

00:22:14.180 --> 00:22:18.860
 And so that's what the valley gate would represent, perseverance through hard times.

00:22:18.860 --> 00:22:22.060
 Let's move on to the fifth gate, which is the dung gate.

00:22:22.060 --> 00:22:23.040
 The dung gate.

00:22:23.040 --> 00:22:29.840
 The Maya 314, but the dung gate repaired, Malachiah, the son of Recap, et cetera.

00:22:29.840 --> 00:22:31.090
 So what does the dung gate represent?

00:22:31.090 --> 00:22:37.040
 Well, if you would flip over to 2 Corinthians chapter seven, 2 Corinthians chapter seven,

00:22:37.040 --> 00:22:42.400
 the dung gate represents the purging of sin or just getting things out of our life that

00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:44.340
 are not expedient.

00:22:44.340 --> 00:22:48.640
 And so if you think about the literal use of the dung gate, obviously the reason that

00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:53.750
 it's called, they're not just looking for a fun name for these gates and saying like,

00:22:53.750 --> 00:22:57.230
 yeah, what should we call it, I'll just call it the poop gate or, you know, that doesn't

00:22:57.230 --> 00:22:59.020
 really make any sense.

00:22:59.020 --> 00:23:02.260
 The reason why it's called the dung gate is probably where they're going to take out the

00:23:02.260 --> 00:23:08.390
 trash because daily you have to take out the trash, I mean, in your house.

00:23:08.390 --> 00:23:10.890
 How often do you have to take out the trash in your house?

00:23:10.890 --> 00:23:12.380
 Probably daily.

00:23:12.380 --> 00:23:14.960
 Otherwise it starts to stink up the joint.

00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:17.430
 So you got to take out the trash daily.

00:23:17.430 --> 00:23:23.150
 By the way, when it comes to literal dung, how often do you get rid of literal dung from

00:23:23.150 --> 00:23:24.310
 your body?

00:23:24.310 --> 00:23:26.310
 Probably daily.

00:23:26.310 --> 00:23:29.280
 So daily your body is taking out the trash.

00:23:29.280 --> 00:23:31.830
 Daily our households are taking out the trash, right?

00:23:31.830 --> 00:23:36.670
 And so there's a daily process in the Christian life of purging sin, right?

00:23:36.670 --> 00:23:37.640
 What does the Bible say?

00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:46.320
 "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow

00:23:46.320 --> 00:23:47.370
 me."

00:23:47.370 --> 00:23:50.280
 Jesus said, "Take up your cross daily and follow me."

00:23:50.280 --> 00:23:52.850
 And that involves denying self, right?

00:23:52.850 --> 00:24:00.210
 And so sometimes you have to get rid of things that are dung in your life, get rid of dirty

00:24:00.210 --> 00:24:06.800
 things, gross things, wrong things, sinful things, or maybe just things that you don't

00:24:06.800 --> 00:24:07.790
 need anymore.

00:24:07.790 --> 00:24:10.780
 Because sometimes when you're cleaning up your house, it's not that you're necessarily

00:24:10.780 --> 00:24:14.810
 throwing away things that are gross and stinky and bad.

00:24:14.810 --> 00:24:18.110
 Sometimes you're just getting rid of things because you just don't have the space.

00:24:18.110 --> 00:24:21.650
 And you don't want to be a pack rat just keeping every little thing.

00:24:21.650 --> 00:24:25.340
 So sometimes you'll throw away something that's a perfectly good item, but it's just, I don't

00:24:25.340 --> 00:24:26.330
 have the space for it.

00:24:26.330 --> 00:24:27.320
 I don't have room for it.

00:24:27.320 --> 00:24:30.300
 You know, and hopefully you can donate it or give it to somebody, but sometimes you

00:24:30.300 --> 00:24:31.290
 don't have time for that.

00:24:31.290 --> 00:24:32.680
 You're just like, throw it in the trash.

00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:33.670
 I don't need it.

00:24:33.670 --> 00:24:34.660
 I haven't used this.

00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:36.090
 This doesn't spark joy.

00:24:36.090 --> 00:24:37.550
 Get rid of it.

00:24:37.550 --> 00:24:43.290
 You know, it's the same thing with the dungate is to just lay aside every weight and the

00:24:43.290 --> 00:24:47.550
 sin which stood so easily beside us so we can run with patience the race that is set

00:24:47.550 --> 00:24:48.740
 before us.

00:24:48.740 --> 00:24:55.380
 As you would at 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved,

00:24:55.380 --> 00:25:03.500
 let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness

00:25:03.500 --> 00:25:04.560
 in the fear of God."

00:25:04.560 --> 00:25:10.400
 So as Christians, the New Testament is telling us that we should be purging and getting rid

00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:13.590
 of filthiness from our life.

00:25:13.590 --> 00:25:18.500
 Filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit and that we should be perfecting holiness

00:25:18.500 --> 00:25:24.970
 in the fear of God, we should be working on this as a project of becoming more holy, more

00:25:24.970 --> 00:25:29.970
 like Christ, growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

00:25:29.970 --> 00:25:34.840
 And so the dungate involves expelling that which is holding us back in the Christian

00:25:34.840 --> 00:25:41.940
 life, slowing us down, dead weight, sin, wickedness, filth, ungodliness, whatever it is that we

00:25:41.940 --> 00:25:45.340
 need to get rid of, we need to get rid of it.

00:25:45.340 --> 00:25:49.700
 The apostle Paul used this exact illustration of dung in Philippians 3.

00:25:49.700 --> 00:25:53.510
 He said, "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the

00:25:53.510 --> 00:25:58.070
 knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and

00:25:58.070 --> 00:26:01.030
 do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."

00:26:01.030 --> 00:26:06.380
 And what he's saying is that serving Christ is so important and valuable that anything

00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:10.880
 that's holding him back from that is just dung, like, "Oh, I had to give up so much

00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:11.850
 to be a Christian.

00:26:11.850 --> 00:26:14.280
 Oh, I had to give up so much to follow Christ."

00:26:14.280 --> 00:26:18.400
 You gave up dung to follow Christ, like, what did you really give up?

00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:19.350
 What did you really give up?

00:26:19.350 --> 00:26:21.030
 "Oh, I gave up drinking."

00:26:21.030 --> 00:26:23.400
 Drinking has no value.

00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:25.040
 Drinking is stupid and vain and wicked.

00:26:25.040 --> 00:26:27.430
 It's like, "Oh, I gave up drinking."

00:26:27.430 --> 00:26:29.080
 Well, you didn't give up much.

00:26:29.080 --> 00:26:30.050
 What did you give up?

00:26:30.050 --> 00:26:31.010
 A hangover?

00:26:31.010 --> 00:26:32.010
 What did you give up?

00:26:32.010 --> 00:26:33.070
 Puking?

00:26:33.070 --> 00:26:34.040
 What did you give up?

00:26:34.040 --> 00:26:35.010
 Saying stupid things?

00:26:35.010 --> 00:26:36.370
 What did you give up?

00:26:36.370 --> 00:26:37.350
 Being in filthy places?

00:26:37.350 --> 00:26:38.330
 Doing filthy things?

00:26:38.330 --> 00:26:39.890
 Hey, "Oh, I gave up fornication."

00:26:39.890 --> 00:26:42.070
 Oh, wow, big whoop.

00:26:42.070 --> 00:26:43.060
 You know what?

00:26:43.060 --> 00:26:48.820
 Being married, being pure, being faithful to your spouse is way superior to fornication

00:26:48.820 --> 00:26:50.430
 anyway.

00:26:50.430 --> 00:26:53.150
 So Paul's like, "Yeah, I gave up a lot, but it was all dung.

00:26:53.150 --> 00:26:54.140
 I counted it as dung.

00:26:54.140 --> 00:26:58.500
 I look into now and think about the things I gave up for Christ, and I count those things

00:26:58.500 --> 00:26:59.490
 as loss.

00:26:59.490 --> 00:27:00.470
 I count them dung.

00:27:00.470 --> 00:27:01.470
 They're nothing."

00:27:01.470 --> 00:27:06.790
 Well, you know, I'm going to have to give up a lot if I follow Christ.

00:27:06.790 --> 00:27:11.780
 Yeah, at the time it feels that way, but once you give it up, once you give up all your

00:27:11.780 --> 00:27:18.050
 dung friends and your dung places and your dung entertainment and your dung drugs and

00:27:18.050 --> 00:27:23.270
 your dung drink and your dung whatever, hey, you're going to look back and say, "Well,

00:27:23.270 --> 00:27:25.320
 I was all dung anyway.

00:27:25.320 --> 00:27:28.810
 All I did was take out the trash."

00:27:28.810 --> 00:27:31.630
 That's like saying, I mean, it's like saying, "Oh, I really don't want to use the bathroom.

00:27:31.630 --> 00:27:33.940
 I just want to keep all those nutrients."

00:27:33.940 --> 00:27:38.440
 Folks, what your body is expelling is not nutrition.

00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:43.150
 It's that which is unhelpful and harmful to your body.

00:27:43.150 --> 00:27:44.280
 That's what your body's getting rid of.

00:27:44.280 --> 00:27:47.200
 Your body's not getting rid of valuable nutrients.

00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:52.630
 There goes all that protein and there goes all them carbohydrates and fats down the drain.

00:27:52.630 --> 00:27:55.290
 There goes all the vitamin A, vitamin C. It's like, no, no, no.

00:27:55.290 --> 00:27:59.360
 Your body is getting rid of bad stuff and obviously there's a little bit of good stuff

00:27:59.360 --> 00:28:00.330
 in there.

00:28:00.330 --> 00:28:01.310
 But you know what?

00:28:01.310 --> 00:28:03.120
 It's mainly bad stuff.

00:28:03.120 --> 00:28:07.340
 A little bit of good stuff, a lot of bad stuff, flush it down the toilet, amen?

00:28:07.340 --> 00:28:11.080
 And so yes, sometimes we might get rid of a few good things in our lives in the process

00:28:11.080 --> 00:28:14.930
 of getting rid of the bad things, but at the end of the day, we need to be cleaning up

00:28:14.930 --> 00:28:18.340
 our lives and living a more pure, more holy, better life.

00:28:18.340 --> 00:28:21.050
 And in the end, it's not that you're going to enjoy life less.

00:28:21.050 --> 00:28:28.920
 Do you think that if you're a zealous Christian, you have less enjoyment in life than the worldly

00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:30.100
 backslidden Christian?

00:28:30.100 --> 00:28:36.230
 I think that the godly Christian has more enjoyment, joy unspeakable and full of glory.

00:28:36.230 --> 00:28:41.040
 There's more joy in serving God and doing right.

00:28:41.040 --> 00:28:43.020
 So why do people hang on to their sin?

00:28:43.020 --> 00:28:46.920
 It's because they're not trusting the program that God has set for their lives.

00:28:46.920 --> 00:28:49.170
 They're leaning on their own understanding.

00:28:49.170 --> 00:28:52.570
 And they think, "Well, I know what I like and it's partying."

00:28:52.570 --> 00:28:54.410
 No, you know what?

00:28:54.410 --> 00:28:57.200
 Partying is going to leave you with an empty feeling.

00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:02.160
 What you really need is to get on board with the Christian life, have real joy and happiness

00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:07.700
 in your life, doing the right thing, serving God, loving the Lord, etc.

00:29:07.700 --> 00:29:09.790
 So the dungate's pretty important, right?

00:29:09.790 --> 00:29:12.420
 The daily gate is another name for this, right?

00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:15.170
 Get the trash out, get the garbage out of your life.

00:29:15.170 --> 00:29:17.940
 But number six, we have the fountain gate.

00:29:17.940 --> 00:29:24.430
 It says in verse number 15 of Nehemiah 3, "But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallon,

00:29:24.430 --> 00:29:27.210
 the son of Kol Hose, etc."

00:29:27.210 --> 00:29:28.800
 And so what could the fountain gate represent?

00:29:28.800 --> 00:29:32.170
 I mean, this could represent a few different things, but I think a great thing for this

00:29:32.170 --> 00:29:36.170
 to represent is the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

00:29:36.170 --> 00:29:37.160
 The fullness of the Holy Spirit.

00:29:37.160 --> 00:29:38.160
 And why do I say that?

00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:44.830
 Well, because in Jeremiah chapter two, verse 13, it says, "For my people have committed

00:29:44.830 --> 00:29:53.340
 two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,

00:29:53.340 --> 00:29:56.140
 broken cisterns that can hold no water."

00:29:56.140 --> 00:30:03.010
 So God here compares himself to a fountain of living waters, right?

00:30:03.010 --> 00:30:07.950
 And then in the New Testament, these living waters represent the Holy Spirit, because

00:30:07.950 --> 00:30:12.970
 it says, for example, in John chapter seven, if you would flip over to Ephesians five,

00:30:12.970 --> 00:30:17.880
 but in John chapter seven, it says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said,

00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:21.820
 out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

00:30:21.820 --> 00:30:26.550
 But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the

00:30:26.550 --> 00:30:31.170
 Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."

00:30:31.170 --> 00:30:37.610
 And so we're talking about rivers of living water, which represent the Holy Spirit.

00:30:37.610 --> 00:30:42.970
 And so we want to have that overflowing fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

00:30:42.970 --> 00:30:44.790
 That can be represented by the fountain gate.

00:30:44.790 --> 00:30:48.130
 You know, we want to be a fountain of living waters.

00:30:48.130 --> 00:30:52.850
 God is the ultimate fountain of living waters, but we also want to have that swell spring

00:30:52.850 --> 00:30:59.050
 up inside of us, so that out of our bellies can flow rivers of living water.

00:30:59.050 --> 00:31:01.180
 And so this could represent the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

00:31:01.180 --> 00:31:06.000
 Look what the Bible says in Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, we're in his

00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:12.880
 excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual

00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:18.170
 songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

00:31:18.170 --> 00:31:20.350
 Be filled with the Spirit.

00:31:20.350 --> 00:31:24.090
 And again, back to the dungate, it's like you have to give up one thing in order to

00:31:24.090 --> 00:31:29.160
 get the other thing, because the Bible says, "Don't be drunk with wine."

00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:33.400
 That's what needs to go out the dungate, but be filled with the Spirit.

00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:39.560
 So it could be that the fountain gate follows the dungate, because in order for us to walk

00:31:39.560 --> 00:31:45.550
 in the Spirit, in order for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we've got to deny self.

00:31:45.550 --> 00:31:47.590
 Take up the cross daily and follow Christ, right?

00:31:47.590 --> 00:31:50.770
 So self-denial is part of that process.

00:31:50.770 --> 00:31:55.030
 We can't be filled with the Holy Spirit while we're just indulging in sin and just feeding

00:31:55.030 --> 00:31:57.580
 the flesh, right?

00:31:57.580 --> 00:32:01.440
 And then if we're filled with the Spirit, we'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:05.120
 So there's kind of a circular connection here.

00:32:05.120 --> 00:32:09.310
 There's kind of a symbiotic thing going on between being filled with the Holy Spirit

00:32:09.310 --> 00:32:10.900
 and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh.

00:32:10.900 --> 00:32:15.880
 We want to deny self, take up the cross, and then once we're walking in the Spirit, then

00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:19.510
 we're less likely to be fulfilling the lust of the flesh, and so forth.

00:32:19.510 --> 00:32:20.500
 But this is a daily thing.

00:32:20.500 --> 00:32:24.250
 It's a daily battle where the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against

00:32:24.250 --> 00:32:28.250
 the flesh, and these are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things

00:32:28.250 --> 00:32:29.300
 that you would.

00:32:29.300 --> 00:32:31.440
 So this is a daily process.

00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:32.570
 We've got to be filled with the Spirit.

00:32:32.570 --> 00:32:34.190
 We want to walk in the Spirit.

00:32:34.190 --> 00:32:39.180
 And the method here mentioned whereby we could be filled with the Spirit is by speaking

00:32:39.180 --> 00:32:43.820
 to ourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

00:32:43.820 --> 00:32:45.710
 Singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord.

00:32:45.710 --> 00:32:51.250
 This is one way that we can work on being more Spirit-filled is by speaking to ourselves

00:32:51.250 --> 00:32:53.340
 in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

00:32:53.340 --> 00:32:59.330
 Also, the Bible talks about praying for the power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 431.

00:32:59.330 --> 00:33:03.020
 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they

00:33:03.020 --> 00:33:08.240
 were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness.

00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:12.080
 And so they're praying for boldness and then the Bible says they're filled with the Spirit

00:33:12.080 --> 00:33:15.050
 and they spake the Word of God with boldness.

00:33:15.050 --> 00:33:16.060
 So the fountain gate.

00:33:16.060 --> 00:33:19.520
 The next gate could also be related, the water gate, right?

00:33:19.520 --> 00:33:25.470
 So we have the fountain gate followed by number seven, the water gate, right?

00:33:25.470 --> 00:33:32.200
 And it says in verse number 26 of Nehemiah 3, "Moreover, the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel

00:33:32.200 --> 00:33:39.210
 unto the place over against the water gate toward the east and the tower that lieth out."

00:33:39.210 --> 00:33:40.680
 And so what does the water gate represent?

00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:45.230
 Well, the water gate could represent further Bible reading and further cleansing.

00:33:45.230 --> 00:33:47.230
 Now, why do I say that?

00:33:47.230 --> 00:33:52.740
 Because in Ephesians chapter five, maybe you're already there, but it says in Ephesians 5.26

00:33:52.740 --> 00:33:57.240
 that he might sanctify it, talking about the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse

00:33:57.240 --> 00:34:03.150
 it with the washing of water by the word, right?

00:34:03.150 --> 00:34:04.680
 Washing of water by the word.

00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:11.330
 So God's word is like water that washes us, you know, and as we read our Bibles, that's

00:34:11.330 --> 00:34:14.670
 going to help us to clean up our lives.

00:34:14.670 --> 00:34:19.690
 And so you can see how these are connected, the dung gate and then the fountain gate,

00:34:19.690 --> 00:34:24.440
 you know, so it's like getting garbage out of our life, denying self, being filled with

00:34:24.440 --> 00:34:29.130
 the spirit, and then continual washing of the water by the word as we continue to read

00:34:29.130 --> 00:34:31.940
 our Bibles and continue to be cleansed.

00:34:31.940 --> 00:34:36.430
 Now flip over to Colossians, there's a couple pages to the right in your Bible.

00:34:36.430 --> 00:34:40.970
 Colossians chapter 3 verse 16, and we have a parallel passage with Ephesians 5, because

00:34:40.970 --> 00:34:46.840
 in Ephesians 5 he said, "Be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and

00:34:46.840 --> 00:34:48.960
 hymns and spiritual songs."

00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:52.070
 In Colossians 3 he words it a little bit differently.

00:34:52.070 --> 00:34:58.520
 He says in Colossians 3, 16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom."

00:34:58.520 --> 00:35:02.500
 And then this part's pretty much the same, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms

00:35:02.500 --> 00:35:06.530
 and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

00:35:06.530 --> 00:35:11.880
 So notice how the second half is pretty much the same, but what has changed or what has

00:35:11.880 --> 00:35:16.220
 been replaced here in the statement is that in Ephesians 5 it was, "Be filled with the

00:35:16.220 --> 00:35:20.730
 Spirit," and in Colossians 3 it was, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with

00:35:20.730 --> 00:35:22.120
 all wisdom."

00:35:22.120 --> 00:35:26.700
 So it seems to me that being saturated in the word of God and being filled with the

00:35:26.700 --> 00:35:29.970
 Holy Spirit seem to be connected or go hand in hand.

00:35:29.970 --> 00:35:33.380
 In this case, they're being used interchangeably, you know?

00:35:33.380 --> 00:35:37.280
 Singing the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs can help me to be filled with the Spirit.

00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:42.780
 It can also help me to have Christ's Word dwelling in me richly with all wisdom.

00:35:42.780 --> 00:35:49.720
 And so I think that the washing of the water by the Word has to do with the Word of God.

00:35:49.720 --> 00:35:51.020
 We're reading it.

00:35:51.020 --> 00:35:53.370
 It's dwelling in us richly with all wisdom.

00:35:53.370 --> 00:35:57.250
 Maybe we're singing scripture put to music, right?

00:35:57.250 --> 00:36:01.260
 Or at least we're singing songs that remind us of scripture and remind us of the Word

00:36:01.260 --> 00:36:07.650
 of God and maybe help us to understand or grasp scripture on a more emotional or visceral

00:36:07.650 --> 00:36:08.640
 level.

00:36:08.640 --> 00:36:12.900
 But at the end of the day, we need to be in our Bibles every day.

00:36:12.900 --> 00:36:20.380
 We need to let the water of the Word wash over us and clean our minds and our lives

00:36:20.380 --> 00:36:21.940
 from wrong things.

00:36:21.940 --> 00:36:23.940
 You know, people say, "Oh, you're brainwashed."

00:36:23.940 --> 00:36:24.920
 Right?

00:36:24.920 --> 00:36:26.030
 Well, here's the thing.

00:36:26.030 --> 00:36:28.670
 You know, we don't want to be brainwashed by this world.

00:36:28.670 --> 00:36:34.660
 We want to be brainwashed by TV and radio and, you know, what we want to be brainwashed

00:36:34.660 --> 00:36:36.690
 by is the Word of God.

00:36:36.690 --> 00:36:39.700
 Get the Word of God, wash your brain.

00:36:39.700 --> 00:36:42.630
 Wash that brain out with soap.

00:36:42.630 --> 00:36:44.880
 You know, why would that be a bad thing?

00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:47.560
 Oh, you're brainwashing people with the Bible.

00:36:47.560 --> 00:36:49.260
 Yeah, you better know I am.

00:36:49.260 --> 00:36:51.190
 I want to brainwash myself with the Bible.

00:36:51.190 --> 00:36:56.330
 Man, I would love to just be totally brainwashed with the Word of God and just be like this

00:36:56.330 --> 00:36:58.700
 walking, talking Bible guy.

00:36:58.700 --> 00:37:01.250
 Amen.

00:37:01.250 --> 00:37:03.040
 Man, that would make the world a better place, right?

00:37:03.040 --> 00:37:08.290
 A bunch of brainwashed Christians believe in the Bible, living by the Bible, preaching

00:37:08.290 --> 00:37:09.280
 the Bible.

00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:12.590
 They keep speaking in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches and not the words that

00:37:12.590 --> 00:37:14.960
 man's wisdom teach it.

00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:16.900
 Sounds good to me.

00:37:16.900 --> 00:37:20.060
 Let's look at the 8th gate here because I want to get through all of these.

00:37:20.060 --> 00:37:28.850
 Nehemiah 3 28 from above the horse gate repaired the priests, everyone over against his house.

00:37:28.850 --> 00:37:30.460
 So the horse gate, what could this represent?

00:37:30.460 --> 00:37:34.630
 Well, this could represent battles and spiritual warfare, right?

00:37:34.630 --> 00:37:36.000
 Because what does the Bible say?

00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:41.400
 The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safeties of the Lord, right?

00:37:41.400 --> 00:37:46.500
 Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will remember the name of the Lord

00:37:46.500 --> 00:37:54.030
 our God, and so the horse gate would represent battles and spiritual warfare.

00:37:54.030 --> 00:37:58.450
 If you think about it, that's what horses were used for in the ancient world.

00:37:58.450 --> 00:38:05.540
 Horses are used in battle, and they're also ridden around by important people like princes

00:38:05.540 --> 00:38:10.930
 and kings and people like, your average person in the Bible didn't ride a horse.

00:38:10.930 --> 00:38:15.000
 You never see examples of Jesus riding a horse, except when he returns, obviously he's going

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:18.350
 to be on a horse, when he comes back to conquer, but I'm talking about his earthly life and

00:38:18.350 --> 00:38:19.930
 ministry on this earth.

00:38:19.930 --> 00:38:27.250
 When do you see the disciples saddling up and horseback riding to the next town, right?

00:38:27.250 --> 00:38:29.210
 Because horses are owned by wealthy people.

00:38:29.210 --> 00:38:30.190
 Why?

00:38:30.190 --> 00:38:34.120
 Because Jesus' disciples don't have a stable and they're not going to sit there and brush

00:38:34.120 --> 00:38:35.470
 their horse all day.

00:38:35.470 --> 00:38:38.120
 You know, people who take care of horses, they put a lot of effort into it, it seems

00:38:38.120 --> 00:38:39.100
 like.

00:38:39.100 --> 00:38:40.090
 And I'm not an expert on this.

00:38:40.090 --> 00:38:41.400
 I've never owned a horse.

00:38:41.400 --> 00:38:45.560
 I've probably been horseback riding like 20 times in my life or something though, so I'm

00:38:45.560 --> 00:38:47.370
 kind of familiar with it.

00:38:47.370 --> 00:38:51.310
 But my understanding is that horses need a lot of care.

00:38:51.310 --> 00:38:55.900
 You know, they have to live in a stable, and you have to do all these things with their

00:38:55.900 --> 00:39:01.100
 feet, and you're working on their feet all the time, and shoeing them, or maybe you're

00:39:01.100 --> 00:39:04.350
 in the barefoot running horse craze or whatever.

00:39:04.350 --> 00:39:08.270
 But you know, you're taking care of it, you're brushing it, you're feeding it, you're taking

00:39:08.270 --> 00:39:09.250
 care of it.

00:39:09.250 --> 00:39:15.820
 The vet has to, you know, here's the thing, throughout history, poor people walked around.

00:39:15.820 --> 00:39:20.790
 They walked places, and what you see Jesus and the disciples doing is walking, a lot

00:39:20.790 --> 00:39:22.180
 of walking.

00:39:22.180 --> 00:39:26.710
 That's why he said have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, not

00:39:26.710 --> 00:39:30.840
 have your horse shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, because, you know,

00:39:30.840 --> 00:39:33.690
 most of God's people, who in here owns a horse right now?

00:39:33.690 --> 00:39:38.650
 Put up your hand if you own a horse, put up real high so I can see you.

00:39:38.650 --> 00:39:41.400
 Okay, so we have almost 300 people here this morning.

00:39:41.400 --> 00:39:43.690
 I don't see a single person who owns a horse.

00:39:43.690 --> 00:39:47.850
 I mean, my son Oliver's got his hand up, but he's three years old, and I mean, he's probably

00:39:47.850 --> 00:39:52.890
 got a little toy horse and a dino and a monster truck and everything else.

00:39:52.890 --> 00:39:58.050
 Isn't it interesting, none of us owns a horse here.

00:39:58.050 --> 00:39:59.160
 Nobody here owns a horse.

00:39:59.160 --> 00:40:01.650
 Well, that's because it's 2026.

00:40:01.650 --> 00:40:05.400
 Well, here's the thing, there are a lot of people in Phoenix who own horses, but they're

00:40:05.400 --> 00:40:07.700
 not in this room right now.

00:40:07.700 --> 00:40:08.650
 You know what?

00:40:08.650 --> 00:40:11.970
 They're probably out riding their horse right now.

00:40:11.970 --> 00:40:16.710
 But the bottom line is, and I don't know if we have any rich people in our church, maybe

00:40:16.710 --> 00:40:20.570
 we have one that I don't know about, but I don't really know of any rich people in our

00:40:20.570 --> 00:40:25.740
 church because unfortunately, most rich people aren't really that into serving God.

00:40:25.740 --> 00:40:30.400
 It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be

00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:31.540
 saved.

00:40:31.540 --> 00:40:35.490
 Now, there are exceptions to that, of course, because when the apostles then respond, "Well,

00:40:35.490 --> 00:40:36.600
 who then can be saved?"

00:40:36.600 --> 00:40:38.740
 Jesus said, "With men, this is impossible.

00:40:38.740 --> 00:40:40.380
 With God, all things are possible."

00:40:40.380 --> 00:40:43.240
 So it is possible for the rich man to be saved.

00:40:43.240 --> 00:40:45.020
 With God, all things are possible.

00:40:45.020 --> 00:40:50.450
 But in general, you see your calling, brother, and there's not many mighty, not many noble,

00:40:50.450 --> 00:40:51.480
 right?

00:40:51.480 --> 00:40:56.660
 God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he

00:40:56.660 --> 00:41:01.230
 hath promised them to love him, and he says rich men typically, what, oppress you and

00:41:01.230 --> 00:41:03.240
 draw you before the judgment seats.

00:41:03.240 --> 00:41:05.780
 They blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called.

00:41:05.780 --> 00:41:11.750
 And let's face it, in 2026 America, if you're living in Phoenix, Arizona, and you own horses,

00:41:11.750 --> 00:41:16.780
 you're probably a rich person, or at least you're upper middle class or something.

00:41:16.780 --> 00:41:20.250
 I mean, you're doing pretty well, and Oliver's hand popped up once again.

00:41:20.250 --> 00:41:25.800
 So he's, you know, he's feeling pretty good about his financial situation.

00:41:25.800 --> 00:41:33.810
 But the point is that the horse is not the main mode of transportation like a car would

00:41:33.810 --> 00:41:35.720
 be to us today.

00:41:35.720 --> 00:41:43.660
 The horse back then is reserved for people who are like nobility and, you know, kings

00:41:43.660 --> 00:41:45.730
 and important people or whatever.

00:41:45.730 --> 00:41:50.830
 I don't know if it's a coincidence that it says that, you know, the horse gate was repaired

00:41:50.830 --> 00:41:55.530
 by the priests, everyone over against his house makes it seem like possibly maybe the

00:41:55.530 --> 00:42:00.290
 priests are riding horses because they're important people because you have the tribe

00:42:00.290 --> 00:42:05.640
 of Levi but then the elite group within the tribe of Levi would be the actual Aaronic

00:42:05.640 --> 00:42:08.630
 priesthood, the sons of Aaron.

00:42:08.630 --> 00:42:10.790
 And so, you know, are they riding horses?

00:42:10.790 --> 00:42:16.560
 Possibly, you know, they're riding horses but the point is that the main use for a horse

00:42:16.560 --> 00:42:22.900
 in the ancient world is going to be like a government use, like it's going to be warfare,

00:42:22.900 --> 00:42:27.900
 it's going to be leadership, it's going to be kings and governors and princes and people

00:42:27.900 --> 00:42:29.750
 like that in general.

00:42:29.750 --> 00:42:36.250
 And so, I say the horse gate represents battles and spiritual warfare because that's how

00:42:36.250 --> 00:42:39.190
 the horse is often mentioned throughout the Bible.

00:42:39.190 --> 00:42:41.380
 Here's some scripture on this from the New Testament.

00:42:41.380 --> 00:42:45.690
 First Timothy 1, 18, "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the

00:42:45.690 --> 00:42:51.210
 prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare."

00:42:51.210 --> 00:42:57.030
 So we as Christians are told, hey, war a good warfare, preachers specifically, war a good

00:42:57.030 --> 00:43:00.340
 warfare.

00:43:00.340 --> 00:43:06.980
 Second Timothy 2, verse 3, "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus

00:43:06.980 --> 00:43:12.040
 Christ, no man that warroth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may

00:43:12.040 --> 00:43:15.000
 please him who had chosen him to be a soldier."

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:16.150
 Right?

00:43:16.150 --> 00:43:18.410
 We are chosen to be soldiers.

00:43:18.410 --> 00:43:22.450
 And often, you know, when you're studying the Bible and you read about these armies,

00:43:22.450 --> 00:43:27.860
 it'll say like these groups of troops were chosen men, meaning that they're kind of like

00:43:27.860 --> 00:43:29.940
 the elite troops.

00:43:29.940 --> 00:43:33.590
 They're selected as being, you know, especially good.

00:43:33.590 --> 00:43:36.910
 And so, you know, we're chosen to be a soldier.

00:43:36.910 --> 00:43:39.340
 We're supposed to war a good warfare.

00:43:39.340 --> 00:43:41.460
 And that's what the horse gate represents.

00:43:41.460 --> 00:43:42.440
 Almost done here.

00:43:42.440 --> 00:43:45.270
 Number nine, we've got the east gate.

00:43:45.270 --> 00:43:50.420
 Bible says in verse 29 of Nehemiah 3, "After them repaired Zadok, the son of Emmer, over

00:43:50.420 --> 00:43:56.710
 against his house, after him repaired also Shemaiah, the son of Shekiniah, the keeper

00:43:56.710 --> 00:43:59.150
 of the east gate."

00:43:59.150 --> 00:44:00.660
 So what could the east gate represent?

00:44:00.660 --> 00:44:07.030
 Well, in the Bible, the east and really just in culture in general, east represents the

00:44:07.030 --> 00:44:11.330
 sun because the sun rises in the east, right?

00:44:11.330 --> 00:44:16.290
 So because the sun rises in the east, that's what the east gate's associated with.

00:44:16.290 --> 00:44:23.270
 So therefore the east is also associated with the lord because the sun represents the lord.

00:44:23.270 --> 00:44:25.250
 Now you say, "What are you talking about?

00:44:25.250 --> 00:44:26.240
 The sun god?"

00:44:26.240 --> 00:44:29.830
 No, my friend, I'm not talking about worshiping the sun or the sun god.

00:44:29.830 --> 00:44:32.460
 I'm saying it pictures the lord.

00:44:32.460 --> 00:44:38.370
 So it's sort of like if I said the lamb represents Jesus, why are you going to worship a lamb?

00:44:38.370 --> 00:44:40.740
 Well, I'm not going to go bow down to a literal lamb.

00:44:40.740 --> 00:44:45.320
 If you made a statue of a lamb and started bowing down to it, then that would be sin.

00:44:45.320 --> 00:44:46.370
 That would be wrong.

00:44:46.370 --> 00:44:48.370
 That would be idolatry.

00:44:48.370 --> 00:44:51.360
 But does that change the fact that Jesus is the lamb of God?

00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:53.430
 Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah.

00:44:53.430 --> 00:44:55.920
 I'm not going to worship a literal lion.

00:44:55.920 --> 00:44:58.890
 Not going to make a statue of a lion and bow down to it.

00:44:58.890 --> 00:45:01.400
 But Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah.

00:45:01.400 --> 00:45:08.440
 Well, the Bible also calls Jesus in Malachi chapter four, the son, S-U-N, the son of righteousness.

00:45:08.440 --> 00:45:13.740
 It talks about the son of righteousness arising with healing in his wings.

00:45:13.740 --> 00:45:19.720
 And so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is also pictured as the sun rising, because like

00:45:19.720 --> 00:45:27.390
 the sun setting could picture his death, and then the sun coming up again is a resurrection

00:45:27.390 --> 00:45:29.320
 of the sun, right?

00:45:29.320 --> 00:45:36.470
 And so even nature itself is pointing us toward the truths of God's word, the gospel, et cetera.

00:45:36.470 --> 00:45:41.230
 People will turn around and say, oh, you know, these are just pagan teachings that the Bible

00:45:41.230 --> 00:45:44.800
 adopted and, you know, Christians are just a sun cult, whatever.

00:45:44.800 --> 00:45:51.430
 No, no, my friend, it's that God created the world to reflect His greatness and to

00:45:51.430 --> 00:45:53.530
 reflect the gospel story.

00:45:53.530 --> 00:45:54.510
 You got it backwards.

00:45:54.510 --> 00:45:58.740
 It's not that the gospel was crafted to match nature and that we're in some kind of a nature

00:45:58.740 --> 00:46:00.020
 cult.

00:46:00.020 --> 00:46:06.240
 No, it is that nature reflects the truths of God's word because the invisible things

00:46:06.240 --> 00:46:11.730
 from Him, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things

00:46:11.730 --> 00:46:18.340
 that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

00:46:18.340 --> 00:46:24.050
 So the eternal power and divinity of Jesus Christ is manifested even in nature.

00:46:24.050 --> 00:46:27.060
 So we have these illustrations in nature.

00:46:27.060 --> 00:46:31.980
 So the sun rising in the east represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

00:46:31.980 --> 00:46:37.210
 So for example, we have, and we could go all over the Bible where the Lord is associated

00:46:37.210 --> 00:46:43.490
 with the east, you know, where, and again, that would take literally an entire sermon,

00:46:43.490 --> 00:46:47.080
 it's all the east verses that have to do with the Lord, okay?

00:46:47.080 --> 00:46:51.570
 But here's just a little taste, how about Matthew chapter two, when the wise men show

00:46:51.570 --> 00:46:56.770
 up in Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his

00:46:56.770 --> 00:47:02.330
 star in the east and are come to worship him, right?

00:47:02.330 --> 00:47:07.270
 So the star announcing Christ's birth is come in the east.

00:47:07.270 --> 00:47:13.010
 Also about the second coming, Matthew 24 verse 27, for as the lightning cometh out of the

00:47:13.010 --> 00:47:18.960
 east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

00:47:18.960 --> 00:47:23.080
 So the coming of Jesus Christ, talking about the second coming, is going to be like the

00:47:23.080 --> 00:47:26.270
 lightning that comes out of the east.

00:47:26.270 --> 00:47:31.710
 So there's a lot of symbolism with Jesus Christ and the east.

00:47:31.710 --> 00:47:37.930
 So I would say that the east gate could represent the second coming of Jesus Christ.

00:47:37.930 --> 00:47:40.470
 Now how is this an aspect of the Christian life?

00:47:40.470 --> 00:47:46.000
 It's an aspect of the Christian life because one of our core fundamental doctrines as Christians

00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:51.090
 is the literal second coming of Christ.

00:47:51.090 --> 00:47:52.290
 This is a fundamental of the faith.

00:47:52.290 --> 00:47:57.330
 Now look, obviously there are different people who have different views on eschatology when

00:47:57.330 --> 00:47:59.320
 it comes to the finer points.

00:47:59.320 --> 00:48:04.870
 You got people that are pre-trib, post-trib, you know, you have these different viewpoints,

00:48:04.870 --> 00:48:09.410
 you know, the pre-millennial and then post-millennial, which is obviously post-millennial is way

00:48:09.410 --> 00:48:10.850
 out there.

00:48:10.850 --> 00:48:15.280
 That's not something that independent fundamental Baptists believe in, you know, independent

00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:19.640
 fundamental Baptists pretty much all pre-millennial and then it's just, you know, it's a question

00:48:19.640 --> 00:48:25.250
 of the timing of the rapture or details about the tribulation and the end time, stuff like

00:48:25.250 --> 00:48:26.310
 that.

00:48:26.310 --> 00:48:29.270
 But here's the thing about, and then you have partial preterism and you have these

00:48:29.270 --> 00:48:30.250
 other views.

00:48:30.250 --> 00:48:35.880
 I'm not saying that these views are, there's only one view that's right, post-trib, pre-wrath.

00:48:35.880 --> 00:48:41.470
 But the point, but that being said, you know, we're not going to separate over those issues.

00:48:41.470 --> 00:48:44.410
 Those are not like deal breaker issues.

00:48:44.410 --> 00:48:49.060
 Those are not fundamental core doctrines of the faith that we have to just die on that

00:48:49.060 --> 00:48:50.210
 hill or something.

00:48:50.210 --> 00:48:56.650
 But I'll tell you what hill we do need to die on is the literal second coming of Jesus.

00:48:56.650 --> 00:49:01.980
 So no matter what you believe about the timing of it, if you don't believe that Jesus Christ

00:49:01.980 --> 00:49:06.000
 is literally coming back, you're a damnable heretic at that point.

00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:07.020
 That's just heresy.

00:49:07.020 --> 00:49:09.570
 That's a horrible false doctrine.

00:49:09.570 --> 00:49:11.780
 That is not acceptable.

00:49:11.780 --> 00:49:16.740
 That is not okay to deny the second coming of Jesus any more than it would be acceptable

00:49:16.740 --> 00:49:23.780
 to deny other core doctrines like the virgin birth, the trinity, the inspiration of scripture,

00:49:23.780 --> 00:49:24.780
 stuff like that.

00:49:24.780 --> 00:49:29.750
 So again, obviously there could be finer points of disagreement in end times, but we all better

00:49:29.750 --> 00:49:36.580
 agree that Jesus Christ is coming back, that he is actually going to literally return.

00:49:36.580 --> 00:49:42.720
 People that say, "Oh, he already came back, it already happened," are false prophets,

00:49:42.720 --> 00:49:46.390
 liars, heretics, they're wicked.

00:49:46.390 --> 00:49:48.880
 That is not a little mistake to make.

00:49:48.880 --> 00:49:54.550
 The Bible specifically addresses this saying that there are these false teachers and their

00:49:54.550 --> 00:49:58.460
 word will eat as if a canker, or we would say cancer.

00:49:58.460 --> 00:50:00.350
 Their word will eat like a cancer.

00:50:00.350 --> 00:50:05.200
 These people are saying that the resurrection has passed already and overthrow the faith

00:50:05.200 --> 00:50:06.170
 of some.

00:50:06.170 --> 00:50:10.300
 Say, "Oh, it already happened," baloney, it hasn't already happened.

00:50:10.300 --> 00:50:12.600
 The second coming of Christ is still coming.

00:50:12.600 --> 00:50:18.090
 Don't let anybody deceive you into thinking, "Oh, the day of Christ is at hand," or, "My

00:50:18.090 --> 00:50:22.310
 friend, there must come a falling away first, the man of sin needs to be revealed, the son

00:50:22.310 --> 00:50:23.340
 of perdition."

00:50:23.340 --> 00:50:30.310
 The bottom line is Christ is still coming back and that's why the full preterism is

00:50:30.310 --> 00:50:31.400
 heresy.

00:50:31.400 --> 00:50:33.770
 Say, "Oh, it already happened."

00:50:33.770 --> 00:50:38.320
 Here's another Satan's Little Season stupid doctrine, and I know you've probably never

00:50:38.320 --> 00:50:44.240
 heard of this, good, because it's the most foolish, inane, retarded thing on the internet

00:50:44.240 --> 00:50:45.310
 right now.

00:50:45.310 --> 00:50:49.810
 But it is spreading like wildfire, especially among flat earthers.

00:50:49.810 --> 00:50:55.320
 Satan's Little Season doctrine, you know what, damnable heresy saying that, "Oh, Jesus Christ

00:50:55.320 --> 00:51:01.730
 already returned and right now we're living in Satan's Little Season right now and Jesus

00:51:01.730 --> 00:51:08.480
 at the North Pole and all this," it's like, that's crazy.

00:51:08.480 --> 00:51:12.790
 The second coming of Christ is a foundational doctrine.

00:51:12.790 --> 00:51:14.240
 We all believe in it.

00:51:14.240 --> 00:51:16.970
 If we're saved Christians, we believe in it.

00:51:16.970 --> 00:51:21.420
 We might have different details right or wrong about it, but we at least believe that the

00:51:21.420 --> 00:51:25.650
 second coming is still happening, okay, and that's critical.

00:51:25.650 --> 00:51:26.990
 That's an important doctrine.

00:51:26.990 --> 00:51:32.850
 So this is what's represented by the East Gate is our belief and also, you know, this

00:51:32.850 --> 00:51:35.570
 has to do with how we live our lives as well.

00:51:35.570 --> 00:51:37.010
 Okay, why?

00:51:37.010 --> 00:51:41.370
 Because every man that have this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure.

00:51:41.370 --> 00:51:45.210
 The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 3, "Seeing then that all these things shall be burned

00:51:45.210 --> 00:51:48.970
 up, what manner of persons ought we to be?"

00:51:48.970 --> 00:51:53.640
 Like we're going to live our lives differently if we think this world's not going to be here

00:51:53.640 --> 00:51:59.170
 forever the way it is now, Christ is going to come, it's all going to be burned up.

00:51:59.170 --> 00:52:01.720
 That's going to change how we live our lives.

00:52:01.720 --> 00:52:04.100
 And so the second coming is a part of our lives.

00:52:04.100 --> 00:52:09.190
 And so when I teach on end times Bible prophecy, it's going to be super relevant if it happens

00:52:09.190 --> 00:52:10.980
 in our lifetime.

00:52:10.980 --> 00:52:16.690
 But let's say it never happens in our lifetime and it happens 200 years from now or 300 years

00:52:16.690 --> 00:52:18.520
 from now when we're all dead and gone.

00:52:18.520 --> 00:52:24.060
 Was my teaching on the book of Revelation and end times and the second coming, was it

00:52:24.060 --> 00:52:25.620
 in vain?

00:52:25.620 --> 00:52:32.450
 And the answer is no, because it informs us also just about the nature of God and how

00:52:32.450 --> 00:52:38.900
 to live our lives and it'll help us be a better Christian to understand and think about and

00:52:38.900 --> 00:52:45.100
 meditate on and know about eschatology, second coming of Christ, end times prophecy.

00:52:45.100 --> 00:52:49.290
 Hey, the book of Revelation is profitable from cover to cover, not just the first few

00:52:49.290 --> 00:52:50.270
 chapters.

00:52:50.270 --> 00:52:56.700
 The whole book of Revelation is profitable for doctrine and for correction and for instruction

00:52:56.700 --> 00:53:00.590
 in righteousness to tell us how to live a godly life.

00:53:00.590 --> 00:53:03.470
 So even if it does, look, if it happens in our lifetime, you're going to be really glad

00:53:03.470 --> 00:53:05.010
 that you got those teachings.

00:53:05.010 --> 00:53:09.240
 But if it doesn't happen in our lifetime, still useful.

00:53:09.240 --> 00:53:14.520
 And then the final gate, we're going to kind of end on a low note here, unfortunately.

00:53:14.520 --> 00:53:16.770
 You know, the sermon is going great so far.

00:53:16.770 --> 00:53:21.860
 And then we run into a little snag here with this 10th gate, because the King James Bible

00:53:21.860 --> 00:53:26.670
 translators decided to just not translate the name of this last gate.

00:53:26.670 --> 00:53:28.950
 So it kind of leaves us with like a question mark.

00:53:28.950 --> 00:53:32.940
 It's sort of like, you know, do you want what's behind door number one, whatever this gate

00:53:32.940 --> 00:53:39.820
 is, because it says in verse number 29, or excuse me, verse 31 of Nehemiah 3, "After

00:53:39.820 --> 00:53:45.200
 it repaired, Malkiah the goldsmith's son, unto the place of the Nethanims and of the

00:53:45.200 --> 00:53:54.630
 merchants, over against the gate, Mifchad, and to the going up of the corner."

00:53:54.630 --> 00:53:55.620
 So what does Mifchad mean?

00:53:55.620 --> 00:53:57.610
 Well, here's the thing about this.

00:53:57.610 --> 00:54:00.240
 The King James translators did not translate this word.

00:54:00.240 --> 00:54:05.530
 They basically just transliterated it or just brought it directly from Hebrew into English

00:54:05.530 --> 00:54:06.540
 without doing this.

00:54:06.540 --> 00:54:07.930
 Now, why did they do this?

00:54:07.930 --> 00:54:13.820
 Well, usually when the translators don't translate something, it's because they're not a hundred

00:54:13.820 --> 00:54:15.880
 percent sure what it means.

00:54:15.880 --> 00:54:20.490
 So if they're not a hundred percent sure what it means, instead of just guessing and just

00:54:20.490 --> 00:54:24.430
 picking something, a lot of times they'll just leave it untranslated.

00:54:24.430 --> 00:54:28.330
 And a lot of times in the King James like first edition that we have out there in the

00:54:28.330 --> 00:54:33.960
 lobby, you'll see where when there's a difficult thing like this or something's in Hebrew,

00:54:33.960 --> 00:54:38.540
 they'll put a note in the column and say like, well, it might mean this, might mean this,

00:54:38.540 --> 00:54:39.530
 might mean this.

00:54:39.530 --> 00:54:40.850
 We don't know.

00:54:40.850 --> 00:54:41.820
 So we left it untranslated.

00:54:41.820 --> 00:54:44.080
 In this case, I don't even think there's even a note.

00:54:44.080 --> 00:54:49.700
 It's just like miqad and sorry, you got nothing.

00:54:49.700 --> 00:54:54.470
 Now this word is not a, you know, I have read the Bible in Hebrew cover to cover.

00:54:54.470 --> 00:55:00.770
 And so I could say like this word is not a really crazy word or a wild word or a rare

00:55:00.770 --> 00:55:03.340
 word or anything like that.

00:55:03.340 --> 00:55:06.430
 It's just that this word can have a whole bunch of different meanings.

00:55:06.430 --> 00:55:08.430
 So we know what the word means.

00:55:08.430 --> 00:55:12.610
 It's just you don't necessarily know which meaning is right, okay?

00:55:12.610 --> 00:55:16.260
 Because this root that this is based on is actually a pretty common root.

00:55:16.260 --> 00:55:20.160
 It's something that somebody studying Hebrew would probably learn in like the first semester,

00:55:20.160 --> 00:55:21.140
 maybe the second semester.

00:55:21.140 --> 00:55:23.550
 Like it's a pretty common word, okay?

00:55:23.550 --> 00:55:27.330
 As far as just the pakad part of this, which is the root.

00:55:27.330 --> 00:55:30.310
 But the thing about that is that, you know, they didn't know which one.

00:55:30.310 --> 00:55:36.180
 Now the rest of the gates, it was kind of just obvious like fish, sheep, fountain.

00:55:36.180 --> 00:55:41.520
 Like it was clear what the intent was, but, you know, they chose not to translate here.

00:55:41.520 --> 00:55:46.360
 So instead, you know, we could guess about it and guess what it means.

00:55:46.360 --> 00:55:47.330
 But how about this?

00:55:47.330 --> 00:55:51.620
 Why don't we just for purposes of the sermon, why don't we say that this gate just represents

00:55:51.620 --> 00:55:57.870
 things that we don't understand because let's face it, that's a big part of the Christian

00:55:57.870 --> 00:55:59.910
 life.

00:55:59.910 --> 00:56:04.050
 I mean, is that not an aspect of the Christian life is there are going to be events in your

00:56:04.050 --> 00:56:07.470
 life that you don't understand.

00:56:07.470 --> 00:56:11.070
 There are going to be things in the Bible that you don't understand.

00:56:11.070 --> 00:56:16.490
 There are going to be situations where you're just like God, why did you allow this to happen?

00:56:16.490 --> 00:56:18.000
 Why does the Bible say this?

00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:19.360
 Why is this happening to me?

00:56:19.360 --> 00:56:23.360
 You know, there are just a lot of things in life that I don't understand, that you don't

00:56:23.360 --> 00:56:24.820
 understand, that we're never going to understand.

00:56:24.820 --> 00:56:25.810
 And you know what?

00:56:25.810 --> 00:56:28.610
 We got to just have the faith to just say, you know what?

00:56:28.610 --> 00:56:31.130
 I don't understand, but I'm just going to trust God.

00:56:31.130 --> 00:56:34.740
 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.

00:56:34.740 --> 00:56:40.890
 And so the Gate Meath Cod could just represent, hey, I don't know what this means, but you

00:56:40.890 --> 00:56:42.470
 know what?

00:56:42.470 --> 00:56:44.230
 I'm just going to trust God anyway.

00:56:44.230 --> 00:56:48.010
 That separates us from the world at large because they're like, well, if I don't see

00:56:48.010 --> 00:56:49.830
 it, I won't believe it.

00:56:49.830 --> 00:56:51.930
 If you can't explain it, I won't believe it.

00:56:51.930 --> 00:56:56.420
 If I don't understand everything about it, I won't believe it.

00:56:56.420 --> 00:57:02.740
 Whereas we as Christians, we're willing to take things on faith and to not understand

00:57:02.740 --> 00:57:03.730
 something.

00:57:03.730 --> 00:57:08.140
 Now obviously that's kind of an avant-garde interpretation that I just came up with.

00:57:08.140 --> 00:57:12.420
 I'm not saying that that's necessarily the best interpretation for the 10th Gate, but

00:57:12.420 --> 00:57:14.950
 I'm just saying I like it, you know.

00:57:14.950 --> 00:57:18.970
 Some of the things that this word could mean is like it could mean number, like a number

00:57:18.970 --> 00:57:19.970
 gate.

00:57:19.970 --> 00:57:23.990
 It could be the commandment gate, a pointed place, you know, and so we could come up with

00:57:23.990 --> 00:57:26.300
 all kinds of different interpretations.

00:57:26.300 --> 00:57:29.880
 The visitation gate, I mean you could, there's a whole bunch of different things that this

00:57:29.880 --> 00:57:33.710
 word could mean and we could make something up, but I kind of like it for this purpose

00:57:33.710 --> 00:57:34.700
 of this sermon.

00:57:34.700 --> 00:57:41.320
 Just hard things, difficult things, complicated things, stuff that, you know, we just don't

00:57:41.320 --> 00:57:44.540
 quite get it and maybe we'll never get it, or maybe we'll understand it ten years from

00:57:44.540 --> 00:57:46.790
 now, but we just don't understand it today.

00:57:46.790 --> 00:57:53.610
 And so just super quick review, we have the sheep gate, salvation, fish gate, soul winning,

00:57:53.610 --> 00:58:00.250
 old gate, fundamentals, right, the old paths, not trendy new doctrines, the valley gate

00:58:00.250 --> 00:58:06.450
 representing trials, tribulations, chastisement, the dung gate, number five, purging of sin,

00:58:06.450 --> 00:58:10.470
 getting rid of things that are holding us back, number six, the fountain gate, overflowing

00:58:10.470 --> 00:58:15.330
 with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, number seven, the water gate, further Bible reading

00:58:15.330 --> 00:58:20.800
 and cleansing, eight, the horse gate, battles and spiritual warfare, number nine, the east

00:58:20.800 --> 00:58:26.550
 gate, meditating upon, teaching and learning about the second coming of Jesus Christ, and

00:58:26.550 --> 00:58:31.750
 the gate, well that's just some things that we just don't understand, look, 54 scholars

00:58:31.750 --> 00:58:36.060
 behind the King James couldn't settle this, you know, I'm not going to pretend to be able

00:58:36.060 --> 00:58:43.000
 to settle it for you right now, and so after that we come full circle, verse 32, between

00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:48.140
 the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate, so we've come full circle around the

00:58:48.140 --> 00:58:54.280
 city, the ten gates, all by name, ten aspects of the Christian life, here's the conclusion,

00:58:54.280 --> 00:58:59.080
 all the gates need to be on their hinges in our lives, all the gates need to be on their

00:58:59.080 --> 00:59:04.980
 hinges because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and so here's the thing,

00:59:04.980 --> 00:59:09.840
 you might have the sheep gates all dialed in, the fish gates all dialed in, but you

00:59:09.840 --> 00:59:15.720
 don't want one of these to just be wide open because then you're opening yourself up to

00:59:15.720 --> 00:59:21.280
 attack, you're opening yourself up to bad influences and things coming in, and so ideally

00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:30.290
 we want to have a full wall, a full Christian life of all these aspects with every door

00:59:30.290 --> 00:59:36.000
 on its hinges so that we don't have any vulnerabilities, weaknesses, we don't have any chinks in the

00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:42.070
 armor as it were, but that we have the full spectrum of what God wants us to have in our

00:59:42.070 --> 00:59:43.040
 Christian life.

00:59:43.040 --> 00:59:44.920
 Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.

00:59:44.920 --> 00:59:48.340
 Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, we thank you for this great chapter,

00:59:48.340 --> 00:59:54.600
 and Lord God, thank you for giving us everything that we need to be throughly furnished unto

00:59:54.600 --> 00:59:59.910
 all good works, Lord, thank you for giving us all the equipment in the Bible, everything

00:59:59.910 --> 01:00:01.770
 we need to do right, Lord.

01:00:01.770 --> 01:00:05.850
 Help us to take advantage, help us to fix any of these areas in our lives that need

01:00:05.850 --> 01:00:11.740
 to be fixed, if anyone out there, maybe a certain point resonated with them, Lord, I

01:00:11.740 --> 01:00:16.870
 pray that that person would work on that aspect in their Christian life so that all ten gates

01:00:16.870 --> 01:00:20.990
 are on the hinges and in place, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.