- Men, this morning I'm preaching on these 10 gates
that we just saw enumerated in Nehemiah chapter number three.
And as I said in my sermon last week about the wall,
as Christians, there should be a separation
or a difference between us
and the rest of the world around us.
The whole point of going to church
is to be around like-minded people
that believe the way that we believe,
and kind of have an oasis of sanity in an insane world
where our thoughts and our worldview
are conformed to the Word of God.
And our lives, we're gonna live our lives differently
because we're following the Bible,
as opposed to just being heathen out there,
doing whatever's right in our own eyes.
And so the wall kind of represents that separation
or demarcation or distinction between us
and the rest of the world at large.
Well, in this chapter, they're going through
and they're repairing the wall.
And it gives the detail as they repair the wall
that they build these 10 specific gates
or repair these 10 gates that had been there previously.
And so I'm gonna talk about the symbolism
that these gates could represent.
We got the sheep gate, the fish gate,
the old gate and so forth.
And so these could be seen as like aspects
of the Christian life or aspects of Christian growth
or aspects of distinction between us and everybody else.
So let's go ahead and look at these.
And obviously I'm gonna give an interpretation here.
This is not the only interpretation
because the Bible is so deep.
There are so many layers upon layers of meaning
that obviously you could just keep reading the Bible
and keep finding new things and new imagery
and new symbolism, but this is an interpretation.
This is a legitimate interpretation, of course.
But look if you would at chapter three, verse one,
the Bible reads, "Then Elijah the high priest rose up
"with his brother and the priest,
"and they builded the sheep gate.
"They sanctified it and set up the doors of it,
"even under the tower of Meah,
"they sanctified it onto the tower of Hananiel."
So number one, the sheep gate could represent salvation,
becoming a sheep as opposed to being one of the goats.
Because let's face it,
there are two kinds of people in this world
and there's nothing in between.
There are people that are saved
and there are people that are not saved.
This is a binary distinction.
He that hath the son, hath life.
And he that hath not the son of God, hath not life.
And you are either saved or you are not saved.
If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ,
if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
as your savior, you are saved.
And if you have not trusted Christ as your savior,
you are unsaved.
It is that simple.
There are the sheep and there are the goats.
You're either in or out, saved or unsaved.
So the sheep gate could represent that distinction
of being saved, being one of the sheep.
Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them
and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
So being saved is being the sheep.
But number two, we have the fish gate.
Now what could the fish gate represent?
Well, if you would flip over to John chapter four,
John chapter four, but in verse number three, it says,
but the fish gate did the sons of Hassanah build,
who also laid the beams thereof and set up the doors
thereof and the locks thereof and the bars thereof.
Now, when we think of the fish gate,
the first thing that probably comes to mind is evangelism.
So winning because when Jesus is first picking out
his disciples, some of whom were literal fishermen,
he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
And so this is the first work that he gives his disciples
and says, look, you are going to be fishers of men.
He said, the son of man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost.
And then at the end of his ministry,
at the end of his life, he said,
as the father had sent me, so send I you.
And so we are supposed to be out there seeking
and saving the lost fishers of men, winning people to Christ.
And if you think about the order here,
and I'm not saying that all of these gates
are necessarily going to follow a perfect order,
but if we think about the order, it's like,
get saved, sheep gate, fish gate,
get soul winning right away.
I don't think there's any reason to wait on evangelizing.
I mean, if you're saved, you're ready to evangelize.
You should get out there and start evangelizing right away.
You say, I don't know, I need to clean up my life more.
I need to get the sin out of my life.
Look, first you bring forth fruit,
then God will purge you
so that you bring forth even more fruit.
But you start out by bringing forth fruit ASAP.
The sooner you get out soul winning, the better.
The sooner you evangelize, the better.
You say, well, I have to know the answer
to every false religion question.
What if I'm out knocking doors
and somebody hits me with something
and I don't know the answer?
You know, in some ways,
this almost can make beginner soul winners
even better than advanced soul winners
because sometimes the advanced soul winner
knows so much about the Bible
that when some bozo wants to argue with them about doctrine,
they're just like, oh man, I got,
I've trained my whole life for this.
It's like, I got this guy and I'm gonna nail him.
And they could get sucked into foolish questions
and vain jangling and arguments and contentions, right?
Whereas the beginner is just like, well, I don't know, man.
Let me just finish what I'm preaching to you here.
And let's just get back on track
and let me just preach to you the gospel.
Let's talk about that later.
And by the way, that's what you should do
if you're advanced too, right?
If somebody brings up some off topic wild question
about ancient aliens and whatever,
you know, the best thing to do is just say,
hey, let's talk about that later.
Or why don't I answer that question in a moment?
But first I just want to kind of get through
what I'm saying here about salvation,
about the gospel, right?
And keeping it on point with that.
So no, you don't need to be super smart,
super advanced, super knowledgeable,
super holy in order to get started evangelizing.
Obviously in the long run,
you want to be all those things, right?
You want to study to show yourself approved.
You want to learn the Bible.
You want to clean up your life.
But you know what?
Evangelism can start at day one.
A lot of people will say this.
Well, I can't evangelize
'cause I don't want to be a hypocrite.
Hold on.
What is it that you're preaching for people to do?
You're preaching for people to believe on Jesus
as their savior.
Have you done that?
Yeah.
Then you're not a hypocrite telling people to do that.
Now, if you were going around preaching work salvation,
if you were going around teaching,
oh, you have to live to this high standard
in order to be saved,
and then you're not living to that standard,
that would make you a hypocrite.
But guess what?
Work salvation is a false gospel.
And so no, you're not preaching works.
So whether you're living for God or not living for God,
if you believe in Jesus
and you're preaching for people to believe in Jesus,
that can never be hypocrisy.
The only hypocrite would be the one
who doesn't believe the gospel,
and he's going out and telling people to believe the gospel,
and he's not gonna get anybody saved anyway
'cause he's a bogus Judas at that point.
And so the Bible says here in John chapter four,
this is the woman at the well story,
it says in verse number 28,
the woman then left her water pot
and went her way into the city and say it to the men,
come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did
is not this the Christ.
Then they went out of the city and came unto him.
So this woman has just met Jesus.
And then the first thing she does,
she leaves her water pot,
she drops everything she's doing,
goes to the city and goes and starts telling everybody
about Jesus, and then they come and they meet Jesus.
And then look what it says in verse number 39,
and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him
for the saying of the woman which testified,
"He told me all that ever I did."
And so the symbolism here is the idea
of someone meets Jesus and then right away,
they're bringing other people to Jesus
and those people are getting saved, right?
That's the symbolism.
So again, there's no need to wait on soul winning.
You can get out soul winning right away.
And by the way, you know,
when somebody shows up at our church for a soul winning time,
they start out being as a silent partner.
And just, that's how I started out.
The first time I went soul winning,
I'd been saved for many, many years.
But when I was 17 years old, got into a soul winning church,
I showed up and I was paired up with somebody
who knew what they were doing.
And I just followed that guy around and just watched him
work and I'm praying in my heart for people
that they'll get saved.
Maybe, you know, trying to help eliminate distractions,
doing all those things that the silent partner does,
but you know, you can just show up and be a silent partner.
Some people are a silent partner for many months.
And if you're a silent partner,
you can keep on being a silent partner
for as long as you want.
You know, there's nothing that says
you can't be a silent partner for months or even years.
You know?
Now, here's the thing about that.
I think eventually you're gonna wanna do the talking.
'Cause here's what happens.
You got soul winning as a silent partner long enough,
you're gonna get paired up with some bozo
and you're gonna be like, all right,
I think I can do better than this.
No, that was a joke, but kind of true though.
So let's look at the third gate, the old gate.
Look at verse six in Nehemiah.
If you wanna just stay in Nehemiah three,
we're gonna be there the whole time looking at these gates,
but it says in verse six,
"Moreover, the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Passiah."
So what does the old gate represent?
Well, this could represent the fundamentals of the faith,
the foundational teachings of the faith,
the old fashioned way, the old paths and so forth.
Let me read you a couple of scriptures on this
about the old gate.
Jeremiah 6, 16 says, "Thus saith the Lord,
"stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths
"wherein is the good way and walk therein,
"and ye shall find rest for your souls,
"but they said we will not walk therein."
And so the idea here is that the old paths
are the right paths, the good paths.
If it's new, it probably isn't true, okay?
Here's what the book of Hebrews says in 13, nine.
"Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines,
"for it is a good thing that the heart be established
"with grace, not with meats which have not profited them
"that have been occupied therein."
So the Bible says don't be carried about
with divers and strange doctrines.
We don't wanna be tossed to and fro
with every wind of doctrine.
Another way of saying this would be trendy doctrines, right?
What we want is fundamental doctrine,
old-fashioned doctrine, old-time religion,
not just being carried about with every exotic, fun, cute,
trendy, new little doctrine.
Folks, we need to be established and grounded
in the core fundamentals of the faith.
And look, I'm not talking about opening some history book
written by Catholics and figuring out, you know,
what did the church fathers say?
What are they, you know, a bunch of guys in dresses,
baptizing babies, century,
I don't care what these people think.
That's not what we're talking about.
There were false prophets then,
there are false prophets now.
Just 'cause something's old doesn't make it right.
You know, Hinduism comes along and says,
hey, we're the oldest religion.
Yes, Satan goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
The Tower of Babel is pretty old too.
And so, no, I'm not impressed
by just something being super old
because the devil's super old.
All these false cults are super old.
I mean, Buddhism is 500 years older than Christianity, right?
It's trash.
It's of the devil, it's satanic.
And so the point is not just,
oh, we gotta go find some really old ancient history book,
again, written by Catholics
who are burning everything that they don't agree with
and just preserving all of their idolatrous pagan garbage.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is there has been a chain of believers
and Christians from the time of Christ until now.
There's never been a time on earth
where the gospel just fell off the face of the earth.
Now there are obviously certain geographies
where it could have died in a certain geography.
There are places now where it's pretty dead
in certain geographies,
where there are very few people saved whatsoever
in certain geographies.
But you know what?
There's always a righteous remnant.
There are always people who are saved.
There are always Bible believing Christians.
And guess what?
Somebody got us saved and somebody got that person saved.
And my parents got saved and went to,
my grandparents got saved and went to church.
And you know what?
Those type of things that have stood the test of time
for the decades of our lives
and that Christians have believed
that have basically been a lot of the doctrines
that even built America.
Because you know,
America has been built on Baptists
and evangelical Christians.
It's true.
Go all the way back to 1776
and you'll find that the mainline Protestant denominations
were already dying in 1776.
They were declining in membership.
Things like the Lutherans
and the Episcopalian Church of England.
I mean, that obviously wasn't popular in 1776.
And then you have the Presbyterians and everything.
Those things were already declining in 1776.
You know what the two hottest religions were in 1776?
I'm not making this up.
I got the scholarly sources to prove it.
Come see me after the service.
If you're doubtful, O thou of little faith.
The two hottest religions in America in 1776
were the Methodists and the Baptists.
Methodists are a bunch of false teachers
teaching you can lose your salvation.
And they're a bunch of holy rollers
like the modern day Pentecostals.
Doing a bunch of wild ecstatic utterances
and all the wild things that today
we would associate with Pentecostals.
That's what the Methodists were like in the 1776,
early 1800s.
They were like the Pentecostals of their day
and the Baptists are the Baptists.
So there's kind of nothing new under the sun.
But the point is today we have evangelical Christianity.
We have a bunch of non-denom churches
and pretty much half of them are Baptists
and half of them are Pentecostal.
The Pentecostals are preaching damnable heresy.
The Baptists are preaching right doctrine.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
Salvation by faith alone, eternal security of the believer.
I'm here to tell you that our doctrine, our belief, our gospel, it didn't originate with
us.
It is an old, well-trodden path that our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, they
had this.
Obviously, the further we go back, history becomes sparse and it becomes unreliable.
The most reliable history is the most recent history, okay?
That should just be kind of common sense.
And so what have we seen over the last few hundred years?
We've seen Bible believing evangelical Christians preaching the gospel, winning the laws, getting
people's...
We need the old paths, not cute trendy doctrines that just came out in the 21st century.
Brand new.
You want to know something that I never heard of as a Christian who, you know, when I was
a teenager and a young adult man, I ate, breathed and slept the Bible and church and soul winning.
There was a time when I was going to church almost every day because I was going to my
normal church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
I was going to a Bible study on Monday night, different Bible study on Tuesday night.
I found a church that had Thursday night services.
I went to that on Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night.
I was usually doing youth activities with one of my four churches that I was attending,
you know.
And so look, I was pretty into it, man.
And I was going to the independent fundamental Baptist church and I was dabbling in some
more watered down evangelical type circles just for social reasons.
But let me tell you what I never heard in any of those churches, any of those Bible
studies, "Yahweh, Yahweh."
Never even heard of that because it was not a thing.
That is a new, strange new pronunciation reading come up by a bunch of German unbelieving Christ
rejecting scholars, so-called, making things up, coming out.
And by the way, when I was a kid, we thought that Jehovah's Witnesses were a cult.
We thought they were a cult because we thought that evangelical Christians, you know, we
call God, we call him the Lord.
We don't even say Jehovah, do we?
I mean, how often did we even hear preaching using the name Jehovah?
Well, I don't know.
In the King James Bible, the Lord is used over 7,000 times.
Jehovah is used seven times in the entire book.
And so when I was growing up, we emphasized the name the Lord and barely ever even used
the word Jehovah because of the fact that we're basing our beliefs on the Bible.
Is everybody listening?
The Bible.
What's the Bible say over 7,000 times?
The Lord.
You say, "Well, that's just the King James version."
Okay, how about the Greek New Testament that never says the word Jehovah a single time?
The Greek New Testament in all 27 books calls God the Lord, in Greek, obviously, "okirios,"
but it's still the Lord.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Now all of a sudden we've got people coming up, "Oh, no, no, no, it's not the Lord.
We can't call him the Lord.
It's Yahweh."
First of all, that's a made-up word.
It's totally foreign, historically.
Foreign to our parents, foreign to our grandparents, foreign to our great-grandparents.
But number two, even if that were the right pronunciation, you know what?
Wouldn't we stick to the way the New Testament authors did it and say the Lord instead of
pronouncing that name?
The only reason it's even mentioned Jehovah a few times is just to let us know that there
is a proper name out there.
This is the name, and in certain scriptures it wouldn't really make sense to translate
it into the Lord, so they'll leave it as Jehovah.
They're like leaving it in the original language, in a sense.
But again, going to church now, they're just singing hymns about Yahweh, they're preaching
sermons about Yahweh, they'll say the word Yahweh 20 times in a sermon, new Bible version,
just came out.
Folks, in the 500 year history of our language, there's been no mainstream Bible ever released
that said Yahweh in it, until like a couple years ago, this new legacy standard Bible,
Yahweh, put in there.
Folks, let me tell you something.
That is a made up word, that is a wrong doctrine, that is a wrong translation, that is a diverse
and strange doctrine, and if they can get you to just swap out the name of God willy
nilly, then they can get you to swallow anything, right?
No, for 2,000 years, it's been the Lord, the Lord, from the writers of the Greek New
Testament all the way until now, all the translations, right?
It's been the Lord.
That's what we should say, that's what we should do.
Give me that old time religion, not this newfangled, trendy garbage.
And you have these brand new views on eschatology coming out, Satan's little season, Jesus is
up at the North Pole waiting for us and stuff.
Folks, this is garbage.
Do not fall down these weird rabbit holes on YouTube or whatever of strange new doctrines.
We need to stick with the old paths, the old Bible, the old doctrine.
We need to be fundamentalists.
The old gate.
Or I could go about that all morning, but I want to get through the rest of these gates.
Go through with Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 13.
It says the valley gate repaired Hanen and the inhabitants of Zenoah, they built it and
set up the doors thereof, etc.
And so we have the valley gate.
What could the valley gate represent?
You know the valley gate could represent going through trials and tribulations in the Christian
life and/or chastisement, right?
So the valley gate represents low points in the Christian life.
As we go through our Christian life, there are going to be mountain peaks where we're
just at the top of the world, doing awesome, and then there are going to be other times
where we hit a low, where we're down in the dumps and really just struggling and hanging
on by a thread.
And so we need to, as Christians, grow through that where we can handle those valleys and
not just expect to be at a mountain peak all the time.
There will be low points.
And by the way, this is how it is in marriage too.
Marriage is going to have the mountain peaks and the low points.
And you know what?
You got to keep going.
Don't quit.
Don't quit on the Christian life.
Don't quit on marriage.
Don't quit the church over just, oh, we're going through a hard time.
We're going through a low point.
You got to hang in there.
Trials and tribulations are temporary.
One of the best verse on this is one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible from
Psalm 23.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they come for me."
So when I'm going through the valley of the shadow of death, I know God's with me even
in the valleys.
He's still there.
Even if I can't see him or perceive him or feel him, he's still with me and so I will
fear no evil.
But then he follows up with, "Thy rod and thy staff, they come for me."
Sometimes low points are just trials and tribulations.
Sometimes low points are periods of chastisement.
When we as Christians are being chastised by God, when God is punishing us for things,
you know, that can feel pretty painful and be a low point for us spiritually where we're
struggling to get through that valley, but we've got to push through those valleys, right?
And so that's what the valley gate would represent, perseverance through hard times.
Let's move on to the fifth gate, which is the dung gate.
The dung gate.
The Maya 314, but the dung gate repaired, Malachiah, the son of Recap, et cetera.
So what does the dung gate represent?
Well, if you would flip over to 2 Corinthians chapter seven, 2 Corinthians chapter seven,
the dung gate represents the purging of sin or just getting things out of our life that
are not expedient.
And so if you think about the literal use of the dung gate, obviously the reason that
it's called, they're not just looking for a fun name for these gates and saying like,
yeah, what should we call it, I'll just call it the poop gate or, you know, that doesn't
really make any sense.
The reason why it's called the dung gate is probably where they're going to take out the
trash because daily you have to take out the trash, I mean, in your house.
How often do you have to take out the trash in your house?
Probably daily.
Otherwise it starts to stink up the joint.
So you got to take out the trash daily.
By the way, when it comes to literal dung, how often do you get rid of literal dung from
your body?
Probably daily.
So daily your body is taking out the trash.
Daily our households are taking out the trash, right?
And so there's a daily process in the Christian life of purging sin, right?
What does the Bible say?
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow
me."
Jesus said, "Take up your cross daily and follow me."
And that involves denying self, right?
And so sometimes you have to get rid of things that are dung in your life, get rid of dirty
things, gross things, wrong things, sinful things, or maybe just things that you don't
need anymore.
Because sometimes when you're cleaning up your house, it's not that you're necessarily
throwing away things that are gross and stinky and bad.
Sometimes you're just getting rid of things because you just don't have the space.
And you don't want to be a pack rat just keeping every little thing.
So sometimes you'll throw away something that's a perfectly good item, but it's just, I don't
have the space for it.
I don't have room for it.
You know, and hopefully you can donate it or give it to somebody, but sometimes you
don't have time for that.
You're just like, throw it in the trash.
I don't need it.
I haven't used this.
This doesn't spark joy.
Get rid of it.
You know, it's the same thing with the dungate is to just lay aside every weight and the
sin which stood so easily beside us so we can run with patience the race that is set
before us.
As you would at 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God."
So as Christians, the New Testament is telling us that we should be purging and getting rid
of filthiness from our life.
Filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit and that we should be perfecting holiness
in the fear of God, we should be working on this as a project of becoming more holy, more
like Christ, growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so the dungate involves expelling that which is holding us back in the Christian
life, slowing us down, dead weight, sin, wickedness, filth, ungodliness, whatever it is that we
need to get rid of, we need to get rid of it.
The apostle Paul used this exact illustration of dung in Philippians 3.
He said, "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and
do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."
And what he's saying is that serving Christ is so important and valuable that anything
that's holding him back from that is just dung, like, "Oh, I had to give up so much
to be a Christian.
Oh, I had to give up so much to follow Christ."
You gave up dung to follow Christ, like, what did you really give up?
What did you really give up?
"Oh, I gave up drinking."
Drinking has no value.
Drinking is stupid and vain and wicked.
It's like, "Oh, I gave up drinking."
Well, you didn't give up much.
What did you give up?
A hangover?
What did you give up?
Puking?
What did you give up?
Saying stupid things?
What did you give up?
Being in filthy places?
Doing filthy things?
Hey, "Oh, I gave up fornication."
Oh, wow, big whoop.
You know what?
Being married, being pure, being faithful to your spouse is way superior to fornication
anyway.
So Paul's like, "Yeah, I gave up a lot, but it was all dung.
I counted it as dung.
I look into now and think about the things I gave up for Christ, and I count those things
as loss.
I count them dung.
They're nothing."
Well, you know, I'm going to have to give up a lot if I follow Christ.
Yeah, at the time it feels that way, but once you give it up, once you give up all your
dung friends and your dung places and your dung entertainment and your dung drugs and
your dung drink and your dung whatever, hey, you're going to look back and say, "Well,
I was all dung anyway.
All I did was take out the trash."
That's like saying, I mean, it's like saying, "Oh, I really don't want to use the bathroom.
I just want to keep all those nutrients."
Folks, what your body is expelling is not nutrition.
It's that which is unhelpful and harmful to your body.
That's what your body's getting rid of.
Your body's not getting rid of valuable nutrients.
There goes all that protein and there goes all them carbohydrates and fats down the drain.
There goes all the vitamin A, vitamin C. It's like, no, no, no.
Your body is getting rid of bad stuff and obviously there's a little bit of good stuff
in there.
But you know what?
It's mainly bad stuff.
A little bit of good stuff, a lot of bad stuff, flush it down the toilet, amen?
And so yes, sometimes we might get rid of a few good things in our lives in the process
of getting rid of the bad things, but at the end of the day, we need to be cleaning up
our lives and living a more pure, more holy, better life.
And in the end, it's not that you're going to enjoy life less.
Do you think that if you're a zealous Christian, you have less enjoyment in life than the worldly
backslidden Christian?
I think that the godly Christian has more enjoyment, joy unspeakable and full of glory.
There's more joy in serving God and doing right.
So why do people hang on to their sin?
It's because they're not trusting the program that God has set for their lives.
They're leaning on their own understanding.
And they think, "Well, I know what I like and it's partying."
No, you know what?
Partying is going to leave you with an empty feeling.
What you really need is to get on board with the Christian life, have real joy and happiness
in your life, doing the right thing, serving God, loving the Lord, etc.
So the dungate's pretty important, right?
The daily gate is another name for this, right?
Get the trash out, get the garbage out of your life.
But number six, we have the fountain gate.
It says in verse number 15 of Nehemiah 3, "But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallon,
the son of Kol Hose, etc."
And so what could the fountain gate represent?
I mean, this could represent a few different things, but I think a great thing for this
to represent is the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And why do I say that?
Well, because in Jeremiah chapter two, verse 13, it says, "For my people have committed
two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water."
So God here compares himself to a fountain of living waters, right?
And then in the New Testament, these living waters represent the Holy Spirit, because
it says, for example, in John chapter seven, if you would flip over to Ephesians five,
but in John chapter seven, it says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the
Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."
And so we're talking about rivers of living water, which represent the Holy Spirit.
And so we want to have that overflowing fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
That can be represented by the fountain gate.
You know, we want to be a fountain of living waters.
God is the ultimate fountain of living waters, but we also want to have that swell spring
up inside of us, so that out of our bellies can flow rivers of living water.
And so this could represent the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Look what the Bible says in Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, we're in his
excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."
Be filled with the Spirit.
And again, back to the dungate, it's like you have to give up one thing in order to
get the other thing, because the Bible says, "Don't be drunk with wine."
That's what needs to go out the dungate, but be filled with the Spirit.
So it could be that the fountain gate follows the dungate, because in order for us to walk
in the Spirit, in order for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we've got to deny self.
Take up the cross daily and follow Christ, right?
So self-denial is part of that process.
We can't be filled with the Holy Spirit while we're just indulging in sin and just feeding
the flesh, right?
And then if we're filled with the Spirit, we'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So there's kind of a circular connection here.
There's kind of a symbiotic thing going on between being filled with the Holy Spirit
and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh.
We want to deny self, take up the cross, and then once we're walking in the Spirit, then
we're less likely to be fulfilling the lust of the flesh, and so forth.
But this is a daily thing.
It's a daily battle where the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things
that you would.
So this is a daily process.
We've got to be filled with the Spirit.
We want to walk in the Spirit.
And the method here mentioned whereby we could be filled with the Spirit is by speaking
to ourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord.
This is one way that we can work on being more Spirit-filled is by speaking to ourselves
in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Also, the Bible talks about praying for the power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 431.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness.
And so they're praying for boldness and then the Bible says they're filled with the Spirit
and they spake the Word of God with boldness.
So the fountain gate.
The next gate could also be related, the water gate, right?
So we have the fountain gate followed by number seven, the water gate, right?
And it says in verse number 26 of Nehemiah 3, "Moreover, the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel
unto the place over against the water gate toward the east and the tower that lieth out."
And so what does the water gate represent?
Well, the water gate could represent further Bible reading and further cleansing.
Now, why do I say that?
Because in Ephesians chapter five, maybe you're already there, but it says in Ephesians 5.26
that he might sanctify it, talking about the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, right?
Washing of water by the word.
So God's word is like water that washes us, you know, and as we read our Bibles, that's
going to help us to clean up our lives.
And so you can see how these are connected, the dung gate and then the fountain gate,
you know, so it's like getting garbage out of our life, denying self, being filled with
the spirit, and then continual washing of the water by the word as we continue to read
our Bibles and continue to be cleansed.
Now flip over to Colossians, there's a couple pages to the right in your Bible.
Colossians chapter 3 verse 16, and we have a parallel passage with Ephesians 5, because
in Ephesians 5 he said, "Be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs."
In Colossians 3 he words it a little bit differently.
He says in Colossians 3, 16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom."
And then this part's pretty much the same, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
So notice how the second half is pretty much the same, but what has changed or what has
been replaced here in the statement is that in Ephesians 5 it was, "Be filled with the
Spirit," and in Colossians 3 it was, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with
all wisdom."
So it seems to me that being saturated in the word of God and being filled with the
Holy Spirit seem to be connected or go hand in hand.
In this case, they're being used interchangeably, you know?
Singing the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs can help me to be filled with the Spirit.
It can also help me to have Christ's Word dwelling in me richly with all wisdom.
And so I think that the washing of the water by the Word has to do with the Word of God.
We're reading it.
It's dwelling in us richly with all wisdom.
Maybe we're singing scripture put to music, right?
Or at least we're singing songs that remind us of scripture and remind us of the Word
of God and maybe help us to understand or grasp scripture on a more emotional or visceral
level.
But at the end of the day, we need to be in our Bibles every day.
We need to let the water of the Word wash over us and clean our minds and our lives
from wrong things.
You know, people say, "Oh, you're brainwashed."
Right?
Well, here's the thing.
You know, we don't want to be brainwashed by this world.
We want to be brainwashed by TV and radio and, you know, what we want to be brainwashed
by is the Word of God.
Get the Word of God, wash your brain.
Wash that brain out with soap.
You know, why would that be a bad thing?
Oh, you're brainwashing people with the Bible.
Yeah, you better know I am.
I want to brainwash myself with the Bible.
Man, I would love to just be totally brainwashed with the Word of God and just be like this
walking, talking Bible guy.
Amen.
Man, that would make the world a better place, right?
A bunch of brainwashed Christians believe in the Bible, living by the Bible, preaching
the Bible.
They keep speaking in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches and not the words that
man's wisdom teach it.
Sounds good to me.
Let's look at the 8th gate here because I want to get through all of these.
Nehemiah 3 28 from above the horse gate repaired the priests, everyone over against his house.
So the horse gate, what could this represent?
Well, this could represent battles and spiritual warfare, right?
Because what does the Bible say?
The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safeties of the Lord, right?
Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will remember the name of the Lord
our God, and so the horse gate would represent battles and spiritual warfare.
If you think about it, that's what horses were used for in the ancient world.
Horses are used in battle, and they're also ridden around by important people like princes
and kings and people like, your average person in the Bible didn't ride a horse.
You never see examples of Jesus riding a horse, except when he returns, obviously he's going
to be on a horse, when he comes back to conquer, but I'm talking about his earthly life and
ministry on this earth.
When do you see the disciples saddling up and horseback riding to the next town, right?
Because horses are owned by wealthy people.
Why?
Because Jesus' disciples don't have a stable and they're not going to sit there and brush
their horse all day.
You know, people who take care of horses, they put a lot of effort into it, it seems
like.
And I'm not an expert on this.
I've never owned a horse.
I've probably been horseback riding like 20 times in my life or something though, so I'm
kind of familiar with it.
But my understanding is that horses need a lot of care.
You know, they have to live in a stable, and you have to do all these things with their
feet, and you're working on their feet all the time, and shoeing them, or maybe you're
in the barefoot running horse craze or whatever.
But you know, you're taking care of it, you're brushing it, you're feeding it, you're taking
care of it.
The vet has to, you know, here's the thing, throughout history, poor people walked around.
They walked places, and what you see Jesus and the disciples doing is walking, a lot
of walking.
That's why he said have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, not
have your horse shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, because, you know,
most of God's people, who in here owns a horse right now?
Put up your hand if you own a horse, put up real high so I can see you.
Okay, so we have almost 300 people here this morning.
I don't see a single person who owns a horse.
I mean, my son Oliver's got his hand up, but he's three years old, and I mean, he's probably
got a little toy horse and a dino and a monster truck and everything else.
Isn't it interesting, none of us owns a horse here.
Nobody here owns a horse.
Well, that's because it's 2026.
Well, here's the thing, there are a lot of people in Phoenix who own horses, but they're
not in this room right now.
You know what?
They're probably out riding their horse right now.
But the bottom line is, and I don't know if we have any rich people in our church, maybe
we have one that I don't know about, but I don't really know of any rich people in our
church because unfortunately, most rich people aren't really that into serving God.
It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be
saved.
Now, there are exceptions to that, of course, because when the apostles then respond, "Well,
who then can be saved?"
Jesus said, "With men, this is impossible.
With God, all things are possible."
So it is possible for the rich man to be saved.
With God, all things are possible.
But in general, you see your calling, brother, and there's not many mighty, not many noble,
right?
God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he
hath promised them to love him, and he says rich men typically, what, oppress you and
draw you before the judgment seats.
They blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called.
And let's face it, in 2026 America, if you're living in Phoenix, Arizona, and you own horses,
you're probably a rich person, or at least you're upper middle class or something.
I mean, you're doing pretty well, and Oliver's hand popped up once again.
So he's, you know, he's feeling pretty good about his financial situation.
But the point is that the horse is not the main mode of transportation like a car would
be to us today.
The horse back then is reserved for people who are like nobility and, you know, kings
and important people or whatever.
I don't know if it's a coincidence that it says that, you know, the horse gate was repaired
by the priests, everyone over against his house makes it seem like possibly maybe the
priests are riding horses because they're important people because you have the tribe
of Levi but then the elite group within the tribe of Levi would be the actual Aaronic
priesthood, the sons of Aaron.
And so, you know, are they riding horses?
Possibly, you know, they're riding horses but the point is that the main use for a horse
in the ancient world is going to be like a government use, like it's going to be warfare,
it's going to be leadership, it's going to be kings and governors and princes and people
like that in general.
And so, I say the horse gate represents battles and spiritual warfare because that's how
the horse is often mentioned throughout the Bible.
Here's some scripture on this from the New Testament.
First Timothy 1, 18, "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the
prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare."
So we as Christians are told, hey, war a good warfare, preachers specifically, war a good
warfare.
Second Timothy 2, verse 3, "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ, no man that warroth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may
please him who had chosen him to be a soldier."
Right?
We are chosen to be soldiers.
And often, you know, when you're studying the Bible and you read about these armies,
it'll say like these groups of troops were chosen men, meaning that they're kind of like
the elite troops.
They're selected as being, you know, especially good.
And so, you know, we're chosen to be a soldier.
We're supposed to war a good warfare.
And that's what the horse gate represents.
Almost done here.
Number nine, we've got the east gate.
Bible says in verse 29 of Nehemiah 3, "After them repaired Zadok, the son of Emmer, over
against his house, after him repaired also Shemaiah, the son of Shekiniah, the keeper
of the east gate."
So what could the east gate represent?
Well, in the Bible, the east and really just in culture in general, east represents the
sun because the sun rises in the east, right?
So because the sun rises in the east, that's what the east gate's associated with.
So therefore the east is also associated with the lord because the sun represents the lord.
Now you say, "What are you talking about?
The sun god?"
No, my friend, I'm not talking about worshiping the sun or the sun god.
I'm saying it pictures the lord.
So it's sort of like if I said the lamb represents Jesus, why are you going to worship a lamb?
Well, I'm not going to go bow down to a literal lamb.
If you made a statue of a lamb and started bowing down to it, then that would be sin.
That would be wrong.
That would be idolatry.
But does that change the fact that Jesus is the lamb of God?
Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah.
I'm not going to worship a literal lion.
Not going to make a statue of a lion and bow down to it.
But Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah.
Well, the Bible also calls Jesus in Malachi chapter four, the son, S-U-N, the son of righteousness.
It talks about the son of righteousness arising with healing in his wings.
And so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is also pictured as the sun rising, because like
the sun setting could picture his death, and then the sun coming up again is a resurrection
of the sun, right?
And so even nature itself is pointing us toward the truths of God's word, the gospel, et cetera.
People will turn around and say, oh, you know, these are just pagan teachings that the Bible
adopted and, you know, Christians are just a sun cult, whatever.
No, no, my friend, it's that God created the world to reflect His greatness and to
reflect the gospel story.
You got it backwards.
It's not that the gospel was crafted to match nature and that we're in some kind of a nature
cult.
No, it is that nature reflects the truths of God's word because the invisible things
from Him, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
So the eternal power and divinity of Jesus Christ is manifested even in nature.
So we have these illustrations in nature.
So the sun rising in the east represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So for example, we have, and we could go all over the Bible where the Lord is associated
with the east, you know, where, and again, that would take literally an entire sermon,
it's all the east verses that have to do with the Lord, okay?
But here's just a little taste, how about Matthew chapter two, when the wise men show
up in Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his
star in the east and are come to worship him, right?
So the star announcing Christ's birth is come in the east.
Also about the second coming, Matthew 24 verse 27, for as the lightning cometh out of the
east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
So the coming of Jesus Christ, talking about the second coming, is going to be like the
lightning that comes out of the east.
So there's a lot of symbolism with Jesus Christ and the east.
So I would say that the east gate could represent the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Now how is this an aspect of the Christian life?
It's an aspect of the Christian life because one of our core fundamental doctrines as Christians
is the literal second coming of Christ.
This is a fundamental of the faith.
Now look, obviously there are different people who have different views on eschatology when
it comes to the finer points.
You got people that are pre-trib, post-trib, you know, you have these different viewpoints,
you know, the pre-millennial and then post-millennial, which is obviously post-millennial is way
out there.
That's not something that independent fundamental Baptists believe in, you know, independent
fundamental Baptists pretty much all pre-millennial and then it's just, you know, it's a question
of the timing of the rapture or details about the tribulation and the end time, stuff like
that.
But here's the thing about, and then you have partial preterism and you have these
other views.
I'm not saying that these views are, there's only one view that's right, post-trib, pre-wrath.
But the point, but that being said, you know, we're not going to separate over those issues.
Those are not like deal breaker issues.
Those are not fundamental core doctrines of the faith that we have to just die on that
hill or something.
But I'll tell you what hill we do need to die on is the literal second coming of Jesus.
So no matter what you believe about the timing of it, if you don't believe that Jesus Christ
is literally coming back, you're a damnable heretic at that point.
That's just heresy.
That's a horrible false doctrine.
That is not acceptable.
That is not okay to deny the second coming of Jesus any more than it would be acceptable
to deny other core doctrines like the virgin birth, the trinity, the inspiration of scripture,
stuff like that.
So again, obviously there could be finer points of disagreement in end times, but we all better
agree that Jesus Christ is coming back, that he is actually going to literally return.
People that say, "Oh, he already came back, it already happened," are false prophets,
liars, heretics, they're wicked.
That is not a little mistake to make.
The Bible specifically addresses this saying that there are these false teachers and their
word will eat as if a canker, or we would say cancer.
Their word will eat like a cancer.
These people are saying that the resurrection has passed already and overthrow the faith
of some.
Say, "Oh, it already happened," baloney, it hasn't already happened.
The second coming of Christ is still coming.
Don't let anybody deceive you into thinking, "Oh, the day of Christ is at hand," or, "My
friend, there must come a falling away first, the man of sin needs to be revealed, the son
of perdition."
The bottom line is Christ is still coming back and that's why the full preterism is
heresy.
Say, "Oh, it already happened."
Here's another Satan's Little Season stupid doctrine, and I know you've probably never
heard of this, good, because it's the most foolish, inane, retarded thing on the internet
right now.
But it is spreading like wildfire, especially among flat earthers.
Satan's Little Season doctrine, you know what, damnable heresy saying that, "Oh, Jesus Christ
already returned and right now we're living in Satan's Little Season right now and Jesus
at the North Pole and all this," it's like, that's crazy.
The second coming of Christ is a foundational doctrine.
We all believe in it.
If we're saved Christians, we believe in it.
We might have different details right or wrong about it, but we at least believe that the
second coming is still happening, okay, and that's critical.
That's an important doctrine.
So this is what's represented by the East Gate is our belief and also, you know, this
has to do with how we live our lives as well.
Okay, why?
Because every man that have this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure.
The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 3, "Seeing then that all these things shall be burned
up, what manner of persons ought we to be?"
Like we're going to live our lives differently if we think this world's not going to be here
forever the way it is now, Christ is going to come, it's all going to be burned up.
That's going to change how we live our lives.
And so the second coming is a part of our lives.
And so when I teach on end times Bible prophecy, it's going to be super relevant if it happens
in our lifetime.
But let's say it never happens in our lifetime and it happens 200 years from now or 300 years
from now when we're all dead and gone.
Was my teaching on the book of Revelation and end times and the second coming, was it
in vain?
And the answer is no, because it informs us also just about the nature of God and how
to live our lives and it'll help us be a better Christian to understand and think about and
meditate on and know about eschatology, second coming of Christ, end times prophecy.
Hey, the book of Revelation is profitable from cover to cover, not just the first few
chapters.
The whole book of Revelation is profitable for doctrine and for correction and for instruction
in righteousness to tell us how to live a godly life.
So even if it does, look, if it happens in our lifetime, you're going to be really glad
that you got those teachings.
But if it doesn't happen in our lifetime, still useful.
And then the final gate, we're going to kind of end on a low note here, unfortunately.
You know, the sermon is going great so far.
And then we run into a little snag here with this 10th gate, because the King James Bible
translators decided to just not translate the name of this last gate.
So it kind of leaves us with like a question mark.
It's sort of like, you know, do you want what's behind door number one, whatever this gate
is, because it says in verse number 29, or excuse me, verse 31 of Nehemiah 3, "After
it repaired, Malkiah the goldsmith's son, unto the place of the Nethanims and of the
merchants, over against the gate, Mifchad, and to the going up of the corner."
So what does Mifchad mean?
Well, here's the thing about this.
The King James translators did not translate this word.
They basically just transliterated it or just brought it directly from Hebrew into English
without doing this.
Now, why did they do this?
Well, usually when the translators don't translate something, it's because they're not a hundred
percent sure what it means.
So if they're not a hundred percent sure what it means, instead of just guessing and just
picking something, a lot of times they'll just leave it untranslated.
And a lot of times in the King James like first edition that we have out there in the
lobby, you'll see where when there's a difficult thing like this or something's in Hebrew,
they'll put a note in the column and say like, well, it might mean this, might mean this,
might mean this.
We don't know.
So we left it untranslated.
In this case, I don't even think there's even a note.
It's just like miqad and sorry, you got nothing.
Now this word is not a, you know, I have read the Bible in Hebrew cover to cover.
And so I could say like this word is not a really crazy word or a wild word or a rare
word or anything like that.
It's just that this word can have a whole bunch of different meanings.
So we know what the word means.
It's just you don't necessarily know which meaning is right, okay?
Because this root that this is based on is actually a pretty common root.
It's something that somebody studying Hebrew would probably learn in like the first semester,
maybe the second semester.
Like it's a pretty common word, okay?
As far as just the pakad part of this, which is the root.
But the thing about that is that, you know, they didn't know which one.
Now the rest of the gates, it was kind of just obvious like fish, sheep, fountain.
Like it was clear what the intent was, but, you know, they chose not to translate here.
So instead, you know, we could guess about it and guess what it means.
But how about this?
Why don't we just for purposes of the sermon, why don't we say that this gate just represents
things that we don't understand because let's face it, that's a big part of the Christian
life.
I mean, is that not an aspect of the Christian life is there are going to be events in your
life that you don't understand.
There are going to be things in the Bible that you don't understand.
There are going to be situations where you're just like God, why did you allow this to happen?
Why does the Bible say this?
Why is this happening to me?
You know, there are just a lot of things in life that I don't understand, that you don't
understand, that we're never going to understand.
And you know what?
We got to just have the faith to just say, you know what?
I don't understand, but I'm just going to trust God.
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
And so the Gate Meath Cod could just represent, hey, I don't know what this means, but you
know what?
I'm just going to trust God anyway.
That separates us from the world at large because they're like, well, if I don't see
it, I won't believe it.
If you can't explain it, I won't believe it.
If I don't understand everything about it, I won't believe it.
Whereas we as Christians, we're willing to take things on faith and to not understand
something.
Now obviously that's kind of an avant-garde interpretation that I just came up with.
I'm not saying that that's necessarily the best interpretation for the 10th Gate, but
I'm just saying I like it, you know.
Some of the things that this word could mean is like it could mean number, like a number
gate.
It could be the commandment gate, a pointed place, you know, and so we could come up with
all kinds of different interpretations.
The visitation gate, I mean you could, there's a whole bunch of different things that this
word could mean and we could make something up, but I kind of like it for this purpose
of this sermon.
Just hard things, difficult things, complicated things, stuff that, you know, we just don't
quite get it and maybe we'll never get it, or maybe we'll understand it ten years from
now, but we just don't understand it today.
And so just super quick review, we have the sheep gate, salvation, fish gate, soul winning,
old gate, fundamentals, right, the old paths, not trendy new doctrines, the valley gate
representing trials, tribulations, chastisement, the dung gate, number five, purging of sin,
getting rid of things that are holding us back, number six, the fountain gate, overflowing
with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, number seven, the water gate, further Bible reading
and cleansing, eight, the horse gate, battles and spiritual warfare, number nine, the east
gate, meditating upon, teaching and learning about the second coming of Jesus Christ, and
the gate, well that's just some things that we just don't understand, look, 54 scholars
behind the King James couldn't settle this, you know, I'm not going to pretend to be able
to settle it for you right now, and so after that we come full circle, verse 32, between
the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate, so we've come full circle around the
city, the ten gates, all by name, ten aspects of the Christian life, here's the conclusion,
all the gates need to be on their hinges in our lives, all the gates need to be on their
hinges because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and so here's the thing,
you might have the sheep gates all dialed in, the fish gates all dialed in, but you
don't want one of these to just be wide open because then you're opening yourself up to
attack, you're opening yourself up to bad influences and things coming in, and so ideally
we want to have a full wall, a full Christian life of all these aspects with every door
on its hinges so that we don't have any vulnerabilities, weaknesses, we don't have any chinks in the
armor as it were, but that we have the full spectrum of what God wants us to have in our
Christian life.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, we thank you for this great chapter,
and Lord God, thank you for giving us everything that we need to be throughly furnished unto
all good works, Lord, thank you for giving us all the equipment in the Bible, everything
we need to do right, Lord.
Help us to take advantage, help us to fix any of these areas in our lives that need
to be fixed, if anyone out there, maybe a certain point resonated with them, Lord, I
pray that that person would work on that aspect in their Christian life so that all ten gates
are on the hinges and in place, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.