Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday December 30, 2020
Pastor Rick Kabrick
The Gates of Jerusalem and our Spiritual Life.
As we close out 2020, good riddance I say, we look forward to 2021 with renewed focus and energy knowing the our LORD will surely show us HIS Grace and Kindness as we live in HIS plan for our life.
By examining these gates that Nehemiah had to rebuild to ensure they are in good repair for us, in our spiritual application of them as we begin a new year.
We cannot rebuild the destroyed walls of our life until we have first become truly concerned about the ruins.
Remember, you are the apple of HIS eye, and remember that GOD has a plan for your life.
You will never rebuild the walls of your life until you first pray for and confront the ruins.
We get concerned, we confront the ruins, then we confess. Then we ask GOD also to act on our behalf to show us the plan HE has for the rebuilding.
In any rebuilding in any area of our life there are factors over which we have no control, and it is GOD who must arrange them. That requires faith resting in GOD and trusting in HIS timing.
Whenever a man like Nehemiah says, “I will arise and rebuild,” Satan and the KOD always say, “not so fast…I will arise and oppose you.”
- He takes note of exactly what needs to be done.
2. He makes an honest survey of the facts and resources needed.
3. Then he sets out to accomplish the task.
We enter our walk with the LORD Jesus Christ through this Sheep gate when we believe in HIM for our so great a Salvation.
We maintain this gate in our lives when we remember Christ, learn of Christ, learn doctrine and believe it and every time we apply it.
MAR 1:17, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
If you can never say a word for Christ, if there is never any witnessing in your life, if you can’t speak the truth to those who are questioning or who are downright wrong, this wall is broken and the Fish Gate needs to be repaired in your life.
They are too busy running after things of the world, what they think are blessings…but they are not. They are really just idols, some overt…some not so much.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t feel good when you succeed in the natural realm or the spiritual realm, you just know and are thankful for the fact that your GOD is all powerful all knowing. Be careful here, success in any realm has a great potential to lead to arrogance.
The valley gate speaks to us of humbling and trials and tribulation and that should strengthen us but it has a great potential for failure.
All of that comes to the surface…you recognize it, so you can get rid of it (or be freed from it) and we dump it at the at the next gate, the Dung gate.
JAM 1:2, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Going through this Valley gate is never easy…never easy…but the Christian needs to remember that in the natural nothing really grows on the mountain tops, but it certainly does grow down in the valleys.
Clearing away the rubbish in our lives is never easy…but it must take place…the benefits of this experience can be seen and it is what awaits you at the next gate.
If you still have dung in your life, this gate needs attention. You need to take a hard look at what and who you are.
People will flock to you, when they see the CWL in you.
EPH 2:10, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which GOD prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Then the fountains can begin to flow and it doesn’t take long!
This is because the word of GOD never breaks down. The word of GOD doesn’t need to be repaired. It simply needs to be re-inhabited. People leave it, it doesn’t leave them. It is always there as a beacon of truth in a lost and dying world.
Many people will get comfortable and spend many years not learning. That means the gate is not being used. Its not broken, your broken.
EPH 6:12, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So simply put this gate is either operational or not. If not there is only one fix. To live in the PPOG that GOD has for your life.
This is the battle! This is the angelic conflict, and its not a weekend deal, or a year long deal, it is a lifetime battle, but victory in the war is guaranteed, but the battles well…
This gate needs to be rebuilt in believers and re-inhabited by those who fall under a pessimistic spirit…and are crushed by the hopelessness.
The east gate then speaks of the return of Jesus Christ. For our Christian life it shows us of our need to live with this hope and to long for HIS return.
This may well have been the gate area where the cleansing of the temple occurred when the Lord tipped over the Merchants tables.
This gate is broken when people think they can lose their salvation. We will never lose our salvation, but this gate is also broken when you fail to remember that your works will be evaluated as wood hay and straw or precious metals.
The more refining we’ve been through, and the more we lived in truth, the more we reflected the love and mercy of GOD to others, the greater our evaluation will be in front of our Lord and Savior – the best is yet to come.
Remember, there’s not one instance in scripture where GOD was ever late.
GOD is never late.
Unbelief is deadly, its consequences tragic. And we face dire consequences if we try by human factors to remove ourselves from our trials instead of trusting GOD to see us through them.