Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/roy-weber/applications-for-the-gates-of-jerusalem/
I'd like to turn to Nehemiah chapter 1. Nehemiah chapter 1, and we'll read from verse 3. And said, and they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the providence are in the great affliction and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down. And the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted, prayed before God of heaven.
And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that have love for him and observe his commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servants, which I pray before thee now day and night for the children of Israel, thy servants shall confess and the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house of sin.
Verse 11. And the Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and prosper. I pray thee, thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cup bearer.
Now, verse two of the next chapter. Wherefore, the king said unto me, why is I countenance fallen? Why is I countenance sad? Seeing thou art not sick, this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then was I very sore afraid and said unto the king, let the king live forever.
Why should not my countenance be sad when the city of my father's supplicators lieth in waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make requests?
So I prayed to the God of heaven. Now, verse 10. When Sam Billet, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the servant of the Ammonites, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Verse 17. Then said I unto them, ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Some come and let us build up the walls of Jerusalem that we be no more a reproach.
Then I told them of the hand of my God, which was upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
But when Sam Billet and the Horonite and Tobiah, the servants of the Ammonite and the Grecians and the Arabians heard it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us and said, what is this thing that thou, that ye do?
Will ye rebel against the king? Then answered I them and said unto them, the God of heaven, he will prosper us, therefore we, his servants, will arise and build. But ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial for Jerusalem.
Now over to chapter 7 or 6. Chapter 6, verse 15. So the walls was finished in twenty and the fifth day of the month, Elul, and fifty and two days. Now that was quite a thing that the wall was finished in fifty-two days.
I think of this man Nehemiah, and I could mention the ten gates there. We have the sheep gate, and we have the fish gate, and we have the old gate, and then we have the valley gate, and we have the dung gate, and then we have the fountain gate, and then the water gate, the horse gate, niece gate, and then the gate of Metcalfe, and then we have the sheep gate again at the end.
Well when Nehemiah was so burdened about the thought that the walls were all broken down of his father's sepulchres, and he prayed for four months to see this great thing done to rebuild the walls. Now there's one thing about Nehemiah that I would like to say.
Nehemiah was a man who had patience. He didn't just go right and say we're going to build the walls of Jerusalem. He was a very patient man. He was a waiting man. He was an explaining man. He explained to the king just exactly what he needed and what was there.
So he had something in his heart. He had a wall in his heart, and we know that David had a king in his heart, and we know he had a house in his heart, David, and then we also know that the Christians in Ephesus, our brother didn't read that, that verse there, how that the Christians at Ephesus, they had a song in their heart.
But when I think of this here passage of the word of God, and you think of it, Nehemiah, he made himself available. He went and he stood before the king one day, and the king says, you're sad. You know he was a cupbearer of the king, and he took care of all the things.
He ate the food that the king was to eat, and he drank the wine that the king would drink to make sure that there would be nothing that would ever happen to the king. But then that came there that one day, sad before the king.
The king says, you're not really sick. So what did Nehemiah do? Nehemiah breathed out a prayer to the Lord. I think of this prayer. You know, I think that we could all come to the great realization that there is a very lacking of prayer in the lives of believers today.
And I would have to say for my own self, I wished I could pray more. Really get into the presence of the Lord. Here was a man who breathed out that prayer to the Lord just before the king. He answered the king, and the king says when he told the king everything that needed to be done, my, what was it there?
He says the walls of Jerusalem are all broken down and all the gates are burned. That was a burden on his heart. And the king realized that he wanted to go and build that all up. So king says, how long will I journey be?
And he gave him a time, and the king got everything ready for him to go. I think it took him about four months to go over to that place. When you think today about all these things, and I think of Nehemiah, he was a man, if I would have read there in verse 17, I did read, but there it says there, then said I unto ye, see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Come, let us build the walls of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Now you can plainly see that Nehemiah did not want to build them walls by himself. He says, come and let us build. He didn't believe in a one-man ministry.
He believed that all should be in the work, and there was about seven different workers. But when we think of them, walls that they started on the sheep gate first, was the first gate that was going to be repaired.
And that was the priest that repaired the first gate. When I think of that, and we see that that was the place where all the sheep were brought in for sacrificing, and when we consider that today, all them sheep that was ever sacrificed there on the altars, and when we consider that, that is quite touching.
And it proved to us that there had to be the shedding of blood before any one of us could ever be saved. It tells us way back here. But then we have the sheep gate, and how that was restored first, and then the fish gate.
When we think of these gates here, there's five of these gates that had locks and bars on them, and that was the fish gate, and the old gate, and then the valley gate, and the dung gate, and the fountain gate.
They all had locks and bars on them. And when we think of that fish gate, I sometimes wonder, when we think of Peter, when the Lord commanded Peter to go out and fish for men, instead of fishing anymore for fish, why when you think of that, here's the Lord, and He says to Peter, He says, I will make you fishers of men.
Now, we don't become fishers of men by ourselves. It's the Lord that makes us fishers of men. And so, this is something that I think is very lacking in our lives today. We're not taken up with those that are not saved enough.
And I know that I'm getting older, and I can't do the work that I used to do. And when we think of that, but dear ones, we can still go out and tell people the way of salvation, that they might be delivered from the bondage of sin.
So, when we think of these gates, all these gates that needed to be rebuilt, and the walls of Jerusalem. My, when we think of these gates all broken down, what a burden that must have been to Nehemiah.
He prayed for four months to see all those walls rebuilt, and the gates and the walls to be rebuilt. Why did the walls need to be rebuilt? We think of the walls in an assembly. There's an inside, and there's an outside.
And dear ones, we have to control what's on the inside of the assembly. There is an order in the inside of the assembly, when you think of that. So, when we think of that fish gate, and how that Peter went out, and he began to be a fisher of men.
I've often wondered about Peter, that first message that he spoke after Pentecost, and saw three thousand souls saved. Wouldn't that encourage anyone to go out into the work of the Lord, and to really do something for the Lord?
I'll never forget when we went out to the state of Nebraska for the first time, and brought the gospel out there. And the first night that one, not the first night, but after we had been there for some time, and the first soul that was saved.
My, that was something that spurred us on. We should really be endeavored to want to see souls, one for the Master. Now, in this great work, there was those that were constructionists, there was those that wanted to build those walls.
Them seven different individuals there, they rebuilt those walls. But then there was destructionists, and then there was obstructionists. There was those all there, when you think of Sam Bellet, and his men there, how they laughed them to scorn, that there was a man come to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
How often, when we want to see the things of God repaired, and rebuilt, and built for God. How that sometimes were laughed to scorn. But nevertheless, when you think of that, think about the gospel. We should be willing to bring out the gospel.
Then the old gate. Now, when I think of the old gate, it's not only the old, the things that we have been taught, that is not what that means. Now, we appreciate the things that we have been taught that was according to the Word of God.
But the old gate is the old truths that God has set down in His Word. And how much we are lacking in carrying out the truths that God has set down in His precious Word. And then we come to the valley gate.
And that was the first gate that Nehemiah went to see. He went up into the place at Jerusalem there, and he came to the valley gate, because he could not get into the sheep gate, because it was broken down.
But he went up to that valley gate. What does the valley gate speak of? It speaks of humility. And we think of here's Nehemiah. He has to be taught humility. And then we think of the dung gate. There needed to be cleansing.
And there needs to be cleansing amongst us as the believers today. You know, even though we're saved, we know our sins are forgiven. But if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father. We can confess our sin, and He is just and faithful to forgive us our sins.
Well, when we think of that, isn't that wonderful that God has given us that privilege that if we do sin. Now, it's not God's desire that any one of us should continue to sin. He wants us, no, I'm not talking about a sin that calls for excommunication or anything of that sort.
And then we think of that dung gate, how there had to be cleansing. And then we think of the fountain gate. Now, when there's humility shown, and there's cleansing in our lives, then we can be filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And that's something that is very essential in the day that we're living in, that we would live holy lives. And that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And that we might be trying to be encouraging to those that are in our assemblies of today.
You know, we have a lot of young brethren with us today. And there's nothing that I like to see any more than young brethren in our assemblies. And we appreciate you. And continue in the things of the Lord.
There was a young brother that took the children meeting today, and it was touching to hear him speak from the Word of God. And to bring out truths from the Word of God. I always like to be in, to listen to them that take this Sunday school.
And so we have here a real restoration in the valley gate, and the dung gate, and the fountain gate. And I really believe that's one thing that Peter experienced. He experienced humility, he experienced cleansing, and he experienced the fountain gate.
He knew what it was to be filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost when he preached that first message. And 3 ,000 souls were saved. A couple days later, 5 ,000 souls. And then we, that is really encouraging.
Then we have the water gate. That's the only gate that didn't need any repairing. What I think, the water gate speaks of the Word of God. How touching. The water gate needed no repairing. We never need to repair the Word of God.
The Word of God will never change. It'll be the same yesterday, today, and forever. When I think of that today, that is very true. And that is the old gate. That is the Word of God. My, and how the Lord has set all those things down, and what we have already heard today.
My, if we could just carry them out in its fullness, it wouldn't ever be. Then we have the horse gate. You think of the horse gate, that's service for God. Let us prove. Then you think of a horse, and it's always seemingly along with a horse, it's horse power.
Now in our part of the country, in Ziering, Iowa, there was a man that put a 40 horse hitch together, of big Belgium horses. And 40 horse can do a lot of pulling. And they had feet on them, like a five gallon, they wouldn't go in a five gallon pail.
But this man one day, he called John Deere's up at Waterloo, when they came out with their first four wheel drive John Deere tractor. Now maybe you don't appreciate me talking about something like this.
But nevertheless, they brought that tractor out there, and he says now, he says, I want to show you something. He put him hooked on to a 12 bottom plow, and he started dropping them bottoms into the ground, and he was plowing 12 inches deep on alfalfa sod.
And after he had dropped 10 bottoms down, the John Deere couldn't take it. Now he says, you take the John Deere off, and he says, I'll put my 40 horse hitch on. Put his 40 horse hitch on. And he dropped all the bottoms in the ground, they just walked away with it.
40 horse. That John Deere tractor had 300 and some horse in it. But here's horsepower. Do we know what it is to have power? Service for God. Am I laying my life out for him? That I might walk for him, and I might talk for him, and that I might build up the saint's holy faith and my own holy faith.
So then we have the east gate, the coming of the Lord Jesus. And we really believe that's a gate that is very close. A gate that one of these days we're going to hear the shout, and then we're going to be called home to be with him.
What a day that's going to be. I was speaking the other night, mentioned a little bit on a certain place about the coming of the Lord Jesus. And I'm made to believe my own honest opinion, that there in Thessalonians chapter 4, when it says in the clouds of the air, we shall be caught up in the clouds of the air.
Can you imagine all the saints that are on the face of this earth, that's going to hear that shout, and we're all going to go up together? What a cloud that's going to be. I really believe it'll darken the face of this earth when the Lord comes to take us out of this world.
And what a day that's going to be, to meet the Savior for the first time, and then to be with him. But then we have the gate of Micah, the bema, the judgment seat of Christ. And when you think of the judgment seat of Christ, I don't think we should fear the judgment seat of Christ, but I think in our lives we should fear to live a life that is pleasing to God.
You know what we have done in that day to come, or that right now as we live here below, the things that we do that's not right is going to burn up as wood, hay, and stubble. We'll lose a reward for all the things that is going to burn up as wood, hay, and stubble.
But dear ones, we want to try and have a reward to lay at the Savior's feet. What a day that's going to be. But then I think not only of that, then the gate of Micah, the bema, then we go back to the sheep gate again.
The sheep gate is what brought us into the family of God. If it wouldn't been for the Savior, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Think of David when he said those words. My what a day that must have been for David when he could say the Lord is my shepherd.
But then we have the walls of Jerusalem, and behind those walls, that's a holy wall. It's a holy place. It's a place where God has placed his name in the assembly, and we should reverence his name, and we should live for it.
Think of it dear brothers and sisters. These here men that built these walls back up, they strengthened their hands for the good work. And what a day that was. 52 days later, it was finished. They finished the work.
And as our brother had mentioned, there was a lot of opposition. Nehemiah, he had a trowel in his hand and the sword in the other hand, but he kept on building even though there was opposition. But let us remember, dear brothers and sisters, when I think of Nehemiah, he prayed for four months.
And I heard one time, now I don't know whether I read this or whether I heard it, but when the first conference was accomplished in Ireland, that the brethren when they came together for that conference, they prayed for two days before they ever opened up the word of God.
Now I don't know where I got this, but I got it from somewhere. To think of praying, do we really pray for the conditions that is in our assemblies today? Are we really concerned about the condition of the assemblies as Nehemiah was for these walls that they might be rebuilt?
So David had a king in his heart, he had a house in his heart, and he gave to the house, to the building of the house. As I understand, it was about 27 billion dollars of gold that he gave to the house of God that it might be rebuilt.
And he was very careful who rebuilt the house of God. May these few words be a help.