Now, if you would open your Bibles
to the book of Nehemiah, find the book of Nehemiah chapter
3. Nehemiah chapter 3. If you weren't with us this past
Wednesday night, I began a series in chapter 3 concerning the rebuilding
of the walls and the gates of the city of Jerusalem upon the
return of the people from their captivity in Babylon. Israel,
or Judah rather, the southern kingdom had been in captivity
in Babylon for 70 years. And God threw several men, one
named Zerubbabel, one named Joshua who was a high priest, one named
Ezra, and this man named Nehemiah. He brought the people back. He
first re-established the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem. which
reestablishes and reaffirms and reemphasizes the glory of God's
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, upon which all salvation rests,
that temple worship, that temple that housed the mercy seat where
the high priest would go once a year with the blood of the
Lamb, all showing in picture and illustration how God saves
sinners. And that's the very foundation
of God's dealing with the nation Israel throughout all their years
of existence as a nation. It was all going towards and
pointing to the coming of Christ to fulfill all those types. As
Daniel said in Daniel chapter 9, to seal up the vision and
the prophecy. In other words, when Christ came
to do His great work, That was the end of it. That was the fulfillment
of it. Now, I'm speaking of the prophecy. Now, that was the beginning of
everything for the church, even in eternity. And so, Nehemiah,
in his return, and the people with him, their commission from
God was to rebuild the walls and the gates of Jerusalem. And there are 10 gates mentioned
here. Last Wednesday, I did the first one. Look at verse 1. It
says, Eliashib, the high priest, rose up. You see, Nehemiah was
the leader in all of this, and he commissioned these groups
of people that are mentioned in chapter 10 to rebuild and
reestablish a certain gate and a part of the wall. And this
man, Eliashib, the high priest at that time, the high priest
of Israel, he rose up with his brethren, the priests, and they
built the Sheik gate. They sanctified it. They set
it apart. and set up the doors of it. Even under the tower of Mea,
they sanctified it, and under the tower of Hananiah. And that
sheep gate, as you recall, that is a type, a picture, an illustration
of the work of Christ, the Lamb of God. You remember the sheep
gate is where they brought the lambs for sacrifice through that
gate to the temple. And that is a great and beautiful
illustration of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The next
gate is in verse 3, and that's called the fifth gate, and that's
what I want to deal with tonight, the fifth gate. It says, "...but
the fifth gate did the sons of Hassaniah build, who also laid
the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks
thereof, and the bars thereof." The fifth gate. Now, it's important
that we keep in mind the order of God's revelation of these
gates in Nehemiah chapter 3. Because that order is important.
As I said, he starts out in the number one gate. The first gate
is the Sheep Gate. And then comes the Fish Gate.
And here's the reason for it. As we said, the Sheep Gate represents,
illustrates Christ, the glorious person, and the finished work
of Christ for the salvation of His people, the redemptive work
of Christ. It's the glory of Christ's work
on the cross for our redemption. And that's the beginning. That's
the heart and soul. That's the goal and foundation
of our existence as a spiritual nation, as a church, as an individual
sinner saved by grace. Right there, what Christ accomplished.
That's the reason. They just sung the song, Because
He Lives. Well, because He lives, we live. Because He lives, we exist as
a body of Christ, a living organism. And so without Christ, everything,
everything in the church emanates from, centers around, is built
upon, and points to, comes right around to the glory of Christ
and Him crucified. And you cannot overemphasize
that. Without the glory of Christ crucified, buried and resurrected
again, there is no church. There is no heavenly city. There
is no new heavens and new earth. There is no salvation without
Him, for He is our salvation. Our whole existence as a people,
spiritual, is in Him. And so that comes first. Well,
emanating from that, or as the fruit and the result of that,
we see the life and the existence of the Church, the life and the
existence of a believer. comes from him. There's life
from the vine. Now, what does that life involve?
And that's what these next gates essentially are going to show
us. And the very first one that he brings out that follows the
Sheep Gate is the Fish Gate. Now, what is this Fish Gate?
Well, this Fish Gate was where fishermen of Galilee would bring
their catch into the city to be sold. But now, for us, it
means more than just catching fish and selling them in the
fish market. For us, it has a spiritual application. And that spiritual application,
I'll guarantee you, every one of you who know anything about
the Scriptures are probably thinking the same thing. That fish gate
speaks to us of evangelism. It speaks to us of the commission
in the life of the Church to spread the Gospel throughout
the world. That's what it's about. Do you
remember how the Lord Christ, when He was calling His disciples,
At one point, he just looked at one of them. I believe it
was Matthew, but we could go back and check it. But he just
looked at him and he said, follow me and I will make you become
fishers of men. Now, you know, Peter and Andrew
and his brothers, they were fishermen. Matthew wasn't. He was a publican.
But he told them all. He said, I will make you fishers
of men. And then we have the great lesson
that Brother Aaron read here in John 21. Turn back over there. I want you to see this. John chapter 21. Now here we
have in Matthew and in Mark, Luke and John, we have recorded
the last words of our Savior to his disciples before he ascended
unto the Father. And here they were out fishing.
Peter said, I'm going fishing. Now, Peter didn't understand,
and neither did the other disciples. They didn't understand the job
that they were going to be doing. They knew that the Lord had come.
They knew that He had died. They knew He was buried. They
knew He was resurrected again. But they didn't understand at
this time, before this, exactly what it was that they were going
to be commissioned to do. So Peter just said, he said,
well, I'm going fishing now. I'm going to go back to my old
job. Now, that wasn't him denying Christ at all. He wasn't denying
Christ there. Peter had done that. And Peter
was a man just like the rest of us, a sinful man. He was a
sinner saved by the grace of God. He had his struggles just
like you have, just like I have. He had his temperament, his own
personality that he had to battle the rest of his life, just like
you have and just like I have. But they didn't understand what
they were set to do. So he just simply says, Well,
I'm going fishing." And you remember what Brother Aaron read. They
went out there and they fished all day and they couldn't catch
anything. But then it says, in verse 3, after Peter, it says,
"...Simon Peter saith unto them, I go fishing. They sent him,
we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But
when the morning was now come..." There's a new day, see? When
the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus. They didn't recognize Him. Then
Jesus saith unto them children, Have you any meat? And they answered
Him, No. And He said unto them, Cast the
net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. You didn't cast it on the right
side. Now that right side means direction. The right direction.
But I also want to tell you something else. It means the right way
too. Because His way is the only right way. He is the way, you
see. And so it says, they cast therefore,
and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of
fishes. They had so many fish that they couldn't hardly draw
the net up. Now, you know why they did that? It was just upon
His Word. I mean, why didn't they argue
and say, well, Lord, we haven't caught anything, we're not going
to catch anything, there's nothing here. No, He just said it and
they did it. He said it, they believed it. And they couldn't
pull it up. And therefore, verse 7, it says,
that disciple whom Jesus loved, who is probably John, that's
who we think this is, that disciple whom Jesus loved, saith unto
Peter, it is the Lord. And you know what? That made
all the difference. The Lord's head. It is the Lord. That makes
all the difference. You see, when Christ is present,
that makes all the difference in anything, in salvation, in
evangelism, in worship, in service in any way. And he says, Now
when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girded his fisher's
coat unto him, for he was naked, and he did cast himself into
the sea. The other disciples came in a little ship, for they
were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, dragging
the net with the fishes. And as soon as they were come
to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon,
and bread. And Jesus saith unto them, Bring
of the fish which you have now caught. Now look at verse 11,
it says, Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full
of great fishes, and it says 153. And for all there were so
many, yet was the net not broken. In other words, there's room
enough for every one that the Lord brings in. That's what he's
talking about. That net's not going to break.
You can't fill the church any fuller or any less full than
what the Lord is going to bring them in. It's not going to break
it open. It's all set. Somebody asked one time, why
is the number 153 there? Well, there are some scholars. Now,
I don't know how they figured this one out. I mean, I know
we've got scientists who can do a lot of different things
with a lot of different chemicals, a lot of different dating processes.
I know that. Some of them are valid and reliable. Some of them aren't. Some of
them use them and abuse them to bring forth that awful theory
of evolution that they have concocted, which is so fantastic, I don't
see how anyone with any brains can accept it and believe it.
But that's neither here nor there. I mean, we can go over that some
other time. But some scholars believe that that was the actual
number of the various species of fish in the Sea of Galilee
at that time. Now, again, I don't know how
they figured that out, but I do know this. I do know this. Our Lord, He said, you go into
all the world and preach the gospel. And He told His disciples,
and He tells us in other passages of Scripture, that He has a people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. And I believe
that. Every species of human being,
you might say, in that sense. God has a people. He has some
sheep. He told his disciples one time,
he said, I've even got one down there in Samaria. That's the
last place you all will go look for one. Because you wouldn't
want to be seen by other Jews going down through there. But
he said, I must needs go to Samaria. There's a fish down there. There's
a sheep down there. So here they are, and he takes
this event in history, and he teaches them a lesson in verse
15. And he asks Simon, Peter, and the rest of the disciples,
he said, do you love me? Three times. And Peter spoke
for them. He said, Lord, you know we love
you. You know I love you. And he said, feed my lambs. Feed
my sheep. Feed my sheep. How do we begin
to feed His sheep? We first begin to feed the sheep
by evangelism. What is evangelism? Well, the
word gospel in the original language is evangel. What is evangelism? It's preaching, spreading, sowing
forth the gospel seed, the gospel word. You see, this speaks of
evangelism. And when we have this great lesson
here, the Lord took that opportunity to illustrate to us the commission
He had given them in the context of their fishing. It just simply
means telling somebody who needs to hear good news, it means telling
them the good news. Is that so difficult? So evangelism
is the service of the church and all its ministers, not just
the pastor now. I know somebody says, well, only
the preacher is going to preach the gospel. But you see, every
one of us can point sinners to Christ. So it's the commission
of the Church, not only pastors and missionaries, but all its
members in witnessing the gospel of Christ. So by illustration
here in the book of Nehemiah, we see that without the sheet
gate, the work of Christ on the cross, there'd be no fish gate. You know why? Because without
the work of Christ on the cross, there'd be no good news to tell.
If he hadn't done his great work of redemption, of putting away
our sins by his blood, of establishing righteousness, you know, the
Bible says in Romans chapter 1 that the gospel, the good news,
the evangel, by which we evangelize, is the preaching of the glorious
person of the resurrected Christ. Look over at Romans chapter 1
with me. You see, because he lived, we
can preach the gospel. If he didn't live, we wouldn't
have any good news. We wouldn't have any gospel.
If all we had was a dead martyr like other religions, that's
not good news. All that does is it leaves men
in their sins to work their way out of it. That's why a gospel
of works is an oxymoron. You've all heard that one, haven't
you? The gospel of man's works. Salvation by works, that's an
oxymoron, because salvation by works to a sinner is not good
news. But the gospel, the good news,
is the preaching of the resurrected Christ. Look at verse 1 of Romans
1. He says, Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. The gospel is
not the concoction or invention of man. It's the gospel of God. Only God could intervene in the
Annals of fallen human history with a message like this. Man
couldn't come up with it. Just go study all those religions.
Don't do that. Don't waste your time. I'm telling
you, there's only two religions in this world. The religion of
Cain and the religion of Abel. The religion of works and the
religion of grace. The religion of man's righteousness
and the religion of Christ and his righteousness. So he says
in verse 2, "...which He had promised before by His prophets
in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,
God in human flesh." That's good news to a sinner. The Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. Listen, we couldn't be saved
from our sins unless God intervened in human flesh. Christ had to
be man. And the reason is, is because
Hebrews 2 tells us, the reason is, is because he had to die,
he had to shed blood. God cannot die. But this person
who is God did die, and that's attributed to his humanity. And
so he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,
his sinless humanity. Then verse 4, and declared to
be the Son of God with power, that's his deity, he's God in
human flesh. Only God can save us from our
sins. And he says, according to the
Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. That's good news. He is risen. He died for my sins,
but he didn't stay dead. He was raised again the third
day. And because he lives, I've got good news to tell. I've got
good news to tell any sinner who wants to listen. Any sinner
who wants to hear. Any sinner who needs it. But
look over at verse 16. The gospel, the evangel, is the
preaching of God's righteousness. It says, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, the good news of Christ. We're not
ashamed of it. He says it's the power of God
unto salvation. But now listen to it. It's only
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes it.
Now, faith is the gift of God. You must be born again. Somebody
said in evangelism, we don't have to tell sinners they have
to be born again. Christ did. What was he doing
when he stood there speaking to Nicodemus in John chapter
3? He was evangelizing. That's exactly what he was doing.
He was telling Nicodemus the gospel. He said, you must be
born again, and then he went right to his work on the cross. He said, if Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. That's when he said, For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life, everlasting
life. And then he went right down to
the issue. He said, Lights come into the world. Men love darkness
and hate the light. He's evangelizing. He's telling
the good news. And so it's the power of God
and salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. How so? Look at verse 17. For
therein In that evangel, in that good news, in that gospel is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just or the justified shall live by faith. You see,
the preaching of the righteousness of God in Christ is good news.
Now, some preachers will tell you that that is just simply
talking about the holy character of God. I don't want to tell
you something. That's not good news to a sinner.
That in and of itself, the gospel includes that. But if all you
tell me as a sinner that God is holy, all that would produce
out of me if I believed it by the power of the Spirit is woe
unto me, like Isaiah. So you see, that's why in that
picture of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 6, he went to where? Where did
the angel go? He went to the altar. And he
grabbed a hot coal off the altar. What does that altar represent?
That represents Christ, our altar. The hot coal, what does that
represent? That represents his suffering under the holy justice
of God. And he laid it on his lips. Put
it in his heart, laid it on his lips. Not only do I believe it,
but I'm going to tell others about it. This righteousness
of God, that's the evangelist. That's good news. I cannot be
accepted before a holy God by my righteousness. I need the
righteousness of another. Where is it? Where can I find
it? It's in Christ. That's good news. You know, you
know, the only ones to whom that's not good news. Those who don't
think they need the righteousness of Christ, those who think they
have enough or are given enough to make it on their own. Well,
that's not good news for a sinner. So here's what we see by illustration,
that without the sheep gate, there is no fish gate. Without
Christ on the cross, there is no good news. But now this fish
gate illustrates the spreading forth of the good news of redemption
accomplished. That's what evangelism is. How
many times do we see in the scripture where where the Lord and His
disciples and the evangelists like Philip simply told sinners
to come to Christ. Don't bring anything with you.
Don't try to make yourself prepared. Don't try to bring in anything
with you. It's all prepared. It's all accomplished. It's all
finished. You see, the works of men have
to be excluded. It's all by the sovereign, gracious,
powerful work of God the Son in human flesh as He put away
our sins and worked out righteousness for us. And you know, that establishes
the message and the mission of the church. Look back at Matthew
28, the Great Commission. Our Lord speaking to His disciples.
And He starts out in the Great Commission by laying the foundation
of His power, not yours. His way, not yours. You see,
men and women today, they have devised different methods of
what they call evangelizing. They have programs. They have
points, number 1, 2, 3, 4. Here's what you see. You read
them this, ask them, do you believe? You read them that, ask them,
do you believe? Get them to pray the sinner's prayer. A story
of a fellow that lived down the street from a particular preacher,
and the fellow never darkened the door of the church. And he
lived a life of debauchery. The preacher heard and said,
well, the man got sick and he went down to visit him. And he
asked him, he said, do you know where you're going when you die?
And the fellow said, well, he said, I know that I haven't lived
a good life. And he said, I know that I've
not been an example to the community. But he said, I know I'm going
to heaven because when I was 12 years old, I was at a revival
meeting. I walked down the aisle. and
I got baptized, and I know I'm going to heaven. Now, I'll be
losing some rewards," he said, but I know I'm going to heaven.
Now, what I've just described to you is pretty much the mainstay
of what people today call modern-day evangelism, and it has nothing
to do with evangelism in the Bible. has nothing to do with
the good news of salvation. Let me tell you something. If
you have to point back to your childhood and when you were baptized
to prove to anybody you're saved, you've got some problems. You've
got some problems. I'm just being honest with you.
I don't care if you were baptized when you were 12 years old, or
as one old preacher said, they put you under the creek so many
times that the tadpoles know you by your first name. That's
not evangelism. It has nothing to do. Baptism
is an outward confession of salvation already wrought within. But you
see, look here, he lays the foundation in verse 18. And here it is now. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Now, as God absolutely considered,
He already had all power. Well, my friend, He created this
world. He set it in motion. He set the boundaries of it.
He governs and controls it, the Scripture says. By Him all things
consist. As God absolutely considered,
He already had that. So how can He say it's been given
to Him? I'll tell you exactly how. As the mediator of His people. Now, as God-man who finished
the work that He was given to do, He was given that power. So that now he rules and reigns
and disposes over all things, not just as God, but as God-man. And that's important. There must
be a man in glory. You've heard that before, haven't
you? He's God-man. Hold your finger there, Matthew
28, because I'm going to come back to it. Look over at John
17. In his high priestly prayer,
this is what he prayed. Now, listen to what he said.
This is important to understand for evangelism because we've
got to understand that we don't draw people to Christ. We just
point the way. We can't save sinners. I don't
care how well we tell it or how bad we tell it. Somebody said,
I just botched it all up. Well, I'll tell you what, if
you can just point a sinner to Christ, that's good news to a
sinner. But you see, we don't draw them.
God does by His Spirit. He draws them. He says in verse
1 of John 17, look at this, "...these words spake Jesus, and lifted
up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify
thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh." Remember what he said, all power is given
unto me. He's got power over all flesh. Look at what follows. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. That's his mediatorial reign,
right there. He's going to give life to his
sheep. So he says back here in Matthew 28, verse 18, all power
is given unto men in heaven and earth. Now, if that's not true,
then there is no evangelizing. There is no good news. There
is no power of the Holy Spirit to draw men. You remember over
in John 16, 7, he told his disciples, he said, it's expedient for you
that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come. If he had not done his work on
the cross and gone unto the Father in his resurrected glory, there'd
be no Holy Spirit to bring life. There'd be no life to give. There
be no good news to tell. So evangelism has to begin there. And then he says in verse 19
of Matthew 20, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Now this
is the same thing as preaching the gospel. Over in your concordance
it might say something like make disciples. Well, we don't make
disciples literally, but we tell of Christ who makes disciples,
and then it says, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things. Now,
turn over to the book of Mark, chapter 16. Here is the great commission,
same commission in the Gospel of Mark, verse 15. He said unto them,
Mark 16, 15, He said unto them, Go ye in all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Now that's not teaching that
baptism is necessary for salvation. Because if you preach the good
news, you'll cancel out anything. But Christ and Him crucified.
But baptism is the confession. Now that's the first public confession.
It's not walking down the aisle during what people call an invitation.
That's not the public confession of the Scriptures. The public
confession of the Scriptures is believer's baptism, where
we confess Christ before men. And then he says, but he that
believeth not shall be damned. That's the Great Commission.
The Great Commission. Turn to John chapter 12. John chapter 12. And look at verse, I believe
it's verse 30. 32, but we'll go back up to verse
31. He's teaching about His death.
He told them, He said, except a corn or a seed of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it will bear no fruit. But if it dies,
it will bear much fruit. That's the fruit of his people
that come out of his death, burial, and resurrection. And he says
in verse 31, now is the judgment of this world, now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. What that's talking about,
Satan, the accuser of the brethren, will be put down because his
accusations cannot stick. And the reason is, is because
of this, verse 32, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will what? Draw all unto me, all for whom
he died. That's what evangelism is all
about. It's founded upon. It's connected to. It emanates
from and leads to Christ. And that's why the Lord said
that before He comes again, in Matthew chapter 24 and verse
14, that the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom,
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations. And then shall the end come.
Do you see how important evangelism is in the life of the church?
Someone said one time that we're called on to be fishers of men,
not keepers of the aquarium. Well, you know, we are called
on to be keepers of the aquarium, I believe, but not at the expense
of being fishers of men. Remember what Christ told Peter? He said, feed my seed. Our whole
existence as a church is to glorify God, to preach the gospel in
the world, to be a light in the community. He said, you're the
light of the world. You see, you don't put your life under
a bushel. You don't hide it. You don't keep it to yourself. You don't make it an elite message,
only certain people can get in and others of you get out. It has nothing to do with society
or economics. It has simply to do, is there
any sinners there who want to hear the good news of salvation
from sin in Christ? Anybody out there that needs
grace? Mercy. Any mercy beggars out there,
Brother Cecil Roach would say. Any mercy beggars. Are you a
sinner that needs mercy? Are you a thirsty person? Spiritually
thirsty? I can tell you where water is.
Somebody says, well now, we can't save people. No, but we can tell
them about salvation, can't we? That's evangelism. Evangelism
is not me saving you or you saving anybody else. Christ does the
saving. We just tell them about it. We can't make men believe. That's
right. Can't make you believe. Can't even make ourselves believe.
But we can show them Christ in whom they are commanded to believe. Somebody said, but only those
for whom Christ died will believe. That's right. And He commands
us to seek them in the preaching of the Gospel. He told Timothy,
you do the work of an evangelist. 2 Timothy 4 and verse 5. Get this Gospel out. What are
the essential ingredients of evangelism? the power of Christ
by His Spirit, the Word, and prayer. Just preach it. Just
tell people. Tell them where they can hear
it. That's evangelism. You say, well, I get all tongue-tied
when I try. Well, tell them to come and hear
it. Tell them you can hear it down at 13th Street Baptist Church,
Ashland, Kentucky. You know that's evangelism? You
say, well, what if they don't come? Well, that's not your business.
You see, that's God's business, to bring sinners to hear the
gospel. If a man's hungry, can you tell him where to find bread?
As I said, if he's thirsty, can you tell him where to find water?
If he's naked, can you tell him where to find clothing? That's
evangelism. And listen to me, the kind of
fishing that they did, we saw in John 21, it wasn't line fishing. You know, when you fellas go
out line fishing, they'll tell you, and some of you, now some
of you cheat, don't you? You've got those radar things.
And they said, well, there's fish over here. You go over and
you throw that line over there. If you don't catch anything,
you come over and throw. That's not the kind of fish they
threw the net at. And you just catch whatever's
there. And that's the way we do in evangelism.
We don't line fish. You say, well, I'm going to preach
to him, but that fellow over there, I don't want him here.
I don't want him to be in there. No, sir. You cast the net, the
drag net. It's what the Scripture says.
That's how we do it, you see. What is evangelism? It's seeking
to show our need of Christ. Look back at Nehemiah chapter
3. Let me show you something here real quick. Now, I know
some people say, well, you put too much stock in these names.
The names of people. And I don't think so. You know,
I don't think anything is in this book by accident. But look
here at verse 3. He says, But the fish gate did
the sons of Hassaniah build. You know that name Hassaniah?
You know what it means? That name Hassaniah has to do
with a thorn. Like a thorn hedge, or a thorn
bush, or a thorn itself. Do you know in the Bible, thorns
are always connected with sin? Go back to Genesis 3. Do you
remember when God pronounced the curse upon man? He said,
the thorns of the ground. Do you remember it was a crown
of thorns that they placed on the head of Christ when He was
suffering unto death for our sins? imputed to Him. He was
made sin and He wore a crown of thorns like a cursed person. He became a curse for us, the
Scripture says. That's how we were redeemed from
the curse of the law. Christ becoming a curse for us.
You know what thorns do? They prick your fingers. They
prick your legs. And you know what that signifies
in Scripture? It signifies conviction. Conviction over sin. You remember
in the book of Acts chapter 2 and verse 37 when Peter stood, and
on the day of Pentecost he preached that gospel message of the risen,
the crucified risen Christ, and it said they were pricked in
their hearts. And they said, men and brethren, what shall
we do? And Peter pointed to Christ. You remember when the Apostle
Paul, when Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus, and
the Lord brought him down into the dust. And the Lord said,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, why do you kick
against the pricks? What does he mean? That conviction
of sin that's showing you who you really are. Do you know what
evangelism is? It's calling on sinners. It's
showing us our sinfulness and our wretchedness and our rottenness
and calling on us to repent and run to Christ. The Holy Spirit
under the preaching of the Gospel brings sinners to see their sinfulness. and drives them to Christ. It's
the preaching of forgiveness by His blood. It's the preaching
of His righteousness and our justification before God in Him. Look at verse 3. It says, "...they
also laid the beams thereof, they set up the doors thereof,
the locks thereof, and the bars thereof." You see, there was
order. There was organization here. And this thing is ordered
by the Lord. This evangelism, it's ordered
by the Lord. He gives us the message and He
gives us the opportunities and we have to take advantage of
those. And the doors and the locks and the bars here, you
know what that signifies? That this evangelism is locked
into Christ. In other words, they're just
one way. They're just one message. Now, men can devise their own
methods and their own means and their own ways, but this door
is locked and it's barred. There's not but one way of evangelism,
and that's the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Every other
way is locked out. We can go through it all. One
way. Evangelism is showing sinners the door, the way, and giving
them the key. What's the key that unlocks the
door to salvation? Christ and Him crucified. He goes on and mentions these
men, verse 4, and next to them repaired Merimoth. Merimoth means
heights. When God brings a sinner low,
it's preaching the good news of Christ and the power of the
Holy Spirit that brings him to the heights of salvation. Here's a man named Uriah. That
means the flame of Jehovah. That's what his name means. The
gospel is like a fire. A fire that reveals, that gives
light and warms the heart of a sinner who needs Christ. He's
the son of Koze, it says. That word Koze is often connected
with thorns, conviction. It says, and next unto them repaired
Meshulam. Meshulam means friend or associate. We're all together and this is
friends, but here's the main thing. Just like Abraham was
the friend of God, any sinner in Christ is the friend of God.
He mentions the name Berechiah, the son of Berechiah. That means
Jehovah will bless. You know what? You say, well,
if you go out and preach the gospel or tell the gospel to
people, how many converts did you get? You know, we used to
think about that and we used to count them and all that when
I was in false religion. Well, if you didn't get any,
you know, you'd say, well, then God didn't bless it. But let
me tell you something. God will always bless the preaching of
Christ. Evangelism. And then there is
this other fellow, Meshezebel. See, I told you if you pronounce
his name like you meant it, you know. Meshezebel. That means
Deliverer of God. Deliverer of God. God delivers
His people. He mentions a man named Zadok.
He repaired, He helped on this, the son of Baana. Zadok means
just and upright. We preach the mercy of God, not
at the expense of His justice, but in Christ, His justice fulfilled. And Baana means son of affliction.
You know why God afflicts His people? To comfort them. You know why He brings us under
conviction? Not to leave us in tears and despair, but to bring
us to the peace of God, which passes understanding in Christ.
That's evangelism. Verse 5, he says, and next unto
them, the Tychoites repaired. Inhabitants of Tychoa, a city
in the tribe of Judah. Common people, that's what they
were known as. What's the significance of this?
You'll only find it in the next line. Look at it. But their nobles
put not their necks to the work of the Lord. Well, first of all,
we see there that evangelism, even though he uses human instruments,
is really the work of the Lord. We're just the instruments. We're
just the clay pots. But did you notice there? He
uses weak vessels like us. Some are powerful preachers,
but most are just people who've been saved by the grace of God
and just can tell what God has done for me. They can just point
sinners to Christ. Evangelism can involve preaching
the gospel, like I'm doing tonight, all the way to just inviting
someone to church, giving them a recorded message, a pamphlet,
or telling them to turn on the TV at 8.30 on Sunday morning
and hear the gospel preached. When men use their own methods,
disaster. But when we stick to God's way. But look here what he says. The
nobles, they didn't want to have anything to do with it. The sense
of it here is that they thought they were just too good to do
that work on that wall. Too high and mighty. That's not
the work of a nobleman. My friend, don't ever get so
puffed up in your own esteem that you can't evangelize. You
can't tell sinners about Christ. Speak as a dying man or a dying
woman to dying people and just pointing them to Christ. What
do you think of these nobles who left themselves out because
of their self-righteousness and their pride, out of doing whose
work? The work of the Lord. That's
what evangelism is and that's what it's about.