Now tonight, let's direct our
attention first to the book of Nehemiah chapter 3, where we've
been in these past few weeks studying the gospel of Christ
as symbolized and typified in the rebuilding of the city of
Jerusalem, which is a type of Christ church, called of God,
redeemed by the blood, chosen of God. and specifically the
gates, the gates of the city as they were being repaired throughout
Nehemiah chapter 3 as they're listed in the order that they're
given here. We started with the sheep gate,
that blessed gate, that blessed place of salvation, the place
of the cross, which is a beautiful spiritual illustration and picture
of our Savior, the Lamb of God, who bore away the sin of His
people, the sin of the world, His people all over the world.
shedding His precious blood unto death for our sins. He is the
Shepherd of the sheep. He's the Good Shepherd who gives
His life for the sheep. And then we came to the second
gate, the fish gate, which is the place of ministry and evangelism,
the preaching forth of the gospel, having made us the disciples
of Christ collectively in the church fishers of men, where
we go out and evangelize as the Lord sends us and gives us opportunity. And of course, we know the results
and the fruit of that kind of ministry is in His hands and
in His power alone. Just like the farmer sowing the
seed, we preach the gospel, we minister the gospel, we get it
out there, but God gives the increase. Just like the disciples,
when the Lord met them on the shore after His resurrection,
and they'd fished all night and didn't catch anything, and He
told them, He said, now cast your net again on the right side
of the boat. And there were so many fish, they couldn't even
hardly pull up the net into the boat. because you see it was
the power of Christ now that intervened, that came into the
picture, and that's what the fifth gate represents. Thirdly,
the old gate, that's the third gate, the place of the old established
eternal truths, the fundamentals of the truth of God that never
change, that we all must be sounded and grounded in, that we might
know who God is, how he operates, how he works his sovereign will
throughout history, his history, not man's history. We're just
a part of it. And that's the old gate. Then
we came to the fourth gate, the valley gate. That's the place
of testing. Our faith will be tested. God
sends trials to test our faith. Satan, he tempts us to try to
bring us away from the faith. But God's testings are for our
good. God's testings reveal faith and
strengthen our faith, and they bring us to humility, wean us
away from this world, and cause us to rest in the glory of Christ
and in the power of His might, for He is our salvation. And
then the fifth gate was the dung gate. That's the place of cleansing.
It's the place of repentance, where we throw out the trash
continually, all throughout our believing lives, continually,
having been brought Initially by the Spirit in conversion to
repentance of dead works and idolatry because we've seen the
glory of Christ and his precious and blessed and powerful work
on the cross, we continue to be brought to godly sorrow over
our sins daily. And we continue to repent and
throw that trash out the dung gate. Then the sixth gate, which
is the fountain gate, that's the place of refreshing and renewal. See, these are all set up in
God's order, and they're all continually our experience in
salvation by God's grace. And we always have to have a
place of refreshing and renewal. And the fountain gate, which
is within each and every believing center, is the presence and power
and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. who continually shows us our
sin, who continually shows us the glory of Christ, and then
who continually makes us thirsty so that we'll go to the seventh
gate, the water gate, which is the Word of God, the place of
the Word of God. We have to be permeated, infiltrated
in our minds and our hearts with the Word of God. We often quote
the verse that the disciples quoted, Peter specifically, I
believe. When the Lord was teaching them
about the grace of forgiveness, and the grace of forgiveness
is a tough one. It should come easy, but it doesn't.
Anybody that tells you it does, they're lying to themselves and
to you. We should forgive as we've been forgiven. You remember
when the Lord answered Peter's question when he said, how many
times? And he said, well, it's infinite. You can't put a number
on it. Forgiveness. Unconditional forgiveness. And you remember what they said?
They said, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. And then
we often pray for faith. We say, Lord, strengthen our
faith. Well, my friend, your faith is
not going to be strengthened unless you drink from the water
gate, the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing how? By the Word of God. Now, a lot
of times we quote that. That's Romans 10, 17, and we
just talk about that as being like initial faith. My friend,
that's continual faith. That's the way it is all your
believing life. Faith still. You say, I've been
saved 20 years. Well, on the first day of the
21st year, faith still comes by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. It doesn't stop. So we continually
drink from the Word of God. We need to be under the preaching
of the Word. We need to study the Word, study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
We need to be skillful in the Word of righteousness. These
are all things that we do at the Watergate. And then the eighth
gate, which is the Horsegate, that's the place of spiritual
warfare. We're at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil.
It's a continual warfare without and within, collectively as a
body of Christ, and individually. And we fight a spiritual warfare,
not a physical one. And then the ninth gate, which
we dealt with, the east gate, or the eastern gate, which was
the place of hope and expectation, which is summarized in the coming
of Christ. He has come, He's done His great
work, and He's coming again. And He'll come, the sun rising
out of the east, that's the east gate, the eastern gate. And now finally we come to the
last one in Nehemiah chapter 3, the tenth gate. Look at verse
31 of Nehemiah chapter 3. Again, there's not much said
about the actual gate here, it's just mentioned. But we'll understand
it, I believe, as we go through the Scriptures here. It says
in verse 31, I remember these gates, there was a wall between
each gate, and they had to repair the wall. So as it continues,
that wall is being repaired, and then he mentions the gate.
After him, that is after the others who were repairing that
wall, repaired Malchiah, the goldsmith's son, unto the place
of the Nethanemes. Now you know they were mentioned
before, the Nethanemes, they were men who were dedicated to
serve the priesthood. They weren't priests themselves,
but they were dedicated to serve the priesthood. They did the
grunt work. They did the, you know, the jobs
that the priest didn't have time to do. And that's what they were.
And it says, and of the merchants, apparently there were merchants
who helped in this gate, over against the gate Mithkod. Strange name, but that's what
it was called, the Mithkod Gate. and to the going up of the corner.
This gate is the Miscot gate. And it was on the north side
of the east, it was on the north, upper north side of the east
side of the wall. Right up from the east gate.
And then as you turn the corner up there, you got back to the
Sheep Gate, verse 32. Between the going up of the corner
under the Sheep Gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.
So you see it all comes full circle. It comes around and it
ends where it begins. And I'm going to be talking about
that next Wednesday when I get back, because when I draw all
this together. But you can see a great picture
there, Christ being the author, the beginner, and the finisher,
the fulfiller, the ender of our faith. You see that? The completer
of our faith. So where it starts at the Sheep
Gate and it ends at the Sheep Gate, it starts with Christ and
it ends with Christ. But let's go to this term, Miphthah. Now, this term, Miphthah, is
translated in several different ways and they're all related.
I've entitled this message, The Inspection Gate. The Inspection
Gate. Because the word Miphthah means
inspection. It also means muster. You may
have read some commentary and it's called the muster gate,
M-U-S-T-E-R. Now muster means to gather. And
what it was, it was a place where the troops, the king's soldiers
would gather together to be inspected. So sometimes it's called the
muster gate. Sometimes it's called the review
gate where the king would review the troops. Sometimes it's called
just the registry. It was a place where people who
would come in to visit Jerusalem sometimes would register and
be counted. In other words, it was a place
of appointment. This was God's appointed place
for these things. It was a place of accounting,
where the king took account of his troops. It was also a place
of the census, where they were numbered, where the people were
numbered, and that's very important here. So it was the appointed
place where people gathered for temple tax and to be numbered,
where the census was taken. It was also the place, as I said,
where visitors who came into Jerusalem had to register and
a place of mustering and gathering these troops for inspection.
So this gate, all those things put together, this gate, therefore,
is associated with judgment. Judgment, taking a toll. inspecting
things, reviewing things, seeing how they are, counting, numbering,
we'll see that. The book of Hebrews teaches us
in Hebrews 9 and verse 27 that it is appointed for man but once
to die and after that the judgment. And that's part of what this
inspection gate, this Mipchad gate, would represent. Now, we
can see two applications of the Mipchad. the inspection in our
lives as believers. First of all, there is, in our
lives as believers, a present, a daily, continual inspection
of ourselves by the Word of God. And that's what this Miskat gate,
this inspection gate, would represent. Now, it's an inspection. It's
a daily inspection, a continual inspection, not as we inspect
each other. but as we submit to the inspection
and the judgments of the Word of God about our standing before
God, our state, our lives, our thoughts, and everything else.
In other words, this Word is our inspection gate, in a sense.
Turn over to Psalm chapter 26, the 26th Psalm. And listen to the psalmist here. And this is what he's talking
about, verse 1. Psalm 26, look at verse 1. The
psalmist prays, the psalm of David. He says, Judge me, O Lord. Now that's the judgment I'm interested
in. How about you? You know, the
Bible says that by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified,
declared righteous and not guilty in God's sight. Now, that's what
we're interested in if we know Christ. We're interested not
in... I'm interested in how you see
me. I'm not going to say I don't care what people think, because
I do. But ultimately, at the mist pod, at the inspection gate,
what really matters is how God sees me. Isn't that right? Judge
me, O Lord. You see, your judgments of me
might be wrong. My judgments of you might be
wrong. I had a man tell me a few years
ago, he said, told me this, he sat back there and he told me,
he said, I don't believe your preaching from your heart. And
I want, how in the world could any human being, you remember
what we read in Psalm 139? God knows my heart. God tries
my reins. I can't get away from God, but
I can get away from you. And you can get away from me.
How in the world would a human being presume to say he knows
my heart? That's the height of self-righteousness
and religious pride. Judge me, O Lord. Look at it.
Alright? Because He's the only one who
has the right to judge and has the wisdom and the knowledge
to judge in this area. For I've walked in my integrity.
Now to do that means to walk in Christ. Because He is my integrity. I've trusted also in the Lord."
That's a commentary on that line. He says, therefore I shall not
slide. Verse 2, examine me, O Lord, and prove me, try or test my
reigns, what drives me, what motivates me, and my heart. And then he says, for thy lovingkindness
is before mine eyes, and I've walked in thy truth. He's talking
about his hope is in God. Look back over at the psalm I
read as our scripture reading. Look at Psalm 139. In the last
two verses of this psalm, verse 23 and 24, listen to what David
prayed here. He says in verse 23, "...Search
me, O God, and know my heart." What he's praying for there is,
don't let me be deceived. Now, again, I can deceive myself,
or you can deceive me, and vice versa, but God and His Word will
never deceive us. So if our inspection here, at
this inspection gate, is by the Word of God, then we won't be
deceived. So he says, search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me, test me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be
any wicked way in me, a way of pain, a way of grief, And lead
me in the way everlasting. Lead me to Calvary. We sing that
song. Lead me to Christ, the way everlasting. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Lead me to Christ. It's almost
like He's saying, if I haven't trusted Him up until now, then
let me begin today. Lead me in the way of truth in
Him. Lead me in the way of righteousness, not in myself, not in us, but
in Christ. He's my hope. Look over at Jeremiah
17. I've read this one several times
during this series of studies. But this is a verse that has
to do with the Mipchad, the inspection. It says in verse 9, now listen
to this, you know, talking about how we can't know each other's
hearts, we can't even know our own hearts, by nature and on
our own. Look at verse 9 of Jeremiah 17. He says, "...the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Well,
then how can any of us not be deceived if that's the case?
How is it possible that any of us sitting in this building tonight
not be deceived if the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked? And when he says, who can know
it, he's saying nobody can. That's what he means. So how
in the world am I going to not be deceived? Well, look at verse
10. Here's how. Here's how. I, the Lord, search
the heart. I try, I test the reins, what
drives you, what motivates you, even to give every man according
to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. You
see, we've got to be submitted to God's judgment, to God's inspection,
at the Mifcad. That's what that means. And where
does God lead us? Well, look at what he says back
up in verse 5 of Jeremiah 17. Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be
the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. Are
you trusting in yourself? Are you trusting in another man?
Are you trusting in the arm of the flesh, in whose heart departeth
from the Lord? Verse 6, He shall be like an
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but
shall inhabit the parts places in the wilderness, in a salt
land and not inhabit it. It's going to be a very dry place
for such a person. It's going to be a dead place.
But look at verse 7. Now here's what the Word of God
says. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose
hope the Lord is. That's Jehovah our salvation.
That's Christ. You see, here's what I'm saying.
This is important when we stand at the Miftah in the last day,
the judgment. If our eyes and our hearts and
our minds and our desires are all fixed on Christ the crucified,
buried and risen One, as the only way of our salvation, the
only whose blood alone washes me clean from all my sins, whose
righteousness alone, imputed to me, gives me a right standing
before God, if my heart, my eyes, and my mind is fixed on Him,
I cannot be deceived." Won't be deceived. Now, if my mind's
off somewhere else, if I'm trusting in my baptism, or if I'm trusting
in my experience, or trusting in a dream or a vision I have,
You see what I'm saying? If that's where it is, then I'll
be deceived. And let me tell you something. Paul wrote it
in Galatians 1, though we or an angel from heaven preach any
other gospel unto you than that which we preach, let him be anathema.
You say, but it was such a glorious vision. Doesn't matter. Nothing,
nothing eclipses or rivals the Word of God. Nothing. I don't care what it is. I don't
care how real it is. I don't care how it made you
feel, nothing eclipses the Word of God. And he says in verse
8, that person who trusts in Christ, he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall
be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, that
is, worried, anxious, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
That's the Miphti. Paul said, examine yourself,
whether you be where? In the faith. That's important
the way that's put. You know that? When he says examine
yourself, whether you be in the faith, he's not saying look inside
yourself to see if you have enough faith. He's not saying look inside
yourself to see if you pass the muster. See, if you measure up,
because I'm going to tell you something, the worst thing you
can do, or I can do, is to look in ourselves and to think that
we measure up. Did you know that that's the
greatest deception I believe Satan has? When he says examine
yourselves, whether you be in the faith, means this. Are you
looking to Christ? Does He pass the muster? Did
He do enough? You see, that's my hope. My hope
is never in me doing enough, because I never do enough. What
is enough, anyway? You ever ask anybody that? I
know what it takes to be saved. It takes perfection. I know I've
never done that. Have you? Somebody says, well,
have you done enough? Enough for what? You'll never
come to a position in your life where you can say, well, I've
finally done enough. Well, I always should and can do more. But when
it comes to doing enough, our salvation is based upon the blood
and righteousness of Christ. Am I in Him, in the faith? So that's the present daily inspection
by the Word of God. That's what's represented in
the Mipchad, the inspection gate. But now secondly, here's the
second thing. There is a future final inspection by Christ, the
Judge of all. And you know that speaking of
the final judgment. Now I preached on that recently
when we went through Matthew chapter 25. But let's refresh
our memories on some scripture here. Let's look at Romans chapter
14. The reason I think this one is so significant here is because
you have a situation here in Romans chapter 14 where you had
believers judging other believers because of certain things that
they held to as far as beliefs. Now, all believers believe the
gospel. In other words, if our argument
or our differences or our debate is between how God saves sinners,
then we've got a problem. You don't have two believers
there. Paul wrote that in Galatians and 2 Corinthians. It's all through
the Scripture. If our debate is over the ground
of salvation, upon what ground will God save you, bless you,
and give you right and title to inner glory? If our argument
is on that issue, then we've got a problem. Because there's
only one ground, and that's Christ and His glory. I've said it,
His blood, His righteousness alone. If you've got any other
ground of salvation, you're denying the gospel. That's what the Scripture
says. But, now if we have an argument
over whether a Christian should eat certain meats or not, or
drink certain drinks or not, then we ought to lovingly accept
each other's differences in that area. Well, they weren't doing
that in Romans 14. You had weak believers and you
had mature believers. You had the mature believers
using their liberty in the use, in the moderation, moderate use
of all things. And then you had weak believers
who had problems with seeing a believer drink this or eat
that. And they began judging each other. And that's wrong. That's wrong. Look at Romans
14 and verse 10. He says, But why dost thou judge
thy brother? Now that's the first thing we
need to understand here. They're talking about brothers here.
He's not talking about, you know, somebody believes a false gospel.
Don't go around here saying, well, I can't judge him. Yes,
you can. I'm telling you. Do it by the Word of God, though.
What's the Word of God? He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's believeth not what? The
gospel. But he says, why do you judge your brother? Or why dost
thou set it not thy brother? Why do you count him as being
nothing? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."
Now, that's the Myth God. That's the inspection gate here. He says, "...for as it is written,
as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every
tongue shall confess to God, so then every one of us shall
give an account of himself to God." Now, you know, most people,
when they go to the judgment, they automatically go to works.
And the reason is, is because of certain passages of Scripture
that they misinterpret. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. They say, well, we're already
saying we're going to go to the judgment, we're going to be judged
based on our works, and therefore we're going to be rewarded as
to how many works we've done. That is not what this scripture
teaches. That's not what the Bible teaches. But now our works will be judged. Now, here's what I'm saying.
Now, listen to me. You're not going to be judged by your works or
based on your works, but your works will be judged. Well, what
do you mean? Well, look at 2 Corinthians 5
and verse 10. He says, For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the
things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether
it be what? Good or bad. Now, is what I've done, is it
good or is it bad? That's the judgment. It's not
going to determine anything. It's the declaration before the
whole universe. What do your works say about
you? Are they works done in faith to glorify God, or are they works
done in self-righteousness to exalt the flesh? Are they the
works of a justified sinner saved by the grace of God, washed in
His blood, clothed in His righteousness, the fruit of the power and glory
and grace of God, or are they the works of an unbeliever, the
fruit of self-righteousness, the fruit of self-will? That's
what's going to be seen. Are our fruits evidence of our
relationship with Christ and His grace and His mercy, or are
our works evidence of unbelief? That's what that means. This isn't an inspection gate. It's not going to determine anything.
It's an inspection. What are the works of believers?
Well, the scripture says, for by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast, for we are his what? Workmanship. What is a Christian? He's the
creation, the workmanship of God. He's not his own workmanship.
In other words, if you're here's what this is. If you're a Christian,
you didn't make yourself one. God made you. Well, how did he
make it? Created in Christ Jesus by Christ
and His work on the cross. That's how. And then he says,
Unto good works, not because of good works, but unto. That's
the fruit, the evidence. That's what this is saying. At
the Miptah, the works of believers will be evidence of the power
and the glory and the grace of God in Christ. And that's it. And it will be declared before
the whole universe what those are. Look at Acts chapter 17. Here's the whole thing, I believe,
that puts it in perspective. Acts 17, 31. Right here is the
standard of judgment at the Mipchon, at the last day, at the last
judgment, at the inspection. Here's why God commands all men
everywhere to repent, verse 31, look at it. Because he hath appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world how? In righteousness. All right, now how righteous
do we have to be? Is there a standard we can know or are we going to
be deceived on that? He says in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained It's one whom God appointed, in that
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath what?
Raised him from the dead. Now, who's that? That's Christ. Now, if you were going to be
judged at the miscut, at the inspection gate, based on your
works, then what this verse says is they better be as perfect
and as glorious and as good as Christ. Where does that leave
you? I'll tell you where it leaves
me in a mess. The only way I'm going to pass
the inspection is to be found in Christ, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which is through faith.
I've got to be found in Him. That's the way I'm going to pass
the inspection. That's the way you're going to pass the inspection.
And I'm going to show you that in just a moment in another place,
but let's go on. Now, our sins, the believers'
sins, have already been judged in Christ. Now, one of the meanings
of this term Miscath is numbering. This is where the census was
taken, where they were numbered. And you know, when God numbered
His people, He did it twice. He had Moses do it twice in the
book of Numbers. That's why it's called Numbers.
And when God did that, you know what God was showing? God was
showing that He owns His people. You don't number those you don't
own. In other words, if a shepherd came upon his flock one day and
he saw some stranger out there counting his sheep, what do you
think that shepherd's going to do? He's going to say, buddy,
you're in the wrong place. You don't own these sheep. They're
mine. I number them. I count my sheep. Because he
figures, you know, somebody's out there counting them, he's
going to take, he's going to see how many he's going to take.
We see God numbering, taking the census by inspection is numbering
his people. Well, the Scripture says in,
and listen to this, the Scripture says in Isaiah 53 and verse 12,
that Christ was numbered with the transgressors. He was numbered
with his people. In other words, it's almost like
God taking the census, and there's Christ, and that's all there
is. He's all there is, and all His
people in Him. And so He was numbered with the
transgressors, we're numbered with Him. He owns us, you see. But here, at the myth-tod, at
the inspection gate, in the last judgment, That's all going to
be openly manifested as God numbers His people with Christ at the
inspection gate. That's what the judgment is for
the believer. It's not a determination of how
much you've earned. It's just an open numbering of
the people of God with their Savior who had already been numbered
with them on Calvary. And he took our place and took
our sins upon himself and suffered and bled and died under the agony
of the justice of God and the wrath of God and the punishment
of sin. His soul suffering, his soul
agony, his mental anguish, the pain and the sorrow that he went
through. Why? Because he was numbered
with the transgressors. And we're numbered with him.
That's the inspection gate. Well, here's the third thing.
Look at this. Here's the purpose and nature of the Miskad Gate,
the Inspection Gate. First of all, it was a place
of appointment and authority. This is the place where God's
way was set forth according to God's Word and God's authority,
and it was also a place where sin offering was to be made.
I want to show you that in just a moment, but hold that thought.
Turn to Ezekiel chapter 43. Look at Ezekiel chapter 43. We read part of this chapter
last time, talking about the Eastern Gate. But you see, the
Eastern Gate and the Inspection Gate, or Judgment Gate, or the
Miskad, are very closely related. When Christ comes the second
time, the Son breaking through, rising from the East the second
time, He's coming to do what? To judge the world. and to gather
his people. You might say to number his people.
To gather his troops and inspect them. And what's he looking for
now? He's looking for a relationship
with him. He's looking for his blood and
his righteousness as they're standing. But here, look at Ezekiel
43. Look down at verse 18. What we're
going to see is this Mithkad gate, this inspection gate, was
also a place of acceptance. Now, the acceptance came how?
It came through the sin offering that was burned here. Look at
Ezekiel 43, look at verse 18. And he said unto me, Son of man,
thus saith the Lord God, these are the ordinances of the altar
in the day when they shall make it. to offer burnt offerings
thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon." Now, Ezekiel was a
prophet during the captivity, and what he's talking about,
they will make it. That is when Zerubbabel and Nehemiah and Ezra
all come back and all this is built. The temple and the city. And he says in verse 19, "...and
thou shalt give to the priests and Levites that be of the seed
of Zadok." Zadok was a special family of priests who were very
loyal to both David and Solomon, and that's why they're They're
picked out here specifically. He said, Which approach unto
me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord God, a young bullock
for a sin offering, and thou shalt take of the blood thereof,
and put it on the four horns of it, that is the altar, and
on the four corners of the saddle, and upon the border round about
it, thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it, And it says, Thou shalt
take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn
it in the appointed place. Now that word, that phrase, appointed
place, is the word Miphkod. Miphkod. Appointed place of the
house, outside the sanctuary. That is, outside the Holy of
Holies. Outside. That's where the altar was going
to be built. That's the brazen altar. The four corners of it,
the horns of it, that's the brazen altar. That's where the lamb
was slain, and the fire of God came down in acceptance. So it
was a place of acceptance. This mist god was a place of
acceptance based on the offering that was born. Well, where is
our acceptance? It's the place of the cross where the offering,
Christ, our sin bearer, and the fire of the wrath of God came
down and consumed him. And he drank damnation dry. It was also a place of accountability,
inspection. We must learn the truth about
our lives as God sees it, all made manifest. The Word of God
encourages us by assuring us that it is not a place of condemnation
for believers. This myth cloud is not. It's
not a place of condemnation. It's not a place of reservation.
It's not a place of fear. It's not a place of anxiety.
And you want to know why? Because we've been to the sheep
gate. And we're going to end up at the sheet gate. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again, is seated at
the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. 1 John 4, 17, beloved, we can
have boldness at the judgment, at the mithka, at the inspection
gate, because as He is, so are we in this world. Isn't that
right? Now, let me show you one more
thing before I close. Turn to 2 Samuel, chapter 24. This Miptod gate, this inspection
gate, is also a place of correction and chastisement for believers.
And that has to do more with this daily, continual inspection
that we go through by the Word of God. But here in 2 Samuel 24, this
is the account where David was moved to number Israel. Now, as you know, he committed
a great sin there, and I don't have time tonight to go into
all the details of all this. We're going to begin reading
in verse 9 of 2 Samuel 24. But the people of Israel were
disobedient and displeased God, and so was David. So as a punishment,
God moved David to number Israel. Now, David's motives were selfish
and proud. David had no right to number
Israel. Number one, Israel didn't belong to him, it belonged to
God. He was God's king. But he wasn't the owner of these
people. God is. God only had a right to number
them. And secondly, it was an act of unbelief on David's part.
Why would he number Israel? He wanted to see his strength
in numbers. That's the way churches are today.
If you've got the biggest church, that means you've got the greatest
blessing. My friend, that's no different than the unbelief of
David and the pride of David that moved him to number Israel.
That's right. Where is it? 1 Chronicles 21
is a parallel to this. It says Satan moved David to
do it. In other words, God allowed Satan
to move David to do this. It's not a contradiction there.
And so David did it. Well, look at verse 9. Now, you
know, David committed a great sin there to do that. And it
says he sent his general out to do this, Joab, to number Israel. And it says in verse 9, now listen,
it says, and Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people
unto the king. Now that word number there is
Miphthot. In fact, that's the first time
the word Miphthot is used in the scripture. And it's by Joab. And it was due to David who committed
a great sin in numbering Israel. So Joab gave up the sum of the
number of the people unto the king. He took a census, he said,
And there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men that drew the sword."
That's what David was mostly interested in right there. How
many of them can fight for me? You know. A little different
than the shepherd of Israel standing before Goliath saying, our Lord,
Jehovah, he doesn't fight with sword and with spears. But now
you want to know how many fellows he had who could draw the sword.
You see the unbelief there. And he said, and the men of Judah
were 500,000 men. Well, look at verse 10. David's
heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. Now,
God brought him to repentance. That's what's happening here.
And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly, and that
I have done. And now I beseech thee, O Lord,
take away the iniquity of thy servant, and I have done very
foolishly. David, like all of us, comes to these moments of
repentance and godly sorrow. Verse 11, For when David was
up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet
Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith
the Lord, I offer thee three things." God gave him three choices
here. He said, Choose thee one of them,
that I might do it unto thee. Now this is by way of punishment,
correction. So Gad came to David and told
him and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto
thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months
before thine enemies while they pursue thee? or that there be
three days' pestilence in thy land. Now advise, and see what
answer I shall return to him that sent me." And David said
unto Gad, I'm in a great strait, I'm in a mess. He said, I'm between
a rock and a hard place. Let us fall now into the hand
of the Lord, for his mercies are great. Now that's, you know,
you see what David's doing there? He's not saying, God, I don't
deserve that. That's a little too hard. No, he says, I'm just
going to cast myself on the mercy of God. There's not a better
place for any of us sinners to be than at the mercy of God. His mercies are great, David
said. I can just see the Psalms that David wrote just beaming
forth here. His mercy endureth forever. How
many times is that quoted in various Psalms? His mercy. Where are we going to find His
mercy? He says, and let me not fall into the hand of man. Look
at verse 15. He says, So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel
from the morning even to the time appointed, and there died
of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
Now you understand, this wasn't just because David numbered Israel,
that was part of it, but the people of Israel were disobedient
too. So that punishment went forth.
In verse 16 he says, And when the angel stretched out his hand
upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the
evil. Now, literally, what that means is the Lord relented. He
was through. A lot of people go in and say,
well, see, it says the Lord repented. Does that mean He changed His
mind? Absolutely not. He didn't change His mind. Literally,
what the original Hebrew, it says the Lord relented. It means
He finished. And he says, and said to the
angel that destroyed the people, it's enough. That's the key here.
God said, now that's enough. And he said, stay now thine hand.
And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing place of Araunah,
the Jebusite. Now Araunah, his name is Ornon
in 1 Chronicles. That's a different name. And
a lot of people say, well, there's a contradiction in the Bible.
There's not. It's like sometimes you'll read Peter's name as Peter,
and sometimes you'll say Simon. One's a Greek name, one's the
Hebrew name. Well, this is the same way with Ornon and Aaron.
They're the same guy. And he was a Jebusite. Now, I'm
reading all this. I want you to follow along here
now. It's important. I'm going to draw this together
and you're going to be blessed by this. Look at verse 17. Well,
David spake unto the Lord, when he saw the angel that smote the
people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and have done wickedly.
But these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray
thee, be against me, and against my father's house." What's David
doing? He's interceding for Israel. Here he's a type of our Savior.
Let it fall on me, David said. Just like our Savior said, let
their punishment fall on me. He was made sin. And he took
our punishment, the just for the unjust. Verse 18, And Gad
came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar
unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. Build an altar on the threshing
floor. And David, according to the saying
of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. And Araunah looked and saw the
king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went
out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the
ground. And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his
servant? And David said, To buy the threshing
floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague
may be stayed from the people." You see, David knew that blood
had to be shed. You see, whenever God's wrath
is removed, justice must be satisfied. You've got to build an altar,
you've got to sacrifice to the Lord without the shedding of
blood, no remission, no forgiveness. So verse 22, And around us said
unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth
good unto him. Behold, here be oxen for burnt
sacrifice, and threshing instruments, and other instruments of the
oxen for wood. And all these things did Araunah as a king
give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king,
The Lord thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Araunah,
Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. Neither will
I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord, my God, of that which
doth cost me nothing." Again, what a beautiful picture of our
Savior. It cost him everything. It cost him his life. He didn't
do it just for nothing. So David bought the threshing
floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. David built
there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and
peace offerings. So the Lord was entreated for
the land, and the plague was saved from Israel." Here's the
place of correction, and that's where we need to come to, the
Miftad gate every day to be inspected by the Word of God, to be corrected,
to be reminded of our sinfulness and repent, and to be driven
to Christ. continually. I've got some more
to say about this threshing floor and I'm going to hold off until
the next time. There's a little bit more there that I believe
will bless your soul. So let's just save it for the
last message on these guys. All right.