Now back in the book of Nehemiah
chapter 3, we have seen in this series of messages how God had
sent Nehemiah back from the Babylonian captivity to oversee and to make
sure the work of rebuilding the walls and the gates of the city
of Jerusalem And in that we've seen how Jerusalem itself, the
physical city, is a type of the church. And so it's important
as we study each one of these gates and how each one symbolizes
the truth, a spiritual truth, a truth concerning our salvation
and our lives as believers, that we see exactly what each one
has to do. with those things, with the grace
of God, with our lives. And for that reason, as I've
preached through these messages, I've always tried to go back
through and just keep them in their order as they're listed
here in Nehemiah chapter 3. There's not a whole lot said
about most of these gates here in this passage. In fact, somebody
said a couple weeks ago, said, boy, you get a lot out of that
one passage. If I just had that one passage
to go on, I wouldn't get a lot out of it, to be honest with
you. You have to interpret Scripture with Scripture. And these things
are steeped in Biblical symbolism and Biblical truth and also history,
Biblical history. And so that's where we go to
to understand what they mean. For example, the first one, the
Sheep Gate, that has an obvious lesson for the sheep. And now that's not speaking of
the sheep of Christ, the sheep gate. The first gate there, the
symbolic truth of it, the truth that it symbolizes rather, is
Christ, the Lamb of God. Because it was through that gate
that the shepherds, they would bring their sheep through the
sheep gate into the city and they would take them to the different
folds. But it was also significant for
our purpose, it was through the sheep gate that they would bring
the lambs that were going to be taken to be sacrificed at
the temple. This is the gate that they would
come through. And therefore we see a beautiful picture there
of Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
the Lamb of God, John the Baptist said, that takes us away, bears
away the sins of the world, his people all over the world. And
this is the purpose of God from the very beginning in the salvation
of His people. That seat gate is the place of
salvation. And that's where we go to for
our salvation. We go to the cross of Calvary.
That's what we glory in for our salvation. God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the foundation of our message. It's the heart of our message.
It's the goal of our message to exalt the crucified Savior,
who's not dead, but who died, but who was buried and raised
again the third day because of our justification. So we certainly
see how everything here, as far as Nehemiah is concerned, has
the first gate that they started working on. That's the first
thing that has to happen. as far as our salvation. Not
in time, but in the mind and purpose of God. It happened in
time when God sent His Son to fulfill it on earth. And that's
the sheep gate. What a great message that is.
And then secondly comes the fish gate. And the fish gate, you
remember how the Lord, when He took His disciples and He saw
them, they were fishermen. Peter and his brothers were fishermen.
And He used that physical occupation to teach them another spiritual
lesson. He said, come, follow me and
I will make you what? Fishers of men. And so that has
to do with the preaching of the gospel by which the Lord spiritually
catches His fish, His people. And so the fish gate is the first
result and effect and of the Sheep Gate. Christ did
His work on the cross. And He said, if I be lifted up
on the cross, if I be lifted up in His glory as the Savior
of His people, He said, I'll draw all men unto Me, just like
the fisherman cast his net out, and he draws the fish in. So
what that's teaching at the Fish Gate, that's where His people
come in. That's the place of evangelism. We have a message
to priests. Now, if Christ had not died,
If He had not been raised again from the dead, we have no message.
In fact, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, if that's the case, our faith
is in vain, let alone our preaching. We don't have any good news to
tell sinners if Christ didn't die. If He didn't do His work,
if He didn't establish righteousness by His obedience unto death,
there'd be no justification, there'd be no salvation, there'd
be no life. So that's what we have to understand.
We'd still be in our sins. Because He died on the cross
to bear our sins away, but since He did, we have a message. And
that's what the fish gate represents. And then we come to the old gate.
And remember, that's the place where believers, that symbolizes
where believers are to be established in the old, eternal, unchangeable
truths of the Word of God. The Gospel and all of its doctrines
that never change, that never morph into modern relevancies,
one writer said. In other words, what God had
to say, listen, what God had to say to Adam and Eve in Genesis
3.15 is just as relevant for sinners today. And nobody has
ever been able to improve on it. And the doctrines of God's
free and sovereign grace that are glorious doctrines that honor
Him and put man in the dust, men hate them. Religion will
ignore them and deny them. But my friend, we need to always,
every time we meet together, take a trip to the old gate,
don't we? And be established in the old
truth, the old landmarks of God's Word. And never get above them.
In fact, they're high above us. Let's reach forth to them. And
then the fourth gate's the valley gate. That's an important gate
for us to understand because this life that we leave while
on this earth is going through a valley. And there's valleys
all over the place. It's a place of testing. It's
a place of humility. Our faith is going to be tested.
Scripture says that. That's a gift from God, Paul
wrote to the church at Philippi. Peter said the same thing. Expect
it. Our faith is going to be tested. Now these testings, they
do not produce faith, but they reveal faith and they strengthen
faith. And they humble us before God. They make us, you know, these
valley tests, these valley experiences that we go through. And that's
what this world is, just like Israel in the wilderness. Before
they came to the promised land. You see, that's what this world
is. It's a wilderness for us. This is not our home. And what
that does, it shows us that we're not to latch on to this world
as if this is the most valuable thing or the purpose and fulfillment
of it all. We have a greater and higher
purpose. We're like Abraham. We're pilgrims journeying through
this world. And those houses that we look
at like they're so permanent, look at them like a tent. Dwellers
in tents. We're nomads. And so we're going
through this valley. That's what the valley gate represents.
And sometimes it's a valley of sorrow and pain. Sometimes there
are times on the mountain, but they're very few. And they get
fewer as you get older, don't they? And then the fifth gate
is the dung gate. That's an important gate too.
That's where all the refuse, all the filth, all the trash
was taken out of the city and taken into the Valley of Hinnom,
which was burning forever. And that's a continual thing
with the believer because we're continually repenting every day. As I said before, we begin our
repentance from dead works and idolatry when we first see the
glory of Christ in our new birth. But you know, it doesn't stop
there, does it? Because don't you have a daily battle with
sin? Don't you have a daily warfare that you go through? That's part
of Christian living. You know, I see all these books
on Christian living and all of this, how to act right and be
happy, happy, happy and be profitable. And I'll tell you, Christian
living is taking a trip to the dung gate every day. To throw
out the trash, the filth of sin, the lies that our heads are filled
with, continual sorrow over sin, without legalism now. We're always trusting in Christ,
you see. We've already been to the Sheep
Gate and we'll keep going. You never grow beyond that, you
see. I mean, these are all together. These are not stages in the Christian
life where you say, well, start here, then I graduate and get
on up, you know. I'll tell you what, the trip
from the Sheep Gate to the Dung Gate is not an upward trip. It's
downward. The Valley Gate, down. Come downs,
I guess. Come down off your high horse.
Come down off. And that's a continual battle.
And we have to do it every day. Continually. God put sorrow in
my heart over my sin. And bring me to repentance that
leads unto life. Not in order to be saved, but
because I already am. Not to be forgiven, but because
I already am. I'm washed in the blood of Christ
and clothed in His righteousness. And I'll never, never get beyond
that. Thank God. Thank God. We ever
get beyond that, we never had it. Is that right? And then comes
the fountain gate, the sixth gate. That's the place of refreshing
and renewal. After you take a trip to the
dung gate, that's what you need. You need a refreshing and renewing. And that's the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit with the believer all the time. He's with us. He's
within us. He'll never leave us. Christ
is in His people by His Spirit and by His Word. He continually
convicts us of sin. He continually keeps our eyes
focused on Christ. You know, there are times, don't
you get away from what we're supposed to be thinking and what
we're supposed to be looking at. We'll get our eyes off of
Christ and we'll get down in the dumps and we'll get to feeling
sorry for ourselves. Who do you think it is that brings
you back to looking to Christ and resting in Him? Who do you
think that is? You think that's you? You think it's me? I try to point myself and all
of us to Christ in my preaching, but you know as well as I do
that my preaching wouldn't do you or me any good apart from
the powerful, sovereign work of the Holy Spirit who brought
us to life, regenerated us, and dwells in us. Who do you think
it is that keeps a hold on you? That's how Christ does it, by
His Spirit, and that's the fountain gate, wells of living water,
Christ told the woman at the well. And it'll never quit. And you'll never thirst again.
Now what that means is this. You may have moments of thirst,
but it'll be quenched. It'll continue to be quenched.
Now how's it quenched? Well, we go to the Watergate.
Number seven. And that's the Word of God. The
Word of God that has been indelibly planted in our hearts, our minds,
affections, and will by the Spirit of Christ in the new birth. That's
the place of the Word, and that's what you're doing tonight. You're
coming to the Watergate. We read over in Nehemiah chapter
8 about Ezra the scribe. There's a whole book titled Ezra. Ezra the scribe, he brought the
second group of people back from the captivity, and one of Ezra,
he was a scribe and a priest, and one of his greatest responsibilities
was to reestablish and reconfirm the Word of God in the land. And over there in Nehemiah 8,
how he stood at the water gate, they built a pulpit of wood,
probably bigger than this one, and Ezra stood upon that pulpit
of wood and he read from the Word of God and he gave the sense
of it, which I believe is the same as preaching Christ. That's
how you give the sense of Scripture, because I don't believe the Scripture
makes any sense, really, until you see Christ. I know that from
experience. It didn't make any sense to me.
Oh, I know there were stories that were okay and there were
moral precepts in it that you could use, but I'm talking about
as a whole book from Genesis to Revelation. This book really
doesn't make any sense at all until you see the glory and the
power of Christ and Him crucified and risen again. That's what
Christ told the Pharisees. He said, you search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have life, eternal life, but there
they which testify of me. Paul wrote it in 2 Corinthians
3. He said they read the Old Testament,
but there's a veil of darkness over their eyes, over their heart.
He said, but when it turns to the Lord, to Jehovah our Savior,
to Christ, the veil's taken away. Boy, don't you see it now. Some
of you have told me that you've seen things you've never seen
before in the Scripture. Well, you know I have too. That's
why I study it. I'm seeing the same things you
see. We're seeing it together. And it's all by the power of
God who unveiled our hearts to show us the glory of Christ.
And that water gate is the place of His Word. Just like Ezra,
given the sense of it. And then the eighth gate is the
horse gate. That's the place of spiritual
warfare. Believers, individually, the church, collectively, we're
in a warfare with the world, we're in a warfare with the devil,
and we're in a warfare with the flesh. And you know as well as
I do that the only victory we can have is the victory that
Christ Himself has worked and brought for us. Our sufficiency
is of God. When we're weak, we're strong.
You know why? Because when we're weak, we depend
on Him more. And he's our strength. And so
you think about that. We have the warfare, the flesh
and the spirit that we fight daily. And that's the horse gate.
Well, now we come to the ninth gate. Verse 29 of Nehemiah 3. Not a whole lot said about this
gate here, but there's some significant things right in here. Verse 29,
here he'd been talking about the repair of the horse gate
by the priest. And in between these gates there
was the walls of Jerusalem. They had to be repaired too.
So it says in verse 29, "...after them repaired Zadok the son of
Emmer over against his house." This was one of the priests and
his family and it was their responsibility to repair the wall in between
the horse gate and the next gate, which is the east gate. And,
of course, these walls, you know, now they had to be firm, just
like Christ who is our protector, He's our high power, He's our
defense, you see, that's what that wall represents. Well, He
says, after Him, verse 29, "...repaired also Shemai, the son of Shekiniah,
the keeper of the east gate." The east gate, that's the ninth
gate. Obviously, on the eastern side of the wall of Jerusalem,
overlooking what is called the Valley of Kidron, K-I-D-R-O-N,
which means darkness. Now, this word east, the Hebrew
word east, is very close to the word, or some say even the same,
that means the rising of the sun. So here what you have out
of the Valley of Kidron, which means darkness, you have the
rising of the sun out of what? Out of darkness. Now obviously
there's a great symbol there of the coming of our Savior.
He's the Son. He's the S-O-N, which the Son,
the S-U-N, represents. It's a type of the Rising Sun
in the East. And so we have Christ, the Son
of God, rising in the East. This East Gate was opposite the
Temple and facing the Rising Sun. Some say today it's called
the Golden Gate. I think I mentioned this, but
if you go over to the city of Jerusalem today, you would not
be able to find this gate, but there is a place where they call
it the Golden Gate. And the actual gates and walls
that we're talking about here out on Nehemiah 3 are about 15
feet below the ground over there. Because what happens when the
Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, they leveled it and they built
a city over top of it. So when people, when they go
to these things and they talk about a literal gate and the
Lord returning through a literal gate, the gate that they're talking
about is actually 15 feet below the ground. They'd have to level
the whole city and dig 15 feet down and find it and refurbish
it. So understand that. This is not
talking about, there is a literal gate here in Nehemiah's time,
but the truth that we're wanting to get to, this nugget of truth,
This precious stone that we're digging into the Word of God
to find has nothing to do with a literal gate. It's a symbolic
gate. And it has to do with the presence
and the coming of our Savior, the rising sun out of the east,
rising out of darkness, the darkness of this world, this depraved,
sinful world. Christ rising up out of that
darkness as the God-man to save His people. from their sin. So
this gate then speaks of hope and expectation. But let me show
you the purpose of this gate. As I said, every gate had a purpose
to fulfill the life of the city. This gate, the Eastern Gate,
you know there's a song, I don't think we've ever sung it here,
I don't know all the words to it, but you all play it sometimes,
Carol, you and Mark. It says, I will meet you in the
morning just inside the Eastern Gate. I don't know if we got
that or not, or if I don't know if the words are good, and I
know those words are good. We'll have to check these hymns sometime.
But that's right. I will meet you in the morning,
the morning being the rising of the sun, just inside the Eastern
Gate. And that's where that symbolism
in that song comes from, the symbolism in the Bible of the
Eastern Gate. Well, look over there at Psalm
26. There's a verse that Brother
Jim read there in this psalm, and to be totally honest with
you, when I chose this psalm, I chose it as a companion psalm
to the preaching of the 10th gate, which is the inspection
gate or the judgment gate or the numbering gate or the accounting
gate. They have a lot of names, but that's the 10th gate. We'll
talk about that next time. But there's a verse in here that
sets forth the theme of the symbolic truth of the Eastern Gate. And
here it is, he says in verse 8, he says, Lord, I have loved
the habitation of thy house. Now, in the Old Covenant, that
would have been the tabernacle at first, and then the temple,
the house of God, His dwelling place. And so he says, I have
love. Now, not that you could contain
God in a physical building. You couldn't do that. But his,
what we call Shekinah glory, dwelt there. The greatest manifestation
of the nature and character and the saving character of God to
be found on earth at that time. And that was in the temple, in
the holiest of all, above the mercy seat. And that's where
the high priest went one time a year on the Day of Atonement
with the blood of the Lamb into the Holy of Holies, and he sprinkled
the blood on the mercy seat. And that was the Shekinah glory
of God in the temple at that time. Well, he says here in,
"...Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where
thine honor dwelleth." Or, look in your concordance, it says,
the place of the tabernacle of thine honor." Now, this eastern
gate was the main and most direct passageway into the temple in
Jerusalem. By this time, the temple was
almost built, if it wasn't already totally built. That was under
a man named Zerubbabel. This was Zerubbabel's temple,
not Solomon's. It had been destroyed. But Zerubbabel's
temple and this eastern gate was the main, most direct passageway
into the temple of Jerusalem. It was the main, direct passageway
into the place of God's habitation, the dwelling place of God. Some scholars say it was perfectly
aligned with the Holy of Holies originally, when the Temple of
Solomon was there. I'm not certain that that was
so. But it was a place where people met together for religious
purposes, hopefully for the right reasons, with the right way,
according to God. Now look over at Acts chapter
3, and I'll show you that. We have an example of that in
the book of Acts, where Peter and John went to the Temple,
In chapter 3 of Acts chapter 3, they went there to pray. This
was a place where people were praying at the ninth hour. And
this was the place where people worshipped and went to meet in
the habitation of the Lord. And it says in verse 1, Now Peter
and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer,
being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his
mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of
the temple, which is called Beautiful." Now that is another name for
the eastern gate, the gate called Beautiful. And it says, "...to
ask alms of them that entered into the temple." Well, you know
what happened there, Peter and John, they healed the man by
the power of God, and they were brought up on charges for it,
but look down at verse 8, it says, And he, leaping up, this
man they held, he leaping up, stood and walked and entered
with them into the temple from this gate, see, called Beautiful,
the East Gate. And it says, walking and leaping
and praising God. Three times he mentioned this
gate's mention with the entrance to the temple. And this gate,
now, that was the main passageway into the temple, it was associated
with fellowship It was associated with worship and prayer. It was
a path into the temple where sinners could meet with God based
on sacrifice. Look at Psalm 50 with me. It
was always based on sacrifice now. And you know why? Because there is no salvation,
there is no forgiveness, there is no righteousness, there is
no fellowship with God, communion with God, or worship of God.
There's no hearing from God apart from the blood of Christ. That's
the lesson. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. That was a bloody religion back
then. It wasn't in the Old Covenant, but it had to be. You know why? Because sin demands death. That's
exactly that. That's why Christ had to come
and die. Our religion is a bloody religion. Not that we bring animals
and sacrifice them at an earthly altar, but we continually, constantly
plead the blood of our Savior. I stand before you and you sit
before me if you're one of God's children as people who have been
washed in the blood, the incorruptible blood of a sovereign Savior,
the Lamb of God. And we sit clothed in His righteousness
alone. You see, that's what this is
all typifying. Look at verse 1 of Psalm 50. The mighty God,
even the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth from the rising
of the sun. Same word. The East Gate. From the rising of the sun. In
other words, it's in Christ. That's what that means. Our whole
salvation. This is how God speaks. How He
calls His people out of the earth. In Christ. And he says, unto
the going down thereof, out of Zion, that's the church, the
perfection of beauty. And I thought about this. I mean,
there's no relationship in the wording here, the Hebrew and
the Greek. But I just thought about that in Acts chapter three,
where that gate was called beautiful. You know why? Because our Savior
is beautiful. And if there's any beauty in
us or on us, where is it? It's our Savior. It's His glory,
not ours. It's His glory. I stand in beauty,
not mine own. Who was it that wrote that? Robert
Murray Machine on how much I owe. When I stand before the throne
dressed in beauty, not my own, but in His. What a great picture
that is. Isn't that something though? Have you ever been afraid of
the dark? You have been, some of you kids. And you love it
when the light comes on or when the sun comes up. Isn't that
something? That's beautiful to you. And
that's the way it is with a sinner who's seen the darkness and the
blackness of his ignorance and his sins and his depravity, and
all of a sudden, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he sees the
rising of the Son in the East, the glorious Savior, the Son
of Righteousness. The Scripture calls Him the Son,
S-U-N, of Righteousness, because that's the type. And you see
His glory and His beauty. So it says in verse 2 of Psalm
50 out of Zion, the perfection of beauty God has shone, the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He says, Our God shall
come and shall not keep silence. He's going to speak. A fire shall
devour before Him and it shall be very tempestuous round about
Him. Our God is a consuming fire to
those who come before Him without Christ. And he shall call to
the heavens from above and to the earth, that he may judge
his people." And then he says, "...gather my saints together
unto me." Notice he says he gathers them together, those that have
made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And he said, "...and the heavens
shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself." That's
what this Eastern Gate speaks of through Christ, the Son, the
glorious Son rising out of the East. Go back to Nehemiah 3.
As I said, that word East and the East Gate means the rising
of the sun. And this is the gate through
which Christ rode in triumph through Jerusalem when they waved
the palm branches and cried, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. This is the way. He is the way
to fellowship with God and worship of God and communion with God.
You want to pray to God and be heard? Come through our great
High Priest who has passed through into the heavens. The rising
of the sun in the East. and all that he's accomplished
in his death, burial, and resurrection. For we have no right, we have
no way to come to God but through him. I mention this, look at
verse 29, he mentions two names here. The one who repaired or
who was responsible for the repairing of this day, his name was Shimei.
He's the son of Shekiniah. The word Shemai, the name Shemai,
means heard by Jehovah, or Jehovah has heard. And isn't that glorious? He was a priest. He was a priest
of God out of the tribe of Levi. And who's going to be heard of
God but those who are made priests in Christ? His father's name,
or his, could have been his grandfather, but someone, his, was Shekinah,
which means dweller, with Jehovah. Who is going to dwell with God
but those who are in Christ? This name Shekinah, incidentally,
is related to the term Shekinah. You don't find that term in the
Old Testament, but the old Jewish rabbis used to use it because
it had to do with the dwelling place of the glory of God. And
so the truth seen here is this, if we're to be heard by Jehovah,
if we're to dwell with Jehovah, we must come through the East
Gate, the way of God's grace in Christ, the rising of the
sun. Look at the protection of the
East Gate here. That's the purpose of the East
Gate. Now the protection of it. It says here that Shanii was
to be the keeper of the East Gate. This is the only gate that's
mentioned in this list that has a keeper. And that word keeper
means literally hedging about. preserving. The form of it in
the original language sets forth an ongoing watching, not just
a glance, not just a, you go for a little while and then you
leave, but it's not just an occasional thing, but it's a continual watching
at this gate. My friend, isn't that the life
of a believer? How do we run the race of grace?
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Don't
ever take your eyes off of Him. When you do, you're in trouble,
aren't you? Keeping the gate. The way that the temple needed
to be kept, it needed to be guarded carefully and continually, just
like Ezekiel's watchman up on the wall, watching continually
for the protection of the city. And when the enemy would come,
the trumpet should be blown. The watchman would warn the people,
there's trouble coming. It's like Paul when he gave His
last words to the Ephesian elders, He said, you take heed that you
feed the flock of God. Feed them with the Word of God.
There's coming a time when there'll be ravenous wolves who will enter
in and they'll try to destroy the flock. The Gospel has to
be kept and has to be guarded. That's why Paul said that we
must beware of any philosophy, any doctrine, any person who
would come in and corrupt the simplicity that's in Christ.
That single message of all of our salvation wrapped up totally
in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. He told the people
of Galatia, he said, I marvel that you're so soon moved away
from the gospel. And they were moved away by men
of reputation. That's what happened to them.
Men of reputation came in. And I believe I mentioned this,
but I don't care who they are, whether they're your best friend,
or your relative, or whether they've been a preacher, I don't
care how long, if they get your mind off that simplicity of the
grace of God in Christ and all of our salvation totally completed
and finished in Him, don't listen to them. Don't listen to them. Paul said in Galatians 5, verse
1, Stand fast, firm, immovable in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free. and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage." You see, our worship and our communion
and our fellowship, our times of prayer must be kept and must
be guarded. Christ and His truth, the worship
of God, the fellowship of His people and prayer is at the heart
of everything in salvation and eternal life. This gate had to
be repaired because it had been destroyed. It was in ruins. It
was left in a state of ruin. And I tell you, we can see this
when we consider the majority of what's called Christianity
today. I'll tell you what, it's not even close. If you go by
the Scriptures, people are religious, they call themselves Christian,
they say they believe grace, but you test their claim by the
Word of God, it's not even close. It's a great apostasy, it's a
great falling away, because this gate is in ruins and hasn't been
repaired. But there are places where God
has brought His people together. And they've come through the
East Gate. They've come through the rising of the Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let me talk to you lastly about
the prospect of the East Gate. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 43. Ezekiel
chapter 43. Now, you know, Ezekiel was a
prophet during the captivity, when Judah was in Babylon in
captivity. And he continually called the
people to repentance, even while they were in captivity. He didn't
say, now wait until the Lord brings you back to the land.
He said, repent now. And here in Ezekiel chapter 43,
he's given a vision of some things here. Well, let's read verse
1. He says, But now thus saith...
This is Ezekiel 43, verse 1. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob. I'm into Isaiah. Well, give me a break, you all. I had it marked Wednesday night.
Somebody asked me one time, how do you find these things so fast?
I just looked down and said, I'm good at it. But actually,
I have them marked. Some of them. Ezekiel 43. It says in verse
1, it says, And afterward he brought me to the gate, even
the gate that looketh toward thee. So here is a vision. Now,
Ezekiel is not literally at the gate. We know that. He is in
Babylon. But he is given a vision here of this gate. And it says
in verse 2, And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from
the way of the east. That is where the glory of the
God of Israel comes, from the way of the east. What does that
tell you? Well, the glory of the God of
Israel comes through Christ, the rising of the sun in the
east. And His voice was like a noise of many waters, and the
earth shined with His glory. What does Ezekiel tell me? He's
talking about the promise of the coming of the Messiah. That's
what he's talking about. The Messiah had not yet come,
but He's coming. And so he says in verse 3, and
it was according to the appearance of the vision, that vision being
the prophecy, the word God sent him, which I saw even according
to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city, and
the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Kebar,
and I fell upon my face, and the glory of the Lord came into
the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the
east. In other words, His future, what
he's saying here, his future is wrapped up in the glory of
the Lord that comes from the East. Isn't that the way it is? And Israel's part in this was
as they reacted or responded by the grace of God to the coming
of Christ. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? Is He your salvation? Is He your
all in all? Do you hope in Him? Is He your
righteousness? Is He your forgiveness? Is He
your Savior? So he says, our prospect is toward
these. Well, that's all of our prospect. That's all of our future. All
of our safety. All of our eggs are in one basket. Christ, crucified and risen again. That's what he's saying. That's
what he's telling the people in captivity. And he says in
verse 5, So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner
court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
You see, when this glory of the Lord comes from the East, then
The Spirit took him up, brought him into the inner court, and
the glory of the Lord filled the house. That's what we want
for our house. And he says, and I heard him
speaking unto me out of the house, and the man stood by me. Now,
there's a lot of different ideas on what that's talking about,
but some say it's the same as the fourth man who was in the
fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I'm not
going to get into that tonight, but you know about several years
before this vision here in Ezekiel 43. And this is recorded in Ezekiel
10 and Ezekiel 11. Ezekiel was given another vision
of Solomon's temple. And he saw Solomon's temple in
ruins. And he saw it full of idols. And he saw the glory of the Lord
departing out of that temple through the east gate. But here
he sees the glory of the Lord returning by the way of the east
gate and the coming of Christ who is himself the embodiment
of that glory. One more passage, Ezekiel 44. I said one more,
I got two more actually. I need to show you this. Ezekiel
44, and I'll hurry. Look at verse 1 of Ezekiel 44.
He says, Says, Then he brought me back the way of the gate of
the outward sanctuary which looketh toward these. This is Ezekiel
44, 1. And it was shut. Now the gate was shut. And it
says, Then said the Lord unto me, This gate shall be shut,
it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it, because
the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore
it shall be shut. Now the only one who can open
this gate is God. Man can't open this gate. This is not conditioned
on man. It's not dependent upon man.
It's not contingent upon man. God's not waiting to see what
man's going to do. And incidentally now, there's
an application of this Eastern Gate to our prospect. Now, we
look back at Christ who's already come, but we've got another prospect. He's coming again. And He's coming
through the Eastern Gate, not the literal gate in Jerusalem.
Like I said, that's not even there. But He's coming as the
rising of the sun. This is symbolic language, not
to a literal temple, but to His church. He's going to gather
His people together. Now, when's He going to come?
Well, He's waiting on the people of Palestine to get in obedience
and rebuild that temple. Oh, no. The gate's shut. I'm going to tell you when it's
going to be open. When God opens it. Just like He did at the first
coming of the Lord of glory. I guarantee those people who
were looking forward to the Messiah, when's it going to happen? When's
it going to happen? They died another generation. I'll tell
you that gate's shut until God opens it. You know when it was?
In the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. Christ kept telling His disciples, My time's not
yet come. My time's not yet come. Then all of a sudden one day
He said, It's time. It's time. The gate was opened. The Son of Glory, rising Son,
came through. And that will happen again. But
look here, verse 3. He says, It is for the prince.
Who's the prince? That's Christ. You see that?
It's shut, but it's for the prince. The prince, he shall sit in it
to eat bread before the Lord. That's fellowship. Fellowship
with God and Christ. And he shall enter by the way
of the porch of that gate and shall go out by the way of the
Son. That gate. It's for the Prince of Glory. And that's when He's going to
come. Now, somebody asked about the significance of the glory
of God returning, the glory of God leaving the temple and the
tabernacle and all that. And what he's saying here, and
look at Ezekiel 48, look at the last verse of the book of Ezekiel. The significance of this prophecy
is this, when the Lord comes and does His great work, alright,
then the glory of the Lord will never depart from the temple
again. Now you understand what I'm saying?
When Christ comes, that means the new covenant now, the glory
of the Lord will never depart from the temple again. Well,
where is that today? If it's in an earthly temple,
And if it's in a physical temple, then somebody told a lie. But
it's not. It's in His church. Look at the
last verse of Ezekiel chapter 48. It says in verse 35, it was
around about 18,000 measures, and the name of the city, that's
talking about Jerusalem, from that day shall be, the Lord is
there. He's not gone. Jehovah what? Shammah? Jehovah Shammah. He's there! And he'll never leave
again. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. And that's what that Eastern
gate means. He'll never depart again. Christ has come. You know
what? He's going to come again. And
that gate is shut until he opens it. The prince opens it. He's
coming again to judge this world and to gather his people unto
themselves.