Alright, let's go back to the
book of Nehemiah, chapter 3. And of course, if you've fallen
along on these messages concerning the rebuilding of the walls and
the gates of Jerusalem, you know now that we're coming to the
fifth gate called the Dung Gate. And that is the title of the
message, the Dung Gate. And it's not a very pleasant
subject, but it's a very necessary subject. one that's needed by
every one of us. And in God's wisdom and His mercy towards us, He reveals
these truths for His glory and for our admonition and for our
good. As you know, as you keep the
order here, as Nehemiah, it was revealed to him that under his
authority, and under his leadership he was to guide the people of
Israel, or the people of Judah, to rebuild the walls and the
gates of Jerusalem as they had come out of captivity. It started
with the Sheep Gate, that's where everything ends up, and that's
a picture of Christ, our Lamb, the Lamb of God. Worthy is the
Lamb, behold the Lamb, the sacrifice. who went under the law of God
as a substitute, as a sacrifice for his sheep, for his people,
and shed his precious blood unto death to pay for our sins, to
cleanse us from our sins and establish the only righteousness
which God could be just and justify the ungodly. That's the work
of Christ in redemption. Everything in salvation begins
there. with Christ and Him crucified
and resurrected from the dead. Everything centers around Him.
And then we come to the fifth gate, the fifth gate of evangelism,
which is the fruit of Christ's death. He said, I, if I be lifted
up on the cross, I'll draw all men unto me. It's because Christ
died that we have life. And then we came to the old gate.
That's God's covenant promises and the foundational truths of
the Bible that never change. We must be established, well
established. upon the old truths that have
been from the beginning, the gospel truth and all of its particulars
and implications that don't change and don't evolve with man. You
see, man changes everything. He wants it to fit his own situation
to make it easy, but that's not the way of God's Word. We have
the old truth. Sin is an old problem. But the
solution is even older, and that's the covenant of grace. That's
the gospel of salvation by the mercy and grace of God in Christ.
And then we went from there to the valley gate, that valley
gate of humility and the trials that drive us to Christ. And
now we come to verse 14. Look at Nehemiah 3, verse 14,
the dung gate. But the dung gate repaired Malkiah,
the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Beth-hasarim, He built
it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars
thereof." Now, I want you to look at the two scriptures that
I read, the first one, 1 Peter chapter 5. I want you to look
at how this flows in the wisdom of God, in the purpose of God,
and in the experience of a believer. Why this is in the order that
it's in? Because this is the way it is. This is the experience
of every believer, but that's the way God set it up. Look again
at 1 Peter chapter 5, look at verse 10. Now, you notice there
we go from the sheep gate to the fish gate to the old gate
to the valley gate. We might wonder, why does God
put us in the valley? Well, we know why he does it.
He does it to teach us. He does it to correct us. He
does it to admonish us. He does it mainly to cause us
to cling to Him and to look to Christ more and more. You know,
I've often told you, and I believe this is the experience of every
believer. I don't believe I'm unique in this. When we go through
a trial, I never feel like, I never feel, when I come out of the
other side of a trial, I never feel good about myself. I'm serious. I never feel good about how I
acted. I never come out on the other side of that trial and
say, boy, I sure did. I was a perfect example of what a perfect person
should be. I never feel that way. But I
do this. I come out of the other end of
that trial clinging to Christ even more, looking to Him even
more, pleading His blood and righteousness even more, saying,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And that's what these valley
experiences are for. But the valley experiences are
also points of growth, points of repentance, and points of
obedience for us, and that's where we come to the Dome Gate.
And I want you to see this. Look at verse 10 of 1 Peter 5.
It says, "...the God of all grace," that's where it all begins, "...who
hath called us..." Now, the God of all grace, that's Christ at
the Sheep Gate. Grace reigns through righteousness
by Jesus Christ our Lord. who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus." Now, there's the fish gate, and I'll
even say the old gate, too, because those old truths are established
in Christ. After that, you've suffered a
while. That's the valley gate. And then,
make you perfect, establish you, strengthen you, settle you, and
believe it or not, there's the dung gate. Now, you say, well,
how in the world are we going to be strengthened, made perfect,
and established at the Dungate. Well, I'm going to show you how
tonight. But look back at Philippians chapter 3 now that I read. Now, of course, this is the foundation
of everything that we see and go through at the Dungate because
Paul mentions here in Philippians chapter 3 that everything that
he thought recommended him to God, that he thought was profitable,
that he thought before he was converted, that would make up
a righteousness before God that would get him into heaven. He
thought everything, you know, he listed them there. He said,
now I count it all but loss. And he said, in comparison with
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, he said,
I do count it but dung. In other words, it's trash, it's
filth. And what is he talking about
there? Now listen to me now. Listen to the context of this.
Read Philippians 3 on your own sometime. Paul's not talking
about how much he used to get drunk and party and take drugs
and go have hormone green and all that. What did he say? He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was a Pharisee. I was circumcised
the eighth day. He's talking about the things
that he thought was good. He does count them but dumb. You say, well, what's wrong with
all those things? My friend, in and of themselves,
nothing. But if you think those things will recommend you unto
God, then they're evil. If you think the best that you
can do will save you, or earn God's favor for you, or it's
the best that you have to offer, makes up your righteousness before
God, then it's nothing but evil. And that's why Paul said, in
light of Christ and what He did and His blood and His righteousness,
oh, that's just dung to be thrown out the dung gate. That's repentance. Do you know that? That's what
the Bible calls in the book of Hebrews repentance of dead works
and idolatry. Well, here's what Paul says here
in verse Verse 9, he says, I want to be found in Christ, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law. I don't want mine,
but that which is through the faith of Christ. I want His.
The righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection. Now all that can be represented
at the Sheep Gate and the Fifth Gate, the Old Gate, and the fellowship
of His sufferings. That's the Valley Gate. being
made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead." And then he starts going
and says, I haven't already attained. Now when Paul says that in verse
12, he's not saying I'm not already saved. He is saved. He said, I have not yet attained
sinless perfection in myself. That's what he's talking about.
Now keep that in mind. Let's go back over here to Nehemiah
chapter 3. This fifth gate, the dung gate.
Some people call it the Refused Gate, because they think it sounds
better. But let's just call it what God
calls it. Let's call it what it is. Now notice again that
if you look on your paper there, if you've got that paper, that
you can think about this, how there's quite a distance to this
gate. Here you've got the old gate
and the valley gate in between, the dung gate, quite a distance
there. If you've got your paper, if you know, you can get one.
They're quite a distance there. And that shows that the valley
experience can carry on for some time, and it does, as long as
we're in this line. But the result of that valley
experience is clearly seen in the next gate, the Dung Gate
down at the bottom there, down at the bottom of the city. And
this is the gate, literally the gate, that they would take, that
the people would take all the filth, all the rubbish, all the
refuse out of Jerusalem, down to the Valley of Hinnom, where
that fire burnt all the time now, and that's where they would
take it and that's where they would dump it, and that was their
trash bin. It wasn't a landfill. It was
just laid on top of the ground and it kept burning. That's why
that was a picture of eternal damnation and hell that was used
quite often. But all the filth of the city
would go out of that dung gate. So it was a pretty important
gate. Pretty important gate. You see, vile experiences are
used by the Lord to clear away the rubbish in our lives. That's
what He's teaching here. Clear away the rubbish so that
true faith, refined by the fire, doesn't the Bible talk about
our faith is refined by the fire, tested, can come forth and bring
forth fruit unto God. The dungate represents the continual
process in a believer's life of citing sin, seeking to rid
ourselves of all sin, seeking to be conformed perfectly to
the image of Christ. Have you ever sung that hymn,
Oh, to be like Him? Oh, to be like Thee? That's what
it's talking about. It's the process of continually
clearing away rubbish in our lives so that we can be examples
of God's mercy, of God's grace, and God's love. Paul said it
this way in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16. He says, walk
in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary, the one
to the other, they're opposite. So that you cannot do the things
that you would. But if you be led by the Spirit,
you're not under law, you're not condemned. That's what that
means. Notice here in verse 14 of Nehemiah 3, the man who was
responsible for building the dung gate. And do you notice
there's just one fellow? Not many. His name was Malkiah. He says he's the son of Rechab,
the ruler of part of Beth Asherah. Melchiah was a ruler. His name
is associated with royalty. The root of the name, the very
base of the name, is the same base as Melchizedek, which means
king of righteousness, ruler of righteousness. So this Melchiah,
he came from royal stock. But do you know something here?
What was he doing? He was repairing and building the dung gate. A ruler. Could you imagine that? You think we could get a ruler
today to repair a dung gate? A sewage treatment plant? You
think you could do that today? Why, no. Hire that job out. Get some low life to get in there
and work on that stuff. That's what they'd say. But here's
Malachi, a ruler, yet he was not too high and he's not too
proud to work at the dung gate where the filth and the trash
and the refuse of Jerusalem was carried away to be burned in
the Valley of Hinnom. There wasn't anything glamorous
about this job, wasn't anything pleasant, nothing appealing or
exalting to the flesh, but everything to drive men away by nature. But at the same time, here is
what we see the spiritual truth is. There is everything at this
dungate to drive a sinner to Christ, continually for forgiveness,
for cleansing, for peace and comfort. Notice the foundation
of repentance that Paul spoke of in Philippians chapter 3.
You remember, he said, I count it all but done. You know, until
that happens, until you come to see, until we come to see,
until the Holy Spirit brings us to see in conviction that
even our best efforts to obey God at any time, at any stage,
to any degree, even our best efforts fall short of God's requirement
for salvation. that in essence they are, when
compared to the righteousness of Christ, they are, as Isaiah
said, filthy rags. As Paul said, dumb. You can't
get any dirtier and filthier. In other words, if I come before
God pleading anything but the merits of Christ's blood and
righteousness, what I'm actually doing in the sight of God is
I'm presenting something before Him that is a stench unto His
nostrils, just like dung. And that's graphic language,
but that's exactly what it is. Oh, my soul, can you imagine
that? You mean those fellows in Matthew chapter 7 who stood
forth and said, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't
we prophesied? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Haven't we cast out demons? They were pleading that as their
entrance into glory, as their righteousness before God. And
He said, depart from me, you that work iniquities. Dung. It
ought to have been thrown out the dung gate. It ought to have
been repented of. That's what that means. It should
have been They should have sorrowed over that instead of bragging
about it. People today in religion brag
about what they've done for God or what they believe God has
enabled them to do. And my friend, it ought to be
thrown out the dung gate. That's what I'm telling you.
That's what this represents. That foundation of repentance.
Listen, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10, I believe in verse 5, that
everything that exalts itself above the knowledge of God in
Christ is to be brought down. How far down should it be brought?
All the way down to the dung gate and thrown out. We don't have anything even to
compare with his obedience, his suffering, and his death. That's
why I don't want, as Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 3, to
be found standing before a holy God in mine own righteousness
which is of the law. I want to be found wrapped up
in the righteous robe that Christ worked out, that God accounts,
imputes to me. That's what I want. Everything
else as to my salvation, as to attaining salvation or maintaining
it, Everything else as to giving me an entitlement into glory
is dung and to be thrown out with the refuge in the trash.
First of all, what we see here is the presence of defilement.
The dung is a symbol of the remaining sin and defilement and the presence
and contamination of fallen sinful human nature even in a believer. That's right. You mean to tell
me that I still have to put up with this stuff even after I'm
saved? I'm telling you, this right here is a griff. Listen,
this is the city of Jerusalem which represents the church,
not the world. And it's right there that we
live, we who are saved by the grace of God. In this world,
we live right there. You know, Jerusalem in the Bible,
is often described as a place of beauty, as a place of nobility. In fact, it's called the Holy
City, not because it was perfect, but because it was separated
by God unto a specific purpose. It symbolized and typified something. But despite all of its beauty
and all of its glory and all of its holiness in that sense,
It was still full of waste, filth, it was dirty, and it was defiled.
They had to have a dung gate. Now, could you imagine a beautiful
city today without a sewage system? Without trash pickup? You know,
I've noticed, and our trashman comes every Friday, and I go
out there every Thursday night, and I fill that can up, and it's
full. You know what I've noticed about all that? He comes, he
picks up on Friday, the next Thursday it's full again. In
other words, it's not a one-time thing here, is it? I mean, that
trash, that filth just keeps coming and coming and coming.
And it doesn't stop. No matter how much we clean the
house, no matter how much we try, it's just there. That's
human nature. Right there. That's sin, remaining
sin. And here's what I'm telling you.
Listen to this now. And I want you to turn over to
1 John 3. There is a vast, vast difference
right now. There is a vast, vast difference
between what we are in Christ and what we are right now presently
in ourselves. Now, we need to understand this.
This is basic Bible right here. This is basic gospel truth. There's a vast difference in
how God sees me in Christ. In fact, I'll tell you how He
describes it in Colossians. He says, I'm holy, I'm harmless,
and I'm undefiled in Christ. I stand before Him washed clean,
spotlessly clean in the blood of Christ. Come, let us reason
together, Isaiah 118. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they'll be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they'll be as wool. In other words, as God sees me
in Christ, my substitute, my representative, I'm holy, harmless,
undefiled. 1 John 4, 17 says, for as He
is, so are we in this world. God right now in Christ sees
me as righteous and nothing less than righteous. But as long as
I'm on this earth in myself, what am I? I'm still full of
sin. I still have to make those trips
to the dung gate. Always. And it will always be
that way. But look at 1 John 3. And this
is what he's talking about here. Understand this now. Men have
always had ideas in religion of what they call sinless perfection.
And those ideas come in many different forms. I'm talking
about sinless perfection in himself now. Man in religion has always
had those ideas because what is that the product of? That's
exalting the flesh. Now, they'll say, well, the flesh
is bad, but it's the spirit that's good. And they'll, you know,
all this stuff. Listen to them. It comes in many different forms,
many different guises, but here's what I'm telling you. There is
absolutely no way that while we're on this earth, we can say
we're sinlessly perfect within ourselves. No, we can't do it
scripturally. We can talk about the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit who's within us, who in Himself is perfect,
but He's not us. I'm not the Holy Spirit and you're
not either. And when the Holy Spirit indwells a believer, we're
going to talk about that next time at the fountain gate. the
indwelling presence of the Spirit. He doesn't become you, and you
don't become him. And he doesn't change your nature
into anything that's even close to deity. That's an impossibility. Number one, deity cannot be created,
and number two, deity cannot change. We're sinners saved by
the grace of God. We're born again. The Scripture
says, yes, we have a new heart. In another place it says we have
a transformed heart. It uses both language. It's a
heart to love God, a heart to believe Him, a heart convicted
over sin. But you see, look at 1 John 3.
Now look at verse 1. He says, Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Who? We sinners. Sons of God? Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. He says, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. Now that's talking about our, when we go to be with Him. When we are then totally free. When we will be free from the
presence and the defilement and the corruption of sin within.
We'll be like Him. And you know what John says?
That doesn't appear to us yet. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. Could you imagine? Can you sit
and imagine? what it would be like to have
a perfectly sinless moment, a thought without sin, an act without sin. Now, if you think you know what
that's like, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm telling
you. We don't know what that's like.
That doesn't appear to us yet. But we shall be. But he says
that, but we know that when he shall appear, when Christ shall
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in himself purifieth himself,
even as he is pure." In other words, what he is saying there
is that my hope is in Christ and my purity is in him. And
so he says, "...whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law,
for sin is the transgression of the law." And you know that
he was manifested, Christ, to take away our sins, and in him,
in Christ. is no sin. Now in him, no sin. Now in me, sin. Right now. And you too. And that's why we
have to make continual trips to the Dung Gate. That's right. No matter how much we grow or
improve, we'll always have to deal with the remaining defilement
of sin. Sin cannot condemn us. We know
that because Christ bore away our sins. Sin cannot keep us
in the darkness of unbelief because we are born again by the Spirit. We know where our hope is. We
know who we need, Christ. But we still have to pray with
the disciples, Lord, I believe, help thou my what? My unbelief. See, even my believing is not
perfect yet. It will be one day, you know that? It will be one
day, when I'm dead and gone, when I'm with Him. But you see,
defilement in Jerusalem was continual, just like we in our day. It's continual. Never free from
this problem in this life, day after day. It was a part of city
life. They had to make those trips
to the Dungate. So it is with us. Somebody once
said, well, a believer is still a sinner, but he doesn't make
sin his habit or practice. I want you to think about that. Somebody said this, we can only
go a short distance in life without sinning. Oh no, you can't even
go a short distance. Neither can I. You see, this is a contaminating
problem. It contaminates everything we
think, say, and do. That's why Brother Ron prayed
in the study that even our works, even our obedience has to be
cleansed by the blood of Christ. What would have happened in this
city if they had ignored the Dung Gate, acted like it's not
there? It wouldn't have been a place
you'd want to go visit, isn't that right? And you know, Satan,
he will present sin to us as a very harmless thing. Oh, it's
okay, you're under the grace of God. But it's not now. It's
very comprehensive. It's a citywide problem. There
wasn't one section of the city of Jerusalem who didn't need
to make these trips to the Dung Gate. You couldn't say, well,
those folks down there, they have to do that, but us up here,
we don't have that problem. No. It was a citywide problem,
and so it is with believers. Sin defiles our thoughts, our
motives, our works. The presence of sin is something
we have to face every day. And then here, secondly, is the
cleansing of defilement. Now, we must go to the dung gate
continually to rid ourselves of defilement of sin. Now, what
does that mean as it applies to us? Well, God's Word, now
listen to me very carefully, God's Word tells us that Christ
purged our sins by Himself. Hebrews 1 and verse 3, let me
read it to you. Christ, who being the brightness
of His glory, the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high. by himself purged our sins. He didn't do it with your
help or my help. He did it all by himself. One offering. God
said in 1 John 1 verse 7, He said, But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all
sin. Our works do not cleanse us from
our sins. Our efforts to obey do not cleanse
us from our sins. Our tears of repentance will
not cleanse our sins. Our promises to do better will
not cleanse our sins. Our growth in grace and knowledge
will not cleanse our sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's it. So we know this too, that all cleansing is of God.
It's not of ourselves. David prayed this in his valley
moment. Psalm 51, in that penitent song. You know what he said? He said,
wash me throughly or thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse
me from my sin. That was a saved man talking. And yet we're commanded in the
Word to cleanse ourselves. Look at James chapter 4. Turn
with me. Let me show you some scripture
here. Now, we're commanded, we're told
that only the blood of Christ can cleanse us from all sin,
and then we're commanded in the Bible to cleanse ourselves. Now,
is that a contradiction? Well, absolutely not. It's not
talking about the same thing. Look at James chapter 4. Look
at verse 7. He says, Submit yourselves, therefore,
to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will
draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Look at verse 9. He says, Be
afflicted and mourn. Now that gives you a clue right
there what he's talking about. Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning." In other words, your
laughter and your neglect of sin, let it be turned to mourning.
Sorrow. And your joy to heaviness. Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up.
That gives you a little clue about it right there. But turn
to another scripture. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Remember
what he said there in James? Cleanse you your hands. Cleanse
your hands. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
6 and look down at verse 14. He says, Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?
What concord or agreement hath Christ with Belial, that's idolatry? What part hath he that believeth
with an infidel, with an unbeliever? What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For you're the temple of the
living God." Talking about the church here. As God has said,
I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God
and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them. Be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
Going down to chapter 7. Having, therefore, these promises,
the promises of grace that are sure and certain in Christ, dearly
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Cleanse yourself. Cleanse ourselves. 1 Timothy
5.22, he says, keep thyself pure. Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and
2, he says, be ye not conformed to the world. We could go on
and on. Well, what's that talking about?
If only the blood of Christ can cleanse me from all my sin, then
how am I to cleanse myself? Well, first of all, when he tells
us to cleanse ourselves, he's not talking about how God saves
a sinner. He's not talking about our justification
before God. We've been freely justified by
the obedience of Christ as our substitute. We're saved by grace,
and it's all of grace. Even the life of a believer is
by grace. He's not talking about our sanctification. Somebody says, well, he's talking
about progressive sanctification there. No, there's no such thing.
Progressive holiness. Holiness is not a progressive
thing. It doesn't come in degrees. I mean, think about it. What's
one degree less than holy? I'll tell you what it is. It's
sin. We're fully sanctified by the application of Christ's work
to our hearts in regeneration. And he's not saying here when
he says cleanse yourself, he's not saying now you've got to
add something to the work of Christ to make it effectual.
That's what most people think. Well, Christ did his part. Now
you've got to do your part or you'll be lost. No, sir. If that's
it, then we're all lost. Somebody says, though he laid
the foundation of this in his great work of cleansing us, then
we've got to do our part. No, sir. He's not adding anything
to the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth, though he inspires
us by grace. The cleansing that we're to do
in our daily life as we make these trips to the Dung Gate
does not make us holy. or get us any nearer to sinless
perfection in our lives or in ourselves. Sin does not let up. Now, listen to me. As you seek
to cleanse yourself, I'm going to tell you something. Sin is
not going to let up. You say, well, tomorrow will be a better
day. I'll be less of a sinner. You're just deceiving yourself. Sin does not let up. We have
to go to the Dungate all our lives until we leave this life
and go to be with Christ. It is a continual warfare. It is a daily warfare. The flesh
will never serve or be in agreement with the Spirit. We read earlier
the flesh is against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.
And the Spirit will never surrender to the flesh. This warfare will
not end until we cease to live in this world. But we do, as
believers, as sinners who are saved by the grace of God and
secure for heaven by the grace of God, we have a responsibility
to live in this world in the presence of God's enemies and
ours in godliness and holiness of character. That means separateness
now. not perfection, that men and
women may see our good works and glorify our Father which
is in heaven. Let your light so shine. Now
you see, here's what I'm saying. My character and conduct in this
world cannot in any way establish my relationship with God. It
neither improves it and it won't diminish it. But my character
and conduct in this world reflects my relationship with God. It's
the fruit of my relationship with God. And so all who are
born of God are responsible to glorify God in every aspect of
their lives in this world and willingly seek to do so. That's
what he's talking about. And we have to cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, the body and the
mind. What is this cleansing? How are we to do it? Listen to
this. Number one, by striving for sinless perfection as a goal,
for the glory of God in Christ. That's number one. You say, well,
what do you mean striving for sinless perfection? Well, let
me put it to you very simply. Strive to be like Christ. Strive
to love as He loved. Not to be saved now, but because
you already are. You see the difference? Strive
to obey like He obeyed. You say, preacher, I'll never
make it. Doesn't matter. That's not the issue. Whether
you'll make it or not, you won't. But you see, we're children of
God. We're children of our Heavenly
Father. We're to glorify Him because He has saved us and freely
given us all salvation. We're to do it not in order to
make ourselves righteous by our works, but we're to do it because
He's already made us righteous by His work. That's how we do
it. That's how we cleanse ourselves.
Oh, to be like Him. Secondly, by seeking to live
godly in this world, that is, live by the power of Christ,
by His Spirit, living by His Word, and not by our own power,
not by our own goodness, and not by our own wisdom. Not by our own desires. Because
we have fleshly desires too, and they conflict. Thirdly, now
listen to this one, by declaring war against all sin, determined
to fight all sin as motivated by grace and love and gratitude. Don't give in. Declare war on. It's your enemy. It's my enemy.
Fight sin. Avoid sin. Not because our efforts
to do so make us clean, but because Christ has cleansed us by his
blood. Christ declared war on sin. And
he defeated it. But here's the next one. By promoting
godly sorrow over sin, a broken and a contrite heart. Now again,
this doesn't mean that we get rid of sin in our lives. We cannot.
It does not mean that we get holier and holier. It means coming
to Christ in true repentance, continually in godly sorrow.
Always having in our hearts, God be merciful to me, the sinner. And then lastly, by clearing
the way for worship and prayer and obedience. How do you do
that? Well, number one, by looking
to Christ and drawing near to His cross. Stay at the foot of
the cross. That's right. That's where victory
over sin took place. At the cross. Isn't that right?
At the cross. At the cross where I first saw
the light. Stay right there. And don't be moved away. That's
where our victory over sin is Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. Christ who knew no sin, you know
what He did at the cross? You could say it this way. He
came to the dung gate and was made sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And I'll tell you what He did.
He had a victory. But next, by not allowing anything
to hinder us in these things, in worship, in obedience, in
prayer, we have to continually flee to the fountain open and
wash ourselves by faith in the blood of Christ. We have to continually
bathe in the labor of God's Word. We have to continually put off
the old man, that is, what we were in Adam, in our unregenerate
state, but we still have, as you said, the residue of it.
We sure do. That's why we have to put off
the old man and his deeds. Put on the new man, what we are
in Christ right now, and the fruit of it, love and faith and
repentance. Grace in the heart. You see that? That's why Paul told the Colossians,
lie not one to another. That's how you cleanse yourself.
You say, well, if I stop lying, does that make me sinlessly perfect?
Oh, no, you still have that there. And you'll have to fight it again. But one other thing, and I'll
close. One thing about this gate over here. Notice it says in
verse 14, he built it and he set up the doors and the locks
thereof and the bars thereof. This gate was not only used to
take rubbish out, but it was also used to keep rubbish from
coming in to the city. You know that valley of Hinnom
out there, that was notorious for its filth. And it was associated
with idolatry too. And those bars and those locks
and those doors, were set there not to let the leaven of sin
in. How do you do that? Well, John said, little children,
keep yourselves from idols. Paul wrote, purge out therefore
the old leaven that you may be a new love as you are leavened.
He said, mark them which cause division among you and offenses
according contrary to the doctrine which you have learned. Avoid
them. Don't let it in. Don't let it in. Purge yourself from
these things. All right, I hope that's been
helpful to understand that. All right.