Alright, I want you to turn in
your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 3. Nehemiah chapter 3. Now, we've spoken by way of introduction
of the return of Judah to Jerusalem and Judah. And this, under Nehemiah,
is the third return, the third group of returnees, you might
say, that God brought out of the captivity of Babylon and
brought back to their homeland. Now, they were still under foreign
power, but they were allowed to come back into Jerusalem. They came back under Zerubbabel
and then Ezra, and the temple was rebuilt because it was first,
the first thing that had to be done was that The worship of
God, that great picture of Christ and God's grace in Christ had
to be established according to God's commands, according to
God's promises. That's what Israel existed for.
Everything was around that temple. And the temple, everything in
the temple was around the mercy seat. That's what it, that temple,
that tabernacle of old was built to house the mercy seat. That's
what it was there for. And all of that, what a great
and glorious, wonderful picture and type of our salvation by
the mercy and grace of God in Christ. That's what it was all
about. And that's what Christ was talking about when He told
the Pharisees that when they search the Scriptures, they're
to look for Him. And so it came under Zerubbabel
and Joshua, the high priest at that time. And then Ezra came
in and he reestablished the Word of God at the forefront. The
people of God are to be, we're to meet together and to be surrounded
or we're to surround ourselves with the Word of God. It's to
be at our center. That's what we're here for. We're
not here to entertain. We're here to worship Christ
and you worship Him through the preaching of the Word. The gospel
is the power of God and the salvation when the Holy Spirit makes it
effectual to the salvation of a sinner. And so we need to promote,
and we need to yearn for a hunger for the Word of God. I want to
study God's Word. And I tell you what, I know all
of it's not easy, but I find, and I know you do too, especially
some of you elders, you've found it over the years that the more
you study the Word of God, the hungrier you get for it. It does. It breeds a hunger for it, doesn't
it? And I believe that's what we
need, you see. We need to feed on the milk of
the Word, but on the meat of the Word, too. Well, now we come
to Nehemiah. Nehemiah is the last wave of
people that came back under him. He was the king's cupbearer.
He had favor with the king. God laid it on Nehemiah's heart
to come back and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, rebuild the
walls and the gates. And that's what we're going to
talk about. I want to make one note out of Psalm 51. I want
to show you the reason I read that as our opening scripture.
And that's this. You know, David, he's praying
in this penitent psalm. And, you know, this all came
out of his repentance over the sin that he had committed that
was pointed out to him by the prophet Nathan. when he had committed
adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, and his lying
about it and all of that. And God brought him to godly
sorrow and repentance. And he says there, he says, in
his prayer, in showing God's praise, he said in verse 16,
you desire not sacrifice, else would I give it. You delight
not in burnt offering. And he says, Why? How can he say God doesn't desire
those things when God himself is the one who commanded those
things? Sacrifices and burnt offerings. That's what God commanded
in the covenant. Well, David's making a point
here. First of all, you see in verse
17. He says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a
broken and a contrite heart. In other words, those sacrifices,
the animal sacrifices, mean nothing without true conviction of sin
that drives a sinner to Christ for salvation and relief. See,
worship, outward worship, ceremony, means nothing to God. We read
that in Isaiah over and over again, especially Isaiah chapter
1 and even in the last chapter, how it's a stench in the nostrils
of God. for people to worship outwardly
in ceremony and practice and liturgy and with no heart. No heart for God. Not a heart
of a sinner convicted over sin and who sees their need of Christ,
their need of God's grace and mercy. But there's something
else here I want you to see. Look at verse 18. He says, Do
good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of
Jerusalem. That's symbolic language here. And at the time that David penned
this, the walls of Jerusalem were already built. So what that
tells you is he's not talking about physical Jerusalem. He's
talking about spiritual Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem. But the type
is still there. And what he's saying here, do
good in thy good pleasure undesigned, that's the church. And then build
thou the walls of Jerusalem, that's the dwelling place of
the church, that's the city of God, that's the kingdom of Christ.
And what he's saying, how does God do good in His good pleasure
and design? He sends the Messiah. What's
the greatest good that God can do for a sinner? Save him by
His grace and mercy through Christ. And what David is saying there
is the first thing that has to happen is that God must work
His work. You see, salvation is not based
upon what we do for God. It's based upon what God does
for us. And then he says, then, verse 19, "...shalt thou be pleased
with the sacrifices of the righteous." You see, God's not pleased with
anything outside of Christ and the work that He did to establish
Zion and build the walls of Jerusalem. And we have the working out of
that back here in Nehemiah chapter 3. The temple's been built, you
see, by this time, the second temple. Now, granted, it wasn't
anything compared to Solomon's temple. In fact, you'll read
in the book of Ezra, when the temple was finished, some of
the older men who had been around when Solomon's temple existed
looked at it and they cried because it just didn't compare in beauty
to Solomon's temple. They had tears come out because
of it. But you see, it's not the actual
physical temple that's the issue. It's what that temple represents.
Well, that had been established. Now the walls of Jerusalem have
to be established. Now, many of you may have this
little paper that I set up, this little chart, this little timeline.
If you don't have that, I've got some more up here. You can
read that. It was brought to my attention
in the first message on Nehemiah and Ezra that someone couldn't
write as fast as I could talk. So I said, well, they wanted
my notes. Well, my notes, I don't know
if you can make any sense of them, but what I did is I just
went back and I just put a little timeline here. And what it does,
it tells you what was happening and who the prophets were. But
on the back of that, it has the city of Jerusalem, a little diagram. And you see the ten gates. Now,
Nehemiah chapter 3 here starts out. It says, look at Nehemiah
chapter 3 and verse 1. It says, Then Eliashib, the high
priest, he was a high priest at this time when Nehemiah came
back in, he rose up with his brethren, the priests, and they
builded the Sheep Gate. Now, if you look at the top right
corner of Jerusalem City there, that's the Sheep Gate. That's
where it starts. And that's what I'm going to talk about tonight,
the Sheep Gate. And as it goes down through Nehemiah 3, all
these gates are mentioned and it goes counterclockwise. The
next one is the fish gate over to your left, and then down the
old gate, and the valley gate, and the dung gate, and the fountain
gate, water gate, yes, a water gate, and a horse gate, and an
east gate, and an inspection gate. And we're going to go through
all ten of those because they are spiritually significant.
Now, there is two commentators that I read who said, well, you
can't really say that these things are types and pictures. I'm not
saying that. I'm saying they're illustrations.
And they said, you're spiritualizing to do this. But let me tell you
something, I always go back, and you quote very often, John
5, 39, when Christ said, you search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life, for they are they which
testify of me. And when he sat the disciples
down after his resurrection, the ones that he met on the road
to Emmaus, and then Peter and James and John and all of them,
and he taught them, how to preach Christ, how to preach Christ
and Him crucified out of the law, that's Moses' writings,
the prophets, that's what we're reading now, and the Psalms,
all of the poetic and the wisdom books. If we don't see Christ
in these things, what good are they? They're just, well, there's
a fish gate. Well, big deal. They brought
fish in there. Isn't that nice? Now, if you
don't see Christ in it some way, or some aspect of our salvation,
what good is it? You see, it's no better than
any other history book that you study. So, somebody says, well,
you shouldn't put things there that aren't there. I don't believe
I'm putting anything here that's not here. And I'm going to show
you what I mean. We're going to interpret Scripture
with Scripture tonight. Now, let's look at this. This
chapter records the great work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem
and the gates, especially the gates. They are very important,
of the wall. And it is all under the direction
of Nehemiah, with the help of the people of Judah, against
the opposition of men. Now, Jerusalem, first of all,
Jerusalem the city, we have already seen this, it was a place of
high spiritual significance. Jerusalem was where the temple
was. And as we have said and seen, that temple represented
the worship of God's people by His grace and mercy as pictured
and typified in Christ, the sacrifice. The king ruled from Jerusalem.
They call it the City of David. And mainly, the significance
of it is Jerusalem was the place where the promised Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ, would one day come, as we look from the
viewpoint of the Old Testament now, It's the place where the
Messiah would one day come and do His great work of redemption
for His people. That's right. And I'll tell you
something, the providence and power of God is just so amazing
in all this. You know, I've never read of
any other civilization or nation that was divided like Israel
was, and put into captivity like Israel was, and then brought
back to their homeland like Israel was. You don't find that in history,
but you find it in God's history. Because He had a purpose here.
Jerusalem was a type of the spiritual city and kingdom of God, the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are those ten gates
here that had to be built and repaired. And each of these gates,
I believe, without going too far, is a great and beautiful
spiritual illustration of the establishment and experience
of the Church collectively, and even of each member of the Church,
true Christians, sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ. Let's look at these two verses
here, these first two verses. The first thing that stands out
here is the man's name, Eliasib, the high priest. This Eliashib,
he was the grandson of Joshua the high priest, this very same
one whom God gave that great vision of Joshua standing before
the angel of the Lord and the change of Raymond and all of
that in Zechariah chapter 3. Well, this man was the grandson
of Joshua. Eliashib, his name means this,
it means the Lord will restore. And what's this whole thing about?
It's the restoration. The first message I preached
on this was entitled, The Glorious Restoration. God will restore
His people. Now, we've seen Him do it in
Israel, in a physical, national, ceremonial way. But my friend,
you know that points to God's restoration of His elect. spiritual
Israel, out of the bondage of sin, under the curse of the law,
and brought out of the bondage of Egypt, spiritual Egypt, and
brought into the freedom and liberty of salvation by God's
grace. Eliasib's name tells a story. Well, that is the way it is with
most of the Old Testament names. You know that. They are not just
labels. They tell a story. Well, Christ
restores His people. spiritual Israel, to heavenly
Jerusalem. So that's how this opens up with
Eliasib, the high priest. Now, the work started at the
Sheep Gate. He says, Eliasib, the high priest,
rose up with his brethren, the priests, and they built the Sheep
Gate. This Sheep Gate was named because
it was the gate where shepherds would bring their flocks into
Jerusalem and sell them. But here, more significantly,
It was also the gate through which the sheep and the lambs
used in the sacrifice on the altar at the temple were brought.
And it was right by the temple. It was on the way to the temple.
And it is a beautiful illustration of Christ, the Lamb of God. Behold, the Lamb of God which
beareth away the sins of the world. The Lamb of God whose
blood was shed on the cross for us. And so the sheep gate speaks
to us of the cross. That's the illustration here.
And Christ's sacrifice that was made for our sins, His finished
work. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. Everywhere in the Bible we see
Christ typified by that lamb, that sacrificial lamb. The Passover
lamb. I believe even back in Genesis
chapter 3. when God instituted and established
the sacrificial system as a type of how He would save sinners,
because He let Adam and Eve know that without the shedding of
blood there is no remission of sins. Fig leaf aprons won't do
it, Adam. Man's works won't do it. The
best that you can bring, Cain, will not do it. Blood has to
be shed, you see. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. The wages of sin is death. And
God killed an animal. And he made coats of skin. And
I believe right then and there he established the sacrificial
system. God cannot be worshipped without
sacrifice because of his justice and his holiness. His mercy and
love and grace are found in that sacrifice. And Christ is the
one and only sacrifice who bore away the sins of his people.
You see, this Sheep Gate is the place of reconciliation. just
as the cross is the place of reconciliation. I want you to
turn to John chapter 10. I read this in the study a while
ago. I want you to see something here. John chapter 10. Now, you know,
when you think of John chapter 10, you probably think of verse
11 quite easily. It comes to mind. I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But I
want to go back to verse 1. I want to show you something
here. that you may not have seen. In John 10 and verse 1, Christ
says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by
the door into the sheepfold. Now that word door could just
as easily be translated gate. And so what's he talking about?
He's making a reference here. He's teaching a truth, a spiritual
truth. And he's using a word or reference
that they would readily recognize. Those who were familiar with
Jerusalem, especially those shepherds who brought their sheep in, and
those who came in to sacrifice, they would readily know. He's
talking about the sheep gate. Over in Nehemiah, he's talking
about the sheep gate. And he says, "...he that entereth not
by the gate into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way,
the same is a thief and a robber." But look at verse 2, "...but
he that entereth in by the door, or the gate, is the shepherd
of the sheep." Now, who's he talking about? He's talking about
himself entering into the sheep gate. He's not talking about
us, the sheep, now. Now, he talks about us later
in John 10. But right here, He's saying,
listen, He that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the
sheep. In other words, the Messiah, who is the Great Shepherd, the
Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, the Shepherd of the sheep, He's
got to come in through the sheep gate. What does that mean? He's
got to come in by way of the cross. He's got to come in by
way of sacrifice. Now, if any other person comes
in and says they're the Messiah, and they come up some other way,
huh? They're not God's Messiah. Buddha comes and he says, well,
I'm going to come in by the eightfold path. Mohammed comes and he says,
I'm going to come by the seven pillars, or however many there
are. The Jew comes and says, well, I'm going to come by the
Ten Commandments. That's the way I'm going to get in. You
see what I'm saying? Christ comes and he says, he
goes in by the sheep gate, by the way of sacrifice. by the
way of blood." Look at verse 3 here. He says, "...to him the
porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth
his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out." Now he's talking about
us. He's the shepherd, we're the sheep. And so he calls himself,
he himself is the Great Shepherd, he himself is the Lamb of Sacrifice,
and we're the sheep of his fold. And he says in verse 4, "...and
when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them,
and the sheep follow him." for they know his voice." You see,
this is the starting point of our salvation. Now, let me make
a point here. Now, when I say that, here's
what I mean. The cross is the starting point
of our salvation. Well, somebody may ask a question.
Say, well, are you telling me that our salvation didn't begin,
didn't start until 2,000 years ago on the cross? Absolutely
not. Because Revelation chapter 13 verse 8 makes a valid point
here. And that's where He is called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. You see, the cross,
Christ and Him crucified, is the starting point of our salvation
even in eternity. Because you see, God always in
His mind and purpose had in view the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it's true He had to come
in time, in the fullness of the time God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them under the
law. But God had that in mind all
eternity. In fact, I don't believe that
we could properly say, and I know we can't understand this now
in our little finite minds, I don't believe we can properly say that
there ever was a time that God didn't view His elect through
the crucified, buried, risen Lamb. I don't believe you can. He always, He chose us in Christ
as our charity. It's a covenant of redemption.
It's an eternal, everlasting covenant of grace. And He always
had in view. So the cross is the starting
point of our salvation, even in eternity. It's the starting
point of our salvation, even in the revelation of it. The
first thing God revealed about Christ, He's the seed of woman,
and Satan would bruise His heels. He's going to suffer. And then,
as I said before, then he in time preached it out, revealed
it, that he would shed blood and make coach's skin. That's
a glorious picture of the shed blood, the incorruptible blood
of Christ that was payment for our sins and the righteousness
that comes from that whereby God was just to justify his people
throughout all eternity. The cross is the starting point
of our experience in salvation as the Holy Spirit convicts us
of sin, because we believe not in Him, of righteousness, because
He goes under the Father, and of judgment, because the Prince
of this world is judged, John 16, 8-11. And what does the Spirit
do when He brings that salvation to us in our experience? I'll
tell you exactly what He does. He convinces us of sin. He shows
us our sinfulness and our helplessness. and our wretchedness, and He
drives us to the crucified Savior who was buried and rose again
the third day for our whole salvation. He drives us to Christ, the Lamb
of God. The first thing we see in our
experience of salvation is the glory of Christ in Him crucified.
And that is what this Sheep Gate illustrates. Behold the Lamb
of God. But you see, turn over to the
last verse of Nehemiah 3. Listen to this. They also finish the work of
the rebuilding of the walls at the Sheep Gate. It says in verse
32, And between the going up of the corner unto the Sheep
Gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants. So it begins
at the Sheep Gate and it ends at the Sheep Gate. What's that
telling us? It says that our salvation begins
and ends at Christ and Him crucified. Exactly right. And you can see
that on your little diagram there. See, they didn't leave it open-ended.
They didn't start at the sheet gate and end at the inspection
gate there and have a gap there and say, now, man, you fill in
the rest if you have a will to. No, sir. It's an enclosed structure. And that's the way our salvation
is. We are enclosed by the glory of God in Christ. And notice
there what that last gate is. I'm not going to jump way ahead
here, but it's the inspection gate. That's judgment. My friend,
when you stand before God at judgment, if you know Christ,
you will rejoice and be glad that you came in through the
sheep gate. You have Christ as your hope
at judgment. That's what that's talking about.
Well, this whole thing is showing us that Christ is the Alpha and
the Omega of our salvation. Christ is the author and the
finisher, the beginner and the completer of our faith. His preeminence
is the utmost concern of the church, of the believer. The
preeminence of Christ and His finished work. You notice back
here in Nehemiah 3, in verse 1, that it was Elisha, the high
priest, and his brethren, the priest. It was the priest who
constructed this sheet gate. That's significant. Because it
shows us that Christ, our great High Priest, oversaw and performed
our whole salvation. Not only was He our sacrifice,
but He's our High Priest to present the sacrifice. Our great High
Priest has passed through into the heavens, Paul wrote in Hebrews
chapter 4. He is one who ever lives to make
intercession for us. And notice here in verse 1, it
says they sanctified it. And really, this is the only
gate that that's said of, that they sanctified. What does that
mean? Does that mean that they got up and danced around it,
or sprinkled some holy water on it, or did a this on it, or
something like that? No. What does that mean, they
sanctified it? It means they consecrated it.
They set it apart. They had in their hearts, this
gate is special. This gate is uniquely special
for the glory of God. and the exaltation of Christ
and the good of God's people. And that teaches us that the
cross of Christ has such a special preeminent place in our salvation
that we cannot overstate it. Paul said, the preaching of the
cross is foolishness to them that are perishing, but to us
who are the called, it's the power of God and the wisdom of
God. He said, we strive not to know anything among you, in 1
Corinthians 2 and verse 2, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
the glorious person and finished work of Christ. He said, God
forbid that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. It has no equal. It has no rival. My friends, listen to me. I sat
in my office and heard a man talking about an issue. of difference
over the work of the Holy Spirit in us, and how you would define
that, and how you would see the nature of it, which I believe
is a foolish undertaking for any human being to get into.
And he made this statement to me. He said, this is just as
important to me as Christ and Him crucified. And I like to
fell out of my chair. And I told him, I said, let me
tell you something. There's nothing as important as Christ and Him
crucified. And if the Holy Spirit ever does
a work of grace in you, that's exactly what you'll see. Did
you know that? Nothing more important than that.
You'll see His glory. His glory. The cross is our righteousness
before God. In Psalm 22 it shows that, where
Christ, the prophecy of Him hanging on that cross saying, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And at the end of it, it
says, His seed shall speak of His righteousness. Isaiah 53
shows us the same thing. Look back here at verse 1 now.
It says, "...they sanctified it, and they set up the doors
of it. Even unto the tower of Meah they
sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananiel." Now, there is a
minor controversy over here about Meah and Hananiel. Now, the King
James translators, apparently, they looked at this as two separate
towers. And I believe that. I think they
were right. Others say that Mia was not an actual tower, but
that it was just marked the distance from the Sheep Gate to the Tower
of Ananiel. But we don't want to get into
all that. The thing about it is, what does Mia mean? It means
100. So it could have been distance, but it could mean it was 100
cubits high, which means it would be about 150 feet high. That
means it's a strong tower. It's a high tower. How many times
in the Psalms is God referred to in Christ as our high tower,
our strong tower? In Christ we cannot be defeated
or taken. When Satan throws his accusations,
what does Revelation 12, verses 9-11 say we who have the testimony
of grace do? We turn him back, we hold him
back by the blood of the Lamb, the Sheep Gate. Someone suggested
this about Mia being 100. The number 100 is significant
because the Lord said in one of His instructing parables,
He said, if a shepherd had 100 sheep and he lost the one, would
he just stay with the 99? Would he not go after the one?
Well, my friend, 100 is a number to me that speaks of the completeness
of his salvation. He, over there in John chapter
10, he said, other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them
I must bring. He's going to have his people.
And then you have this Tower of Hananiel. What does Hananiel
mean? It means literally, God is gracious. Grace can only be found at the
Sheep Gate. That's right. Grace can only
be found in the person and finished work of Christ. You see the grace
of God in sending His beloved Son. He who spared not His own
Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? And
we see the grace of God in bringing us to Him, because were it not
for His grace, we would never come to Him. Look at verse 2. The next, it says, and next,
or at his hand, unto him builded the men of Jericho." Now, some
say that the men of Jericho were working on the wall right next
to the sheet gate, and that may be so, but this is significant
here. Men of Jericho? Do you know that
Jericho was under a curse? Like in the book of Joshua, it's
stated that they were under a curse. And the reason I believe that
this, there's two reasons I believe that it's significant that men
of Jericho were there helping build this gate. First of all
is an obvious one. And that is that salvation is
for both Jew and Gentile. You see this work, this complete
work of the building of the city is for both, it's for God's elect
out of every tribe and nation. God saves his people wherever
they are. But Jericho being under a curse,
I think it's significant this way too. The reason Christ had
to come was to remove the curse of sin from His people. That's
what we were by nature and in Adam according to the covenant
of works. That's why Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13 says Christ
was made a what? For us, a curse for us. That's
why our sins were laid upon Him, accounted to Him. He was made
sin. He took that curse upon Himself and died under that curse. The Bible says, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. Christ hung on that tree. He
was cursed of God for our sins. And in return, we're blessed
of God because of His righteousness imputed to us. So that's so significant. What it teaches is anyone who
wants Christ, anyone who wants salvation by God's grace can
have it. I don't care if you're a man
of Jericho. I don't care who you are, if you see your need
of Christ, run to Him. You may be a publican. You may
be one of the most hated scoundrels on the face of the earth. But
my friend, if you see your need of mercy in Christ, just come
to Him at the Sheep Gate. Enter into His sacrifice. He
lastly says in verse 2, He says, And next to them buildeth Zechar,
the word Zechar means mindful, and son of Emery. I'm not sure
what Emery means. I've gotten different views of
that. Someone said it means the promise of the Lord, and I like
that because all the time they're building this gate and this city,
these walls, they're to have in their mind the promise of
the Lord. All the time that we worship,
all the time that we go about our daily lives, we're to have
in mind the promise of the Lord. To them, it was the promise of
a future, the coming of the Messiah. To us, it's the promise already
fulfilled in Christ on Calvary. mindful of that promise, whatever
we do. Well, the gate was finished,
and you might notice, if you've read Nehemiah 3 and you go down
through it, you might have noticed that one thing that's not mentioned
on this sheet gate is locks and bars. They're mentioned, I believe,
on every other gate. They put a lock and a bar on
every other gate, but not on the sheet gate. What does that
tell us? Well, it tells us this. The Sheep
Gate is open for all sinners who want it. No locks or bars. God has never locked the door
or barred the way for any sinner who wants to come in through
the Sheep Gate. Do you know that? Somebody says,
well, you know, if you believe election, you believe God's going
to turn away people who want to be saved. Absolutely not.
You don't even know what election is. That's not taught in this
book. Man by nature doesn't want salvation
God's way. He wants it his own way. And
it's a way that exalts himself. It always is. It'll either exalt
his flesh, it'll exalt his will, it'll exalt his decision, it
will exalt something about man. But that's not God's way. God's
way is the way of the sheep gate. It's the way of Christ. It's
the way of the cross. It's the way of blood. It's the
way of grace and mercy. And you come on in. Anybody who
wants. God has never locked or barred
the way to a sinner seeking mercy in Christ. He never will. He
never will. Now there is coming a time when
the door will be shut. The day of salvation will be
over. But that time is not now. It's time now for any sinner
who sees their need of Christ to come on in and be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alright.