Gates
Intro… As a Christian we face many avenues with each one leading to a door or a gate that we must deal with. Often we make important decisions concerning the gate we are facing based on what we know about life.
• Do we go through gently,
• Avoid the gate or door completely,
• Bust in tearing it off the hinges.
1. Outside the Gate… Heb 13:12… So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates in order to make his people holy by shedding his own blood. NLT
ILL... Our Time…We live in a day, and in a world that is pulling us all in many directions. We know that with our busy schedules we have to stay on track with what we are doing. Go here…go there…do this…do that. With each new day we wonder, “Will I ever catch up with all that I am supposed to be doing?”
When we are young, we procrastinate.
When we are old, we may give up.
The Bottom Line - Our time is precious to us and to the lord.
• The things of God are more important for us to complete than we know.
• The Lord has given to us His righteousness so that we can make every moment count.
Ps 118:19-20…Open for me the gates where the righteous enter and I will go in and thank the LORD. Those gates lead to the presence of the LORD, and the godly enter there. NLT
This work is a direct result of the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. He opened the gate to which we could enter into right standing with God. He also sent to us the Holy Spirit to help us with the daily struggles of living for God.
This work of the Holy Spirit is called SANCTIFICATION. We can overcome the corruptions and lusts in our lives with the power of the Holy Spirit.
ILL… Some may have recently been tempted by something, but this time you noticed that you did not do it.
You may have asked yourself, “Self…why didn’t I just do what I used to do? You know…sin the same old sin I always have sinned?”
The answer is the SANCTIFYING work of the Holy Spirit stopped you!
Note…Imagine this with me – there is a divine fountain of the Blood of Jesus pouring out and being delivered to you (personally) by the Holy Spirit.
John 19:34… One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out. NLT
The blood of Jesus is the “forgiving” element and the water is the keeping element. The blood represents the sacrifice of Jesus while the water represents the power of the Holy Spirit.
We must understand that the nearer we live to the cross of Jesus the greater our spiritual power will be in our life.
Heb 13:12-14…So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates in order to make his people holy by shedding his own blood. So let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace he bore. For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our city in heaven, which is yet to come. NLT
Let us pause here and ask ourselves:
• How much of the power of the Holy Spirit am I experiencing in my life?
• Has my faith been increasing lately?
• Am I overcoming my temptations? When I am confronted with my past, I still have a hard time saying no to my old temptations.
• Do I sense the power of the Lord when I pray to Him?
I desperately want God to answer my prayers and set me free.
• Am I becoming more like Jesus, or just staying the same?
Philippians 3:13… Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
Why “Outside the Gate”:
• Whenever the high priest preformed the sin-offering event, it represented the sins of the people. Sin was so offensive to God that the remains of the offerings could not be burned in the Temple court. It had to be burned outside the gates of the City. This showed the people how much God detested sin.
Jesus death on the cross forgave our sins. Christ was shamed, humiliated and taken outside of the city. The sin that He bore on the Cross-of Calvary was too detestable to be anywhere near His heavenly Father.
Question… Do you know who the people who lived outside the gate?
• Typically the area in which Christ died for our sins was the same area in which the impoverished and the “unclean” people lived.
• The lepers lived there because no one could tolerate them being closer.
• The people who lived “outside the city gate” were all victims of circumstances that were out of their control.
Their diseases came to them without discrimination and made them victims.
• If you were to walk through some of these areas “outside the city gates”, you might have heard in the distance, the cry, “ Go back! Unclean!”
• The people Jesus saw on the way up that hill were no different than you & I.
The blood shed by Jesus Christ has redeemed us. The water gushing out his side keeps us.
ILL… The safety net… During the building of the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, construction fell badly behind schedule because several workers had accidentally fallen from the scaffolding to their deaths. Engineers and administrators could find no solution to the costly delays. Finally, someone suggested a gigantic net be hung under the bridge to catch any who fell. In spite of the enormous cost, the engineers opted for the net. After it was installed, progress was hardly interrupted. A worker or two fell into the net but all were saved. Ultimately, the time lost to fear was regained by replacing fear with faith in the net.
God has given us a safety net to work over as we cross the bridge of life. Our safety net was provided when Jesus suffered outside the gate
Quote… The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once said this,
Leper, leper! be of good cheer; Christ died outside the city gate, that thou might be sanctified through his blood. Did you know that leprosy is a biblical illustration of sin?
Sin was out side the gate and Jesus went to the sinners and died on the cross.
Right now Jesus will come to you wherever you are living.
No matter how ungodly your condition is, Jesus will carry His blood soaked cross to wherever you are.
Ill… Two Thieves… with Jesus when He bled and died.
They were not victims of circumstances. They were hardened sinners.
“Outside the city gate”… Jesus came to one in spite of his guilt and said, “Verily I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
No One Expected Me!
I dreamed death came the other night
And heaven’s gate swung wide.
With kindly grace an angel fair
Ushered me inside.
And there, to my astonishment
Stood folks I’d known on earth.
Some I’d judged and labeled as
“Unfit”, “Of little worth”.
Indignant words rose to my lips,
But never were set free
For every face showed stunned surprise
No one expected me!
Luke 19:10… "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
ILL… Uncomfortable with the saints: There are times when we have come to church and have felt uncomfortable with some of God’s people. We may have felt we were not good enough to be here.
Seeing our self as “outside the city gates”, we feel like outcasts, unacceptable people in God’s house. Many times people tell themselves they are not worthy enough to be in God’s presence.
What a great mercy it is that, when we are outside the gate, Jesus is outside the gate with us!
Isaiah 53:3… He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
Out side the gate, also means to move toward need not comfort.
Neh 1:2-3… They said to me, "Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been burned." NLT
Are we outside the gate on the Calvary road with Jesus, bearing reproach moving toward need, not comfort?
• Perhaps it’s the road that leads to fasting and praying for unsaved people
• To make a hard phone call to plead with a straying friend to come back to Jesus or to a neighbor whom you know is perishing in unbelief.
• To notice a group of people who need guidance or teaching and take the responsibility to care.
• To strengthen you marriage commitment by forgiving and accepting forgiveness
• To rededicate your gifts and talents to the Lord by making faithfulness your life style once again.
2. Assaulting the Gates… Matthew 16:18…I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it”
The foundation He referred to on which He would build this church was the truth of who He really is.
So what is the church? It is you. Jesus said, “the gates of Hades” would not prevail against the church.
Christian, the church in our culture and in our time, has largely neglected and forgotten its mission.
To a very large degree we in the church have fallen prey to the mindset that our duty is to:
• Send out missionaries,
• Support them financially
• While doing that, go about our programs and functions in the church, and that’s Christianity
Since we are going to be attacking hell itself, we might need to know:
Your Weapons Are Not Of The Flesh
2 Cor 10:3-5… We are human, but we don’t wage war with human plans and methods. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds. 5 With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ. NLT
ILL… This should come as very encouraging news to you; but you should also see that it removes the validity of a lot of objections. A lot of excuses for inactivity. If the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, that means that you are not too young or too old, too weak or too small; and it also means that you are not big enough or strong enough on your own.
Zech 4:6… “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts
So your weapons are spiritual. That means you can fight this battle as a soldier on active duty and in the field, even if physically you are weak, infirm, crippled, blind, in prison, over 70, under 17, male, female, rich, poor,
I hope you get the message; there is no physical condition or set of circumstances that can disqualify you for active duty in the service of the Lord.
Then what would those weapons be that we would carry into an assault against the gates of Hades?
• Prayer
• Faith at work
• The word
• Workers for the harvest.
• Accurate teaching of the whole counsel of God
• Hearts softened and made ready to hear the gospel message and respond in faith.
• Men and women of God who will boldly live for Christ in a Christ-hating world, and spend themselves in His service
Go in confidence, believer. Gird up your loins, embolden and encourage yourself with the knowledge that since your weapons are spiritual they do not require your expertise to be effective, and charge into the fray!
He Will Build His Church… As you go about your spiritual duties now, remember that He said, “I will build My church”
This is also one of the areas we often fail to understand clearly, and the result is discouraged congregations, burned out ministers, disillusioned workers, and a lot of failed projects.
Ray Stedman said, “Human effort is needed, but human effort is never enough.”
Jesus said, “I will build My church” The two places we go wrong, is thinking it’s our church, and that we are building it.
ILL… Our Efforts… We start a drive of some sort, or an outreach program of some kind, and it doesn’t take long after seeing no real results. People start drifting away from it; shirking their duties in it; quitting it; and three years later there are stacks of dusty, yellowing brochures, button pins with clever sayings, and bags of stale candy sitting in an office closet, and no one really remembers where they came from.
Jesus said that He would build His church, and the only way we can offer any effective help at all, is to stay toned and sharpened, spiritually tuned and able to discern where He is moving and then follow.
He told His disciples John 15:5… “Without Me you can do nothing” and He meant what He said. Not some things, not very little; nothing.
ILL…. Airport Christian…
Let’s say you have an appointment in another city, and you need to fly there. You purchase your ticket on the internet, you get your confirmation with times and flight and gate numbers. But you are delayed enroute to the airport, and when you finally arrive, running through the airport you come to your gate only to be told that the plane you see rolling away outside the window is the one you were supposed to be on, and you’ve missed your flight. You were very, very close. But there’s no such thing as being half on and half off a commercial flight. You’re either all the way on the plane and heading for your destination, or you’re standing in the airport with your hands dangling at your side because you’re helpless to change your circumstances.
This is the difference between children of light and children of darkness. There is no in between. You are light, or you are dark. Your are either helping the lord or you are hindering the lord
Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.”
Life is war. Sloth, inactivity and neglect do not mean that the Christian is not in a war. It only means he is ignorant of the fact that he is on dangerous ground.
ILL… It’s like walking through a beautiful meadow, smelling the flowers and enjoying the springtime breezes, unaware that there are land mines planted all over the pasture, and guns are pointed at him from the bushes at the tree line.
We are in the final days of earth, and lines drawn are becoming more distinct; some of them, drawn right down the middle of the church.
The enemy even has his claws in the church. That is why some denominations are ordaining sexual perverts to ministry. It is why many are leaving the basics of the faith, and refusing to acknowledge or preach them as truth any longer.
• the virgin birth,
• the shed blood of Christ
Being called to wage war in this spiritual conflict each of us must use whatever capabilities we have been given.
• When you pray for a soul
• Tell the gospel to someone
• obey the leading of the Holy Spirit
• act in faith
You are defeating spiritual death in someone else. You are fighting for them, and you are their champion.
Conclusion:
The Gates we face can not be taken lightly. We must never allow the God given path to be altered by the stuff we face day to day.
Prayer:
