Gates

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.