THE POWER IN THE WATER GATE
TEXT: Nehemiah 3:26; 8:1-3;
Nehemiah 3:26 KJV Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out.
Nehemiah 8:1-3 KJV And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. [2] And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. [3] And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
I. THE TEXT
A. Nehemiah
-God sets men up at certain junctures in history to fulfill His will for the world. Nehemiah was such a man. He came along at a time when the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed. The walls and the Temple literally lay in ruins.
-The book of Nehemiah is loaded with spiritual lessons that are greatly instructive to us about how to react to things that have been torn down in our lives. One of the most powerful lessons that stand out to all who begin to study the book of Nehemiah is found in knowing the power of a remnant.
-It was rebuilt by a small remnant of men and women who determined that God had a great purpose for them that would only be fulfilled when they were willing to put one hand on a sword and the other on a trowel.
-This is the way that any spiritual progress is made in your walk with God. You will have to be prepared to use callused hands that can work and fight. In fact, your entire walk with God can be summed up in two ways: Building and Battling.
-Nehemiah came to Jerusalem around 445 B.C. When he arrived, the Remnant had been there for about 90 years. During the interval of the ninety years, some things had been accomplished:
A new Temple had been built.
It had taken them 4 years, 5 months, and 10 days to do it (Haggai 1:15; Ezra 6:15).
It was vastly inferior to the original Temple but it served as a lodging point of worship.
-The great difficulty was that the Temple had been rebuilt but there were no walls around the city. The moral tone of the city was in shambles. The spiritual temperature was very sub-normal. The reason for this was because the princes, rulers, priests, Levites, and people had intermarried with the surrounding idolatrous people.
-While they may not have been worshiping idols, there had been an infiltration of the idols into the place that did not have walls. All of this was placing the rising generation at great liability.
-Whether we want to admit it or not, we have a great responsibility to the next generation that is coming on.
We must teach them how to pray.
We must show them the path of spiritual sacrifice.
We must demonstrate to them the solid foundation of Scripture.
We must pass on to them traditions that have helped to shape the Church.
-When a culture runs rampant through a nation and of even more importance, when it runs through a church, the tares will almost completely absorb and then obliterate those of distinction.
-Nehemiah comes along 12 years after Ezra and the situation is still difficult at best. Nehemiah is greatly disturbed at the site of the fallen walls and gates that are in great disrepair.
-In God’s great plan, he wanted to use Ezra and Nehemiah to accomplish something great for nation of Israel. Ezra is about the restoration of the Temple and Nehemiah is about the reconstruction of the walls.
-For Nehemiah to effectively do the job that God called him to do, he had to give himself to some things. He was a man of prayer. He was a man of faith. He was a man of courage. He was a man of action. The perils and the problems of the undertaking of this huge task became something that defined Nehemiah.
-The difficulties, setbacks, the obstructions, and the oppositions are present sometimes to make us men that God can use in the difficult positions.
-Nehemiah comes face to face with the fallen walls and sets out to rebuild them.
B. The Gates
-In Nehemiah 3, there is a sequence of gates that Nehemiah starts to rebuild.
3:1 -- The Sheep Gate
3:3 -- The Fish Gate
3:13 -- The Valley Gate
3:14 -- The Dung Gate
3:15 -- The Gate of the Fountain
3:26 -- The Water Gate
3:38 -- The Horse Gate
-All of these gates were necessary to the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. Yet within all of the description of these gates, there is a very subtle thing that I must admit that I had overlooked over the years.
-It is found in Nehemiah 3:26 and there is no mention at all of the “water gate” having the need to be repaired. Then by the time that you get to Nehemiah 8, the walls have been completed and they meet again at the “water gate” for the reading of the Law.
-This was a pattern that had been understood throughout the all the times that the walls and temple were in shambles. The dwellers of Jerusalem had still continued to meet at the “water gate” to have the Word of the Law read to them.
-For some unknown reason the “water gate” had managed to remain intact during the destruction of Jerusalem. It was at the “water gate” that Israel went in the darkest hours to hear the reading of the Law. The “water gate” was associated with the preaching and the reading of the Word of God.
-The “water gate” was what allowed water to course through from the Gibeon spring to the people. It brought relief to their thirsty body. Consider what Paul wrote the church at Ephesus:
Ephesians 5:26 KJV That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
-In the midst of captivity, that word at the “water gate” held much life for the captive nation. It does not matter how dark that the times may get, there will always be a powerful word that comes from the Word of God.
C. Wanted: A Man of God
-This church ought to elevate preaching and praying to a top shelf value. It was prayer and the ministry of the Word that the early church practiced. Nothing is more important than that practice in the local church.
-This was quoted in a sermon from John MacArthur entitled "How To Make A Man Of God." It stirred within me a greater desire to proclaim the Truth. It also stirred within me a passion for those people that I preach to every week. May God help us to awaken our own sleepy souls. . . . .
Fling him into his office. Tear the “Office” sign from the door and nail on the sign, “Study.” Take him off the mailing list. Lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts and broken hearts and the flock of lives of a superficial flock and a holy God. Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God.
Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. And let him come out only when he’s bruised and beaten into being a blessing.
Shut his mouth forever spouting remarks, and stop his tongue forever tripping lightly over every nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dares break the silence.
Bend his knees in the lonesome valley. Burn his eyes with weary study. Wreck his emotional poise with worry for God. And make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God.
Rip out his telephone. Burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets. Put water in his gas tank. Give him a Bible and tie him to the pulpit. And make him preach the Word of the living God!
Test him. Quiz him. Examine him. Humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine. Shame him for his good comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political in-fighting. Laugh at his frustrated effort to play psychiatrist. Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day-”Sir, we would see Jesus.”
When at long last he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a word from God. If he does not, then dismiss him. Tell him you can read the morning paper and digest the television commentaries, and think through the day’s superficial problems, and manage the community’s weary drives, and bless the sordid baked potatoes and green beans, ad infinitum, better than he can. Command him not to come back until he’s read and reread, written and rewritten, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Break him across the board of his ill-gotten popularity. Smack him hard with his own prestige. Corner him with questions about God. Cover him with demands for celestial wisdom. And give him no escape until he’s back against the wall of the Word. And sit down before him and listen to the only word he has left-God’s Word. Let him be totally ignorant of the down-street gossip, but give him a chapter and order him to walk around it, camp on it, sup with it, and come at last to speak it backward and forward, until all he says about it rings with the truth of eternity.
And when he’s burned out by the flaming Word, when he’s consumed at last by the fiery grace blazing through him, and when he’s privileged to translate the truth of God to man, finally transferred from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently and blow a muted trumpet and lay him down softly. Place a two-edged sword in his coffin, and raise the tomb triumphant. For he was a brave soldier of the Word. And ere he died, he had become a man of God.
II. THE WORD OF GOD
A. You Have To Make A Choice
I can distinctly remember being faced with the choice in my freshman year at Texas Bible College. Every year, Life Tabernacle would host a music conference and on Saturday night there would be a final concert. There came a time that I would have to make a choice about what I was going to do. I had went to school all week and had worked at the hospital and now felt like that I really owed it to myself to go out and enjoy the Saturday night at this concert. Some of the greatest singers of Pentecost were going to be there on that Saturday night and it was going to be good.
However, in the back of my mind, I knew that I had some unfinished homework from Old Testament Survey left to do and I had to make a decision. Was I going to go out and have a “night off” and not finish my homework? Or was I going to deny what I really wanted to do for something of much more lasting eternal value?
I can say that with great disappointment (at the time) that I decided to stay home and work on the assignment so it would be ready for Monday. Little did I realize that at 22 years old, that I was putting my life in a direction of study that would consume me even to this day. Sometimes working in the Word can be laborious and wearying, but more often than not, working in Word has given great light and power to my life.
-The Word of God needs no real improvement no matter what the modern mindset may be.
The Word of God may seem narrow, but so does every runway on airports around the world. Yet no passenger wants his pilot to miss the narrow runway and land a few yards off the mark in some field or river or row of houses. The narrow ribbon of pavement is really the broad way that leads to a safe and comfortable landing. So the Bible may be seemingly rigid but it is the guide to living a life that can be filled with happiness and purpose. (Adapted from Lesley Flynn, Now A Word From Our Creator)
-Yet there are thousand people today who are trying to change the power and effect of the Word.
B. The Trail Markers
Proverbs 22:28 KJV Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.
In 1949, Mao Tse-Tung ran through China in a marauding storm. His communist army was wiping out anything in their path that would hinder an unrestrained dictatorship of communism. In the path of this malicious army, a CIA operative Douglas Mackiernan had to flee for his life. The path that he had to take was incredibly challenging.
The path that he and some of his fleeing companions had to take to get into Tibet was taxing to say the least. It took him seven months to cover the treacherous 1200 miles. In fact when they got to the Himalayas, the air was so thin that the breathing became so difficult that the team resorted to hand signals to conserve their energy. Not only did they have to navigate through the mountains, they also had to cover a very dry desert.
The desert almost killed them. In fact, at one point they almost died when they went for three days without water before they found a seep in the desert floor that allowed them to get enough water to live. Then they got to the mountains in the dead of winter.
The wind was so strong and the snow drifts were so deep that there were times that Mackiernan became confused. The trail they were following was several hundred years old but towering mounds of snow obscured the path. He got snow-blind in one eye. His hands and feet begin to get numb and frostbite almost set in. His horse died and his shoes were reduced to nothing more than strips of leather. However, he just kept on pressing because he wanted to get home.
In every remote and isolated village he was told that small pyramids of built-up stones clearly marked the trail. Everywhere along the trail he saw those mounds of rock. He followed them very carefully because he knew that if he did not, it would mean a certain death for him. He understood that if he ever lost sight of the rocks that he was a goner.
There were times that he had to backtrack and pick up the direction of the stone pyramids again. What were the pyramids of rocks? They were graves of those who had died trying to make their way to Tibet on the trail. The ground was frozen solid, so when men died from hypothermia, the local residents heaped piles of rocks over their bodies. These were now the ancient trail markers that helped those who were escaping.
The value of the trail markers was only evident once the men escaped through the mountain ranges of Tibet. (Adapted from "Getting There" by Steve Farrar.)
-We live in a generation that is going to do everything it can to change the trail markers. When the trail markers get moved, certain and swift destruction will follow.
C. The Psalm 119 Trail Marker
-In Psalm 119, the whole chapter speaks of the importance of the Word of God and how powerful it is to those who incorporate it into their lives. But it also gives to us what happens to those who do not “download” it into their walk.
-A great question is asked in that chapter:
Psalm 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
-If a man is going to cleanse his way, someone is going to have to “bring the Book.”
Psalms 119:97-104 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. [98] Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. [99] I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. [100] I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. [101] I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. [102] I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. [103] How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! [104] Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
-Note the verbs that come from this great chapter (this list is not all inclusive, you can find far more applications than just these):
7 -- I will praise thee. . .
8 -- I will keep thy statutes. . .
10 -- Let me not wander from thy commandments. . . .
11 -- Thy word have I hid in mine heart. . .
12 -- O Lord, teach me thy statutes. . .
13 -- With my lips I have declared. . . .
14 -- I have rejoiced. . .
15 -- I will meditate. . .
16 -- I will delight. . . I will not forget. . .
18 -- Open thou mine eyes. . .
19 -- Hide not thy commandments from me. . .
22 -- Remove me from reproach and contempt. . .
23 -- I did meditate in thy statutes. . .
26 -- Teach me thy statutes. . .
28 -- Strengthen thou me. . .
29 -- Remove from me. . . Grant me. . .
30 -- I have chosen. . .
32 -- I have run the way of thy commandments. . .
33 -- Teach me, O Lord, . . .
34 -- Give me understanding. . . I shall observe. . .
35 -- Make me go in the path. . .
36 -- Incline my heart. . .
37 -- Turn away mine eyes. . . . quicken me. . .
38 -- Stablish they word unto thy servant. . .
39 -- Turn away my reproach. . .
40 -- Quicken me in thy righteousness. . .
41 -- Let thy mercies come to me. . .
43 -- Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth. . .
44 -- I shall keep thy Law. . .
46 -- I will speak of thy testimony. . .
47 -- I will delight myself in thy commandments. . .
48 -- I will lift up unto thy commandments. . . I will meditate. . .
55 -- I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night. . .
58 -- I intreated thy favour with my whole heart. . .
59 -- I thought on my ways. . . turned my feet. . .
62 -- I will rise to give thanks. . .
66 -- Teach me good judgment and knowledge. . .
67 -- I have kept thy word. . .
68 -- Teach me thy statutes. . .
69 -- I will keep thy precepts. . .
70 -- I delight in thy law. . .
73 -- Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. . .
74 -- I have hoped in thy word. . .
77 -- Let thy tender mercies come unto me. . .
78 -- I will meditate in thy precepts. . .
80 -- Let my heart be sound in thy statutes. . .
88 -- Quicken me. . .
93 -- I will never forget thy precepts. . .
94 -- I have sought thy precepts. . .
95 -- I will consider thy testimonies. . .
97 -- O how I love thy law. . .
101 -- I have refrained my feet from every evil way. . .
102 -- I have not departed from thy judgments. . .
106 -- I will keep thy righteous judgments. . .
113 -- Thy law do I love. . .
115 -- I will keep the commandments of my God. . .
116 -- Uphold me. . .
117 -- Hold thou me up. . . I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.
124 -- Deal with thy servant. . . teach me thy statutes. . .
125 -- Give me understanding. . .
133 -- Order my steps. . . let not iniquity have dominion over me. . .
135 -- Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. . . teach me thy statutes. . .
145 -- I will keep thy statutes. . .
146 -- I will keep thy testimonies. . .
153 -- Consider my affliction and deliver me. . .
154 -- Plead my cause and deliver me. . .
162 -- I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. . .
163 -- Thy law do I love. . .
169 -- Give me understanding according to thy word. . .
173 -- I have chosen thy precepts. . .
174 -- Thy law is my delight. . .
III. LOVING THE WORD
-You have to love the Word of God. It cannot be an afterthought and something that is going to magically happen in your life.
-If you break up the New Testament into small portions you can read it through thirty times in next three years. For instance, take the book of James (5 chapters) or Philippians (4 chapters) and read it through once a day for 30 days and then move on to another book and repeat the same process. So much power and wisdom will be added to your life.
Philip Harrelson
April 27, 2008
www.barnabas14blog.blogspot.com
