Well, hello and welcome to another broadcast. We're looking at the prelude to revival. This is our fourth message in that series. Stay tuned. Have your Bible ready if you can. Well, as we look down through Nehemiah chapter 3, we find that they're building and repairing a bunch of gates here. Actually, 10 of them are mentioned in this chapter. In verse number 1, they built the sheep gate, and then in verse number 3, the fish gate. Verse number six, the old gate, the valley gate in verse number 13, the dung gate in verse 14, and the gate of the fountain in verse number 15. Then also you get the water gate in verse 26, the horse gate in verse 28, the East Gate in verse 29, down in 31 you have the gate Mimphkad, and then it mentions again in verse 32 the Sheep Gate. Now you know the Sheep Gate represents Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and it's interesting that this chapter starts with him. and it ends with him. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And so we have these gates, and as you go down through and look at these gates, you'll find in verse number one, it says that they builded the sheep gate. And then in verse two, you have the word builded twice again. the fish gate it talks about building and it also talks twice in uh three times four times actually in the next few verses about that area where they repaired some things so some things need to be totally rebuilt and some things just needed to be You get to the verse number 6 and it talks about the old gate and they repaired it, and it's mentioned 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8 times down in the next few verses how they're repairing things concerning the old gate, and interestingly it talks about one man here, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, verse number 12, he and his daughters repaired that gate. You get to the valley gate in verse 13, it talks about it being repaired, the dung gate, It talks about it being repaired, and it also talks about it being built in verse number 14. A lot of work on that one. Then you have the gate of the fountain, which is repaired, and it is mentioned, let me see here, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 times between that verse and verse number 25. Interestingly enough, you get to verse 26, and it talks about the Watergate. Now, you remember that the Watergate represents the Word of God, and this is the only gate out of all these ten gates where there's no rebuilding or there's no repairs mentioned. The Word of God. You don't have to fix it. It's already done. Now in this age that we're living in, you know, we've come up with a lot of wicked and evil translations of the Word of God that have actually destroyed the Word of God. They are not the Word of God. But here we have the Watergate. There's no repairs. There's no rebuilding necessary here in verse number 26. Well, we get down to verse number 29, the east gate, and it talks about it being repaired. And then we get down over to the gate Mimphkad and verse 31, and it is also talked about being repaired. Interesting study. This on the surface looks like a boring chapter. It is anything but a boring chapter. Now, as you go down through here, it's interesting that we have a focus on these things. Sheep, for instance, fish, the word old, valley, the dung gate, the fountain gate, water, horse, gate, the east gate, and the gate Mimfgad, which is an interesting gate. Now, it's so interesting to see how you get into the Word of God and you'll find that God uses the ordinary things of today to teach what he wants to teach. For instance, sheep. That word sheep is in the Bible 187 times. and the first time it is referred to is in Genesis 4 and 2, where it says Abel was a keeper of the sheep. The word fish is in the Bible 35 times, and the first time we see that mentioned is in Genesis 1 and 26, where it says we are to have dominion over the fish. That's interesting. The word old is in the Bible 38 times, and Proverbs 23 10 says, remove not the old landmarks, What do you think of when you think of the word valley? Or what do you think of when you think of the word sheep, or fish, or old? The word valley is in the Bible 140 times. It speaks of humility, of being brought low. The word dung is in the Bible 28 times. And this is the gate where they carried the garbage out of Jerusalem. What do you think of when you think of the word fountain? I'm sure there's a picture in your mind. That word is in the Bible 33 times, and the first time it's mentioned in Genesis 16 and 7, there is a fountain in the wilderness. Then you have the word water. That is in the Bible 396 times, and Ephesians 5 and 26, of course, talks about the washing of water by the word. What do you think of when you think of the word horse? I think immediately working on my uncle's farm when I was about 11 years old, and I used to work with the horses there. The word horse, you find that word 43 times in the Bible. In Proverbs 21 and 31, it says that a horse is prepared against the day of battle. the gate Mimphkad. Now, you only find that word one time in the Bible. It means to command. It actually is translated in Ezekiel 43 and 21 as an appointed place, and Hebrews 9, 27 says it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the judgment. And so this gate is referring to judgment. Now, it starts off in this chapter with a focus on the sheep. Now, we know that this is the gate in Jerusalem where the sheep were brought in to be sacrificed. And of course, it refers to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And so right off, we need to have a focus here concerning our relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have not received Christ as your personal Savior, you do not have any relationship with him at all. But if you have received him as your personal Savior, then your relationship is totally, it depends on how much you talk to him and how much you let him talk to you. You don't have a relationship with anybody in this world if you never communicate with them. And so it is with God. If we do not communicate with Him as Christians, as His children, what kind of a relationship are we going to have? And that's why prayer is such an important thing. But prayer is us talking to God, what His Word is, that's what the Bible's called, His Word, that's Him talking to us. And so what we need to have here is our focus on our relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, the Bible talks about my sheep. My sheep, that phrase is in the Bible quite a few times. In Ezekiel 34 and six, the Bible talks about, God says, my sheep wander, my flock is scattered. In Ezekiel 34 and 11, he says that I need to search for my sheep. In Ezekiel 34, 12, he said, I will seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered." Now, we know these are verses that are referring to God's people, Israel, being scattered around the world, as they have been for the last couple thousand years. But when we get into the New Testament, Jesus said, I have some other sheep, and he's referring to us. And it says in John 10 and 27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." In John 10, 15, he says, I lay down my life for the sheep. Now, as we look into this prelude to revival that we see here in the book of Nehemiah, we have a focus on God's sheep and the sheep gate. And of course, we said that represents our relationship with Jesus Christ, but it also represents our concern for his sheep. Do we have a concern for his sheep? We look in Nehemiah chapter one and verse number two, and we find that Nehemiah asked concerning the remnant, referring to the sheep, concerning them. Now, he was a pretty busy man. He was, Nehemiah, he was the head of security for the most powerful man on the face of this earth at that time. He had quite a plushy job there, probably a pretty good income, but he's more concerned about the remnant, that group that had gone back to Jerusalem, those sheep, he was more concerned about them than his job, and he was more concerned about them than he was about his comfort zone. And so, he says, what about those sheep back there in Nehemiah 1, 3? The report was, well, they're in great affliction, they're under attack, they're in great reproach, the Bible says. And so, in Nehemiah 2, 17, he says, come, let us build up the wall that we be no more a reproach. He was concerned about God's sheep. And Nehemiah, he focuses on the sheep and particularly on the remnant we find here in Nehemiah one and three. God has always had a remnant. God has always had a handful of sheep that really are concerned about doing things right. And they are the ones that went back to Jerusalem while the majority of God's people were quite content just to stay there in Babylon and to take in all the materialistic things that Babylon had to offer. Well, the condition in Nehemiah's day, as far as the world was concerned, well, one word would pretty well describe that, and that's anarchy. There was kings fighting against kings. There was wars all over the place, much like today. As far as God's people was concerned, one word would describe that, and that would be apostasy. They were turning their backs on God. They were quite content to live there in Babylon, and never mind what God says. We kind of like it here. And then the remnant, what was the problem there? Well, while the world was busy in their anarchy and the God's people were wrapped up in apostasy, the problem with the remnant was apathy. Back there in Jerusalem, they tried to build the walls, they got discouraged, and Nehemiah was very concerned about the remnant. Well, as we look into the latest revival that this world has had, back in 1904, in the Great Welsh Revival, there was a man, he was only 21 years of age when he got a burden, to get into the work of the Lord. His name was Joseph Jenkins, and he got into studying the Word of God, and he was ordained in 1887. And in 1892, he became the pastor of Tabernacle Chapel at Newquay in Wales. And in 1902, the congregation there was about 400 people. Well, he's going through the daily routine of being a pastor, like much of us do today, and became very hungry for a deeper walk with God. And he began to read a book, which was the biography of D.L. Moody. and Moody was a great man of prayer. Andrew Murray also wrote a book, and Jenkins read this one. It was called With Christ in the School of Prayer. As a result of reading these books, he became very concerned about the fact that he wasn't praying like he should, and as a result of spending more time praying with the Lord, in 1904, Jenkins started a group of young people meeting in which he called the Christian Endeavor Meetings. because he was concerned about the young people, the sheep. You know, Jesus said to Peter, you love me, Peter? He said, yeah, I love you. Then he said, feed my lambs, John 21. And then twice more, he said, feed my sheep. Well, Jenkins was concerned about feeding the lambs, feeding the young people, and he got them together in these meetings that he called the Christian Endeavor meetings. On February 1904, He preached a message there on 1 John 5 and 4 that talks about overcoming the Christian, overcoming the world. There was a young lady, a young teenage girl in that class, and she went back to the pastor's house after the service that night and said, I'm so concerned that I'm under the world. I know I'm not where I should be. He asked her the question, can you say to the Lord, can you call him my Lord when you talk to him? And she said, no. Then he said, you need to receive Christ as your savior. And then when you do that, you need to acknowledge him as the Lord of your life. That is, you need to do everything the Holy Spirit leads you to do. Well, she went back home and she obviously did this because the following Sunday, when they were having their Christian Endeavor meeting, there was about 60 people present in that meeting. And Pastor Jenkins was talking to these young people and something really exciting happened. And if you want to know what that is, you're going to have to tune in the next broadcast, because according to that music in the background, we're all out of time. So tune in again. It's a very exciting story of what happened and how the revival in Wales actually got underway. Well, tune in. We'll try to make it plain and we will try to make it simple.