Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're looking in Nehemiah chapter 3 at the 10 gates that are part of the prelude to revival. In our last broadcast, we were looking at the sheep gate. It represents our relationship with the Lord, and it also represents our concern for His sheep, for the remnant especially that Nehemiah mentioned in Nehemiah chapter 1. We were also talking about the Welsh Revival and a pastor who was concerned about the condition of his sheep, and he started those meetings that he called the Christian Endeavor Meetings, and Florrie Evans, a young girl, 16, maybe 17 years of age, very shy girl, not one to speak out at all, but she got up in that service and said, I love Jesus Christ with all my heart. It was so sincere and so real. that it broke down the barriers that Holy Spirit moved in and young people gave their hearts to the Lord. And the thing that happens when anybody gives their heart to the Lord is the next thing we find them all out in the street witnessing and telling everybody about what the Lord had done for them. We saw the second gate in chapter three is the fish gate. Jesus said, follow me. And I will make you to become fishers of men." Now, if we're not fishing, we're not following. It's just that simple. Evan Roberts, back in 1904, he heard the pastor pray at the end of his message, and he said, Lord, bend us. And it was there that Evan Roberts realized that he needed to be bend, and he said, Lord, bend me. After he prayed that prayer, he said he had a tremendous burden for the lost people of Wales. Not only did he have a burden for the lost people of Wales, but he had a burden for the sheep, God's sheep, and especially the remnant. Now you look again in Nehemiah. in chapter 1, and he was concerned about the remnant. There was thousands of people who called themselves believers in God, who were quite content to stay back there in Babylon when they were given the freedom to go back to Jerusalem. There was only a remnant of people who were going to sacrifice to go back because of the cause of the Lord. Jerusalem was the center where the Lord had said, I have chosen to set my name there. And there was a handful of people, not many, who said, we'll go back and we'll do what we can for the Lord. Same thing was true in 1904 in Wales when Evan Roberts had this burden for the lost. He also had a burden for the believers, those who were Christians and sincere as they were. They were filled with apathy and things were not going well, and he had a tremendous burden. to reach those people. And so we see the first gate is the sheep gate. And unless we build that first, there's nothing for the second gate to lean against over and over again. People get interested in soul winning, and that's a good thing. And we go to these conventions and we hear about how to reach the lost, and that's a good thing. But unless we build the relationship with Jesus Christ that we need to, there's nothing for that second gate, the fish gate, to lean against. We need to build our relationship with the Lord as we do that, if we do that, if it is what it should be, our relationship with the Lord. He said, I will make you to become fishers of men, and that will be something that will be Holy Spirit-controlled and not something we pump up in some kind of an emotional meeting somewhere. Well, there's a major concern for God's people at that time in Wales, and for God's people in Nehemiah's day. And if you'll turn with me for a moment to Jude, a little book of Jude, just before the book of Revelation. This is a book that deals with the apostasy of the last days, and quite frankly, the first 16 verses are very negative. Not very nice. It's what's going on in the world today, and we need to face up to the facts that things are going on and face up to the future. But from verse 17 down through to verse 25 in this little book of Jude, we have some directions. It says, but beloved, but beloved. He said, now, I've got something for you people down in verse 20. Again, he says, So what does he say to us? How should we be responding in a day of apostasy? Well, in verse 17, he says, how that they told you that there should be mockers in the last time who would walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit." Now, we're looking here at people who were professed Christians. They're mixed right in there. Yeah, they're in our fundamental independent Baptist churches singing the songs. But they go out all week and they walk after their own ungodly lusts. They're not much interested in the things of God. They're like the people who stayed back in Babylon, say, we're just going to stay here, we kind of like this stuff. There's something wrong with somebody who names the name of Jesus and wants to feed on the trash of the world. Something wrong with that. Well, it says, these be they who separate themselves. We get accused of separating from the brother. You're just causing division. No, we're just standing where we've stood for the last hundred years. In fact, the last 2,000 years, we're just standing on the Word of God. We're not the ones that are separating. Who's separating? They separate themselves sensual, not having the Spirit. Not having the Spirit. But ye beloved, now he's looking at that remnant and he's saying, what am I going to do in the age of apostasy when everything seems to be falling apart? But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." And then he said, we need to have a focus on those who are in this bucket of slime we call apostasy, and it says, of some having compassion making a difference, and others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. And so there's going to be some, there's going to be some who will be into that situation where, you know, the Bible talks about the saints at Corinth, and they were pretty carnal people. but they were saints. And so we have the same situation today where some of these people who are into this apostasy, you can get them, pull them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. So we have a focus here, a focus on God's sheep here. Now he says unto him, that is able to keep you from falling. Well, that's not talking about losing your salvation. The whole context here is the apostasy. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling for this apostasy of our day and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and ever. Amen. And so the sheep gate here in Nehemiah chapter 3 represents our relationship with Christ, and it also represents our relationship with the remnant, with those who are trying to do what God wants them to do. Then we have the fish gate, which gives us a burden for the lost, an automatic thing if our relationship with the Lord is right, and we will also have a burden for the remnant, whether it's Nehemiah at 450 years before Christ, or whether it was Wales in 1904, or whether it's in 2015, if we are going to build our relationship with Christ, we are going to have a relationship with the remnant, we're going to assemble ourselves together, and so much the more as the age approaches, then we are going to automatically be burdened for lost people, we are going to be burdened for that remnant, And Psalm chapter 85 says that, "...wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?" Now, it's not that God is not concerned about lost people, but you'll notice the focus here on this revival is that thy people may rejoice in thee. And the byproduct of that in Wales in 1904 was that those people, they were rejoicing in the Lord so much so that they just had to get out there and witness everybody and tell them what was in their heart. Well, the next gate we have down here is the third gate, is called the Old Gate, and it says in Proverbs 23 and 10, remove not the old landmark. Remove not the old landmark. And that verse gets misquoted quite a bit. I did for years until one day I realized I should have a look at the Bible, see what it really says. It doesn't say remove not the old landmarks, plural. It is singular, remove not the old landmark. Now that word landmark has been translated from the Hebrew into our King James Bible, border. It's been translated border 158 times. And what he's saying here is, remove not the old border. Jeremiah 6 and 16 says, ask for the old paths, where is the good way? In Proverbs 22 and 28, again, it says, remove not the ancient landmark or the ancient border. God said, I've set up borders for you, and you need to stay within the border. Well, Amos 1 and 3 says, Thus saith the Lord, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Why? Because they have enlarged their border. Oh yeah, they want to get out there in Babylon and live like the world. God's people in the wilderness want to go back to Egypt, and let's go back there and live like the world. Let's enlarge our border. Yeah, and that's exactly what is going on today. in what we call fundamentalism. Well, in Jeremiah 31 and 17, it talks about there being hope. It says, There is hope in the end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come to their own border, that they'll live within the border that I have set up for them. And that's exactly what we need to be doing today. Well, we look here and we have the sheep gate, We have the fish gate, and then we have this old gate. It says in Jeremiah 6 and 16, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths wherein is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Well, you would think that they would say, yeah, I want rest for my soul. But it says, they said, we will not walk therein." And that's our problem today. For the most part, there's a small remnant that says, yeah, I want to walk therein. But for the most part, in this last age in which we're living in here, those who named the name of Christ are just quite content to live the way they want to live. Forget those old paths. I want the new paths. Thank you very much. Well, we see here that the next gate down is the Valley Gate, and that represents humility. It says in 2 Chronicles 7 14, If my people which are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal the land. Then, if my people, then I will do this. Now we know this was for Israel. But if we meet the conditions, we can experience the same promises. And so we have the prelude to revival here, but we also have some things that prevent revival, some things that keep revival from happening. One of those is here in this verse. It's pride. Pride prevents revival. He said, if my people, which are called by my name, would humble themselves. Pride says, I don't need God. I can go my own direction. I'm doing just fine. I'll show up for church three times a week, pray a little prayer, and listen to a little sermon, maybe a sermonette, sing a few songs with God's people, have our little social club here, and get back out doing what I want to do in the world. I don't need God to help me. That's pride. Proverbs 6 and 16 lists the things that God hates, and number one on that list is pride. It says in Proverbs 8 and 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate pride. Proverbs 11 and 2 says, pride bringeth shame. We read in Proverbs 16 and 5, everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination unto the Lord. Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. Proverbs 16 and 18 we read pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Well revival is hindered by our pride and it's also hindered by our prayerlessness if my people which are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Pride leads to prayerlessness. The reason we don't pray is we don't think we need to. We can handle this without God. No, we can't handle it without God. Well, pride hinders revival, prayerlessness hinders revival, and our priorities hinder revival. The Bible says we would seek his face. Seek his face the hymn writer says face to face with christ. What shall it be? Oh, yeah, we're good face to face with jesus There's nothing in between first chronicles chapter 16 and verse number 11 says seek the lord and his strength seek his face Continually seek his face continually. I've got time for that gotta watch tv psalm 27 the psalmist prayed Verse number eight, when thou sayest, seeking my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. There's revival, plain and simple. Well, time's all gone. Tune in again tomorrow. We'll have another broadcast concerning the prelude to revival.