Guarding the Gates - Part 1
Guarding the Gates • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
Part 1 - The Roles and Goals of the Gatekeeper
I hope you will engage with me and the Word of God in this study on Guarding the Gates…
We will be talking about:
The Command to Cleanliness in the Camp
The Concern for Cleanliness in the Camp
The Counsel for Cleanliness in the Camp
Finishing it off with the Companions to Cleanliness in the Camp
“The Great Wall of China is a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money and labor. When it was finished, it appeared impregnable. But the enemy breached it. Not by breaking it down or going around it. They did it by bribing the gatekeepers.”—Harry Emerson Fosdick
They say the Great Wall of China stretches over 4,000 miles and it was built to protect China from barbaric hordes to the north…
They say it was built too high to scale, to thick to penetrate and too long to go around it…
But in the first 100 years, it was breached 3 times by invading armies…
They didn’t climb or breach the wall…
They bribed the gatekeepers to allow them passage…
Illustration:
While traveling in the Middle East, explorer George Adam Smith encountered a shepherd tending his flock. Curious, Smith pointed to a nearby sheepfold and asked, “That is where they go at night?” The shepherd replied, “Yes—and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.” Smith then observed, “But there is no door.” The shepherd calmly responded,
“I am the door. When the light has gone and it’s night, and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space. No sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf ever comes in unless he crosses my body.”
Sermon series: Guarding the Gates
9 When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing. 10 If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp: 11 But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again. 12 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad: 13 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: 14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.
Purpose: monitor what you bring into the home because corrupt things corrupt. God wants to dwell in a clean camp…
If you want God’s presence and blessings in your home than keep your camp clean!
The Command to Cleanliness in the Camp
The Command to Cleanliness in the Camp
1. The Role of Gate Keeper
1. The Role of Gate Keeper
Vs. 9 - “…keep thee from every wicked thing.”
10 If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:
What’s so important about a gatekeeper anyway?
Gates: burned with fire
Gates allow access, they are a place if authority, they are the battleground “gates of hell shall not prevail”, they are life and death to the well-being of a city… They are the vulnerability or the strength of a city…
Significance of the gates… it’s what got Jerusalem into this whole mess…
2 Kings 25:1–4 (KJV 1900)
1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about. 2 And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
4 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
The leaders fled their post by way of the gates…
Without gates, the city walls are for nought…
Without walls, the city is without protection or defense from the enemy…
9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
2. The Goal of the Gate Keeper
2. The Goal of the Gate Keeper
a.) Keep the camp Holy
14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.
44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
b.) Keep the Camp Clean
21 And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses; 22 Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 23 Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water. 24 And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
1. The Command to Cleanliness in the Camp
1. The Command to Cleanliness in the Camp
It’s not a matter of opinion or option, but a matter of obedience…
There are things that defile and things that cleanse in our lives…
The question: is this thing or person going to make my camp cleaner or dirtier?
c.) Keep the camp Separate
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. 26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
It was David who said: “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” (Psalms 101:3)
God knew it was a big deal what Israel allowed into the camp…
He knew the powerful effects of defiling objects and what it would do to His people…
We should be concerned about the command to keeping the camp clean…
Beware of the role and goals of the gatekeeper…
