Sermon Tone Analysis

So far in our look at the Gospel in the Gates of Nehemiah 3, we have looked at the first 5 gates.

@ weeks ago looking at the first 2 gates:

The Sheep Gate Represents Christ & His Work on the Cross.

Neh.

3:1; Isa.

53:7; Jn. 1:29

The Fish Gate Represents Our Responsibility to be “ Fishers of Men ”.

Neh.

3:3; Mt. 4:19; Prov.

11:26

Then last week we looked at the next 3 gates:

The Old Gate Represents The Never Changing Truth of The Word of God .

Neh. 3:6; Jer.

6:16; 1 Cor.

15:58

We looked at the fact that God’s Word remains the same and its truths transform life’s as much today as It did when the pages were being lived out.

We noted that once we have trusted In Jesus as our Savior, we must enter into the eternal, ancient truths of God's written Word.

We do this by spending time in it daily, by attending church and Bible studies and learning from other Godly individuals who have studied it diligently.

As we do, we will grow stronger in our own relationships with God.

The Valley Gate Represents the Life of Humbleness & Humility .

Neh. 3:13; Ps. 23:4; Phil.

2:3; Col. 3:12

In looking at the Valley Gate we discussed the fact that the majority of our growth as believers doesn’t come in the mountain top experiences we have, but more from our time in the dark valleys of life where we often times have to completely depend and lean on God to make it through.

The more we lean on and trust Him, the stronger we grow in our relationship to Him.

The Valley Gate brings us into a relization that we can’t do this on our own, we need to lean on and trust in God to succesfully navigate this life.

We also realize our need for a deeper cleansing.

Again, not much grows on the mountain top.

The river does not flow on the mountain top.

These things happen in the Valley - through trials that must be endured with Joy.

Then we will go through the next gate, the Dung Gate, that will purify us and prepare us to be empowered for service.

The Dung Gate Represents the Need for the Believer to Deal with Sin .

Neh. 3:14; 2 Cor.

7:1

In looking at the Dung Gate, I mentioned that when I think about this gate, I believe that this is a gate we should come to frequently, especially early in the life of the believer.

What I meant by that is that we need to keep a short account of sin in our lives.

We will always struggle some with sin, and those times we fail, need to be quickly followed by a time of confession.

When we aren’t quick with confession, we can easily be brought right back into some of those dangerous Valley Gate experiences, sin that isn’t dealt with can snowball to the point it can be overwhelming.

While it may not have seemed ideal that we ended last week at the Dung Gate.

I tend to think it was a very appropriate place to think about over the week.

While the name of this gate may seem to be kind of an ugly name, don’t be fooled by the ugly name of this gate, this is a very important gate in the life of the believer.

Understanding the vileness of our sin, and keeping a short account of it is extremely important in the life of the believer.

This morning we should be able to finish our look at the gates with the final 5 gates.

If you haven’t already, turn with me in your copies of God’s Word to Nehemiah 3, that is page 505 in the Pew Bibles.

This morning, the first gate we will look at is The Fountain Gate:

Next Slides

The Fountain Gate Represents the Holy Spirit Indwelling the Believer.

Neh.

3:15; Jn. 4:14; Jn. 7:38 & 39; 2 Kings 25:4; Ps, 36:9; Is. 8:6; Jer.

2:13

Looking back to Nehemiah 2 and Nehemiah’s midnight tour to investigate the shape of the walls around Jerusalem, you’ll notice the Fountain Gate appeared to be the gate in most ruin, so much so that it blocked Nehemiah's inspection, forcing him to dismount and finish this portion on foot.

This meant that, in the natural, the Fountain Gate must have been a center of concentrated attack during the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army (2 Kings 25:4).

Likewise, this gate's spiritual counterpart (the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering the believer) is a target of concentrated Satanic attack.

The Fountain Gate derived its name from the fact that it was the primary access to the Fountain - the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem's sole perennial source of water.

This was a very interesting fountain, there were times where there was a pretty steady flow of water, gentle but steady.

Other times the flow was almost unnoticed.

As a result, they would funnel water from this spring to the Pool of Siloam.

This fountain represented the life source of God Himself.

In Ps. 36:9 we read: Next Slide

“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.”

Ps. 36:9

We go on to read in Jn. 7:38

“Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of l

Living Water.”

Jn 7:38

The picture here is that God Himself is the Living Water.

This is the water that Jesus spoke of in His encounter with the Woman at the Well in Jn 4:14 when He said “..whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty again.”

Last Sunday I mentioned the prophecy of Jeremiah that took place before the captivity.

Well early on in the Book of Jeremiah he prophesied:

"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" Jeremiah 2:13.

Jeremiah’s warning to Judah before they were taken captive was that they needed to seek God through a repentant heart and stop seeking their solutions from ungodly leaders around them.

He is pointing out that God is the living water and the ungodly leaders of the nations around them were the broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Jeremiah’s warning to the Nation of Judah is one we should heed as well.

That is the truth we see in the Fountain Gate.

Just as the Fountain Gate was a point of emphasis in the Babylonians attack on Jerusalem when they took the Nation of Judah captive, our enemy, the devil, concentrates much of his effort on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

You see he understands that if the Fruits of the Spirit outlined for us in Galatians 5 are evident in our lives, he is powerless to stop us.

Let’s look at Galatians 5 for a moment.

Turn there in your copies of God’s Word.

It is on page 1238 in the Pew Bibles.

We will start in verse 19.

Now as you are turning there, let me take a moment to set the stage for you.

We will start in verse 19 because verses 19-21 are like the broken cisterns that cannot hold water that Jeremiah mentioned.

Whereas the Fruits of the Spirit mentioned in verses 22-23 are the springs of living water.

Broken Cisterns-“19  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Living Springs of Water-22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Here’s what we need to understand.

The more time we spend at God’s Fountain Gate, the more He empowers us and works through us.

And that is why the enemy spends so much time attacking this gate in our lives.

If he can just get us to spend all of our time on verses 19-21 in Galatians 5, the less God’s fruit is displayed in our lives.

So, how do we spend time in this gate?

Well the answer to that lies in the Spiritual Disciplines we looked at in the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019.

Personal Time in God’s Word (it’s not just something we do on Sundays!)

Time in Prayer.

Worship.

Reaching others with Christ’s love.

Serving.

Scripture Memory.

Sitting at the feet of Godly Leaders.

Devoting ourselves to these things is like daily spending times in the Fountain Gate and as we do “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control”

This brings us to the next gate, The Water Gate;

Next Slides

The Water Gate Represents The Power of God’s Word.

Neh.

3:26; Neh.