This is the third book

�The Gates of Jerusalem

As Christians we should accept the teachings of Scripture are the Word of our God', they are God breathed', inspired by the Spirit of our God'.For the born again believer they are, Profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works'

The unbeliever says in the Bible are contradictions, the ideas not relative to life and you do not know how to apply the teaching

With the so called problems about contradictions in the Scriptures, we must always keep the writing in context, if not then there is confusion.It is rightly said that if you take the text' out of con-text', all you are left with is a con'.Scripture must always be interpreted by Scripture.Regarding the teachings of the Bible not being relative to life, as folks state this it shows that they know nothing about the teachings of the Sacred Oracles, everything in the Bible relates to life, life with the Lord God Almighty and how this should be expressed between ourselves in everyday living.The last point I mentioned in paragraph two is the uncertainty of applying the teachings of Holy Writ, I want to dwell on this for a few moments

Many years ago a good friend of mine by the name of Charles, he said we must understand the Word of our God like a double barrelled gun.When I first heard this I thought, Whatever is Charles on about?', now I know.With a double barrelled gun, youfire a bullet at one target,� then with the same gun fire the other bullet at a different target.In the teaching of our Lord about the Communion Service there is mentioned the cup', this is referred to more times than the bread or wine, I ask why and what does this mean?The cup'�that Jesus drank' in the Garden of Gethsemane, His portion' was the agony of paying the price, at the full, for our salvation, no discount at all, now please understand that I say this reverently in the context of this illustration, this was the first shot of the gun' from barrel number one in the experience of our Lord Jesus.Then we understand second shot' from the barrel of the gun' was our cup' of experience, our joy, that through His work on The Cross we have forgiveness,receive spiritual blessings in the high places and eternal life

Another way for us to understand how Scripture should be applied is by what is known, from one good reference Bible, as Near & Far'.In the book of The Revelation, we have seven letters which were sent by our beloved Lord through the Apostle John, in these we have the Near' and the Far' applications, let me explain

You could waste a lot of time, argue all night, have seven House Groups' based upon this subject and be no wiser, the Word of our God must be taught and not argued about, it is the truth.With these letters, they can be applied as I understand, in four different ways, with them all having value, in other words the applications Near & Far'.The first one being the historical' interpretation, they were written to seven different church fellowships to which John had been connected.The second meaning is t hat as we understand the period we are living in now as the Dispensation of the Grace of our Lord Jesus', or the 'Church Age', it can be roughly divided up into seven periods, these times overlap, with us now living in the Laodicean', this being the last one.This application I find rather interesting but I will not be dogmatic about it.We are now living 'prophetically' in the period just mentioned. Christians generally seem to be neither one thing or another, yet there are those now who are being richly blessed 'experimentally' in their Philadelphia' experience�or their Smyrna' one of persecution although we are prophetically' in the Laodicean' times

For a further understand of the application of these seven letters,they can be regardedas the spiritual state a church is in, yes your church and mine and it can be rather sobering as we examine them in this way, but let us go much deeper

For me the mos�t important application for these writings is the PERSONAL' one, please put all the others on one side as we consider it.Is your experience and mine Ephesian', having lost our first love for our Lord?The hymnist said, Where is the blessedness I knew, when first I saw the Lord?'Is our personal present experience that of being persecuted for our Lord as with the Smyrna' folk?The words from hymnist Rippon' are, 'When through fiery trials they pathway shall lie, His grace all sufficient shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee, His only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine'.Or are we like the folk in Pergamum', so settled in the world, are we as Peter at the crucifixion of our Lord, warming ourselves by the fires'� of the world and denying our Lord in front of a damsel?Have we idols in our lives like the folk at Thyatira', may we all remember the words of the hymnist, 'Whatever idol I have known, whate'er that idol be, Lord help me tear it from Thy throne and worship only Thee'.Or maybe we are like 'Sardis', almost spiritually dead, yet having a spark oflife?Dear Lord, please revive Thy work O Lord, but this has to start with me'.Could it be that in our personal devotional life we are being richly blessed like the folk at Philadelphia'?Frances van Alstyne wrote, Blessed assurance, Jesus in mine, O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood'Above all may we notbe like theLaodicean' folk, neither one thing or another, may we be, All for Jesus, all for Jesus, this our song shall ever be'

In our consideration now I want to dwell on the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem i�n the time of Nehemiah.With these walls and the gates the materials were not in good condition, they had been burnt and the stones needed attention, indeed today they might have just been considered good hard core material.The men folk who did the rebuilding were not skilled brick layers, they were Nobles, Goldsmiths, Perfumers, Leaders of Jerusalem and Merchants. In this situation, our Lord through Nehemiah, set to work and the job was done, one important point about the work men, they, Set their hands to the good work', this is how it should be in life.Then there was Sanballat and his colleagues, they just tried to laugh them to scorn, the walls were nine feet think and the fools said, If even a fox goes up on it, it will break down the stone wall'-this is the thinking of worldlingsregarding the work of our God.I am now going to move to the next point but the principles' just mentioned about the wall building are so much like folk in a church, just dwell on it yourself for a few moments.

With the Gates in the wall, there were ten of them, every one had a name and wecan understood these from two different points of view, for ourselves and then our dear Lord, the two barrels of the gun'.From the names of the gates let us see what we can learn for ourselves.There was the Valley Gate, then one for Refuse, a Fountain Gate, a Sheep Gate is a must, who could miss out on the Fish Gate, an Old Gate, one also for Water, and we would be stuck without a Horse Gate, an East Gate to get through and see the sun rise and then to finish it all off the Miphkad Gate, WHAT DO THESE NAMES MEAN FOR OURSELVES???

Valley Gate-In my thinking the mind goes to the green pastures that are so often in valleys, it is there the shepherd can rest for a while as his sheep feed on the luscious grass.We need, all of us, to feed daily in the pastures' of the Word of our God, this mus
�t be a daily experience.Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth from the mouth of The Father'.With our Lord Jesus Christ He went through The Valley of The Shadow of Death, to the glory and wonder, the might and majesty of the resurrection on the third day

Refuse Gate-Through this gate went all the refuse from the folks dwelling in the city of Jerusalem.With our dear Lord Jesus Christ,He took to Himself the refuse' of my, of
�our sins, He became sin for us'

Fountain Gate-In Revelation we are toldThe Lamb will lead us to living fountains of waters', this is a way to have real life, that which is eternal.With our dear Lord Jesus Christ, it is from Him that springs fountains of water, these springing up into eternal life

Sheep Gate-Just listen to the words of Scripture, We all like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all'�.With our dear Lord Jesus Christ He actually went through the Sheep Gate in the city wall as He went to be crucified.In Isaiah c53 we read that, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth'

Fish Gate-To the disciples our Jesus said, I will make you fishers of men', with everyone of us every day, we should be continually,Seeking People for Christ'.Yes this should be so, but it can only spring from the Personal Devotional Life' of us all as individuals.This is the only way our Lord can employ us in His work, we cannot be involved in mission unless our personal relationship with our blessed Lord is real, this issue must not be ducked under. It is just not sufficient that we , Go to church' every week.Remember our dear Lord Jesus, He first of all, Called the disciples to Himself', pleas@e do not cop out' on this one.With our dear Lord Jesus Christ He fished' me out and you, fished' us out from our sins

Old Gate-We know that our dear Lord, Spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last times spoken to us by His Son'.This is the Old Gate' and will never be changed until the return of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, there is only one way to The Father With our dear Lord Jesus Christ He ever has been, He was with The Father when the world was created, He is the 'Ancient of Days'

Water Gate-Water in the Scriptures often speaks of cleansing, we all need to be cleansed from our sins every day, those things that we say, speak, think and do so frequently With our dear Lord Jesus Christ He washes our sins aw4ay, not by water but in His life giving, His shed blood

Horse Gate-From the teaching of Rev c19 v21 can be understood as judgment, because of our sin we have the judgment of God upon us, our God is a just God, we should die eternally because of our sins. With our dear Lord Jesus Christ He paid the penalty of our just God, the penalty of death on The Cross so, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus'

East Gate-This gate led out to where the sun rises in the east. With our dear Lord Jesus Christ, the SON of God, He rose on the third day having conquered sin and deathon The Cross for us

Miphkad Gate-This is the inspection gate' and the appointed gate'.Just let us think of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, He 'inspects'�u�s, He knows everything about us, He searches and knows us, He is acquainted with all our ways, O Lord thou knowest us altogether'.As we believe we are in His appointed place for our lives, the world is based on fixed principles, yes We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purposes'.We are all on our Isle of Patmos' for a purpose, this is For the Word of God and the testimony of Christ Jesus'

As we think of the building of the walls of Jerusalem, may we apply the teaching regarding the gates, to help us in a deeper understanding of our Lord' and ourselves', yes the two shots' with the doubled barrelled gun'

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This is the third book