Address—A.C. Hayhoe
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Return again tonight's plays to the Book of Nehemiah.
3rd chapter of the Book of Nehemiah.
I don't believe it to be necessary to recount what was covered the other evening.
Except, perhaps to mention this, that we do have in this chapter an account of a remnant of God's beloved people who by His wondrous grace have been restored from their captivity to the place of His appointment. They have in their midst the House of the Lord. They have their own.
Home to establish roundabout the House of the Lord. What a privilege that is.
And now they feel the need of a wall between themselves and the enemy that is on every hand. And we notice the other evening that this wall begins by the mention of the sheep gate, which we believe would suggest to us that in order that you and I may consider ourselves numbered among this happy company.
Gathered to his own most precious name, that first of all, it begins.
The day when you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Isn't that a happy thing to look back to? I was talking to someone today who told me of the day when he put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Much like myself, he had been brought up to hear the Gospel so often and believe it was true, but the day had never yet come when he had accepted the Lord Jesus as his own. I'm glad that day has come.
In my life, but I want to begin tonight by asking you once again up and down the road, a boy and a girl and the young people. Are you, each one of you sure that this very first verse is that which is your wonderful privilege that this sheep.
Gate is that which opens the door to that wonderful, wonderful privilege.
Of being able to look up and say the Lord is my.
Shepherd and he looks down and says, I know my feet. I like that. As he looks up and down the road tonight, he can say that which I cannot say. He looks up and down and he says I know my feet. All I can see is a number of people sitting here with Bible.
But I cannot see your heart.
But I remember on one occasion.
At a gospel meeting At the close of a three day general conference.
A young lady came to me in very great distress and she said I would like to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior tonight.
For I said I must be mistaken. I thought I saw you this morning remembering the Lord Jesus in his bed. He hung her head.
Since that I have been.
Taking the Lord's Supper for over years, but I have never yet accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior.
It's a very, very, very solemn thing to look into the faces of those who are gathered here and to realize that if the Lord came before, this meeting was over.
That only those in this company who can truthfully say the Lord is my shepherd, who would hear that voice and be called away to meet him.
Well, now I think we ought to start with verse 6.
I think the other evening we finished with verse five. We noticed there that among those who were building on that wall were those known as Picoites. And we noticed that there were those among them who were noble. They were leaders among these people known as Sequel Ice. But these nobles didn't do their work with all their heart. And the Lord observed it, and the Lord recorded it.
We are reading about it tonight. We mentioned that the other evening, didn't we?
I wonder if we have remembered it since then. It wasn't very long ago, just two nights ago. But I wonder if we have in any little measure try to bear this in mind, that that which the Lord gives to you or to me the privilege of doing for Him, ought to be done with our whole heart.
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Heart simply because we love him so much.
Or I just felt just a little bit distressed. I must admit, as I got to the close of the meeting here the other evening, I was very much afraid that I had presented this as a sort of negative picture, a picture where there was a wall saying thou shalt not, and that we were sort of hemmed in. And I didn't want to present that picture. The picture that I see here is this, as though God looked down and said, I love you. I love you with all my heart and.
Want you to have the very happiest days possible year, days of heaven upon the earth. And here are my instructions so that you may have just such a pathway. And when the Lord who loved us and who died for us, gives us in His word something that would please Him, could we dare for one moment to attach the word legal or restraint to any such request?
Should it not be immediately the eager desire of our heart to do that which He has made known to us?
The other day I got word from my wife that she had broken.
A piece of her chinaware known as Desert Rose Franciscan Ware.
And she said, I think you're in the area where they're made. Could you possibly go to the factory and see if you can find?
A duplicate of the piece that I have broken.
Now, what do you suppose I did? Do you suppose I said? Oh, I suppose I'll have to. She's told me to do it, so I suppose I'll have to. Do you think that thought entered my mind? I've gone there already, and I got two of the pieces she asked for, and tasty bites another one. It was just a real pleasure to me to go. She let me know something that would bring her pleasure, and I've already found the light.
Delight in fulfilling that request.
And let me tell you, this dear child of God, that as you and I open this book and find in it certain things that our nasty old nature may tell us, our restricting and difficult, just remember this, that they were put there for your happiness and blessings and for His glory.
I was asking a brother today if he could tell me.
The other part of a certain verse.
I'm going to ask you the same thing and I'll just leave it to you to be honest with yourself whether you know the answer. There is a scripture which says.
Be content with such things as he has.
What is the rest of that verse?
I'll let you think for just a moment and then I'll tell you.
Because I think it illustrates the principle that's on my heart tonight. We might look up and say, well, I guess I'll have to be, because God has the right to speak to me like that. God has the authority to tell me what to do because he is God. But he doesn't speak to us like that. Beloved, every such instruction in the word of God has with it a tender note of love that makes it a delight to obey.
If you thought of the rest of the verse yet.
Content with such things as He has or he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Isn't there a delight to contentment when we have that as a basis of it? Isn't there an added thrill of joy to all our blessings when we realize our hearts behind those blessings?
I'm not getting around the wall, am I? But another thought has just come to my mind and I'd like to pass it on to you as just the beginning of a meditation that I would like you to take home and continue.
The meditation that has made my blessings from His hands more sweet to my heart.
We might think of a man of wealth reaching into his possessions and dispensing them to us. And perhaps it doesn't cost him very much to be so kind to us because he is so wealthy. But the word of God says, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that he through his poverty might be rich. And in meditating on that glorious first one day.
There came to my soul this wonderful spot. Could it be that every blessing that I possess?
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Cost him the opposite, in suffering and in pain. To bless me thus.
And this is the way it runs in scriptures. I'll start off and leave it to you to finish it at home.
Give you the depth of his poverty and the height of our riches as a result. My God, my God, for hast thou forsaken me? I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I think in deep mire where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where the floods overflow me. When thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee through the floods. They shall not overflow thee. In my first they gave me vinegar to drink.
To him that is a thirst will I give the fountain of the water of life. Really they parted my raiment among them, and upon my vester they did cast luck. Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. I looked. This undertake pity, and there were none. Like as a father pity as his children, so the Lord pity of them, and fear him and for comforters, and I found none. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come.
They had hated me with a without a father more than the hairs in my head. The Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. Refuge failed me was fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that before before.
Away with Him, crucify Him. Let us draw near with a true heart.
In full assurance of faith, I assure you, beloved, that's only a beginning. If you'll take that thought home and meditate upon it, you'll never come to the end of it. All our riches were at such infinite cost.
And the wisdom of this pastor is intended that you and I should be.
Richly blessed Well in the sixth verse, the old gates.
Repaired Jehoiada son of affair.
And masculine, the son of death of the eye, they laid the beams there often set up. The doors are off, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
This is the next gate after the fish Gate, I believe The other evening we suggested that that should speak to our heart as to our privilege and responsibility in me being numbered among the fishers of men. And I hope that that is an earnest, prayerful desire in the heart of everyone. Or you say that I don't have any gift in the Gospel.
Below that, it doesn't take any gift to pray for the gospel, does it? And if you and I have a heart for the gospel, we will be found praying about it.
Shall I make a public confession?
First time I was asked to preach the gospel in a hall.
I won't tell you all I went through.
But I refused, and I paced up and down and up and down in my room.
The brother called me back and asked me would I try. I went to look at the calendar and the verse said.
Who made man both? Have not I the Lord?
When I went to the meeting room, I sat on the front row and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed as I had never prayed for the gospel before that night. You know why?
I think you do because I was the one that had to try to tell it out that night. Oh, how I pray.
Maybe I shouldn't tell you much of the rest of it, but I stood up there and I tried to give up to him and the sound just wouldn't come out.
I picked up a glass of water and I had to hold that glass of water with both hands while the water was splashing out both sides before I could give out the hip. And I know the Lord did that in order to make me feel my absolute helplessness. But I want to tell you the sequel. The next Lord's Day evening, I was sitting up there and I looked at my watch and it was within 5 minutes of the time the meeting would begin. And what do you suppose I was doing?
I was relaxing. I was perfectly comfortable because I didn't have to speak that night. And all of a sudden I said to myself, you hypocrite, this time last Lord day, you were praying so earnestly and you were just praying so earnestly because you were going to be up there and didn't want to make a failure of it.
And it has been a voice to my heart. I looked into the faces of the brothers and the sisters, and I speak with all my heart that every one of us may have a more earnest urban heart for the gospel, for the lost than we have now. The fish gate, but it's followed by the old gate. Why is that?
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I believe that's very, very, very needful for us.
I need it and I think we all do. Could we turn over to that well known passage in the 6th of Jeremiah passage which I know is often quoted Jeremiah 6?
And verse 16.
Thus saith the Lord, Stand thee in the ways, and see and ask for the old path, where is the good way, and walk therein, and he shall find rest for your soul.
May what I suggest that the old date is a caution and a warning to us.
It had its lock and it had its bar, For in the day in which we're living, there is on every hand a vigorous attempt to make us feel that the simple presenting of the dock full of the grace of God with the grand story of His matchless love and of man's guilt, and of the precious blood of Christ.
Is something that is old and out of date. Let it ought to be dressed in new language, and that new methods ought to be used in order to attract the people to be found under the sound of it. Oh, let us take a word of warning from this old gate, with this lock and with its barn, and let us be on guard, beloved, that though our hearts ought to be more earnestly.
The gospel than they are this night. Let us stand by the old gate, and not allow that which is, shall we say, of the space age, to try and introduce itself into the grand old message of the grace of God as told in the precious blood of Christ. I hope that the gospel will never be preached from this spot where I stand tonight.
Without mention of a crisis. Blood of Christ.
Well, let's go on to verse.
I think we promised to close on time. Let's go on to verse 9 next. Under them repaired rest the eye of the son of her, the ruler of half part of Jerusalem.
Think we made mention of something of this sort the other evening, but I love to notice as we go down the chapter that there were a positaries and there were Goldsmiths and there were rulers and whatnot standing shoulder to shoulder in this responsibility of building the wall. No one seemed to feel at this time that it was someone else's job.
There, they said, no matter what their status might be, no matter what their esteem might be in the eyes of others.
There they stood up on that wall, and with one accord, or so it seems in the story, they builded the wall.
And I believe there's a lesson for us in this. I believe that each and everyone of us, each brother and each sister, ought to feel in the presence of the Lord.
Your personal responsibility in this matter. I know we're very much inclined to look up to the older brethren, shall we say, in the Assembly, and feel it to be especially incumbent upon them that they see to these matters.
And I assure you, beloved, that God does hold a very solemn sense of responsibility before those who are in such a position. In fact, it's very striking to notice in the second epistle to the Ephesians.
Does that sound unusual?
The fattened vessels of the season, where do we find that?
Revelation chapter 2. Isn't that the 2nd epistle to the Ephesians? Sometimes I like to speak of it that way on purpose, just so that we might realize that that assembly, so signally blessed with that most marvelous epistle before the Word of God was completed, needed a second epistle. And how does it begin? Unto the Angel of the church, which is at Ephesus, right?
I have somewhat against the assembly.
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That's not the language that somewhat against being the responsibility was laid at the feet of him who was addressed as the Angel of the church, which is at Ephesus.
I just addressed this word to those who feel in some Manger a responsibility among the Lord's people. It is a responsibility that the Lord may have entrusted to you, and He's going to hold you accountable for it. May God find you accepting that responsibility in the sphere of the Lord. May you be as one who puts your neck to the work of building that wall.
Well, so we go down to the 10th verse next. Son of them repaired Betty. I had a son of a mask even over against his house. I like this. We saw the other side of the story the other evening and it was sad reading, wasn't it? We noticed the homes of two men, a lie shipped the high priest and Mashallah, whose name means friends, both of them.
Blessing the wall in front of their home and a sad result. The sad, sad dishonor that came into their families as a result of their failure to build a wall in front of their own home. But here we have the other side of the story. Nothing much is said about this man, but it is recorded that he built over against his house.
Now the 11Th verse now tied to the son of Heron, and half of the son of they had more repaired the other piece and the power.
Of the furniture.
Perhaps this may mean a little more to us as we continue with the.
Of the wall. But we have so far had these sheep gate, then the fish gate, then the old gate. We're leading up to that which is very, very important and very, very beautiful. But we find ourselves now at the power of the furnaces, the tower of the furnaces. Wouldn't you like to bypass that if you possibly could?
What did you like your life to be? One in which there was no furnace, no trial, no affliction.
And if you and I could flip through without any of these experiences that cause us such tears and groaning?
Again, I'm going to put part of a verse.
And ask you if you can recall the rest of it, What is it that Scripture says will be found under praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ?
That sounds like a pretty wonderful future, doesn't it? What is it that Scripture says will be found on the praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ?
That the trial of your faith being much more practicing, of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found of the praise and honor and glory. And yet we try to shun it, don't we? We would bypass every furnace in our life if we possibly could, but the Lord is leading us to that which is so worthwhile, and along the way we come to the power of the furnaces.
Perhaps, perhaps you've had a little taste of it already. There may be more yet ahead. But remember this when you come to the power of the furnaces, that there's a very precious lesson for your soul in it. If you remember, as I'm sure she'd rack me back in bed and go ever would, remember that the Lord will be with you in it.
I remember when I was a good deal younger. I was in school at the time.
And I was passing through that which caused me very, very great.
Sorrow, very great sorrow and distress.
Into me.
As I look back on it, it still seems to me to have been, in a useful way, quite a severe furnace through which I was passing.
And I was reading in the book of Genesis, and I came across the story of Dear Abraham.
The Lord had something very wonderful for Abraham. He had not yet given him that son either. But do you remember the night that the Lord spoke to Abraham, and gave him that most wonderful promise? That very night and horror of great thoughts came upon Abraham.
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And horror of great darkness and their past before him. A smoking furnace. And those. I read it. I thought, that's just about where I am.
There is an horrible, great doctrine for sure, and it looks like a furnace. What shall I do that I read on and that furnace was followed by a burning lamp. Oh, I thought, there's something coming. There's something to follow. And beloved, there was. Yes, indeed there was. There was something that followed that furnace of affliction. And I thank God for it. And let me tell you this, that if the Lord should bring you.
Me from time to time into a furnace of affliction. It may be bodily affliction, it may be otherwise, but I'll tell you this that it's a hand of love and wisdom that brought you there, and it will bring you into a place of richer blessing if you go through it with Him.
Don't we go on to the next verse? Next unto him repaired Shalom, the son of Aloha, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem.
He and his daughter.
He and his daughter.
Isn't that beautiful when I first noticed this?
I read it through our two daughters.
And I got down on my knees and prayed that I might have the joy that this man had.
The ruler of half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughter.
Beloved things of God guided to the name of the Lord Jesus. As I go around from place to place, I see sometimes the sons and the daughters of the Lord's people pulling those stones out as fast as their fathers and mothers try to put them in. But from time to time and all high thank God for it. And I have seen it here in my vivid in California, and I thank God for it with all my heart.
The Suns and the daughters of those who value the truth.
Valuing its bill and valuing it with a whole heart here with a man who had the joy of building that wall and on this side and on that, where his daughter who with one heart helped their father build a wall. What a picture. This is the only place along the wall where women are mentioned as having anything to do with it. And I believe it's rather significant that it immediately.
The power of the furnaces. I believe that a sister's heart.
Especially stands out and shines in time of affliction and sorrow. I believe we see it in the New Testament. It wasn't brave Peter that stood there weeping at the sepulchre. It was Mary to whom the Lord revealed himself in resurrection.
And I look at the dear sisters who are here tonight, and I tell you before God that your heart is specially fitted to shine for Him in times of trial and affliction. May the Lord encourage you in this. May the Lord encourage the dear mothers who are here to take their part in this wonderful and necessary service.
Of helping to build a wall to the blessing of your own family.
And to the blessing of the assembly.
The 13th, 1St The Valley Gate repaired Hainan and inhabitants of Genoa. They built it and set up the boards there are the locks thereof, and the bars there are.
And 1000 cubits from the wall under the Dung Gate.
The Valley gate.
We're getting closer and closer to that which is the purpose of His wondrous love. I believe that this is a beautiful and unnecessary part of the journey. You notice in the second chapter, verse 13 and verse 15, that when Nehemiah first inspected the wall and saw its bad condition, he went out by way of the gate of the valley, and he returned by way of.
Valley, but I believe it would speak to us at that place.
With our faces down in the dust before Him to which He delights to bring us for His glory and for our blessing, we may not like or choose or prefer the validate. But if that which is so needful in our lives that we be brought beloved Saints of God down to that place where He can bless us as He delights to do.
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And you notice here that we recorded, we read the record of a measurement 1000 cubits.
It's the only measurement recorded in the entire wall. That's rather unusual. A brother and I were just speaking today about Solomon's Temple and the tremendous number of measurements and details that are given in the building of that temple.
I think many of us have been surprised at all those details, and here I'm surprised at the lack of details.
In the building of this wall with 10 gates, there's only one measurement given, and that one measurement is the distance that leads from the valley gate to the down gate.
Why would that be?
All I believe you again, it would speak to us of a perfect and wine and loving hand of God upon us in our lives, that would lead us through the power of the furnaces, the valley gate to the Dung Gate, and that distance, beloved, is measured 1000 cubits, if the hand of God has been on you or me.
If circumstances that have tried our spirits and oppressed our souls, have these fallen us, and we look up and say how long, and perhaps we feel the Lord has.
Almost forgotten all about our problem. He's taking care of this one and of that one, but he's forgotten about me.
He has laid his hand upon me and he's just left it there. No, he hasn't, beloved. He's got that measurement carefully recorded in his book up there. And that measurement is a specific measurement in the ways of God, His hand of wisdom, His purpose of love.
Is never, never too short or too long for your specific needs.
14 years ago, our dear little boy Danny, he was only four months old and we met with a nasty car accident.
The life of our dear boy was in the balance for about a month.
I can see the boxers yet come down the hall with his hands in the pockets of his white coat, shaking his head like this.
It was a hard experience to go through, but at that time I received a letter from our dear brothers. Chapter Brown.
And in the letter he said, Brother Albert, remember this.
That every trial in our life is carefully weighed out in the balances of the sanctuary before it's passed on to us.
I've never forgotten that remark.
Every circumstance in our pathway is carefully weighed out in the balances of the sanctuary before it is passed on to us. The hand of the Lord was upon us. That little boy was four months old and I knew that the Lord was not trying to speak through our four month old boy. I knew that he was trying to speak to that boy's daddy.
And it was a comfort to my heart to know that all was weighed out beforehand in the balances of the sanctuary.
And here beloved, this one measurement speaks to my soul of this fact that God has a purpose in your life and mine, and in every circumstance He brings into your life and mine and measured exact weight of circumstance in order that we may arrive at what we have here in verse 14.
But the Dungate repaired my car to front of Ricketts, the ruler of Heart of the Heckerman. He built it.
Set up. The doors around the locks are out. On the bars, they're out.
We build it all along.
I don't imagine there were too many that would be interested in sharing this with him. He build it all alone. I wonder if there has been this experience in your life and in mine. I hope so. It's a very.
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Handsome to the blessing that follows the dumb date. Let me try to tell you what I mean. I believe we see a young man named Saul of Tarsus.
Building a down gate and putting on it. Locks and bars too. When we read the 4th chapter of Philippians, there we read these words. What things were gained to me though I counted law for Christ.
That in the past tense, Paul was looking back to the time in his youth.
When he had found Christ, and when he had built a dung gate, and on the other side of that gate he had placed.
What had he played those things which men despise and loathe? No, beloved, he had placed on the other side of that dungace of very things that would have exalted him among his fellow men. He could have been head and shoulders above them all. He was a man of keen intellect and a wonderful possibility. But he took all that.
Which by nature would have made him a man of importance in this world.
And he put it on the under side of the dungate. Did he put locks and bars on it? The next first would give us the answer. I don't mean the next first year, the next verse in Philippians 4 we quoted the one. But things were gained, and evil thy counted. Lost for Christ. And what's the next person? Present tense now? Yeah, doubtless. And I count.
All things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them, but done that I may win Christ.
We look back at the Apostle Paul and we speak of him with such admiration.
But I wonder, I wonder, beloved, how would the Apostle Paul fit in among us today?
Would some of us point the finger at him and call him a fool for setting to one side those things which could have absolved him? In this world, our children and our young people have to face these matters.
I say these things with exercise of heart. I trust before the Lord.
Or if the Lord leaves us here.
Our children are going to have to face this matter. I trust they're facing it already in the fear of the Lord, but they're growing up. They have decisions ahead. They have, particularly with a young man. He has the responsibility of an occupation, an occupation in which he can either make a name for himself and build up prestige and all the rest that the world considers so necessary, or an occupation in which he can labor.
Blood of God.
And beloved, let us remember on our own behalf and on behalf of our dear growing children and young people.
That the hand of God delight to bring us to this point for our purpose of love and blessing in your life and in the life of your dear children.
The down date? Or may it be more true with each and everyone of us?
That there shall be locks and bars on that gate.
As we see Paul, an old man imprisoned and facing execution for the name of the Lord, and you go to visit him, and you say, but Paul, you could have been a man greatly esteemed. Now aren't you just a little sorry for that choice you made? What do you think his answer would be? He would say, yeah, Doklam. And I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
My Lord beloved, may the Lord bring us to this point. No wonder there was a measure 1000 cubits to this gate. It's not a gate that we hasten to arrive at. It often takes the hand of the Lord in our lives to bring us there. Some of us look back and thank God with all our hearts, but in spite of our self will and stubbornness.
His hands kept driving us back from our mistakes and bringing us and bringing us and bringing us to the Dung Gate because he wanted to bless her.
And what follows?
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The 15 first, but the gate of the fountain. All this is what comes next, and it's worthwhile. It doesn't come suddenly. It doesn't come at the beginning. There's quite a bit that precedes it, but it's worthwhile. The gate of the fountain repaired shallow in the son of Carhosa, the ruler part of Mr. He built it and covered it and set up the doors around the locks. They're out of the bars. There are.
Covered it. This is the only gate that's spoken on in that way.
Some of these things I admit, I find just a little hard to explain, as it seems to me they appear as I read them. The gate of the fountain. Sure it would speak to us of that refreshment, that delight, that joyous soul, which can be, and ought to be, the portion of every one of us.
But I say there is that which leads up to it. We see another brother who's walking in the joy of the Lord, and we perhaps covered, and we wonder why has that brother, this joy in the Lord? And I seem to lack it. Why is it? Is it a matter of intelligence?
Is it a matter of the privileges of his upbringing? I believe perhaps, dear child of God, it's a matter of the fact that we have not yet come to the down gate, nor perhaps even the Valley gate. For if we do, we'll find ourselves here at this wondrous fountain. And there is no limit to the refreshment and joy. So it can be used from this day forward at the fountain gate.
But it was covered.
All I speak to the exercise of my own heart as I read this. You and I, dear Saints of God, know how much there is all around us.
That would.
Turn up the sides that would be filer as we look or listen on the right hand and on the left.
And in order that you and I may drink the pure stream of refreshment that flows from his loving heart through the pages of this word, it's going to require a gate that's covered. You remember the exhortation about a covered vessel that was spared from the farm?
And we need this, beloved.
Could it be that in your home or in my home there ever could creep in?
Those things which would be harmful to us and to our dear children if we had this covered gate.
What would be brought within the doors of our home if we really believe these things in truth, if we really believe that the joy of the Lord was that which He wished to pour forth upon us? Would there be found in any of our homes that which would rob us of the sweet and precious reality?
You know the children it is there were called upon to take the word of God and put it upon the very doors of their homes.
They would have teach at their children. They would have fastened upon the doorpost of their house and upon their gates.
But I believe that in the measure in which the Word of God has its place at the very doorpost of our home.
So our homes will be spared all, beloved. May each home be spared from anything that would rob you or rob me of a sweet, precious, undefiled reality of the Fountain Group.
And the wall of the pool of Siloam by the king garden and under the stairs that go down from the city of David, the pool of thy Lord, the king of gardens. And this wonderful language. It's been worth it. Has it not the past by those gates that perhaps both of tears and whatnot in order that we might come to a verse that dust overflow with a picture of that was you and I are entitled to.
The King's garden, we read of that in the Song of Solomon, the full style all we read of in John's Gospel. There the Lord himself.
Stood and brought blessings the stairs that go down from the city of David.
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I went down those stairs.
I went down the stairs in the City of David and stood.
And looked at these walls and looked at these gates or what remains of them.
And having meditated a little bit on this chapter, it stirred my heart deeply within me to think of the lessons that are here for each of our hearts. It brought to mind my home that was so far away as I stood there.
And the responsibility that I have before God as the head of that home, that there ought never, never, never to be brought within the door of that home, front door, back door, side door, or any other door, that which I would not be free to show to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Oh, may the Lord preserve us and keep us. We tried to stress the beginning, the fact that it was His loving, tender heart toward us.
That gave us this instruction, and I believe we've come to a verse that they've seen that shows us at last something of that which is loving heart has in store, as He led us by the power of the furnaces, the valley gates, the dung Gate, and now the rich and wondrous blessings of His heart.
The next verse after him repaired Nehemiah, the son of Asboth, the ruler of the half part of Bethesda, out of the place over against the sepulchre of David.
And at a pool that was made and under the House of the mighty. I would just suggest that the sepulchers of David.
Would quite possibly speak to us.
Of the Lord's death.
The Lord Beth.
And I believe that that ought to be a very, very wonderful and central point in that which you and I as believers.
And joy in our pathways here, the sepulchre of David.
I believe it ought to be more and more precious every first day of the week.
As we're privileged to come together and to be gathered in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To remember him in death. To remember the one who gained that mighty victory.
Who lay in death. Thank God he's written now. But to my own soul, this is just a little reminder that this also is part of our Pilgrim privilege.
And the House of the mighty.
You notice also in the latter part of verse 19 that we come to the Armory. I believe it would remind us, dear Saints of God, that even though we have reached this place of rich fountains of blessings, was that never cease flowing.
That we need not expect our pathway to be smooth and easy. We're going to have to be prepared for battle. I think we come to the horse gate a little further on, do we not?
The 28th verse.
The horse is prepared also for the day of battle, and I believe there's plenty of evidence in the latter verses of this chapter, although our time will not permit us to go into it in any further details. That you and I have every provision that God has given and every provision that we ever will need.
For any encounter along the way, the Armory or immediately we think of the sixth of the season, don't we?
With every provision there that we need, meditate on that 6th chapter of Ephesians. You need it. I need it. With everyone needed in this day more than ever, we needed it before to have on the whole armor of God.
The struggles may be difficult, but the resource is sure.
Well, I'm just going to mention another thought her to a 22nd verse.
Is a verse that has been a comfort.
After him repaired the Preak, a man of the flame.
I like to think that that's where I fit in.
The man of the plane.
They weren't rulers of this to rulers of that. They weren't Goldsmiths, they weren't apothecaries, they weren't high priests. They were just men of the plane.
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Just ordinary, everyday men of the plain. Nothing outstanding about them. Nothing more could be said about them. No gift whatever. They were men of the plain. But what do they do? Did they say let him do the building? No, they got in there and did their part through.
I think that's where we fit in, don't we? For just men of the plane, we don't.
Stand up as though we had anything different than anyone else. But all beloved, may we be found.
Sisters, fathers, mothers, and young people, with this earnest, prayerful desire on each of our hearts that there may be in front of my chamber, in front of my home, and wherever else the Lord may send me.
The privilege and the responsibility of seeing tombs, of building of the wall. May I just ask that there shall be the desire of your heart in front of your chamber, in front of your home.
The responsibility that is yours, perhaps not only for your own home, but maybe also from time to time.
You think there might be a little exercise needed in that direction in someone else's home?
Should you do about it?
Just whisper behind his or her back. Isn't it too bad the way his children are going on? Oh no, I don't think so. I think it would be a good idea to get down on our knees and pray lovingly and earnestly and fervently. And perhaps it might even be resented a little bit.
That's a little reminder to that father or that mother or those dear young people, perhaps alone.
As to the responsibility of this wall in their lives, the mingling with those who are enemies of the cross of Christ.
I agree. The Spirit.
May we be found beloved face of God, not only in place.
Gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in heart and soul, enjoying Himself, and in glad and thankful separation from all that would be a hindrance. The last gate mentioned is in the 31St verse, the gate miscad.
The gate mishap, I believe from those who have studied it, it's the same gate as is recorded in the last of the 29th verse, the gate to space eastward. I remember talking to our brother Walter Gill of Oakland about this and he said, Oh yes, he said, I've always enjoyed that, the gates, Miss Cadbury. And he said, I love to think that my father sat at that gate for a long time before the Lord.
Home eastward, that's where the sun rises. That's where the sun rises, beloved, and that's where our gates should be. Entering in by the sheep gate, passing through all those circumstances which his wisdom and his love might choose for us, drinking deeply of the refreshment of the delights of pour into our thirsty souls.
Well prepared and equipped by him for every struggle along the way.
Our place be found at the gate, Miscad facing eastward, waiting for the glorious moment. And it might be tonight when we'll hear his voice and be found.
Suddenly, in a moment with himself. Wouldn't that be a grand thing that happened right now?
If we heard his voice, I remember visiting a dear brother in New Brunswick.
They're better Welcome. He was very, very, very deaf.
And I somehow had a feeling that I could make him hear if I tried hard enough.
And I got up quite close and I hollered a verse in his ears and took his head so I was around the other side and tried again till he couldn't get it. I tried once more. He shook his head. He said, never mind, I'll hear the shout when it comes. Oh, I thought that was lovely. That's what he was waiting for. All their Saints of God. May we be found by His matchless grace.
Fathers, mothers, young people and children too.
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Facing eastward, watching and waiting with glad heart inside the wall for the moment of his coming again. Shall we just look for the Lord in prayer?