There is a great need for confession and repentance today on the part of God's people. Much uncleanness is piled up in the personalities of the believers. This boil must be brought to a head and then lanced. When it is lanced, the corruption gushes forth and the believer is prepared for the coming of the Lord.

Now is the time for us to confess our sins and turn away from them. Great peace will be given to those who confess and turn away from their sins. But those who ignore the move of the Holy Spirit, keeping their sins "hidden" from God and from their fellow believers, will surely be judged by the Lord.

Sinning Christians will be chastened until they are willing to confess and repent. If we will not judge ourselves, the Lord shall judge and chasten us so we will not be destroyed along with the world (I Corinthians 11:32).

But if we harden our heart we will be condemned along with all other rebels against the Lord, whether or not we are making a profession of Christ.

Rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem.

. . . and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken, . . . . (Nehemiah 2:13)

We have spoken before of the wall that must be constructed around the Glory of God. There will be a wall of fiery judgment protecting all of God's works. Never again will there be an unwalled paradise.

Under Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and Ezra the priest, helped along by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, the Temple had been restored and some of its priestly services begun. But the neighboring Canaanites were harassing the Jews living in the area of Jerusalem.

Such harassment was made possible by the fact that the city of Jerusalem was not protected by walls and gates. The walls and gates had been broken many years previously when the Babylonians had entered Jerusalem in triumph and carried off most of the people to Babylon.

So it is today. Harassment of God's people by the enemy is possible. The Lord's sheep and lambs are deceived and plagued by the enemy at his will. A wall of protection must be constructed around all of God's Glory and grace in the earth. The wall is being created today as the saints are accepting the work of the Holy Spirit. God is creating in the believers an iron resistance to all sin, all lawlessness, all uncleanness, all rebellion against the will of God.

. . . and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. (Nehemiah 2:13)

The Body of Christ holds the keys of the Kingdom of God. Whatever the Church binds on earth is bound in the heavens. Whatever the Church looses on the earth is loosed in the heavens. The reason for this great authority and responsibility is that the Church is an inseparable part of the Lord Jesus Christ and is coheir with Him of the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth.

The Church is the "gate of heaven."

And he [Jacob] was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. (Genesis 28:17)

Christ and His Body are the House of God. Christ and His Body are the gate of Heaven.

Only Christ, is the Door, the Way that opens to God the Father. No human being can approach the Father except through Christ.

To be continued.