Christ dwells in the Church. As the Church abides in Christ, and Christ abides in the Church, then the Church, His Body, becomes the Door, the Way, the Gate to the Father through the Lord Jesus. The Church is the eternal House of God. The church buildings never are the House of God. It is the saints in Christ who are the House of God.

A human being can approach God only through Christ. But Christ is not in the world any longer except in His Church. Therefore, the Church is the gate opening into Heaven, opening into the Presence of the holy Father through Christ.

In Revelation, Chapter 21 we learn that the twelve gates of Jerusalem are twelve pearls. A pearl is formed as a living animal, an oyster, builds a protection within itself against a grain of sand that has become lodged inside its shell.

So it is that the saints go through life with a "grain of sand inside their shell." If we respond correctly to the irritations that the Lord sends our way, a "pearl" is formed in us. Notice that it is not the saint that is the gate, it is the pearl that is the gate. It is the spiritual treasure that Christ creates in us, the "pearl" of the inner man, that serves eternally as the way to God for all the peoples of the earth.

The gates of the new Jerusalem are never shut (Revelation 21:25).

How many times have people come to us hoping to receive God, only to find that the gate of our life was shut? We were not ready to reveal Christ to them.

One part of the work of restoration is to build the gates—gates that will be open at all times to every soul who is crying out for God.

A gate is useless apart from a wall. The gates are to be part of a wall that is a powerful, impregnable defense against all sin, all lawlessness, all rebellion against the Father's will. Rebellion never shall be allowed to pass through those gates into the Presence of Almighty God—never again!

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)

The concept of the gate, of access to the Presence of the Lord, is important in the Scriptures. The saints are being created as gatekeepers in the household of God so uncleanness does not enter among the holy things of God.

And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. (Ezekiel 44:6,7)

And again:

Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. (Ezekiel 44:11)

Why would the Jews bring unclean strangers into the sanctuary of the Lord? For the same reason that we do today. We are so anxious to please the world that we bring into the Lord's worship services the people of the world and rebellious, lukewarm "believers" under the misguided idea that we are "ministering" to them. We are not ministering to them. We are compromising with them, hoping to gain their support.

To be continued.