The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. This morning I'd like us to take a bit of a breather and review where we've come over the last five weeks. And this was one of those projects where when I got into it, I was like, all right, I'm just going to do a little review, maybe 10 minutes. I'm not sure we'll finish today, but we'll try. So, one of the keys to learning is repetition, and so what we want to do to get a sense of the ebb and the flow of the book and how it's fitting all together is to review where we've come thus far, and so be looking for a whole lot of interactions from you, because while it doesn't do my soul all that much good to just sit here and say over and over what and where we've been. Hopefully it'll be good for us to stir up our memories and to interact on those things. So as the book opens, we find Christian in what city? City of destruction. And what is it that bothers Christian so very much? The burden on his back and something else. He read something. What did he read? Well, his conscience is there, but what's stirring up his conscience? Yeah, he read the word. He read what the Bible said about him and his sin, and as he's wrestling just in agony in those early, I mean, in that first couple paragraphs, he's absolutely distraught, and there's one line in particular that haunts him, and I believe it's that he must flee from the wrath that is to come. So he's actually, the reason I bring that up is he will bring that up later on because he bumps into this thing called the law several times throughout his, well, his journey, and the law has different functions along the way. And so early on, that law comes and threatens his soul with destruction, which is actually, while it is not a fun function of the law, is it a needful one? Yeah, what a grace of God to send the law into our lives to tell us if you don't stop and repent and run to refuge in Christ, you will be destroyed. That's not a fun endeavor, but it's a needful one for the soul. Christian is sharing, he's not yet Christian there. Who remembers what his original name was? No Grace or Graceless, right? Yeah. So he's pleading with his family, he's pleading with his children. They don't follow him at that point, they'll follow him later. And what does he run out of the house doing as his wife and kids petition him to stay? He's got his ears plugged with his fingers and what does he say to himself? Life, life, eternal life. So as he's fleeing, he is pursued by two citizens of that city, their names were Obstinate and pliable, obstinate is the one who turns back first, he just wants to be proven right. Pliable goes with him a little bit of the way. And what is pliable really interested in hearing about? The stuff that God can give him. Is he interested in God himself or the stuff God can give? Is there a world of difference between those two? Yeah, there is. So, they run into which place, Charlie? How would we properly pronounce that? Exactly right. The Slough of Despond, obviously. Yeah. They have a huge influence, sadly, on our pronunciation. He falls into the slough, or to those among us, the slew, which is just the past tense of dislay, but we won't quibble. Falls into it, pliable, also falls into it, but why does he not struggle as much as Christian does? Not nearly as much. Doesn't have a burden on his back, which means he doesn't have what? doesn't have a sense of his guilt. So the slough is to him not nearly the problem it was to Christian or to Pilgrim at that point. He returns and he goes back, and we'll actually, further on today, we'll talk about what Pliable told the citizens when he got back covered in mud. So Christian gets out with the help of who? Help, yep, aptly named, and helped ask him why he didn't look for the steps. And where does help direct Christian's eyes? The wicket gate, can he see the gate from where he's at? No, but he can see yon shining light. So he goes towards that, and as he's on his way to find the wicket gate, he runs into Mr. Worldly Wise Man, have we met Mr. Worldly Wise Man? Personally in our own lives? Yeah, yes, sadly. And he tells them that rather than going to the Wicked Gate, which would be rather than going through the way of salvation that is Jesus Christ, he must stop off shortly and go to what city? Town of Morality, and who's there? Mr. Legality, and he has a pretty son, it says. Civility, yeah. And as he goes there, this is again, so this is gonna be the second time the Christian, early in the book, runs into what? The law. So he goes to the foot of Sinai, and does he find rest for his soul? No, he doesn't. What does he find? He finds terrors. It feels as though the mountain's gonna fall on him. And isn't that, it's a good response. You might say, that doesn't seem like a good response. A far more troubling response is that he would settle just comfortably into a legalistic life that was very impressed with his own accomplishments, and there he would live out his days until he'd be destroyed. So it's actually quite a good function of the law, a gracious function of the law that it would terrify him and it's carrying out its first use, chastens him to Christ, chastens him to the narrow gate. A figure shows up there and lovingly rebukes him, who is this? Evangelist. Evangelist gives him a bit of a tuning up, as we would call it in my house growing up, and he is sent to the wicked gate. He goes in, and who is the one who pulls him through? Christ, but what's his name in the book? Mr. Goodwill pulls him in as fiery darts are falling. He goes to Interpreter's House. We've said that Interpreter's House represents the church. So every church is an interpreter's house, every minister is a interpreter, and how many rooms, this is like a little trivia thing, how many rooms were in interpreter's house? Seven, good job. So as he leaves interpreter's house, he quickly comes upon what huge turning points in the book. I hear like a little whispering, be bold, even if it's wrong, own it. What's that? Cross and the sepulcher, right? There you go. Don's already got it. So what happens at the cross and the sepulcher? Burden falls off. So a sense of his guilt and shame falls off his back. As he progresses forward, he runs into lots of different characters. Three of them were sleeping. I know this is like cleaning off the cobwebs here. Sloth, presumption, that's simple, yeah. And they were sleeping and they had chains around their ankles and I think it was Mr. Alexander White said that if Christian could have returned in a short period of time, the chains would be around their necks. that they've stayed long in that place, their situation would get worse and worse and worse. Two individuals come over the wall, their names are Formalist and Hypocrisy and Brian, which side of the path do they come in on? Which side? No, the left, they were liberals, come on. That was a swing and a miss. Oh no, I just used a baseball analogy. Wash my mouth out with soap when I get home. They come and they have, I think it's a really profound conversation with Christian on the ways in which they justify the ends by the means so they don't enter by the wicked gate that as Pastor Charlie mentioned over and over and over again. You know how things are going to work out for folks based on did they enter by the gate or did they not? That's gonna be the thing that dictates it. So Christian, faithful and others, enter by the narrow gate and you know they're going to make it to the celestial city. For one very simple reason, they enter by the gate. Every other character who doesn't, no matter how good they sound early on or how well articulated they are, you know this is not going to end well. because they didn't enter by the narrow gate. Formalist, hypocrisy, and Christian all show up at hill difficulty and there's a road called danger and a road called, I think it's just destruction, right? They take those ways and are lost. Christian goes up and over. He finds a place that goes from resting to sleeping. The place was set there for rest. and he slept. Is there a difference between resting and finding like a strengthening aspect versus being totally checked out? Yeah. And Christian chose the latter, sadly. He loses his scroll. He has to go back for it. After that, he runs into, this is a real tester, he runs into two folks at the top of hill difficulty. Mistrust and timorous. They warn him of... You guys are doing way better than I thought. I mean, not like I had low thoughts. It's just been a while since we've done it. They warn him of the lions. He goes forward and he can see them and hear them. And what does he not notice about them? He doesn't notice the chains. Providential work of God restraining evil, right? He goes to Palace Beautiful. Again, we've mentioned, like Lord of the Rings, that this is a journey narrative, and so journey or story narratives like that have points where they stop and find rest, and characters are developed. That happened in Interpreter's House, it happens here. Every time they stop, in a good sense, it's a picture of what? church, right? Bunyan is at different points showing you different aspects of the church. So there were three virtues that were symbolized there at Palace Beautiful. They were prudence, charity, and piety. Which one asks the hardest questions? Oddly enough, charity. I don't know if she was rightly or wrongly named, that's just a point for discussion. But that still is one of my favorite sections for some sick reason. And did you not tell them? And did your life destroy what you said with your mouth? I can see him be like, you know what, I'm good, I'm gonna move on now. Some sermons are like that, you're just sitting here and you're like, why did I come again here? What can he see from the top of the palace? We're almost up to the point of where we wanna slow down a bit. What can he see from the top of the palace? Like little mountains which would be symbolic of what or where? Of heaven, right? Are there ways in which on Lord's days you can glimpse heaven? Do we hope for such an occasion today? Uh-huh, yeah. from what we hear and what we sing and all that we engage ourselves to do today. It's like Pilgrim looking at heaven, looking at what is ahead. So after that, he descends into two separate valleys. One is the Valley of Humiliation. The second is the Shadow of Death. Valley of Humiliation he encounters Apollyon, and in the Valley of Humiliation, he encounters lots of different stuff. If you were to distinguish the two, one would seem to be enemies without on the outside. That would be his battle with Apollyon. The other would seem to be fears within. If you read through the section on the Valley of Humiliation, It's more of an internal, I know he uses external things to picture it, but it more has to do with him wrestling with the fears of the Christian life, which can be just as destructive. as external demonic opposition. So what he's showing is there's actually different struggles or trials that plague the Christian life. Sometimes it is just this confrontational, massive, overwhelming force. And other times it's what happened in the Valley of Humiliation? Satan whispering in his ear and he couldn't tell if it was his voice or someone else's. Those are two very different trials and yet they both can plague the Christian in different, really, really terrible ways. It's at the end of the Valley of the Shadow of Death that he encounters my most favoritist character. Faithful, I love faithful. He tries to pass faithful up and then smirks at him with vain glory and then trips and falls. I love how realistic Pilgrim's Progress is. He can't get up unless faithful helps him, which makes me wonder, I don't know, apparently Pilgrim was not the most physically fit of all individuals. I think the idea is that we need one another in the church. He's showing a bit of the, the neediness of Christians. Now do we always, don't answer this like too enthusiastically, but do we always want community and help? No. Do we need it? Yes. Those two are running parallel in the Christian life, and so as Christian and faithful begin their journey together, again, is that not a picture, both of the church, as well as good, godly Christian fellowship? Are there friends that you've walked a long stretch of road with? Hopefully, I hope so. I hope we all have dear, dear friends, bosom friends, as the Puritans would call them, to walk life along with. There are few graces as beneficial and helpful as a good, godly friend. And yet, we really undervalue them, especially in the American church. So, Faithful did not fall into the Slava despot. He fell into a different trial altogether. He encountered somebody. Pastor Brian pronounced it, wonton. It's just a further evidence, Charlie, you can't trust the redneck pronunciation of things. I won't mention what origin he said wonton was from. But he encountered temptation of that, and likened it to Joseph fleeing Potiphar's wife. He continues talking through the bumps and bruises along the way, and what is that, what would we call that? The sharing of your journey. Yeah, giving a testimony, talking through the way that God had dealt with you. So if you've got, I know it doesn't look green today because I took the dust cover off, but if you have the green volume, I'm not a green purist or elitist, it's just the one I have. So if you have the green volume, it's on page 75, is where we're gonna start dipping in on some things. If you have the orange or yellow, I don't know what color that is, yellow copy, I think it's like 10 pages north or south of it. I don't know which one. If you have the red copy, my apologies. I don't know where you're at. Or how you're supposed to read that facsimile. On page 75, there's just some, just wonderful sections, right? So as they're talking, Christian's asking, well, what happened to those guys that came back? What happened to pliable? And I love in the middle of page 75, faithful, says of pliable, yes, Christian, I heard that he followed you till he came to the Slough of Despond, where, as some said, he fell in, but he would not be known to have so done. He denied that he fell into the Slough of Despond. That's a weird detail. And he says, but I am sure he was soundly bedabbed with all kinds of dirt. It's like when your kids come in, you're like, were you playing in the mud? They're like, no. They're covered with it. Well, how did you get so dirty? I don't know. Well, that's Pliable's response. Now, he would think in his apostasy, right, or in his going along and turning back, that he would be welcomed back to the city. How do they treat him? Well, they treat him like just garbage. He's actually just full of shame and often the promises and the allures of the world of return and we will celebrate you, they're just lies. Yet how many have gone back for such promises and been horribly disappointed. Over on page 77. at the bottom of hill difficulty, again showing that faithful and Christian, while both encountering difficulties, encounter difficulties of a different kind, right? So Christian's hill difficulty was just depicted in ways of a very physical, arduous scramble. Said he went from running to walking to crawling and scratching his way to the top. Faithful's hill difficulty wasn't anything like that. Faithful's hill difficulty was met at the bottom by an individual whose name was the first, the first Adam. Adam the first. Now Adam the first promises him all sorts of things. What does he promise him? If you go back with me, he promises him, does anyone remember? He offers them delights, wages, and dainties. I'm not sure what a dainty is. Like little knickknacks or something. Maybe he was a collector, I don't know. And he says, if you go back with me, I've got three daughters, you can marry all of them. This is where we don't press analogies too far. What are the three daughters? less of the flesh, pride of life, less of the eyes. Have we encountered three daughter figures before? Yeah, where would we do that? Charity, piety, and prudence. Yeah, it's actually kind of the counter vices of the world that are very opposite the virtues in the Christian church, right? And he says, you can come and you can participate in all of the things that you'll desire. And there's just this beautiful way in, I mean, he promises, I'll make you my heir. You'll inherit things and faithful wanting to go along with him. This is over on page 78. He says he was inclined to go with him, but looking at his forehead, as I talked with him, I saw written, this is very helpful actually, put off the old man with his deeds. I wish some things were just that obvious in life, right? And so Faithful doesn't go with him, and he says to Christian, Then it came burning hot to my mind that whatever he said and however he flattered When he got me home to his house, he would sell me for a slave What a powerful way to describe sin and temptation huge promises the world and all its delights and I'll make you heir of all kingdoms are actually mirroring someone else's Temptations, Christ and Matthew, yeah. They mirror the very same pattern where Satan came and offered him all the world and its dainties, I guess, right? All these things can be yours if you will but bow and worship me. The very same temptations, he promises satisfaction, but behind it all is slavery. Man, do we as Christians need to keep that in mind. That all the promises of sin are nothing more than lies of the enemy and we shouldn't believe liars. Then Adam afflicts him by, it says he laid hold of his flesh and gave him such a deadly twitch back that he thought he was going to be pulled apart. And Adam, I use this term intentionally, sicks someone towards him or after him. Says Moses, so what would Moses be symbolic of here? Yeah, the law. Now we wanna be careful. Is the law bad? No, that's where we gotta be careful. Does the law have unpleasant effects on sinful people? Yeah, it's not fun. So Adam sends the law chasing after him. What does Moses do to poor old faithful? Beats him like a tied up goat. Faithful revives, and then what does he do again? Beats him. I guess that rod was for more than splitting the Red Sea and bringing water out of rocks, it was made for beating Christians. Struck him again, he cried for mercy, but what's the response he gets? He says, I know not how to show mercy. It's actually not the function of the law. It's not what it does. Is the law chasing us to Christ? Yes, it does. Does the law in its second use be a means to restrain evil in the world? Yes, it does. Is it in the Christian life to be the form and fashion of the way that we live? Yes, it is. But it's not merciful. But then one comes and delivers him, and how does he know who this one is? There's something that gives it away. The scars of Christ, right? Really similar to that scene with Christ and Thomas. He says he knows who it was that delivered him because he saw the holes in his hands and in his side, and I concluded that it was our Lord. Then Christian says that man that overtook you was Moses, he spares none, neither knows how to show mercy to those that transgress his law. And so as he proceeds up the hill, he goes over into the Valley of Humiliation. That's where Christian fought Apollyon, Faithful does not encounter Apollyon, not here at least. He'll encounter him later, oddly enough. But what different valley of humiliation does faithful fall into? He meets somebody. What was that? Discontents. I think there's much more going on here in Pilgrim's Progress than meets the eye. Is discontentment possibly as dangerous and demonic as Apollyon? I think so. Has it ruined many? Yeah. It'll ruin your life. It'll ruin your marriage. It'll ruin your parenting. It can ruin anything. It can take you out of a fantastic church. It can take you out of great situations. Why? The subtle demonic lies of discontentment. I think that there's so much going on there that there are times where in the Christian life it feels like you're getting totally overwhelmed by a force vastly stronger than you. And then other times it's the quiet mutterings of discontentment that are just as dangerous, just as devastating. I just... obviously think that Bunyan is a fantastic writer and that he's showing all the multiple facets of the Christian life that we need to be aware of. Sometimes the enemy brings like a frontal attack. Sometimes the enemy calls people called friends, like discontentment to utter in your ear. And it can be in the sense of from a friend, counseling, but it's the same lies. Discontentment has some friends, pride, arrogancy, self-conceit, and worldly glory. If people had names like that, we'd stay further away from them, but sadly, they don't. And so as he's arguing back and forth with discontentment, he comes to a more prominent character. And this is the only time so far in the book where we've read of a character that's accused of being poorly named. Shame. Now hopefully as you read about shame, there was a bit of a struggle, because you went, I don't understand why he's poorly named. Am I the only one? Maybe it's just because I've got learning disabilities. I don't know. Why does he say shame is poorly named? What's that? Well, that might be part of it, yeah. The issue with shame is that he brings shame on all the wrong things. Is there a good function of shame? There is, yeah. We're meant to be ashamed when we go into our sin. Shame is actually meant to be something where we, when we sin, we should be ashamed of what we've done and use that to chasten us to repentance. Shame is ashamed of all the wrong things. He's ashamed, on the top of 81, of religion itself. He's ashamed that God doesn't save many strong and many mighty. He's ashamed that Christianity is so lowly a thing. He's ashamed that Christians are, in the middle of the page, lacking in understanding in all natural sciences. Boy, nothing's changed. I won't even bother to reference ways in which Christians are mocked for being ignorant in science. And I've seen, sadly, many Christians adopt beliefs nowhere found in scripture because they want to be received and respected scientifically. 81. He says, this is shame talking. He said, it is a shame to sit whining and mourning under a sermon. Now, I agree with the whining, but don't whine. But he said, it's a shame if you go to a church where when the pastor is preaching, you feel bad about stuff. That's the wrong kind of shame. It's a shame to come sighing and groaning home. Grief over sin. It's a shame to ask my neighbor forgiveness for petty faults. You could substitute in that or ask your spouse or ask your kids forgiveness. It's just any humility at all, shame doesn't like it. He says, I think it's earlier, should have marked it. He says it's a shame that we would have a tender conscience. Things shouldn't bother you. He even says, and this one hits deeply, he says that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing. Well, those are fighting words right there. accusing me of not being manly. So, he says it's just shame to make restitution. Basically, it's a shame to live a humble Christian life. It's a shame to live a humble Christian life. And then, I think this is faithful recounting what shame says. He says, and he had all these other few vices which he called by finer names. Like Adam in the garden, naming the animals. Shame renames vices good things. It's not greed, it's ambition. It's not stubbornness, I'm just, you know, self-made. I'm not hating of community, I'm independent. You know, all these certain things, right? So as he goes on, he says that his summary of shame is he can tell me much of men, but nothing of God. That's faithful summary. You can tell me nothing of God. He says in the middle of 82 that the poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the greatest man in the world that hates him. Shame, depart. Thou art an enemy to my salvation. What a beautiful response. When you as a Christian feel the temptation to be ashamed of things that you shouldn't be ashamed of. We should not be ashamed of what Paul says the gospel, because it's the very power of God to save. We shouldn't be ashamed of humility. We shouldn't be ashamed to ask each other for forgiveness. We shouldn't be ashamed of all of these other pieces. The Christian life is a humble, or ought to be a humble life. And rather than kicking against it, we need to actually lean into that and take Well, just embrace it. So he then finds a character after his encounter with shame, and it's one that he spends a surprisingly long time developing. Talkative, yeah. Talkative, and the scene with Talkative, is criticized by some as being a kind of a doldrums portion of the book. Even Alexander White, one of the guys that I read on Pilgrim's Progress said, Bunyan spent too long talking about talkative. I thought it was ironic. However, why would he spend so much time on talkative? It's not a hard question. That is our problem. And do we, I don't want names or testimonies. Have we met talkative? Yeah. Here's the thing with talkative. Does he strike us at the outset that he's talkative? No, he doesn't. So when talkative comes, who absolutely just fawns over talkative in the text? Faithful, actually. Faithful lets me down right here, but I guess it's fitting that Christian not have all the problems, but faithful have some as well. Talkative comes and he lures them into conversation, basically saying, I can't find Christians who would, you know, have good, hard Christian talking. You know, talk about the deep things of the Lord. When you hear someone say that, you're kind of like, oh wow, man, this Christian ain't playing around. I'm gonna talk to this guy. Bunyan says, be careful of such a one. because he was quick to disparage all the others he'd talked to, which would, that's like broadcasting that you're gonna make that list here real soon. That you're gonna be that name on their list talking to someone else, like, yeah, I met Daniel, like, pfft, that guy couldn't even talk about the deep things of the Lord. They do it to you, so when you hear, the same thing is true of gossip oddly. When someone gossips to you, don't be such a fool to think like, oh, but yeah, they wouldn't do that about me. No, you'll make the rounds that afternoon with someone. So Talkative lures in Faithful, and he's very educated, and his dialogue is actually pretty complex. He speaks of the gospel, he speaks of the wonder of grace, and as Talkative is getting lured in, here's a function of friendship, Christian pulls him aside and is like, yeah, I know that guy. You need to watch out for him. So as he is being impressed, I mean, and there's times in my margin, you can see at least at two points on page 86, where faithful addresses talkative as, oh, brave talkative. Like he sees this guy as just a bold hearted Christian who says what he means and means what he says. There are lots of people out there in the world like that. The internet has not helped them. Now they have platforms and followers and the world is more full of talkative than ever before probably. They have blogs. They love Facebook in particular, especially with how this resolves itself. Talkative blocks Faithful from his friends list. I'm sure Faithful really thought about his life decisions after such a rebuke. They talk about talkative, he's from, he's the son of Saywell, he is from Prattling Row, that was the name of his blog, oddly enough, I think. And so, and refers, Faithful says on page 87, well, he seems to be a very pretty man. I don't, pretty man? That is not a compliment, gentlemen. You never want to be referenced as a pretty man. That should have been the first giveaway. The guy's pretty? Mm-mm. Christian says to faithful, that is, I think this is actually one of the most profound sections in the book thus far. Christian talking about talkative to faithful, and there's a dynamic that he's gonna key in on. because he says he's a pretty man, which means he's very amiable. He's a likable guy. You meet him, you sit down to lunch with him, and you're just like, wow, this dude has read Bavink and Berkhoff and Calvin, even read the right version of Calvin, and he's done, he knows all the stuff. This guy could teach at seminary. Christian says, that is to them that have not a thorough acquaintance with him, for he is best abroad, Near home he is ugly enough. You're saying that he is a pretty man brings to my mind what I observed in the work of the painter whose pictures show best at a distance, but very near more unpleasing. This is a person who right at the outset looks very put together. And the more you get to know them, the more the red flags pop up. the more concerns arise. These folks would keep folks at a distance for that very purpose. He'll go on to say that he's one thing at church and a whole different thing at his family. That he'll talk this way to the pastor, a different way to his wife at home. That he smiles at church and he screams at the kids. We know talkative. Talkative is, well, he's everywhere. So there is the issue where Christian rightly diagnoses the problem. Religion is no place in his heart or in his house or in his conversations. All he has lies in his tongue and his religion makes a noise wherewith. The problem with talkative is his religion is all up here and it isn't right here. So we can talk a good game, and Christian, like, tells faithful, ask him about how he actually lives. Don't ask him about the good talk. Does he, ah, it's so cheesy to say it this way, does he actually walk his talk? That is cheesy but it captures it. So faithful begins to ask him about how do you actually live your life and how do you actually follow the Lord and how do you do this or how do you do that and instantly talkative begins to get perturbed with him and starts pushing back saying that he's trying to trap him saying that he's not being nice and that, you know, I presume that you're trying to get me to actually talk about the way that I live my life." And Faithful's like, yeah, that's kind of a big deal. Faithful says on page 89, well, I say that saying and doing are two different things. And hereafter I shall better observe the distinction. So watching someone's life as well as their words. And so they begin to have a back and forth with talkative and faithful presses the issue on that you can have knowledge without grace. Knowing about God, if I could use Packer's terminology, is different than knowing God. And those two, from a distance, look very similar to one another. Talkative, gets frustrated with Faithful, and he says, well, you seem to know all the answers, why don't you just tell me what it is you're looking for? And Faithful says, okay, I will. So, as Mark's of, I don't think I missed, oh, here it is. I wanna hit one thing before we get there. He's pressing him on his relationship with sin. And talkative says, well, the grace of God in the heart causes an outcry against sin. And he starts to go on and faithful goes, hold up. No, it doesn't just cause an outcry. It causes something else. Again, what sort of a word is outcry? It's a talking word. Not a doing word. Not a feeling word. So even here, if you were to hear that, oh, you know, a mark of grace in the soul is, you know, I cry out against sin. You'd be like, oh, amen. Faithful goes, hold up. Not really. He says, one thing to say, oh, sin's bad. It's another thing to hate it. Those aren't just words, that's actually action in the soul. He says, grace shows itself in the inclining of the soul to abhor sin, to hate it. So then later on, on page 93, they're talking about marks of grace in the soul, talking to us like, just tell me what you want. I know we won't agree. Use your liberty, just say it anyway. And Faithful says, well, the work of grace in the soul discovers itself in these ways. To him who has it, It first gives him a conviction of sin. It's not simply a word, a perspective, but he's actually convicted over sin, especially the defilement of his nature. Is it a different thing to say, I sinned, I shouldn't have done that, versus I am wicked and I sinned. One could be, I made a mistake, people make mistakes, no one's perfect. The other says, I sin because of my soul, I'm wicked. Those are different things. Mark of grace is that one not only just recognizes sin is wrong, but recognizes that sin's not like this piece of him that he could get cut off, it is him. It runs all the way through him. The second mark of grace is a sorrow and shame for sin, a right expression of shame there. The third is the absolute necessity of closing with Christ for life. So it responds by action, running to the Savior for forgiveness and for life. Fourthly, it hungers and thirsts after that Savior. Fifthly, he desires to know him more, and it doesn't stop there, and to serve him in the world. Talkative doesn't like it, so he blocks them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And then probably talked about him on his blog. That's talkative. And I would say, before we move on from talkative, that it is something for which we should be aware. Firstly, we should be aware of that tendency in our own souls. The Reformed world in particular can struggle greatly with being talkatives. Because we know a lot of stuff. That stuff doesn't translate into action. It's not really all that helpful stuff, is it? The other is to be aware of it out and about in the world. I won't go into any kind of details, but I've run headlong into some friendships with talkative. And it will come around to bite you. Just be cautious with those who are impressive early on. Not in a jaded way or in a cynical way, but don't be overly quickly impressed, but be wise and humble and careful in the way that we deal one with another. Moving onward then after this encounter with, oh, we're not even gonna get there. I was totally right that this would take forever. So, we'll get through this next tiny little section, but then we'll do this again next week. So, after talkative, they run into a character that we've met many times, and we really enjoy meeting them each time. That's not sarcastic, who is it? It's Evangelist. Evangelist was modeled after who's a real life character. Bunyan's pastor, yeah. So here comes a loving instructor in the word of God. They greet him, they love to see him, and he begins to warn them about what's coming up on the road, what's coming up over the next hill. Vanity Fair. And he tells them that they can't go around it because the path goes right through it. What does Vanity Fair stand for? Las Vegas? It's not untrue. Reno would also count. So life, but life where? Life in the world. Yeah. There's a reason why the pathway goes through it. You cannot avoid it. Now do some try. There is a bunker mentality where we think we can pull far. What he's setting up is actually going to be a very, well it's both internal and external, but he's going to emphasize the external element of it. The threatenings of the world as well as the allurements And then he'll follow it up with another very different temptation with buy-ins afterwards. So buy-ins will stand in contrast with vanity fair, but he's setting it up. He tells them that they're going to be afflicted, bottom of page 98. You will be hardly beset, not like hardly, like barely, but like hard oppressed. with enemies who will strain hard but will kill you. And be sure that one or both of you must seal the testimony which you hold with blood. But you, what does he tell them after this? That's the reward after it. How are they to respond to this? Do you think that there's a play on words there? He's already telling you faithful's gonna be faithful to death. He's, before the episode begins, you don't know that until you actually go through it. There's a reason why faithful is called faithful. There's a reason why the word says be faithful unto death. He's telling you ahead of time that faithful will meet his end here and that that has been part of the church's life throughout time. The town is called Vanity and it has three lords over it. Who are the three lords over it? Baal-Zebub, Apollyon. Wow, we met him again. And Legion. What are all three of those references, references to? Demons. Are there real demonic forces at work in the world? You'd be foolish not to think so. You'd be foolish to think that the things that we see in our world are like, oh, wow, that's a weird coincidence. They're going for our children. They probably don't mean to. Oh, they mean to. Oh, they mean to. The ploys and the tactics of the world are not accidental. They're not neutral. It's not like the world is a bumbling idiot that accidentally does great harm. It's wicked and shrewd and demonic. So when you see things like, because we do have little ones listening in today, when you see things like reading hour at libraries led by certain individuals, that's not accidental. When you see the so-called gender-affirming things that are going on in our culture where they're physically marring and doing everything they can to mar the very image of God by mutilation, you might think like, oh, that's just like, that's just idiocy run amok. No, it's intentional. It's aimed. They hate God and they hate all things that image God. And so they're fine with murdering image bearers in the womb and mutilating them outside the womb. That's not accidental. So we need to be careful, especially in our way through the world, to be shrewd and not foolish and to not think as we see things. The hard thing is that we see things that are so absurd. You would think like, oh, he's just an idiot. I don't have any in particular person in mind, but, or maybe I do. You see, you're like, well, this is just, this is just sad. Well, it's more than sad. It's very intentional. It's very intentional. Last thing we'll say about this, and we'll pick up here next time on page 100. At the fair, the world sells things. Is everything the world sells sinful? No. Just look at the list on page 100. They sell merchandise, like houses. Is a house inherently a sinful thing? No. Although I did get a, this is like a, if you ever get me telling stories about King's Cross phone calls, It'll be a long story, but one of them, a guy called in the middle of the day, and I was dumb enough to answer the phone, and he was a loon, and was asking me if I owned a house. I said, no, I don't get paid much. I rent a really small apartment. He goes, okay, good. Why do you care what I own or don't own? He goes, if you own a house, you can't be a Christian. I said, what? He says, son, a man had nowhere to lay his head. What are you even talking about? He goes, every Christian that owns a house isn't a Christian that's going to hell. I said, well, where do you live? He goes, oh, I rent. I said, isn't that a place to lay your head? Well, not in the same way, anyway. It went on, it degenerated from there. They sell lands, trades, places. Honors, honors in and of themselves aren't wrong. Performance, titles, countries, kingdoms, all of those so far are like, well, they could be good or bad. Lusts, okay, yeah, now, that's not good. Pleasures, could be good or bad. Delights, all sorts. And then he goes on to an interesting list. Whores, prostitutes. Bods, which would be those who would oversee that profession. Wives. Husbands. What a fascinating list he's putting together. Some are lured off down that road, and some have made a ruin pursuing a spouse that they shouldn't have pursued, or become so desperate that they went against all knowledge and wisdom. Children. Are children a good gift from God? What he's drawing to the forefront of our minds is the principle we found in Ecclesiastes. Good gifts make bad gods. The world would have you buy and sell them. Lives, bloods, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and whatnot. He then goes on to the distractions of the world. Juggling, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes. I don't know what's going on with apes. Knaves, rogues, and every kind. I mean, imagine what the list would be now. Social media and entertainment and who knows what else. And then overt sins, right? So the world will sell everything and anything to try to lure you away from following the Lord. And if they could use a sin to ensnare you, they'll use the sin to ensnare you. And if they can use a good gift to ensnare you, they'll use a good gift to ensnare you. I think there's actually quite a lot of thought that went into the making of that list. For some, it is the idolizing of pleasure and all the sin that goes down that road. For some, it's the idolizing of safety, or security, or with a spouse, someone who completes you, or is the key to your happiness, or I can tell my seventh and eighth graders just this last week, don't marry someone for that reason. Don't think like, you know what would make me happy? Another sinner in my life. You will be disappointed. Is a spouse a good gift? Yeah. I mean, second to salvation, best gift I've ever received. But only in its right and proper place. The moment you try to make a God out of a gift, your life will be ruined. But if you could enjoy the gifts of God for what they are, oh, what blessing comes from it. What real enjoyment and joy can flow from that. We'll pick up there next week. We'll go through Vanity Fair and buy-ins, and then after that we'll begin on despair. Let's pray. Father, give us grace and zeal to take your name on our lips today. We pray that we would be a people who, very unlike talkative, that religion would be in our heart, not just in our heads. We pray that we'd be a people who live well as well as speak well of you. Father, we pray that we would be mindful of the world in which we live, that we would be wise and that we would instruct our kids in the way of your wisdom. Father, we pray that you would guard our hearts and the hearts of our children to not be lured away by the things of the world, but to follow the straight path that you've laid for each and every one of us. We pray that as we hear your word and sing your praises today, that you would ride upon the praises of your people and that you would do us much good today. We pray this in our Savior's name, amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.