The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. We'll continue our series in Pilgrim's Progress. If you have the green copy, we'll begin on page 127. If you don't have the green copy, the Lord helped you find where we're starting. Thanks for laughing, Brian. Appreciate that. As we consider what we looked at last time, beginning on page 127, you'll remember that Christian and Hopeful came through the difficulty of their conversation with Buyends and his bad company. You remember that Buyends, his name means something that's not really easily accessible, kind of in the form that we find it. What does Buyends mean? We mentioned it last time. Anybody? Yes, similar to the ends justify the means but also motivation that's driven from selfishness or self-gain. He does like shortcuts. Correct, he likes paddling his canoe down river, not up. It's the only way to paddle a canoe, right, Charlie? So they will only go with religion for as long as religion is popular and as long as religion doesn't cut against the grain of their own wants and pleasures and preferences. So there's times when sailing with the wind where their lives would look really, really similar to a normal Christian life, and then there are other times where their life would deviate greatly. Thankfully, Christian and Hopeful part company with them. Remember, they come upon a silver mine, and who is kind of the head miner at the silver mine? He has a name, Demas. Demas calls to them. They're tempted to go over and look, but they don't. They continue on, and Bayens and his friends go, and that's the last place that Bayens and his friends are seen, right? So they chase after the allurements of the world and the riches of the world, and it draws them irrevocably off the narrow path. After that scene, they stop, and what, we've mentioned this before, you know I'm a huge nerd on this, so please just humor me for a second. Every time they stop, that would be symbolic of what? Church. And it's a travel narrative, just like what other great narrative? Roughwood, help Pastor Brian out. The Lord of the Rings, absolutely. So just like the Lord of the Rings or Wizard of Oz, if that's your preferred literature, every time they, so there's development that happens in the movements and then there's character development that happens at the points of stopping, right? So there's a lot of things that happen when the movement stops. So just like when they stopped at Palace Beautiful, it was a picture of the church. And just like Partway Uphill Difficulty that you could see, that is a moment that would symbolize the church or rest. There's points at which they stop and they find refreshment in the Lord. On page 127, after this scene, they find yet another point of stoppage, and what do they find along the side of the path there? The pathway just goes right through it. They find a river, and what grows on the side of the river? Trees, good. Good job. And what do these trees represent? The tree of life, and what do their leaves do? Yeah, they heal them. Now, should that remind us of a future destination of the church? Yeah, so what's it doing on this side of the celestial city? Well, isn't the church a foretaste of what awaits us? the Lord's days days of healing days of refreshment days of rest days where we we taste as it were the everlasting water eat of the fruits of God's graces and are healed by the by the means of grace right there are ways in which God takes care of that and their foretaste of what's gonna happen. So while we catch glimmers of it here, there's much more waiting God's people there. But there's pieces of it here and we're actually gonna look at that in the Song of Songs this afternoon, that very same concept. So after this season of refreshment, Bunyan begins at the bottom of 127, saying, now I beheld in my dream. Anytime he uses that sort of language, he reminds you that it's a dream sequence, that the narrative is moving on, and the river and the path for a time parallel one another, and then they depart one from the other. So there's a season of rest, and then that comes to an end. Are all seasons in the Christian life seasons of rest. Do we wish they were? Yeah, we do. Does it mean if it fails to be, if your life fails to be a season of rest, that you are fundamentally or necessarily doing something wrong? No. We need to keep that in mind, right? We need to keep in mind that there are just times where in the Christian life, in the way of faithfulness, it's just plum hard. And that's part of it. Right, so the pathway veers, or the pathway doesn't move, just the river goes off in a different direction, probably off towards the celestial city, and the way becomes difficult. Now, we've seen in Pilgrim's Progress that there are times where the way is particularly easy, and oddly enough, that is a season of temptation. We've also seen that there are ways that are particularly difficult. And guess what that is? Also a season of temptation. What should we glean from this? Every season in the Christian life is a potential season of temptation, right? So sin often lies at the door, and whether it's difficult or easy, and they often tend to be differing temptations in those seasons. So Christian and hopeful, endure a difficult season, which feels particularly sharp after a season of rest, right? When you remember hill difficulty, and then the valley of humiliation, and then the valley of the shadow of death. I mean, it's like difficulty upon difficulty upon difficulty. And the stacking of difficulties can be their own temptation. But here, the ceasing of the easy season and the commencement of a difficult season can be its own unique Temptation. It's very interesting the way that Bunyan portrays this. He says the way was rough, and so it begins to be hard on their feet. And why would it be hard on their feet? The answer's very, very obvious and easy. Because of their Bunyans. I knew you would love it, Forshler. One time, I think, I forget which one of our kids we were pregnant with, and I told Lacey, I said, if it's a boy, can we name him Bunyan? And she goes, no. I said, why not? She goes, you know, that's like a foot thing. I said, no, John Bunyan. She goes, no one would think that. No. So it's a kind grace that God has given me such a sensible wife. He doesn't allow me to name my kids things like that. they become, because of the difficulty, discouraged. Have you ever been discouraged because of difficulty? Yeah. How discouraged would you be if Christian encountered difficulty and he's like, you know what, it's just a cross I bear joyfully, happily, and that was the way the story was? You would read him like, man, I don't know if I'm like this guy. But I'm encouraged that Christian also gets discouraged. sometimes even over little things like sore feet, right? So he becomes discouraged and a little before then there was on the side of the road, now for sure, which side of the road was it? Left, which means? Liberal, I even warned you I would ask you that. Come on, man. On the left side was a meadow, it's called By Path Meadow, and initially the meadow and the narrow way parallel one another, so they aren't going in divergent directions. And the idea was, well, we can still go on the narrow way-ish, but instead of walking on stony, rocky, hard ground that is tough on the feet, we can just hop over the fence, and walk in the meadow and be rid of this difficulty, and there seems to be, now here's the temptation, there did not seem to be conflict between the ease of the meadow and the direction of the narrow way. This is a very subtle temptation, a very, very sneaky one, and they come upon a stile, which would be like steep stairs that help you get over a fence, and cows and sheep not get over the same fence. And so they find that, and they really embrace an argument from design. Who would build a stile if you were not meant to take, well, the stile and go across over into the meadow? And so they take the stile. Now, if you remember, One of them wants to do it, the other one doesn't. Who is favorable towards going to Bypass Meadow? Christian, who is favorable to go to the Silver Mine? Hopeful. Different seasons, different temptations, both need a dear friend to talk them out of it. Does Hopeful try to talk him out of it? He does. Is he successful? Be careful of the influence you have over your friends. Christian has an influence over his friend, hopeful, and what was purely meant to be encouraging and was not motivated at all, he'll come to regret that. He'll actually, in just a few pages, have to repent of this conversation right here. He actually asks Hopeful to forgive him in just a little bit, but he gives what seems to be good advice, what seems to be just wisdom, and he doesn't consider the instructions they were told. He doesn't consider what the word of God had told them, and they go into the meadow, and as they're walking, they meet an individual with a lovely name. What's the person that they meet? Vain Confidence. I don't know what kind of mom he had, but she didn't like him because she named him vain confidence. So they find him and he's not just strolling, but he's striding through the meadow with no issues or hesitation whatsoever. At the bottom of 128, we pick up the narrative. It says, but behold, The night came on, so Christian and Hopeful and Vain Confidence are walking together, and the path has diverted a bit, they kind of lose sight of it, and night falls. When else have we had nightfall in the story thus far? When he lost the scroll on Hill Difficulty, he had to navigate the Palace of the Beautiful in the dark and that was very grievous to him. There was one other time where it was night or dark. Valley of the Shadow of Death. Each time that Bunyan uses darkness, he actually uses it quite intentionally and showing just the difficulty or the consequences of sinful decisions or of great temptation. With hill difficulty, he lost the scroll because of negligent slumber and has to navigate in the night as a consequence. Here, same thing. Seeks ease, suffers the consequences, darkness falls. I'm curious if Bunyan had in mind the darkening effect that sin has on the mind that you just don't see as clearly. You're not thinking rightly, right? And that's one of the reasons why when we submit ourselves to church membership, which would then have implications to church discipline, we're saying, of a sound and clear mind, please come after me if I stray. Because guess what happens when we engage in sin over and over and over again? I am not thinking clearly. Darkness comes over the mind. We need clear-sighted Christians to help us in those moments. Darkness overtakes them at the bottom of 128. He therefore went on before them, so it's so dark they can't see vain confidence anymore, and they lose sight of him. He, because he's confident, just goes on ahead blindly into the dark, not seeing the way before him, fell into a deep pit, which was on purpose there made by the prince of those grounds to catch vainglorious fools. Apparently he was very effective at this. But he gets a little graphic here. And was dashed into pieces with his fall. Now Christian and his fellow heard him fall. That would be a terrifying thing to hear in the dark. To hear, I don't know, thud, thud, crack, crack. I don't know what it sounded like. But it couldn't have been a good sound. And then they hear him groaning at the bottom. That would not encourage me to continue on in the dark, nor did it encourage them. Then said Hopeful, where are we now? Then was his fellow silent. Who's his fellow? Well, Christian, as mistrusting that he had led them out of the way. What has taken over Christian's mind now? Guilt, absolutely. And does guilt help someone see clearly? Not particularly, not in this instance, right? He begins to be weighed down. So not only is he having to worry about the path and the darkness and his friend and the dangers, he's now thinking back that he led his friend here. right? It clouds his mind. Hopeful will bring that up here in a minute. And now it began to rain and thunder and it was in a dreadful manner. And so Hopeful regrets it. He wishes that they had stayed on the way. And a little further down in the middle of 129, a Christian comes to guilt guilt actually yields what it should yield right guilt is made to drive us not to excuse our sin away or to redefine our sin away or to say what well there was a style there how was I to know and blame shift or Christian owns it and repents of it. He says, good brother, be not offended. I'm sorry I've brought thee out of the way and that I have put thee into such imminent danger. Pray my brother, forgive me. He does confess he didn't do it with evil intent, right? That's not blame shifting, that's not excusing, that's honest. Hopeful throws it right back in his face. Just teasing, he doesn't do that. Maybe you guys are like, I like hopeful, man. Hopeful doesn't browbeat him, doesn't remind him of what previous conversation. He doesn't say, I told you, you idiot. No, he doesn't do that. He forgives him. If memory serves me, he doesn't bring it up in the rest of the book, which is a wonderful function of forgiveness, right? He says, I forgive thee. and believe too that this shall be for our good. Hopeful not only has a forgiving heart that every Christian ought to have, but he has faith to know that God can use even the bad things for our good. It's easy for us to see, sort of, how he uses the good things for our good. That just makes sense. But he can use the bad things too. What a beautiful doctrine that Bunyan weaves through the words of Hopeful here. They continue on. There's no way for them to go on because it continues to get worse and worse and worse. At the bottom of page... 129, there is a voice that comes to encourage them. Let thine heart be towards the highway, even the way that thou went'st turn again. So again, some kind of reminder or encouragement, return to the way. It's not too late. You can always go back to the way or the door of repentance isn't closed. But things get so difficult that they actually have to stop for the night. There's so much rain, thunder, lightning, darkness that again, so not only is that difficult, but the pits that were dug for vain confident fools were there. And it says that the floods began to rise. It's on the top of 130. And yet they'd venture to go back, but it was so dark, the floods were so high that in their going back, they had liked to have been drowned nine, it doesn't mean they wanted it, it means that they almost were drowned nine or 10 times. Does it ever seem in life, in the midst of dark situations, that, does it ever feel like you're drowning? Yeah, Bunyan knew what that felt like. Bunyan knew exactly what, what sin and all of its terrible consequences can feel like. It can feel like drowning. And they experience that here. They have to bed down for the night. And he shows in this episode something that we like to believe before we go into sin and yet come to grips with the reality of afterwards. We wanna believe that the going back would be easy. Right? Hopefully you don't think like this clearly, like, hey, I can always go back. The way back, it's just a short little journey back to the narrow way. They found it far more difficult than ever they imagined. Isn't that the way it is with life and with sin? The way back is often far more difficult and dangerous than ever we imagined it would be. Should be a warning, don't leave the path. Even if it's rough and your feet are sore, don't leave the path. Even if there's a meadow and a stile over it and it looks like they go there, don't leave the path. They would have traded the world to go back to sore feet. They would have traded all the drowning, all the terrors, all the pits, what they would have given to go back to the narrow way that was, yeah, it was difficult, But it wasn't like this. The way of sin always promises ease, and it's always more difficult, right? The Lord says it's his yoke that's easy and his burden that's light, especially when compared to that of the world. So they fall asleep. And Bunyan then introduces you to a character, well, two characters and a location. He introduces you to Giant Despair. He introduces you to Giant Despair's lovely wife, Diffidence, and that there is a castle called Doubting Castle. Now, Charlie can help me out with this one. Charlie, who are the bad guys in this story right here. There's two bad guys. Yes. Think of a baseball team. The Giants are the bad guys. The worst, amen, amen. I threw you a softball on that one. So when you think about the Giants, just think about the bad guys. And in the end, they end up dodging the bad guys, but that's, well, oh, geez. I digress. Grievously so. Giant despair finds them. awakens them with what Bunyan calls a grim and surly voice. He captures them because he is stronger than they are. So they can't run fast enough. They can't fight hard enough. He apprehends them, overwhelms them. And if you look, and I believe it's on the page on the top of 131, But he drives out of his way to tell you that this scene goes from Wednesday through Saturday night. Now, you know that he wouldn't tell you anything that wasn't desperately important. So take that information, tuck it away in your back pocket. We'll pull it out here in just a little bit. But to my knowledge, the only time in the book where he mentions days of the week, fascinating. The trial begins on a Wednesday and he goes through Saturday night and we'll actually tie that the rest of the way off here in just a few. but he throws them into the dungeon, into prison, and then he goes and he talks, so they stay there for all of the first day, right? That's where they spend Wednesday. And Giant goes home to his wife, diffidence, and I had to look up what diffidence was, and it wasn't what I thought it would be. Diffidence means shyness due to a lack of self-confidence. You might say, oh, I feel bad for this lady. Do not feel bad for this lady. Her lack of self-confidence actually is the thing that drives vindictiveness towards others in the story. She's wicked. She really is. It gets some weird pleasure out of others being beaten, scared, and terrified like, well, like she is, yeah. So she is probably one of my least favorite characters in the book because she's a giant and because of what she does. But goes home, talks to her, says, hey honey, had a great day. I found two guys, threw them in jail. And she says, here's what you should do. This lady's really messed up. Then she counseled with him. This is like, I don't know, pillow talk in the giant household, I don't know. And when they arose in the morning, that he should beat them without any mercy. And so when he arose, he geteth him a grievous crab tree cudgel. I'm not fully sure what that is, but it can't be good. Kudgel would be a stick made for whacking people with. And he goes and gets his crab tree kudgel, which is more difficult to say than I thought it would be, and he beats them like they're dogs, it says. just beats them. Although they gave him no word of distaste, they didn't deserve it. He fells upon them and he beats them fearfully. And he, so it's just a really, it's not that long of a scene, but it's just a really difficult one to read. He goes in and just without any mercy, whoops these guys. Whoops them and no mercy. Have we read that before? Isn't that what Moses does? I can't help but wonder if there's a bit of a similarity there. What does the law do when you're in sin? Afflicts us. Now don't get me wrong, giant despair is no Moses. He's not doing it for any good motives at all, but I can't help but wonder at the similarities, right? So he goes and he beats them and he leaves them where they're at and there's a two-fold torment. The first is the beating. The second and probably the more difficult of the two is the silence afterwards. They're left to their own thoughts. Bunyan says they're left in bitter lamentation and that's how they spend. So Wednesday they're captured. Thursday, they're beaten like a couple, I'd say tied up goats, but he said like some dogs. Friday, diffidence counsels him again. So he comes in and she goes, how was your day? He goes, great, I did the thing with the cudgel you told me to. And she says, wonderful, good job. And she then tells him or persuades him that he should then begin a different sort of torment. not a physical one, but what you could say a psychological one, right? She counsels him that he should terrify them, and picking up on the top of 132, that since they were never liked to come out of that place, rob them of all hope, and that the only way forthwith to make an end of themselves And she not only does that, but she gives him three things that he could tell them to do, right? Either by knife, halter, we'd use the word rope, or poison. What is she telling him to encourage them to do? To kill themselves, suicide. So it's actually at this point, I think it would be enlightening, I guess, to bring up, if you were to say what is the most autobiographical section in all of Pilgrim's Progress, I'd have to say Doubting Castle. You read through his autobiography, and again and again and again, giant despair has him, he's afflicted, and these are Bunyan's thoughts. These are the things he wrestled with. If you read, I didn't make my way all the way through it this week, but what is it, Grace of Bounty to the Chief of Sinners? A wonderful book, but he lived in Doubting Castle. And so this scene in particular is one with which Bunyan wrestled, and I appreciate his honesty and his transparency to say, These were real things he wrestled with, right? So he goes, he tells them that he encourages them to end their life, and it takes root in one of the two's minds. Which one is tempted the most by this? Christian, yeah, the one whose idea it was actually to leave the path. So guilt now bearing not good fruit, bad fruit. Begins toying with the idea of ending his own life, right? And hopeful is able to dissuade him from that. So he talks to him, he kind of has two arguments that he uses. First is the seriousness of ending your own life. He says it's murder. He actually brings the sixth commandment and says, you can't do that, you don't have the right to end a man's life, either someone else's or your own, and then he talks about the grievous implications that that would have before God. That's kind of a two-parted first argument. The second is that he tries to give Christian hope. Lives up to his own name, right? He's hopeful himself, and he seeks to impart hope, and it's a beautiful picture of how Christian friendship should happen. Coming alongside one another, in the middle of difficulties and giving hope. He gives truth too. So it's not just that he's like, no, and don't, I mean, I'd be sad. Like he actually, he drives him to the word of God and takes him there. Then he also seeks to give him hope, also founded in the word of God. And so this is a beautiful picture of what Christian friendship is for. encouraging one another, exhorting one another, lifting one another up, and it's not one-sided, right? Christian had to rescue hopeful from going off to the silver mines. He rescued him from the same fate, Bunyan says, as Lot's wife. Here, hopeful is rescuing Christian, right? There's a give and a take in any good Christian friendship. The giant comes, finds that they did not take up his advice, and is probably mad that we'll have to go and answer to his wife Diffidence later in the day for it, and he flies into a grievous rage towards them. Right, he terrifies them, he threatens them, he, I think if we go over to page 134, we find the account, says the giant, this is on the bottom, he found them alive, and truly alive was all. For now, what for want of bread and water, so he's starving them as well, and by reason of the wounds they received, he beat them, they could do little but breathe. but I say he found them alive. At which he fell into a grievous rage and told them that seeing that they disobeyed his counsel, it should be worse with them than if they had never been born. That sort of language, never been born. What's that? Job, taken from Job, right? Job in the middle of his afflictions. Said that it'd have been better if the sun hadn't risen on the day that he was welcomed into the world. Christian falls into what Bunny calls a swoon. Like he is overrun, not just now with discouragement. What would you call being overrun in this way and swooning? We would have a modern English word for it. Anxiety, right? Riddled with it. paralyzed by it, can't do anything to escape it, swoons, comes to himself, and guess what idea then takes his mind again? Killing himself. So it's not just a battle he fought once. And hopeful doesn't know like, I rebuke you because we had already dealt with this, we've already talked through this, and how could, he's not that kind of friend. He counsels them again. He's patient. He's kind. He's slow with them. What a friend hopeful is. We all should pray that we have friends like hopeful and be thankful to God for the ones that we have that are like hopeful, right? He starts to take a different tactic. Hopeful then begins to remind Christian of what events in his past. Yeah, all the triumphs. Not all of his failures. His triumphs, what are the ones he mentions? Apollyon, he said you've done spiritual battle and come out victorious. What's another one? Vanity Fair, you've gone through the worst the world had to offer and saw one of your best friends martyred and you're still here. What's the third one? I think it is the valley of the shadow of death, yep. And so he rehearses those, encourages them, and says basically, well, God's been faithful to you in the past. His past faithfulness should be the foundation for future faithfulness, right, and trust. So if God got you through these things, he'll get you through this one. Now, is that important for us to do in our own lives? It is. Is it one of the benefits of being around other believers? Yeah, especially older saints. You hear the many, many, many trials that God has brought them through. And as a young person, I think I still count as a young person, right? Barely. I guess it's all relative. My oldest, well, she's not in here. The other day at dinner, she was looking at me oddly. I said, what are you doing? She says, I'm looking at all your gray hair. So be quiet and eat your dinner. So I guess compared to Strachan, I'm still really young. So it's good to be around older folks, especially as a younger one, because you hear, man, God's been faithful for 50, 60, 70, 80 years. Well, he'll be faithful to me too. He'll come through for us. And that's what hopeful does, right? Hopeful encourages him. The giant cuts off all their bread. They don't have anything to go off, but Christian, he lets that idea go, right? He abandons it. Giant despair goes back home. And engages in that odd pillow talk again. This is on the bottom of 135. Now, night came again, and Giant and his wife, being in bed, she asked him concerning the prisoners. It's just a weird scene. Honey, tell me about those guys you beat the other day. And if they had taken his counsel. This is a sick woman. Did they kill themselves? Not yet, honey. Oh, rats. I actually think with her name, Bunyan's actually drawing out some things, right? There are those in the world who get sick pleasure out of the displeasure of others. Bunyan would say that's monstrous. It's monstrous, really is. Those who would delight in hearing of bad things that happen to other people and they savor it. That's monstrous and demonic. We should have nothing to do with that. And when we do it, we're acting like Giant Despair's wife. Should be a great warning to us. So he takes counsel with her. And they are, he calls them, they are sturdy rogues. I don't know if that's accurate, because it says just the page before that all they could do is lay there and breathe. But they chose rather to bear all the hardships and to make away themselves. Then said she, she's shrewd as well, take them into the castle yard tomorrow, this would be Saturday, and show them the bones. and the skulls of those thou hast already dispatched, and make them believe ere a week come to an end, thou also will tear them in pieces, as thou hast done with the fellows before. So when the morning came, this would be Saturday morning, the giant goes to them again and takes them into the castle yard, and he shows them as his wife had bidden them. These, he said, were pilgrims once as you. All right, these were those who were killed by the giant. They trespassed my grounds, and when I saw fit, I tore them in pieces. Within 10 days, and I will do to you, and I will do to you, go get you down to your den. Fascinating word he uses there. So he threatens them, he shows them the mangled bones of those who've gone before, tells them that they're not gonna make it 10 days, and then he chastens them back to their den. Have we read that word before? Where do we read it? Which, page one, he says he's in a den. What was his den? His bed for jail. Rest assured Bunyan knew what the castle was like. He knew personally. And I think here, this is again one of those reasons I think this is his autobiography just shining through. He says on page one that as he was in a den, we know it to be prison, he wrote this. Here, Christian and hopeful are in the castle. in the den. Fascinating how we see his life shining through. And as he goes back, this is again Saturday, and when Mrs. Diffidence and her husband Jind went to bed, They picked up where they left off the day before. They picked up their discourse of the prisoners wherewithal old giant wondered they could neither by his blows nor counsel bring them to an end. So he's like, he's problem shooting this. Man, where am I going wrong? And his wife replied, here's her shrewdness. She's clever. I fear, she said, that they live in hope that some will come to relieve them or that they have pick locks about them, by the means of which they hope to escape. And sayest thou so, my dear, said the giant, I will therefore search them in the morning. She goes, you know what, this is weird, they have hope. I bet they've got something in their possession that can get them out. She is more shrewd at this point than they are. Now you would know, having read it, that they actually do have a key that gets them out, but she is shrewd and she is wicked. And then we get this beautiful scene. Now I know that it's kind of been heavier through this section, but we're heading towards the light here. This is on page 136. Well, on Saturday about midnight, they began to pray. That should remind you of a scene in the Bible. Paul and Silas at midnight. Again, the Puritans can't help that illustrate from the word of God, right? Just as Paul and Silas in Aden began at midnight to pray and sing. So hopeful and Christian here began to pray. They take up which weapon listed in Ephesians? All prayer. They take up the weapon, all prayer. Did we see that before? We have seen that before. He used his sword with a poly on, and the valley of the shadow, oh, interesting, darkness, same kind of a place. The sword didn't work as well as the weapon of all prayer did. He takes it up again. Fascinating, the themes that Bunyan is weaving through all of this. Now a little bit before day, good Christian is one half amazed, Break out in this passionate speech, what a fool, quoted he, I am, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty. I have a key in my bosom called promise. At this point, if I was hopeful, I'd have some words. You're telling me we've been getting beat like tied up goats, and all the while. Thankfully, Bunyan did not fashion hopeful's character after me. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't be named Hopeful. He'd be called something else. So he says that he has a key in his bosom, in his chest, on his heart, and he's persuaded it will open any lock in Doubting Castle. Then said Hopeful, that's good news. Good brother, pluck it out of thy bosom and try. That was the kindest thing he could have said right then. His tongue must have been bleeding from the restraint and biting it, but he didn't. So Christian pulls out and he, oh, and he begins to try to the dungeon door whose bolt as he turned the key gave back and the door flew open with ease and Christian and hopeful came out. The promises of God being that key to bring Christians out of doubting castle and despair. Now, There's a piece here that we can't lose sight of. Does the key work on every door? You have 50 chance of getting it right, yes it does. Does it work as easily on every door? Some doors are harder than others. I actually think that's a great encouragement. The first door flew open, almost comes off the hinges. The iron gate, The lock went very hard. He doesn't sell you false hope here either. He doesn't say like, just quote yourself Romans 8.28 and lickety split, you're out. He says some, it works, but if you ever had to try the key of promise again and again and again and again and again, take it up, put a little graphite on there from a pencil, put it back in and again and again, quoting a promise over and over to yourself. If you remember when Dr. Beeky was here for our 30th anniversary, he mentioned that there was a season in life where it was multiple times a day. I forget the text he mentioned, where he would quote a promise from God's word again and again. He said for years. That's trying that key faithfully, knowing God will use it. God will use his promises. The locks will yield, but don't be discouraged if upon the first try or the second or the third they don't give way. Again and again and again. They'll open. They'll open. He promised that they would. They go out. into the courtyard and as the gate makes noise, right, it's one of the reasons why it's difficulty, and it wakes giant despair who hastily rising to pursue his prisoner felt his limbs to fail for his fits took him again. Now, we'd seen before, back on page 132, He goes into a bitter rage because they won't kill themselves. And it says he was prevented from kind of ending their lives because he fell into one of his fits. And then Bunyan tells you about a way of explanation. For he sometimes in sunshine weather fell into his fits and lost for a time the use of his hands. So Bunyan puts something into giant despair where he says there's these rare odd days where the sun shines. And the giant is, for lack of a better word, he's paralyzed. This gives us maybe the sharpest look into Bunyan's life. Bunyan said the giant in his own life, despair and doubts were so active, it was a rare day when the sun and the light of God's smile would shine and the giant wouldn't afflict him that day. He's actually writing into this part of the story what life was like for him. Rare were the days of sunshine that paralyzed the giant. Rare were the days of hope. But God still sent them. And he sent this one here. So instead of giant apprehending them and dragging them back in, providentially, it's a sunshine day. What day is it of the week, by the way? Sunday. God delights to send giant despair into fits on Sundays. He delights to set his people free from doubting castle on Sundays. He delights that his saints would use promises to open the things that bind them on Sundays. Bunyan is very, very clever at this part of the book, showing the reader who's careful enough to connect the dot Wednesday to Saturday, they're freed Saturday night, they flee in the morning. It's a Lord's Day morning. And the sun shines, the giant is paralyzed, promises open locks, it's that kind of day. What a beautiful picture, what a beautiful picture. As they flee, they escape both the castle as well as the lands of the giant. They flee and leave. Bunyan says they are no longer under his jurisdiction. This is on 137. I'll just read the last full paragraph here. Now when they were gone over the style, so they're all the way back where they started. Reminds us a whole lot of hill difficulty. He had to travel the path three times, right? Sin has a way of doing that. They are all the way back at the style. And they began to contrive with themselves what they should do with the style to prevent those that should come after for falling into the hands of giant despair. They actually are demonstrating the care for other believers, right? So they consented to erect a pillar and to engrave upon the side there of this sentence. Over this style is the way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who despises the king of the celestial country, and seeks to destroy his holy pilgrims, many therefore that followed after, read what was written, and escape the danger. This done, they sang as follows. Out of the way we went, and then we found, that was to tread upon forbidden ground. and let them that come after have a care, lest heedlessness make them as we to fare, lest they for trespassing his prisoners are, whose castles doubting and whose name despair. Oh, that all such places in life were marked so well. How many times have we run after things that had, instead of that kind of a sign, a sign that said, satisfaction, fulfillment, happiness. We said, well, it looks like a lovely meadow. If we could but read the label a little more carefully, perhaps it would say, leads to death, leads to doubting castle, leads to, we need to be, have really the word of God coursing through our veins. so that we would just simply ask ourselves time and again, is this or is this not the narrow way? If it's the narrow way, it leads to the celestial city, inevitably. If it's not the narrow way, no matter how close it looks to parallel, how reasonable it seems, how good it looks, it leads to places like Doubting Castle, to Giant Despair, to his wife Diffidence, to courtyards filled with bones. So Christians need to be extremely careful to stay on the narrow way. How do you know what the narrow way is? Well, it's just, again, it's have been so saturated in God's word that we not be lured away by false promises, by truths that are really lies, by things of the world that allure and get our attention and make huge promises that they cannot fulfill. Also remember, and with this we'll close, remember the scene of hopeful and Christian in the castle. Make sure you have friends like that in your life. Make sure you have Christian friends to whom you can, in moments of darkness, Unbosom yourself. Share your thoughts with them. And make sure they are good counselors. Make sure that they're not friends that will encourage you down the road of where your dark heart is already leading you. Make sure they're a friend whose wounds are faithful. Make sure they're a friend who loves you enough to say, you're being kind of stupid right now. You need to knock it off. That's some of the most loving things a friend could tell you. Say, I love you, but you're being dumb. You're chasing down a road that leads to nowhere good. And have the maturity to keep that friend in your life. It's a huge, it's a massive discouragement. When friends do what friends should do, they rebuke, and then the friend so rebuked cuts them out of their life for crossing them. You just cut off help. You just cut off a messenger of God's grace in your life. Don't do that. Thank them for it. And know that if you live life long enough together, you'll have the chance to repay the favor over and over again, one to another. With that, let's pray. Father, we thank you for the friends that you give us in the Christian life. Help us to be good Christian friends, one to another. We thank you for our greatest of friends, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he isn't ashamed to call us his brothers, that he always lives and makes intercession for us. Father, we pray for those who feel today as though they are in the den of Doubting Castle. We pray that today would be a day of sunlight where the giant is paralyzed and promises found in the bosom. We pray, O God, that you would set many free today, that you'd deliver, that you'd save, that you'd rescue. For your glory do we ask it. 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.