Picking up our reading this morning, this afternoon, the Pilgrim's Progress, Part 2. We are in the house of Interpreter, and he has been showing to Christiana and Mercy and the children many things. I think seven is the right number. actual seven different object lessons. And then he comes along with, I think the number is correct, I counted, Bunyan didn't number them, but I counted 13 maxims that he presents, the interpreter presents to these pilgrims. And then we come to finally to this paragraph that says, now supper was ready. You'll remember that Much of the latter reading that we've done was as they were waiting for supper to be ready. But now supper's ready, and the table is spread, and all things are set on the board. So they sat down and did eat when one had given thanks. And the interpreter did usually entertain those that lodged with him, with music at meals. So the minstrels played. There was also one that did sing in a very fine voice he had. His song was this, The Lord is only my support and he that doth me feed. How can I then want anything whereof I stand in need? Song of Thanksgiving, of course. When the song and music was ended, the interpreter asked Christiana what it was that at first did move her thus to betake herself to a pilgrim's life. Now, can I just suggest here, this is a good subject at any time and at any table. It's a good subject. Just tell me again, what was it? Tell me how you got in this path. Tell me about what it was that brought you in this path. A testimony. Great testimony. I've said recently, I've mentioned I think in messages somewhere, I'm not sure, but I've been mentioning a couple of times recently, this matter of testimony. My wife sent out a man's testimony, not that we are heralding that man particularly, but just the fact of the testimony, giving testimony to the grace of God. And it's always an appropriate thing, whether it be in a formal place or whether it be just around a table, sitting around a table, to talk about how we first got in the way. What a wonderful subject and what a blessed thing it is to listen to other Christians. I have a hard time with it because quite frankly, I have trouble containing myself when I hear folks talking about how they got in the way. What a thing, what a blessed thing. John referred to it in his prayer earlier about that little boy. steeped in pagan darkness. And the Lord came by and said, Leo. It's always a blessing. So it's an appropriate subject. So Christiana answered. There's three things significant here I wanted to point out to you. And he listened. Christiana answered, First, the loss of my husband came into my mind at which I was heartily grieved, but all that was but natural affection. So the first thing, if I could just, I wrote out to the side, I just kind of wanted to label, name these things. The first thing she said, and I remember she's recounting, she's answering the question, tell me how you first got in this way. The first thing she says, I put the word sobriety. She had been brought to a soberness. You know, the world would keep us entertained, would it not? And entertainment is destruction from the soul. Christiana says that my first coming started out with a good strong dose of sobriety. I became sober thinking about the loss of my husband. That brought a soberness to her thinking. We're living in a generation, unfortunately, we've been talking about some different things at the tables, but we're living in a generation among supposed saints. There seems to be a craving for a constant diet of entertainment, frivolity, enjoyment. Soberness is reserved, I would like to say, for funerals, but that isn't true, is it? We found now that most funerals, they try to turn it into some form of a sanctified party. Soberness. She said the first thing that brought me was contemplating my husband's death. This brought me to a soberness of mind. Now, what Bunyan says, but all that was but a natural affection. That can happen to an unbelieving person. But it is a beginning point. Then, After that, says Bunyan, came the troubles and pilgrimage of my husband into my mind, and also how like a churl I had carried it with him as to that. So that as a result of all those thoughts, guilt took hold on my mind and would have drawn me into the pond. So here's the second element. Those sober thoughts effected a guilt in her. It was guilt. So much guilt that it would have drawn her to the point she would have committed suicide. She was so overwhelmed with this sense of guilt, especially guilt about how she had treated her husband. Sobriety and then guilt. But that opportunity, I had a dream of the well-being of my husband and a letter sent me by the king of that country where my husband dwells to come to him. The dream and the letter together so wrought upon my mind that they forced me to this way. So it started with sobriety. I'm not at all sure how most churches ever intend to bring a soul to sobriety with the fanfare that goes on in their midst. So it starts with sobriety. That sobriety, that contemplation, serious contemplation brought guilt And then the guilt, while it rested on her soul, along comes the gospel. A letter was sent to her. Hallelujah. Boy, this is an interesting progression, is it not? As Bunyan lays it out, he is the ultimate practical theologian. theology of experience. The dream and the letter together so wrought upon my mind that they forced me to this way. Hallelujah. Now, it's not always, and I wanted us maybe to kick this around a little bit, the discussion. This is my statement, I'm not reading from Bunyan. It is not always easily discernible where the one phase ends and the next begins. Not always easily discernible in a person's life. There are these elements, certainly. These are all biblical elements. Sobriety is brought, guilt comes in the when the party's over and the seriousness takes hold and guilt comes on, and then comes the gospel, then comes the letter from the king saying, you can come. But that's not always easily discernible, is it? What say you? Any questions or thoughts on that matter? Anybody? In some shape or other, certainly if you're a believer today, can you not agree that these are elements in your experience that came to you in varying degrees, and as I say, not always clearly discernible, really, where the one begins and the other ends. but present nevertheless. Right. That's a good point. That's a very good point. Yes, amen. That's a good point. The sobriety and the guilt was wonderful as preparatory. But it did not force me into this way. It was that letter and that dream. Here's John's testimony. Perhaps fitting some of you, you've heard it before. Dr. Baldwin's own testimony. He spent many months and were panning the depths of their own gravity and becoming more and more impressed over that fact. And yet, he said, by his own testimony, he could not see how he might become the Christ. Until one evening, that he began to take a walk to the Holy of Holies. And his, the sense of the guilt of his sin pressed hard upon him until this word came to him. Behold the Lamb of God. He said, I thought at first it was a dream. And it came with more force again, almost like I could hear it through my ears. Behold the Lamb of God. And he said, is that it? Is this all? Is it simply to behold? And he answered Dorothy's question with a resounding yes. Amen. Thank God for the letter. Yeah, sure Amen Amen. Inglis had a wonderful poem in this connection. It was actually a footnote. It wasn't even in his lecture. It was a footnote. He had this wonderful poem about Christiana's experience. I thought upon my sins and I was sad. My soul was troubled, sore, and filled with pain. But then I thought on Jesus and was glad. My heavy grief was turned to joy again. I saw that I was lost, far gone astray. No hope of safe return there seemed to be. But then I heard that Jesus was the way. a new and living way prepared for me. When in that way, so free, so safe, so sure, sprinkled all o'er with reconciling blood, will I abide and never wander more, walking alone in fellowship with God." That was something of a summary of her experience. And then, in the light of that testimony, the interpreter brings this second question to her. But met you with no opposition before you set out doors? Did you not meet any opposition? Oh, Christiana responds, yes, yes, yes. A neighbor of mine, one Mrs. Timmers, she was akin to him that would have persuaded my husband to go back for fear of the lions. She also so befouled me for, as she called it, my intended desperate adventure. She also urged what she could to dishearten me from it. The hardships and troubles that my husband met with in the way But all this, I got over pretty well. That's an incredible statement, just a phenomenal statement. Bunyan just sinks the ship and summarizes the thing. He says, all of this, I got over pretty well. in his commentary said, Oh, Mrs. Timbers, how many professed pilgrims hast thou befouled and turned back? How often does she attack and affright many real pilgrims? I'm sure she has often made my poor heart ache with her ghastly looks and terrifying speeches. She always accosts us in the Arminian dialect. Save thyself. Avame says, Mrs. Timber, she always accosts us in the Arminian dialect. Save thyself. Or, like Satan, when he borrowed Peter's tongue to oppose our Lord's sufferings, Oh, may we ever say to her in our Lord's words, Matthew 16, 23, get thee behind me, Satan, thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. She always assaults me in Arminian dialect. Save thyself. I thought that was a poignant comment. Pausing right there, where we have in the reading, White has these comments that are worthy, in my opinion, in his lectures. White says At any rate, I at any rate must venture, said Christian, to timorous and mistrust. That was in part one. George Offer says in his notes on this passage that civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny so terrified many young converts in John Bunyan's day that multitudes turned back like mistrust and timorous. While at the same time many like Bunyan himself went forward for a life for a time and fell into the lion's mouth. Civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny do not stand in our way as they stood in Bunyan's way in his day. But every age has its own lines. And every Christian man has his own lines that neither civil despots nor ecclesiastical tyrants know anything about. Now who or what is the lion in your way? Who or what is it that fills you with such timorousness or mistrust that you are almost turning back from the way to life altogether? The fiercest of all our lions is our own sin. You hear me? The fiercest of all our lions is our own sin. Sometimes a man's past sins will fill all his future life with sleepless apprehensions. He is never sure at what turn in his upward way he may not suddenly run against some of them standing ready to rush out on him again. The lion in my way is a lion of my own rearing, and I must not turn my back on him, even if he should be let loose to leap on me and rend me. I must pass under his paw and through his teeth if need be to a life with him and beyond him of humility and duty and quiet heart and submission to his God and mine. Some saving grace, some saving grace that up till now we have been fatally lacking in lies under the very lip of that lion we see standing straight in our way. God in his wisdom so orders our salvation that we must work out the best part of it with fear and trembling. Right before us, just beside us, standing over us with his heavy paw upon us is a lion. from under whose paw and from between whose teeth, we must pluck and put on that grace in which salvation lies. The lions may roar at us till they have roared us deaf and blind, but we are far safer in the midst of that path than we would be in our own bed. only let us keep in the midst of the path. When their breath is hot and full of blood in our cheek, when they paw up the blinding earth, when we feel as if their teeth had closed round our heart, still, all the more, let us keep in the midst of the path. Whatever your fears may be, Face the lion and stay in the path. That's good counsel. That's good counsel. Face the lion and stay in the path. Chaplain, I've often read from Chaplain's compilation other writings of Bunyan. In a completely different place and different context, Bunyan had this to say, but on the same subject. Doth this water of life run like a river, like a broad, full, and deep river? Then let no man be his transgressions ever so many Fear it all, but there is enough to save his soul and despair. Those lions are sins. He had said, White said that the greatest lions that frighten us off the path are our own sins. Bunyan says, I don't care what they are. This river of life is so broad, so full, and so deep. There's plenty water here. Then let no man be his transgressions, never so many. Fear at all, but there is enough to save his soul and spare. Nothing has been more common to many than to doubt the grace of God." A thing most unbecoming a sinner of anything in the world. Bunyan says, this is the most unbecoming thing you could ever do. To break the law is a fact foul enough. but to question the sufficiency of the grace of God to save you therefrom is worse than sin, if worse can be. Amen. I like that. Hallelujah. Therefore, despairing soul, for it is to thee I speak, forbear thy mistrusts, cast off thy slavish fears, hang thy misgivings as to this upon the hedge, and believe. Thou hast an invitation sufficient thereto, a river before thy face. And as for thy want of goodness and works, let that by no means doubt thee, This is a river of the water of life, streams of grace and mercy. There is, as I said, enough therein to help thee. For grace brings all that's wanting in the soul. Thou therefore has nothing to do I mean, as to the curing of thy soul of its doubts and fears and despairing thoughts, thou hast nothing to do but to drink and live." Hallelujah! I'd never heard that expression before. I'd never even thought that thought before. I appreciate Bunyan. I hope that thought will stick with me for the rest of my life. If there could be anything worse Then sin, it would be this, to doubt that the grace of God is sufficient to save a sinner. What a blessed thought. And then he says, guess what? If that's so, then thou hast nothing to do but to drink and live. Hallelujah. Boy, that's good. Thank God for this blessed gospel. It's absolutely sufficient. Bunyan says, but a dream, she goes on to testify, but a dream that I had of two ill-looking ones that I thought didn't plot how to make me miscarry in my journey, that hath troubled me much, yea, it still runs in my mind. makes me afraid of everyone that I meet, lest they should meet me to do me a mischief and to turn me out of my way. Yea, I may tell my Lord, though I would not everybody know it, that between this and the gate by which we got into the way, we were both so sorely assaulted that we were made to cry out, Murder! And the two that made this assault upon us were like the two that I saw in my dream. And then said the interpreter, Thy beginning is good. Thy latter end shall greatly increase. He heard her testimony. He listened to her testimony. He listened to what she said about how she got in the way. He listened. And then he said, you've made a good beginning. You've made a good beginning. And there's no question there'll be a good end to it. So he addressed himself to mercy. And he said to her, What moved thee to come hither, sweetheart? Hallelujah. Dear, sweet, tender mercy. She blushed and trembled and for a while just continued silent. A sensitive soul this is. sensitive soul. Always throughout the story you'll find Mercy is a sensitive soul. All he's asked for is for a testimony. But she is timid and shy. Maguire says that in the details of their experience, Christiana speaks with the boldness of a more advanced pilgrim, while Mercy speaks with the becoming modesty of one who has but lately entered on the pilgrimage. She would be silent, if she could, until her experience is more enlarged. Not in visions, And in dreams was she warned to flee from wrath, nor yet by the example of former pilgrims, but by the invitation of Christiana, such as Moses gave to Hobab, come thou with us and we will do thee good. She's timid to say anything. She knows not what to say. Her experience is limited. She didn't get the dream. She didn't get the letter. She just got an invitation from Moses, who said, just come and go with us, and we'll do thee good. But then finally, Bunyan says she began. And she said, truly, sir, My wound of experience is that which makes me covet to be in silence, and that also that fills me with fears of coming short at last. I was taught for many, many, many years among fundamentalist ranks that the greatest sin, one of the greatest sins a Christian can commit is to doubt their salvation. I suggest to you one of the greatest mercies that a Christian can experience is to doubt their salvation. For there's every reason to doubt it. When I look within, the hymn we sung, when I look within, I ask myself, do I love the Lord or no? Truly, sir, my want of experience is that which makes me covet to be in silence, and that also fills me with fears of coming short at last. I cannot tell of visions and dreams, as my friend Christiana can, nor know I what it is to mourn for my refusing to counsel those that were good relations. So interpreter says to her, What was it then, dear heart, that hath prevailed with thee to do as thou hast done? Here you are. Here you are. So something moved on you. What was it? Mercy says, why, when our friend here was packing up to go from our town, I and another went accidentally to see her. She had an appointment. Amen. an accidental appointment. Is that an oxymoron, accidental appointment? So we knocked at the door and went in. When we were within and seeing what she was doing, we asked her what was her meaning. She said she was sent for to go to her husband. And then she up and told us how she had seen him in a dream, dwelling in a curious place among the mortals, wearing a crown, playing upon a harp, eating and drinking at the prince's table, and singing praises to him for bringing them thither, etc. Now me thought while she was telling those things unto us, me thought my heart burned within me. And I said in my heart, if this be true, I will leave my father and my mother in the land of my nativity and will, if I may, go with Christiana. There's a shadow here, I think, something of a shadow of Bunyan's own conversion experience. He heard those women talking. and suddenly something was burning in him. So I asked her further of the truth of these things and if she would let me go with her. For I saw now that there was no dwelling but with the danger of ruin any longer in our town. But yet I came away with a heavy heart. Not for that I was unwilling to come away, but that So many of my relations were left behind. And I came with all the desire of my heart and will go, if I may, with Christiana under her husband and his king. Thank God for a simple testimony, an honest testimony. I came to follow her because something was burning in my heart Even to this moment of giving this testimony, she's still fretful. She may not make it. She said, I will go, if I may, with Christiana. What a blessed thing it is to hear a testimony like that. I don't know, as much as I don't know, she says. But I know that my heart was burning within me when I heard about her going to her husband and his king and his prince and I wanted to go. Abime says of her testimony that it is a very simple and artless confession. I like that term, artless. No art here. An artless confession. The Lord works very differently upon His elect, but always to one and the same end, namely, to make us prize Christ, His salvation, His ways, and to abhor ourselves paths of sin, to cast off all self-righteous hopes. If this is effected in the heart, reader, listener, If this is effected in the heart, no matter whether thou catch televisions and dreams and talk of high experiences, many are and have been deceived by those things and come to nothing. But where the soul is rooted and grounded in the knowledge of precious Christ, and love to his ways, though there may be many fears, yet this is an indubitable evidence of a real and sincere pilgrim." I just want to go be, she said, I just want to go and be where this prince is, on a following What a simple, blessed, and wonderful testimony this testimony is. We'll stop there for today, just for sake of time. Just conclude with the reading of the sentence, we'll pick it back up, but you'll remember that the interpreter said of Christiana's testimony, thy beginning is good, and thy latter end shall be greatly increased. And so to mercy in her feeble and heartless confession, he said, thy setting out is good, for thou hast given credit to the truth. That's all it takes for a beginning to be good. Thou hast given credit to the truth. Amen. That's as simple as it gets, isn't it? I mean, that's artless. But the interpreter's official verdict is, thy beginning is good. Amen. I love reading these. I love reading testimonies.