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Last week, if you can follow
my little arrow floating around there, he went up the hill of
difficulty and at the top of the hill he found the palace
beautiful. But as he grew close to it, he
ran into some difficulties which had caused some of the others,
timorous and mistrust, to turn around and run back. There were lions in the way.
But the porter told him, just stay right in the middle of the
road. Come in and they won't hurt you because they're chained.
So he got over his fears and listened to the porter and came
in there to the house. The porter questioned him a little
bit and Christian told him he wanted to rest there for the
night. He said, well, I've got to call somebody to visit with
you. And he called in a young lady
named Discretion. And just for your remembrance
from last week what Discretion is, it's having cautious reserve
in speech and the ability to make responsible decisions. And
some of her decisions were who she's going to let in the house.
who she's going to allow into the palace and ask some discreet
questions to find out who people are and what they want. And having
been satisfied with that, she called him into the house and
brought three other young ladies to meet him. And their names
are Prudence, Piety, and Charity. I've met somebody named Prudence
and I've met somebody named Charity. I haven't met Piety yet. But
here's these three young ladies, and I conclude something from
this. Discretion was a male or female? Female. Prudence, piety and charity
are? Does that tell you anything about
Bunyan's concept of womanhood? It should. He evidently had a
very high regard for godly women. He's not a chauvinist. He's not
a man only. He is not an egalitarian, which
means that women can do everything that men do. But he is very highly
regarding of women and their abilities and their contributions
to the beauty of the palace, which I think is important to
understand. A lot of times some of our godly
ladies may feel like they're second class citizens in Christianity,
and Bunyan did not treat them that way. In fact, I don't know
if you remember in his biography, besides the pastor, Gifford,
the ladies who were sitting outside the church sowing and talking
about the things of the Lord had more impact on him than anything
else. So he had a very, very high regard
for godly women, and men so should you. And ladies, don't think
you're second class. You're not. They're very crucial
to the story today. So each one of them talks to
Pilgrim or to the Christian. The first one that talks to him
is Piety. If you look in your Bibles at
1 Timothy 5 and verse 4, you probably see where Bunyan found this name. If you have
something besides the King James, it might not be so clear because
piety can be defined or translated in several ways. I'll read you
what mine is, then I'll tell you what the King James says.
But it will help you understand what piety is. 1 Timothy 5, verse
4. It's not talking here about a
young woman. It's talking about a widow. It says, if a widow
has children or grandchildren, let them first show godliness
to their own household to make some return to their parents
for its pleasing in the sight of God. Now the King James says,
let them show piety at home. Piety is essentially faithfulness
to obligations regarded as natural and fundamental. That's what
a pious person is. They know what their duties are
and they're faithful to their duties. It could be rendered godly, as
it is in my version, godliness. Or it could be rendered devout.
Sometimes we speak of somebody being devout. That's all encompassed
in her name. Now, what did she want to talk
to Christian about? His pilgrimage? What about his
pilgrimage? Yeah. First question that she
asks after she's introduced. What moved you at first to betake
yourself to a pilgrimage? What moved you to do this? Did
you see what his answer was? I was driven out of my native country
by a dreadful sound that was in my ears. That unavoidable
destruction did attend me if I abode in that place where I
was. And her second question is, well,
how did it happen that you came out of your own country this
way? What was his answer there? I
just flipped a coin. It was as God would have it. For when I was under the fears
of destruction, I did not know where to go. But by chance, I
think he's chuckling at that word, by chance there came a
man even to me as I was trembling and weeping whose name is Evangelist.
He directed me to the wicked gate. Now look what he says. Which else I should never have
found. And so sent me into the way that
has led me directly to this house. How did he get into the way?
What's he sound like? what we would call a Calvinist.
Before Calvin, it was an Augustinian. And before Augustine, it was
a Paulinist. And before Paul, it was a Christian. These words would describe Christ's
words to us. Paul's words to us. We are all
going out of the way. There's none that understands.
God has to move upon us. Some people don't like that concept
that He would say, I was driven out, or I never would have found
it. It was as God would have it.
But folks, that's the way salvation truly is. You're not seeking
God. If you think you're seeking God,
you don't know who God is. Because God says, you don't seek
Me, I seek you. I initiate. You're not the initiator. And that's what Bunyan is relating
to her, that God has done a very gracious work in my life. Did
He drag him out of town? Screaming and shouting and saying,
I don't want to leave town. No, He so worked in his heart
that He was willing to go. When I was in college, we had
a faculty trio And every now and then they'd sing for us.
And one of their songs they sang was the Hornet song. I don't
know if you've ever heard the Hornet song, but it goes something
like this. Oh, he did not compel them to
go. Oh no, he did not compel them to go. He did not compel
them to go against their will. He just made them willing to
go. with the hornets. There's a Bible passage where
the hornets came in and drove a people out. That's kind of
how God's sovereign grace works. He doesn't make us go against
our will. He just makes us willing to go. He awakens us to our condition.
He shows us our distress. He shows us our inability. He
shows us our sinfulness. And then He empowers us by His
grace to move that direction. He uses means. What means did
God use to get him in the way? Okay, he was reading the book,
but he didn't know how to answer. The evangelists. Somebody came to him to the Gospel
just like Philip came to the Ethiopian eunuch and said, do
you understand what you're reading? How can I unless somebody help
me? And the evangelist became the one that helped him to the
human means to help him understand the Word of God. So then she
asked him, well, where have you been since then? Did you come
by the house of the interpreter? And he said, yes. And he says
there were especially three things that impressed him. Now, he saw
seven pictures. And you'll have to review what
all seven were, but there were three of them he said were especially
a blessing to him. What were they? What was the
first one? Okay? Doing what? Do you remember the
one where there was a fire in the room and a man was pouring
water on it? But outside there was another
hand that was pouring oil into the fire to keep it going? And
of the three, that's the one that he remembered the most,
evidently. As to how Christ, in spite of
Satan, maintains His work of grace in the heart. How did He
get up the hill of difficulty? Why didn't he turn back and run
like Timorous and Mistrust? Why didn't he take a different
path like the other two did down at the bottom of the hill? Why
was he allowed to go back down to the arbor and to find his
scroll? Why was he not afraid of the
lions and walk through? how Christ, in spite of Satan,
maintains His work of grace in the heart. That's called the
perseverance of the saints. It's the work that God does in
those that He calls to Himself that in spite of all the obstacles
they face, He empowers them to go through them. That's a wonderful
work of grace in our heart. That what He begins, those of
you who studied Philippians, He who began a good work in you,
We'll perform it until the day of Christ. That's such a wonderful
promise, isn't it? Because we run into obstacles
all the time. We're ready to throw up our hands and say, I've
had it. Can't go any further. And yet, the grace maintains
us. That's a wonderful truth to really
get a hold of. And you're going to hear about
it this morning in the morning's message as well. About the Holy
Spirit who helps us in our weakness. He intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God. The grace of God in Christ toward
us is so wonderful to maintain. Otherwise, not only would we
not begin it, we wouldn't keep it going. So he reviews that. The second thing that stood out
to him at Interpreter's House was which one? The man in the iron cage who
had sent away his hope. Why do you suppose Christian
was interested in that one? Why are there warnings in the
Scripture that appear to be directed at believers? Beware lest you
slip. They who have tasted the heavenly
gift turn away. Why do you suppose those warnings
are in there? What's the purpose of biblical warnings? To persevere? No. All of it together. The fact that he believes that
Christ maintains His work of grace in the heart does not then
mean that you and your Christian life can just kind of float along. That you can say, well, man,
I've got the ticket to glory here. I'm just waiting to go
there. And have a carnal security about your life. Christian understands
that if he's not diligent, he may end up right back where this
man's at, Aaron Cage. Christians have to live in fear.
No. But they do have to live conscious
of not knowing their own heart and being alert to the dangers
of false securities, Christian almost got into that
on the way up the hill of difficulty at the arbor where he went to
sleep and he lost his assurance for a period of time until God
mercifully allowed him to go back and get it. The third thing,
it says, also the dream of him that
thought in his sleep the day of judgment was come. Evidently
that picture was so incredible to him that it burned it into
his memory. Day of Judgment. I'm going to
stand before God. And again, these are concepts
in balance. You've got how Christ maintains
His work of grace in the heart. Yes. But you're still going to be
called to give an account. And when you stand before Him,
It's going to be revealed whether or not heaven was your home or
not. And when we get to the end of
the story, if you've already read it, the last person that we meet
in Pilgrim's Progress is a man named Ignorance who made it all
the way to the gates of the city and then was turned away because
he did not have genuine faith. We need to think about the Day
of Judgment. Even if we know that heaven is our home, you
still need to think about the Day of Judgment because you're
going to be judged according to your works, what you've done. Ephesians 2.10
tells us what? We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus for good works and not good works that you pick
and choose. Good works that He has foreordained
that you should walk in them. God has works that He wants you
to do. He gives you gifts to do them.
And it may be something as simple as giving a cup of cold water
to someone to drink in the name of an apostle. Which is that
verily you won't lose your reward. And we need to be conscious of
the fact that though we have a loving Heavenly Father, we
also have a judge before whom we are going to stand who is
going to evaluate our life. and our service for Him. To hear,
well done, you also have to hear what? Good and faithful servant. That's who gets the well done.
Good and faithful servant. And as Christians, we need to
be committed to serving Christ in this world until He calls
us home. Ask Him, was there anything else?
He says, yeah, there were a few other things. He kind of liked
the man who had the sword that fought his way into the palace. Again, Bunyan is stressing that
the Christian life isn't easy. It's hard. It's difficult. It's dangerous. But those who fight win. Those who stand on the sidelines
and watch Lose. It's a fight you have to be involved
with. Methought these things did ravish
my heart. He liked him, in other words.
I could have stayed at that good man's house a twelve month, but
I knew I had to go further. What did you see on your way?
Now he talks about that place of the skull. I saw in my mind
one hanging on a tree, bleeding. The very sight of him made my
burden fall off my back. It was a strange thing to me,
for I never saw such a thing before. Yea, and while I stood
looking up, for I could not forbear looking, three shining ones came
to me. One gave me the word of forgiveness. Another gave me
the embroidered coat. And the third was a mark on the
head. He tells about simple sloth and presumption that he met along
the way. He talks about formality and hypocrisy and how they came
tumbling over the wall and eventually were lost. And he talks about
going up the hill. And here's what he says about
that. He says, above all, I found it hard work to get up this hill. Have you found the Christian
life difficult? If you haven't, you're not very far along in
the journey because it is difficult. In Acts 14, Paul told the disciples
he had made on his first missionary journeys, he went back and confirmed
the souls of the disciples, telling them that through much tribulation,
you must enter the kingdom of God. If you're not having any
difficulties in your Christian life, Well, I guess two things. For the moment, be thankful.
But if it's an extended, unbroken, everything's hunky-dory, you
better check out your Christian life because it's going to be
difficult. You're going to face obstacles
that will tax you to the end of your strength. Why? Why do
you suppose God does that to us? Brings us to the place that
we have no strength. so that you find out about the
grace of God and how it can strengthen you. I don't know if you've ever
heard the song, Through It All. It's really a neat song. And
the chorus goes like, Through it all I've learned to trust
in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all I've learned
to depend upon His Word. That's why God puts you in those
situations. It's not because He doesn't like you. It's not
because He's trying to lure the boom on you. It's because He's
trying to stretch your faith in Him. Are you going to trust
Me or not? Are you going to depend on yourself? Or are you going to depend on
Me? And a lot of times that's where our difficulties come.
I found it hard work to get up this hill, as hard to come by
the lion's mouth, and truly if it had not been for the good
man, the porter that stands in the gate, I do not know but that
after all I might have gone back again. But now I thank God I
am here. So that's his visit with piety. Next he talks to prudence. And I'm not sure where he got
that name, but the book of Proverbs talks a lot about the prudent. And especially Proverbs 8 and
verse 12. It says, I, wisdom, dwell with prudence. And I find knowledge in discretion. So we've met discretion and prudence.
Knowledge must be somewhere in that house. What's prudence? Well, prudence
is skill and good judgment in the use of our resources. So now, what's her conversation
center in? She starts to talk to Christian
and asks him questions. is she addressing? Okay, his
former life and the leftovers of that life that he still has
to deal with. Yeah, it's kind of like the word
in Romans 7, wretched. Wretched man that I am. The good
I would do, I don't find how to do it. The evil that I would
do, I don't want to do, I do. He's basically describing now
his inward experience that is the remnants of his experience
before he was a believer. She begins by asking him what
he thinks about his former country. Do you not sometimes think of
the country from which you came? His answer is, yes, but with
much shame and detestation. And then he cites the verse from
Hebrews that if they had been mindful of the country they left,
they would have gone back. But now they desire a better
country. It's a heavenly. So he has no desire to go back
where he came from. He's ashamed of it. He detests
it. He doesn't want anything to do
with it. Then she says, do you not yet bear away with some of
the things that then you were conversant with all? Didn't you still carry over some
of the sins that you had back there? The struggles that you
had? And look at his answer. This is a true Christian answer
to that question. Yes, but greatly against my will. especially my inward, carnal
cogitations or thoughts, with which all my countrymen
as well as myself were delighted, but now all those things are
my grief. And might I but choose my own
things, I would never choose to think of those things more. But when I would be doing that
which is best, that which is worst is with me. That's somebody
who has now entered into the Christian experience. He knows
what's right. He knows what's good. He wants
that, and yet he still feels the tug of the things that he
once did with delight, but now he hates. A Christian will experience
that tension in their life. So she asks him another question.
Do you not find sometimes as if those things were vanquished
or conquered, which at other times are your perplexity?" He
says, yes, but that is but seldom. In other words, he doesn't have
very many times where he feels like he's an overcomer. Most
of the time he feels like he's being overcome. But he says,
those times when I am overcoming, they're like golden hours to
me in which such things happen. So now she asks him another question.
She's just going right down the line, leading him to what she
is, which is knowing what the resources are and how to apply
them. Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances
at times as if they were vanquished? And he gives several ways by
which he gets power over his corruption. What are they? These are important for you to
understand because they are your means of overcoming the corruption
that's within you. The first one, the cross. When
I thank what I saw at the cross, that will do it. Have you ever
wondered why as you're preached to in our congregation and all
churches that are faithful churches do this, why we always keep bringing
you back to the cross? Always back to the crucifixion.
Don't you ever get tired of hearing that? No. Because that's the
very heart that transforms your life. That's the place where
sin is removed. That's the place where righteousness
is given. What I saw at the cross, that
will do it. What else? What was the second
thing he listed as a means that he used to overcome his corruptions? His holy clothing. He had been
clothed in righteousness. He says that will do it. When he remembers what he is.
Christian, what are you? It's very important you understand
this. What are you? Your new creation. Child of God. Both a saint and a sinner. but not both a sinner and a saint.
Emphasis first is on the saint. Do you realize, Christian, you
are righteous? Not your righteousness. This
is a coat that's been given to you. You're righteous. And a
lot of times we go around saying, I'm just a horrible sinner. I'm
just a horrible sinner. I'm just a horrible sinner. Yeah,
that's not all you are. And that's not what you should
focus on if you want to overcome sin. Because if you're telling
yourself, I'm a horrible sinner, what do sinners do? Sin. If you remind yourself, I'm a
saint of God, I'm righteous, what do those people do? Holy
things. Righteous things. Remember what
you have been made in Christ. That's the way I should live.
That's a means that he found to help himself. If we just think
that we're righteous, we may become self-righteous and ignore
our sins. That's wrong. But if all you
do is focus on the fact that you're a sinner, you're never
going to overcome sin because you're going to keep telling
yourself, well, if I'm a sinner, I sin. I'm righteous. God expects me
to do righteousness. God gives me the grace to do
what's righteous. I want to do what's righteous. That's not
the only means, but that's an important means that Bunyan is
sharing with us that I think we can see from the Scripture
as well. We need to remind ourselves what
we are in Christ. I'm in Christ. I'm not in the
flesh. That's Romans 8. I'm not in the
flesh. I can't please God. Those who
are in the Spirit are the ones who please God. Remember what
you are, not just what you were and the remnants have been left
over. What's the third thing that he
used as a means that God had given him? The scroll. When I look into the roll that
I carry in my bosom, that will do it. Have you ever heard the
comment, this book will keep you from sin, and sin will keep
you from this book? Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to your work."
If you want to overcome your corruption, you've got to be
in this book every day. If you're not in this book, folks,
your corrupt nature is going to take you over. God gave us
this not just to get us into heaven, but to help us all along
the road. We need to be in the Word of
God. We need to know how to handle it, to use it, so that we can,
if we're having trouble, man, I know the Bible must say something
about this, but I have no idea where to look. Have you ever
been there? Man, I'm struggling with this, but I don't know where
to look in the Bible. Let's see, try this. Ha ha! Go out and hang yourself. That'll
cure me. Now, you've got to learn how
to handle the Scriptures correctly. to rightly divide the Word of
Truth. And folks, the answers are there. And if you don't know
how to find them, you need to get yourself under somebody who
can teach you how to find them so that you can find them for
yourself. God gives us teachers and helpers. A good teacher not
only gives you a fish, he teaches you how to fish. And that's important. Well, there's one other thing
that will do it for him. What's that? No. Well, I mean, it could involve
prayer, but that's not what he's saying. He thinks about where
he's going. My thoughts wax warm about where
I am going. That will do it. Do you know
how long eternity with Christ is going to be? Forever. Unending. How long is this life
going to be? 70-80 years. Maybe a little beyond
that. Maybe less than that. Who knows?
In God's providence. Why do we focus on temporal things
instead of eternal things? That's in Romans 8 too. We're
looking at that as well. Our light affliction is but for
a moment. It works for a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. We ought to be more eternally
minded. Colossians says, set your affection Not on things
on the earth, but on things which are above where Christ sits at
the right hand of God. Seek those things that are above.
That will help you with your corruption. There's no corruption
in that place. And that's where you're headed. That ought to have some impact
on you. Well, those are four means that Bunyan has Christian
tell prudence about how he deals with the corruptions of his life.
And they are really, really good. So now he asks something else.
She says, what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount
Zion? The celestial city where Christ
is. And what are some of the reasons
he gives there? Why does he want to go there? The pastor was preaching on heaven,
and at the end of his message, he said, now, how many of you
would really love to go to heaven now? Everybody raised their hands
except one little boy. He said, son, don't you want
to go to heaven? He said, yes, sir. He said, why
didn't you raise your hand? He said, not that you meant right
now. Would you like to go to heaven right now? If so, why? What was it? that gave him such
a desire to do this journey and to get to that place. What does
he say? What are some of the things? What's the first thing? I want to see Him who was dead
and alive. That's the first thing he wanted
to see. He didn't want to see streets of gold. He didn't want
to see Aunt Minnie. He wanted to see Jesus, the One
who died. and was made alive. That's why
you want to be there. I want to see Jesus. What was
his second reason for wanting to go there? There I hope to
be rid of all those things that to this day are in me and an
annoyance. Look at 1 John 3. This connects
his first desire with his second desire. 1 John 3 and verse 2. It says, Beloved, we are God's
children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but
we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because
we shall see Him as He is. We shall be like Him. That means,
free of all those corruptions that have remained in me. Early
in my Christian life, the Bible that I had, I wrote in the margin
there, goodbye sin. When I see Jesus and I'm there,
all these corruptions that continue in me are gone forever. That
should be something we desire. And that's when they will finally
be rid of all these things. Now why else? Why did He so desire us to go
there? Because there they say there is no death. No death. Some of the most traumatic
moments in our life are connected with death. Our own or someone
that we love. There there's no more death.
And he says, there I shall dwell with such company as I like best.
Won't that be wonderful? I mean, you'll even be able to
tolerate me there. Because I won't have any sin
anymore. The company that I love best.
For to tell you the truth, I love Him because I was by Him eased
of my burden and I am weary of my inward sickness. I fain would
be where I shall die no more, and with the company that shall
continually cry, Holy, Holy, Holy." Wow. Now he meets Charity. Talks with her a little bit.
He's talking King James Version now. Because if you've ever read
1 Corinthians 13, And in King James, you see charity over and
over and over and over. And it's a good word. And it
meant more in Bunyan's day than it means in our day. In our day,
charity is just, you see the guy along the interstate, you
give him a buck. That's charity. No. Charity is love. It's a self-sacrificing love
for the well-being of someone else. It's unselfish, loyal,
and benevolent concern for the good of another. And I think
it's significant that Charity is the one who talks to him now
about what? His family. What about your family? Do you have family? Oh yes, I
have a wife and four children. Well, why didn't you bring them
along? Christian weapons said, oh, how
willingly I would have done it. But they were all of them utterly
averse to my going on pilgrimage. I have the fortune, the blessing
of God, to have grown up at least third, maybe fourth generation
Christians. My grandparents were strong believers. My parents were strong believers.
And by the grace of God, I became a believer. I've never had to
go through difficulties like this. My first wife, Ann, was
the only believer in her family for many years. Her mother made
a confession of faith near the end of her life. But her sisters,
her father, her brother. Her brother is somewhat religious
and will talk to me about religion. But the sisters basically don't
want anything to do, never have with Christianity. It's sad to
be in a family situation where your loved ones, you've gone
one direction and they're going another. And here you have Bunyan's heart,
Christian's heart about his loved ones. You know, she asked him
all the right things. Didn't you endeavor to talk to
them? Didn't you pray for them? Didn't you tell them about what
you were going through? Didn't you show them that by
what you were doing that they ought to do the same? He said,
yeah, I did all that. I did all that. they wouldn't come. Well, fortunately,
if you've read the rest of the story, part two is about Christiana
and her friend Mercy and the four sons and their journey to
the Celestial City. God finally deals with them. That's not the way it always
happens, is it? I've done a lot of funerals in
my life. And sometimes people come up to me and say, well,
how can I deal with the fact that my loved ones are not Christian
and they're going to hell? Or that this loved one didn't
know Christ and is in hell. How do I deal with that? It's
hard, isn't it? I'm thankful for Revelation 21
though that says, God will wipe away all tears from the eyes.
Someday you'll understand. God is just. He's righteous. And if you have any tears, it
will be tears of joy as to why am I here. It won't be tears
of sorrow as to why somebody's not there. But it's a difficult
thing to deal with when your loved ones for the moment or
for a lifetime, do not see what you see and believe what you
believe in Christ. The rest of the time there, he
did several things. They sat down to a meal. And
here's a thought for you to think about. What is fellowship? What is Christian fellowship? You have to have a cup of coffee
to have Christian fellowship. Good, because I don't drink coffee.
If you need it, that's fine. It's not an essential. What is essential to Christian
fellowship? Look what they did. Now the table was furnished with
fat things and with wine that was well refined. And all their
talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill, as namely about
what He had done. And why he did what he did. And why he had built that house. And by what they said, I perceive
that he had been a great warrior. And so forth. Yeah, it's nice
to talk about what's happening in our lives. It's nice to ask
others about what's happening in their lives. But if you want
real, genuine Christian fellowship, you start talking about The One
who binds you together. What He did. What He's doing.
Why He did it. What it's leading to. I don't
think we fellowship around that enough. You might add that to another
one of the means of overcoming your corruptions is the fellowship
you have with other believers and the encouragement you can
give. What did you find out about Jesus this week in your Bible
study? I found this. What did you find?" That's such
a blessing, and I think that's what genuine Christian fellowship
involves. Well, after that evening, he
went to bed in a large upper chamber, found out that the chamber's
name was Peace. What a good night's sleep he
had. When he awoke, he sang, Where am I now? Is this the love
and care of Jesus? For the men that pilgrims are,
thus to provide, that I should be forgiven and dwell already
the next door to heaven. Well, you're not quite there,
Christian, but it's a nice place, isn't it? They got him up the
next morning and took him outside to look further down the road. They showed him The realities
of a place that he was going to come to. The Delectable Mountains. Or did I jump ahead a little
bit? I jumped ahead a little bit, didn't I? That's the next
morning he wakes up and sees that. They took him into some rooms
and showed him some rarities. The first thing he saw was the
pedigree of the Lord of the Hill. That he was the son of the Ancient
of Days and came by an eternal generation. That sentence is
worth several lessons. We had some on the doctrine of
Christ and the Trinity. He showed him some of the worthy
acts that some of his servants had done. And he's citing things
that are recorded in Hebrews chapter 11. And it says, then
they read again in another part of the records of the house where
it was showed how willingly their Lord was to receive into His
favor any, even any, though they in time past had offered great
affronts to His person in proceedings. Here also were several other
histories of many other famous things of all which Christian
had a view. Have you ever seen this book?
Boxer's Book of Martyrs. If you've never seen this book,
you ought to get it and read it. It's the history of the lives
and sufferings and deaths of early Christians from Stephen
all the way up. He ends his book about halfway
through Adoniram Judson's life in Burma, which was the 1830's. There have been more martyrdoms
for Christ in the last hundred years than are listed in this
book. We live in a country where it's
Fox's book of entertainers. That's not the history of the
Christian church, folks. It's Fox's book of martyrs. The
history of the Christian church has been one of suffering. And
those sufferings are recorded. You'll read in the Revelation,
there's a place where it talks about, I saw the souls of those
who had been martyred under the throne saying, how long, O Lord? We know so little of suffering. Most of our suffering is simply
rejection. Very rarely is it physical and
very rarely does it lead to death. But those are some of the things
that he was shown there. The next day they took him to
the armory and they showed him all the things that were there.
You can see in Ephesians chapter 6, the sword, the shield, the
helmet, the breastplate, the shoes that don't wear out and
so forth. And then they showed him some
of the engines. That's what some of these pictures
are back here of things like Moses' rod. the hammer and nail
that Jail used to slew Cicero, pitchers, trumpets, and lance,
too, which Gideon put to flight the armors of Midian, the jawbone
which Samson did smite the mighty, sling and stone of David. All
those things are recorded. Next day he's shown the delectable
mountains. They harnessed him from head to foot and he's on
the way down. to the Valley of Humiliation
where we'll be next week. The next lesson's back there.
I would encourage you to take it. Here's his words as he leaves
and we'll conclude here. He says, "...as it was difficult
coming up the hill." So it's dangerous going down into the
Valley of Humiliation. The Christian life is both difficult
and dangerous. Don't be surprised when you're
confronted with that. Thankfully, the Christian pilgrimage
has its times of comfort and blessings. But they are only
interludes, not lasting this side of the life to come. They
serve also to prepare for the rigors to follow. If he had not
been at the Palace Beautiful, he wouldn't have got this armor.
Boy, is he going to need it in the lesson that comes up next. Father in Heaven, we do thank
You for times in our life that You give us which are free from
difficulty, times when we can reflect on what You have done
in our life. And yet, Father, we still struggle
with those inward corruptions. Help us to use the means that
You've provided to overcome them. to press forward. And we thank
you, Father, for that day that's coming when we will be forever
free from our sin and all of its effects. Thank you for the
Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
In The House Beautiful - PP8
Series Pilgrim's Progress
| Sermon ID | 413152213466 |
| Duration | 49:08 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Language | English |
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