We're out of handouts? Okay. If you need a handout, maybe we can make more or share with a neighbor. It's really just an outline of what we're looking at today. So good morning. Today we pick up in the middle of a conversation that we began last week. If you have this version of the Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, this is what we are using. So when I reference page numbers, it's this version right here. There's no, this isn't the authoritative version of Pilgrim's Progress. I do enjoy the old English, but this is a helpful modern English translation. We pick up in the middle of chapter 11 in this book, and I think it's around page 109 is where we'll start today. And by way of review, or for those who just weren't here last week or aren't familiar with the story, our main protagonist, his name is Christian, he's been making his way from the place where he was born in the city of destruction to his future home in the celestial city. But to get there, we find him in the intermediary chapters here, walking through the wilderness of this world. As he's journeyed so far, he's faced all kinds of difficult situations. He's met some very nasty people and creatures so far. Here in chapter 11, It begins where a Christian had just been catching up happily with a former neighbor of his from his old hometown in the city of destruction. This man's name was Faithful. Faithful was also saved and sent on pilgrimage to the Celestial City, which we know is a metaphor for the spiritual life of a believer. So Faithful and Christian are enjoying some mighty fine fellowship when Faithful spots, you know, they're in the middle of conversation and then Faithful spies another traveler along the road with them. And he calls out to him, he flags him down to see if he might want to walk together with them. And of course, the man does because this man is all about having a good conversation or what he believes to be profitable to him. And of course, the man's name is Talkative. Remember one of the things Bunyan tells us about this character right at the outset as he describes him. He says at the beginning of chapter 11 that talkative looks better at a distance than he does up close. I resemble that remark, but I don't think he's just talking about physical appearance. I think he's talking about his character. Despite that remark in the narration, faithful and talkative get into some early discussion about, well, discussing things. They get talking about talking. And faithful is quite taken by Talkative's seeming knowledge of nearly anything there is to talk to a person about. He says the faithful all talk about heavenly things or earthly things, conforming things or evangelical things, sacred things or profane things, foreign things or domestic things, essential things or incidental things, as long as we can profit by all of it. So Talkative was great at talking, and he was willing to talk about, as we saw there, just about anything. but he was good at talking with little evidence of anything that actually resembled the fruits of the Spirit. We find faithful also lacking the discernment to notice that about this new traveler. Faithful hits the pause button at the beginning of this conversation with Talkative, and he goes back to Christian, who, interestingly enough, was lagging behind. He had already distanced himself a little bit from this man, Talkative. He knew something about him, as Christian will tell Faithful. Don't you remember? He was a neighbor of ours. He lived on the other street over, Gabby Row or Prater Lane or whatever it was. And Faithful says to Christian, and by the way, that's Bunyan's way of getting humor into this very serious story. But Christian was still within earshot, and Faithful says to Christian, boy, isn't this guy great? I think he'll make a great traveling companion with us, don't you, Christian? And Christian, well, he bursts Faithful's bubble there, and he says, are you blind? Are you deaf, Faithful? Obviously, that's the modern David version. But this loud-mouthed jabberjaw who you've spent a grand total of five seconds listening to, Faithful, he's an absolute fake. Don't you see that? He can easily deceive 20 people with that serpent-like tongue of his. I mentioned last week, he kind of reminds me of other characters that we find in literature or musicals. I think of Mr. Harold Hill in The Music Man, if you've ever seen that. Or even in Tartuffe's play, Moliere's play Tartuffe. Chad knows something about him. I think you played him in high school. Leland Ryken adds further context to some background on this character, Talkative. Ryken says this, surprising as it may seem, the figure of Talkative may be Bunyan's self-portrait of what he was like before his own conversion. He says, Bunyan tells the story in his autobiographical Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. On a day when Bunyan passed four women who were talking about the things of God, Bunyan drew near to hear what they said. For I was now a brisk talker, Bunyan said of himself, in the matters of religion. But I may say I heard but understood not. As he heard, Reichen goes on, the women talk about a new birth, the work of God on their hearts. He realized how little he understood of the Christian life. And this is exactly what we see in the figure of Talkative in this episode, end quote. And maybe that describes some of us, many of us, who we were before God intervened in our lives so graciously and saved us. It really doesn't take a whole lot, does it, to memorize the five points of Calvinism, especially when you put them in an easy-to-remember acrostic, right? It doesn't take a whole lot to be able to speak at least five Latin phrases every October, right? Five solas of the Reformation. I can speak Latin. And then, you know, interpret what those mean. It doesn't take a whole lot to memorize even large portions of Scripture. Our children, hopefully, are being taught how to do that. And that's good. We want to be able to do that. The point is, even knowing scripture or large theological words and phrases, none of that saves a person. And none of those things are necessarily fruits and evidences of a lively faith. They could be, as in this case, just talk. So, a faithful asked Christian, well, So basically, just to review again, Christian bursts his bubble and says, no, he's a fake, and he gives a whole long explanation of why he's a fake, and we looked at that last week. And so Faithful then asks, being convinced by what Christian tells him, thankfully, Faithful asks him, well, then how should I go about talking with him again? I'm going to go back to him. What should I say now? And Christian replies, we'll just go up to him and begin some serious discussion about the power of religion, about how, and after he has agreed to that conversation, because he surely will, because, well, it's conversation, then ask him plainly if this thing, this power of religion can be found in his heart or house or lifestyle. Where are the evidences of the power of grace through faith in talkative's life? And so that's exactly what faithful does. And this, I believe, is right around where we left off last time, in the middle or towards the bottom of page 109, onto page 110, where we find Faithful going back to Talkative to question him. And so Faithful examines Talkative. Bunyan shows us that Faithful stepped up to walk with Talkative again, said, hey there, I'm back, thanks for letting me step away for a second. Talkative basically replies with, well, hello again, and it took you long enough. We could have had many discussions about many things by now. He had a one-track mind. You see, again, talkative is only and always about one thing, talking. Faithful responds more intentionally now, now that he knows what talkative is up to. He knows the substance of talkative at this point. He says, well, how about this for our next topic? How does the saving grace of God reveal itself when it is in a person's heart? It's a good question. And without skipping a beat, Talkative jumps right back into his stream of talking, and he says, I perceive then that our discussion must be about the power of things. Well, that is a very good question, and I'll be more than willing to answer you. Take my answer in brief to be this. First, the grace of God in the heart causes a great outcry there against sin. Second, and that's where faithful goes, wait, stop. Let's back it up. Let's take these one at a time. No moving on to second. Let's deal with what you just said. No, wait, interjected faithful. Let's consider them one at a time. I think you should rather say that it shows itself by inclining the soul to abhor its sin. And I think we mentioned this last week. Why, asked talkative, what's the difference between crying out against sin and the abhorring of it? What's the difference? Faithful says, well, a great deal difference. Someone may cry out against sin as a matter of policy. I like that. Well, it violates the policy of the matter. It's not proper. but one can't hear of it except through the virtue of godly aversion for it." Faithful goes on, I've heard many cry out against sin from the pulpit who are pleased enough to have it dwell in their own heart and house and lifestyle. We still see that in pulpits today, and may the Lord forbid it from ever being that way here at Grace Covenant. many crying out against sin from the pulpit who are pleased to have it dwell in their own heart. Faithful proceeds to explain the difference then between railing against sin verbally and hating sin in the heart so as to kill it, mortify it. And one illustration he gives is that of a mother who is holding her child, a child who hasn't been bathed probably in weeks. And we know that toddlers love mud and anything that will make them dirty. Hasn't been bathed and is very naughty, Bunyan says, misbehaving child. And a mother who holds that child in her lap and tells the child that that child is naughty and dirty and at the same time is hugging and kissing and holding that little monster so close because at the end of the day she still loves it. That's a person, Faithful says, who knows that they sin. They even will speak out against that kind of sin while harboring that same sin in the recesses of their heart, thus showing the idolatry that exists in their own heart. Well, this must have struck a chord of some kind with Talkative because he shows signs here of defensiveness. I think it's kind of the first time we see that in Talkative. He says, hey, you tricked me. You've set a trap for me." And Faithful says, no, I'm not setting a trap. The only thing I'm trying to set is set things straight, set things right here. So back to the question, Faithful says, he's not going to let him off the hook. What were you going to say was the second proof in your estimation of the work of grace in a person's heart? What else is there? Well, Talkative jumps right back in. Well, okay. Thank you for the opportunity to continue talking. Talkative answers, well, great knowledge of gospel mysteries. And this brings us to see, as we touched on briefly last week, the nature of knowledge. And I love this line, a few lines down here from Faithful. He basically says, okay, there's knowledge, and then there's knowledge. And I think that second, knowledge, is in italics in this version of the book. The first form of knowledge is concerned with bare speculation of things. It only serves to satisfy the talker. And then there's this other type of knowledge that Faithful mentions, and that's the kind that's associated with the grace of faith and love that causes a person to begin to do God's will from the inside out, from a changed, regenerated heart. This is what that saving knowledge of God that we come to possess at regeneration, as Ephesians 2.10 alludes to there, in the immediate context of salvation by grace through faith, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, not just talk them. The point that the Apostle Paul is arguing in 1 Corinthians 13 also is relevant here. That you can speak in the tongues of men and angels. Wow, how awesome is that, right? Being able to speak not just in known tongues, but angelic tongues, maybe unknown tongues. What is that all about? And have prophetic powers, Paul says, and understand all great mysteries and have all knowledge. and all faith so as to remove mountains. But what good, Paul argues, are any of those things without Christian love that comes from God? You see, we see here in 1 Corinthians 13 that faith, hope, and love are these, what's been called theological virtues, those things that are only known by divine grace and gifting. They're given by God himself. They can only be truly possessed by the one who's been saved. Faithful also points talkative to what Jesus said in John 13, 17, that if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. And of course, we can't talk about talking versus walking or talking and walking without looking at James 2. And beginning at verse 14 there, James argues this, well, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith? If he says he has faith, I believe, yes, I'm a Christian. Let's talk about all these theological things on the way to the celestial city together. But doesn't have works. Can that faith save him? And he gives an illustration here. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace and be warmed and filled without actually giving them the things they need for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is what? Is dead. But someone will say, James goes on, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works. What's that look like? And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well, even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person? that faith apart from works is useless, in verse 26. So, faith apart from works is dead. That was talkative in a nutshell. Page 113, we continue on here. It's significant that talkative is now less inclined to be talkative. He yields to faithful on the grounds that they will continue in disagreement. Again, the fact is that he would have been wounded by the truth, but that he has been wounded by the truth, and truth has a tendency of shutting the mouth. We continue on and see Faithful saying to him, "'Because I saw you were inclined to talk, and because I didn't know if you had anything more than mere opinions. Besides, to tell you the truth, I've heard of you, that you're a man whose religion lies in talk, and that your lifestyle makes the confession of your mouth a lie.'" Your lifestyle makes the confession of your mouth a lie. They say you're a spot among Christians and that religion fares the worst because of your ungodly lifestyle. They say that some have already stumbled due to your wicked ways and that more are in danger of being destroyed by the same. Your religion and your appearance at drinking establishments, your greed, impurity, swearing, lying, and the arrogant company you keep and so forth, those all stand together. Those are all like witnesses, talkative, against your shallow profession with your mouth of indwelling faith, those witness against you in the marketplace, in your own family even. The proverb that is said of a prostitute, that she is a shame to all women, that is true of you, faithful tells him. In the same way, you're a shame to all those professing to know Christ. Talkative responds to him and says, well, since you're inclined to speak of hearsay, and to judge as rashly as you do. I can only conclude that you are some fretful and depressed man who's not fit to chat with, and so adieu. So goodbye, sir." And if there was a door to slam, he would have slammed it. You see what's happening here. Talkative ends up getting backed into a corner by Faithful. By Faithful's very direct communication, his direct examination of him. And what do creatures that are backed in a corner often do? Some of you have been hunting or out in the woods before. Javelina usually aren't very dangerous, but if you back them into a corner, those teeth will be shown. They'll snarl at you and they'll bite. That's exactly what talkative does to faithful. He goes on the attack. It's a last-ditch effort. Like, well, you can't say those things about me because you probably have daddy issues, you know, or something like that. You're fretful and despondent yourself. He goes ad hominem on him. He tells Faithful he doesn't have to submit himself to such questioning. He's enjoyed the conversation up to this point, hasn't he? But all of a sudden the tables have been turned and I don't feel like talking to you anymore. He doesn't feel obliged to answer Faithful's inquiries because he says, you know, Faithful, you're not my instructor, my catechizer. In other words, he doesn't have any authority over him. He recognizes no authority over him. as a teacher, and even if he did, Talkative admits here that he would refuse to allow faithful to be his judge. So instead of answering the questions posed to him, Talkative resorts to that age-old defensive argument, well, you can't judge me. Who are you to judge? Thomas Scott says, doctrinal or even practical discussions, if confined to general terms, will not startle them, that is the hypocrite, the tartuffe, the talkative. They will mimic the language of experience, declaim against the wickedness of the world and the blindness of Pharisees, and strenuously oppose the opinions held by some rival sect or party. They will endure the most awful declarations by the wrath of God against the wicked, supposing themselves to be unconcerned in them. Nay, they will admit that they are backsliders or inconsistent believers, but When the conversation or sermon compels them to complain, in so saying thou condemnest us also, they will bear no longer, but seek refuge under more comfortable preachers, or in more candid company, where they can be free to be themselves. And represent their faithful monitors, their faithful teachers or friends, as censorious, peevish, and melancholy men. Why are you so annoying all of a sudden, faithful? In other words, as Scott says here, when things get real and personal, and really personal, hypocrites can't take the pressure. It threatens to reveal the person that's behind the mask, you see. It begins to show the cracks in the mask, in the makeup. It pulls it back just a little bit to show the actor, the hypocrite playing the part, and that's talkative. After tiring of struggling, really not doing a good job of answering faithful's questions here that are aimed right at Talkative's heart, he opts out altogether and he parts ways with them. He separates himself from the true pilgrims. Just as the apostle says in 1 John 2, 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. That's talkative, but they went out that it might become plain that they are all not of us. And there's so much of this in Christian circles. We see it today, they come up with really catchy phrases like deconstructing and that kind of thing today. It's an age old thing, right? Bunyan was talking about it in his day, just as much as we see it today, the internet and social media just makes it that much more in your face, I think. Sometimes it's that slow, quiet, I'm just going to go ahead and fade into the background here and hope no one will notice that I haven't been going to church lately. Because I don't feel comfortable around all these Christian friends like I used to because, well, I love the idols of my heart more than I love Jesus. Sometimes it's that. Other times it's more schismatic, it's more obvious. I think we have a little bit more of that here with talkative. Well, goodbye. Slamming the door. Ken Poles summarizes the last part of this interaction. He says, in response, Talkative first blushes. There's an embarrassment that he possesses here. His embarrassment betrays the truth about him, Poles says. Though Talkative speaks well of grace, he has not lived in ways that testify to a true work of grace in his heart. But any conviction he feels is quickly quenched. Talkative becomes defensive. He retreats behind barriers that are sure to cut him off from the help he needs. He feels caught off guard and put on the spot. He says, you trapped me. He wasn't expecting this kind of discourse. Remember, he was only looking for discourse that he believed profited him. He's not ready to answer such pointed questions. He's unwilling to have his life so closely examined and scrutinized. Any comments or questions here, John? Yeah. That's a good question. John mentioned that every denomination, every group of true believers is going to have their version of talkative that could rise up within their midst. And I think within reformed circles, you're not wrong. There is a premium, I think you said, on head knowledge, loving the Lord with your mind. And there's multiple guards against that. One is staying under the Word and under the means of grace in communion, not just with Christ personally, as we all have, but with one another on the Lord's Day and in the context of membership in the local church. Another one is our confessions of faith. are helpful, yes, we could all recite them. But really, our confessions speak to the inner man just as much as if someone were to say, oh, I'm confessional and tattoo it on their body or something. And it's got to be more than that. The truths of scripture have to penetrate the heart. And I think that's going from the heart. The mouth speaks. And so that overflow is going to come out in the way a person talks and treats other people. but it's not just a mouth thing, it's a heart thing. So yeah, I think the examination of one another as we'll see in the context of Christian fellowship is one of the best guards against it. Jacob. In a way, Amen. Could have been. Yeah, we'll see that in a minute. Yeah, it's a good point. Faithful, as we saw last week, went to Christian and he submitted himself to Christian's counsel. And I think that's one of the applications from this entire scene. We'll talk about that more in a moment. Well, let's move on to kind of see the debrief, the summary, especially from Christian regarding this whole encounter. listening to this and watching this whole interaction from just a short distance away, but still with an earshot, Christian was there. And he sees Talkative go bye-bye, and he comes up to Faithful and says, bro, I told you so. What did I tell you was going to happen? It happened. Again, my paraphrased addition there. Christian is actually quite pleased that faithful followed his counsel regarding the hypocrite. And the result was exactly as Christian had predicted. He said, I told you your words and his desires, I think in the original it says lust, his lust, his idols of the heart, his own self, I told you that your words and his lust couldn't agree. He would rather leave your company than reform his life, and now he's gone, so let him go." Sometimes we need to hear that in life. We are so relational today, and we live in a society that so many people want to be so nice. I don't like that word. Nice. There's a difference between nice and kind, and that's a whole other conversation. Let him go, Christian tells him. The loss is none, is no one's but his own. And he saved us the trouble of departing from him, for continuing as he is, as I suppose he'll do, he would have been a blotch on our fellowship. Because there was no fellowship with Tarkin. Faithful, we got fellowship here. That's not fellowship. Besides, Christian says, the apostle tells us to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching that you received from us. So while this encounter was ultimately profitable for Faithful in teaching him many things through it, it was all held under this cloud of disagreement. It wasn't warm fellowship, as Christian says, between brothers who held things in common. It wasn't, as we sometimes refer to them, a family argument, an in-house debate, right? It wasn't one of those that Faithful and Talkative were having. No, it was a dispute with regard to conflicting grounds of fellowship based upon a disagreement on the essentials of the faith. In fact, Talkative wasn't even just ignorant or confused. He wasn't a teachable seeker, and we need to be able to discern that about people. That's hard to do sometimes. I think pastors especially are called to do that. I've had conversations with people that have really hard-hitting questions for me with regards to scripture or the faith or our confession, and one of the first questions I'll ask them in response to their questions is, are you willing to be taught? Because if not, what are we doing here? Are you willing to be taught? No, he was rather an antagonist and an immoral one at that. So Christian says, good, let him go. It's better that he's gone. It's his loss, not ours. Faithful then provides his own perspective. And you have to appreciate what he says. I think, Jacob, you kind of alluded to this. He says, but I'm glad we had this little discussion with him. Perhaps he'll think on it again. Perhaps, maybe there's something there of truth that will stick with him, that God will bring to his mind later to convict him of his sinful ways and point him to the gospel. However, talkative says, I've dealt openly, I've dealt plainly with him, so I'm not accountable for his blood. if he perishes. Acts 20, 26 and 27, Paul says something similar. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink, just like faithful, did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. He didn't sugarcoat it. He didn't shrink back. Faithful lived up to his name. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Faithful meant only good towards Talkative. Even in the most direct ways that he questioned him, he meant good to him because love always hopes. While many lesser pilgrims might criticize faithful's dealings with Talkative, his explanation here proves the purity of his motives, and now his conscience is clear and he can move on and walk in fellowship with his brother Christian once again. It's interesting, too, to note Bunyan never reveals to us Talkative's ultimate destiny. We don't find out later in the story that Talkative was saved or wasn't. The last we see or hear of him is right here as he bids these two pilgrims adieu, and he departs from them, and it's as if they're, and we are to assume that he basically just stayed in that miserable condition, that he went back and would drink at home in the pub on weekends, and his crown, his head, Bunyan says, was so full of beer that his mouth would just say the worst of things. and all those other things that were said about him. He's probably still in that condition to this day. It's very similar to what we see in Matthew 19 with that rich young man who came to Jesus. And after Jesus probed the deepest matters of his heart, he responded with dismay at what Jesus said, and he went away sorrowful. And that's the last we hear of the rich young man. It was a good thing that you talked to him as plainly as you did, Christian tells faithful. There's not much of the straight dealing with people these days, and that's what makes religion stink in the nostrils of men the way it does. For many are those talkative fools whose religion is only in word, and who are perverted and arrogant in their lifestyles. How many of you have heard this quote-unquote objection by an unbeliever to why they won't become a Christian or be part of a church? There are so many hypocrites in the church. To which we all say, uh-huh, yeah, there are. And I've probably been one of them. Being admitted, Christian says, into the fellowship of the godly, these true lifelong hypocrites, they puzzle the world. They blemish Christianity and grieve the sincere. I wish that everyone would deal with them as you've done, faithful. Then they would either be made to conform to religion, God would save them, or the fellowship of the saints would be too hot for them to remain." This is such a great, great text here. There's just a scarcity of this type of faithful dealing with one another that we saw in faithful here. Romans 3.19 says, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. So just to put a bow on this section, I think we know that there's a day of judgment coming where every talkative will be held accountable for all their idle words, and on that day every tongue will finally stop wagging." And they will have to bow below the feet of Christ. There's a lot of heart work here. The section ends by heart work describing the sanctifying life of God in the soul of the genuine pilgrim as distinct from hypocrites like talkative. So heart work is what was being done here. what faithful was talking about. Any questions or comments before we move on to a few applications and then evangelists? Okay, yes. That's right, experiential Christianity. Good. So just some applications here. This isn't all, not all of the applications that we find in this section. We talked last week about the tongue, and so there's a lot of application there with our speech and our mouth. But just a few from this specific last half of the section. One is the value of Christian friendship. Again, we see the importance of fellowship, Christian fellowship, ideally and most regularly in the context of church membership. Within the church, we have the means and the ability to examine one another, and we ought to do that from time to time, and I think that can happen somewhat informally. It's not like we have to call, hey Jacob, we are due for our monthly examination. You know, I'm coming over and yeah, it's not that kind of thing. So I think it can just be in casual conversation. Hey brother, I heard you say something the other night that just, you know, struck a discordant note and I just wanted to follow up with you on that. And what did you mean when you said this about that? Value of Christian friendship, that's where that, and fellowship, that's where that is. Secondly, the separation between saved and unsafe, the regenerate and unregenerate. just as Christian tells faithful about talkative, unless God is doing that work of regeneration of false professor, it's just a matter of time before that false professor tires of a Christian's company. And why is that? Well, because 2 Corinthians 6, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness anyway? What fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? Amos 3.3, can two walk together except they be agreed? Again, they wouldn't have walked together much longer unless talkative underwent real regeneration. Third, there's wisdom in counsel. This is what Jacob was just saying, too. A Christian, in this matter at least, was wiser than faithful. He was more discerning. And we see that clearly here. Thankfully, faithful recognized that wisdom in his companion, and he went to him, sought his advice, and then took it. And upon taking his advice, both were better for it. Proverbs 12, 15 speaks of this. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Faithful could have said, you're wrong. And I believe what he says, and we're going to keep talking and walking. But a wise man listens to advice. And faithful, thankfully, was quick to listen while talkative was quick to speak. Proverbs 11, 14, where there's no guidance, a people falls. But in an abundance of counselors, there's safety. Proverbs 15, 22, without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed. And of course, Proverbs 24, 6, by wise guidance you can wage war. You can do something as big and serious as going to war with the right counsel and guidance. And in abundance of counselors, there's victory. Years ago, our church underwent a major disruption in which many members ended up leaving in a disorderly way, and people on both sides of the issue in the moment sinned. And since then, the elders of the church, this church, as well as many of the members who were here at the time, we, I believe, have grown in wisdom, in part because of what we went through together, and in part because we sought outside counsel There were those that we had to lean on and ask for wisdom. But in going through something, and this is where Christian to faithful is interesting, Christian had experienced certain things that faithful hadn't that gave Christian an applied knowledge based on those past experiences. We've learned lessons from our own experiences. And one of the unexpected blessings that comes from a difficult time in the life of a body like ours is that now we are more equipped to help other churches when they face similar difficulties. But we can encourage and pass along some of that knowledge that we gained when we were in the thick of it. You've probably been there. As parents, how many times can you pass along just basic wisdom about very basic life things on a day-to-day basis with your children? Trust me, this ain't my first rodeo. You know, you say something like that. I've been around the block a few times. I know how this is going to turn out for you. Don't put your hand on the stove when it's hot. You know, I don't know, whatever it is. We can encourage and pass along some of that to others, that knowledge based on past experiences, that is called wisdom when rightly applied. And so we are wiser today, I think all of us, including this very church, because of our past trials, because of ways that God has disciplined us and taught us. And we can then, and ought to, share that wisdom with others when we are on the other side of those experiences. Does that make sense? Well, fourthly, we see the boldness in correcting. There's not much to say here beyond faithful are the wounds of a friend. We see that in faithful. He was bold in correcting. He could have said, hey, you know what? Agree to disagree. We've got a celestial city to make by morning. No, that's not what he did. He took the time to be bold in questioning and examining this professor of faith who was a false professor. But also, we see there the humility in receiving correction, just as faithful did. And we don't see that in talkative. Sixthly, we see that concern for the salvation of sinners that Faithful exhibits. The thrust of his argument was for the purpose of awakening Talkative to his peril, to show him that he was all talk and not walk, that he was, simply put, a self-deceived hypocrite. Faithful wasn't giving some masterful rhetorical performance in his questioning and examining of talkative. That wasn't the point. There is a time and a place for harsh words and direct argumentation like this with someone. We don't want to be those. who Paul mentions in 2 Timothy 2, 23 through 26, who are quarrelsome, who get involved with foolish, ignorant controversies that breed quarrels, but we want to be those that he mentions there who are kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, even their ad hominems, their slanderous attacks back at us, patiently enduring that, correcting our opponents with gentleness, with what intention, with what end goal there? God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to knowledge, a knowledge of the truth, Paul says, that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. So while engaging in foolish arguments and quarrelsome behavior is a dangerous and wrong thing to do, at the same time, silence in the face of error can be equally harmful. So Faithful walked that tightrope quite well, I think, between being unloving, overbearing in his argumentativeness on the one side, and being cowardly on the other. He walked that and spoke truth with love. Seventhly and lastly, before we move on, we see the sad realities of wilderness living. It must have been so discouraging for these two pilgrims to have this conversation and be left this way by talkative. Ken Poles again writes, the departure of talkative is one of the saddest portions of the pilgrim's progress. It describes one who claims to follow Christ, yet turns away from truth and snared by his own pride and deception. Sadder still, it describes a response that is all too common. It is a response that has hindered many from finding the peace, joy, and forgiveness found in true repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ. So this is a warning to all of us that we not be those who are quick to speak and slow to listen, but the opposite, and that we be willing to, even at times, separate ourselves from those who are not willing to be genuine and honest when it comes to the matters of faith. So, any comments or questions? Okay. Well, in the immediate wake of talkative's departure, they're continuing on, we see Bunyan says they're continuing to walk in this wilderness now. And who do we encounter, or who do we re-encounter? We see the return of the king. No, return of Evangelist. Evangelist shows up again, and I believe this is his third appearance in the story so far. Actually, is it his last? I think it might be his last appearance. Does he come up again? Part two, that doesn't count. No, I'm just kidding. Once again, Bunyan shows us here is the important, and we've mentioned this before, the multifaceted role that a pastor can play in the life of a believer. If we just review just quickly the other times that the characters met evangelists so far, The first was when Christian was wandering the fields near home with a book in his hand, a burden on his back. Evangelist finds him there at a crossroads, both metaphorically as well as literally, I think, because he knew he couldn't stay here, but he didn't know where to go to. So he needed to flee from the wrath. He didn't know where to flee. So Evangelist preached Christ to him. Evangelist pointed him to the wicket gate that he couldn't quite see, but he could make out the yonder light. So he went in that direction. thanks to evangelist guidance. And so what we see there is a pastor truly seeking to point sinners to Christ with the gospel, the evangelistic aspect of pastoring. Then the second time we see evangelist in the story, he's like a shepherd who's going after one of the sheep who had lost his way. He offers admonishment to Christian when he was standing below, was it Mr. Legality's house or the hill of, Morality? What was the town of Morality? Yeah. And it was about to crash down on him and he felt guilty and weighed down by all of that, his own sin and shame. And Evangelist comes and he offers him a loving rebuke. Well, why'd you go here? Well, Mr. Worldly Wiseman told me to. Well, I told you to keep going here. And so he puts him back on the straight and the narrow. And here again, so we see him offering admonition. And then we see him coming this last time here in the form of an encourager, a comforter, coming alongside as a friend. And just a side note, we can't help, I hope, but see Christ in these examples of evangelists and the ways that he has shown up in the story. Christ came to seek and save the lost like evangelists the first time we meet him. Christ is the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to go after the one wayward lamb. And He is our continual intercessor who knows our pains and trials and weaknesses, and He sympathizes with us and brings us comfort through the difficulties by the indwelling of His Spirit, even now. In page 115, we read, They went on talking like this about what they had seen by the way, and it made that part of the journey easy that would have otherwise, no doubt, been exhausting for them. You see what it means to be in Christian fellowship with one another, that the exhausting part of the journey, which is basically day one, you're saved, to the day you die and go to glory. That's an exhausting part of the journey, the whole thing. And do that with others. It makes the journey easier. Now they were going through a wilderness, Bunyan says, when they had gotten almost completely out of the wilderness, Faithful happened to look back and he sees an individual coming up behind him and he recognizes him and says, oh, look who's coming up yonder, brother. And Christian looks and exclaimed, it's my good friend Evangelist. And Faithful's like, your friend? He's my friend. Yes, said Faithful, my friend, my good friend too. He's the one who set me in the pathway to the gate. And Christian's like, yeah, me too. So they're stoked, right? By the time Evangelist catches up to them and greets them, he says, Peace be with you, dearly beloved, and peace be to your helpers." So they were both overly excited to see Evangelist coming, both of them calling him their good friend. And when he draws close to them, he greets them with love. It reminds me of the Apostle John in 1 John, where he's talking to his audience with such endearing terms, dearly beloved, he says to them. And then he echoes 1 Chronicles 12, 18 in the salutation of peace that was copied and pasted from 1 Chronicles 12. Faithful greets his admired friend saying, welcome a thousand times over. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. It's like a dog when you get home from work, it's just always happy to see you, you know. He was so thrilled to see him. He says, dear evangelist, oh, how your companionship is so desirable to poor pilgrims like us. And Bunyan tells us that the pilgrims, they were, again, they were in the wilderness of the journey, like maybe that stretch of road that I imagine somewhere between West Texas and here. Anyone driven that road lately? I don't know. We got a few Texans with us today. There's nothing there. There's tumbleweeds and prairie dogs that are playing some sick game, a frogger trying to get across the highway, the whole way. Right? In Texas, yeah. So anyway, there's nothing there. It's barren, it seems. And so they were ready for a change of scenery. Are we to Arizona yet? Where's this painted desert? They're ready for a change of pace, and their old friend couldn't have appeared at a better time. Thomas Scott writes, the minister by whose faithful labors a man is first directed into the way of salvation. He commonly retains great influence and is considered with special affection even when various circumstances have placed him at a distance under another pastor. The conversation, therefore, of such a beloved friend tends to recall to the minds of believers their former fears, trials, and deliverances, which animates them to encounter further difficulties and opens the way for seasonable counsels and admonitions. Some of you weren't saved here at Grace Covenant Church. You can remember when and where you were when God saved you and the person that shared the gospel with you, that evangelist in your life. Maybe it was your first pastor who baptized you. I'm sure even if you hold a different doctrinal flavor today than they do now, you probably still have a soft place in your heart for them and would love for their fellowship once more. That's evangelist to these brothers. He asks them, he's there to encourage them as well as to prepare them. And he begins by asking them, tell me what's happened since the last time I saw you. Where have you been? What have you been doing? And so they recount all the things. And Bunyan doesn't go in the narrative to recount all the things, because he just did that in the last chapter when Christian and faithful met. And so we can assume that's what they told him all about. Well, I met, you know, I fell into this, and I met this person, and then I fought a Polyon, and he beat me up pretty bad. Well, I meant wanton, and was hurt by shame, and all these things. Well, then he just begins, Evangelist just comes in, he just layers on the encouragements. And these encouragements come from, of course, God's Word. And this is why I think Spurgeon could say that Bunyan bled Bibleen. You prick him, and it's just like, oh, there's a Bible verse, and there's a Bible verse, there's Bible verses everywhere, and it's just Scripture. God's Word is replete. He says, All these things, John 4, 36. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together. Galatians 6, 9. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. We need to hear these things as we journey through the wilderness of this world. 1 Corinthians 9, 24 and following. Don't you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." He goes on to tell them to hold fast. Let no man take your crown, drawn from Revelation 3.11. And then he throws this ominous little comment in here. You are not yet out of gunshot of the devil. Devil's got a .50 cal and he's got some rounds with your name on it. You're not out of gunshot. You know how far a .50 cal can shoot? Anyway, Pastor Larry can tell you. Remember when Christian was at the Wicked Gate at the beginning of his journey, and when he knocked at the door, the man on the inside of the door opened it, his name was Goodwill, and he pulls him through, right? Why? And he shuts the door behind him, and ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, all these arrows lined up. There's a strong fortress, Bunyan tells us, not far from the Wicked Gate where Beelzebub, the Wicked Prince, and his fiends, his orcs, they were stationed looking to take out pilgrims. Well, here it seems to show that Satan can still threaten the lives of Christian pilgrims even well into their journey. And as we've seen in Pastor John's current study through the Gospel of Luke, Christians cannot be possessed by Satan or his demons, but they can be oppressed by Satan and his demons, right? We can undergo spiritual oppression if God allows it. See Job for Exhibit A on that. Evangelist warns them, therefore, that they must continue to resist the devil. And that's in keeping with admonitions of Ephesians 6 and James 4, 7. He tells them to continue fighting against sin, Romans 6, 11 through 14, that they must seek first the kingdom of God, Matthew 7, 33, and aim for what is invisible rather than what is visible, 2 Corinthians 4, 18. They're to keep themselves unstained from the world, James 1.27, and guard their hearts from temptations, because as Jeremiah tells us in Jeremiah 17.9, the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked. Who can know it? He urges them to set your faces like flint, Isaiah 57, and continue pressing on in this forward journey, because all power and authority are on their side, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. You see all the scripture just pouring out of Bunyan's pen here in this text from the words of Evangelist. What encouraging words at that. He's putting wind in the pilgrim's sails, and they're going to need it. They're going to need it. They're in the doldrums now. They need this wind to carry them through and into this next stage of their journey. So he puts wind in their sails to, as the redneck prophet said, keep on keeping on. While the pilgrims were thankful and much encouraged by his words, Christian asked him to speak more specifically. Can you give us anything else about what's coming? They recognized that he was a prophet, Bunyan says. And I appreciate this about Christian. I think, like Christian here, I'm a planner. I don't like surprises. When I'm planning for a trip, I want to know what are we going to potentially encounter on that trip and plan for that and some contingencies along the way. Bunyan mentions that they knew Evangelist was a prophet when they asked him this. And just a comment here, I don't think this is referring to the sign gift of prophecy that we find in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14. I think what they're doing here is speaking of this mix of wisdom and foreknowledge that an experienced pastor likely possesses. Again, like a parent with a child, hey, been around the block a few times, let me tell you what you can expect from the other side of the street, down the road. I think that's what we're seeing here. And then maybe some fictional embellishment, stylistic embellishment in giving evangelists as a character in the story some of that foresight to what's to come, just to add a foreshadowing aspect to the story itself. But I don't think we should read this as Bunyan arguing for the spiritual gift of prophecy or foretelling in any way. And then finally, he comes and he answers this question. Evangelist began saying, my sons, you've heard in the words of the truth of the gospel that you must enter into the kingdom of heaven through many hardships, and that, again, you may face prison and hardships in every city. And so you can expect, therefore, to travel far on your pilgrimage without them in some form. You can't expect to travel far without them in some form or other. You've probably experienced something of this already, he tells them. But the worst is yet to come. I thought you said evangelists was coming alongside to encourage them. Well, that's great that you've survived all of these terrible things. You may not survive the next terrible thing. One or both of you are going to die. And he just tells him that. But, he says, and there's encouragement even there, be faithful even to the point of death and the king will give you the crown of life. Even though his death will be unnatural, Evangelist says, and perhaps his pain great. Like, stop talking, I'm sorry I asked you. Ignorance is bliss, I'd rather not know. No, he says, no, it might be a very painful death. Yet the one who dies there will have the advantage over his partner, not only because he will have arrived in the celestial city soonest, but because he will escape many more miseries that the other one will meet during the rest of his journey. Let's think about that at the next Christian funeral you go to. Praise God that they are already there. They beat us to the celestial city. They don't have to deal with whatever we're still going to have to deal with in this life. Major foreshadowing in the storyline. truly something that all of us can and should expect. A lot of passages here of Scripture, Acts 14, 21 and Acts 20, 22 and following, Paul speaking about the difficulties and afflictions that he knew were going to await him and his fellow apostles. Philippians 3, 8 and following, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. In Romans 18, for I consider the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And so Evangelist leaves them with this final encouragement. When you arrive at the place that you've now been warned of, remember what I've told you when you get there and be men of courage. Entrust yourselves to your faithful creator and continue to do good. Of course, Bunyan once again pulling from scriptures like 1 Corinthians 6.13, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, or the KJV, quit you like men and be strong. Therefore, 1 Peter 4.19, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. In John 16.33, I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. With that, let's go ahead and pray. Father God, we do thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, our elder brother, our great shepherd who was a suffering servant on behalf of us and whose footsteps we follow. Lord, help us to be more like Christ even in our suffering. We thank you for the encouragement that you provide through your word. And we thank you for pointing us to your word this morning through great texts of literature like The Pilgrim's Progress. Lord, we pray now that you'll bless us and prepare our minds and our hearts to receive your word. and be with those who are preaching this morning and this evening. We pray for those who are getting baptized this evening that you would encourage and uplift them as well. Help us all to be more like Christ and we pray this in his name. Amen.