Greetings and welcome back to the seventh installment of our series of devotional reflections on the Pilgrim's Progress. Today, we're going to be looking at the Palace Beautiful. The Palace Beautiful, right up until just before Christian goes into the Valley of Humiliation. Last time we saw that Christian went through the hill, went up the hill difficulty and we were reminded of the need for perseverance and for enduring faith in the midst of trials and how we ought not to sleep when we should be awake. We need to be alert and sober. Well, Christian comes away from the hill difficulty and he had met two men that I had mentioned briefly in that last installment, whose names I didn't mention, but those men were mistrust and timorous. And they were telling him, you need to go back. There are lions in the way. You're going to be torn to pieces. And Christian, as he comes up to this palace, he sees these lions. And he's fearful of the lions, but he proceeds anyway. Maybe before even getting into that, we should say, what palace is this that he's come to? Bunyan calls it the Palace Beautiful, a very stately palace. So I saw in my dream that he made haste and went forward, that if possible, he might get lodging there. He's going to have some rest and shelter in the Palace Beautiful. The Palace Beautiful is a metaphor for the church. It is the place where weary pilgrims come for rest and refreshment. And isn't it an interesting note that Bunyan calls the church a beautiful palace? you wonder what we might call the church. Is that our estimation of the church? If we were writing something and needed to depict the church allegorically, would we call it the beautiful palace? Or would we call it something not as flattering? Would we complain about it? Would we show our disdain for the bride of Christ because of the ways that we're disappointed by the people therein or the leaders therein? and not Bunyan. Bunyan sat in prison for 12 years longing to be in the fellowship of God's people, perhaps in a way that we know only a faint bit more realistically, in these days of our sheltering in place during the coronavirus lockdown. Maybe a couple months ago, we wouldn't have called the church, the palace, beautiful. Maybe now, with several weeks, months now, even away from the body of Christ, at least in person, we've begun to recognize how beautiful and stately the church is. Not the building, not the structure, but the people gathered at the structure, the people gathered together in person in the name of Christ. This is the Bride of Christ adorned with the righteousness of Christ, being sanctified by Christ her Bridegroom. And we ought to love the church. It ought to be in our minds that the church is the beautiful palace. Well, The lions are chained at the gate, but Christian doesn't recognize that and neither did Timorous or Mistrust recognize it. So they saw lions and said, I'm out of here. But it was dark and he couldn't see that the lions were chained. And so there was a porter at the lodge whose name was Watchful, the overseer of the church, who saw Christian sort of stop because he was afraid of the lions, and he cried unto him, saying, Is thy strength so small? Fear not the lions, for they are chained and are placed there for trial of faith where it is. and for discovery of those who have none. Keep in the midst of the path and no hurt shall come unto thee." This is just an exquisite little paragraph. The lions, I mean, what are they? At least evidence of the fact that the church is built in enemy territory. I think the idea of Satan going about as a lion, seeking whom he may devour, coupled with the notion that he's bound in Revelation chapter 20, which Bunyan probably would have understood not as a future millennium like we do, but he would have understood that as having application to the present time. At the very least, we would say that Satan is on God's leash, that the devil is God's devil, and that though he's roaming free, it's a long leash. It's a leash nevertheless. In any case, there are lions tempting him to not go to church. The pastor says, don't worry about them. They're chained. You just keep in the way. You just press forward and you won't be harmed. The lions are there. The fearful trials of the enemy are there too, he says. Try the faith of genuine believers and to discover where false believers don't have any faith. And isn't that the case with trials and persecution? Persecution discovers false faith, and persecution refines true faith. 1 Peter 1, right? That these trials test your faith and refine your faith like gold, even though the gold is refined by fire. What's important to you, keep in the path. And the porter says, this house was built by the Lord of the hill. Christ will build his church. And he built it for the relief and security of pilgrims. I wonder if we think of the church that way. as built for the relief and the security of pilgrims, for refreshment and for refuge from the world, a place, a haven where we can come and enjoy one another and seek genuine fellowship and share genuine love and bear one another's burdens and serve one another as Christ has served us. Do we regard the church in this way? And do we labor to see that the church fulfill its purpose of being a place of refreshment and refuge, of relief and security? Are we laboring in the body of Christ to make sure that weary pilgrims find rest and refreshment? That's something to reflect on, something to ask ourselves. How might I contribute to the Lord's house in a way that gives relief and security for pilgrims? And so Christian tells the porter the story. He actually tells him for the first time he learned that his name was Graceless, but now his name was changed to Christian. And he's giving him a little bit of his testimony. He's recounting what troubles he's had so far and what successes he's had so far. And he's giving a testimony. And it's interesting because then the porter says, well, I'll call out one of the virgins of this place who will, if she likes your talk, bring you into the rest of the family according to the rules of the house. There's a picture of church membership. When you have a new member, a professing Christian, trying to come into the house of the family of God, the church, for rest and refreshment, the pastor sort of stands as a gatekeeper and then brings the congregation of the church to speak with this new potential congregant and it says, if she likes your talk, She'll bring you into the rest of the family, which is to say, if she regards that you've given a credible testimony, a credible profession of faith, you'll be welcomed in. The Church receives members on the basis of a credible profession of faith in Christ. Not just, hey, I'm a Christian. Not just, hey, I believe. But here's how the Lord has dealt with me. And if that report of how the Lord has dealt with you in salvation matches with scripture, there's eager welcome. But if it doesn't, there are some other measures that have to be taken before we admit one into membership, because we're concerned that the church be the body of Christ, that there be a regenerate congregation in the midst of the Lord's people, that as much as possible, the visible church match the invisible church. so that we don't have false converts in our midst, at least false converts who don't know that they're false converts. Because we want them here, we want to equip them, we want to preach the gospel to them, we want to serve them, but we don't want to admit them into membership and thereby, one, give them false assurance, and two, inflict them upon the true people of God. So the porter rings the bell, watchful, rings the bell, and his daughter, or a woman, is it a daughter? No, it's a woman named Discretion, beautiful damsel Bunyan calls her. And she says, what can I do for you? And she asks Christian to tell his testimony. And as he does, It says, she smiled, but the water stood in her eyes. And from that I take, it's just a really wonderful flourish by Bunyan there to just remind us that true Christians are affected by the testimonies of true grace, of genuine grace. That when we hear the Lord's work in the life of another believer, that we don't just say, oh, cool. Oh, cool story. I like that. But that we see one rescued from destruction and one who was in love with sin and enmity with God and running away from God, rescued by the kindness of God that pursued that one and granted eyes to see and a heart to understand and ears to hear. and gave them eternal life and now is birthed in that person a genuine desire for holiness and love and delight in the king and in his ways and in his city. How glorious the way that God takes wretched sinners and haters of God and makes them loving, delightful servants of God. That's something to affect the heart and even make the water stand in the eyes a little bit. Well, after that, discretion calls three others, prudence, piety, and charity. And they all come, and they want to have discourse with Christian. And so piety says, come, good Christian, since we've been so loving to you to receive you into our house this night, because they do let him in. Let's talk. Let's talk. And Christian says, great, I'd love to. And what moved you at first to betake yourself to a pilgrim's life? Once again, they're asking for his testimony. This is spiritual conversation. It's wonderful to get together with Christians and be at a Bible study or be at church on the patio and have a bunch of talk and fellowship. We have a fellowship time in the middle of Grace Life that we always say, oh, we hate to disturb you from fellowship to bring you back, but we're going to come back to our service now. There's always a lot of talk. and the din of voices, you know, hums over, really, maybe not even like a hum, it's like a roar because of how many of us there are and how happy people are to speak to one another. That's all glorious. But what's the content of those conversations? What's the lifeblood of genuine fellowship? It's the content of our conversation. Spiritual conversation is the lifeblood of the fellowship. If that roar, if that dull roar of fellowship conversation is nothing more than a discussion of the sports game the previous night or talk about weather and vacations or just the mundane things, we're not any the better for having those quote-unquote fellowship conversations. But if the content of our conversation is you know, matters of one's testimony, matters of one's spiritual communion with Christ, struggles and difficulties and prayer requests. And this is where my spirit needs to be encouraged. And what truths are you finding sweet in the scriptures lately? What promises are you treasuring? That is what the church is about. And that's what Bunyan is trying to tell us by speaking of, by having this reiterated, tell me about your story. Tell me about, you know, how God has dealt with you. And he's trying to say, this is what the church is. The lifeblood of fellowship is spiritual conversation. So watch your talk. Talk about things that matter, not the things that are fleeting. Well, Christian goes through his story again, and it's just enjoyable to read once more. It rehearses what you've learned. It's sort of a memory tactic by Bunyan to help you recall the story by repeating it. And after the piety goes, then prudence's turn comes, and she asks about some very interesting things. Christian, you know, I mean, she says to him, do you not yet bear away with you some of the things that then, when you were in your country, were conversant with all? Do you still have some remaining, you know, corruption? Do you notice that you still look like your old life a little bit? Christian says, yes, but greatly against my will, especially my inward and carnal cogitations, my 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 mine own things, I would choose never to think of those things again. But what I would be doing of that which is best, that which is worst, is with me. Paul says that in Romans 7. I find in me the one who wants to do good, that I don't do good. I do what I don't want to do. At the same time as I joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man, I find this other principle at work in my members waging war with my spirit. And then the flesh and the spirit battle against one another. And Prudence says, Don't you find sometimes that those things feel like they're gone and then they come back and you're just like, oh my goodness, what can I do? And Krishna says, yeah, but that's but seldom. They are to me, those times where it's vanquished, where I feel like those aren't a problem, that's a seldom time, they're golden hours in which such things happen to me. And Pruden says, can you remember by what means you find your annoyances at times as if they were vanquished? When you have those golden hours, when you have those times of, man, I'm a real Christian. I feel the power of the Spirit. I'm gaining victory over sin. These temptations don't even seem enjoyable to me at all. What does that? And Christian says, yes, when I think what I saw at the cross, That will do it. And when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it. Also, when I look to the roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it. And when my thoughts wax warm about where I'm going, that will do it. So you see the means by which Christian finds he gains the upper hand against the corruptions of his sin. By meditating on the reality of the cross that Christ has died in his place, that by meditating on the reality of imputed righteousness, the embroidered coat which he wears on his back, by thinking on the role that carries his assurance of salvation, and by thinking on the glories of heaven, that he's going to. These things, when I think on these things, sin is subdued in my heart. And friends, the same is true for us now today. Would you have victory over your corruptions? Would you subdue sin in your life? Think much of the cross. Think much of the fact that the sin that you're tempted to engage in, put your dearest friend on that cross. Think of the righteousness now that you wear, His own robe of obedience. How can we who died to sin and have been raised to walk in newness of life live in sin? How can that be? And think about the assurance of salvation that, look, I'm one who's going to be freed from all these things. I'm one who's pressing forward towards a country where I can be freed from all my corruptions. And then think of heaven where you will be free from them all. And think that if that is truly life indeed, why should you fool about in this life with things that you're so earnestly desiring to get rid of when you go to heaven? And the reward to come to you for getting there is greater than the false pleasures that sin promises in the immediate and in the temporal. Glorious truth. And then Prudence asks one more question, and it's a great question. And she says, and what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion? Christian says, why, there I hope to see him alive that did hang dead on the cross. And there I hope to be rid of all those things that to this day are in me an annoyance to me. There they say there is no death. and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. For to tell you the truth, I love him because I was by him eased of my burden and I'm weary of my inward sickness. I would fain be where I shall die no more and with the company that shall continually cry, holy, holy, holy." That's one of the best paragraphs in the book. Why do you want to go to heaven? I want to see Jesus. I want to see the one risen and alive who died for me. I want to get rid of this sin. I'm in this house. I groan, 2 Corinthians 5, Romans 8. We just groan within ourselves, longing to be free, to receive the redemption of the children of God. I want to go where there's no death. I want to go with the company that I like best. I want to be around the saints. I want to be with the spirits of just men made perfect. And he says, for to tell you the truth, I love him. I want to go see him because I love him. And I love him because he eased me of my burden because he took off the sin from my back. And I want to be where he is because he is the reason that I am what I am. and I'm weary of my inward sickness. I want to be done with sin, and I want to be done with death. I want to go to the place where they cry, holy, holy, holy. I want to worship free from all of my corruption. I want to praise God like he's worthy of. You know, there's a wonderful hymn, my favorite hymn called, There is a Fountain. And in the final verse of that, depending on which version you sing, it says, when this poor lisping stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then, when I'm in the grave, than in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing thy power to save. Just as it seems that death has gotten its victory so that my tongue, by which I would praise God, lies silent in the grave, in that very moment my spirit will be raised to heaven, free from the impediments of all my sin, and in a nobler way, in a sweeter way than I was ever to be able to do in this body, I'll be able to sing the praise of the one who died for me." Those are sweet thoughts. I hope they encourage you.