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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.
7. The Palace Beautiful, Pt 1: A Roadmap to Pilgrim's Progress
Series Pilgrim's Progress
| Sermon ID | 64201618342864 |
| Duration | 20:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Audiobook |
| Language | English |
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