A Survey of the Pilgrim's Progress

Alright, well, it's good to see everybody both here at the Burns campus and also on our live stream. Mike Barry here, we are kicking off our series on a survey of, Pilgrim's Progress written by John Bunyan, a book that's much beloved by Christians worldwide. It's one of our family's favorite, book. It's translated into 200 different languages.

It's never been out of print. as far as Christian works behind the Bible, you have the Book of Common Prayer and then Pilgrim's Progress. CH Spurgeon himself said he read this book over 100 times in his lifetime, and I'm very excited for us to go through this book together for a lot of different reasons that will spell out, this morning. We're primarily gonna be using a free online text that has commentary by a gentleman named Ken Pulse, and the reason I'm using this is because he said we could use it and print it for free and I love his notes and so there are some copies on the table if you'd like to get a hard copy but if you look at the email that was sent out earlier this week you can just click on those links and follow through the class and it's all there for you.

By the way, we do have some resources here that we're given away if you're here in the parking lot, but if you'd like to participate in our drawing for the audio version of Pilgrim's Progress by Answers in Genesis, send me an email at mikeb@cornerstone Bible.org. Mike B at cornerstone Bible.org. Answer the question, what is the slough of the spawn? And how did Christian get out of it?

But you try to, try to do that before we get to that in today's lesson, and you'll be entered into the drawing for one of these two copies. let's go ahead and pray. And then we will jump into this morning's lesson that we're titling John Bunyan's Burden. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for this time for us to be together to study this wonderful book that is so full of scripture and so full of Christ. we ask God that your spirit would guide us, and, we thank you for our brother John Bunyan that has gone to heaven before us. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

I want to start off by reading from Psalm 69 where it says, save me, oh God, for the waters are up to my neck. I have sunk into the mire depths where there is no footing. I have drifted into deep waters where the flood engulfs me. One of the things I love about David is his realism in his walk with Christ.

One of the things I love about Pilgrim's Progress is the realism of this fictional work. And that is John Bunyan, he does not shy away of talking about the burdens before one comes to Christ, or as they're moving towards the gate, but also the burdens of the walk of a Christian. It's not like Christian in this allegory gets saved and then everything is roses after that, but we get to see the realistic view of the Christian life. And so what we're gonna do this morning is I'm gonna introduce you guys to John Bunyan, the Bedford tinker, and then we're going to talk a little bit about Pilgrim's Progress itself, do an introduction to the book, and then we're gonna really hit the 1st 7 sections just as an overview and survey.

And see what we can garner from the material this morning. But first, let's meet John Bunyan, the Bedford tinker. John Bunyan. He was offered freedom from imprisonment.

He spent 12 years in prison, but he was told that he could be freed immediately if he would just agree to not preach in public anymore. He responded this way, if I was out of prison today, I would preach the gospel again tomorrow by the help of God. And so a 3 month term turned into 12 months and then later another 6 months. And older people in Bedford would've said, John Bunyan of all people, why we remember him when he was just a filthy mouth ringleader in every mischief, because that was really the type of of child Bunyan was.

Let's look at 10 stops in Bunyan's own journey. That really set up Pilgrim's Progress for us, cause Pilgrim's Progress is in some ways a a loose fictional narrative of Bunyan's own life. Let's talk first of all about Bunyan's birth. He was born in 1628.

To poor parents, his dad was a tinker. We have a tinker, a family in our church. A tinker was a person who traveled from place to place to mend metal utensils like pots and pans. You didn't have a Walmart that you could run down to in Bedfordshire, you would have the tinker come and repair, your pots and your pins, and in his childhood, Bunyan was considered a wicked child.

shocking even the town ruffians for his language and behavior. He would organize sports on the Lord's Day, and he was involved in, in many activities that were considered unscrupulous at the time, including dancing. You might think, what's the big deal with dancing? Well, it, it'd be similar to saying what's the big deal with clubbing?

That's really what dancing was for the most part. This isn't Pride and Prejudice. we have this, aggrandized view many times of the past, but we're really talking about things that would often lead to an immoral lifestyle. But also he was, he, he was thought to be a ruffian and a wicked child for his bell ringing.

And you might think, what in the world is, why would, bell ringing be such a big deal. and I had to do some research on this. This we'll do this as an aside, but you think, UCR over here, they have their bells that ring periodically, and you have churches in downtown Riverside. That's all done electronically.

Well, in the past, that wasn't done electronically, it was done by people who put gloves on and pull these bells. You had to be strong. It was quite good exercise, and they got very good at going back and forth between different bells to make melodies. The reason that bell ringing was looked down upon, particularly by Puritans, is because of the medieval associations that it had with superstition.

Bell ringing had grown up, and had come to roost in the Anglican Church as a way to ward off demons, to ward off storms and thunder, and and the people that were hired to do this type of activity were not required to go to church. They were actually paid a pretty penny. To get in there because it took quite a bit of skill, and like with a lot of competition, when you put men together with competition, they would compete, have these bell ringing competitions. Men in competition, what does it breed?

Beer drinking, right? And just a, a sinful type of lifestyle. And so these bell ringers were not known as being the most moral people in town. They're participating in superstition, they're having their little beer drinking competitions with their bell ringing.

And so on. And then, sadly, there's actually many reports of some of these bell ringers being up in the tower during thunderstorms trying to ward off the thunder getting hit by lightning, during this time until eventually, those lightning rods were under, created and understood. So that's why, bell ringers and John Bunyan would have been looked down upon. he had little education, he became a tinker like his father.

But a third stop on his journey after birth and childhood would be the army. He joined the parliamentary army at 16, which was the, the normal age for joining the army. during Bunyan's growing up years, there were two civil wars, not sure how familiar you might be with British history, but he enlisted in the parliamentary army. This was the anti-monarch army, right?

Anti. Anglican or Army, monarch army, and. Probably served under Oliver Cromwell. One day when he was selected to go into battle, one of his enthusiastic friends said, please let me go, I wanna go fight.

His friend went out when he was sentinel, got shot by a musket ball in the head and died. Bunyan later looked upon that as God's mercy upon his life, perhaps preparing him for something great. By the way, after he'd been discharged in 1649, Charles the First was beheaded after he had abolished parliament, and Charles the First was the son of King James. Yes, the King James Bible.

Move on to our fourth stop on the journey, marriage. At 20 years of age, John Bunyan felt like, I would like to settle down. And and at 20 he married a, a young woman whose father died. She indeed was an orphan, and he says this, I changed my condition into a married state and my mercy was to light upon a wife whose father was counted godly.

This woman and I, though, we came together as poor as poor might be, not having so much as a dish or a spoon between us, yet she for her part, brought in the following dowry. The plain man's pathway to heaven and the practice of piety which her father left when she died. So she brought in two books, and she wanted to have a godly home like she grew up in. She knew that John Bunyan was a ruffian, and so nightly she would sit down and read through these Christian books, and he wasn't much of a reader at the time, and so he would listen, and he took the heart much of the morality.

and, and began to conform his life to a moral lifestyle to please his wife, and his wife at that time was, was content that her husband was becoming moral. Their first child, Mary, was, was born blind. They loved their child, dearly. And then we come to the 5th stop on our journey, and this is, Spurgeon's, Bunyan's conversion.

Bunyan's conversion was a slow journey or slow U-turn. Like many of the testimonies that you would read during this time, Bunyan doesn't really know exactly when he was born again, but he tells about many things that occurred to open up his eyes to the gospel. One day he was on the Lord's day out playing sports, and. When all of a sudden it was like Christ just wrung out from heaven, this question, will you leave your sins and go to heaven or have your sins and go to hell?

And his distress was acute. Nobody would have known that there was anything that had happened. He continued on with his sports, but something had begun to occur in his heart. He felt that he had sinned so gravely that he was beyond forgiveness.

Nonetheless, he struggled to find peace with God by obeying scriptural commands, and he outward reformed his life. He stopped swearing, he stopped doing sports on Sundays, he stopped his bell ringing, he began reading the Bible. all the while, really wanting to do all of those things, but stopping the outward activities. And many times he thought God must be pleased with me now, for all of my moral life.

In 1653, he was out on a boat on Bedford River and fell out, almost drowned. He says this, I fell out of a boat on Bedford River, but mercy yet preserved me alive. This is the second time he had almost died that he looked back upon it as God's providence. Then one day he overheard some poor women.

speaking of Christ and His love and forgiveness of sins, and I wanna quote. At length from Bunyan's own testimony, what he heard these four poor women talking about. He says the good providence of God called me to Bedford to work on my calling, and then one of the streets of that town, I came where there were 3 or 4 poor women sitting at a door in the sun, talking about the things of God and being now willing to hear them discourse. I drew near to hear what they said, for I was now a brisk talker also myself in the matters of religion.

But I may say I heard but understood not. So he's talkative, we'll see talkative later. He's the one that's talkative, talking to these four women. he says that, for, for they were far above out of my reach.

The talk was about the new birth, the work of God in their hearts, how they, were convinced of their miserable state by nature. They talked about how God had visited their souls with love in the Lord Jesus Christ, with what words and promises they had been refreshed and comforted against the temptations of the devil. And told each other by which they had been afflicted and how they were borne up by his assaults, and they also discoursed of their wretched heart, of their unbelief, their, and they did condemn, slight, and abhor their own righteousness as filthy and insufficient to do them any good.

So here's these four women just conversing.

And and talkative, Bunyan comes along and I wanna talk religion too, but they're talking about things that he, he was like, he didn't understand what they were talking about. The new birth, sin, forgiveness through Christ, that our own righteousness is as filthy rags, and they talked about Christ with a a joy and a dearness in their voice. Well, they answered, these women answered as many questions as they could over some time as Bunyan began continued to visit them, but eventually they introduced him to their pastor, Doctor John Gifford, and said, you need to talk to our pastor.

And it was John Gifford that really took Bunyan under his wing and as it were, became his evangelist and began to point him to Christ.

And yet even after that, he still lacked peace until I believe it was Gifford gave him a copy of Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians, and it was reading through that commentary that he began to really grab hold of justification by faith alone. And although his struggles were not over, he began to find real true relief, for his own sins. Let's talk about another stop on the journey, and that is that Bunyan began to do his own preaching. Even before he had a full settledness in his heart, he wanted to tell other people about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And after being baptized by immersion in 1653, he started to preach and to write. he felt compelled to tell others about his faith in Christ and became what was called a field preacher. And so effective were his words that people would arrive at dawn to hear him scheduled to preach at noon. Think about that.

we've, it's been dawn for a while now, but it's like be showing up at born at sun up to wait for a service that's gonna start at noon. That's how popular Bunyan's preaching was. But in 1660, the monarchy was restored. Charles the Second, yes, the, son of Charles the First, who was beheaded, came back to the throne, and then began to go after all the non-conformists, which included unlicensed preachers.

So field preaching became a crime. Officials feared that it would incite revolution, as it had previously done, and for this reason, John Bunyan was very careful never to side with any political factions during his preaching, though he was always in danger. So he, his emphasis was to go preach the gospel, and he stayed away, at least in his outdoor preaching from the nonconformists or the parliamentary issues. That didn't keep him from being arrested, however, he was warned not to go to a friend's house one day under threat of being arrested, to which he responded that if I'm afraid to go, then what will other people do?

And so he went, he was seized, he was arrested, sentenced for 3 months in Bedford jail for avoiding Anglican services and refusing to stop his preaching, which brings us to our 7th stop on the journey. And that is Bunyan's first imprisonment in what he called the den. the Bedford jail. His first wife had died, but his second wife, Elizabeth, who had married just the year before he was in prison, she went into labor after his arrest, and they lost the baby.

it was brought on largely because of the strain and stress of Bunyan being arrested. To support Elizabeth and his children, Bunyan made thousands of long tag shoelaces which he sold, and was also supported by their church. Bunyan's prison conditions, they weren't the worst in England, yet there was genuine hardship. there was no bathing facilities.

The place stink of unwashed bodies. There was what was called prison fever at the time, which is typhus. many, prisoners did die. The cells were overcrowded.

John's ration was one quarter a loaf of bread a day. but even with all that, there was a sympathetic guard that would actually let Bunyan sneak out periodically at night to go attend meetings, even going all the way to London at one point for a conference, but then that was discovered and the jailer's job was threatened, and so he clamped that down and wouldn't even let Bunyan stick his head out the window from that point on. Elizabeth, his, his wife did go and appeal on his behalf to have him released, to no avail, and so 3 months turned into 12 years.

All Bunyan had to do is basically say I agree to not preach the gospel outdoors, and he could have been released, but he refused to make that agreement.

It was in this 12 year imprisonment that he wrote his testimony, one of his major works, Grace abounding to the chief of sinners, and, and he likely began writing Pilgrim's Progress while he was in the den. Bunyan's release from prison came in 1672 under Charles the Second's declaration of indulgence to nonconformists. So there was a temporary reprieve, that didn't last too long. That brings us to the eighth step in our journey.

The second imprisonment when Bunyan refused to stop preaching, he goes back to prison, and it's in the 6 month imprisonment. That Bunyan finished Pilgrim's Progress and then later published it. He didn't publish it right away because at the time there was some controversy about publishing a fictional work. Why aren't you just preaching a sermon or publishing a sermon?

And so he spent some time arguing for that, which you can see in his apology in the front end of many editions. But let's talk about the ninth stop of the journey, and that is in 1684. The Pilgrim's Progress is published in 1678. 1684, the second part is published, where in Bunyan documents the journey of Christiana, Christian's wife, and you get so you get both sides of the story, not just Christian, but also his wife and kids, and we'll be referring to that throughout the series.

Lastly, he died on August 31st, 1688 at 60 years of age. The last 10 years of his life were spent writing and preaching. But he ironically died when he went on a counseling visit through the rain to visit a a young man whose father was very angry with him, went to minister and council in this situation, came home in the rain, got a fever, and then passed away. He was buried in in the dissenters' graveyard, Bunhill Fields.

His grave marker is there to this day. You can visit it in England. It's ironic that he escaped a near drowning, he escaped a musket ball, many other escaped the threats of prison, and then died after a pastoral counseling visit. So that's John Bunyan.

That's our introduction to the Bedford Tinker. Let's talk now about his work, Pilgrim's Progress. This is, if you've never read it, it's an allegory of a plain man's spiritual journey told in the language of scripture. It's just full of scriptural language, and it is the 3rd most read Christian text after the Bible or most published.

I think it actually might some people argue it's the 2nd most read, but the 3rd most published, and. If you read the apology that he has at the beginning, it's not in every edition, but you could find this online. You get an idea of why Bunyan wrote this book, and so we're gonna talk just a few points as to why did Bunyan say he wrote Pilgrim's Progress. Well, his first stated reason is simply for his own gratification.

He wasn't, he didn't set out to write a book for anybody else, but for himself while he was locked in prison. Listen to what he says in his poem, Apology of the author. well, so I did, but yet I did not think to show to all the world my pen and ink in such a mode I only thought to make I knew not what, nor did I undertake thereby to please my neighbor. No, not I.

I did it mine own self to gratify. Neither did I but vacant seasons spent in this my scribble, nor did I intend. But to divert myself in doing this from worser thoughts which make me do amiss. So it's like I didn't set out to do anything else other than to help my own thoughts stay on Christ, to keep me away from sinful thoughts, and just to gratify my own self.

He wanted to feed his own soul, and so he began to create these characters and to write about really his own spiritual journey. And, and then he goes on to say. we, we'll, we'll talk about some other things here. He answers the question, why, why allegorical narrative?

Why did, why didn't he just write a straightforward sermon or a, a book just exposing doctrine? And he gets several answers to that question, but one of his answers is, is he goes to fishermen. He says, how is it that people catch fish? They use hooks, they'll use nets, there's all kinds of methods that they use.

They don't restrict themselves to one method. In fact, even some people who don't have nets and line, they'll go and tickle fish. anybody, anybody ever heard of trout tickling? I've never heard of this thing, but I guess it's something that still happens to this day where people that don't have access to any type of materials have the ability to get underneath larger trout or fish and basically tickle them into a state of, just suspension and then they can just grab the fish and throw it up on the shore.

And so he says, I'm just tickling fish with my story. Same thing with fowlers. Fowlers will go up and shoot guns, and they'll do this and that, but they also will blow a whistle. And, and so I'm out to really try to get people that might not listen to a sermon or might not sit down and read a theological work, and as it turns out Pilgrim's Progress has turned out to be one of the most well loved stories by by children.

He furthermore goes on and say, the gospel itself, does it not stoop down the shadows and metaphors and types. We see calves and sheep and heifers and rams and birds, and the blood of lambs. And so he says that's that's why I've chosen to, to do allegorical narrative. But what was Bunyan's intended profit for the reader?

He, he says that there, once he decided to publish, there were some things he was hoping people would get out of his, his story. The first thing he wanted is he wanted, he was hoping that he would be able to make travelers of, of other people. He says it this way, the book will make a traveler of thee, if by its counsel thou wilt ruled be. It will direct thee to the holy land, if thou wilt its directions understand.

Yeah, it will make the slothful active be, the blind also delightful things will see. He's hoping to create converts, people that will get on the road and begin to move towards Christ. Another benefit that he was hoping he would have on behalf of his readers, is that he would aid their memory, that they would be able to remember truths of the gospel and theology. Here's the way he says it.

Art thou forgetful? Wouldst thou remember from New Year's Day to the last of December? So not just forget it, but be able to remember it all year long. Then read my fancies and they will stick like burrs and may be to the helpless comforters.

And that's exactly what we see in Pilgrim's Progress is when we read this book. I don't know about you, it's like, I just can't forget these characters. In fact, an article by Ken Curtis in Christianity.com, he says this, the church I attended as a youth had Sunday evening church service, and I have to admit. That the only messages that I can remember vividly before the age of 12 was a series that my pastor gave retelling Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress.

The verbal images and names of people and places from Bunyan's allegory just never left me, and so it, it just stuck in Ken Curtis's mind like burrs. And then lastly, Bunyan says in his apology, he says, and I'm, I'm paraphrasing, it's a wholesome gospel diversion which will both entertain and convict, engaging your mind and your emotions. He basically says it's good to have wholesome entertainment, to divert ourselves with things that are actually profitable for our souls, and I think we see exactly that in Pilgrim's Progress.

How should this book be read?

well, we're gonna make those points as we move through. I wanna suggest to you that obviously this is not the Bible, but we wanna realize that spur, Bunyan is trying to put on display scriptural truths partially through his testimony and the allegory. And so there'll be times where we will critique it, but also we wanna realize this is an allegory, and as such it's, it's an allegory of journey. And so, Bunyan is throwing in different characters at different points to teach truths that happened to one person.

It's not like this is the way that every Christian experiences it in this exact same order. You're gonna see that Christian experiences things differently from his wife, Christiana. He goes through things that she doesn't have to go through because she learned from his mistakes in his testimony and so we'll keep that in mind as we move through. OK, so we're gonna do.

A short overview at the time that we have left. I think we have about 15 minutes here and. We're going to hit basically the, the highlights of the 1st 7 movements in this book. So let's start with the first one, the burden and distress is, it begins with a man who lays down and he calls it a den.

And you gotta know that den is a reference to the prison. So the narrator lays down in a den to sleep, and he dreams himself a dream while he's in the den. And what he sees in his dream is he sees a man clothed in rags. This man's just dressed in rags.

Isaiah 64:6 says that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. And this man was facing away from his house with a book in his hand, a great burden on his back, and he was trembling, saying to himself, What shall I do? That's the image that the man sees in his dream. And he says to himself later, I am undone.

And, and he begins finally to tell his wife and his kids about it, and they think he's just sick in his head. So they try to get him to bed, and when that doesn't work, they try to give him frowns and distempers, and they're trying to drive away his melancholy. and yet nothing seems to work. And.

Yet he continues to be called a man in rags. Notice at this point that he's not called Christian, he's just called a man. And this man has a book, and as he's reading his book, there's a burden, and he's sorrowful. And I think one of the things that we can ask or state about this first section is burdens and melancholy, mental strains are not always bad.

Many times the spirit is doing a work in someone's life when they begin to be depressed and melancholy, and what do we do? We wanna entertain them, go watch a movie, get out in the open air, go to sleep, take some medicine, do something for your present condition, drink some wine. But what Christian needs is more than a quick fix, which brings us to our second section, and that is he meets evangelists. he's in the fields, distressed in his mind.

He's wants, he looks like he wants to run, but he doesn't know where to go. when evangelist happens upon him, just like Philip happens upon the Ethiopian eunuch, and this evangelist, no doubt is represents John Gifford, Bunyan's own pastor, he knows this man in the rags knows that what he's reading, he's condemned to die. And but he's not willing to die, but he knows he cannot stand up in the judgment. And so evangelist, the way he comes up to him, he just begins to ask him some questions like why are you not willing to die and what is it that you're afraid of?

And so Bunyan, the man in rags begins to tell of his burden. He speaks of to fit. Which is a reference to the fireplace that's outside of Jerusalem called Gehenna, a symbol of hell. We see in Isaiah 33:30.

He says, I, if I'm not fit for prison, then I'm certainly not ready for judgment. Then evangelist gives him a parchment roll. He hands something to him. This could represent an exhortation, it could be a tract.

But when he opens it up, it says, flee from the wrath to come. And, and this is a direct reference to what John the Baptist said to the Pharisees, by the way, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Some people receive that warning, other people come and they're not really wanting to heed the warning. And so John the Baptist asked sarcastically, who warned you of this?

And then he asked him another question. He says, can you see that yonder wicket gate? When you think of a wicket gate, when I first heard this when I was younger, I thought wicked gate, but it's wicket gate. Think of hobbits entering at Bree, alright?

This is a pedestrian door inside of a larger door. That's what a wicket gate is. And he says, can you see the wicket gate? And he says, no, I can't see it.

When you think of a gate, we're we're thinking of a door. Christ is the door. Can you see Christ? So he is pointing him to Christ and at this point, the man in rags says, no, I can't see him.

Remember this is an allegory, right? And so then he says, can you see the yonder shining light? Bunyan responds and says, I think I do. So he's not even sure if he sees the light, but he thinks he does.

And so that's enough for evangelist to say, go that way, head towards that light, and when you get there, you'll be told what to do. And, And so this light almost certainly represents the of the Holy Spirit beginning to open up the eyes of Bunyan as he's reading the word of God. 2 Peter 1:19 says, we have a a sure word of prophecy where you do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day of dawn and the day star arises in your hearts. This is referenced by Bunyan in his work in this section.

That that the the spirit begins to do a work, and even though the person can't see Christ yet, we can point them towards the light through the word of God. And that's what evangelist does. By the way, we're all evangelists, right? As we're we're moving through the field of this life, we need to be looking for burden sinners.

Evangelist was out in the field. There's there's the man in rags standing by himself, and he does not know what to do. He wants to run, but he doesn't know where to go. And so the evangelist is there in the field, looking for sinners, happens upon him, ask questions, and even though he can't see Christ yet, he points him towards the word of God, trusting that the Holy Spirit is going to do his work.

And so thirdly, Christian does flee. Christian flees, and he runs like Lot out into the field, and some begin to to mock him and threaten him. And and and notice that he he does in the allegory leave his wife and children, but again remember this is a spiritual allegory. He's gone on a spiritual journey.

This is not commending leaving our families behind. This is more of a spiritual journey and we get this again from the second part when Christiana also joins the journey. he encounters neighbors. We meet obstinate, which stands for someone who is obstinate, right?

And pliable stands for someone who is easily pliable, he's easily bent by the wind to and fro, and so they come out to try to talk, him back, the, the man back. he warns them that they will die sooner or later and sink lower than the grave into the place that burns with fire, and so he, tells them to come along with him. Obstinate says, and leave our friends and comforts behind. This is gonna come up again, friends and comfort, the world and the comforts of the world, where I'm gonna leave all that behind.

And then it says this quote, yes, said Christian, for that was his name. This is the first time that Christian is named Christian. Bunyan really didn't know when he became born again, and this man, right in the middle of conversation, right in the middle of telling other people to flee from the wrath to come, he's now called Christian. From God's perspective, this is probably his moment of conversion, as he's given this name.

Christian says, I seek an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away. That's a direct quote from First Peter 1:4. Let me ask you guys a question, can a new or young Christian be an evangelist? Definitely.

And that's exactly what Christian is doing. he, he knows very little at this point, other than the fact he was told to head to the wicket gate and, and go towards yonder light, and yet he's inviting others to come along with him. Number 5, he's ridiculed, by obstinate. Obstinate calls him a crazy headed coxcomb, that's a fool, a brain sick, and then later calls them both fantastic fellows.

Obstinate even quotes Proverbs 26:16 saying that Christian was wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. So obstinence even quoting the Bible to try to get Christian to come back to the city of destruction. But pliable is intended to go with Christian. And listen to what Christian says.

Nay, but do thou come with me, neighbor pliable. There are such things to be had which I spoke of, and many more glories besides, if you'll read it here in my book. And then he says that his book has been confirmed by the blood of him who made it. I want you to notice as you read through the story, how many times Christian refers to his book.

And then he says that his book has been confirmed by blood, the blood of Christ. And, and that this book was written by him who cannot lie. He keeps going back to the Bible, and Bunyan in his notes reminds us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Ask yourself, how did people seek to dissuade you from Christ when you first became a Christian?

I, I can think of many ways that both family and friends tried to dissuade me from becoming a Christian, including Michelle at some point, and, and, Melissa was a little young, but my dad. My dad at one point said that I had to ask God for permission to go to the bathroom and things like that and but, we're, we're in a much better place now. Maybe he's watching this right now. or have you, how, how are people seeking to pull you away now?

Christian keeps pointing to his book that has been confirmed by blood. And then sixthly, he's forsaken by pliable. So pliable goes along with him at first, and it's interesting to watch this dialogue as as Christians talking to pliable, Pliable wants to know how shall we enjoy these things you're talking about and with what company, friends and comfort. And he keeps talking about joy and how shall we enjoy this, and what pleasures shall we have there.

And really, as Christian begins to talk, he does get caught up in the pleasures of the next life and spends a lot of this dialogue, talking about the endless kingdom, everlasting life, crowns of glory, garments, no more crying, no more sorrow, no more hurt, and this all sounds great, but Christian's talking about it from the perspective of having a burden and looking forward, right? But then he also says, we shall see men there who are cut in pieces, burned, eaten by beasts, drowned, and because they love the Lord of that place, and then imp pliable says this very ironic thing, he says, the hearing of this is enough to ravish one's heart.

To cut one's heart in half. And so it's like pliable doesn't really understand what's going on because he doesn't have the burden that Christian has, and he's just seeing all of the things that are out there to be enjoyed.

Suddenly. oh, and, and this is one of the, the big emphasis of the 6th section is when he's inquiring to him about the country, Christian says this quote, The Lord, the governor of the country hath recorded in this book, the substance of which, here's the substance of the book, if we be willing to have it, he will bestow it on us freely. If we're willing to have heaven, he will give it to us freely. That's right out of Luther's commentary on Galatians.

This is free faith alone. You can write down Isaiah 55:1-2, which, Bunyan references. And so pliable is like, well, let's hurry up then, let's get going. But, Christian can't get going because he's got a burden on his back, and so they fall into this, what's called a slough of despond.

If you're in Oregon, as Chris Kearns was telling me, you would call it a slew, but if you're in England, you would call it a slough. we're not talking about the skin that comes off of a snake that's called a slough. It's a slough of despond, basically a mire bog of despond that, really as you read the seventh section, it's where all of the guilt and fear as a sinner begins to become conscious of their own sins, it all settles into this place called the slough of despond. And it says that Christian and pliable were heedless, they're trying to hurry up, they fall into this.

Pliable's like, where are you now, Christian? And he says, I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Christian says is if this is the way or pliable says this, if this is the beginning of our journey, I'm out of here.

He leaves Christian to fend for himself, and there Christian is sinking in the mire. All by himself, totally helpless. He does try to get to the other side of the swamp that's closer to the wicked gate and further away from his home, and then by God's providence, we see this character come into this the scene named Help, and we are going to have to cut it off right there. help is the is a reference almost certainly to the Holy Spirit.

Let me just end with a couple, we'll we'll pick I'll have our next teacher pick things up right here, but let me just end with some final exhortations. One, I want you to notice the focus on Christ here. There's the reference to the gate, the solid ground when help takes Christian out of the. The slough.

The steps are the promises in the slough. There's the work of the Holy Spirit through the book that Christian is reading. Notice that Christian could read, and he began to sorrow, but he could not know which way to run. He could not get rid of his burden.

He could not see the wicked gate. He could barely see the yonder light. He could not get out of the slough all by himself. And what you have here is the Lord doing all of this on his own behalf and by his providence, sending him the help that he needs.

We'll come back in our upcoming lessons of how the Lord keeps the focus on Christ. The movement of the Holy Spirit. But we're also gonna come back and see the role of different people in in Christian's life, including women, in, in Bunyan's own testimony and women that we see in Pilgrim's Progress. Come back next week.

I'd love to give away some of these books. Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this time for us to to be together and to introduce the Bedford Tinker, to talk about Pilgrim's Progress, and to survey these 1st 7 points in the journey. We ask that you just bless us as we read and study and, and look at this man who just bled scripture.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen.