A Survey of the Pilgrim's Progress Part 11

, we are in the middle of or beginning a lesson 12. Pilgrim's Progress this morning our topic is called escaping despair, escaping despair, and this may sound strange to you, but I've been looking forward to this lesson talking about despair and doubt and. thoughts pertaining to death and whatnot, but let's go ahead and pray and then we will, jump into our, our time together. Lord, we, thank you that we're able to look at your word together and we know that you do not want us to be ignorant.

About the trouble that comes upon Christians of all varieties and all levels of maturity. And that it is not uncommon for believers even to despair of life. we ask Lord that as we look at these things together, that your spirit would guide us through your word. And we thank you that we worship you, the Lord, who has gone to the undiscovered country before us, and that you promised to bring us there with you.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, last week, we saw how hopeful rose from the ashes out of the martyrdom of faithful and begins to be the companion for Christian on the way to the celestial city. And so we tracked them in their conversations with the likes of Vans and his companions, and we were reminded as they were moving through this part of the journey that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

We dare not trust even the sweetest frame of mind or even our most dutiful day, but we wholly lean on Jesus' name. And and we're gonna see that especially this morning as we look at Christian and hopeful that they are not in the best frame of mind and by virtue of them putting hope actually vain confidence in their own progress they find themselves in a place called Doubting Castle. So we're gonna be talking about how it is that they come into this, this despair underneath the jurisdiction of the giant despair.

We're gonna talk a little bit about his wife diffidence.

She's a wonderful woman. And and then we're gonna be talking about how they converse and what it is that actually gets them out of this place. But just by way of reminder, let's remember that one scene does not a movie make. We wanna make sure that we watch the full movie right before we come to conclusions about what's happening in these various scenes and there's even things that are gonna happen in this section that set us up for next section.

And so we wanna keep that in mind. Also, let's remember John Bunyan's own testimony, that he wrote this allegory when he was in prison himself. He was in for 12 years, remember? And then another 6 months, he referred to his own prison as the den.

And so what we're gonna talk about this morning comes right out of his own testimony, his own wrestlings, with despair, and, and let's also remember, Bunyan's purpose for writing this allegory if you remember in our very first. First lesson we gave part of the poem of John Bunyan's argument for his or his apology for this book and he says, art thou forgetful? Wouldst thou remember from New Year's Day to the last of December. Then read my fancies, and they will stick like burrs and may be to the helpless comforters.

And so he wants this message to be a comfort to the helpless, and the images that are being used in this allegory are meant to stick in our minds like birds to remind us when we go through our own doubts and despair, that they will draw us to Christ. And so let's remember these things as we as we look through this allegory by the way, as we study allegory we've mentioned this in the past, but I wanna remind us the allegory is different from a parable parables normally there's just one big message you're not supposed to try to assign meaning to every single character in every single.

part of the play, so to speak, there's one big message, but an allegory, really everything is pointing to something and we're gonna see that today that every character, the place where Bun Bunyan's characters are and the bones that they're looking at and the key, these are all pointing to realities for the Christian. So let's first of all, let's talk about their capture by giant despair.

This is on page 2. This morning I'm gonna be moving through the story pretty quickly and then try to get to our lessons on the back end. So I'm gonna move through the story and then we'll hit some lessons. So our travelers, they use quote all the skill they had to get back to the, the style that little animal gate, to get back to the way, but they just couldn't do it.

They did not have the strength they fall asleep, giant despair captures them because they're on his grounds in his jurisdiction. He is stronger than they are. After all, he is a giant. The fact that he's a giant is meant to point to the fact that he's stronger than Christian and hopeful.

And Christian is actually filled with double sorrow because he realizes it's his own counsel that led to their incarceration. and so now they're in the den, so to speak, of giant despair. Section 94, they're doomed by diffidence. Diffidence is despair's wife.

Diffidence means, we don't use this term much today, but it means distrust or lack of faith, and so it would symbolize, the lack of faith that Christian particularly is having now and hopeful to some extent as well, that they're, they've lost sight of their faithfulness, the faithfulness of Christ. And they're and they're losing trust in their savior, and and so diffidence is is giving her husband bits of counsel and you'll notice he always does exactly what she says, despair obeys diffidence and and so here's the first two bits of counsel she gives to her husband.

Number 1, beat them without mercy, and that's exactly what despair does. He goes out and he gets a crabtree cudgel.

And he lets them have it both verbally and physically. So despair hits them emotionally, but it also hits us physically. The body will cry out when the soul is in despair, and that is very purposeful in the allegory here. Secondly, the second piece of counsel is make them to make a way or counsel them to make away with themselves.

Despair obeys and suggests that they end their lives with a knife, a noose, or poison. He actually suggests ways that they can do it. But then after the suggestion, he falls into a fit, almost like a, a seizure because a little bit of sunshine starts to come out and he loses the ability to use his right arm and he withdraws. So it's interesting that while they're in the dungeon, Christian and hopeful at times there'll be little rays of hope or sunshine that causes despair to depart for a little while, but then he comes right back with a vengeance.

So at this point, the prisoners actually begin to entertain the counsel that despair had given them and notice what it says at the bottom of page two of your notes. This is right out of Bunyan. brother, said Christian, what shall we do? The life we now live.

That that sounds like the beginning of Galatians 2:20. The life that I live in the faith in the flesh is I live now through Jesus Christ by faith, but he says, now the life that I now live, or we now live is miserable. For my part, I know not whether it is best to live thus or to die out of hand. My soul chooses strangling rather than life, and the grave is more easy for me than this dungeon.

Shall we be ruled by the giant? Notice that this is a Christian that is saying these things. It sounds almost like Hamlet's to be or not to be speech, which is really about suicide where Hamlet says to be or not to be, that's the question whether it's nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or take arms against the sea of troubles and by opposing in them. And as he takes this bare bodkin and is contemplating ending his life.

That's the way that Christian is speaking. But then 95, hopeful begins to give some assurance, and he gives what amounts to, I think 8 or 9. We're gonna boil it down to 8 pieces of counsel, 5, and then we have a return of despair, and then he gives some more. But let's look at some of the counsel that Hopeful gives.

First, he condoles with Christian. He says indeed our present condition is dreadful, and death would be far more welcome to me than thus forever to abide. So hopeful doesn't say, come on, buck up Christian, let's just turn lemons into lemonade. No, he says.

I am there with you, brother. I feel the same way. This is a dreadful condition that we are in. But secondly, he says, let us consider the Lord of the country to which we are going.

That is Jesus. Jesus is the Lord of the undiscovered country. He's died before us. He was raised and he is now in the undiscovered country.

So he's trying to move their thoughts towards Christ. Thirdly, he wants them to consider what the Lord has said. So he's he's gonna try to move their thoughts towards the word of God. Let me just say, by the way, that as we read the council in this dialogue between Christian and hopeful, this is not meant, we're not meant to look at this dialogue and see it as perfect counsel.

There's some good stuff and some bad stuff. It's almost like reading the book of Job. Some of the things that Job says are good, some of the things that Job says are bad. Some of the things that his counselors say are good, some of them are really bad, and, and that's a little bit of what we have going on here.

There's some good thoughts, but they're still peering through despair, right? And so in this 3rd piece of council, he begins to look at the word of God. The first piece of the word of God, he says, is thou shalt not murder. OK, so are we gonna commit suicide?

Well, the Bible says thou shalt not murder, and you're talking about ease in the grave for murderers. Well, the Bible says that a murderer does not have eternal life abiding in him, and to kill ourselves is not to bring ourselves comfort. By the way, I, I do believe that this is something that people need to be reminded of when they are contemplating suicide is that death does not necessarily bring relief. death may very well throw you into a worse place, which is, by the way, one of the reasons why Hamlet would not commit suicide because of the undiscovered country that he, he doesn't really know that he's thrown himself into a worse situation.

But then number 4, he says, let's consider who's in charge. And basically Hopeful's answer is it's not giant despair, he's not in charge of the law. And by the way, others have been overtaken by despair just like us, and they've escaped. And God is really the one in charge.

He says, who knows, but God that made the world may get us out of here. He reminds themselves that God made the world. That's a great place for us to go when we're dealing with depression and despair, that who made this world anyway? Who's in charge really?

Is despair in charge? Are your emotions in charge? Is it just the chemicals of your body that are in charge? is your sickness in charge?

Or is God really the one who created everything? And if God created everything, that means he knows you and he knows me better than anybody else. And so these are good thoughts. And then notice that hopeful goes into a lot of language that has a lot of maze, like he's, he's like this, this might happen or that might happen.

He says, the God who made the world may cause that giant despair. May die, or that at some time or other he may forget to lock us in, or that he may in short time have another of his fits before us and may lose the use of his limbs. Notice he doesn't guarantee what's gonna happen. He doesn't really know, but he knows God.

And he knows that God's providence, providential reigns overall, and one thing or another may happen. We can't really dictate or know for sure what the Lord's gonna do, but there's lots of possibilities. Our minds run that way anyway, right? We'll we'll meditate.

On what might happen, but we tend to go in the negative direction or in ways that don't under where we don't put God's providence in the forethought. We're like, well, I, this cancer could end up in my death and this might happen and that might happen, or I might apostasize like that person, or I might do this. But what hopeful's trying to do is, is to, in light of God's providence, the fact that he's creator, what might happen? Knowing that we can't exactly predict it, what could happen based upon what we know about God.

Fifthly, he says, let's resolve ourselves to take heart and endure with patience. He says, I'm resolved to pluck up the heart of a man and to try my utmost to get from under his hand. And so let's be patient, endure at least for a while. that time may come that may give us a happy release, but let us not be our own murderers.

So this is by and large there's a lot of good counsel here and but as we're gonna see the deficiency of the council is not what's said it's what's not said there's certain things that aren't said yet that we're gonna find out about later that really make this council somewhat deficient and then he does say let's pluck our hearts up like men let's let's play the part of a man. And that's, I think, where Bunyan himself is going to critique Hopeful's counsel. What is the result of this council, if you look at the top page 4, with these words, Hopeful at present did moderate the mind of his brother, so they continued together in the dark that day, in their sad and doleful condition.

So the result is, is, is Christian's mind is moderated.

He says, yeah, you're right. Let's, yeah, let's, there's some hope here. But it's not like they're out of the dark. It's not like the sadness goes away, it's still there.

and by the way, does this council stop giant despair? Does giant despair overhear the council and say, I guess I'm gonna leave them alone? No, look what happens. He actually comes and falls into a grievous rage when he finds out that they haven't killed themselves.

He comes back with a vengeance, and he told them that seeing they had disobeyed his counsel, it should be worse for them than if they had never been born. It would be better for you if you had never been born. That sounds like some of the words of Job and Jeremiah. how do Christian and hopeful fare this time, as are they able to pluck up their hearts like men?

Well, here's what the text says. At this, they trembled greatly, and I think that Christian fell into a swoon. Now when you hear that phrase fell into a swoon, that word is chosen purposely by Bunyan. They had just said we're gonna be men, and now he swoons, which at this time would have the like the, the sound of what a woman might do, but not a man in Bunyan's time.

And so this is meant to basically point out the fact that these guys are not able to stand up. They tremble and swoon when despair comes back, even in the midst of the council. Is Christian in a better frame of mind after this particular assault? Does he, he's heard some good counsel from hopeful.

Now is everything all better? No, look what happens. Coming a little to himself again, they renewed their discourse about giant's counsel. What's that?

Suicide. And whether they had best to take it or no. Now Christian again seemed to be for doing it. He's completely forgotten the counsel that hopeful had given him, and now he's back where he's like, yeah, I really think we should end our lives again.

Now remember this is the conversation of Christians. I was listening to some of this with, my son and nephew yesterday when we were driving around and my nephew's like, are these people talking about suicide? I'm like, yes, these are believers that are talking about these types of stuff. And so Hopeful picks up, Hopeful could get frustrated and say, man, you didn't take my counsel, forget it, forget you, I'm out of here.

No, he goes back with more words of encouragement. Number 6, remember what you have endured to this point. You've met Apollon, you've gone through the, that should say valley of the shadow of death in Vanity Fair. Remember what the Lord's done and and the victories that have come in the past.

Also number 7, we're in this together. You're not alone. I'm right here with you, we're suffering together and and and so we're, I'm I'm a brother born for adversity. I'm I'm by your side.

Number 8, he says that at least let us avoid the shame that is unbecoming a Christian. And basically he's talking about is, let's not shame the Christian family by ending our own lives. He's trying to get him to think beyond himself and realize if he were to end his life, what shame that would bring to the community of God's people. And, and to get him to go there and think about that stuff.

96. We now have the, the misery of doubting Castle. We get some more counsel, from diffidence. So let me ask you guys, those of you guys that are married, what do you guys tend to talk about, when you're in, in bed at night?

My wife and I were getting ready for sleep last night and we're. Talking about different things. What do you like to talk about for pillow time? Well, diffidence and doubt, they like to talk about how they're gonna do in Christian hopeful and diffidence is, is throwing more fuel on the fire for despair to go out and do stuff.

And so diffidence and despair plot more, damage to do to these sturdy rogues who choose to bear all hardship rather than make away with themselves. And so she gives a third bit of counsel. She says basically show them those who have died at the hands of despair and make them believe they're next. So go show them other people who have fallen and tell them now it's your turn.

So despair, of course, obeys because despair always obeys diffidence. the giant takes them into the castle yard, shows them as his wife had bidden him. These said he were pilgrims as you are. Once and they trespass on my grounds as you have done, and when I thought fit, I tore them in pieces and so within 10 days I will do to you.

And then he beats them back to their den, and so notice that he's reminding them these folks that you see dead down there, they were just like you and I'm gonna do to you what I did to them and you have no hope, you're going to die. now notice there's some delightful foreshadowing as a doubt or a despair comes back and they go to bed that night again, they're having their little pillow talk time and as they're having the pillow talk. they're just asking why haven't these guys given into our council.

It could be that they have some little bit of hope that they think someone's gonna come rescue them, that someone, by the way, is Christ, and, and that maybe they have some pick locks that they think they're going to, to get out and we're gonna find that they actually do have more than just a picklock.

They've got a key and, and so they resolved that in the morning they're going to, despair is gonna search them. But he never gets the chance because 97, we have a key called promise. we'll read this somewhat at length, but notice it says, well, on Saturday about midnight, so now it's crossing over into the Lord's day, they began to pray, and they prayed all night. So they pray all night and then as the sun begins to come up, suddenly Christian, the lights start to come on and he's like, what a fool I've been right here in my bosom, I've got this key, and I may as well walk at liberty.

I have a key in my bosom called Promise that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in doubting castle. And said hopeful that that's good news my brother pluck it out so the key is good news and it's been there all along, but he's just lost sight of it by the way, this scene is awesome in in the one of the musical versions online once Christian realizes he's got that key, hopefuls like. That's wonderful, brother. It's like, you've had this key all along and here we've been suffering.

Pluck it out and let's get out of here. and so they do, they pluck it out and they open the dungeon door and that door opens with ease, and then they open the outward door, that one opened also, but when they get to the iron gate that would let them completely out, that one's hard going. it takes a while to get that door open and then when it finally opens it creaks and wakes up despair. So Bunyan is, is, I think, partly trying to help us realize that even when you've got the gospel and when you start to get a fresh apprehension of Christ and His righteousness again, it's still hard going.

It's not like all of a sudden all the lights come on and everything just opens right up. there's an application of the gospel, but nevertheless, when despair, the giant despair gets up to try to come after them, he goes into one of his seizures and just falls over because it's daytime, that's Christ, right? It's the the the Lord, they're being reminded of the Lord's day when Christ was resurrected, and they've just spent all this time in prayer crying out to him. And so all of these things have have mitigated against the giant, and he cannot even chase them and then they get out of his jurisdiction.

Yes, amen. Hey Ray, and then when they get to the back out of the bypath meadow, they end up setting up a pillar to warn other pilgrims. So the experience that they've gone through, they're now able to use it to be an encouragement to others that would also be tempted to go on the bypath meadow, vain confidence, and fall into the clutches of despair and his wonderful wife diffidence. so let me do a quick overview of the final section and then we're gonna get into applications.

It's not until they get out of the Doubting Castle back on the path that they finally come up to the delectable mountains which represents the church from the perspective of a new Christian. Remember we had talked about the church, back in the. House beautiful, which is the church from perspective of a younger Christian, and they got a view of this, view of the church, but now they finally arrived at these mountains, and at these mountains they come across four shepherds, which are named, Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincerity.

And so these shepherds would clearly be pastors who have knowledge and the experience and and they're watching out for souls and and they're not walking in mass, they're being open about their own lives and and and assisting these pilgrims and really pointing them to the chief shepherd, right?

Who is Jesus Christ, that good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep, in whom we are unpluckable, by the way. And and Christ is the one who has given to the church pastors and teachers because he believes we need them. And so if Christ believes that we need shepherds, then we should say we need shepherds and we need other sheep. And and so then the shepherds basically take them on a walk to 4 different mountains, which represent 4 bodies of instruction, or 4 different types of sermons.

And so they give him a sermon on the hill of air. They talk about false doctrine, particularly the doctrine that would reject the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the believer, and the finished work of Christ. They show them people who had rejected the finished work of Christ via the resurrection, who had gone. And, and to their own doom.

Then they, they preach a sermon about caution, which is very interesting. let me read this paragraph on your page, page 6. have you not heard of them that were made to error, hearkening Teneus. concerning the faith of the resurrection of the body, actually that goes up.

That actually goes up to. No, I think that is in the caution. No, no, that that's supposed to go underneath the air section. I'm sorry.

And the reason I have that in there is, is what it says at the last sentence, those that you see lie dashed in pieces at the bottom of the mountain, they have continued to this day unburied, as you see, for an example to others to take heed how they clamber too high and come near to the brink of this mountain. And so the idea being that we have to be careful about clambering too high into matters that really don't help us, that we can get high so high minded in our theology that we forget the rudiments of what we really need, Martin Luther talks about this in his commentary in the book of Galatians that to not to delve too deeply into the nature of God and try to figure out every aspect of the Trinity.

He says the main things that we need to focus on is there is a triune God and that Christ has come to represent the the Father and to to point us to his own righteousness and, and those are the things that we wanna really concern ourselves with and. So anyway, and, and then not to get too near the brink of this mountain, meaning don't get too near the edge of air, don't dabble in air.

I, I, I don't know about you, but. I'm not prone like when sometimes I have to study false doctrine and error in order to figure out a few things, but I'd much rather focus in on the truth. And when I am reading about error, I always try to read it from the perspective of someone I trust. I didn't, I don't go pick up the books of heretics and fill my mind with their teaching.

And I have seen people do this, and it causes them distress because they'll go out and read every heretic on the planet to try to form an answer, and then they find themselves struggling in their own doubts, and becoming more hopeless, and I would just encourage you brothers and sisters not to do that. don't just go out and try to find every hair tick on the planet, but stay in the truth, and when you are reading about air, try to read it from the perspective of people who, who can instruct you in the truth.

There is a danger of getting too near the edge of air and then slipping over into it yourself. I think it's part of what Bunyan's point is here, but as far as the caution, mountain caution.

Christian and hopeful, they actually get a view of the castle yard from this perspective now. Remember, despair showed them the bones, but what the pastor showed them and that is that there's actually people who have been captured by despair because they went over the same style by path metal, went in vain confidence, got captured in his jurisdiction. They were in the castle for a while and then despair put out their eyes, and now they're wandering around the tombs with no way to get out.

And Christian and hopeful, they look at each other and they begin to weep as this is shown to them, because what is occurring to them is we did exactly that same thing.

And yet in God's grace, somehow we got out. And so it's a warning to the sheep that on the one hand, the Lord has given us the key of promise and so he helps us get out of those situations, and yet we dare not boast that simply because we've been given the gift of the gospel that we can look back at those who have had their eyes put out and boast over them. It should actually cause us to fear that that could have been me. I could have been just like those people who had their eyes put out are now wandering amongst the tombs.

Then they're taught, they're given, shown by path to hell, which is a freaky scene and that again is a reminder of that people can go on the, look like they're on pilgrimage and actually take a byway to hell. again, if you, if you think of this in the context of, of the book of Hebrews to the sheep, it's gonna warn them and keep them on the path. And to the people that are not Christ sheep, these are people that it actually will move them out of the church and purify the church.

And then finally they come to a hill called Clear, where they're still overtaken by the view of hell, and they give them a glass to look off in the distance and be able to see the celestial city and be able to see heaven, but their hands are shaking so much they can barely get a view of it.

And so, but they get some view of heaven and Christ, and which gives them hope. So those are the four bodies of instruction and sermons that are given by the shepherds who are under shepherds under the chief shepherd Christ, who's given up his life for the sheep. Let's talk now about some lessons in the last few minutes we have last 15 minutes. lesson number one, I think that we can get from this section is Christian and hopeful, they used all the skill they had, but we're no match for the giant despair.

We are no match for the devil just by using our own skill and by thinking that we can just pluck up our hearts, read a few books. And somehow we're gonna, we're gonna be able to beat him on our own. In fact, Christian was filled with double sorrow because of thoughts about his sins that caused their captivity. Christians do get overtaken by despair.

And their past sins and the effects of the sins of others can be a catalyst for despair. Christian is captured by the thoughts of his culpability, but remember that hopeful is dealing with the consequences of having trusted Christian, the leader of the duo, and we often use all our skill alone to get out, and it was vain confidence that led them led them here, and, and their confidence in their own skills will not get them out. So let me ask, are you in despair? Or do someone who's depressed?

Do not go it alone. Christ has given you the church, he's given you pastors and teachers. He's given us one another. The church is not just one option among many for the few souls who happen to be particularly weak.

It is a necessary grace from Christ. And you can look at 1 Corinthians 10. There is nothing that any of you are going through that is unique to you, but these are all the trials and temptations that all of us go through. And the Lord, his, he's he gives us a way of escape and, and part of that escape is not to go it alone, but to bind yourself to other sheep and the pastors of your church under Christ.

Secondly, diffidence that is mistrust, mistrust of God. Bosses despair around. Don't be fooled. One of the chief weapons of the enemies of our souls is to cloud our apprehension of Christ and to get us to forget that he is good, that he loves us, that he gave himself up for our sins, that he forgives us, and that he is in absolute control over all things.

When we lose sight of the fact that Christ is faithful and therefore trustworthy, despair can have its way with us. Despair will just have his way with us. Hebrews 10:23 says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. He who promised.

Is faithful, and that's what mistrust is trying to get us to do is not trust in our God, not trust in the promises, which will lead us into the clutches of despair. Thirdly, it may shock us. That a Christian would despair of life, but it shouldn't. We see this many places in the scripture.

You see Jeremiah, you see Job, in my years as one of the pastors here, I would say that it is not uncommon common at all for Christians to feel hopeless, despair of life, and even to verbalize that they have lost the will to live. I have seen that many times in believers, strong believers, weak believers. I've heard it from pastors. this should not shock us because this fallen world is filled with real trials and bone breaking difficulties, and so it shouldn't shock us.

It this should not shock us because we have a category of thought for this in the Bible. We see it in places like Jeremiah and Job and even in the apostle Paul. this should not shock us because the devil is real. He is not play acting.

He does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy, and he is always seeking someone to devour. And so it should not shock us that we find Christians that at times will despair in these kinds of ways. Fourthly, hopeful's counsel, while it isn't perfect, he tries to point Christian to Christ and his word, and the Lord, takes hopefuls loaves and fishes to help moderate the mind of his brother. So he doesn't give perfect counsel, but he is pointing him generally in the right direction, and the Lord will take even our imperfect counsel.

To be a blessing to other brothers and sisters. Remember that hopeful condoles with Christian. He's like, I feel the same way. He points him to Christ, he points him to the word.

He reminds him that despair is not sovereign. It's God who's made the world. He encourages him to be patient and to trust in God's providence. And remember that hopeful uses a lot of Ma language.

He doesn't speak in absolute terms about future things that he can't really rightfully predict. He doesn't go beyond what the Bible affirms about our knowledge of the future. Let me use an illustration here from Matthew 12:22. It says, then a demon possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and he healed the man so that he could speak and see.

Let me ask a question. How did Matthew know this blind mute man was demon possessed? How did he know that he was demon possessed? Jesus had healed like a man that had a withered hand earlier in the chapter.

He wasn't demon possessed. How did Matthew know this guy was demon possessed? The only way he knew is because Jesus cast out a demon. We don't have the ability.

The disciples didn't have the ability to dissect what the problems were. They just watched what Jesus did, and we need to be careful as we come alongside one another as counselors and disciples. We don't have to know, and most of the time we don't know all the ins and outs of the problem. We don't know to what extent this person that you're talking to is being accosted by demons, to what extent there's stuff in their past, is their sin they're hiding.

are they just dealing with some bodily issues? We don't know, and we don't always have to know. What we can do is bring them Christ who does know them better than anybody else. And it's, it's appropriate for us to use Ma language.

We know who God is, he's trustworthy. We know who we are, and maybe this will happen and maybe that'll happen, but let's keep our eyes on Christ and let's remember he made the world, and he's in charge. Despair is not the king. Number 5, for all of Hopeful's counsel and efforts, it didn't work.

He did a lot of right things, but guess what? It didn't work. Be careful about looking for immediate results or placing your hope in unbiblical expectations. Christian discipleship and counseling is not a quick fix.

His first counseling appointment, so to speak, failed miserably. Giant despair returned with a vengeance. Christian and hopeful are not able to pluck up the heart of a man. Christian does not come to a better frame of mind and goes back to the council of despair, thinking about suicide again.

That doesn't mean we give up biblical counsel. Number 6, hopeful doesn't give up because it didn't work. He reminds Christian of past victories. He reminds him that they're in it together.

He attempts to get him to look beyond himself, to not shame our Lord nor the family of God. Let me ask, how do you feel when you hear of a Christian who has committed suicide? You've been trying to work or counsel and you hear of someone who commits suicide. I wanna share with you, I'm gonna read this verb word by word because I've thought a lot about this issue.

And let me share with you my thoughts. It is not uncommon to quickly see in the blogosphere attacks on the church, on how the church is failing and medieval in its approach to mental health issues. The shame language comes pouring forth, and to be honest, as a pastor, I drink it in. Yes, you're right.

It's all our fault. We're just not understanding enough. We didn't get them the help they needed. We were so foolish to think that there are hopeful answers in the word of God, the gospel, and in his church.

This is the message that is being broadcast with the recent death of a pastor here in Riverside. Some writers and speakers seem to know absolutely that the church was to blame for simplistically thinking that this man could be fixed with a little bit of Jesus and a couple Bible verses. What I didn't hear emphasize with this was that this pastor was himself on the cutting edge of the mental health awareness movement, and that he in fact believed that medication was an option for some and was taking medication himself.

I know very little about what was really going on with this pastor.

What I do know is that Christ knows more than I do, and he has stooped pretty low to communicate to us as children, things that are way beyond us. And he has diagnosed for us what our main problems are and what the main solution is. Those are some of my thoughts on issues like this. We have to be careful thinking that we know immediately what the problem is.

And I think we have to be careful about assuming the worst about a particular situation, but we also have to be careful about it seems like the church is always left holding the bag after something goes wrong, and the shame language comes out, and I just wanna warn us to be careful about that and be careful about believing that right out the gate, especially when not all the the data is in. What I do know is Galatians 1:3 says this, Grace to you, that means that has to do with forgiveness of sins, and peace, that's relief from conscience, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.

That's what Jesus says. That's what Paul says is the main issue.

Gave himself our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age. No one's denying that we live in a, in an evil age. But he came to deliver us from this evil age according to the will of God the Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. I marvel that you're turning away so soon from him who called you in grace of Christ to a different gospel.

We wanna be careful about moving away from the solution, the key of promise that is laid out for us in the scriptures. We're pretty much out of time, but let me, let me just, quickly mention the other, points of, of application for your own, encouragement. You can read on your own. Despair doesn't leave just because hopeful is giving biblical counsel, he redoubles his efforts.

And and so what do they do in in light of that, you can see Christian realizes that he has the key of promise all along, which really is the hope of eternal life and the righteousness of Christ that's been imputed to us. And so you can read that section. I encourage you to take a look at this long quote that I have from Luther, and then a longer quote from Spurgeon. And let me just end with this.

Who has delivered us? Who is delivering us? And who will deliver us from despair and death? Let me read 2 Corinthians and we'll pray.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were burdened beyond measure above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we have the sentence of death in ourselves. That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who what? raises the dead and who delivered us past tense from so great a death and does deliver us present tense.

That's the nowism of the gospel, in whom we trust that he will deliver us future tense, you also helping together in prayer for us. That thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. Lot that we've talked about this morning. Let's pray.

I'll be up here if you have questions, let's pray. Lord, we thank you that we have such hope and realism in the Bible, and we thank you that John Bunyan has laid out this hope and realism for us in his allegory, that yes, Christians do struggle with depression and despair, that Christians, it is not uncommon for Christians to think of how their lives would be better if they could just die. But we thank you, Lord, that you have stooped so low as our shepherd to speak to us as children and to remind us of the promises that we have in Christ and in heaven.

And Lord, you have not left us without one another.

You've not left us alone in the dungeon, and you have not left us shepherdless. You've given us pastors and teachers because we need them. We thank you, Lord, for the hope that we have and the good news of the gospel, and that one day, you will wipe away every tear from our eyes. We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.