A Survey of the Pilgrim's Progress Part 15

Hey, this is our last class of the year. Isn't that crazy? Last week, Alvin Davis grilled up a great steak for us and then slowed it down a little bit to barbecue as he covered justification. it's just a great lesson, that shown us the difference between justification by the personal righteousness of Christ, by faith.

compared with Jesus cleans you up enough, cleans you up enough to enable you to perform the works of the law. so you can go back and listen to that if you were unable to check it out. It was great. Wanna give a shout out to all of our teachers this year, Carlos Slimtiaco, Jonathan Jones, Carlos Price, Alvin Davis, for just doing such a stellar job, all the way back to our survey of the cross and then living life backwards, Pilham's Progress, great lesson last week.

we're probably gonna do some grill and barbecue today too. So, Really appreciate those guys. today we're going to be concluding our survey of the Pilgrim's Progress as we follow Christian and hopeful across the river of death, and this is a lesson that I've been looking forward to all year. it's one of my favorite scenes in the book and in several movie versions.

We're titling this lesson, Will we be forsaken in Death. well, for a while, Christian thinks so, but we'll see what happens as we move through this section. Let's go ahead and pray and then we're gonna, jump right in. Lord, we thank you so much, for the opportunity for us to study this wonderful work this year that just reminds us of your faithfulness to your people and while all we like sheep have gone astray.

Lord, you have laid upon. The lamb, the iniquity of us all. And we thank you, Lord, that it doesn't depend upon us. Ultimately, it depends upon you.

You are the one who began this work and you'll complete it until you return. We ask you to be with us now in Christ's name. Amen. Well, let's start with the country of Beulah.

Our main characters Christian and hopeful they move out of the enchanted grounds into a place called Beulah which literally means married and in this place the sun is shining night and day they are out of reach of the giant of despair they can't even see the doubting castle from here and. They are referred to as a holy people redeemed of the Lord and sought out. And the natural glory of, of the, of this place is such that it, it causes Christian and then hopeful to fall sick they're just seeing the beams of light, the sunbeams of light are falling upon them.

And it leaves them saying, if you find my beloved, tell him that I am sick of love.

This comes right out of Song of Solomon. And so this whole area really is a reminder of Christ's love for his church, his covenant love for his bride. And there's so many scriptures we don't have time to go through all of them that that Bunyan is referring to as he writes this section. One comes out of Isaiah 62 where Isaiah says, you shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land anymore be termed desolate.

You shall be called Hefziba, which means my delight is in her, and your land Beulah, for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be. Married later on in that chapter, says they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. you shall be called sought out a city not forsaken. And so, this whole garden area is a place for them to be renewed and they're as it were, they're really preparing for their transition to the next life they're preparing for their transition through the river of of death and it's as as though as though the spirit is just drawing near them and preparing them for this final journey.

they look forward with eagerness to the day when they will see Christ face to face. And here things of the earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. It kinda reminds me of a conversation I had with the first pastor at Cornerstone, Jim Brown. I was on a Zoom call with him recently and, and just his fervor for the Lord and, and his expressions of how much he's looked forward to being with Christ and, and seeing Betty again, it was just palpable.

And if there's anybody that's in the land of Beulah right now, it's Jim Brown and. And so this is, this is where our, our characters come and then they're met by another character, a gardener who comes up to them and, and begins to interact with them and shows them the vineyards and the king's walks and the arbors and then they begin to sleep and then they talk in their sleep. We'll get to that in a second. It's a strange scene where they begin to talk.

In their sleep, and the narrator tells us that they talked in their sleep more than they ever had previously. And then when they awake. the reflection of the sun upon the city above them was so extremely glorious that they could not as yet with open face behold it, but through an instrument made for that purpose, so they're trying to look at the city but they can't. They've got to look through a special instrument, almost like when you're looking at the sun, you can't look at the sun directly.

You have to have a special eyeglass or you have to do that poke the hole in the paper thing and look on the ground if you're looking at an eclipse. And and that's that's what these guys are doing is they're just trying to gaze upon heaven the gardener reminds them that that they'll enter by their own faith they're they're not gonna be able to get there on anybody else's faith but by their own here the gardener is probably another reference to a pastoral ministry we've seen pastors all throughout this book.

but the prime gardener is Jesus Christ Himself. It's God.

God is the one that planted the garden in Genesis 2. And. We see that he is the one who's planting gardens all throughout the Bible, really. In the country of Beulah, the gardener stands in the way near the journey's end to see that pilgrims make it safely home.

And so the Lord considers the death of his saints is precious, as it says in Psalm 116:15, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Which is really an upside down statement, isn't it? From the world's viewpoint? none of us would say that it's precious.

To die Or for someone to die is precious, but when you view things from the vantage point of the celestial city and you view things from the from the vantage point of the Lord, that his whole goal is to get us there. When we pass through the river, it's a precious thing because now we get to see him face to face and he gets to reveal himself face to face. and, and by the way, let me just comment here that none of us really knows when we're in Beulah's land. Beulah's land is not a place that you enter into only when you're 80 years old or 70 years old or 90 years old.

we, we honestly really know, we, we really don't know when we're on the brink of our own death. That's only known by the Lord, but there's something here that meant for us by faith that. That Bunyan's trying to pull out from Song of Solomon and Isaiah and other passages of scripture, and that is the Lord preserves his saints all the way to the end. He doesn't just get this thing going by faith and then say, OK, you've gotta finish it by the law.

it's not a tag you're it theology. Jesus dies on the cross. He says it is finished, then he tags you and says, OK, you gotta do it the rest of the way. No, he takes us all the way through, and Beulah is a reminder of the covenant love that Christ has for his church and that he gets us all the way to the end.

He who began the good work will complete it. You think of people in our own church, Gary Barfoot, who just recently went to the celestial city. We think of Elizabeth Myers who was reading the Psalms the morning that she died. you think of someone like David Alcarez or Vernon Anderson, who we're gonna talk about Vernon Anderson in just a moment, was actually having his own struggles as he was ready to go through the river.

Marlene Brugi, Esther Moore, and yes, Daniel, Gayoso. These are saints that the Lord would say precious in the sight is the death of his saints. As far as Bunyan's quote of the sleepers whose lips move gently, it's interesting, it's from Song of Solomon chapter 7. In the Hebrew there is actually difficult if you look at the different translations there's different viewpoints on how to translate it.

Bunyan's going obviously off the King James, but and and seems to be more of a literal rendering of the older texts, but people will just struggle with what in the world this means. And so even the Septuagint some other later translations they. They, they, they move they kinda look for solutions to what is what is going on here with the wine goes down smoothly for the beloved moving gently the lips of the sleepers. I've got a just a little comment here from John Gill that I found encouraging and and he's reading the Song of Solomon and putting most of the emphasis on the.

on the love of Christ for His church, if I'm not gonna get into a big exposition of Song of Solomon, but I believe it's both Christ's love for his church and a husband's love for his wife, but listen to what John Gill says in speaking of these, sleepers. He says drowsy professors who when aroused and quickened by the gospel and brought out of their lethargy are ready to acknowledge their backslidings with shame. To speak meanly and modestly of themselves and very highly of Christ and His grace, who has healed their backslidings and still loves them freely, none more ready to exalt and magnify Christ and speak, in praise of what he has done for them.

That's a I think a beautiful, explication of, of perhaps what this image is about there in Song of Solomon and you'll notice that people are a little further down the road in their walk with the Lord.

Isn't it often true that they, they tend to like not speak so highly of themselves anymore and they just start speaking a lot more highly of Christ and they're just befuddled that they're still, they're still in. The the the church and they haven't been kicked off the team and there's just something about kinda as you get a little more road under the tires just bring some humility to you right? and that brings a sweetness in our relationship with the Lord to recognize how faithful he is to us well these shining ones show up about that time and they and they tell.

They tell the guys you've got 2 more difficulties that you're gonna go through the river that is death, and then you're gonna come up to the gates.

And and so that's exactly what we see, we, before they actually cross the river, they're seeing through a mirror dimly, but then face to face, in this life we long for heaven, we desire to be with Christ, we long to be freed, not only from the curse and condemnation, but from its very presence and power. We desire to be like Christ, and one day we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And this takes us to the river of death. I'm on page 5 in our notes, and, and this quite honestly is my favorite section of the whole book.

And so we're gonna read, we're gonna slow things down to a barbecue now using Alvin's analogy on the, on your notes you'll notice, a painting that was done by Emma Olympiaco there, that my wife commissioned. It's, it's a painting of Hopeful pointing to the shore while Christian is sinking. And and just reminding him that no you're gonna make it, it's OK. Christ is there waiting for you and Christian is like, no, no, my, my burdens well let's just let's just read it.

So this is the middle of page 5. Then they addressed themselves to the water and entering Christian began to sink, crying out to his good friend Hopeful. He said, I sink in deep waters. The billows go over my head, all his waves go over me, Sela.

Then said the other, Be of good cheer, my brother. I feel the bottom, and it is good. Then said Christian, my friend, the sorrows of death have compassed me about. I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey, and with that a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian, so that he could not see before him.

Also here he in great measure lost his senses so that he could neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way of his pilgrimage. So even though he's just come out of Beulah's land, he's just as quickly forgotten everything. And he's, he's falling under the waves. Remember, the shining one, or maybe it was the gardener said that, the ground, the depth of it will be according to your faith.

Hopeful is entering the river of death full of faith. Christian goes in and his mind is just overwhelmed with doubts, thoughts of his past sins, he's sinking down. And he's lost his senses he can't even see in front of him anymore unless we forget his name is what? Christian.

This is a Christian who is heading through the river and has lost his mind. He, he can't see straight. But all the words that he spoke still tended to discover that he had horror of mind and heart fears that he should die in the river and never obtain entrance in at the gate. Here also as they stood by as they that stood by perceived and it's hard to tell who are the people standing by watching it's it could be the shining ones it could be the great hosts that are going to meet them but there's people observing this or saints or angels observing this.

he was much in the troublesome thoughts of the sins that he had committed, both since and before he began to be a pilgrim. So he's thinking now of his sins, both BC and since he's been a Christian. Yeah, I don't know about you, but I got saved at 14. There's only so much trouble you get into as a 14 year old, right?

Most of my sins that have hampered me and hurt other people have been since I've been a Christian, and, if you were to talk to me about things I did before as a Christian, I have no problem, understanding those things are under the blood and Christ died for them. But you start talking about my sins in my 20s, in my 30s, my 40s, now in my 50s. I thought when I got to my 50s I would have checked all the boxes, so to speak. I expected to grow up around 40.

But now I'm, I'm like, man, am I ever gonna grow up? I'm not really sure, I'm 52 and I'm still feeling like I'm growing up. But I can, I can commiserate with Christian being in the river and thinking about his sins since he's known Christ since he's been on pilgrimage. and it was observed, that he was troubled by apparitions of hobgoblins and evil spirits forever and anon he would intimate so much by his words.

Hobgoblins today has an air of like Harry Potter or something weird like that, but in Bunyan's day it's just another word for demonic activity. That there are demons that are harassing him as he's in the throes of his own death and he's uttering these words before those that are observing that he's he's feeling harassed by the demonic. So what does hopeful do? Hopeful, therefore, here had much ado to keep his brother's head above water.

Yeah, sometimes he would be quite gone down and then. Here a while he would rise up again, half dead. Hopeful was also also would endeavor to comfort him by saying, brother, I see the gate and men standing by to receive us, but Christian would answer, it is you, it is you they wait for you have been hopeful ever since I knew you. that that is not at all unlike saints think of the sheep and the goats when they're the sheep are being judged they're like, when did we ever do any of this?

a lot of times sheep are the last ones to know the good works that Christ is doing through them, it's just part of God's program actually in the way that he keeps us humble and dependent upon him to the very end. And so he's convinced hopeful's in good shape but for himself he's like no no they are not waiting for me and. And. Yeah, but hopeful says and so have you, you've, you've been, hopeful, he says to Christian.

And then here's what Christian says, he says, brother. He said he surely if I was right, meaning righteous enough, he would arise to help me. But for my sins, he has brought me into the snare and has left me. And, This so often is the the way that you hear saints speak in the Bible.

Remember the, the widow Elijah went to minister to this Gentile widow from Zarafa, and, they're on their last meal. They're gonna die. He says, Hey, make, make some for me, and, and they end up like sustaining him and the and and or her and her son. And the Lord is blessing this widow for her act of faith and but then lo and behold her son dies, gets sick and die, and her response to Elijah is what have I to do with you man of God?

Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? It's like when trials and and terrible things happen like we experience in this life so often our mind immediately goes to it's all about the ledger God's gonna hammer me for my past sins that's the way this is really gonna work and as soon as this bad thing happens she's just she doesn't, we don't find out in the text what her sins were, but she seems like she's got something specific in mind. And really, God didn't send this prophet here to bless me.

He sent this prophet here to kill my son.

That's what's going on here. And, and that's what can happen sometimes in the minds of of true believers that that begin to doubt even Peter in his first encounter with Christ Jesus does this amazing miracle of the fish and depart from me. I am a wicked man. And that's actually.

We think of that as a bad thing, but it's actually part of God's design to help us see the magnitude of our sins that we would the love that we have for Christ would just expand. So hopeful says my brother, you have quite forgot the text wherein it said of of the wicked there are no bands or no struggles in their death but their strength is firm they're not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. These troubles and distresses that you go through in these waters are no sign that God has forsaken you, but he has sent to try you, whether you will call to mind that which heretofore you have received of his goodness and live upon him in your distress.

So it's like you, you forgot what the scriptures say.

just because you're going through distresses at the river of death doesn't mean he's forsaking you. There are wicked people who die very peacefully. In fact, I, I don't remember the sermon, but Spurgeon makes this 0.1 of his sermons where he's like, I've known many a pagan to die well, and I've known Christians who have died in the throes of agony, being having to be reminded of the cross and their death, and he goes, that has nothing to do with what is gonna happen on the other side of the river.

And so he has, he's he's reminding Christian of this, I think it's Ken Paul says it's a mark of grace that Christian is not in anguish over the loss of this world, rather he grieves his lack of faith and holiness.

That's a, that's a great sign that he's not sitting there like, oh my cars and my stuff and my. All of these other things, no, he's, he's, his mind is fixed upon his lack of holiness and, as he's about ready to cross over. Every true pilgrim who sets out on the celestial city will complete the journey. God will do everything necessary to bring us home to glory, as it says in Philippians, He who begun a good work will complete it.

Until the day of Christ Jesus. And so they, so what's gonna happen? They're in the river, we get to the next section it says then I saw in my dream that Christian was in a muse a while so he's just kinda. The way I imagine this, he's just, he's the, the waters are overflowing him, but he's just got probably this blank stare in his face and.

But then, to whom also helpful added this word, be of good cheer, Jesus Christ makes you whole. And notice this, this is where things kick in up to this point. Hopeful, hopeful is real good about trying to encourage, but sometimes he's a little late to the punch and bringing in Jesus. He's, he's reminding, Christian of all the faithfulness, all the, all the things.

Finally he, he gets to the punch. And and with that, Christian broke out with a loud voice, oh, I see him again, and he tells me, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, he shall not overflow or they shall not overflow you. So now it's like Christ himself is speaking to him and he's being reminded of the word of Christ. Then they both took courage and the enemy after that was still as a stone that's from Isaiah until they were gone over.

Christian therefore presently found ground to stand on and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow and thus they got over. But let's remember what just happened, these two just died. They just went through their passage of death. Hopeful's passage was a little more smooth, and again in the allegory, Christian's passage was rough, but they both get through, and now they're upon the banks of the other side and they see two shining men.

Probably angels that are representing the grace of the Lord and at this point, they're brought up the hill and now they're able to go with ease because the, the two angels or shining ones are taking them up by the arms they've left their mortal garments behind them in the river and and now they're heading towards actually the gate. And there's some really good reminders here from our, our commentary from Ken Poles, one is, is just the remembrance of God's word, the importance of God's word, to have it in our hearts, the Holy Spirit can minister it to us as we need, and we can minister it to one another, and then just the importance of godly friends who will keep that word before our eyes and in our ears.

And we, we, we need to cultivate these comforts, cultivate our time in God's word, and cultivate godly friendships. Those are the things that are going to last you through life, I've been a, a pastor here at Cornerstone.

I've been a Christian since 14. I've been a pastor since 1998. And as much time as I've spent in God's word, there are days where I have regrets of how much time I haven't spent in God's word in my past, especially when I was younger, and, and how many things I gave myself over to that weren't necessarily bad things but they just sucked energy and time away from me. And there are things I'm learning as a as a as a 52 year old.

I'm like why am I just learning this now? What have I been doing with my life that I'm 52 year old pastor and I'm just now learning these things? part of that's just the grace of the Lord and it's precept upon precept. We just don't understand certain things when we're younger, right?

We've gotta get the rudiments to understand some of the other parts of the building. But at the same time, boy, those of you guys that are younger, I would just exhort you if you can receive the exhortation, give yourself to the word of God, give yourself to godly friendships. And it will just pay you back big time as you age. We've seen that the Bible and the gospel are just all throughout this book with Christians starting with just reading his, his book, flee from the wrath to come, and then the House of the Interpreter and Palace Beautiful, the sword and, and delectable mountains and so on, the country of Beulah.

Just all over we see just the blessing of scripture. Scripture again, this is page 8, middle of page 8, scripture again. as it did in the, in the valley of the shadow of death, warms Christian's heart and lights his way, he is able to find ground to stand on. He and Hopeful make it safely over.

Do you have somebody in your life? Do you have a hopeful in your life? Do you have somebody in your life that is the one that that will point you to the word of God and help you because what? I, I, I don't care who you are.

I don't care how long you've been walking with the Lord or how godly you are, how much the word of God. All of us are gonna go through times where we lose our minds and we just can't see the next step in front of us, and we need somebody to remind us of scripture. We need someone to remind us of Christ and his righteousness and so you wanna develop those friendships somebody that will care enough about you to come up and and say hey I'm concerned about you and I and they'll speak truth to you and love as they see you struggling, and I know with guys.

a lot of times we don't get, we don't develop the relationships the way the gals do sometimes very easy for us to get isolated and to kinda like just keep it on a certain surface level and then before it you're alone you've walled yourself in so it's very important for us to to develop that and and and and there's so many opportunities to do that here at Cornerstone.

Let's talk now about the celestial city. This is where everything's been rolling up to that these guys come on up to the city. They're not in yet, but they're able to see it above the gates, and, the, this is the place of, of adjustment made perfect where they're gonna receive white robes. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and other saints are there already resting on their beds, beds as it were, each one walking in his righteousness.

And then as Alvin asked in the in the study questions last week, then they asked what must we do in this holy place, so they're talking to the shiny ones when we get in there. What, OK, what do we not, what do we gotta do? We wanna be prepared, we're about ready to walk in. Tell us what to do.

So here's what they say, OK, here's what you must do. You must they receive comforts. You're gonna have to do that now for all your toil, and you have joy for all your sorrow. You must reap what you've sown, all the fruit of your prayers and your prayers and tears and the suffering.

You're gonna have to wear some crowns now, and, and there you're going to have to see Christ, and then you shall continually praise and shout and give thanks to him whom you've desired to serve in the world, though with much difficulty because the infirmity of your flesh. So I hate to tell you this, you guys, but you're not gonna have the infirmity of your flesh anymore, and you're gonna be able to now worship him with no difficulties. You're gonna have to do that. and you're gonna be delighted and so on.

You get down towards the maybe the bottom half of page 9 of my notes. And when he shall sit upon the throne of judgment, you shall sit by him, yeah, and when he shall pass sentence upon the workers of iniquity, let them be angels or men, you shall have a voice in that judgment because they were his and your enemies. and so that theme runs throughout the scriptures that that Christ takes it personal when his sheep get messed with, and he also brings his kids to participate in the judgment.

Now remember Paul when he was out persecuting the church before he's born again, Christ appears to him, knocks him off his horse, and says, why are you kicking against the goats, goats?

You are persecuting me. So when people are out messing with the church, Jesus says, that's me you're messing with. And in God's grace, and Paul recognized this grace, Jesus could have whacked him like Nadab on a bayou. But instead he saves him and sends him out to preach the gospel that he would teach him how much he must suffer for his sake and so Paul spends much of the rest of his life recognizing I'm the chief of sinners and goes out and proclaims that grace.

But we'll actually be able to participate and we'll be in some ways I I I don't understand all this, but Paul says that don't that you shall judge angels you should be able to administrate some problems in the church you're gonna be judging angels one day, so take care of these little problems that you have with your brothers and sisters. whatever that means, I, I tend to think that what that means is when God or when Christ is judging demons that we will be participating in the judgment of those demons, so you think of demons that harass you, harass us, cause people to, Christians to fall into sin and even tragedy.

We're gonna be actually participating as as Christ brings a demon up and says this is the person that did that to you. Do you remember this?

Yes, I do. Do you remember how much pain that caused? Yes, I do. Remember how much pain that your sin caused that person because of this demon?

Yes I do. Well, we are now banishing this demon to hell forever. Do you testify against them? Yes, I do.

Boom, we will be participating in some form of that judgment. As God gets rid of our enemies as he takes it very personal and flaming fire taking vengeance upon them. Notice, down at the bottom of page 9, this is this last paragraph. This is straight out of Ken Paul's in heaven, the church that Christ has redeemed out of every tribe, tongue, and people is brought near and gathered in His presence.

The people of God are one body, holy nation. Throughout history they've been scattered and separated by time and space, divided by language and custom, fragmented by denomination and polity. But in heaven distinctions will fade and divisions will dissolve, the spirits of just men made perfect will all be one and praising and adorning their savior. Amen, hallelujah.

You just think about that, that, the church this side of heaven, we're dressed in the righteousness of Christ and our righteousness sits at the right hand of the Father, but we are still very much in the old man, and we're still much hampered by the world, the flesh and the devil, right? And dwelling sin., we're separated from brothers and sisters of Christ who lived 1000 years ago. We're separated from those that will live 200 years from now, Lord willing, we're separated by different things that we see in culture and language, denomination, and politics.

But when we're all there in Christ, divisions are over.

The accuser of the brethren will not be able to hamper us, will not be bewitched by our own works righteousness. The proneness towards the deception and getting off the path will now be removed, and we will be one. Now we get to the finally to the gate. They come up to the gate and the two shining winds shining winds introduced these two Christian and hopeful as as men that have loved our Lord when they were in the world.

And I, I don't know if there's a better biblical definition of a Christian is someone who just loves Jesus. we, we, we joke about that being the Sunday school answer to all the questions, right? But I don't know about I've noticed as I fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, as we start talking about Christ's love for us and his forgiveness of our sins, sometimes there's this fever pitch when you're talking with brothers and sisters about your love for Jesus, and we just know it, right?

We feel it.

You can meet someone you've never met before. And you start talking about their love for Jesus, and it just suddenly it's like here's a brother, here's a sister in Christ, and there's this common blood that you have out of your love for Jesus, and that's the way these guys are described. Blessed are those who are called to the to the marriage supper of the lamb. Then they, they look above the gate.

It says, Blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in. That's right out of Revelation 22. That's gonna be very important, that statement, because ignorance is gonna see that same message on over the gate here in a moment. there's a translation issue there which I'm not gonna get a lot into some of the., the older manuscripts say blessed are those who wash their robes.

the, the version that Bunyan's working with is King James, Blessed are those who do. But I, I think the big idea is all of those who know Christ are going to do his commandments, and the main commandment from Christ's own words is to believe in His Son, as we see in John 62, this is one of my favorite verses in the book of John. verse 27 of following, it says, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures everlasting life. Tree of life, everlasting life.

We're talking about the same thing, right? Which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set a seal on him. Then they said, what must we do that we may do the works of God? What do we need to do to do His works?

How do we keep His commands, Jesus? What does Jesus say? This is the work of God. That you believe in him whom he sent that summarizes all of the works of the law because you can't do the works of the law.

Jesus has done the works of the law, so what's your work? Believe, believe that's who gets in this gate is those who believe in the works have been accomplished, and so the pilgrims come, from the city of destruction for the love that they bear of the king of the place. then, so they, the king, they, they, ask for their, their role and so on. And And then it's brought over to the to the king, their certificate.

And and then the king says, where are the men? And they say they're standing outside the gate. Then the king commanded to open the gate that the righteous nation, said he, which keeps the truth may come in. Now notice that the king says, open the gate that the righteous nation may come in.

These two people, they're righteous. What was Christian just worried about in the river? What was he just saying? If I was right, if I was righteous enough, he would rescue me, but clearly he's just brought me here to doom me.

That's the way he's feeling based upon the reflection of his own sins. The king brings him in and says, bring those righteous guys in here. So when they come in they're transfigured they're given new raiment enter into the joy of their Lord and then the narrator says, and I wished myself among them, don't you wish yourself among them? I know that that that you do, but ask yourself and, and, and it's a good question to be asking your children and people you're people you're witnessing to one, do you sense Christ's love for you?

And that he has forgiven you of your sins. 2, do you find welling up in your heart a love for Christ? and then 3, do you find that you want to be with him? Those are great questions to ask yourself to determine whether you are indeed someone who's who's dressed in the righteous of Christ, that the Lord begins to work these types of things in us.

Now obviously on this side of, of the river. our love wanes. His love never wanes. Ours goes up and down and we're always getting off the path and he's having to kick us back on.

But the more we get kicked on the path, it's kinda like, wow, why is he doing this for me? Why is he so kind to me? Then we come to really the last part of the story proper before the conclusion and, and Bunyan. Almost in true Puritan form ends on a bummer and but this is a this is his pastoral heart as he's looking out as his he's writing this stuff and thinking of his congregation he's probably thinking of like this person there and that person and this kid and he's like I'm gonna remind these guys I want all of you in.

I don't want anybody left out and so what you have here is ignorance comes lollygagging up. with hardly any difficulty at all getting across the river because vain hope ferries him across, and then he looks at the writing above, blessed are they who do his commandments. That doesn't bother him at all. He just knocks and thinks he's gonna get right in because he's thinking, I've done his commandments.

And, and really there's no reception. The king never comes they ask him for a certificate he starts fumbling around, which is actually sadly humorous because he knows he doesn't have a certificate because Christian's asked him previously, but he's kinda, well, let me see here, maybe I do and I just don't realize it's a horrific scene and so. He, they ask, you don't have any, and he doesn't answer anything, so they told the king, but he would not come down to see him. But commanded the two shining ones that conduct that conducted Christian hopeful of the city to go out and bind him hand and foot and have him away, and they took him and carried him through the air, to the door that is in the side of the hill and put him in there.

Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the city of destruction, the end. Other than the poem, that's the end. And and Bunyan, he wants, remember Bunyan's living in a time. Just most of the people in Bedford went to church.

Most of these folks at least darkened the door of the church. A lot of these people had heard the gospel since they were young, and a lot of these people, they could recite a lot of the scripture passages that Bunyan has in this work. But he wants to remind them. You think you're gonna show up to the gates.

And just kinda have a a head knowledge of the gospel, and you think you're gonna get there on your own works righteousness and just kinda whistle your way up to the door and God's just gonna say come on in. Jesus talks about hell more than any other figure in the Bible. And the reason he talks about hell so much is because he wants us to be reminded that nobody gets there by the works of the law. Nobody gets there by just keeping their own righteousness.

He is trying to get us to the place of loathing our sins so that we look to Christ and his righteousness alone, and it's that loathing that leads to love. It's that loathing that leads to faith. And so that's kinda that's pretty much where Bunyan leaves it other than the final poem where he basically just says hey if you don't like everything I've written, don't just throw out you don't throw out the apple for the core, right? you don't like the core of the apple well at least eat the apple, spit out what you don't like or, common term would be eat the chicken, spit out the bones.

But if you don't like any of it, he implies, maybe I'll write a part two, so he's almost leaves you a little cliffhanger, and maybe there's a part two coming, and there is a part two that eventually writes about Christiana, and we'll maybe hit that some other time. It's in your suggested follow-up study. Let me give you here, I've got like just a couple of minutes to wrap this up. I wanna give you some things that I've learned.

I'm gonna read through this like super fast, like a fast, fast, fast grill, and. And then you guys can make your own list. Here's some things I've learned from our study through Pilgrim's Progress. The law has a role to play in stirring up an awareness of sin and creating a burden for sin, but can never curb, fit, forgive, or remove sin.

Christ is the only gate of entrance into salvation, and he is the one who will guide, protect and get us safely into the gates of heaven. The cross removes the objective burden of sin, but our personal apprehension of the cross can affect our subjective sense of the removal of that burden. In other words, the burden was removed, but when we forget, like 2 Peter, we can feel like it's still there. we can, we, we have great need to think upon Christ, the cross, and the code of imputed righteousness, just like Christian does.

Christians are weak and prone to wonder and not immune to deception or despair. It's all over the Bible, folks. If you're feeling weak or wondering or feeling. In despair, you are not alone.

We have different gifts and we need each other. I need your gifts. Pastors are not in some unique category where we don't need your gifts. We're on one level we're just, we're just brothers and our wives are just sisters in Christ and, and as needy as anybody else.

godly shepherds are gift from the chief shepherd. And I, I'm like have time to read all these, let me see if I can find some of my other favorites. you guys can go through it on your own. Well, little faith may look less impressive than talkative, worldly wise men in ignorance, but we are saved by faith alone.

The weakest believers are secured by Christ's might. Here's the last one I'll read and I encourage you to read the rest on your own. Just about any characteristic of a false believer can be found in some form in true believers via indwelling sin. Therefore, we have reason for caution and humility.

Just when you, when you see certain characteristics in someone, don't automatically say, well, I, I don't know if they're saved. It could be that they've just been overtaken by a trespass need someone spiritual to help them and by the way, what the characteristic that you're seeing in someone else is probably in you in some root form. I don't know if I've, I get blind to this a lot, but, whenever I see something even in unbelievers I start to criticize, it doesn't take me long, for the Holy Spirit to be like, well, what, you've got this issue, buddy, so don't get so cocky.

anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this.

If you want to follow up, you can read Pilgrim's Progress too. I'd also recommend the book of, the commentary on Galatians by Martin Luther because that was so influential in Bunyan's life, and I put some possible references there. Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this wonderful time that we've had this year and, moving through Pilgrim's Progress.

I pray, Father, that you bless each family. As as they review and try to apply the scripture passages and doctrines that we've we've looked at, especially just the, the righteousness of Christ that is just all over this book that we are addressed in your righteousness we're saved by your works we pray this in Christ's name, amen.