A Survey of the Pilgrim's Progress Pt.4

All right, so if you've been with us, we now find ourselves at the house of the interpreter. We're calling this lesson lessons on the way to the Cross. because basically what we have here is Christian coming in to the house of the interpreter, which is basically a symbol for the scriptures, and it's the Holy Spirit that's gonna illumine certain principles from the scriptures. They're gonna carry Christian on his way, to the cross and then forward in his journey, and so I wanna kinda set this up with a few questions.

What are some of the essential elements of discipleship? Where do we start in helping a new believer? What does the Holy Spirit wanna teach a new believer? Well, Bunyan definitely has his suggestions that he's gonna lay out before us and let's see if Bunyan's approach can be of assistance to our way, our own walk and also how we might wanna disciple, one another or a new believer.

One particular, writer, JB Cheever says that these 12 consecutive pages are, are some of the best in the English language for their meaning and beauty and depth, and, and I would agree, I just, I love this section. Of, of, Pilgrim's Progress for its spiritual value but also, I taught English before as a pastor so I, I love literature. I love English and British literature and I love what Bunyan has done in this section and so we're basically gonna cover seven different stops in the house of the interpreter.

Again, the house of the interpreter, the house itself would represent the word of God.

The interpreter is the Holy Spirit, and then the candle is the illumination of the Holy Spirit and so the Holy Spirit is, is really guiding Christian in his young journey, giving him the things that, that, that are, that the Spirit thinks are important for him to have out the gate on his journey, and we'll see if we agree with Bunyan on his seven choices here. so the 7 places that we're gonna stop are 1, we're gonna look at the, the portrait of a minister, then we're gonna look at, a dusty parlor with the law and the gospel, we'll look at passion and patience, and then we'll look at this wall, what we're gonna call the firewall, and then we're gonna take a look at this, stately palace.

And then the iron cage, a frightening scene if you've ever read it, and then finally a dream of the day of the Lord before Christian sets out on his journey on the path of salvation toward the cross. Let's talk first of all about the portrait of a minister.

How is a minister described in your reading? Well, there's 6 different attributes that are on this portrait. Basically, the interpreter shows Christian this portrait, and, and what this portrait represents is a minister of the gospel with 6 attributes. The minister's eyes are towards heaven, towards Christ.

He's got the best of books in his hand, the Bible. The law of truth is on his lips, the world is set behind him, he's, he's leaning forward as if he's pleading with sinners, and the crown hangs over his head, the crown of glory, knowing that he is, is really, participating in eternal things, and we're gonna talk a little bit about those attributes of this minister, but let me ask a question why is this the first room? I don't know about you, but when I've discipled people in the past, I don't normally say, OK, now let's let's talk about how you can grow in Christ.

The very first thing I want you to know is get the right pastor.

That's not really normally the way we start. Normally I would teach somebody how to study the Bible. Let's talk about prayer, let's talk about fellowship, let's talk about evangelism. But Bunyan starts with a pastor.

and if you read the text, the interpreter says there's really 1 in 1000 that can do what this person is doing, and he's the only one that's been authorized to really guide you and to help reveal dark sayings to you. That's really a tall praise for having the right shepherd. And I don't know that I would have begun here, but Bunyan begins here. He thinks it's very important, and remember he's writing in a context where finding a good gospel preaching pastor was very difficult.

Remember we're at a, we're at a time in the history of in England where the Anglican Church is basically wanting to take everybody back to Rome. We're mixing up works and grace again there is no sufficiency of scripture, and so to find a pastor like John Gifford Bunyan's own pastor was a very treasured find. Notice what it says on, on your notes. On the second page, Hebrews 13:7, do we think this way about our pastors today?

remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct, and then in verse 17, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. And then James 3:1 says, my brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

We live in a day when it's very popular for people just to start up Bible studies.

They just pop up all over the place, and people just assign themselves the role of a teacher, and then they just start teaching people. Well, it seems like from what I can understand from the scriptures, the Bible says let not many of you become teachers. There should not be a whole bunch of them. And those that really are authorized by Christ, remember this is a gift from Christ.

Ephesians chapter 4, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, this is a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ to the church. And and they're authorized to guide the church and equip the church and we are obligated to submit to our pastors and leaders watching their outcome of their teaching correct? We're not to follow them like we follow Christ, but we are to look at what they're teaching, find a good shepherd, and then be willing to submit ourselves to them. And so it would behoove us to to really think about this when it comes to our own growth in Christ and then also our discipleship of other people to really encourage people to get into a good church where there are good shepherds.

I've been, fortunate to be a part of good churches my whole life. I can go back to my Calvary Chapel days. I got Pastor Mark, Pastor Louie, I've got Pastor Steve and Pastor Dan, and then Pastor Milton. And then, Pastor Jim here and, and for me, my elder when I was first a member was, was Kumi.

I've just had this litany of great pastors that have led me in the word of God and in the gospel, but when I talk to a lot of other people who have had different experiences, the experience that I've had has not been everybody else's experience. It is not so easy to find a good church and to find good pastors, there's a lot of people that have moved away from Cornerstone lately and, and part of us, as elders we, we sorrow over the loss of brothers and sisters in Christ at the same time we're glad that they're, they're bringing the gospel with them.

One of the things I've been encouraged by is virtually everybody I've spoken with that has either thought about moving or is actually planned on moving has made finding a church and good pastor their number one priority. And I've been very excited about that.

Sometimes I'll find out about someone moving and in the back of my head I'm like, oh, I hope they have thought this through and they can find a good church because the, the, the idea that you're just gonna move somewhere and automatically find a good church with a good pastor is not just going to happen. You've got to get out there and look for it and it's probably gonna be less and less. And so it is something that we should consider if you're thinking about moving. I would I would exhort you to not even move that direction until that the place you're looking at going is gonna have a good church with a good pastor and shepherd that that you can look to and submit to and be fed from.

So based on this description of a pastor, what things should you look for in a pastor in in a church? Well, I think it's laid out for us in the descriptions. We want pastors that are looking to Christ. We want pastors that are holding the Bible often in their own hands and digesting it for themselves, and so the law of the Lord of truth is on their lips always that's what they like to talk about and the world is behind them they're not looking for the things of this world, and they have a heart to plead with sinners, both saved and unsaved sinners, and, and that they have a that they're like Paul looking for the joy set before them, this crown.

That's coming in the future and so those are the pastors that we wanna look for those are the churches we wanna look for and by the way, that's what you can pray for for the pastors here at Cornerstone pray for our pastors that we would grow in these very, these very attributes and that we would continue to speak and to look to Christ ourselves so that we would forsake the world and look for the crown, not for the glory of this world. But also pray for our wives, our, our wives have a tougher job than, than many of you realize, myself or Pastor, we get up and we preach, we minister and we counsel, but what, we come home and at, at home I'm just another, sinful husband saved by grace, and my wife gets to see the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And and she's the one that has to that is has the job to exhort me and to encourage me and to confront me and sin and and and to hold me up and so pray for our wives, pray for pastor's kids sometimes people think that pastor's kids have some shortcut to heaven they've got to get saved the same way everybody else has to get saved and they're gonna go through a lot of the same sinful problems. Everybody else is gonna go through and by the way, pastor's kids are not guaranteed salvation any more than anybody else's kids, they've gotta come through the same path through Christ alone, through faith alone and so pray for our pastor's kids.

Well, that's the, the portrait of a minister that's the first, stop and then from there he's taken by the hand by the interpreter of the Holy Spirit to a dusty parlor and so let's explain these, these images here the dusty parlor, the parlor Bunyan tells us is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. Dust is his original sin and inward corruptions that defile the whole man, by the way, not just part of the man, but the whole man. the sweeper is the law, the damsel is the gospel, and water is grace.

This is, just one of my favorite images in the house of the interpreter because of how crisply and beautifully it puts before us the role of the law and the gospel.

What can the law accomplish? What you have here is, is the heart of man and dust is on the, in the room of everybody's hearts, but when you first walk into the room, you don't necessarily realize the dust is there, but then the law comes in and begins to try to sweep up and what happens? The dust comes up into the air and then you begin to choke on it. And that's a wonderful image of what God accomplishes through the law.

What, what do we have here? What does the law accomplished? Let me give you a little acronym to remember what the law accomplishes. It's dead, D E A D.

First of all, the law defines sin. It tells us Paul says in Romans 7, I would have known not to covet unless the law told me thou shalt not covet. So it defines sin. It also exposes sin, so it defines it, but it exposes it until the law comes, it can remain incognito.

Sin's very deceptive. You don't always know it's there, but the sweeper comes in and it and it exposes it like it says in Romans 3:20, by the laws the knowledge of sin. But A, it aggravates sin. It aggravates sins.

The law doesn't help us overcome our sin, it actually makes us wanna sin more. It comes in and it says, don't do this, don't eat the cookies, and what do we wanna do? We wanna eat the cookies. And so it aggravates sin.

That's why, Romans 5:20 says that the law makes sin abound, but where sin abounds, grace does abound much more. And then finally, the, the final D is it does it all again, just repeat, right? Recycle, define sin, exposes, aggravates sin. Do it again.

Define sin, exposes sin, aggravate sin. It just beats you and beats you and beats you, and we're gonna see this later on. As a, as, as, I, I can't remember it's faithful or hopeful describes his impact by Moses. And so that's what the law does, but don't get the impression that the law is bad.

The Bible tells us the law is good, but it's just powerless. The law can expose our sin, but it gives us no power to overcome our sin. And so let me just say that this is an aside, you can write this down, must does not equal can. Must does not equal kin.

When the Bible says you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, that doesn't mean that that command's going to enable you to do it. When the Bible says that you shall not make any idol and worship no other gods, that command does not enable you. Amas does not equal a kin. If I can do what I must do, then what did Christ do?

That's exactly what Galatians 2:21 says. Paul says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. And so we need to remember that the sweeper is not the damsel, and so that brings us to the gospel. What happens is the dust comes up, but then this damsel, the sweet damsel comes in, which is the gospel and begins to sprinkle grace around the room, and then that settles down the sin and then it cleanses the heart of man and makes it habitable for the Holy Spirit.

Such a beautiful image that is portrayed here. Notice what it says in Romans 3:20 on your handout. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the laws the knowledge of sin, that's the exposure role. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law, this is righteousness provided by God, right?

I revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets we'll come back to that, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe this is a wonderful summary of what the law and the gospel, what they, the, the role of each. the law gives a knowledge of sin, but then there's this righteousness, this alien righteousness that comes apart from the law, which, by the way is witnessed to by the law and the prophets. Now that can be confusing to us because sometimes we think in our head law equals Old Testament, and that's not what the law is when we see that Paul talking about the law in this way, he's not saying all of the Old Testament.

Is only going to aggravate in all of the New Testament is only gonna give you the water of grace.

We get confused about that. No, the law and the gospel run from Genesis to Revelation. And the law in the sense of it aggravating and exposing sin is in the Torah, but the gospel is also in the Torah. How do I know that?

All you gotta do is look at the book of Genesis. God tells Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree, the tree, and the day that you eat of that, you will surely die. That's law. But then they eat, and did they surely die?

No, they didn't die. Something died, an animal died, and they get wrapped up in the righteousness of Christ, and they live. That's the gospel. And then there's a promised seed to come, the proto evangelion right there in chapter 3, that there's a promised seed, and the seed runs all throughout the Bible, Old and New Testament.

And so we have law and gospel throughout the whole Bible, and it's witness to, so the, the righteousness of God is revealed to us in Genesis 3, it's revealed in the ark, it's revealed in the Abrahamic covenant, and it runs all the way through the book of Revelation. And so these are very important lessons to get the right pastor, right? Have a good shepherd who's gonna teach you about the gospel and just like we heard, I think last week or two weeks ago, we're gonna see the bitter and the sweet, right?

We should be seeing bitter and sweet from our pulpits that we're understanding sin and how to deal with our sin, this righteousness that comes from the Lord.

Let's continue where there's more we could say, but that we need to move on into the next room. Let's talk about passion and patience. Well, first of all, actually let me let me ask this question why does the, the dusty parlor, come right after the portrait of a minister? I think it's get a right shepherd who's gonna teach you about sin and how to deal with it through the gospel.

And then we move to passion and patience. What do we have here? Well, Christian is shown two children. the older child is called Passion, which, we're told is the men of this world, and he's the Passion's given a bag of treasure.

He opens up the bag and it disintegrates, but while he's playing with his toys, he's laughing, patience to scorn. And then patience represents the one who's willing to wait for the next life, so you have a picture of two children, one that must have all their things now, the other ones that says, I'm gonna recognize that my true treasures are in the next life, and so I'm willing to wait for those things, whereas passion says, no, I must have all of them right now. We won't look at all these passages, but you see in First Thessalonians, there's an exhortation to Christians to not live in the passion of lust like the Gentiles, but, and if you reject this, you're really rejecting not men but God who gives us His Holy Spirit, by the way, to help us with those passions, and we see that God Himself is described as a God of patience.

We even see the patience of Christ.

And so we're just coming into this fruit of the spirit, this is a fruit of the spirit, by the way, not something you're just gonna work up. and that we're talking about eternal things, the things that are seen are, are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal. But notice if, if you look at the very end of this section of passion and patience, Bunyan has this to say or this has actually come from the interpreter, things present and our fleshly appetite are such near neighbors that they become friends and he's basically trying to communicate to Christian that, the things that we see and our flesh, they live right next door to each other and it's very easy for them to become friends.

But it's hard for us, for eternal things and our spiritual nature to become friends because they don't live right next to each other, and part of what Bunyan seems to be implying is, is definitely we wanna see the fruit of patience born in our lives, right?

And, and passion is the way we're all born with that original passionate desire. but just because when we become Christians doesn't mean that the elder child passion is completely dead. He's vanquished. But he's still there.

And, and, and we desire patience, but that's a fruit of the spirit and that's part of what our pastors are gonna help us do is let's see how we deal with passion, let's see how we get the fruit of the spirit it's not gonna come through the works of the law it's gonna come through the gospel and and so that's part of it why I think passion and patience comes right after. The, the dusty parlor passage, but then to even further establish our hope we move into the next room and that is the firewall room where the fire burning against the wall, which is probably my favorite image in the whole book is, is just the the fire, the image of the fire burning low on the wall.

Lots of different artistic renditions of this that you could look up online, and, and I want you to notice that this is at the center of the seven stops in the house of the interpreter. I don't think it's accidental that the, the wall passage is right in the middle.

I think to give us, even though we start with the pastor, the cross X of this whole instruction is on number 4, and that is Christ. And and so look here what are the elements and who are the actors here? Well, we have fire which the interpreter tells us is the work of grace in the heart. We have the fire extinguisher, which is whombo know who the fire extinguisher is?

The devil. Then we have the man with the vessel of oil, which is Christ and the oil is his grace. And, and so why is, so, so this is first Christian sees the one side there's this fire burning, the devil keeps throwing water on it, he's trying to put it out, but he can't put it out, then Christian's taken to the other side of the wall and he sees Christ they're feeding oil under the wall and keeping the fire burning. And then the interpreter tells us why Christ is on the other side of the wall in this image, and he says this is to teach you that it is hard for the tempted to see how the work of grace is maintained in the soul.

That we ourselves that we feel the the devil accost us and attack us and we feel our own flesh we still feel passion rising up within us and we know that there's still dust in the room and there's a part of us that says, man, how is, how am I gonna get there? How's this gonna happen? And sometimes it's hard for us to see how it's gonna happen because Christ is on the other side of the wall doing some secret things that we're not entirely privy to. he is, he keeps feeding us his grace, passion is vanquished but not dead, patience is present, but it's a grace, it's fruit of the spirit, and Christ is, is leading, is, is feeding us that oil.

So a couple of lessons that we can get from this section. Satan is always on the prowl. We have to be aware of that, but he is dominated by Christ. Look at 1 Peter 5:8.

We have this dominion that the Lord has over the prowling lion. Also, number 2, the perseverance of the saints is all of grace. The fact that we persevere has nothing to do with you and I's works or because I'm a positive person or I'm just turning lemons into lemonade. It's grace.

Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It doesn't stop there, he says, for it is God who works in you, both to will. He gives you the will and to do for his pleasure. It's all of grace.

Christ is feeding the oil under the wall, as it were. And thirdly, I love this application from Ken Pulse is we need to remember to look behind the wall. Remember that even when we can't see Christ, he's there. Without me you can do nothing, but he is there.

I won't read this for you, but this quote from Ken Pulse is awesome that while we might be forgetful of his mercies, he is never forgetful of our needs. there's one other, there's one image that comes up in Christiana's journey that I think relates to what we've talked about. If you ever get a chance, I don't wanna overwhelm you with stuff, but Christiana's journey, it might be better than the part one, when she goes to the hou through the house, of the interpreter, she sees an image of a spider.

They're her and Mercy and her children, they're all brought into a room.

And there's a spider on the wall and the interpreter says, what do you see? And she says, I see a spider. And he says, you see anything else? Are there any other spiders in the room?

And all of a sudden it's like she begins to well up with tears and she realizes, yeah, I'm a spider and everybody in this room, we've all got venom inside of us, we've got that poison that's in that spider is in me and so there's a bunch of spiders in here, but then the interpreter says, yes, that's true, but notice how that spider's in the king's palace nonetheless. don't, sorry, don't do this. And the spider is clinging by faith to the wall of the palace that by faith the spider is able to keep clinging and he's there at the bidding of the king, so this poisonous spider just like from, proverbs is there in a palace of the king and he's clinging.

Sir, we're running out of time.

It's just a neat image of how that the Bunyan is acknowledging indwelling sin and yet presence in the palace of the king and and and us clinging by faith so that that you can look that up on your own. Let's let's move forward to the next one, a stately palace. So once we're reminded that this is all of grace, that Jesus is the one that is feeding the oil. Now he brings them to another lesson that probably is best given on the other side of the firewall lesson.

So what are the elements of the stately palace? we have this beautiful majestic palace which represents eternal life, people walking on its walls. This would be saints who have fought the good fight, finished the race, they're already there. The door of the palace is the gospel of Christ, and then we see there's a great company of men that are desirous to go in but would not dare.

And so this is almost certainly represents people who they've heard the gospel they've rejoiced in the word of the gospel, but when tribulation persecution arise they stumble they're there at the door, but they just, they're not gonna venture the hazard, there's just too much at stake. and then there's a man at a, with a book and an inkhorn, and he's taking names. This is not a good guy. This is like someone that wants to write your name down.

And and and take note of you like Bunyan was taken note of and thrown in prison. This is like Paul of Tar Tarsus who's out to arrest and kill people and then there's there's many men at the at the door that are wanting to keep them away. These would be false teachers or worldly philosophy, scorners, friends, just demonic attack. even though the door is wide open and it can't be shut, like Revelation 3 tells us, but there are still people that are positioned at the door to try to keep us out, try to keep us away, then there's a valiant man that comes up or a man with a, I forget how it says it like a.

Something countenance, I forget how it describes his countenance, but he's basically a valiant man, and he comes up and he says, put my name down. And then he grabs the sword and he puts on the helmet of salvation, he's got the word of God, and he goes in and he just starts hacking. He's like, I'm getting in. And he's doing damage, and he's getting damaged.

He gets cut, and he's cutting, and he gets in, and then there's this huge rejoicing when he gets in and he's given the same raiment. And, and so interpreter basically he interprets this for us that actually no this is one of the places where there is no interpretation because Christian smiles he goes hm yes I think I know what this means and this is one of the places whenever I've read it I've been like do tell. Because I don't know what this means. And he, but he, he seems to know what it means.

And then he's ready to go. like Peter, he's like, OK, can we get on now? And he's, he thinks he's ready to rock and, and he's ready to get out there and do some damage. But interpreter's reply is, no, let me show you something else.

You've got something else you need to see here. Now, remember Berta and he thinks he's ready to rock, but what does he still have on his back? He's still got a burden, and he's still got some battles, a lot of battles out there in the future. He's gonna hit a polyon, right?

He's gonna be in Doubting Castle sooner or later. And so, So there's things that he still needs to see. Part of what this, this whole image reminds us of is there are going to be persecutions. They're going to be trials.

The world is not a friend. The world's not just gonna stand back and welcome you into the kingdom, nor anybody else that you preach the gospel to. This is a war, and it's good that we're reminded of the grace that's being fed into the wall in the previous image. but we also have to remember that this is warfare, right?

That we're battling in the strength of his might. I like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:9. He says, I'm not the least. I know, I am the least of the apostles.

I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle. Why? Because I persecuted the church. I was taking names, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain.

I labored more abundantly than they all. I went hacking to get in, yet not I. But the grace of God which was in me, that's just a great balance and I think Christians, we know this, right? We know this is true.

If you walk up to a believer and you say, hey, do you need to do anything for Christ or is God calling you to, to get out, just kinda lay down and do nothing, you, you say no. And it is, but can you do it all on yourself? Is it all in your own strength? No.

And that seems contradictory, but we know that it's in the strength of his might that we go out and we wage this war. But Christian needs this, this other lesson, at least an interpreter of the Holy Spirit thinks so. So look at the next one, the man in the iron cage. What do we see?

So right after this incredible valiant man, we turn, we go to another room and it's very dark. There's no hint of the candle here. This man is in an iron cage. He's very sad.

His eyes, where are they looking? Down at the ground. His hands are folded, they're not up in prayer or crying out. He's, he sighs.

He's not crying, he's sighing. And his speech is an amazing speech. If you wanna, I'll, I'll read it or if you guys wanna take a look at it. It's on page 85 in Ken Pulse's version, but I know we got different versions out there.

And so Christian asked him basically, who, what were you or who are you, or what were you once? he says, I was once a fair and flourishing professor, both my own eyes and the eyes of others. And then he says, what are you now? I am a man of despair.

That's the way he defines himself now. I'm just a man of despair. And then he goes on, he says, I left off to watch and be sober. I, I let the reins upon the neck of my lusts.

I sinned against the light of the word, the goodness of God. I grieve the spirit, and he's gone. The devil, or I tempted the devil and he has come to me. I provoked God to anger and he's left me.

I have so hard in my heart that I cannot repent. Then Christian said, is there no hope for such a man? And interpreter doesn't answer. He just says, ask him.

He says, no, none at all. And then Christian says, but the son is, is, the son of the blessed's very pitiful. The man says, I've crucified him to myself afresh. I've despised his person.

I've despised his righteousness. I've counted his blood an unholy thing. I've done despite to the spirit of grace. Therefore, I've shut myself out of all the promises.

And there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, fearful threatenings of certain judgment. And so on. Then he says, for the last pleasures and prophets of the world and the enjoyment of which I did promise myself much delight, but now every one of those things also bite me and knot me like a burning worm, and then later he says, God has denied me repentance. This scene, man, when I was younger, this haunt me.

I'd ask myself, Man, am I the man in the iron cage? Oh man, it's just a scary, scary scene. And, and it's meant to be a scary scene, right? We're meant to be freaked out by this and it's been there's a, it's been questioned by different interpreters is this meant to be a true believer who's trapped in despair or a false professor and an apostate.

And, and Bunyan really doesn't answer the question for us. He doesn't tell us who this man is. We're, we're left to wonder, is this an apostate or is this a true believer? And, and Spurgeon, I won't read the, the quotes, they're here in your notes, but Spurgeon uses this image in both directions.

In one of his sermons called The Danger of unconfessed sin, he talks about a person who's heard the gospel, has felt the weight of their sin, but refuses to confess their sin to the Lord and cry out for forgiveness, and and then persists in that they continue to feel the guilt and the weight. But they won't believe in Jesus. And he says, you remember John Bunyan's picture of the man in the iron cage. There is not in Pilgrim's Progress, a more, a terrible incident.

The bars of a cage for yourself as long as you refuse to acknowledge your guilt before God. And you can read the whole quote here. It's, it's haunting Spurgeon's, use of this man in the iron cage. But in another sermon he called Comfort for the desponding, he uses the exact same image and says Bunyan doesn't tell us whether the guy got out or not.

And, and Spurgeon says, I have seen many a person in the iron cage get out, not because they filed the. The iron bars themselves, not because they banged against it themselves, but because like a bird they sing out and they cry to the Lord and the Lord comes and lets them out. Notice that in Bunyan's image this man is not looking to Christ, his hands are folded, they're not lifted in prayer, and he's basically saying I've despised his righteousness. That's the one way that you can go to hell.

All manner of sin may be forgiven. All manner of sin may be forgiven, except the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy, we won't go into a whole lesson on that, but basically, the Holy Spirit's trying to point to Christ and His righteousness. You turn your back on Christ and His righteousness and you say, I'll do it on my own.

Thank you very much. That's the way you stand in the iron cage. But when you cry out to the Lord like a bird and you say, Lord, save me, I believe, help my unbelief, the Lord will bring you out quick, fast, and in a hurry. That's just the way he is.

And so, but it's good for us to be reminded of this, this scene. Because the dangers of sin are that they are dangers, think about this. The danger with sin is not that there is no forgiveness. It's that sin by its very nature deceives.

It may put you under its spell and persuade you that there is no forgiveness for you and that you are in fact hopeless. That's the danger of sin. It's not that sin cannot be forgiven and that God will not forgive sin, but if we put a rain upon our lust, sin by its nature deceives and sin may put you under a spell and convince you there's no hope for me. And so we do need to heed the danger.

At the same time, go back and look behind the wall. Christian's gonna go through his own doubting castle and deal with the giant of his despair and we'll see how he deals with that with the key of promise later. Let's talk about a final image. In our last few minutes, Christian, he's ready to move on again, after this image, but interpreter says no one more image I want you to see.

And, and it's a man who has a dream and let me just read a little bit of this dream. Did you guys all get to read this this week? OK, this, oh man, this is one of the most frightening descriptions of the day of the Lord outside of the Bible. We'll just read a section of it here.

I dreamed and behold, the heavens grew exceedingly black. As it thundered and lightning in most fearful wise that it put me into an agony, so I looked up in my dream and saw the clouds rack at an unusual rate upon which I heard a great sound of a trumpet and saw also a man sit upon a cloud attended with thousands of heaven. They were all in flaming fire. Also, the heavens were in a burning flame.

I heard then a voice saying, Arise, you dead, and come to judgment. And with that, the rocks rent, the graves opened, and the dead that were therein came forth. Some of them were exceedingly glad and looked upward. And some sought to hide themselves under the mountains.

Then I saw the man that sat upon the cloud open the book and bid the, the world draw near, yet was by reason of a fierce flame which issued out and came before him a convenient distance between him and them as between a judge and the prisoners at a bar. I heard it also proclaimed to them that attendant on the man that sat on the cloud gathered together the tears, chaff, and stubble, and cast them into the burning lake. And with that the bottomless pit opened just about where I stood out of the mouth of which there came in an abundant manner smoke and coals and fire with hideous noises.

It was also said to the same persons, Gather my weed into the garner, and with that I saw many caught up and carried away into the clouds, but I was left behind.

I also sought to hide myself, but I could not, for the man that sat upon the cloud still kept his eye upon me. My sins also came into my mind, and my conscience did accuse me on every side. Up Upon this, I awoke from my sleep. And then Christian says.

But what was it that made you so afraid of the site? It's like, duh. pretty frightening description of this man. Much of, much of it right out of the book of Revelation, right?

John chapter 5 and whatnot, and Ken Pulse tells us God in His word gives us both warning that we may avoid danger to our souls and promise that we may find peace and hope in the gospel. Both teachings from the book are necessary. God will certainly accomplish all he has told us in his word. He will save all who come to Him by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and he will judge and condemn all who are still.

In their sins. That bittersweet that we talked about a couple weeks ago, we need to, we need to hear it both and it's not that the threatenings of hell are gonna save us, they don't. The threatenings of hell on the day of the Lord aren't gonna do anything more for us than what the law does. It's going to stir up the dust, we're gonna choke on it, right?

And it'll actually aggravate sin. I don't know if you guys remember back, this would have been Desert Storm at the first Desert Storm when they were sending all these missiles out and Israel was just under just constant threat. porn use in Israel went through the roof. I think someone said like a 1,000% increase in usage when everybody was just convinced they were gonna die.

Think about that. Everybody's just waiting to die and what did they do? They went out to rent porn. That's, that's what the law does, that's what the threat of judgment does, but when we take the threat of judgment and then look to Christ, that's where free grace comes in.

So these are the images we'll, we're gonna have to leave it there we'll pick it up on the, on the way of salvation next time up to the cross, but let's just keep in mind that it is important for us to be thankful for our shepherds that we have here at Cornerstone to pray for our shepherds to keep a good distinction between what the role of the law is and the gospel and, and that we have both the bittersweet. that we recognize that we're waiting for patience and we're asking the Lord to bear that fruit in our hearts and to help, quench passion in our hearts, and that most importantly that we're constantly looking to Christ, looking behind the wall, because he's the one that's really feeding the oil.

When we get to a place where we feel like we're the man or the woman in the iron cage, sing out like a bird, cry to Christ, he. He won't answer you.

He loves to hear the prayers of his people and he will not leave you in the iron cage and the day of judgment, while to us it may bring fear, that fear is meant to remind us of that reverential affection that we have that we don't get the treatment that people got outside the ark, we get the treatment of the people inside the ark, and so we can have both fear and hope. Praise God. Amen. Let's go ahead and pray.

Lord, thank you Lord for this wonderful instruction that we have from your word as it's mixed with our pastor, John Bunyan and his portrayal of the Holy Spirit. We pray that your spirit would continue to work in us and Lord, that these truths that we've talked about this morning would help us on the road as we continue to head towards that beautiful palace, our eternal home in Christ's name. Amen.