Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI200456B
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00:01 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:02 Before the break, 00:04 I was talking at some length 00:05 about John Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress. 00:07 But what I want to share with you 00:09 is something from his biography, 00:13 Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. 00:17 Not so well known, but really in many ways, 00:20 just as famous by those who know 00:23 anything about John Bunyan. 00:25 And I'm going to read, pardon, 00:28 that it's the best way to communicate what he said. 00:31 And this is what, how he explained it 00:33 fairly early on in that outline of his life's experience. 00:37 He says, " I fell into company with one poor man 00:41 that made profession of religion, 00:43 who, as I then thought, 00:45 did talk pleasantly of the Scriptures, 00:48 and of the matters of religion; wherefore, 00:51 falling into some love and liking to what he said, 00:54 I betook me to my Bible, 00:56 and began to take great pleasure in reading, 00:59 but especially 01:01 with the historical part thereof." 01:03 That's a common failing, in other words, 01:05 it's a piece of literature not really knowing the parent. 01:08 He says, "For as, as for Paul's epistles, 01:11 and such like Scriptures, 01:13 I could not away with them 01:14 being as yet ignorant either of the Scriptures 01:17 or of my nature, 01:18 or of the want and worth of Jesus Christ to save me." 01:22 He says, "Therefore I fell to some outward reformation, 01:26 both in my words and life, 01:27 and did set the commandments 01:29 before me for my ways to heaven, 01:31 which commandments I also did strive to keep, 01:34 and, as I thought, 01:36 did keep them pretty well sometimes, 01:38 and then I should have comfort, 01:39 yet now and then should break one, 01:42 and so afflict my conscience, 01:44 but then I should repent, and say I was sorry for it, 01:47 and promise God to do better next time, 01:49 and there get help again, 01:51 for then I thought I pleased God 01:53 as well as any man in England. 01:56 Thus I continued about a year, 01:58 all which time our neighbors did take me 02:01 to be a very godly man, a new and religious man, 02:06 and did marvel much to see such a great 02:09 and famous alteration in my life and manners, 02:13 and, indeed, so it was, 02:14 though yet I knew not Christ, nor grace, nor faith, 02:18 nor hope, for as I have well seen since, 02:21 had I then died, 02:23 my state had been most fearful." 02:25 He's really getting to the nitty gritty 02:27 of what it means to be a Christian. 02:29 He says, "I loved to be talked of as one that was truly godly. 02:34 I was proud of my godliness, 02:36 and indeed I did all that I did, 02:37 either to be seen of, 02:40 or to be well spoken of, by men. 02:42 And thus I continued 02:44 for about a twelve month or more." 02:47 And then he says, this is the key thing, 02:50 "But upon a day, 02:52 the good providence of God called me to Bedford," 02:55 this is his hometown, 02:57 "to work on my calling, 02:59 and in one of the streets of that town, 03:02 I came where there were three or four poor women 03:05 sitting at a door in the sun, 03:08 talking about the things of God." 03:11 And I must tell you, 03:12 that's an unusual thing in itself. 03:14 I can remember myself when I was back in college, 03:19 in the times of the Jesus movement, 03:22 being very cynical of it at the time, 03:24 and when I look back on it, 03:26 I think there was a stirring in the mulberry bushes 03:28 to put it figuratively. 03:29 Young people were seeking God 03:32 in a rather marked way at that time. 03:36 But I was a little cynical of it, 03:38 but I remember 03:39 after one of the weekend rally sessions, 03:42 some weeks after, during the week, 03:46 I went to a nearby bank, 03:47 and I overheard two young men talking about religion, 03:51 and one of them said to the other, he said, 03:54 "I've determined to model my life 03:56 after Jesus Christ." 03:58 That's an unusual thing in any age to hear. 04:03 So John Bunyan was moved, when he heard these women, 04:07 talking about the things of God as he says, 04:09 and continuing, he says, 04:11 "And being now willing to hear them discourse, 04:14 I drew near to hear what they said, 04:16 for I was now a brisk talker also myself 04:20 in the matters of religion. 04:22 But I may say, I heard, but understood not, 04:27 for they were far above out of my reach. 04:31 Their talk was about a new birth, 04:34 the work of God on their hearts, 04:36 also how they were convinced 04:38 of their miserable state by nature. 04:41 They talked how God had visited their souls 04:44 with His love in the Lord Jesus, 04:47 and with what words and promises 04:48 they had been refreshed, 04:51 comforted and supported 04:53 against the temptations of the Devil. 04:55 Moreover, they reasoned of the suggestions 04:57 and temptations of Satan in particular. 05:00 And told to each other 05:01 by which they had been afflicted 05:03 and how they were born up under His assaults. 05:05 They also discoursed 05:07 on their own wretchedness of heart, 05:10 and of their unbelief, and did condemn, 05:13 slight, and abhor their own righteousness, 05:15 as filthy and insufficient to do them any good. 05:19 And methought," says Bunyan, 05:21 "they spake as if joy did make them speak, 05:24 they spake 05:26 with such pleasantness of Scripture language, 05:28 and with such appearance of grace in all they said, 05:32 that they were to me 05:34 as if they had found a new world, 05:38 as if they were people that dwelt alone, 05:40 and were not to be reckoned among their neighbors." 05:42 And he quotes Numbers 23.9 as a backup to that. 05:47 He says, "At this I felt my own heart began to shake, 05:51 and mistrust my condition to be naught, 05:54 for I saw that in all my thoughts 05:56 about religion and salvation, 05:58 the new birth never did enter into my mind, 06:02 neither knew I the comfort of the Word and promise, 06:05 nor the deceitfulness and treachery 06:08 of my own wicked heart." 06:11 And he says this, 06:13 "By these things my mind was now so turned, 06:18 that it lay like a horse leech at the vein, 06:22 still crying out, give, give, give." 06:28 Maybe I need to go back 06:30 to when I was walking under the underpass 06:32 paddling in the water of the leeches for a second. 06:34 They don't give up easy. 06:36 You got to pull them off, rip their head off. 06:38 And then because the blood still keeps coming 06:40 because they determined to suck your life, 06:44 and he was like that on the things of the Spirit. 06:46 He says, "I was like a horse leech, a big leech, 06:49 at the vein, still crying out, give, give, give. 06:54 It was so fixed on eternity, said Bunyan, 06:57 and on the things about the kingdom of heaven, 07:02 that is, so far as I knew, though as yet, God knows, 07:04 I knew but little he says on the other side, 07:06 but now that pleasures nor profits, nor persuasions, 07:10 nor threats, could loose it, 07:13 or make it let go its hold, 07:15 and though I may speak it with shame, 07:17 yet it is in very deed a certain truth, 07:20 it would then have been as difficult for me 07:24 to have taken my mind from heaven to earth, 07:26 as I have found it often since 07:28 to get away from earth to heaven." 07:31 You know, that's strikes me as a real narrative 07:34 of a real spiritual battle 07:37 that this man was engaged in and, 07:40 you know, he didn't listed as he figuratively wrote about, 07:44 he didn't listed on the Lord's cause, 07:47 and the, you know, 07:48 the war that they fought in the Civil War, 07:49 that was one thing, 07:51 but now he saw that he was engaged 07:52 in the battle for his own soul, 07:55 and the battle against Napoleon. 07:57 And, you know, I could, 07:58 in another times before audiences 08:01 I've read at least for my own edification 08:04 I read the story 08:06 that he tells there of Christian battling Napoleon, 08:09 a real battle and only, 08:11 but by taking the sword of the Spirit, 08:15 at the moment of his extremity 08:16 was able to strike the feign the fatal blow, 08:20 or at least a mortal blow not fatal. 08:23 As Jesus said, you know, 08:24 is the ruler of this world is cast down, 08:27 but not yet, 08:29 until the lake of fire finally destroyed. 08:32 To me, this is inspiring stuff, 08:35 particularly given that it's in the context 08:38 of a great religious civil war, 08:42 a great religious conflict in England, 08:46 which was the center then 08:47 of the largest empire in the world. 08:50 You know, today it's the American Empire 08:52 and that's another story 08:53 and also with a religious viewpoint, 08:57 entangled with the administration 08:59 of this new empire. 09:01 But in Bunyan's time, 09:03 this religiously oriented nation 09:06 had gone through a civil war where religion was fought over. 09:10 And as a soldier in that war, 09:12 he found out that the real battle 09:16 was for his own soul 09:18 that the real battle was against, 09:20 as the Bible says 09:21 principalities and powers in the highest places. 09:24 It was his own inclinations. 09:27 It was the force of evil projected against him 09:30 through society, through his own desires. 09:35 And to me, it's as relevant today 09:38 as when Bunyan the Tinker, 09:41 wasted away his life in prison and then put it 09:44 to good use in writing that book, 09:46 as when he freed by, ironically enough, 09:50 interestingly enough, 09:51 John Owen paid the ransom 09:54 for John Bunyan to be released from prison, 09:57 in a recognition as he said 09:59 that learning and sophistication 10:02 were nothing compared to a tinker, 10:05 a simple preacher who had discovered God 10:08 and faith for himself and then listed 10:11 in that final battle for his soul. 10:15 And I want to encourage you 10:16 as we face these difficult times, 10:19 they're only going to get more difficult 10:21 and more spiritually charged. 10:23 And the threats against us 10:25 practicing religious liberty are going to increase. 10:28 I want to encourage you, read Pilgrim's Progress. 10:31 And as I do, 10:32 let's try to gain some lessons 10:35 from this man who the hard way fought, 10:38 and I believe prevailed 10:41 against wickedness in high places, 10:43 wickedness in his own heart. 10:46 God bless you as we continue 10:48 thinking about these heroes of the past 10:51 in the great religious liberty challenge. 10:55 We'll be back after a short break. |
Revised 2020-04-16