John Bunyan: Sighs from Hell

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[00:00:37] sausage biscuits or sausage burritos for just $3.33.

[00:00:40] Or mix and match.

[00:00:42] Price and participation may vary.

[00:00:43] Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[00:00:45] Single item at regular price.

[00:00:47] And if you're a sausage person, now get two satisfyingly savory sausage McGriddles,

[00:00:50] sausage biscuits or sausage burritos for just $3.33.

[00:00:53] Or mix and match.

[00:00:54] Price and participation may vary.

[00:00:55] Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[00:00:57] Single item at regular price.

[00:00:59] Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

[00:01:00] Revived Thoughts is a production of Revive Studios.

[00:01:08] This is Troy Angel and you are listening to Revived Thoughts.

[00:01:19] If you have ever seen great men strut up and down the streets, it is a shocking sight

[00:01:24] if only those that currently brag about their condition would hang their heads low

[00:01:28] and beg to have a Lazarus portion.

[00:01:31] Every episode, we bring you a different voice from history in a sermon that they delivered.

[00:01:37] Today we're going back to England in the year 1658 to hear a sermon from John Bunyan.

[00:01:45] Troy, tell me, what is your recollection?

[00:01:48] What is your memory of the first time you have read Pilgrim's Rest?

[00:01:53] Or have you read Pilgrim's Rest?

[00:01:54] You might not have read Pilgrim's Rest.

[00:01:56] Pilgrim's Progress.

[00:01:57] Pilgrim's Progress.

[00:01:58] And yes, I have read.

[00:02:00] Well, actually, I have not read Pilgrim's Rest.

[00:02:02] So I don't know if that one is any good.

[00:02:05] But yeah, I do remember it.

[00:02:07] At the time, my family and I lived in China.

[00:02:12] I was a PE teacher and I was terrible.

[00:02:16] Absolutely the worst PE teacher.

[00:02:18] I don't want to brag.

[00:02:20] Shocker.

[00:02:21] It's so hard for me to imagine you being a good teacher.

[00:02:25] That's how I imagine it going.

[00:02:26] I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

[00:02:29] Joel Romino and I are friends from back in Bible college.

[00:02:32] And I don't think Joel would have ever considered me sporty.

[00:02:35] Because if he did, he would have been talking about somebody else.

[00:02:38] The only reason we really got hired was this Christian school needed more people.

[00:02:42] And my wife was more qualified than I was in this area for it.

[00:02:46] So they really wanted her.

[00:02:47] And they were like, we'll bring you along.

[00:02:48] And we wanted to go to China and share the gospel and all that good stuff.

[00:02:53] And so they gave me the only position at the school I had, which was PE teacher.

[00:02:56] And when I tell my students that I teach today that I was once a PE teacher,

[00:03:00] the faces they make is just the funniest thing.

[00:03:03] It's so hard to fathom me doing that.

[00:03:08] And I can tell you, man, that was a rough place.

[00:03:10] Because the way China works, the entire country is on Beijing's time.

[00:03:14] But we lived two time zones ahead of Beijing in a very wintry, cold part of China.

[00:03:20] And so literally, I would be doing softball or kickball.

[00:03:27] And the streetlights would be coming on.

[00:03:28] It'd be completely dark at 1 in the afternoon.

[00:03:30] Because that was the time the sun would go down and the sun would come up at 4 a.m.

[00:03:34] And so we'd have to spend so much of our time inside this very small cramped room

[00:03:39] in this small school.

[00:03:40] And it was very difficult to do PE in such a small place.

[00:03:44] Long story short, because I had PE, I had a lot of free time.

[00:03:47] And so we had a school library.

[00:03:48] And I started just reading through all these different books in the library.

[00:03:52] Because the school library was for an elementary school.

[00:03:54] And they had all these books that no elementary schooler was ever going to pick up.

[00:03:58] We're talking like books by Spurgeon, sermons by John Owen.

[00:04:02] There's no way a fifth grader, the smartest fifth grader in the world is not reading these books.

[00:04:06] So I would go through and borrow them.

[00:04:08] And one of the books that I remember I grabbed was Pilgrim's Progress.

[00:04:11] It was my first time ever reading it.

[00:04:13] And I was like, this is a very just wonderful piece of literature right here.

[00:04:17] I couldn't believe that I'd never come across it.

[00:04:19] I had heard of it, but I'd never read it.

[00:04:21] And I was blown away how good it was.

[00:04:23] Of course, as anybody who's pretty much read it usually is.

[00:04:27] And it was a good time.

[00:04:28] I read a lot of really interesting books there.

[00:04:30] The Communist Manifesto was in that library.

[00:04:33] H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds was in that library.

[00:04:36] There's a lot of books that I was like, I should read these books.

[00:04:39] And that was one that I got to read during that time.

[00:04:42] What about you, Joel?

[00:04:43] What do you remember from it?

[00:04:44] It's so funny that you publicly admit, man, I was supposed to be being an active physical fitness coach.

[00:04:53] But I just hid away in a library and read fifth grade books all day long.

[00:04:58] That's 100%.

[00:05:00] And I don't know shame.

[00:05:01] As soon as they had a different position open, I was like, can I please leave being a PE teacher and go do this?

[00:05:06] I was a third grade elementary teacher.

[00:05:08] I did much better with the homeroom being in the actual room with the students teaching them.

[00:05:12] And they replaced me with a former NBA basketball player that they had on the line.

[00:05:17] So he was much better at PE and much more loved at it.

[00:05:20] And I was much better in the homeroom.

[00:05:22] So we got where we needed to go.

[00:05:23] But yeah, the fact that my most memorable moments from being a PE teacher was reading books in the library probably tells you I was not the guy for the job.

[00:05:31] Yeah, I feel like that.

[00:05:32] And that's like for our listeners a pretty good picture portrait of who Troy is.

[00:05:37] Of the big Troy is.

[00:05:39] I mean of both of us.

[00:05:41] Man, when we were at Bible college and we would intentionally, because we were also goofy people, crash sports, watching events, just for fun, just for something to do.

[00:05:52] People really hated us.

[00:05:53] They did not want us there because they knew we didn't know what was going on and that we didn't care and that we weren't taking it seriously.

[00:05:59] But boy, were we having a blast.

[00:06:01] And to be fair, maybe we all need to quit taking it so seriously.

[00:06:05] That is one thing I'm like, yeah, guys, come on.

[00:06:07] It's a game.

[00:06:08] Let's have fun right now.

[00:06:09] These are not games for fun.

[00:06:10] These are games for winning and for scoring and for the pride of our tiny Bible college.

[00:06:15] And that's, you know, all righty.

[00:06:17] I remember when they won.

[00:06:19] And to any of our friends from that era, great.

[00:06:22] I'm so glad we won.

[00:06:23] But they were like, we're the national champions of this league conference.

[00:06:27] But we were so low on the conference.

[00:06:29] I remember one of my friends being like, yeah, we're national champions of like five other schools that played.

[00:06:34] But sure.

[00:06:35] It counts.

[00:06:36] Hey, a win is a win is a win.

[00:06:38] The Pilgrim's Rest, obviously.

[00:06:42] Why do I keep saying Pilgrim's Progress?

[00:06:47] If you haven't put it together or if you didn't realize is the John Bunyan's, the subject of today's episode.

[00:06:53] It's probably his most famous work of writing, which is a fictional allegorical tale that has stood the test of time and is still quite prevalent today.

[00:07:05] It's funny you mentioned that.

[00:07:06] You didn't tell the audience when you read it.

[00:07:08] When did you remember?

[00:07:09] I'm getting there.

[00:07:10] I'm getting there.

[00:07:11] Sorry.

[00:07:12] I'm guessing that it was in a library full of books that had no business being read by fifth graders, because I think it was literally probably fifth grade that we read Pilgrim's Progress for the first time.

[00:07:23] I will say as a fifth grader, a lot of it went over my head.

[00:07:27] I was pretty confused and bored with a lot of maybe fifth grade or maybe I was just a dumb fifth grader or maybe we need to wait a couple years.

[00:07:37] Maybe it's more of a junior high book than a fifth grader book.

[00:07:40] I don't know.

[00:07:41] I will put some shame on you.

[00:07:42] My daughter who is in third grade, she read it to us as a family night reading about a month ago and she loved it.

[00:07:50] She could not get enough of it.

[00:07:51] Two things.

[00:07:52] Two things to that.

[00:07:53] First of all, it's funny you mentioned because now that I'm saying this actually out loud, we have a three year old and my wife has actually been reading a version of Pilgrim's Progress to him and he's been loving it too.

[00:08:03] But those are almost certainly like abridged versions, right?

[00:08:08] Those are not the original Bunyan.

[00:08:10] These are rewritten for children and like really cut down.

[00:08:15] We were reading the OG Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress, which I am.

[00:08:19] In the KJV.

[00:08:21] Yeah, literally in the KJV and not a, I mean again, maybe other fifth graders were much more intellectually with it.

[00:08:31] It was a tough read for me.

[00:08:34] If you're a fifth grade teacher and you're thinking about reading that for your class, maybe consider doing a child's version of it.

[00:08:41] Troy, do we got some positive feedback to talk about?

[00:08:45] We do.

[00:08:46] So specifically I wanted to give a guy named Plez a shout out.

[00:08:50] Plez has been going through our Spotify.

[00:08:53] He left multiple comments, which I love.

[00:08:55] I chose two of them.

[00:08:57] One was from eight days ago.

[00:09:00] It was on a recent episode where we talked about John McGowan, who did a satirical sermon that we highlighted.

[00:09:06] And again, these comments are on Spotify.

[00:09:08] So if you're listening over there, leave us a comment.

[00:09:10] He said, very interesting episode.

[00:09:12] I definitely think the satire has its place and this is probably a good use of it.

[00:09:15] Also, Troy, are you really 6'3"?

[00:09:18] Joel, am I really as tall as I'm saying that I am?

[00:09:20] He's a giant.

[00:09:21] You guys don't understand.

[00:09:22] When we're talking about, imagine a 6'3".

[00:09:25] I mean, and again, not a fat person, but like a large person sitting in a life-

[00:09:31] That maybe sounds so fat.

[00:09:33] Not a little fat, just large.

[00:09:37] I'm trying to think of what sport person would have your build.

[00:09:42] A broad shouldered.

[00:09:43] You're a broad shouldered 6'3 person.

[00:09:46] He's huge.

[00:09:47] And I am a 5'10", very slender person.

[00:09:51] So we look quite comical standing side by side.

[00:09:54] But he's huge and he's quite goofy.

[00:09:58] I'm sure you've gotten some of his character through the podcast, but it's quite an entertaining.

[00:10:05] When he shows up at a party, when Troy shows up at a party, you know you're going to be entertained.

[00:10:10] You don't know.

[00:10:12] Entertainment means different things to different people, but it's going to be a good time.

[00:10:16] I've never felt more backhanded compliments, but I do like the use of the word goofy.

[00:10:21] Because I do feel like living in Asia where the country is designed for people that are at least significantly shorter than me,

[00:10:28] I do sometimes feel like goofy sitting on chairs or trying to duck under things that are taller than me.

[00:10:33] And I do occasionally still hit my head, although I've gotten a lot better.

[00:10:37] But just being constantly aware of it.

[00:10:40] But even the other day I was going somewhere and I hit my head on the way up the stairs.

[00:10:43] And I looked around and one of my students saw me.

[00:10:45] I was like, I saw it. I was like, dang. I was so close.

[00:10:48] So yes, I am 6'3". For the rest of the audience that's interesting.

[00:10:52] The other comment that he left was, so he went way back on some of our episodes.

[00:10:55] He said, going back into the Disney vault to listen to the OGs, that is original ones.

[00:11:02] I think it's original gangster was the original OG is what it means.

[00:11:05] But in this case he's referring not to our gangster podcast but to our original episodes.

[00:11:10] I left off last time doing this.

[00:11:11] I noticed y'all definitely sound way more confident in the recent episodes.

[00:11:14] I appreciate that.

[00:11:15] Plus, I do really, we do encourage you if you are listening to the show

[00:11:19] and you've just jumped in the past couple of months or weeks or you know, your recent.

[00:11:22] We've got five years worth of content, 250 plus episodes.

[00:11:26] And so many of the sermon, like so much of the church history builds on itself

[00:11:30] where you learn more and learn more of the first.

[00:11:32] So go back and listen.

[00:11:33] Some of those are early sermons are some of the best we'll probably ever do.

[00:11:37] In fact, at the same time though, I do think we have gotten more in our zone of how to do this.

[00:11:42] When we first started, we genuinely, nobody was doing this and no,

[00:11:46] we had no idea what we were doing.

[00:11:47] And it felt like it was something that someone smarter

[00:11:50] and with a bigger organization should have been doing,

[00:11:52] but we jumped on it because we were the only ones.

[00:11:54] And we've seen other copycats try to do it,

[00:11:56] but here we are still going strong five years and no one else really is in this,

[00:12:00] this area of taking sermons of the past and having different people read them and all of that.

[00:12:05] And I think it's just, it's a unique thing that we get to do.

[00:12:07] I do love it, but I do, I do think we have gotten more skilled at it as we go.

[00:12:12] Also wanted to give a little shout out to Ellen on Patreon.

[00:12:17] And the reason I wanted to is because in that last episode,

[00:12:19] my most recent episode that would be in your feet at this point would be the Robert Breckenridge.

[00:12:25] And we said in that episode, we said, Hey,

[00:12:26] do you know who Breckenridge was related to?

[00:12:28] I'm not going to spoil it if you haven't listened yet,

[00:12:30] but Ellen not only knew, but the way she put it on Patreon was kind of like,

[00:12:34] not only did I know, but did anyone not know?

[00:12:36] And I was like, man, I, Ellen, you were way ahead of the curve on that.

[00:12:39] I do think there were people who did not know who Breckenridge was related to.

[00:12:43] If you're not sure who we're talking about or who he was related to,

[00:12:46] well, you need to go back an episode,

[00:12:47] hit download and listen to that after you're done here with Jon Bunyan.

[00:12:51] All right, Joel, take it away.

[00:12:52] I apologize, Joey, this is going to be such a long episode.

[00:12:55] We've already rambled for who knows how long,

[00:12:57] and it's already a long episode to begin with.

[00:12:59] So I apologize in advance, but stick around.

[00:13:01] I think it's going to be a good one.

[00:13:02] I think it's going to be a solid episode.

[00:13:04] It's a great sermon.

[00:13:05] He's got, Jon Bunyan has a great life.

[00:13:07] Now there's, we have done Jon Bunyan before,

[00:13:09] and it was in the very first year of our show.

[00:13:12] And there's a reason Jon Bunyan has not shown up again.

[00:13:15] It's not because I don't love his story.

[00:13:16] It's not because I don't love who he is or we're out of fresh ideas.

[00:13:19] It's because his sermons are so long.

[00:13:23] Even this sermon you're going to listen to is long.

[00:13:27] And it's very much, I mean,

[00:13:28] there have been parts that have been taken out just for the sake of time.

[00:13:32] He's a long-witted man.

[00:13:34] He actually has one of my favorite lines in all of church history sermon editing ever,

[00:13:38] which is one time I looked at a sermon of his,

[00:13:40] and it was like 120 pages.

[00:13:43] And to give you an idea, our long episodes are usually 40 pages.

[00:13:46] So this was three times it.

[00:13:48] And the very last line of the sermon was,

[00:13:51] and I just, it killed me, was,

[00:13:53] I've only been able to briefly discuss these subjects in brevity on this point today.

[00:13:57] Forgive me.

[00:13:58] I was like, 120 page sermon and he ends with like,

[00:14:01] I barely got in there.

[00:14:02] And I'm like, that is, that sums up Jon Bunyan to me.

[00:14:05] And that's also why Jon Bunyan can't be on the show more because he's a wonderful writer,

[00:14:10] but he goes a while.

[00:14:12] Well said, Troy.

[00:14:15] Well summarized the man Jon Bunyan as a long-winded preacher born in the year 1628-ish.

[00:14:22] Somewhere in that area, we're sure.

[00:14:24] In England, at one point his father,

[00:14:27] and this is important because he himself would actually take up the family trait,

[00:14:32] was what's called a tinker.

[00:14:34] And a tinker is someone who mends clothes and fixes pots who fixes stuff.

[00:14:39] I'm assuming it's where we get the term tinkerer from,

[00:14:41] like someone that kind of just understands how to fix things,

[00:14:45] can mess with it and fix things.

[00:14:48] That's a stretch, Joel.

[00:14:49] I don't know.

[00:14:50] I mean, can you really make that leap from tinker to tinker?

[00:14:52] I'm calling it here now.

[00:14:54] As a linguistics expert, that's certainly the correlation for sure.

[00:14:59] Jon Bunyan said in his autobiography,

[00:15:02] Grace abounds to chief sinners that came from the lowest and most despised family of humble nature.

[00:15:09] He said this, but we do have records of like his father owning land.

[00:15:13] So that might be like a perspective.

[00:15:16] He couldn't be like super impoverished.

[00:15:18] He was somewhere on the status symbol as far as his family owning land.

[00:15:23] Maybe he was just surrounded by even more rich people,

[00:15:26] and so he was the poorest of all the rich people he was around.

[00:15:29] We don't know too much about his childhood.

[00:15:32] He got some education, but not enough to make a super huge career

[00:15:36] because, again, he did end up going down the tinker line like his father and fixing stuff,

[00:15:41] which I think is a fine, cool profession.

[00:15:43] You know, it's funny.

[00:15:44] The more we talk about it, the more it's kind of like,

[00:15:46] it would be kind of cool if one of you two were like, I'm a tinker.

[00:15:48] Do you got anything at the house you need me to fix?

[00:15:51] We don't really have a job.

[00:15:53] Back in that day when you can't replace stuff,

[00:15:56] like something breaks, you got to figure out how to fix it.

[00:15:59] And if you don't understand how to fix it,

[00:16:01] take it to the guy that's going to study it and figure out how to fix it.

[00:16:04] It's an interesting, like today the closest to that I feel like feels like a handyman,

[00:16:09] but he would have sewn patches.

[00:16:11] He would have fixed, you know,

[00:16:13] it would have been a very broad person of what his skill set would be.

[00:16:17] Yeah, I imagine, yeah, like tools in the kitchen, you know, that break or, I don't know.

[00:16:24] Yeah, maybe like a handyman, like fixing gates or doors or things like that.

[00:16:27] Yeah, specifically pots.

[00:16:29] I read that he would like if a pot broke, cracked,

[00:16:32] you'd get the tinker to kind of put it together.

[00:16:34] I wonder if he just had the tools on hand that no one else, you know,

[00:16:37] in town would have had just all those particular tools together.

[00:16:40] Anyway, we're on the tinker longer,

[00:16:42] but it was just, I feel like books could be written about like, you know,

[00:16:45] adventures and there's a tinker or something, you know what I'm saying?

[00:16:47] Like it just seems like that kind of a guy.

[00:16:49] Yeah, yeah, that's a movie making for sure.

[00:16:52] He learned sewing from his father and he passed his time quite a bit reading these little,

[00:16:58] I don't know, novel isn't maybe the most accurate word,

[00:17:01] little stories that were written in these one page kind of disposable things.

[00:17:06] They're called chapbooks, chapbooks, C-H-A-P, chapbooks.

[00:17:09] There are pieces of paper that had short stories written on them

[00:17:12] and they were usually folded up real tight and kind of circulated and distributed.

[00:17:18] Imagine that day's version of a podcast.

[00:17:21] Maybe that's kind of a good thing.

[00:17:23] They were streamlined, they were meant to, you know, kind of be disposable.

[00:17:28] You go through them and then you wait for the next one to come out.

[00:17:32] Because they were, again, single use little stories like that,

[00:17:38] there aren't really a whole lot of them around.

[00:17:41] They were reused as wrapping paper, they were used as toilet paper.

[00:17:44] Very few of them survived.

[00:17:46] There was a collector that put a lot of work into preserving these in that era named Samuel Pepys

[00:17:54] and it's only because of him that we really know what these things looked like.

[00:17:58] And if that name sounds semi-familiar, Samuel Pepys, we've talked about him before.

[00:18:04] He was an eyewitness account to the London Fire in our London Fire episode.

[00:18:09] He was kind of like a historian that would write stuff down

[00:18:12] and apparently collect chapbooks for historical preservation.

[00:18:17] So, the more you know.

[00:18:19] Once you get into the 1600s historical figures and preservation, that's riveting stuff.

[00:18:26] I mean, I will say there used to be a time when the 1600s in England

[00:18:29] was like the scariest subject to talk about because of the English Civil War and all of that.

[00:18:33] And now I'm like, look at this, this is Samuel Pepys.

[00:18:35] I remember him, he's from the London Fire episode.

[00:18:37] That's our guy. We're starting to get connected.

[00:18:40] And Jill, you talked about me at a party.

[00:18:43] I mean, there's not a party I won't go to where I won't start with,

[00:18:46] do you know who had the biggest collection of chapbooks from the 1600s?

[00:18:50] Well, Samuel Pepys for sure.

[00:18:53] Yeah, soon we're going to be just quoting from them left and right.

[00:18:56] It's just going to be second nature to us.

[00:18:58] As a kid, Bunyan had these terrible, terrible nightmares.

[00:19:02] And tragedy, sadly, did befall him when he was 16.

[00:19:06] Both his mother and his sister died in the same summer.

[00:19:09] And he enlisted in the army to get away from it all.

[00:19:13] Now, when he enlisted in the army, this was during the English Civil War

[00:19:16] that we just mentioned that went on from 1642 to 1651.

[00:19:20] He joined the parliamentary side of that army.

[00:19:23] It was fighting against the king for the parliament.

[00:19:26] England was going through a civil war not completely dissimilar

[00:19:30] from the American Civil War where one country was warring against the other.

[00:19:33] But in America, the civil war was divided on north and south.

[00:19:37] In this case, the civil war was divided with some geographical stuff for sure.

[00:19:42] But it was more the parliament was going against the king

[00:19:45] and overthrowing the king during this time.

[00:19:49] Now, it's not just that.

[00:19:50] There's also issues going on with Scotland and Ireland at the time.

[00:19:53] And a lot of this is having to kind of build off of

[00:19:56] the Protestant Reformation movement of who's going to be in charge of England's religion,

[00:20:02] although that is not the only aspect of it either.

[00:20:06] What we need to know though is that Bunyan was on the side of the parliament

[00:20:09] and he was a soldier in war.

[00:20:11] And he actually had one incident where he came very close to death.

[00:20:14] He said,

[00:20:26] Now, I couldn't fully understand why getting his room caused him to go to the siege

[00:20:37] and end up on guard duty and die in a way that John didn't.

[00:20:40] But I mean, the clear point of the story is John, you know, was nearly killed as a guard.

[00:20:46] But this other guy, you know, taking his place not knowing that he was going to be killed because of it.

[00:20:52] This being a soldier brought out the worst in him.

[00:20:55] And remember, he joined the war right after his mom and his sister died.

[00:20:59] So he wasn't going into this necessarily in a good place to begin with.

[00:21:02] He almost loses his life.

[00:21:04] And he gets into all kinds of sin and trouble,

[00:21:06] the kind of things that you imagine soldiers going off to war doing,

[00:21:09] gambling, drinking, all that kind of stuff.

[00:21:12] So that until it came to the state of marriage, he said,

[00:21:14] Now, he says he spent three years in the army just doing all these terrible,

[00:21:23] you know, ruffian kind of things.

[00:21:25] And then when he came back home, he became this ringleader of all the other kids.

[00:21:29] He basically brought all the bad habits he'd learned out on the field

[00:21:33] and brought them to the children, not the children, but the young people of his age.

[00:21:37] He was the guy introducing them.

[00:21:39] In the modern way, he'd be the guy introducing you how to smoke or something.

[00:21:42] He's the guy who's teaching all the young guys what they shouldn't be doing.

[00:21:46] And in 1647, he kind of went back home thinking,

[00:21:50] I will take over the family trade.

[00:21:52] I'll become a tinkerer.

[00:21:53] You know, I'm done with war.

[00:21:55] But his dad had remarried and had had more children not long after John left.

[00:21:59] And it seemed like maybe his dad had either formed other plans,

[00:22:02] maybe planning other kids to take over the job,

[00:22:04] or John just didn't want to be there with a new wife where his mother was

[00:22:08] and, you know, new kids all around.

[00:22:10] I don't know, but either way, he wasn't there very long.

[00:22:12] Very quickly, he heads out.

[00:22:14] And right afterwards, he gets married to a woman whom we don't know much about her

[00:22:18] other than she was a pious, God-fearing woman who wanted to go to church,

[00:22:21] who for some reason married John.

[00:22:24] I'm not quite sure what was going on there.

[00:22:26] She seemed like a nice – everything – from every account by John,

[00:22:29] she's a wonderful woman.

[00:22:31] It does beg the question why she married, you know,

[00:22:33] a guy who was up to so much no good.

[00:22:35] They have – now, you might be wondering why I don't say her name.

[00:22:38] The answer is he never wrote her name down.

[00:22:40] So we don't know what her name actually is.

[00:22:43] In his autobiography, he mentions marrying this wonderful woman

[00:22:46] and having children with her and the life they had together.

[00:22:49] He doesn't actually give us her name, so we don't have a record of it.

[00:22:52] Remember, though, this is a guy whose birthday is actually –

[00:22:54] we said it was 1628, but we actually don't know when his birthday is

[00:22:57] because the records of that were not kept either.

[00:23:00] So part of it is the age when he was born in England,

[00:23:02] records were not being kept very well.

[00:23:04] Now, they do have three children, and the first of them, Mary,

[00:23:08] the first one born, Mary, was born in 1650,

[00:23:11] and she was actually born blind.

[00:23:14] And this is really difficult for them because they are living at a time

[00:23:19] when being born blind is not easy.

[00:23:23] They don't have Braille.

[00:23:24] They don't have – you know, they understand obviously what a blind person is.

[00:23:27] They're not – you know, sometimes we treat people from the past like they're dumb.

[00:23:30] It's nothing like that.

[00:23:31] They know what a blind person is, of course,

[00:23:34] but they don't have a very clear cut way to do that.

[00:23:38] By the way, I apologize.

[00:23:39] I misspoke when I said they had three children.

[00:23:41] They had three more children.

[00:23:42] The first one – there was four.

[00:23:44] The first one was born blind, and then they had three more children.

[00:23:46] So it's four children total.

[00:23:48] But imagine being poor, and he said they were so poor that between him

[00:23:52] and his wife they could not own both a spoon and a dish.

[00:23:56] So that's – I mean, about as poor as you can imagine getting married,

[00:23:59] and then your first child you have is going to need all this extra attention,

[00:24:02] all this extra help.

[00:24:03] It's a very difficult situation they're in.

[00:24:05] They start going to church, though,

[00:24:07] and slowly he begins to get a conviction of his sins.

[00:24:10] One experience that really stood out to him was that the pastor of their town

[00:24:13] preached against Sabbath breaking, and he just felt like God was speaking to him

[00:24:17] through that sermon.

[00:24:18] Later on that day he was playing some gambling kind of games with his friends,

[00:24:21] and he felt like this horrible conviction that Christ was speaking directly to him

[00:24:25] that day and saying,

[00:24:27] Will you leave your sins and go to heaven, or will you keep these sins

[00:24:29] and go instead to hell?

[00:24:31] And he just felt like that was such a strong moment where he really said,

[00:24:36] I feel – I heard God's voice ask that question to me when I was playing games

[00:24:40] with my friends after church later on.

[00:24:42] And this begins a part of his life where he starts to struggle spiritually,

[00:24:46] and I would also say mentally.

[00:24:48] He developed severe paranoia during this time.

[00:24:51] For example, he used to love to go to the church steeple,

[00:24:53] and he'd ring the bell as he kind of came in or something like that.

[00:24:56] But he started to get so paranoid that the bell would fall for some reason

[00:25:00] every time he would ring it,

[00:25:02] that he actually didn't want to even go near the steeple.

[00:25:05] He wouldn't even enter the area of the church with the steeple anymore

[00:25:08] because he was so concerned that the steeple bell would fall on him.

[00:25:11] And he had episodes of depression and manicness and severe –

[00:25:15] some people have said maybe a severe OCD,

[00:25:17] but there was a lot going on in his life emotionally and mentally,

[00:25:21] and I think this was because of the spiritual – I don't know for sure,

[00:25:25] but I think it was because of the spiritual battle he was having.

[00:25:27] He was wrestling with how do I become a Christian, should I become a Christian,

[00:25:31] and it seemed like all these things were being kind of flooded into his life at the same time.

[00:25:35] Yeah, I mean looking back on his life,

[00:25:37] he describes this time as looking like everyone else in the church-going viewpoint.

[00:25:44] He would go to church, but he says, quote,

[00:25:47] coming to the town of morality, meaning that he was – he didn't really believe it.

[00:25:53] He was going there to be a nice person, to pretend to be a nice person.

[00:25:58] He was visiting the town of morality until he would go back home.

[00:26:02] He realized this one day, and I love this little vignette here.

[00:26:05] He was working at someone's house as a tinkerer,

[00:26:08] maybe repairing some pans or pots that were in this lady's house,

[00:26:13] and the homeowner had her friends over.

[00:26:15] There were four women around the table, and they were discussing things of God,

[00:26:20] and he was taken back by the joy that they had conversing about God,

[00:26:27] and he realized that he could not relate to that at all.

[00:26:30] So, he began searching out for Christ during this time,

[00:26:34] and again, he's kind of anxious. He's stressed out.

[00:26:38] He later in his life describes these as very panic-inducing sessions of prayer to God.

[00:26:45] He describes it as – in this way, he says, quote,

[00:26:48] In prayer I've been greatly troubled at this time.

[00:26:51] Sometimes I have felt the devil behind me, pulling my clothes.

[00:26:55] He would also be continually at me about the time of prayer,

[00:26:59] to have done, to break off, make haste.

[00:27:01] You have prayed enough and stay no longer, still drawing my mind away.

[00:27:06] Sometimes also he would cast in such wicked thoughts as these

[00:27:10] that I must pray to him or for him.

[00:27:13] Then was I most distressed with blasphemies.

[00:27:16] If I have been hearing the word, then uncleanliness,

[00:27:19] blasphemies, and despair would hold me as captive there.

[00:27:23] Sometimes, again, my mind would be so strong,

[00:27:26] snatched away as possessed with other things.

[00:27:29] So, yeah, someone that's a little bit tormented,

[00:27:33] you know, claims that the devil is tempting him to pray to the devil

[00:27:39] or for the devil during his time praying to God.

[00:27:42] Sounds like a rough era of life, and to further sadden things,

[00:27:49] his wife would also pass away kind of during this era of spiritual struggle.

[00:27:54] He would eventually remarry a woman named Elizabeth,

[00:27:58] and they set out on a life of ministry together.

[00:28:03] He would eventually become a Baptist minister.

[00:28:05] But in the year 1660, England began passing laws

[00:28:08] to bring the church under the government's control.

[00:28:10] This is covered by us in the London Fire episode.

[00:28:13] If you have not listened to it, that's our second time shouting it out.

[00:28:16] So we're not going to go into this deep explanation of what was going on there.

[00:28:19] Bunyan was very poor, and he had only recently remarried,

[00:28:22] but he continued to preach about Christ, and he was arrested for it.

[00:28:25] He was sentenced to 12 years in jail for preaching outside the government's state-ordained preaching.

[00:28:30] This was especially hard on Elizabeth, his new wife.

[00:28:33] She had been pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn during this time,

[00:28:36] and her husband was now in jail, and she was left to raise her four stepchildren,

[00:28:40] one of which is Mary, who is blind, with very little money from her imprisoned husband.

[00:28:45] Many people who were friends or followers of John's had to help them out a lot.

[00:28:48] He could earn a tiny amount of money in the prison,

[00:28:51] and he would do everything he could to earn a little bit of stuff,

[00:28:54] but it was just not very much.

[00:28:55] And imagine you've been married to a man for, I think about at this point, two years.

[00:28:59] Your spouse is now in jail, and you're left to raise the family,

[00:29:06] the four children, for the next 12 years.

[00:29:09] I mean, just imagining how difficult that would be if you're the husband.

[00:29:13] Imagine having to leave your wife in that situation, everything about it.

[00:29:16] Extremely hard.

[00:29:18] John was at this time offered a release.

[00:29:21] They had asked him multiple times,

[00:29:23] If you promise not to preach Christ, we will let you go.

[00:29:27] Famously he once said,

[00:29:29] Is the rule that if I preach Christ, he'll still put me back in jail?

[00:29:32] And they said yes, and he said,

[00:29:34] Then there's no point, gentlemen, in letting me out of jail.

[00:29:36] You will only have to put me back in here tomorrow.

[00:29:39] He had another quote from this time, though.

[00:29:40] He said, Oh, I saw in this condition,

[00:29:42] I was a man who was pulling down his own house upon the head of his wife and his children.

[00:29:46] Yet I thought, I must do it.

[00:29:48] I must do it.

[00:29:49] And that's, again, just the emotional pain that you would have to go through to do that.

[00:29:54] I can't imagine it.

[00:29:56] On the other side of it, at different times, the prison could be lenient.

[00:29:59] There were even times when they would let him out,

[00:30:01] and he could go visit his wife and spend time out and just kind of come back by nighttime.

[00:30:04] He was even at one point preaching on Sundays and going back to the jail.

[00:30:08] But then there were other times where they were very,

[00:30:10] they were very strict and they wouldn't let him out.

[00:30:12] And it just kind of depend on who was running the jail at each time.

[00:30:14] But it was in this prison that he would end up writing the book that became the bestseller of that century

[00:30:19] and one of the bestsellers of all human history.

[00:30:22] And that was the book we mentioned earlier, Pilgrim's Progress, not Pilgrim's Rest.

[00:30:26] Joel, take it away.

[00:30:27] Yeah, he'd write this down on scraps of paper over time.

[00:30:31] He poured his heart into this story, this allegorical tale of faith.

[00:30:37] And he actually made very little money off of it.

[00:30:40] He sold the rights to a publisher for dirt cheap.

[00:30:43] But it would go on to sell 250 million copies

[00:30:49] and is certainly in the top 10.

[00:30:51] Some lists have it in the top two books, bestselling books of all time.

[00:30:56] Even today, it sells amazingly well.

[00:30:58] When China released the version of Pilgrim's Progress

[00:31:01] as part of their Western cultural heritage book collection,

[00:31:05] it sold out in three days.

[00:31:07] Which by the way, to me, I remember sitting in the coffee shop and I looked over

[00:31:10] and it's one thing to have a Pilgrim's Progress in a school, it's Christian.

[00:31:15] It was another thing to look over at a coffee shop

[00:31:17] and just see like, you know, right next to all these fancy books, Pilgrim's Progress.

[00:31:20] And I was like, do they know what they have over there on the shelves?

[00:31:23] If you don't know, China is very suppressing of the Christian faith.

[00:31:27] And I was in shock that that book was even present and could be

[00:31:31] because it is so out there and in the open about Christianity.

[00:31:35] Yeah, yeah.

[00:31:36] Well, when it's a part of a Western cultural heritage book collection,

[00:31:39] you can get away with it.

[00:31:44] Ah, the sizzle of McDonald's sausage.

[00:31:49] It's enough to make you crave your favorite breakfast.

[00:31:53] Enough to head over to McDonald's.

[00:31:55] Enough to make you really wish this commercial were scratch and sniff.

[00:32:01] And if you're a sausage person, now get two satisfyingly savory sausage McGriddles,

[00:32:05] sausage biscuits or sausage burritos for just $3.33 or mix and match.

[00:32:10] Price and participation may vary, cannot be combined with any other offer

[00:32:12] or combo meal, single item at regular price.

[00:32:16] Ah, the sizzle of McDonald's sausage.

[00:32:20] It's enough to make you crave your favorite breakfast.

[00:32:23] Enough to head over to McDonald's.

[00:32:26] Enough to make you really wish this commercial were scratch and sniff.

[00:32:31] And if you're a sausage person, now get two satisfyingly savory sausage McGriddles,

[00:32:35] sausage biscuits or sausage burritos for just $3.33 or mix and match.

[00:32:40] Price and participation may vary, cannot be combined with any other offer

[00:32:42] or combo meal, single item at regular price.

[00:32:50] After he was let out from jail, he went back to preaching.

[00:32:53] He was allowed to do so at that time.

[00:32:55] And while he had never been educated formally, he didn't know Greek or Hebrew,

[00:33:00] he was an amazing preacher and he knew how to talk and captivate the hearts of the people.

[00:33:05] He also wrote other books like Grace Abounding to the Chiefest of Sinners,

[00:33:09] which is his autobiography, and a book called The Holy War,

[00:33:12] which was another allegorical Christian story about spiritual life.

[00:33:17] As a pastor, he was really beloved.

[00:33:21] Many of his sermons were published after he died.

[00:33:24] The famous theologian John Owen loved John Bunyan and would often go to hear him preach.

[00:33:31] And when King Charles himself asked John Owen,

[00:33:36] why would a great scholar like you want to hear an uneducated tinkerer preach?

[00:33:41] John Owen is said to have replied,

[00:33:43] I would willingly exchange my learning for the tinkerer's power to touch men's hearts.

[00:34:02] Luke 16, 1931

[00:34:11] The scripture we view today was spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ

[00:34:16] to show you the state of the godly and ungodly at the world's end.

[00:34:20] Now in my discussion upon these words, I will not be tedious,

[00:34:23] but as briefly as I may, I will pass through the several verses

[00:34:27] and lay you down some of the several truths found.

[00:34:30] And the Lord grants that they may be profitable

[00:34:33] and of great advantage to those that hear them.

[00:34:35] The 19th, 20th, and 21st verses run so,

[00:34:39] There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen

[00:34:44] and fared deliciously or sumptuously every day.

[00:34:48] And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores.

[00:34:54] First, if these verses had been spoken by Jesus Christ and nothing more,

[00:34:59] all the world would have likely gotten the wrong interpretation of them.

[00:35:03] I say, if Jesus had said only this much,

[00:35:07] There was a certain rich man which fared sumptuously daily

[00:35:11] and a certain beggar laid at his gate full of sores.

[00:35:14] The world would have made this conclusion of them

[00:35:17] The rich man was the happy man.

[00:35:19] But when we take it all together, that is, read the whole parable,

[00:35:23] and you find that there is no man in a worse condition than himself.

[00:35:27] If a man would judge men according to outward appearance,

[00:35:30] he will often make mistakes.

[00:35:32] Here is a man to outward appearance appears the only blessed man,

[00:35:36] better by half than the beggar,

[00:35:38] for he is rich, the beggar poor,

[00:35:41] he is well clothed, but the beggar is naked.

[00:35:44] He has good food, but the beggar would be glad to eat dog's food,

[00:35:48] and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

[00:35:53] The rich man eats well every day,

[00:35:56] but the beggar must be glad of a bit when he can get it.

[00:35:59] Oh, who would not be in the rich man's state,

[00:36:03] a wealthy man enjoying new suits and dainty dishes every day,

[00:36:08] enough to make one who cares for nothing but his belly

[00:36:11] and his back and his lusts to say,

[00:36:14] Oh, I wish that I was in that man's condition,

[00:36:17] Oh, that I had about me as that man has.

[00:36:20] Then I should live a life indeed, then I would rest easy,

[00:36:24] then I should live pleasantly,

[00:36:26] and might say to my soul,

[00:36:28] Soul, be of good cheer, eat, drink, and be merry.

[00:36:32] Luke 12 19

[00:36:34] But if the whole parable is understood you will see

[00:36:37] that things which are considered of high praise with men

[00:36:40] is an abomination in the sight of God,

[00:36:43] and see that the saddest condition according to outward appearance

[00:36:47] is oftentimes the most excellent.

[00:36:50] For the beggar had ten thousand degrees the best of it though,

[00:36:53] to outward appearance his state was the saddest.

[00:36:56] For as it is here in the parable,

[00:36:59] a man of wealth and a child of the devil may be the same person,

[00:37:03] and a man may have abundance of outward enjoyments

[00:37:06] and yet be carried by the devils into eternal burnings.

[00:37:10] But this is the trap in which the devil has caught many thousands of poor souls,

[00:37:15] namely, by getting them to judge according to outward appearance

[00:37:18] or according to God's outward blessings.

[00:37:21] Ask a poor, carnal, covetous wretch

[00:37:24] how we should know a man to be in a blessed state

[00:37:27] and he will answer those that God blesses

[00:37:30] and gives abundance of this world to.

[00:37:33] But for the most part, they are the cursed men.

[00:37:36] O poor men!

[00:37:38] They are so ignorant as to think that because a man is increased in outward things

[00:37:42] and that even by just a small amount,

[00:37:44] therefore God does love that man with a special love,

[00:37:48] or else he would never do so much for him

[00:37:50] and prosper the work of his hands.

[00:37:53] Ah, poor soul!

[00:37:54] It is the rich man that goes to hell,

[00:37:57] and the rich man died,

[00:37:58] and in hell he lifted up his eyes.

[00:38:01] If you have ever seen great men strut up and down the streets,

[00:38:05] it is a shocking sight.

[00:38:07] Surely they look upon themselves to be the only happy men,

[00:38:11] but it is because they judge according to outward appearances.

[00:38:15] They look upon themselves to be the only blessed men

[00:38:18] when the Lord knows that most of them are left out of that blessed condition.

[00:38:22] Not many wise men after the flesh,

[00:38:25] not many mighty,

[00:38:26] not many nobles are called.

[00:38:28] 1 Corinthians 1.26

[00:38:30] O, if only those that currently brag about their condition

[00:38:34] would hang their heads low and beg to have a Lazarus portion!

[00:38:38] I could go on, but I won't.

[00:38:40] Only this much more I will say to you rich,

[00:38:42] take care that you do not make your portion in this world,

[00:38:45] for in the next life you do not want to hear

[00:38:48] Remember in the world before you had your good things,

[00:38:52] And friend, you that seeks after this world and desires riches,

[00:38:56] let me ask this question.

[00:38:58] Would you be able to be happy if God kept you out of heaven?

[00:39:01] Would you be glad to be kept out of heaven with a back well clothed

[00:39:05] and a belly well filled with the dainties of this world?

[00:39:09] Would you still be glad to have all your good things in your lifetime,

[00:39:12] to have your heaven to last no longer than while you live in this world?

[00:39:16] Would you be willing to be deprived of eternal happiness and joy for it?

[00:39:21] If you say no, then start caring about your sins.

[00:39:25] Repent of desiring to be a rich man,

[00:39:28] before your table is made a snare to you.

[00:39:31] Psalm 19.22

[00:39:33] Before the wealth of this world bars you out of glory.

[00:39:37] For, as the Apostle says,

[00:39:39] they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare,

[00:39:44] and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,

[00:39:47] which drown men in destruction and perdition.

[00:39:50] Timothy 6.9

[00:39:52] These two men here spoken of, as I said,

[00:39:55] do hold out to us that state of the godly and ungodly.

[00:39:59] The beggar represents the godly, and the rich man the ungodly.

[00:40:03] There was a certain rich man.

[00:40:05] Had God not given us the discovery of the sad condition

[00:40:08] of those that are for the most part rich men,

[00:40:11] we should have had men conclude absolutely

[00:40:14] that the rich are the blessed men.

[00:40:17] No, despite that the Lord Himself does so evidently declare

[00:40:21] that the rich ones of the world are,

[00:40:23] for the most part in the saddest condition,

[00:40:26] yet many, through unbelief, harden themselves,

[00:40:29] and seek for the glory of this world,

[00:40:32] as though the Lord Jesus Christ did not mean what He said.

[00:40:35] Let them know that the Lord has a time to fulfill

[00:40:38] what He has declared, for the Scripture cannot be broken.

[00:40:42] But the Lord by this word does not mean

[00:40:44] those are ungodly who are rich in the world, and no other.

[00:40:48] This would be contrary to the word of God,

[00:40:51] which says that together with the kings of the earth,

[00:40:54] and the great men, and the chief captains,

[00:40:57] and the mighty men, there are bondmen or servants,

[00:41:00] and slaves, that cry out at the appearance of the Almighty God,

[00:41:04] and His Son Jesus Christ, to judgment.

[00:41:08] Revelation 6.15

[00:41:10] So that though Christ does say

[00:41:12] there was a certain rich man,

[00:41:14] yet you must understand He means all the ungodly, rich or poor.

[00:41:19] No, if you will not understand it now,

[00:41:21] you will be made to understand it on the day of Christ's second coming,

[00:41:24] when all that are ungodly will stand at the left hand of Christ,

[00:41:28] with pale faces and guilty consciences,

[00:41:30] with the vials of the Almighty's wrath ready to be poured out upon them.

[00:41:34] So much for briefly touching the 19th verse.

[00:41:37] I might have observed other things from it, but now I must stop.

[00:41:41] Having other things to speak of at this time.

[00:41:44] Verse 20

[00:41:46] And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,

[00:41:49] which was laid at his gate, full of sores.

[00:41:52] This verse chiefly shows us that the saints of God are a poor, contemptible people.

[00:41:57] There was a certain beggar,

[00:41:59] if you understand the word beggar meant outward poverty,

[00:42:02] or scarcity in outward things, such are saints of the Lord,

[00:42:06] for they are for the most part a poor, despised, contemptible people.

[00:42:11] And it is said, he was laid at his gate, full of sores.

[00:42:16] Notice he was laid at his gate, not in his house that was thought too good for him,

[00:42:21] but he was laid at his gate, full of sores.

[00:42:25] First we see that the ungodly world does not desire to entertain

[00:42:29] and receive the poor saints of God into their houses.

[00:42:33] If they must be somewhere nearby, yet they will not come into their houses.

[00:42:38] Leave them outside.

[00:42:40] If they need to be near us, let them be at the gate.

[00:42:43] And he was laid at his gate, full of sores.

[00:42:46] Secondly, observe that the world is not at all touched

[00:42:50] with the afflictions of God's children who are full of sores.

[00:42:54] A despised, afflicted, tempted, persecuted people the world does not pity.

[00:42:59] No, but rather they work to aggravate their trouble by leaving them outside.

[00:43:04] Sink or swim, does the world care?

[00:43:07] They are resolved to disown them.

[00:43:09] They will give them no entertainment.

[00:43:11] Verse 21

[00:43:13] And he desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

[00:43:17] The dogs came also and licked his sores.

[00:43:20] By these words our Lord Jesus shows us the frame of a Christian's heart

[00:43:24] and also the heart of worldly men towards the saints of the Lord.

[00:43:29] The Christian's heart is held by this,

[00:43:31] that anything will make him content while he is on this side of glory.

[00:43:36] And he desired to be fed with the crumbs.

[00:43:39] He would take the dog's meat, anything.

[00:43:41] I say a Christian will be content with anything if he has his life and soul together.

[00:43:47] He has learned if he has learned to be a Christian to be content with anything.

[00:43:51] As Paul says,

[00:43:53] I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.

[00:43:56] Philippians 4.11

[00:43:58] He learns in all conditions to study to love God,

[00:44:01] to walk with God, to give up himself to God.

[00:44:04] And if the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table will satisfy nature

[00:44:09] and give him bodily strength,

[00:44:11] that thereby he may be the more able to walk in the way of God,

[00:44:15] so he is content.

[00:44:17] And he desired to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table.

[00:44:22] But notice he did not have them.

[00:44:25] You do not find that he had so much as a crumb or a scrap allowed to him.

[00:44:30] No? Then the dogs will be lacking.

[00:44:33] That must be preserved for the dogs.

[00:44:36] From here we see that the ungodly world does love their dogs better than they love the children of God.

[00:44:42] You will say that is strange.

[00:44:44] It is, but it is also true, as will be clearly shown.

[00:44:48] For instance, how many pounds do some men spend in a year on their dogs,

[00:44:53] when at the same time the poor saints of God may be starving to death for hunger?

[00:44:58] They build houses for their dogs,

[00:45:00] when the saints must be forced to wander and lodge in dens and caves of the earth.

[00:45:05] Again, some men cannot go half a mile from home but they must have dogs at their heels,

[00:45:11] but they can very willingly go scores of miles without the society of a Christian.

[00:45:16] They will go on the other side of the road rather than have any society with them.

[00:45:21] And now tell me, you that love your sins and your pleasures,

[00:45:25] don't you prefer to keep company with a drunkard, a prostitute, a thief, even a dog,

[00:45:31] than with an honest-hearted Christian?

[00:45:33] For if the saints of God meet together, pray together, and labor to edify one another,

[00:45:39] you will stay till doomsday before you will look into the house where they are.

[00:45:44] Verse 22

[00:45:45] And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

[00:45:51] The rich man also died and was buried.

[00:45:54] Where he says,

[00:45:55] And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried into Abraham's bosom.

[00:46:00] And the rich man also died.

[00:46:02] The beggar died that represents the godly,

[00:46:05] and the rich man died that represents the ungodly.

[00:46:09] The good man died and the bad man died equally.

[00:46:12] For Scripture says,

[00:46:13] And it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment.

[00:46:19] Notice that he does not say it is so that men by chance may die,

[00:46:23] which might create, in the hearts of the ungodly especially,

[00:46:27] some hope to escape the bitterness of it.

[00:46:29] But he said it is a thing most certain, it is appointed.

[00:46:33] God has decreed it, that since men have fallen from that happy position

[00:46:38] that God at the first did set them in, they will die.

[00:46:41] Romans 6.23

[00:46:44] Now when it is said the beggar died and the rich man died,

[00:46:47] part of the meaning is they cease to be any more in this world.

[00:46:51] I say partly the meaning but not altogether.

[00:46:55] Although it is altogether the meaning when some of the creatures die,

[00:46:58] yet it is but in part the meaning when it is said that men, women or children die.

[00:47:04] For there is to them something else to be said, more than just going out of the world.

[00:47:09] It will be very terrible to them, namely the unsaved,

[00:47:13] to be carried by the angels of darkness from their deathbeds to hell,

[00:47:17] there to be reserved to the judgment of the great day,

[00:47:20] when both body and soul will meet and be united together again

[00:47:24] and made capable to undergo the uttermost vengeance of the Almighty for all eternity.

[00:47:30] Now if this one truth, that men must die and depart this world

[00:47:34] and either enter into joy or else into prison,

[00:47:37] to be reserved to the day of judgment, were believed,

[00:47:40] we should not have so many sinners walk up and down the streets as they do.

[00:47:45] Belshazzar, despite that he was so far from the fear of God as he was,

[00:47:50] yet when he did see that God was offended and threatened him for his wickedness,

[00:47:54] it made him hang down his head and knock his knees together.

[00:47:58] Daniel 5.5.6

[00:48:00] If you read the verses before you will find he was careless

[00:48:04] and satisfying his lusts in drinking and playing with his concubines.

[00:48:08] But as soon as he did perceive the finger of a handwriting,

[00:48:11] then, says the Scripture,

[00:48:13] the king's face was changed and his thoughts troubled him

[00:48:16] so that the joints of his loins were loose and his knees bumped one against another.

[00:48:21] And when Paul told Felix of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come,

[00:48:26] it made him tremble.

[00:48:27] And let me tell you, soul, whoever you are,

[00:48:29] that if you did truly believe that you must die and come into the judgment,

[00:48:33] it would make you turn over a new leaf.

[00:48:36] But this is the misery, the devil does work by all means

[00:48:39] to keep out other things that are good,

[00:48:41] so to keep out of the heart, as much as in him lies,

[00:48:44] the thoughts of passing from this life into another world.

[00:48:47] For he knows, if he can but keep them from the serious thoughts of death,

[00:48:51] he will even more easily keep them in their sins,

[00:48:54] and so from getting near to Jesus Christ.

[00:48:57] As Job says,

[00:48:59] Their houses are safe from fear,

[00:49:01] neither is the rod of God upon them,

[00:49:03] which makes them say to God,

[00:49:05] Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of your ways.

[00:49:09] Job 21 14

[00:49:11] Because there is no fear of death and judgment to come,

[00:49:14] therefore they do put off God and his ways

[00:49:17] and spend their days in their sins

[00:49:19] and in a moment that is before they are aware,

[00:49:22] go down to the grave. Job 21 17

[00:49:25] And so it went also with the man spoken of in Luke 12 20.

[00:49:29] The man, instead of thinking of death,

[00:49:32] he thought how he might make his barns bigger.

[00:49:35] But, in the midst of his business in the world,

[00:49:38] he lost his soul before he was aware,

[00:49:40] supposing that death had been many years off.

[00:49:43] But God said to him,

[00:49:45] You fool! You trouble yourself about things of this life,

[00:49:49] you put off the thoughts of departing this world,

[00:49:52] when this night your soul will be taken from you,

[00:49:55] or tonight they that is the devil

[00:49:57] will fetch away your soul from you.

[00:49:59] And here it comes to pass,

[00:50:01] men will not consider the thoughts of departing this life

[00:50:04] and are then so unexpectedly to themselves and their neighbors

[00:50:08] taken away from the pleasures and profits,

[00:50:10] yes and all the enjoyments they busy themselves with

[00:50:13] while they live in this world.

[00:50:15] And here it is again,

[00:50:17] that you have some in your towns and cities

[00:50:19] that are so suddenly taken away

[00:50:21] from haunting the ale-houses,

[00:50:24] others from haunting the whore-houses,

[00:50:26] others from playing and gambling,

[00:50:29] others from the cares and covetous desires after this world.

[00:50:33] For as I said before it is evident

[00:50:35] that they who live after the flesh and the lusts of it

[00:50:38] do not really and seriously think about death

[00:50:41] and the judgment that does follow it,

[00:50:43] neither do they indeed attempt to do so,

[00:50:46] for if they did it would make them say with holy Job

[00:50:49] all the days of my appointed time I will wait till my change comes.

[00:50:54] Job 14.14

[00:50:56] And as I said before,

[00:50:58] that not only the wicked but also the godly

[00:51:01] have their time to depart this life.

[00:51:04] And the beggar died.

[00:51:06] The saints of the Lord,

[00:51:07] they must be deprived of this life also,

[00:51:10] they must yield up the ghost into the hands of the Lord their God,

[00:51:14] they must also be separated from their wives,

[00:51:16] children, husbands, friends, goods

[00:51:19] and all that they have in the world.

[00:51:21] For God has decreed it,

[00:51:23] it is appointed namely by the Lord,

[00:51:25] for men once to die,

[00:51:26] and we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,

[00:51:29] as it is 2 Corinthians 5.10.11

[00:51:33] When the ungodly do die their misery begins,

[00:51:36] for then appear the devils,

[00:51:38] like so many lions,

[00:51:39] waiting every moment till the soul departs from the body.

[00:51:43] Sometimes they are very visible to the dying party,

[00:51:46] but sometimes more invisible.

[00:51:48] But this is certain,

[00:51:49] they will not miss any soul if it dies outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:51:53] But the godly when the time of their departure is at hand,

[00:51:56] then also are the angels of the Lord at hand.

[00:51:59] Yes they are ready waiting upon the soul

[00:52:01] to conduct it safely into Abraham's bosom.

[00:52:06] David had the comfort of this and speaks it out for the comfort of his brethren.

[00:52:10] Psalm 34.7 saying,

[00:52:12] The angel of the Lord encamps around them that fear him and delivers them.

[00:52:17] Notice, the angel of the Lord encamps around his children to deliver them.

[00:52:22] From what?

[00:52:23] From their enemies,

[00:52:24] of which the devil is not the least.

[00:52:26] This is an excellent comfort at any time

[00:52:29] to have the holy angels of God to attend a poor man or woman.

[00:52:33] But especially it is comfortable in the time of distress at the time of death,

[00:52:38] when the devils beset the soul with all the power that hell can afford them.

[00:52:42] But now it may be that the glorious angels of God have not appeared at first,

[00:52:47] at least in the view of the soul.

[00:52:50] No, rather hell stands before it,

[00:52:52] and the devils seem ready as if they would carry it there.

[00:52:56] But this is the comfort.

[00:52:58] The angels do always appear at the last

[00:53:01] and will not fail the soul,

[00:53:03] but will carry it safely into Abraham's bosom.

[00:53:07] Ah, friends, imagine it!

[00:53:10] There is an ungodly man upon his deathbed,

[00:53:13] and he has none to speak for him,

[00:53:15] none to speak comfort to him in those dying moments.

[00:53:19] But it is not so with the children of God,

[00:53:21] for they have the Spirit to comfort them.

[00:53:24] Here is the ungodly,

[00:53:26] and they have no Christ to pray for their safe conduct to glory.

[00:53:30] But the saints have an intercessor, John 17, 9.

[00:53:34] Here is the world.

[00:53:36] When they die, they have none of the angels of God to attend upon them.

[00:53:40] But the saints have their company.

[00:53:43] In a word, the unconverted person, when he dies,

[00:53:46] he sinks into the bottomless pit.

[00:53:49] But the saints, when they die,

[00:53:51] do ascend with and by the angels

[00:53:54] into Abraham's bosom or into unspeakable glory.

[00:53:57] Luke 23, 43.

[00:54:24] All these statements signify that to die a saint is very great honor and dignity.

[00:54:29] But the ungodly are not so.

[00:54:31] The rich or ungodly die and are buried.

[00:54:34] He is carried from his dwelling to the grave,

[00:54:36] and there he is buried, hid in the dust.

[00:54:39] And his body quickly molds and comes to nothing there.

[00:54:42] But his name does stand out.

[00:54:44] He is called Abraham,

[00:54:46] and he is called Abraham.

[00:54:48] He is called Abraham,

[00:54:50] and he is called Abraham.

[00:55:00] And indeed, the names of the godly are not in so much honor after their departure,

[00:55:05] but the wicked, and their names do as much rot.

[00:55:08] What a dishonor to posterity was the death of Balaam,

[00:55:11] Agag, Ahithophel, Haman, Judas, Herod,

[00:55:16] with the rest of their companions.

[00:55:18] Verse 23.

[00:55:19] And in hell he lifted up his eyes,

[00:55:22] being in torments and seeing Abraham afar off

[00:55:25] and Lazarus in his bosom.

[00:55:27] The former verse speaks only of the departure of the ungodly out of this life,

[00:55:32] together with the glorious conduct that the godly have into the kingdom of their father.

[00:55:37] Now our Lord does show in this verse

[00:55:39] partly what does and will befall to the reprobate after this life is ended,

[00:55:44] where He says,

[00:55:45] And in hell he lifted up his eyes.

[00:55:47] That is, the ungodly, after they depart this life,

[00:55:51] do lift up their eyes in hell.

[00:55:53] It is evident that there is a hell for souls, yes, and bodies too,

[00:55:58] to be tormented in after they depart this life,

[00:56:01] because the Lord Jesus Christ, that cannot lie,

[00:56:05] did say that after the sinner was dead and buried,

[00:56:08] in hell He lifted up His eyes.

[00:56:10] If it is objected that there is no hell but what is in this life,

[00:56:14] that I do also deny,

[00:56:16] after He was dead and buried,

[00:56:18] in hell He lifted up His eyes.

[00:56:20] And let me tell you, O soul, whoever you are,

[00:56:23] that if you close your eyes not saved by the Lord Jesus Christ,

[00:56:27] you will find such a hell after this life is ended

[00:56:30] that you will not get out of again for ever and ever.

[00:56:33] And you that are living in sin

[00:56:35] and do mock at the servants of the Lord

[00:56:37] when they tell you of the torments of hell,

[00:56:40] you will find that when you depart out of this life,

[00:56:43] that hell, even the hell which is after this life,

[00:56:46] will meet you in your journey there

[00:56:48] and will, with its hellish crew,

[00:56:50] give you such a sad greeting

[00:56:52] that you will not forget it to all eternity.

[00:56:55] When that Scripture comes to be fulfilled on your soul,

[00:56:58] in Isaiah 14 9 10,

[00:57:00] hell from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming,

[00:57:04] it stirs up the dead for you,

[00:57:06] even all the chief ones of the earth,

[00:57:08] it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations,

[00:57:11] all of them, that is, that are in hell, will say,

[00:57:14] Have you also become weak as we?

[00:57:17] Have you become like us?

[00:57:19] O sometimes when I have had thoughts of going to hell

[00:57:22] and consider the everlastingness of their ruin that fall in there,

[00:57:25] it stirs me up rather to seek to the Lord Jesus Christ

[00:57:29] to deliver me from there,

[00:57:31] never to slight it and mock at it.

[00:57:34] And in hell he lifted up his eyes.

[00:57:37] The second thing I told you was this,

[00:57:39] that all the ungodly that live and die in their sins,

[00:57:42] as soon as they depart this life, do descend into hell.

[00:57:46] This is also verified by the words in this parable,

[00:57:49] where Christ said he died and was buried,

[00:57:53] and in hell he lifted up his eyes.

[00:57:56] And as Christ said to the thief on the cross,

[00:57:59] Today you will be with me in paradise.

[00:58:02] Even so the devil in the like manner may say to your soul,

[00:58:06] Tomorrow you will be with me in hell.

[00:58:09] See then what a miserable case he that dies in an unregenerate state is in.

[00:58:14] He departs from a long sickness to a longer hell,

[00:58:18] from the gripings of death to the everlasting torments of hell.

[00:58:22] And in hell he lifted up his eyes.

[00:58:25] Ah friends, can't you see how insane they are

[00:58:29] that do not care about the salvation of their souls?

[00:58:32] O what will it profit your soul to have pleasure in this life

[00:58:35] and torments in hell?

[00:58:37] Mark 8.36

[00:58:38] You had better part with all your sins and pleasures and companions

[00:58:42] or whatsoever you delight in,

[00:58:44] before you have soul and body cast into hell.

[00:58:47] O then do not now neglect our Lord Jesus Christ,

[00:58:50] for fear you drop down to hell.

[00:58:52] Hebrews 2.3

[00:58:54] Consider, would it not wound you to your heart

[00:58:57] to come upon your deathbed,

[00:58:59] and instead of having the comfort of a well-spent life

[00:59:02] and the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ,

[00:59:04] together with the comforts of His glorious Spirit,

[00:59:07] to have first the sight of an ill-spent life,

[00:59:10] your sins flying in your face,

[00:59:12] your conscience uttering itself with thunderclaps against you,

[00:59:16] the thoughts of God terrifying of you,

[00:59:18] death with His merciless paw seizing upon you,

[00:59:21] the devil standing ready to scramble for your soul,

[00:59:24] and hell enlarging herself and ready to swallow you up,

[00:59:28] and an eternity of misery and torment attending upon you,

[00:59:31] from which there will be no release.

[00:59:34] I pray that you consider the Scripture,

[00:59:36] Revelation 6.8,

[00:59:38] And I looked and behold a pale horse,

[00:59:40] and his name that sat on him was Death,

[00:59:43] and hell followed with him.

[00:59:45] O miserable comforters! O miserable society!

[00:59:48] Here comes death and hell to you.

[00:59:50] Death goes into your body

[00:59:52] and separates body and soul asunder.

[00:59:55] Then your laughter, your joy,

[00:59:57] your sinful delights will be ended

[00:59:59] when this comes to pass.

[01:00:01] O and it will come!

[01:00:02] Blessed are all those that through Christ Jesus

[01:00:05] His merits by faith do escape these soul-murdering companions.

[01:00:10] And in hell He lifted up His eyes.

[01:00:13] The third thing you know that we did observe from these words was this,

[01:00:18] that some are so fast asleep and secure in their sins

[01:00:22] that they scarce know where they are until they come into hell.

[01:00:26] You see it was in hell that He lifted up His eyes.

[01:00:29] Now some do understand by these words that He came to Himself

[01:00:33] or began to consider with Himself

[01:00:35] or to think with Himself in what an estate He was

[01:00:38] and what He was deprived of.

[01:00:40] And so it fares with some men that they scarce know where they are

[01:00:44] till they lift up their eyes in hell.

[01:00:46] It is with those people as with those that fall and hit a rock.

[01:00:50] You know if a man does fall down all of a sudden in one room,

[01:00:54] though you take him up and carry him into another,

[01:00:57] yet he is not sensible where he is till he comes to himself

[01:01:00] and lifts up his eyes.

[01:01:02] Truly so it is to be feared.

[01:01:04] It is with many poor souls.

[01:01:06] They are so senseless, so hard, so seared in their conscience,

[01:01:11] 1 Timothy 4, 2, that they are very ignorant of their state.

[01:01:16] And when death comes it strikes them as if they had tripped,

[01:01:19] especially those who die suddenly.

[01:01:21] And so they are hurried away and scarce know where they are

[01:01:25] till in hell they lift up their eyes.

[01:01:27] This is He who dies in His full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

[01:01:32] Job 21.23

[01:01:34] Of this sort are they spoken of in Psalm 73, where he says,

[01:01:38] There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm.

[01:01:43] They are not in trouble as other men,

[01:01:45] neither are they plagued like other men.

[01:01:48] And again, they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment,

[01:01:52] notice that, in a moment, before they are aware,

[01:01:56] they go down to the grave. Job 21.13

[01:02:00] We know this too well by woeful and daily experience.

[01:02:04] Sometimes when we go to visit them that are sick in the towns

[01:02:08] and places where we live,

[01:02:09] oh how senseless, how seared in their consciences they are!

[01:02:14] They are neither sensible of heaven nor of hell,

[01:02:17] of sin nor of a Saviour.

[01:02:19] If you speak to them of their condition and the state of their souls,

[01:02:23] you will find them as ignorant as if they had no souls to regard.

[01:02:27] Others though they lie ready to die,

[01:02:30] yet they are busying themselves about their outward affairs,

[01:02:33] as though they should certainly live here,

[01:02:36] even to live and enjoy the same forever.

[01:02:39] Again, come to others, speak to them about the state of their souls,

[01:02:44] though they have no more experience of the new birth than a beast,

[01:02:48] yet will they speak as confidently of their eternal state

[01:02:52] and the welfare of their souls,

[01:02:54] as if they had the most excellent experience of any man or woman in the world,

[01:02:58] saying, I will have peace. Deuteronomy 29.19

[01:03:02] When, as I said even now,

[01:03:05] the Lord knows they are as ignorant of the new birth,

[01:03:08] of the nature and operation of faith,

[01:03:10] of the witness of the Spirit,

[01:03:12] as if there were no new birth, no faith,

[01:03:15] no witness of the Spirit of Christ in any of the saints in the world.

[01:03:19] So many of them are, even an hour or less before their departure.

[01:03:24] Ah, poor souls!

[01:03:27] Although they may go away here like a gentle lamb yet,

[01:03:31] if you could but follow them a little longer,

[01:03:33] to stand and listen soon after their departure,

[01:03:36] it is to be feared you would hear them roar like a lion at their first entrance into hell,

[01:03:41] far worse than even did Korah when they went down quick into the ground.

[01:03:45] Numbers 16.31.35

[01:03:48] Now by this one thing does the devil take great advantage on the hearts of the ignorant,

[01:03:52] suggesting to them that because the person departed so quietly,

[01:03:56] without all doubt they have gone to rest and joy.

[01:03:59] When alas! it is to be feared the reason why they went away so quietly

[01:04:04] was rather because they were senseless and hardened in their consciences,

[01:04:08] for had they had but some awakenings on their deathbeds, as some have had,

[01:04:13] they would have made all the town to ring of their horrible condition

[01:04:17] and lifted up their eyes in hell.

[01:04:20] Verse 23.

[01:04:22] And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,

[01:04:26] and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

[01:04:31] Something, in brief, I have observed from the first part of this verse,

[01:04:35] namely, from these words,

[01:04:37] And in hell he lifted up his eyes.

[01:04:39] There is one thing more that I might touch upon, as touched in this saying,

[01:04:44] and that is this,

[01:04:45] I think the Lord Jesus Christ does tell us that men are naturally unwilling to see

[01:04:50] or take notice of their sad condition,

[01:04:52] but though now they are willingly ignorant, yet in hell they will lift up their eyes,

[01:04:57] that is, in hell they will see and understand their miserable condition,

[01:05:02] and therefore to these words,

[01:05:04] In hell he lifted up his eyes, he adds, being in torments.

[01:05:09] As if he had said, Though once they shut their eyes,

[01:05:12] though once they were willingly ignorant, 2 Peter 3.5,

[01:05:16] yet, when they depart into hell,

[01:05:18] they will be so miserably handled and tormented

[01:05:21] that they will be forced to lift up their eyes.

[01:05:24] They may conclude they have faith, the Spirit, a good hope,

[01:05:28] and an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ while in this life when they delude themselves,

[01:05:33] but then, when they drop into hell and lift up their eyes there

[01:05:37] and behold first their soul to be in extreme torments,

[01:05:41] their dwelling to be the bottomless pit,

[01:05:43] their company thousands of damned souls,

[01:05:46] also the innumerable company of devils,

[01:05:49] and the hot scalding vengeance of God,

[01:05:52] not only to drop but to fall very violently upon them,

[01:05:56] then they will begin to be awakened who all their lifetime were in a dead sleep.

[01:06:00] I say when this comes to pass, O it will!

[01:06:04] Then in hell they will lift up their eyes,

[01:06:06] in the midst of torments they will lift up their eyes.

[01:06:09] Again you may observe in these words,

[01:06:12] And in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments,

[01:06:15] that the time of the ungodly men smarting for their sins

[01:06:19] will be in the torments of hell.

[01:06:21] Now here I am out of words,

[01:06:23] when I consider the torments of hell into which the damned do fall.

[01:06:27] O unspeakable torments! O endless torments!

[01:06:30] Now that your soul might be made to flee from those intolerable torments

[01:06:34] into which the damned do go,

[01:06:36] I will show you briefly what are these torments of hell.

[01:06:39] First, look at the names of hell.

[01:06:42] It is called a never dying worm, Mark 9.

[01:06:45] It is called an open fire, Hot, Malachi 4.1.

[01:06:49] It is called a furnace, a fiery furnace, Matthew 13.

[01:06:53] It is called the bottomless pit, the unquenchable fire,

[01:06:57] fire and brimstone, hell fire, the lake of fire,

[01:07:01] devouring fire, everlasting fire, eternal fire,

[01:07:05] a stream of fire, Revelation 21.

[01:07:08] Second, the sad state you will be in if you go there.

[01:07:13] One, one part of your torments will be this,

[01:07:16] you will have a full sight of all your ill-spent life from first to last.

[01:07:20] Though here you can sin today and forget it by tomorrow,

[01:07:24] yet there you will be made to remember how you did sin against God at such a time

[01:07:29] and in such a place for such a thing

[01:07:32] and with such a person which will be a hell to you.

[01:07:35] God will set them in order before your eyes, Psalm 51.21.

[01:07:39] Two, you will have the guilt of them all lying heavy on your soul,

[01:07:44] not only the guilt of one or two sins, but the guilt of them all together at once,

[01:07:49] and there they will lie in your soul as if your belly were full of gas

[01:07:54] and set on a fire.

[01:07:56] Here men can sometimes think on their sins with delight,

[01:08:00] but there with unspeakable torment.

[01:08:03] While men live here, oh how does the guilt of one sin sometimes crush the soul!

[01:08:09] It makes a man such a plight that he is weary of his life

[01:08:13] so that he can neither rest at home nor abroad, neither up nor in bed.

[01:08:18] No, I do know that they have been so tormented with the guilt of one sinful thought

[01:08:23] that they have been even at their wits' end and have hanged themselves.

[01:08:27] But now when you come into hell and have not only one or two or a hundred sins,

[01:08:33] but the guilt of them all on your soul and body.

[01:08:36] Three, again then you remember the attacks on the Gospel of Christ.

[01:08:40] Here you will consider how willing Christ was to come into the world to save sinners,

[01:08:45] and for what petty things you did reject Him.

[01:08:48] This is plainly seen in Isaiah 28 where, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,

[01:08:53] the foundation of salvation, verse 16, He says of them that reject the Gospel,

[01:08:58] that when the overflowing scourge does pass through the earth,

[01:09:02] which I understand to be at the end of the world,

[01:09:04] then, says He, it will take you morning by morning,

[01:09:08] by day and by night will it come over you, that is, continually, without any intermission,

[01:09:14] and it will be a vexation only to understand the report.

[01:09:18] A vexation, that is, a torment, or a great part of hell only to understand the report,

[01:09:24] to understand the good tidings that came into the world by Christ's death for poor sinners.

[01:09:30] And you will find this truly to be the mind of the Spirit,

[01:09:33] if you compare it with Isaiah 53, 1, where He speaks of men turning their backs

[01:09:38] upon the tenderness of God's grace in the Gospel.

[01:09:42] He says,

[01:10:03] 4. Another part of your torment will be this,

[01:10:24] you shall see your friends, your acquaintance, neighbors.

[01:10:28] No, it may be your father, your mother, your wife, your husband, your children,

[01:10:33] your brother, your sister, with others, in the kingdom of heaven, and yourself not there.

[01:10:39] Luke 13, 28.

[01:10:41] There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you will see Abraham, your father,

[01:10:46] and Isaac, and Jacob, together with your brethren,

[01:10:50] and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out.

[01:10:55] He says,

[01:10:56] 5. Again the mighty God of heaven will lay as great wrath and vengeance upon you as He can.

[01:11:24] By the might of His glorious power, as I said before, you will have His wrath,

[01:11:28] not by drops, but by whole showers will come, thunder, thunder, upon your body and soul

[01:11:35] so fast and so thick that you will be tormented out of measure.

[01:11:40] And so says the Scripture, 2 Thessalonians 1, 9, speaking of the wicked,

[01:11:45] 6. who will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord

[01:11:50] and from the glory of His power, when the saints will be admiring His goodness and glory.

[01:11:55] Again, this you will have, as I said before, without any intermission.

[01:12:00] You will not have any ease. You will have it always, every hour, day, and night.

[01:12:05] For their worm never dies but always gnaws, and their fire is never quenched,

[01:12:10] as it is says in Mark 9.

[01:12:12] 6. Again, in this condition you must stay forever.

[01:12:17] For if a man were to have all his sins laid to his charge, and communion with the devils,

[01:12:23] and as much wrath as the great God of heaven can inflict on him,

[01:12:27] I say, if it were but for a time, even ten thousand years, and so end,

[01:12:33] there would be ground of comfort and hopes of deliverance.

[01:12:37] But here is your misery. This is your state forever. Here you must be forever.

[01:12:42] When you look about you and see what an innumerable company of howling devils you are with,

[01:12:47] you will think this again. This is my portion forever.

[01:12:51] When you have been in hell so many thousand years as there are stars in the heavens,

[01:12:56] or drops in the sea, or sands on the seashore, yet you have to lie there forever.

[01:13:02] Oh, this one word forever, how it will torment your soul!

[01:13:07] Friends, I have only given a very short touch of the torments of hell.

[01:13:12] Oh, I am set, I am set, and am not able to utter what my mind conceives of the torments of hell.

[01:13:20] Yet this let me say to you, accept God's mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ,

[01:13:25] or else you will feel that with your conscience and soul,

[01:13:28] that which I cannot express with my tongue, and say,

[01:13:32] I am sorely tormented in this flame, and sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

[01:13:39] When the damned are in this pitiful state, surrounded with fears, with terrors, with torment and vengeance,

[01:13:46] one thing they will have, which is this, they will see the happy and blessed state of God's children.

[01:13:52] He sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom,

[01:13:56] which, as I said before, is the happy state of the saints when this life is ended.

[01:14:02] This now will be so far from being an ease to them, that it will most wonderfully aggravate or heighten their torment.

[01:14:09] As I said before, there will be weeping or cause of lamentation

[01:14:13] when they will see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, and themselves thrust out.

[01:14:20] Again he sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

[01:14:24] Lazarus, who was he? Why, even though he was so slighted, so disregarded,

[01:14:28] so undervalued by this ungodly one while he was in the world,

[01:14:32] he sees Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.

[01:14:34] Oh, who do you think was in the best condition?

[01:14:37] Who do you think saw themselves in the best condition?

[01:14:40] He that was in hell, or he that was in heaven?

[01:14:43] He that was in darkness, or he that was in light?

[01:14:46] He that was in everlasting joy, or he that was in everlasting torments?

[01:14:51] The one with God, Christ, saints, angels, the other in tormenting flames,

[01:14:56] under the curse of God's eternal hatred, with the devils and their ilk,

[01:15:01] together with an innumerable company of howling, roaring, cursing, ever-burning reprobates.

[01:15:07] Certainly this observation will be easily proven to be true here in this world,

[01:15:11] by him that looks upon it with an understanding heart,

[01:15:14] and will clear itself to be true in the world to come,

[01:15:18] by such as will go either to heaven or to hell.

[01:15:21] The second observation from these words,

[01:15:24] and sees Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom, is this,

[01:15:29] They that are the persecutors of the saints of the Lord now in this world,

[01:15:34] will see the Lord's persecuted ones be those that are so highly esteemed by the Lord.

[01:15:39] Therefore do not be grieved, O you that are the tempted, persecuted, afflicted,

[01:15:44] sighing, praying saints of the Lord, though your adversaries look upon you now

[01:15:49] with a disdainful, hateful, rugged, proud and haughty face,

[01:15:54] yet the time will come when they will spy you in Abraham's bosom.

[01:15:58] Verse 24.

[01:16:00] And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me,

[01:16:05] and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water,

[01:16:09] and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.

[01:16:13] You know I told you that verse 22 is a discovery of the departure of the godly and the ungodly out of this life,

[01:16:20] where he says the beggar died and the rich man also died.

[01:16:24] The 23rd verse is a discovery of the proper places,

[01:16:28] both of the godly and the ungodly after death,

[01:16:31] one being in Abraham's bosom or in glory, the other in hell.

[01:16:36] Now this 24th verse is a discovery of part of the too late repentance of the ungodly,

[01:16:42] when they are dropped down into hell.

[01:16:45] And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.

[01:16:49] From these words and he cried, we see what a change the ungodly will have when they come into hell.

[01:16:56] He cried. It is like he was laughing, jesting, jeering, drinking, mocking, swearing, cursing,

[01:17:04] prating, persecuting the godly in his prosperity among his filthy companions.

[01:17:10] But now the case has changed.

[01:17:12] And he cried, the laughter of the ungodly will not last always, but will be sure to end in a cry.

[01:17:20] The triumphing of the wicked is short. Job 25.

[01:17:25] Consider, you must change either here or in hell.

[01:17:29] If you are not new creatures, regenerate persons, newborn babes in this world,

[01:17:35] before you go from here, your note will be changed, your conditions will be changed.

[01:17:40] For if you come into hell, you must cry.

[01:17:43] Oh, if only the singing drunkards, when they are merry and full of ale, think more about this.

[01:17:49] It would make them change their songs and cry, what will I do? Where will I go when I die?

[01:17:55] But as I said before the devil, as he works to get poor souls to follow their sins,

[01:18:01] so he also works to keep the thoughts of eternal damnation out of their minds.

[01:18:06] A little while ago they were painting their faces, feeding their lusts, following their harlots,

[01:18:12] robbing their neighbors, telling lies, following plays and sports to pass time.

[01:18:18] But now they are in hell, and they do cry.

[01:18:22] It may be just last year they heard some good sermons, were invited to receive heaven,

[01:18:27] were told their sins should be pardoned if they came to Jesus,

[01:18:30] but, refusing his offer and slighting the grace that was once tendered,

[01:18:35] they are now in hell, and do cry.

[01:18:38] Before, they had so much time, they thought that they could not tell how to spend it,

[01:18:43] unless it were in hunting and prostitution, in dancing and playing,

[01:18:47] and spending whole hours, yes days, weeks, in the lusts of the flesh.

[01:18:53] But when they depart into another place, and begin to lift up their eyes in hell,

[01:18:57] and consider their miserable and irrecoverable condition, they will cry.

[01:19:02] Oh what a condition you will fall into, when you depart this world!

[01:19:07] If you depart unconverted and not born again,

[01:19:10] you would be better off if you had been made a dog, a toad, a serpent,

[01:19:14] any other creature in the visible world, than to die unconverted.

[01:19:19] And this you will find to be true, when in hell you lift up your eyes and cry.

[01:19:25] And so they continue living and dying in this state, we may conclude without hesitance,

[01:19:30] that these portions of Holy Scripture belong to them,

[01:19:33] and will for certain be fulfilled upon them.

[01:19:36] He who does not believe will be damned. Mark 16, 16

[01:19:41] The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6, 9

[01:19:47] But the abominable, the unbelieving, the whoremongers and all liars

[01:19:51] will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. Revelation 21, 8

[01:19:57] Depart, you cursed ones, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

[01:20:03] Matthew 25, 41

[01:20:05] Depart, depart from me, for I will not save you.

[01:20:09] Depart, for my blood will not at all wash you.

[01:20:12] Depart, for you will not set one foot into the kingdom of heaven.

[01:20:16] Depart, you cursed. You are cursed by God, cursed by his law,

[01:20:21] cursed by Christ who spoke these words, cursed by the saints, and cursed by the angels.

[01:20:26] You are cursed all over, you are nothing but cursed.

[01:20:30] Therefore depart from me. Depart where?

[01:20:33] Into everlasting fire that will scald, scorch, burn, and flame to purpose.

[01:20:39] Fire that will never be quenched. Mark 9

[01:20:43] Fire that will last to all eternity.

[01:20:46] A few words more, and I will conclude.

[01:20:50] Make sure that you do not content yourself with a bare notion of the Scriptures in your heads,

[01:20:56] by which you may go far, even so far as to be able to dispute for the truth to preach the gospel

[01:21:02] and labor to vindicate it in opposition against atheists,

[01:21:06] and yet be found at the wrong side of Christ at the judgment day.

[01:21:11] Second, take care that you own the whole Scripture and not own one part and neglect another,

[01:21:18] to own the law and slight the gospel, or to think that you must be saved by your good deeds and works.

[01:21:25] Also be aware of those who overextend the gospel,

[01:21:28] as if by it you were exempted from any kind of obedience to the Ten Commandments

[01:21:33] and conformity to the law in life and conversation,

[01:21:36] for in so doing you will for certain make sure of eternal vengeance.

[01:21:41] Third, take care that you do not confuse or put wrong names on the things contained in the Scriptures,

[01:21:47] as to call the law Christ and Christ the law.

[01:21:52] For some having done so have so darkened to themselves the glorious truths of the gospel

[01:21:57] that in a very little time they have been resolved to thwart and oppose them,

[01:22:02] and so have made room in their own souls for the devil to inhabit

[01:22:05] and obtained a place in hell for their own souls to be tormented forever and ever.

[01:22:10] Against this danger therefore in reading and receiving the testimony of Scripture,

[01:22:15] learn to distinguish between the law and the gospel

[01:22:18] and to keep them clear as to the salvation of your soul.

[01:22:22] 1. And that you may do so, in the first place, beg of God that He would show you the nature of the gospel

[01:22:29] and set it home effectively with life and power upon your soul by faith.

[01:22:33] And the gospel is this, that as you being man you have sinned against God.

[01:22:39] So Christ, being God-man, has bought you again

[01:22:43] and with His most precious blood set you free from the bondage you have fallen into by your sins,

[01:22:49] that you, being first justified freely by mere grace through the blood of Jesus

[01:22:54] should also receive your strength from Him who has bought you to walk before Him in a well-pleasing way,

[01:23:01] being enabled by virtue of His Spirit who has revealed to your soul

[01:23:05] that you are delivered already from wrath to come by the obedience not of yourself but of Jesus Christ.

[01:23:13] Then if the law you read tells you in your conscience you must do this and the other good works of the law,

[01:23:18] if you are to be saved, just answer it plainly,

[01:23:22] that for your part you are resolved now not to work for salvation

[01:23:26] but to believe in the virtue of that blood shed upon the cross, upon Mount Calvary, for the remission of sins.

[01:23:34] And yet because Christ has justified you freely by His grace,

[01:23:38] you will serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life,

[01:23:43] yet not in a legalistic spirit or in a covenant of works,

[01:23:47] but by obedience which is free and cheerful, out of love to my Lord Jesus.

[01:23:53] 3. Take care you do not receive His doctrine in the mere notion only,

[01:23:59] unless you bring a just damnation upon your soul

[01:24:02] by professing yourself to be freed by Christ's blood from the guilt of sin,

[01:24:07] while you remain still a servant to the filth of sin,

[01:24:11] but that you might be sure to escape these dangerous rocks on the right hand and on the left,

[01:24:16] see that your faith is such as is spoken of in Scripture,

[01:24:20] and that you are not satisfied without that which is a faith brought by the mighty operation of God,

[01:24:26] revealing Christ to and in you, as having wholly freed you from your sins by His most precious blood,

[01:24:32] which faith, if you attain to, will so work in your heart,

[01:24:37] that at first you will see the nature of the law, and also the nature of the gospel,

[01:24:41] and delight in the glory of it,

[01:24:43] and also you will find an engagement of your heart and soul to Jesus Christ,

[01:24:47] even to the giving up of your whole man to Him,

[01:24:50] to be ruled and governed by Him, to His glory and your eternal comfort.

[01:25:07] Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revived Thoughts.

[01:25:11] Today's sermon was narrated by Timothy, who runs the Turn or Burn YouTube channel.

[01:25:16] We've had him once on here before.

[01:25:19] Check out his YouTube channel with the link in the show notes below.

[01:25:22] Yeah, he did an episode for us in the past, and he actually reads sermons.

[01:25:25] He doesn't do like we do with the editing and all that, but he does read a lot of sermons.

[01:25:29] He has a great voice for it, so you should definitely go check him out.

[01:25:33] If you enjoyed this episode of Revived Thoughts,

[01:25:35] this is one of the longest episodes I think we've ever had of Revived Thoughts,

[01:25:39] but that's okay because it's full of great content.

[01:25:41] Please share it with those around you.

[01:25:43] Tell them, hey, they're not always this long, but this is a great episode.

[01:25:46] Learn a lot about John Bunyan, a wonderful man of church history,

[01:25:49] and also listen to a wonderful sermon of his

[01:25:52] describing an important subject that often does not get mentioned,

[01:25:55] which is the terrors of hell.

[01:25:58] This is Troy and Joel, and this is Revived Thoughts.

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