Journey of Christian from City of Destruction to the Celestial City

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 Credits
 These Pilgrim’s Progress Presentations are as a result of Bible Studies I did at my home church in Moose
Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. The only thing I ask is that when you use them to present to others, that you
give the Good Lord credit through my name (Michal Lopianowski).
 Τhe version of Pilgrim's Progress I am using is the one by Barry Horner
 Most of the text in the presentations, if it is not sited on the page itself, comes from Barry Horner’s
Commentary on the Pilgrim’s Progress from his website: www.bunyanministries.org
 The comic snippets come from CREATOR ART STUDIO, published by KINGSTONE Comics at
www.kingstonemedia.com
 Any place where I mention Maltese Website as a reference, the material was taken from
www.lavvanztalpellegrin.com; which no longer seems to be working
 Other pictures are from www.garretttaylor.com and illustrations from Mike Wimmer
 As I complete more presentations I will be putting them on line; usually in the winter months

3.  They are careless and "not watching"
 Mark 14:38 “Keep watching and praying that you may not
come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak.”
 2John 1:8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we
have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
 1Pet 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour. ESV
• Why was Pliable in the slough?

5.  His greater buoyancy?
 He has no personal conviction
 His strong discontent
• Frustrated through impatiently expecting uninterrupted
happiness (Matt. 13:20-21)
• Challenges the promises of Christian’s book
• His expectation of further trouble along the way is correct,
but he is unable to appreciate sustaining grace
 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of
God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 8 who will sustain you to
the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Cor 1:4,8 (ESV)

6.  His rapid retreat
• In conformity with his nature and greater buoyancy, he
exits from the side of the Slough nearest to the City of
Destruction
 2 Pet 2:22 - It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG
RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to
wallowing in the mire.”
• He gives evidence that he is not a true seeker after the
kingdom of God
 1 John 2:19 - They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they
had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it
would be shown that they all are not of us.

8.  His depressing guilt causes him to sink
 Because the promises of God in the book seem to be unknown
to him at this time
 The case of depression
 Guilt is not restricted to believers-to-be alone
 His struggling perseverance manifests a desire for
progress
 Christian struggles to that side of the Slough which is furthest
from his home and nearest to the Celestial City
 Save me, O God, For the waters have threatened my life. 2 I have
sunk in deep mire, and there is no foothold; I have come into deep
waters, and a flood overflows me. Ps 69:1-2

10. His Sovereign Intervention
• Help personifies God’s reigning, hovering mercy that
takes the initiative for His elect, before their
conversion, by means of particular prevenient grace
 Ps 20:1-2 1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David. May the
LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the
God of Jacob set you securely on high! 2 May He send you
help from the sanctuary And support you from Zion!
 Ps 70:5 But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.

11. • Spurgeon preached a sermon in 1865 entitled
Prevenient Grace based upon Gal 1:15 in which he
declared:
 “Prevenient grace comes before regeneration and
conversion. I think we sometimes overlook it. We do not
attach enough importance to the grace of God in its
dealings with men before he actually brings them to
himself. Paul said that God had designs of love towards
him even before he had called him out of the dead
world into spiritual life.”

12. • And God has appointed in the church, first apostles,
second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts
of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of
tongues. 1Cor 12:28
• This word helps is a Hapax legomenon!
• Notice HELP does not act as if Christian needs help, but
simply asks; "What are you doing here?"
 Spurgeon says, "When you meet with someone who is
despairing and thinks he cannot be saved, get him to state his
case. This should always be the first thing."
• Who does helps represents?

13.  Helps convicting counsel
• Help admonishes Christian concerning the steps
which he neglected to notice on account of fear.
 For by these He has granted to us His precious and
magnificent promises, so that by them you may become
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world by lust. 2 Pet 1:4
• The slough is not portrayed as the norm
 Faithful and Christiana do not fall in
 My steps have held fast to Your paths. My feet have not
slipped. Ps 17:5

14.  His merciful deliverance
• Help draws Christian out of the
filthy slime and places him upon
solid ground.
 He brought me up out of the pit of
destruction, out of the miry clay, And
He set my feet upon a rock making my
footsteps firm. Ps 40:2

16. • It was the “scum and filth” of the “fears, doubts
and unbelief” that accompany conviction of sin.
• It is a place that takes you in one of three
directions
1. Onward, either because of the promises of God
(steps) or because HELP(S) assists you; so that
you may continue the journey.

17.  The Promises of God:
• 2 Cor 7:1 - Therefore, having these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
 II Pet 1:4 - For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that by them
you may become partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

18. 2. In retreat, as is the case with Pliable
• Both the unbeliever and believer, though with
considerable distinction, will experience guilt.
• Pliable falls into the Slough but with the wrong result
 9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you
were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were
made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might
not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is
according to the will of God produces a repentance without
regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world
produces death. 2Cor 7:9-10

19. 3. or … further downwards!

20. • Not just conviction …
• The slough makes the burden feel heavier, … the
“fears, doubts and unbelief” are making it heavier.
• You know what it’s like,
 “Maybe I’m making too much out of this personal faith in
Christ” …
 “Maybe I’m just making all this stuff up in my head” …
 “Maybe I’m letting it get to me” …
 “Maybe, I’m taking it too seriously”. …
• Christian was sinking, and he feared for his life.

21. • Cannot be mended because it has a purpose
 To weed out the dabblers; who believe only for a season
 John 6:66 - As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and
were not walking with Him anymore.
• Wonder why Evangelist didn't mention it?
• David's experience – Ps 38:2-8
• Promises of God are the solution

22. • The King of the Land makes continuous repairs

23. • Existence is not the issue, but the condition!
 There are preachers and teachers who labor to present the
Gospel to limit people's struggling and wallowing under
conviction.
 24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to
all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness
correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant
them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they
may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil,
having been held captive by him to do his will. 2Tim 2:24-26

24. • Not only being mended, but also being marred!
 In the second part of Pilgrim’s Progress, Christiana
asked the same question.
 In her case, it was an old gentleman who explained to
her,
 “Yes, too true, for many there be that pretend to be the
King’s labourers, and say they are for mending the
King's highway, that bring dirt and dung instead of
stones, and so mar instead of mending.”

25. • These are the preachers who do not preach the truth
of free and sovereign grace.
• Either 3 For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears
tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers
in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn
away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to
myths. 2 Tim 4:3-4

26. • or Millions of wholesome instructions, in the form of;

27. • It is impossible to mend the slough as
long as there is unbelief in the hearts of
men!

29. • Bunyan draws upon his own experience here as
described in Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners,
§ 82-111. In conflict and wrestlings just prior to his
conversion, he comments:
 "I was more loathsome in my own eyes than was a toad; and I
thought I was so in God’s eyes too; sin and corruption, I said, would
as naturally bubble out of my heart, as water would bubble out of a
fountain. . . . I thought none but the devil himself could equalize me
for inward wickedness and pollution of mind. I fell, therefore, at the
sight of my own vileness, deeply into despair. . . . And now was I
sorry that God had made me a man, for I feared I was reprobate."

30.  The steps of the Law-giver and
their changing state
• When the gospel is faithfully
proclaimed, sinners will not believe
and walk on the stones until the
Holy Spirit regenerates the heart
and gives real saving faith to them.

31. • Barry Horner comments,
 Now while Bunyan places the Slough of Despond at a point
prior to conversion, yet is it not just as biblical to consider a
Slough of Despond as being a snare for pilgrim’s following
conversion?
 Of course later incarceration in Doubting Castle by Giant
Despair will reflect this perspective.
• Need to be clear – Slough is NOT Conviction of Sin!
 Martin Luther, John Bunyan, C. H. Spurgeon, and countless
notable ministers of God have been plagued with periodic fits
of deep melancholy due to a sense of personal unworthiness.

32. • For unbelievers, the slough will hopefully lead to Godly
repentance through the promises of God.
• For believers, it is the Word of God (promises) which is
best able to restore the soul that sorely grieves over its
deep corruption.
 Let me encourage you with the word of an old Puritan: "The road
to heaven is very narrow, and worse yet, there is a dangerous
ditch on either side of that narrow road. On the one side is the
ditch of DESPAIR and on the other side there is the ditch of
PRESUMPTION, but bless God, in front of the ditch of Despair is
a hedgerow of God's promises and in front of the ditch of
Presumption is a hedgerow of God's precepts."

33. Ditch of
DESPAIR
Ditch of
PRESUMPTION
Hedgerow of
God's GLORIOUS
PROMISES
Hedgerow of
God's PRECEPTS
and WARNINGS
The STRAIGHT
and
NARROW WAY
(Assurance of Salvation)

35.  His neighbors come to visit and comment
• Some call him wise.
 He has chosen the broad way in preference to the narrow way
(Matt. 7:13-14).
• Some call him a fool.
 He has risked his life with a religious dreamer seeking "pie in
the sky when you die by and by."
• Some mock his cowardliness.
 Even the world, which boasts in its worldly attainments, hates
a quitter. No wonder that Pliable sat "cringing" in shame.

36. • 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary,
the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your
faith,…. 1Pet 5:8-9
• Faith is based on:
 Promises of God
 Word of God (The whole counsel of God)
 Holy Spirit working through the encouragement of others
 Helps