John Bunyan's Stand - Jacob Reaume

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to sing hymns together that we all know. I can travel a thousand miles and we still sing hymns that we know, and these are things that unite us.
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I'm going to talk tonight about a man by the name of John Bunyan and how
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Bunyan's times shaped our times and how Bunyan shaped his times.
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And it's worth noting that as we were singing those hymns together, especially
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Be Thou My Vision, here I am coming from, you know, pretty far away.
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It took us 13 hours to get here on Friday. Now there is a long layover in New York City, but that's a long ways away.
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And yet, in singing that hymn, our hearts could be united. I know the hymn. I sing it with my family.
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We sing it in our church. We sing it at weddings. We sing it in our chapel, at our school.
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Be Thou My Vision. And I'm reminded of a story I heard during the
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Second World War when the President of the United States and the
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Prime Minister of Canada and the Prime Minister of England meant to strategize in a warship just off the coast.
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It was docked in Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland. And they meant, and one of the first things they did was they sang
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Amazing Grace together because this was the language of hymnody that united a generation of English speakers.
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And that hymnody came within a generation or two of the life of John Bunyan, who
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I'm talking about tonight. And I don't think we realize how much that generation shaped all of us in the early 18th, mid to early 18th century, late 17th century.
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How much that shaped all of us, the whole English -speaking world. And Newton, of course, who wrote
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Amazing Grace, came shortly after Bunyan. But that shaped us.
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And Bunyan most certainly shaped us. So I'm going to talk tonight about how
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Bunyan shaped us, shaped his times, and his times shaped our times. Bunyan lived through a defining season of our history, and he helped define that season.
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And when I talk about our history, I'm talking about a shared history we have as English speakers that occurred in the 1600s, a shared history.
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But let me pray, and I hope this will bless you as I speak on these things this evening. Father, we pray for your blessing upon us.
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Would you use this time to strengthen our hearts? If there's any sinners here who are lost, I pray you'd save them. And I pray that you would encourage us through these stories that we're telling as we recount these days of old, that they would inspire us and put steel on our spines and help us to find delight in Christ as our brother who has since gone to join the cloud of witnesses,
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John Bunyan did, and to learn from his example. Amen. So what
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I'm trying to say tonight is Bunyan lived through a defining season of our history, and he helped define that season.
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So you could say Bunyan helped define us, who we are today.
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And I'm going to divide this up into two sections. One is, how did Bunyan's time shape us? And then number two is, how
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Bunyan shaped his times. So if Bunyan shaped his times and his times shaped us,
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Bunyan shaped us, is what I'm trying to say. So that's, if you want to know where I'm going with this and the point
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I'm trying to make, I've really got one point, and that is that Bunyan lived through a time that shaped history, our history, as English speakers.
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And he helped define that season. So when we go back to the time of Bunyan, you're going back to a time that there were no
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Civil War. This is before the Civil War, which is what, in the 1840s?
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This is before 1776. So there's no
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American Revolution. There was no United States of America. There's no
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Canada, at least as I know it today. But there was
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England. And England is the country from which our countries came.
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And how did Bunyan's time shape us? Well, Bunyan lived between the years 1628 and 1688, which is one of the most tumultuous seasons in English history.
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During the previous century, Protestantism had taken root in England, which created a religious rift within the realm, within Protestantism.
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A group called the Puritans emerged, and they wanted a religious reformation which would see all of society shaped by scripture.
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They wanted not just the church shaped by scripture. They wanted the family shaped by scripture. They wanted civic life shaped by scripture.
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They wanted government shaped by scripture, the Puritans. The Puritan movement began in the late 1500s.
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But by the time that John Bunyan was a boy, it had begun to have political influence.
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Puritanism started, or Puritans started getting elected to the
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House of Commons in London. So it started as this little movement at the end of the 1500s.
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But by the time Bunyan was a boy, 1630s, now they're electing politicians.
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It's amazing. Sometimes when you're starting to do something, it takes three generations to see the vision through.
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And the early Puritans laid the seeds. But by Bunyan's generation, they were reaping a harvest in that they were influencing politics.
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And so the Puritan movement began in the late 1500s. But they started electing their own leaders to Parliament by the time
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John Bunyan was a boy, 1630s. And during the reigns of King James, which was between 1603 and 1625, and his son
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King Charles, 1625, 1649, two distinct political visions emerged in England.
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You had the royalist vision, which saw power centralized in the king with a papist view of religion, finds its roots in Roman Catholic superstition.
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And then you had this Puritan vision that was the roundheads, would have been the
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Puritan -type thinkers that were elected to the House of Commons, where they believed that the power of the monarchy should be checked by elected representatives in Parliament and the church is governed not by the king, but by the pastors under King Jesus.
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So you had these two visions colliding. So I have a question for you. When you live in a society under one government, but you have two visions for society that are picking up steam, what happens?
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That's where we are right now, isn't it? You have the left and you have the right. And it's very similar.
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On one side, just like then, you have this centralized power that is trying to control every aspect of life.
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And on the other side, you have this vision for checks and balances and a free church, a free society.
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So you had the royalist vision and you had this Puritan roundhead vision. And the gulf between these two groups widened.
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In 1618, King James I published, interestingly, the Book of Sports. And in the
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Book of Sports, he encouraged sports on Sunday, which was contrary to the Puritan teaching. They didn't want sports on Sunday.
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They wanted people worshiping God. And so contrary to Puritan teaching, King James, to inflame the tensions, published the
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Book of Sports, 1618. And that made them angry. In 1625,
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King Charles I ascends and he begins torturing Puritans for their religious beliefs, 1625.
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And during that time, 13 ,000 Puritans fled to the American colonies. King Charles I asserts his prerogative to tax the people without parliamentary consent.
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And then after King Charles asserts his right to tax the people without parliamentary consent, taxation without representation, the
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Puritans assert their right to govern their own churches. They want rid of the
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Anglican bishops. And they want done with the Anglican Book of Prayer, which was nonetheless, which was the king's attempt to control the church.
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So the king wanted to control the church with the Anglican Book of Prayer. The king's taxing without representation.
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This is a common theme in history, isn't it? And the king wants to control the church. And so you have this collision.
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Parliament and the crown now have several flashpoints. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which is the crown mandating the church do certain things for worship.
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You have bishops over the church appointed by the crown. You have taxation without representation. And you have these flashpoints.
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You have a king who has a strong centralized government versus a parliament that wants checks and balances on government.
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And you have this collision. So what happens when you have two visions for societies that collide?
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Well, you have civil war. So in 1642, the English Civil War breaks out.
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Parliament was backed by the Puritans mainly. And the crown would have been backed by those with Anglo -Catholic sympathies.
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In 1649, the war is over. And by now, the parliament tries
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King Charles I. And he beheads him for treason. Our parliament beheads
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King Charles I for treason. It's interesting. We still have a king in Canada.
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He's the king of England. It's interesting. The two bad kings, the two really bad kings that it didn't end well for in the 17th century was
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King Charles I. They beheaded him. And King Charles II, they drove him out of England and took his throne and gave it to King William.
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Now guess who's the king? King Charles III. So Charles is not a good name.
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It doesn't represent good times for kings. But he is yet King Charles III, who reigns now.
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And so you have this war that breaks out. And do you know why?
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I've said this publicly at my church. And others have said this publicly in my church. We have one monarch in the history of England that has been beheaded after a trial.
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And do you know why he was beheaded after a trial? Because he abused his emergency powers. Don't ever think that.
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Don't ever forget that. And don't ever let your politicians forget that. One monarch.
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And this is when our histories were shared. So this is prior to America breaking away from England after the
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Revolutionary War. So this is our history together. And he was executed for treason because he was abusing his emergency powers.
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Between 1649 and 1660, you have the interregnum. All over Cromwell ruled
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England is the Lord Protector. England became a republic. The Anglican bishops and Anglican liturgy was disbanded.
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They did away with it. So the churches were free. There was religious toleration. And it was a time of freedom.
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It was a time of righteousness. It was a time of peace. It was a time of security in England. That's the interregnum with Oliver Cromwell.
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So under Cromwell, the Puritan congregations flourished. If you had been exiled during James and Charles, you would have attempted to go back to England under this
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Cromwellian rule. Because Puritanism was flourishing. And this was the high point of England's history.
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1658, Cromwell dies. 1660, Charles II returns from exile.
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He was the son of the beheaded king. The beheaded king's son went into exile in Europe.
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He comes back to England, the exiled son, and he's coronated as king. Promising, when
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Charles II is coronated, his coronation is contingent on his promise that he will tolerate religious dissent.
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Well, he was his father's son. And so it only took him months before he broke his promise.
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So in 1661, Charles II passes the Corporation Act.
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No one can hold public office unless they're
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Anglican. This is why this stuff is so dangerous. Like, this is historical.
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Like, if you have stuff down here, no one can work for government unless they're vaccinated. Like, once you start doing that stuff, this is very similar.
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Like, no one can work for government unless you ideologically agree with Charles II.
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So, like, this stuff is very dangerous. 1662, the Act of Uniformity must uphold the
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Anglican liturgy, the Book of Common Prayers, and at that point, 2 ,000 Puritan pastors were essentially fired.
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The best pastors in England were fired. They had nowhere to work. They were without work because the government said, we're taking over your churches, and if your pastors don't agree with us, gone.
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The Great Ejection is what it was called. 1664, the Conventicles Act, which means there's no private religious gatherings allowed in England, because what happened is the pastors that were ejected from their pulpits, they started gathering people in homes.
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The government saw that, and now they passed the Conventicles Act and say no private religious gatherings in your homes.
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Did you ever hear about no gatherings beyond five people and stuff like that?
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1665, the Five -Mile Act. Ejected pastors couldn't hold services within five miles of their former churches.
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1685, Charles II dies. He has no heir to his throne, but despite the fact that he has no heir, he has 14 illegitimate children.
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So you think that the government at this point in time is licentious and depraved, and you think that your government is a little licentious and depraved?
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Well, it was tyranny always comes with depravity. When the government becomes sexually immoral, then you can be sure that tyranny is slowly moving in, and Charles II was a sexually immoral man.
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He had 14 illegitimate children, but no legitimate heir. 1685,
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James II is coronated. His brother, because he had no heir, so his brother was coronated,
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James II. And James begins to consolidate power because he is going to centralize power and turn
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England completely Roman Catholic through bribery and backroom deals.
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1688, at the invitation of the lords, William of Orange, the
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Dutchman, arrives in England to liberate England, depose
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James II, become king of England with his wife, Mary. 1688,
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John Bunyan dies. Months, weeks after he died,
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England was liberated. You know, John Bunyan spent his entire ministry under tyranny.
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And then within weeks of his death, England was free. Bunyan's time was 1628 to 1688.
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The Bill of Rights was passed in 1689, which was the same year the
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London Baptist Confession of Faith was written. Why was the London Baptist Confession of Faith written in 1689?
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Because now Baptists could publish things because they had religious freedom.
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The Bill of Rights was passed with 1688. The Bill of Rights, which guaranteed Protestants and Puritans the right to worship according to their conscience, and, among other things, the right to bear arms.
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That bill, I read an interesting book not too long ago.
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I think it was called Defending Revolution. And it presented the arguments that the ministers used in the 1770s to defend the
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American Revolution. They would preach sermons defending the revolutionary effort and the
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Declaration of Independence and so on. And the book documented all of those things.
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And one of the things that the ministers did, yes, they used scripture, but they would go back to 1688, and they would say, look, look at what was guaranteed to Englishmen in the
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English Bill of Rights, and now we're losing it. We can't have that again.
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And so what I'm trying to say is that Bunyan's time helped shape America's view of religious freedom.
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It happened, he died just under 100 years before the American Revolution, but the view of religious freedom that came from his time was a view of religious freedom that shaped
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America. And not only did it shape
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America, it shaped Canada, because we have had religious freedom in Canada since the beginning. So we literally, in the
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English -speaking world, have not witnessed ministers arrested and jailed since the 1600s.
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And then all of a sudden, we're watching it happen, and they're threatening us. And why would the
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English -speaking world be completely united in religious freedom since that time period?
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It's because Bunyan's time hammered out this concept of religious freedom for us.
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So all English speakers would have looked to that time and would have said, that was a battle that was won, we don't wanna lose that.
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Men went to jail, men were killed for it. Women were killed for it, and it was worth it.
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So how dare we betray their sacrifice? But we've forgotten, and here we are.
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But Bunyan's time shaped our time. I read a book that documented the history of Ontario, my province, not too long ago, in the 1800s.
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And it said, essentially, that the mindset of the people of Ontario was essentially the mindset of English Protestants 200 years ago, or 200 years before that time.
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So 1800s, they had the mindset of English Protestants of the 1600s, they were still living in those wars, and those battles, because they valued them.
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And so when the Canadian government hammered out our
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Constitution in 1867, when Canada became a country, these things were fresh on their minds, just as they were fresh on the minds of the founding fathers in 1776.
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These were things that we treasured as English speakers. So what I'm trying to present to you is before I talk about Bunyan, I'm trying to present to you that his times shaped our thinking.
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If you like religious freedom, if you like freedom, yes, you need to be thankful for the
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Revolutionary War, but you also need to be thankful for the Englishmen that shed their blood and died over 100 years ago.
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They died over 100 years before the Revolutionary War, which planted the seeds of freedom that blossomed during the
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Revolutionary War. These things were in their mind. They thought that England was violating these rights that had been hammered out 100 years earlier when
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America declared its independence. So Bunyan's times shaped our times, is what
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I'm trying to tell you. Bunyan's times shaped our times. Now, now let me move on.
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Bunyan's times shaped our times. Now let me say that Bunyan shaped his times. He shaped his times.
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Bunyan was born in 1628. Remember I talked about the
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English Civil War, which began in 1642, it broke out in 1642. Bunyan fought in the English Civil War, and we don't know which side he fought on, but I think it's likely that he fought not, this is interesting,
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I don't think he fought on the parliamentary side. I think he fought on the side of the tyrants, because he was such a wicked sinner, and Oliver Cromwell would not tolerate that level of sin and depravity in his armies.
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So Oliver Cromwell's armies were very disciplined, and they were called to be holy men, and when they would march into battle, they'd sing psalms.
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And so I don't, I mean it's not certain who Bunyan fought for, but I think it's likely that because he was such a wicked sinner, he's such a reprobate,
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I think it's likely he didn't fight for the freedom lovers, he fought for the tyrants, because he was such a reprobate.
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It's amazing how God can take his most hostile enemies and make them treasures of grace.
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Aren't you thankful for that? Well, he became convicted of his sins, because he was violating the
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Sabbath, he saw it as playing sports on the Sabbath instead of worshiping. He became convicted of his sins by doing that.
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He was so terrified, actually, that the story goes that he was afraid to stand beside a church steeple, because he was afraid that the church steeple would, at God's demand, fall on him and kill him, because he was so under conviction for his sins.
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He did marry a Christian woman, though, even though he was such a debased reprobate.
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And his loving Christian wife just kindly and gently shared the gospel with him and prayed for him, but she wasn't nagging, she just was very sweet about it.
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And he says this helped win him to Christ, was her love. And then one day he was in town, and there was a group of women in town who were very ungodly women, had very bad reputations in town.
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And he swore, and he blasphemed, and this group of ungodly women turned on him and publicly rebuked him in town, in a public space, for his sin.
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So his sin was so bad, he was offending the most ungodly women in town. And that really hurt him, it hurt his conscience.
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And then he overheard some women in town one time speaking about the second birth.
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And so he went up to them and he talked to them, and he says, what's the second birth you're talking about? And so they explained to him what regeneration is, what it means to be born again.
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And he says, well, how can I be born again? How can I learn more about this? And Bunyan was told by these women to go to the
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Baptist Church in Bedford, pastored by a pastor, John Gifford.
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And there Bunyan went and was born again in 1655. He was born in 1628 and born again in 1655.
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So what's that make him? 27 years old when he was born again. Like he could just barely read.
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He was not educated. He was poor. His father was a tinker.
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Now, the word tinker means mechanic, but you gotta understand, they didn't have automobiles back then, so it's not like it was a real important trade.
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It's like if you had a broken pot and pan, you'd bring the broken pot and pan to the tinker, and the tinker would fix it. And then
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Bunyan became a tinker. So his family was impoverished. But he was born again at the height of Oliver Cromwell's interregnum.
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So the Puritanism was now flourishing in England like it had never flourished, because the man that was ruling
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England was if he wasn't a Puritan, he sure had Puritan sympathies. Cromwell.
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And so he was born again in the interregnum.
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In 1660, Charles II was appointed king.
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Cromwell's dead. The interregnum's over. They bring back the son of the tyrant king, and he's appointed king, and he is, like I said, he promised he wouldn't interfere with religious freedom.
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Well, within months, he does. And there's a domestic terrorist attack almost immediately after he ascends the throne.
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There was a group of fanatics who were trying to overthrow the government.
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So I warned this morning about this, didn't I? People trying to overthrow the government. We're for rallying around governing officials, but we're not for armed mobs in the streets.
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And there was a group, there was an armed mob in the streets of London who tried to overthrow
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King Charles I. And King Charles, or King Charles II, rather.
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And King Charles II cracked down on them, they were done with, and he brought in emergency orders and demanded that unlicensed, their sons have died, their fathers have died, their cousins have died, death all over.
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And like, we don't want a civil war, get rid of these guys. And so as collateral damage to this mood in England, the king says, okay, opportunity, emergency orders, no unlicensed religious gatherings.
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And Bunyan still gathered for church, unlicensed. He was leading church services without a license.
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And he was arrested. It's interesting that when
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Bunyan was gathering his congregation for church, the government actually suspected that he was arming his congregation to go out into the streets and throw another uprising, which he wasn't doing.
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And so that's why they arrested him, under suspicion that he was arming his congregation to launch an uprising.
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He was thrown in jail for 12 years. And why did he remain in jail?
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For the entire time that he was in jail, they posted a little piece of paper outside his cell door that said, if you agree to stop gathering people without a license, you will be free.
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Just sign here. He had to look at that every day. And he refused to sign it.
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Because he said, by God's grace, I can't stop gathering people.
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And I've read the, there was an exchange between him and a governing official, essentially a prosecutor.
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And the prosecutor said, look, they said to him, Bunyan, look, we don't care if you go out into the streets and tell people your message.
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We just care that you stop gathering people. And he said, well,
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I have to gather people. And they said to him, can't you just do the loving thing for the community and not gather people? And he said, the loving thing is to gather people for church.
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Could this remind you of COVID? Can't you just put your sermons on the internet? And, no, no,
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Bunyan said, I have to gather people. And I don't need the government's permission. Even if there is an emergency right now and people are trying to overthrow the government,
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I'm not backing down. They put him in jail for 12 years. And he refused to sign the papers.
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He refused to give up preaching the gospel. And he denounced the Church of England as false, said
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Joel Beakey about him. He was the first Puritan arrested. And because he was the first Puritan arrested, his popularity spread.
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He became a lightning rod for religious freedom. The Anglican clergy hated him because he preached against their compliance with the state, accusing them of being apostate.
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One of his biographers, the one who edited his works that was published by Banner of Truth, George Ofer commented in the 19th century, in the 1800s about him.
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And he said, fear of the consequences or of offending his enemies never entered his mind. Bunyan's veneration for the scriptures is the only source and standard of religious knowledge led him to frequent controversies.
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So much so that one of the bishops, the Anglican bishops, the Bishop of Gloucester, Bunyan lumped the
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Bishop of Gloucester with a whole gang of rambling counterfeit clergy in Bunyan's words.
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Why? Because he was compliant with the state. And so Bunyan said, and he skewed the doctrine of justification also.
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And Bunyan called him part of a whole gang of rambling counterfeit clergy.
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And the Bishop of Gloucester replied and said of Bunyan, he is the most unchristian and wicked man.
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He's a proud piece of folly. He is a pestilent schismatic.
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So the established Christian leaders hated him. The government hated him.
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But what happens when there's controversy? Typically popularity grows. And so Bunyan became more popular.
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The more controversy, and he wasn't looking for controversy, he just landed on him because he said things. And he stood and he remained in jail for 12 years.
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He was the preacher that went to jail. He's the first Puritan preacher that went to jail. In total, he had frequent controversies with other clergy, and his reputation spread.
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And he embodied the vision for an independent church, a church not controlled by the government.
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But you gotta understand, Bunyan wasn't an activist. It's not like he was out there being an activist or protesting, he wasn't doing any of that.
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He was simply a man that said, I'm a pastor, and I must gather my church. But then, by simply doing what
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Jesus said pastors should do, he became, he embodied a free church.
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A church that wasn't controlled by the state. That was his identity now, like he's wrapped up in this.
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He wasn't looking for it, he just simply says, I gotta do what I gotta do. And so he goes to jail, and he now takes on this identity.
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Bunyan said, I quote, Lord, in a prayer, I cannot consent that human inventions and doctrines of man should be joined with thy institution as matters of worship and imposed upon my conscience as such
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I will not allow the government to control worship. I will not allow them to tell me how to lead my congregation in worship.
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I will not allow them to tell me what to pray. I will not allow them to tell me what to preach.
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I will not allow them to tell me what I cannot preach. I will not allow them to tell me how many can gather and how many can't gather.
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These are human inventions. These are doctrines of men, and they cannot enter the house of God.
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Now, because of his preaching ability and his willingness to suffer, his popularity increased, he was eventually let out of jail.
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So 1772, I guess he would have, or 1672, he would have been let out of jail. And because of his preaching, his willingness to suffer, his popularity increased, and he wrote
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The Pilgrim's Progress. You all know about The Pilgrim's Progress, right? He wrote, it sold 100 ,000 copies in the first decade.
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It was a runaway bestseller. Why was it a runaway bestseller? A part of it was because of how popular he was because of his imprisonment.
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His time in jail, his stand, his boldness. But also, he was a good preacher.
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He's a very powerful preacher. They said that within 24 hours, notice he could preach to 3 ,000 people outdoors in a day before amplification.
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You give me 24 hours notice that John Bunyan's gonna be there and 3 ,000 people will show up outside.
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On a weekday at 7 a .m. in the wintertime in London, he preached to 1 ,200 people outside.
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A weekday, 7 a .m. in the winter, 1 ,200 people outside. That's how popular of a preacher he was.
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He was a celebrity in his own right. The Puritan theologian
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John Owen advocated for him while he was incarcerated. He advocated on behalf of Bunyan to the king,
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Charles II. And he enjoyed hearing him preach.
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Owen enjoyed going to listen to Bunyan preach after he was released from jail and he would preach. And King Charles II asked
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Owen, he said, why do you enjoy hearing this uneducated man preach?
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He's just a tinker, uneducated Bunyan. John Owen replied to the king, if I could possess the tinker's abilities,
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I would gladly give in exchange all my learning. Owen knew
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Greek, Owen knew Hebrew, Owen was a scholar, Owen wrote volumes. Owen was the theologian of the day.
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He was the chaplain to Cromwell's army. He was a very notable theologian, wrote many books.
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And Owen said, I would very, very happily trade all of my learning if God just gave me the ability to preach like that man.
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To preach. He eventually actually became the
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Lord Mayor of London's personal chaplain, Bunyan did.
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So after he's let out of jail, he rises to prominence. Pilgrim's Progress is selling, is a bestseller.
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3 ,000 people are gathering to hear him outdoors. 1 ,200 people listen to him in the wintertime at 7 a .m.
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on a weekday in London. John Owen is saying, I would trade all my learning if I could preach like him.
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And now he's the chaplain of the Lord Mayor of London. So things are really settling down, like he's arrived.
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This tinker now has a national platform in England. He's respected by Owen, he's respected by the population.
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He was a tour de force. As George Ofer said, a new era was now dawning upon him.
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Which during the last 10 years of his life, added tenfold to his popularity. So once he got out of jail, his popularity just boomed.
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I mean, it was popular when he was in jail, but it was huge. However, when
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King James II ascended the throne, Bunyan had been out of jail for a while now. King James II ascended the throne after his brother
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Charles II's death in 1685, he began centralizing his power.
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And he wanted to control the church. Charles II, or James II did.
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So Bunyan's at peace, Bunyan's selling bestsellers, Bunyan's gathering crowds, Bunyan's pastoring a church,
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Bunyan's friends with the Lord Mayor of London. John Owen's saying, I'd trade all my learning if I could just preach like that guy.
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And James II ascends the throne. And he begins consolidating power.
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Centralized government wants to control the church. Bunyan's now 57, he spent 12 years incarcerated, and you probably could have forgiven him if he just said,
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I don't want to deal with this. I've lived a hard life, I'm enjoying life right now,
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I'm selling books, I'm on the preaching tour, people know who I am. Yeah, the king's a problem,
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I don't want to deal with this. You might forgive him for that, right? With everything that he's done.
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But that's not what he did, that's not Bunyan. He's near the end of his life, he's three years from dying.
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And by the way, the English jails, like you and I think of jail cells, and we think of air conditioning maybe.
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You know, weights, we lift weights, play basketball, read books.
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Well, Bunyan's jail was underneath a bridge, just above the water.
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It was damp, it was crowded, it was moldy. It was disgusting. So do you think that had effects on his health?
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So he'd spent 12 years incarcerated, he'd been out of prison for about eight years now,
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I guess. And you could have forgiven him for not wanting to do anything when
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James II took the throne and wanted to consolidate power. Well, that wasn't Bunyan. He sounded the alarm over James's power grab.
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He used his platform to warn England of tyranny. It's back. We dealt with it for a while under Charles II.
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He let me out of jail eventually, but tyranny's back, and it's back with a vengeance under his brother. He sounded the alarm.
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You know what James did, the king? James attempted to bribe Bunyan. He said, look, if you just shut up,
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I mean, you can keep believing in God, you can keep doing this, but if you just shut up, I'm gonna give you a really cushy job in government.
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Just be quiet. And do you know what Bunyan did? He wrote a book in reply to James's offer of a bribe.
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He wrote a book, and the book is called An Antichrist and His Ruin. And in the book, he described what
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God is going to do with tyrant kings like James. He fired a shot.
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It's like his last thing that he did almost. The book was never published, but certainly James would have known what was going on.
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So essentially, he said, no bribe. Come get me, king. He refused.
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1688, in the book of Antichrist and His Ruin, Bunyan predicted that the day would come when
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God would use a righteous government to overthrow the tyranny in England.
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He predicted the day would come. The day will come when a righteous government will come, and he actually said, without sympathy, overthrow tyranny in England.
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He died. In 1688, he was out preaching, and he had a cold or pneumonia or something, and he died because he was on horseback in the rain, and he got sick, and he died.
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I think it was October or so when he died. September or October.
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And remember what he said in his book. The day's gonna come when a righteous government is gonna overthrow the tyranny. Within a few months of his death, still in 1688,
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William of Orange crosses the Channel, James is deposed, the
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Bill of Rights is passed, and there's freedom in England. And has been since, until recently.
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You see what I'm saying? Bunyan defined his times. He defined his times.
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This was a defining season that he helped define. John Bunyan defined his times, and John Bunyan's times defined our times.
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Bunyan's stand for the independence of the church from the state helped influence religious freedom.
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A gift that has now come down to us. It's in our hands.
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And the question is, what will we do with this gift? What will we do with it?
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Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this great testimony of this great man of God, and we pray that he would be rightly honored among us, and we would take up this mantle and rightly stand.