The Book of Life

good evening top of the evening to you on saint patty's day uh good to have you with us tonight uh good that you were able to brave the rain and uh hopefully many of you i know a couple of other folks were caught in traffic through downtown gainesville and it seemed to be pretty rough they routed us through some back roads to to get around so uh the lord kept us safe to get us here tonight so we're glad to be here too uh and tonight uh our topic is the book of life and so i'm looking forward to hearing uh what uh god's word is gonna say about that but uh tonight i thought we would just kind of follow along with that and we'll sing about the assurance that is found uh through christ jesus that the bible very clearly tells us about so let's stand together tonight and sing blessed assurance jesus is mine blessed assurance jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine air of salvation purchase of god born of his spirit washed in his blood this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long perfect submission all is at rest i am my savior am happy and blessed watching and waiting looking above filled with his goodness lost in his love this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long let's go to the lord in prayer father we thank you so much for this day that you've given us and we do thank you for just uh how you continually guide us and lead us and i pray that our spirits and hearts are open to that direction and father that we would be obedient to do whatever it is that you've called us to do tonight father we as we read and break open your word we're thankful so thankful that we can still gather together and can open your word and pray together and sing and lift up your name in so many different ways so tonight father we give you all the glory and honor and praise for what's going to take place this evening father we're reminded as we just sang blessed assurance uh from romans that we are more than conquerors through him through jesus christ who loved us and so father uh help us remember in those times when life gets tough and we we don't have all the answers but we think we should uh that you have gone before us and you have made us a conqueror uh because we've put our faith and trust in you we ask all this in your holy and precious name amen well good evening to you welcome to the house of the lord and also welcome to those who are joining us online for another wednesday night bible study if you have your bibles please open to exodus chapter 32 and we'll get there in a moment if you'll please leave them open we'll go from exodus through revelation uh in one short hour here so stick with me uh tonight uh our question of the evening comes from pennsylvania and so we thank the folks up there who've been watching and uh sent us a wednesday night topic and looks like there's already been a good discussion on the blog so i hope you all are checking that each week early so we know what we're talking about and also feel free to take part in the discussion uh tonight we're going to be talking about the book of life and specifically uh about how what happens with those scriptures that talk about being blotted out of the book of life so and it was reference i think to revelation chapter 3 and verse 5 it says he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and i will not blot out his name from the book of life but i will confess his name before my father and before his angels and of course this verse seems to offer assurance to christians who overcome that their salvation is secure that their name is the book is in the book of life and will not be erased and they will dwell in the future kingdom of heaven with the lord and with his angels but at the same time it also seems to imply that some names may be blotted out of the book of life which may mean that it's possible for someone's name that's currently in the book of life that they should sin and have their name blotted out so in other words they would lose their salvation so that was our question of the evening is how do you interpret revelation 3 5 is it possible for a christian to be blotted out of the book of life well i went to the nearly famous north lake survey and uh 21 answered yes that a christian can be blotted out of the book of life 70 percent said no and we got nine percent who are undecided so maybe by the time the night's over we can uh sure up the correct answer i thought we'd begin with some definitions though uh the first definition is the book of life what does that actually mean well according to holman bible dictionary which i think has a pretty good definition here based on the scriptures that i've read it says the book of life is the heavenly record written by god before the foundation of the world containing the names of those who are destined because of god's grace and their faithfulness to participate in god's heavenly kingdom wow that's a lot but we'll be breaking that down as we go through but the book of life is a heavenly record written by god before the foundation of the world containing the names of those who are destined because of god's grace and their faithfulness to participate in god's heavenly kingdom of course i i personally think that the book of life probably is something that uh i remember i believe it was in high school english this long words call anthropomorphism and it's basically a literary device which means that you're giving human characteristics to god uh this whole idea of god having this huge book somewhere up there in heaven um god doesn't need any books god is omniscient he is all-knowing he is all wise so god does not need a list of the seven billion people who are living now and who knows approximately 50 billion people who've already died and gone to the reward see god knows us all personally god is timeless so it's not like he has a short memory so one of the reasons i write down a lot of things is because i can't remember it a couple of days down the road god doesn't have the problem that danny has so i think again the the whole idea of a book uh being is is an anthropomorphism it's one of those uh deals where we're trying to give god some human characteristics god knows us personally uh second chronicles now i'm to rip through several of these so you don't have to you don't have to look each one of these up but listen to this second chronicles 16 9 for the eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him in other words god can see everything that's going on in the world and he knows the people on this earth right now whose heart is strong toward him the ones who love him proverbs 15 3 the eyes of the lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good jeremiah 17 10 i the lord search the heart to give every man according to his ways uh matthew 10 30 jesus said the very hairs of your head are numbered now some of us it's easier than others but nevertheless god is intimately familiar with you he knows everything that's going on with you is what jesus is saying there hebrews 14 13 neither is there any creature that is not manifest or shown in god's sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do so god sees and knows everything in first peter 3 20 it actually says that god knows all things so jesus tells us to give us the idea that maybe some of things in the bible are explained in terms that we simple human beings can understand i know we human beings have a pretty high opinion of herself but in the grand scheme of things we don't know as much as god and so if you remember jesus in john chapter 3 was in the middle of trying to explain to nicodemus what it meant to be born again and so he finally just stops and says look if i've told you earthly things and you don't believe how will you believe if i tell you heavenly things he said look i'm jesus is basically saying to nicodemus who was a doctor of theology in those days he was one of the sanhedrin one of the big guys in town there and in the temple he said look god has to speak to human beings in baby talk because we can't grasp the deep things of god so again i think that's what he's trying to explain to us in the book of life is make no mistake the lord knows those who are his first corinthians 2 9 says eye is not seen nor has ear heard nor is it entered into a heart of a man those things that god has prepared for those who love him so again the bible tries its best to explain to us in human language the greatness of god and so i think that's what we're dealing with but there is book of life a recorded a record of those who are saved but this book i believe is kept in the mind of god second timothy 2 19 the lord knows those who are his so i don't think he needs anything to jog his memory but since the bible does speak of a book of life and it also speaks of being blotted or not blotted out uh i thought we'd do a bible study tonight on the book of life and this blotting thing that we see in scripture so if you have your bibles hopefully you found exodus 32 by now in verse 31 this is the first instance of god's book and idea of blotting showing up if you remember this was during the golden calf incidents and when moses returned the lord and said oh these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a god of gold yet now if you will forgive their sin but if not i pray blot me out of your book that you have written and then the lord said to moses whoever has sinned against me i will blot him out of my book so here in exodus chapter 32 there were actually not books as we know them today what they had then was scrolls made out of skins that had been tanned to where they were very thin and they'd roll up like parchments and so again when we're thinking about book we tend to think about something bound kind of like my bible is that's how we think of books today but when moses started talking about this he was talking about a scroll being god's book there with where they kept writings and recordings of things that need to be remembered so god speaks of my book he's talking about my record of people places and things and in verse 33 god reminds moses that god is in charge of writing and erasing god's in charge of who gets in and who gets out of god's recordings of people later on in deuteronomy 9 14 deuteronomy 29 20 moses reminds the people that it's god who decides who is in and out of his book and it's based on god's grace and their covenant faithfulness to be in the book and also their sinfulness would be what would put them out of the book now if you move on in your bibles to psalm chapter 9 psalm chapter 9 and verse 3 when my enemies turn back they shall fall and perish at your presence for you have maintained my right and my cause you sat on the throne judging in righteousness you have rebuked the nations you have destroyed the wicked you have blotted out your name forever and ever this is another example of blotting here and the the blotting thing is used in a number of ways in scripture one of those is god blots out my sin is that a good thing or a bad thing that's a great thing that he blots out our sin you see that in psalm 51 9. but also some of these places in scripture you'll see where blot out the my name out of israel and of course that's a bad thing too it means that you're going to be taken away from the people of god uh there's a reference to blotting out my name out of god's book of life now that's a really bad thing if your name is taken from his book of life and then there's also the blot out of names of nations who fight against god and that's what we see here in psalm chapter 9 that i just read the blotting here in psalm 9 is not necessarily removing somebody from the book of life but out of the book of history of great nations if you remember when president reagan was president he used to speak every now and then of nations like russia being put in the dustbin of history and that's more or less what the psalmist is talking about here in psalm chapter 9 is um talking about you're going to see a nation that's going to foul and never rise again forever it's what he's referring to here of the wicked nations and moving on to psalm 69 psalm 69 this is one of david's imprecatory psalms imprecatories where he's calling down fire from heaven on his enemies because he's being oppressed on all sides and he writes in verse 28 let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous you see a similar phrase in psalm 109 and this is a prayer that the enemies of israel and by association the enemies of god would be blotted out of god's book of life and then move on to psalm 139 this is a the famous pro-life psalm here psalm 139-13 for you formed my inward parts you covered me in my mother's womb i will praise you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well my frame was not hidden from you when i was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth your eyes god's eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book they were all written the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them think about that from and apparently believers are written in the book of life before we are born imagine that and you may say wait a minute well how does god know whether we're going to be obedient or disobedient before we're born well that's what makes him god and us not that's that's part of who he is and he can't deny it just because we don't like it or because we think it's unfair if you remember jacob and esau paul writes about it in romans 9 11 for the children not yet being born nabbing never having done any good or evil that the purpose of god according to election might stand remember this god knows us before we are born and he knows us better than we know ourselves so again god is timeless and we're stuck in time you know we all start with a birth date and we all end up with a tombstone and so we can't imagine that anybody is beyond that themselves but god is above that he does not have a beginning or end he is the alpha and the mega so he is over time and so he already knows the end from the beginning so don't get too upset with him because he already knows how the outcome is going to be and it does not change your free will at all you're still responsible for your actions and we'll talk about this in a few minutes you're going to have to stand before god and give an account for your actions and you're not going to be able to say your honor lord you made me this way that's not going to float it's not going to work you've still got your decision but we can't remove the fact that god already knows those decisions and uh he's you know we don't live in a democracy when it comes to our eternity god doesn't rise or fall based on our vote god is sovereign he does what he wants to do isaiah chapter four isaiah chapter four and verse three and it shall come to pass talking about the millennium the thousand-year reign of christ once these uh last days are over that we're living in it shall come to pass in the millennium that he who is left in zion and remains in jerusalem will be called holy everyone who is recorded among the living in jerusalem there again is this idea that god has a book a book of life a book of listing the living daniel the old testament prophet daniel in chapter 12 and verse 1. at that time michael the archangel shall stand up the great prince who stands a watch over the sons of your people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time and at that time your people will be delivered everyone who is found written in the book many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt so again there's a book of life and if your name is not in it then you're going to shame an everlasting content but if your name is in it then you inherit everlasting life and then the last book in the old testament malachi chapter 3 and verse 16 then those who feared the lord spoke to one another and the lord listened and heard them so a book of remembrance was written before him before god for those who fear the lord and who meditate on his name and they shall be mine says the lord of hosts on the day that i make them my jewels in other words the thing that i treasure i will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked between one who serves god and one who does not serve him so again god has this book of remembrance for people who served him who loved him during their sojourn on earth and then we'll move to the new testament at this point see if there's any references to the book of life there and in luke chapter 10 verse 20. you remember the disciples come back from their first missionary trip that jesus sent them out on and they were just amazed the lord had given them power to heal and to preach and to teach and all this and they were coming back all excited uh because how wonderful it had worked out on their mission trip and jesus said well just rejoice in this rejoice because your names are written in heaven that's the most important thing philippians chapter 4 philippians chapter 4 and verse 3. here he puts a list of praises and recognition for his fellow workers whose names are written in the book of life again this is these early christians in the early church that were serving the lord and the apostle paul reminds them that their names are written in the book of life hebrews chapter 12 now verse 22 again talking about new testament believers and what happens at the end of their journey you will have come to mount zion to the city of the living god in the heavenly jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven again this is another example that the lord is keeping up with it as we come along he knows what we're what we're going to be what we're going to do and he holds on to those and maintains you in this book of life in this registry that we have in heaven all right now let's go to revelation i told you we'd get there revelation chapter 3 which is where we started revelation 3 that's where our question began tonight in verse 5. he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and i will not blot out his name from the book of life but i will confess his name before my father and before his angels a few years ago i'd read where john piper was speaking about this and he acknowledged the fact that some people assume that because it says will not blot out that it implies that is a chance that somebody could be erased from the book of life and that these people who were once born again justified and saved could nevertheless end up condemned lost and perished in other words they would lose their salvation but he says i don't believe it means that at all i believe it means i will not erase his name from the book of life does not necessarily imply that some do have their names erased it simply is to emphasize uh that those who conquer in faith will never he will never wipe your name out in other words being erased is a fearful prosper prospect but i will not allow that to happen to anyone who perseveres in the faith so again it's a positive promise and just because he uses a negative in the language there doesn't mean oh well all of a sudden i guess people can lose their salvation that's not what it's saying at all is if you're an overcomer there is no chance that you will lose your salvation revelation 12 1 tells us what an overcomer is an overcomer is somebody who has been redeemed by the blood of the lamb first john 5 5 who is he that overcomes the world he who believes that jesus christ is the son of god so if you by faith believe in the lord jesus christ then you're not going to get blotted out revelation 13 8 of course that's we're in the middle of the tribulation here or the the great time at the end of the world where the antichrist will be ruling on the earth all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast the antichrist whose names have not been written in the book of life the lamb slain from the foundation of the world again these verses teach us that those whose names are written the book of life will definitely not worship the beast the antichrist and that's what it says in other words having your name in the book of life from the foundation of the world means god will keep you from evil and he will cause you to persevere in allegiance to god being in the book means you will not apostasize you will not fall away from the faith again and that's whether you were and again i believe as i preached before that by time you get to revelation 13 the church has already been raptured so the people it's talking about here who will not fall away is the jewish people who have been redeemed during this time of jacob's trouble that some people call the great tribulation so again they've also been redeemed from the foundation of the world and they their names are in the book of life and it says they will persevere they will not apostasize they will not worship the beast and i think it also means that us now who are the church living before the rapture and we're told in second thessalonians chapter two that the antichrist is already at work he's been already worked the whole last days ever since the cross of christ and so the same thing is true for us we will be able to stand we'll be able to persevere in the faith regardless of how much pressure it gets before the lord comes back we will be able to persevere and not buy into the negative anti-christian satanic world system that's in the process of being built and uh will y'all say amen with me on that y'all plan on standing all right revelation chapter 17 8 goes on this beast the santa cruz that you saw will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go out into perdition and those who dwell in the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the beast that was he is not and yet is and again that's the same thing that's going on in revelation chapter 13. at this time i believe the church will already be raptured but those jewish believers who have come to faith in christ they will stand they will not marvel at the beast and they will certainly not worship the beast and now let's go on to the lord comes back of course in chapter 19 and we get to 20 and we see something here uh after the thousand-year reign of christ is going on the earth it tells us that there is a judgment day in revelation chapter 20 in verse 11. it says then i saw a great white throng and him who sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was found no place for them and i saw the dead small and great standing before god and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged according to their works by the things that were written in the books notice there's a singular book of life and then there's something called books and the sea gave up the dead who were in it and the death and hades or hell delivered up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one according to his works and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death any one not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire again revelation chapter 20 here is reminding us of hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 where it says it's appointed for man wants to die and then after that the judgment so all of us will stand before god in judgment and there will be two books that we'll be judged from one of one is called the book of life and the other is called the book of works book of life is if you have faith in the lord jesus christ trust him a savior serve him as lord then your name is written down and it will not be blotted out and that's what authorizes you to enter heaven if your name is written there you're going to heaven if your name is not written there then you're going to hail that's the book of life the second book or set of books will be the book of works and both lost and saved will give an account for your works on this earth unbelievers will appear at the great white throne judgment that we just read about revelations chapter 20 and verse 11. if you're a believer then you go to something called the bema the judgment seat of christ we read about that in romans chapter 14 second corinthians chapter 5 and um also in first corinthians chapter 3. and the lord promises to re record all of our good works hebrews chapter 6 verse 10 tells us that he won't forget any of them he's going to remember all of our works even the simple ones remember what jesus said if you give him a cup of cold water in his name if you offer refreshment if you offer encouragement for somebody who is out there seeking to serve the lord then jesus said something as simple as that we'll be rewarded i think about that every year when we do vacation bible school and i see these ladies back there handing out kool-aid to the little children as they come through i always think about the cup of cold water that will be rewarded of course it's rewarded by seeing the children smile to start with but after that it'll also be remembered and rewarded in the kingdom of heaven the lord promises that he won't forget any of these works and the judgment uh for christians again is not the great white throne it's the judgment seat of christ and we read about that in first corinthians 3 10. a while back i read behind dr harold wilmington who was the late great professor of theology at liberty university and he studied through the bible and he came up with a list of things that he said we will have to give an account for as christians on the day of judgment one of them is how we treated others that's matthew 10 41. the second one is how we exercise authority over others in other words if the lord allowed you to be a boss allowed you to be in supervision or management uh hebrews 13 17 says we've got to give an account for how we treated people how we use their spiritual gifts that's first peter 4 10. the bible says that all christians receive at least one and nobody has them all so we all have some gifts are we using them for the kingdom how we used our money first timothy 6 17 how we endured suffering first peter chapter four how we spent our time boy that's a tough one isn't it ephesians chapter five and verse 16 are we good stewards of the minutes that the lord gives us on this earth how we ran the race how we conducted ourselves on our journey through life hebrews 12 1 how we controlled ourself first corinthians 9 25 how many souls we want first thessalonians 2 19. how we reacted to temptation james chapter 1 verses 2 and 3. how expectant we are about the second are you excited about the second coming of christ yeah the bible says we're going to be judged on well maybe he's going to come maybe he's not going to come you know we need to be excited and enthused about the soon return of our lord jesus christ second timothy 4 8 and how faithful we were to the word of god first peter chapter 5 and verse 2. you ever think about that standing before god again a lot of this will be judged on works because hopefully if you're a christian and you've got a regular prayer life and we have confessed our sins what he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so people say so i'm gonna have to give an account for all this stuff i did on earth not if it's forgiven so make sure you stay prayed up uh for you never know when the lord's going to come so but beyond that we will still be judged on our faithfulness and rewarded accordingly revelation chapter 21 and verse 27 but there shall by no means enter into the new jerusalem anything that defiles or causes abomination or a lie but only those who are written in the lamb's book of life and then revelation 22 18 if anyone adds to these things god will add to him the plagues that are written in this book and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy god shall take away his part from the book of life from the holy city and from the things that are written in this book and you may be thinking well now danny what does that mean isn't this a warning to christians who trifle with the word of god and the answer is no because faithful christians do not trifle with the word of god this is a warning to those who would come along and say this word doesn't mean anything nothing's going to happen jesus is not going to come back all that generally speaking the two main groups have traditionally tampered with god's word are pseudo-christian cults and those who hold to liberal theological views in christianity many cults many theological liberals claim the name of jesus christ but again they doubt his word they doubt his promises they doubt his miracles and all these so again they're not faithful christians they're not born again which is a definitive biblical term for christians so again faithful christians do not trifle with the word of god so that again is not saying that if you're a christian and you trifle with the word of god then your name will be removed no if you're going to the kind of christian who's going to trifle the word of god your name is not there anyway so again we still hold on to what we said to start with so let's quickly review this book of life again what the holy bible dictionary say the book of life is a heavenly record written by god not sure that it's actually written on paper but written in the mind of god that he knows all those who are his before the foundation of the world is that true absolutely a number of verses in there let you know that god knows who you are before you were ever born so again you may have been a shock to your parents you may be a shock to yourself but you are not a shock to god containing the names of those who are destined dare we say predestined before the foundation of the world because of god's grace and again if you're saved it's going to be simply because of god's grace not because of the great things that you did and in your faithfulness once you've come to faith in christ do you maintain that faith and live in that faith will participate in god's heavenly kingdom so uh to answer our original question is it possible for a christian to be blotted out of the book of life i think according to the word of god the answer is no all true believers in christ will be kept from falling from the faith and therefore will not be blotted out of the book of life instead they will stay in that book and when the role is called up yonder i'll be there and we'll say amen amen so i don't know about y'all but that kind of makes me want to sing the song we started off with blessed assurance jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine amen amen

Channel: Northlake Baptist Church

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Length: 35min 46sec (2146 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021