The Book of Life: Are You In It?

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. If you would, open to Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians chapter 4. As you get there, for those of you who are new to Apologia Church, we've been in the

Kingdom of God series. It's an exposition, working through the gospel according to Matthew. We finished chapter 24.

We will pick up again, which moves into the trial of the Lord Jesus, His death and resurrection and ascension.

But we decided to take a side step into Philippians for the strengthening and the health of our body to pursue authentic joy.

Authentic joy. That's kind of been the theme, the heartbeat of everything we've been trying to discover in this little letter of the

Apostle Paul while on chains. You can't miss it. Joy is sort of the central theme of the letter, but it's anchored on something we've been talking about, what it means to have authentic joy.

How does Paul have authentic joy in the midst of the difficulties and trials that he was enduring?

So, Pastor James blessed us with finishing up chapter 3.

We're in chapter 4 now, and we're going to start in verse 1. Philippians chapter 4, verse 1.

Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Therefore, my brothers, whom

I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the

Lord, my beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat

Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life, thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

Let's pray. Father, we come into your presence, and we ask that you would bless now the hearing,

Lord, and the proclamation of your word, and pray, Lord, that you would get the teacher out of the way, and that you would teach by your spirit.

Father, we have been asking how to have authentic joy that brings glory to you, to the

Son, and through the power of your spirit, and I pray that you would allow today us to have more understanding of how to be anxious for nothing, how to have joy, how to rejoice in everything.

Help us to clearly see, through your word and through, Lord, the illumination that only your spirit can bring.

Help us to see. I pray that you would allow people to forget my name, remember yours, and you would bless the teaching of your word today.

In Jesus' name, amen. So, Philippians, real small, super short, easy to get through.

You can read it daily, no problem, and you would benefit, we would benefit greatly from it. So, we're in now the sort of departing thoughts in this very short letter of the

Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi. It's exciting, it's a powerful book, it's a challenging, sorry, letter.

It really is, it can really expose a lot in us that is wrong, that is off, it can heal a lot, but there's a lot of repenting we have to do, a lot of confession, a lot of admitting that I believe myself and my circumstances above God, about what he says about himself, his character, his holding things together, his promises for the future.

So, so much, I hope, in this book has already cut you in just the right way and challenged you.

If it hasn't, go back, listen to the messages again, read this letter again, find all the spots where you can acquiesce to something, you can check the box and say,

I believe that in terms of technically, I affirm it's truth, but find the spots where you say,

I believe that technically, I'll check the box, I'm in the camp, but I don't really believe it,

I don't trust in it, it hasn't changed me, there's some wrong way in me.

I love what Pastor James talked to us about last week in terms of pressing on, moving forward, not looking back and as believers, as even as a body corporately together, coming together on the

Lord's day to worship the Lord together, more grown than we were last week, moving forward, pressing on and actually believing

God and the transforming power of his spirit to actually change us, to transform us, to make us like Jesus, to make us new, right?

I think a lot of times we can admit that we become indifferent to divine truths, even divine promises of salvation, our names being in the book of life, all of that, eternal life, a hope for the future,

God's sovereignty, all that, we can become indifferent to some pretty glorious truths and sort of just stay in neutral through the

Christian life, but God promises transformation, he promises blessing, he promises truth to his people and so I want to challenge you to really take to heart what

Pastor James brought to us last Sunday and that brings us to where we're at today actually, again, these are sort of like parting thoughts in the letter from the

Apostle Paul to this church, he deals with some personal issues going on in the church and then I think it gives us epic and explosive promise,

I mean, how would you like to be these people and to have a letter read right before the church and you're in the midst of this conversation, maybe you're these two women, right, and you're being called out before the church as it's read like, oh no, right now everyone knows, everyone knows the dirty now, right?

But there's this hopeful thing in there where all these people are named as fellow workers, even these two women that are in conflict with each other and then there's that promise whose names are in the book of life, can you imagine hearing that from an inspired apostle?

It's like, yeah, when I think for a second, what would that do for you? What would it do for you if you heard your name in a letter from an inspired apostle, right, like let's make sure these women work things out, like be one, to be unified in the

Lord, you know, all these fellow workers together with me, Clement and everything and whose names are in the book of life,

I mean, can you, how would you walk out of that service that day? I mean, just if, yeah, like, you know, nothing matters, right, why?

Because you heard it, inspired apostle, right, scripture, it's from inspired apostle, my name is in the book of life, it'd change everything, would it change how you cook?

Yeah, would it change how any tragedy or trial actually affected you?

Would it change you? Just consider it now, your name's in the book of life, right, that's God's book of life foreordained before the foundation of the world, that's a book of life, there are names in that book, there are other books described in Revelation, we're going to talk about that, other books described that are opened on the day of judgment and there's deeds in those books, right, and people are judged according to their works, there's wrath being stored up, people are committing acts, they're doing deeds, they're thinking things that are sinful and there's books with deeds in them and then there's a book with names in them and if you were these women or these workers and you heard an inspired apostle say whose names are in the book of life, would it change you?

Would it change your view of the future? Would it change everything? I mean literally everything?

Now I was thinking about that as I was working through this and how to present this to the people of God, my duty to feed you, to really feed you, to give you the truth of God's word and to let it actually shape up, so I was thinking to myself, you know, it's great to have an inspired apostle say that, right, all these women, let's get it together, let's be unified, all these people, fellow workers whose names are in the book of life, that's great, you're like, ha, inspired apostle, my name's in there,

I don't know about you, but my name is in there, it would change you. I was challenged to think, well that's special, but the promise is everyone who truly trusts in Jesus Christ, their names are in that book and if you were just thinking along with me, yeah, an inspired apostle says my name is in that book, yeah, it would change everything, it would change how

I look at the Rona, it would change how I have conflict with my spouse, it would change how

I have fear of the future, it would change how I look at my finances, it would change my goals for the future, if you were thinking that,

I want to challenge you to consider that the promises for those whose names are in the book of life, those promises are actually, we're going to go into them today throughout

Revelation and they're supposed to give all those who are trusting in Jesus Christ that kind of hope, that kind of fearlessness about the future.

This is the same apostle that says be anxious for nothing, well that's easy for you to say, right, maybe, be anxious for nothing, right, just trust the

Lord, he's the sovereign, he's in control, be joyful, joyful, to live is Christ, to die is gain, are you getting a sense of it now?

Why can he say those things? How can he say those things? To live is Christ, to die is gain, he's going to finish what he started in me, all of that, right, be anxious for nothing, why?

There are truths at the center of this, everything else is orbiting around, right, it's the heart of it and one of those things

I believe deep down is the hope we have in this promise about the book of life and what

God has done in it. Paul thus far in Philippians chapter one, we have to think about what he's already said to make sense of his theology, what he says about God, about his soteriology, what he says about salvation and his eschatology, what he says about the promises for the future and future resurrection and that hope.

Putting Paul in context, we have to say he's got a lot of confidence in what God does to save, get this and you'll get it, what

God does to save. This is a, this is an act of God, it's a mission of God, it's what

God is doing in the world to bring glory to himself. This is a soteriology, a doctrine of salvation, how does

God save, what happens in salvation, that is totally God -centered and not man -centered.

It starts right at the beginning, I mean the letter opens up, we're barely a couple verses in and you already see

Paul's soteriology, his doctrine of salvation active right in front of you and we wonder how he has authentic joy.

He says in chapter one verse five, and I'm sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

You get it? There's a book of life, God has a plan for his people, he has a plan for their salvation, he has a plan for the future, nothing's going to thwart it, not you, not me, not the enemy, no spiritual hosts, nothing is going to thwart

God's purpose because he that began a good work in you is going to bring it to completion.

Well who's that for? Well those whose names are in that book of life. How do you get there?

Well it's all God. You don't write yourself into the story, this is God's story and we're going to see more of that.

We've seen that in his confidence in chapter one about God's sovereignty, about all of this going towards the glory of Jesus Christ.

In verse 12, I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. He even sees his trials and his tribulations as somebody who knows

Jesus, as somebody that has had this started in their life. He says all of this is working to advance the gospel, nobody's thwarted

God, this is God's story. Philippians chapter one verse 29 as you move through there you can see again how does

Paul think about salvation? Is it God -centered or is it man -centered?

Listen this is a very short letter and there's just these these knockout punches related to the sovereign grace of God all throughout this letter.

In Philippians 1 29 it says, for it has been gifted to you, granted to you, that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.

The apostle Paul, how does he view faith, the faith of the child of God, the faith of the believer?

It isn't something you conjured up, it's not something you did on your own, you didn't figure it out, you weren't more spiritually minded, more intellectual, had better parents, whatever the case may be, this wasn't your doing.

Paul says God started it, God's going to finish it, everything happening is working towards God's glory for the purpose of the gospel.

This has been gifted to you, what? Faith and suffering, faith and suffering, the gift of faith and the gift of suffering.

These things are from the hand of God, that God who started this and who's going to finish it. Are you catching what

Paul is delivering now? This is sovereign God, it's not the kind of God of the 21st century evangelism, it's not the kind of God that is the man -centered perspective sort of ruling this universe and this plan, it's

God, the sovereign God, he does it all, it's according to his will, it's for his purpose.

Again it's all throughout, his theology, his soteriology, his teaching about salvation, his eschatology, his view of the future, it's all chocked full throughout this letter.

But then we saw in Philippians chapter 3, the apostle Paul warns them about the dogs, the evildoers, those who mutilate the flesh, and he does the sort of the throw down, right?

Like, okay, we'll throw out resumes, I'll give you my resume, and he gives his resume which is actually pretty stellar, it's awesome, it should be respected, and what he says about it, uh yeah, scuba law, that's what it is.

You see, he says in chapter 3, I want to be found in him, in Jesus, in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which comes from God through faith, and that is the distinctive characteristic of biblical faith, true biblical religion, is that we have a righteousness that is a gift from God, it's not our righteousness, it's a foreign righteousness, it's a righteousness that comes from the hand of God because of what

Jesus has accomplished. All of God's people in that book of life are wearing white robes because they're covered in his righteousness, not their own righteousness.

You see, that's the distinctive of biblical faith, is that we believe that salvation is a gift of God, it's a work of God, it's through what

Jesus accomplished, it's something that we actually receive with empty hands, and we are hiding in Jesus.

Paul says, look, my resume, all my obedience, all this stuff, he says, I count all this, everything as loss, and he wants

Jesus, he wants to know him. You see, that is clearly Paul's aim in this letter, and again, you want to know, how do we have authentic joy?

Are you thinking like that? Is that in your mind? Is that a part of your meditation daily?

Are you finding yourself in the midst of shame and condemnation, self -loathing and loneliness and despair?

Are you finding yourself clinging to your own righteousness and your own strengths and your own performance, and you're like, why do

I lack so much joy? Why do I lack so much joy? Why do I feel so much despair and darkness and all the rest?

I always, I often, you've heard me say over the years, many of you guys have been with us since the very beginning. You know, I've said a lot, it's kind of odd to be in the presence of God who is singing over you, who has declared you righteous, who says there's no condemnation, and you're sitting there in his presence, and you're sulky.

Your head's down while your father sings over you. Paul knows that.

Paul knows the true perspective, and that's what he's rejoicing in, and you get to four, these departing thoughts.

It's a really short chapter, right? But it's powerful. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the first part here, because I think it rather speaks for itself.

We could, but I don't want to. I want to focus on the other things. He says, therefore, my brothers, whom

I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved people

I love. And then he says, I entreat, and he names two women, and he says, to agree in the

Lord. He says, yes, I ask you also, true companion, this is the person who's receiving the letter, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers.

So what does he say here? He entreats them personally as an apostle.

You see, these letters would come into the church, these small house churches, a lot of them in hiding, a lot of them on a run from the empire sort of a thing, especially in the first couple centuries of the church.

But the letter comes and it's read before the church like this is. Can you imagine these two women, maybe, no, sorry, they'll be like two women, right, under the hearing of this letter from the apostle

Paul, and they're hearing his personally entreating them to what?

Agree in the Lord. So something's going on in this church that he clearly has a deep love for.

It's a very intimate letter. Pastor James brought that out. Galatians, sharp, right? Galatians is messy and sharp, and he says some hard things.

It's a serrated edge, like every other verse is like hardcore, right? Romans, very thoughtful, very systematic, well thought out.

He's even thinking about imaginary objectors, and he's answering their objections to what he's already bringing up. This one, very intimate, right?

Very intimate. There's this amazing, beautiful intimacy he has with these people, and he reminds them that we've labored side by side together in the gospel,

Clement and all the others, and he says to these women, he says, agree in the Lord. And then he asks this true companion to help them.

So he's asking them as an apostle, just agree in the Lord. And he's asking the true companion, help them to agree in the

Lord. And what does he note? Here's what he notes. He says that they've been serving with Paul and the others in the gospel, all right?

So he's entreating them, true companion, please help them, ladies, agree in the

Lord. Look, we've been serving together with the gospel and Clement and the others, just agree in the

Lord. So he's really trying to bring together unity with these two women that have clearly had conflict with each other.

And I want to point out something that is not unique to this particular church. It has really been something that we have as local churches throughout the history of the church had to deal with, in my own experience as a pastor for many, many years,

I have seen this kind of conflict, destroy churches, destroy relationships. So it's not something that was unique to them.

And it's not something that just is a problem with women in the church. It's important to note that. Guys do this a lot.

Conflict, ignoring the central thing, the gospel, and allowing these little tiffs to actually separate us.

But it's a common tactic of the enemy always has been to divide, listen, to divide

God's people and fellow workers over non -gospel issues.

To divide God's people and, and I want to stress that because Paul stresses it, fellow workers over non -gospel issues.

Because isn't that what Paul does here? It's very short. Obviously he could expand on this, I'm sure, a lot.

He doesn't. All he does is say, have them agree in the Lord. Please help to have them agree in the

Lord. And remind us that we have been on mission to preach the good news of the gospel to the world.

We've done it together. So agree in the Lord. So for Paul, what's the central thing? The gospel.

Be unified. In a local church context, he's telling these women, agree in the

Lord and let's get back to work. Let's get back to preaching the gospel. Let's get back to glorifying

God. You see, personally, I have seen healthy churches collapse because of prideful competition between women.

The church I was a pastor at, it was thriving. I mean, I'm telling you, it was flourishing.

Probably about 750 members at one time never would have imagined that a church that was this strong with good leadership, phenomenal teaching, strong body, you never would have imagined that a church like this would have just disappeared and been erased.

And it is. It's gone now. It's gone. And in my experience, that particular healthy church collapsed because of prideful competition between women.

That's where it came from. It really was. It was prideful competition, right?

What's that look like? It looks like people want to be up front.

My opinion is most important. My opinion is gospel. I want to be the authority.

My plans are the ones that should be up front and prevail. It's my goals that we need to pay attention to.

It's my branding of this ministry. It's my pleasure, my likes.

It should feel like I want it to. And so there becomes prideful competition. We don't like to say that that is a thing for Christians, right?

Because we're sanctified. We would never see somebody's success and mission or whatever and say,

I want that. Like we never just say, praise God, all glory to God for that.

We oftentimes will look across the way and become get bitter and have jealousy because we see somebody else's successes or we see somebody else's gifts and we become jealous of it, become bitter of it.

And that begins to bring tension and conflict between us. But it is a common tactic of the enemy to divide

God's church from the inside. You see, we often think the enemies of the church on the outside, the spiritual attacks are on the outside.

And when we see them, they're going to be obvious to us because it's from unbelievers. It's from the world.

We're ready for that. And we're going to join together. We're going to unite. Well, the enemy knows that too, right?

The enemy knows that we see those things as obvious many times. And so we're ready.

Our defenses are up and we're ready to fight and ready to die for the truth. But oftentimes we don't recognize the kind of spiritual discord that the enemy could sow amongst believers in a local body.

And you can have two women that have served with the apostle Paul, a giant of the

Christian faith. They served with Paul and they can't agree, right? They've served with the apostle

Paul who wrote much of the New Testament. And these two ladies can't agree. Whatever it is, it's not a gospel issue ultimately, because Paul would probably be addressing it.

What does he do? Have them agree. We don't know what the conflict was. We don't know, but we know that the enemy does sow discord between believers at times.

We have to ask the question, what's Paul say to do? A very short space here. He's got limited time. What's he ultimately say?

He says, here's the thing. Ready? Here's the thing. I'm not going to settle the dispute. I'm not going to tell you who's right. All I'm going to say is tell the two women, agree in the

Lord. Help me, help me to help them to agree in the

Lord. Why? We've served together in the gospel, so get it together. I honestly believe this might sound abrasive and cutting.

I don't mean it in any kind of prideful way, but I just think some of the best ways to thwart the attacks of the enemy and bringing this kind of discord into obviously healthy believers is simply this.

Keep the gospel the main thing, and if you have disagreements around the edges of things, the answer is very spiritual answer here.

Shut up. Does that make sense? Is that too heavy?

Shut up. Agree in the Lord. Agree in the Lord. The enemy will use these kinds of conflicts to sow discord and division in the body, and you know what's amazing?

The church that I saw disappear literally doesn't exist today. 750 people strong, very healthy.

You can ask Luke and Cheryl and Candy and my family. Very strong church. It's gone today because of competition between women that couldn't agree in the

Lord over things that today if you were to ask them, what was so important? They'd probably tell you, I forgot.

I forgot. So the question is, are we willing as believers to take that kind of charge from the apostle

Paul, agree in the Lord? Yes, but you know, I have my, no, agree in the Lord. Make the gospel central, agree in the

Lord. So we have to ask those questions because we have this conflict often.

You see it at times in social media. You see it with believers who believe in the triune

God of scripture, believe in the inerrancy of scripture. This is God's book. It's his word. It's the standard. They believe in the same gospel, and they will oftentimes separate, start attacking each other.

They will not agree in the Lord. They will not keep the gospel central because it's the club of internet lookalikes.

You must look like me. You must look like me.

Stress on the me. You got to look like me. It's pride.

It's pride that causes people to not agree in the Lord and to keep the gospel central.

It's pride that wants everyone to look just like me. My likes, my dislikes are the gospel.

Paul reminds them of the main focus, the gospel. And so he says to them, make it right.

Shut up. Make it right. Keep the gospel central. So I think if we ever have conflict in the church, and it's not over very serious issues of sin, it's about minor disagreements, the counsel coming from your pastors is going to be, agree in the

Lord and shut up. Right? Don't let these things become a hindrance to our labor as fellow workers together in the gospel.

Keep the gospel central. This past week, I had somebody contact me, a pastor in Chicago.

He has been on in all of the news stories over the last week. You have the media coming and showing up to his door.

Just he contacted me this morning and he said that he had, I think he said 10 news agencies at church because he has been doing church.

He opened for church. Initially he closed. And then he saw the sermon to the governor and he said, all right, we're going to open back up.

So praise God. He opened back up and immediately governments start speaking to him.

The mayor started speaking towards him, addressing him and the media started showing up. So he contacted me and he said,

Hey, your ministry has blessed us. He says, I love Dr. White. I love your ministry.

I love apology at church. You guys have been a huge blessing in my life. He said, I wanted to know if you can come on and do a live thing with me so we can explain to the government generally and to Christians why we're doing what we're doing.

And my, I don't know this man. So here's what I said at first. I said, Oh, that sounds interesting.

Are you Trinitarian? And then he's like, LOL. He said, absolutely brother.

And I said, and do you believe that salvation is through faith in Christ alone? According to his work? I mean, I'm like,

I'm pouring like 10 on top because of Jesus apart from works. And I'm just throwing it's Jesus alone through faith.

And he says, I would expect nothing less from you, pastor Jeff. Absolutely. Trinity gospel of God's grace through faith in Jesus alone, apart from any work at all.

And I was like, praise God. What time do you want me on? Because this man is actually a

Pentecostal. He's super charismatic. I hear some applause going on over here.

Okay. But he's, you know, super charismatic.

And you know, like, I mean, I, I, you talk to him and like, he's super joyful and excited. And you know, you'd sort of like you're worn down after an hour because he's just so full of energy and you're like, yeah, you should be a

Pentecostal. Um, but my point is, is this, is that in a situation like this, where we have the government after churches in justices being promulgated across the country, all these false narratives and everything else, what's the most important thing?

Should the gospel, should we reject that kind of essential unity? Do I have disagreements with this brother?

Very serious disagreements. And I think they're very important issues, but we're talking about the same

God and the same gospel. We have to agree in the Lord and those important moments of the battle.

What's best is to shut up and focus on the essential things agree in the

Lord. But a lot of people don't want to do that, especially on the internet, right? We want to brand reform theology, right?

Truly reformed. We've got the trademark, right? And if you don't agree with me in all these areas, well, then you're not reformed, probably not a

Christian and you're of the devil or something like that, right? For Paul, he says, keep the gospel central.

We've been working together. He says, agree in the Lord. And that's it. I think we need to take that counsel.

We need to take it to heart. Just quickly, I'll just point you to the passage, I think that should be underneath Apologia Church at all times and how we deal with these sorts of conflicts.

And I want you to move to Romans chapter 12. I'm just going to point you to it and just read through a few verses here. So you can get a picture of how

Paul deals with the body. He talks about the gospel. How does God save? What's it all about? Justification.

God's plan for the future. And then in Romans 12, he's speaking specifically about unity in the body.

So when he says to the church over here, agree in the Lord, just agree in the Lord, keep the gospel, the main thing.

Well, he spoke in other places about how we should be living, breathing, moving, thinking together as the body of Christ.

Romans chapter 12, verse 1, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, but your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

That'll solve so many problems in the church. But to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

Let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Here it is. Let love be genuine. That's the church. Ready? What it means is this.

Let love be without hypocrisy, without pretending. That's what it means. Let your love be without pretending.

You come into the body of Christ, local body of believers. If you're having a hard time genuinely loving someone, you need to repent of that before God.

You give it to God, and you learn to genuinely love one another, because flattery is a sin. False love to a fellow believer is sinful.

Stop pretending. Let love be genuine. You know, hypocritical love will be the thing that leads to conflict within the body, because we are faking that we love each other, right?

Jesus bought these people, gave them gifts, and sovereignly put you together in their body with them, alongside them.

So he says, love them genuinely. Yes, God, but love them genuinely, without hypocrisy.

And Paul says, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope.

Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality.

I'll stop there for today. Right? That's how we're supposed to live together. You want to see what the standard says?

You want to see what the word of God says about our life together in the body? Well, you see how the Bible puts it.

We keep the central things central. The important things important. Keep the gospel up front.

Agree in the Lord, and we live together. Sam Apostle wrote both here, Romans 12 and Philippians.

If you want to expatiate on what it looks like to live together in the body of Christ in a local body under elders, well, you have it right there from the

Apostle Paul. That's what he says. So, let's move on now. In Philippians chapter 4, after he entreats these women, tells them to agree in the

Lord, asks for help in that. He reminds them that he labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers.

And he says, whose names are in the book of life.

Now, it's almost like, huh? Right? Just sort of just appears there.

He's not expanding on it, right? We can't unpack Philippians anymore for like references to the book of life.

I'm like, what exactly does this mean? So, we have to take the Apostle Paul and say, well, what does he tell us about God?

What's his theology? What's he tell us about salvation? What's his soteriology? And what's he tell us about the future?

His eschatology and find out, well, what exactly does he teach about those things? And we know exactly what he teaches about those things.

He teaches about the sovereign grace of God. In this one letter alone, I'll point you to it. Philippians chapter 129.

What's he teach us about faith? It's a gift of God. What's he teach us about salvation in chapter one?

God started it. God's going to finish it. In chapter three, it's Christ's righteousness, not ours, not our works, not our obedience.

What else does Paul teach about salvation and the sovereignty of God? Just quickly, I want you to have it in your toolbox.

Ephesians chapter one, move over to the left, couple pages. And I want you to see it with your own eyes.

Very important. If we're going to talk about the book of life, what is it? Who's in there? Whose names are there?

What's it matter to me? So what? We need to know what the apostle Paul taught about the sovereign grace of God, about his choosing, about this book.

In Ephesians chapter one, he says in verse three, blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

This is controversial. Even as he, who? God, chose us in him.

Okay. Before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In verse 11, in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will.

That's quite a sovereign God. That's Paul teaching about God's predestining, about us before the foundation of the world, being chosen in him before the foundation of the world.

That's what Paul teaches. Chapter two, you know this one. Most evangelicals do, right? Think about this for a second.

Say it back to me. Let's do it together. For by grace are you saved? See? Got it, right?

I can do that anywhere, in any evangelical church, and they got it.

Like, that's the verse. It's the memory verse. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not according to works, lest any man should boast.

And we go, see? Salvation is a gift of God. And the answer is yes, it is, completely.

The grace and the faith, gifts of God. But have you read Ephesians 2?

Like, more? Like, above and below? It's actually a bigger story. It's not just like, you know, this, you know, coming to God and no works, right?

It's all his gift, and he does it all. It's through Jesus alone. That's true, but there's a little more to it.

Here's what it says. Chapter two, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

So get it, and you'll get the book of life story. Dead in your sins and trespasses, and you were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

So ready, everyone? Let's do this. We've got believers who once were here, and they were by nature children of wrath, like everybody else.

So everyone's in the same category, right? Children of wrath, all of them dead.

Believers, you were there, Paul says. He says, but God, but God being rich in, here it is, category of mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you've been saved.

So Paul's definition of the, by grace you've been saved, is you were dead, child of wrath, ready?

Corpse. And he says, God and his mercy and love made you alive, by grace you've been saved.

Unmerited. God's choosing. God's grace. By the way, after two, chapter two comes after one, is chapter one, where he says, he chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world.

So question, real important thing here, because you're going to get book of life category when you consider Paul's soteriology and really the clear teaching throughout scripture.

This is something that takes place before the world began. You weren't there. It's not your choice. It's God's choice.

And on what basis? Mercy, love. And we see dead sinners, children of wrath, who are made alive by God.

Where are you in that? Where was your part in that story? You see, that's grace, biblical grace.

It's the kind of grace that other religions can't comprehend. Because you see, you have religions like Roman Catholicism that will say, oh no, no, no, you must have

God's grace. God's grace is essential. You need grace. It's faith in Jesus. Oh, all glory to Jesus, right?

You need that grace. But that grace is never effectual. It's never enough.

It's not the kind of grace that scripture talks about when it talks about dead people being made alive. That's a powerful biblical

God grace, the true living God, his grace. But that's what

Paul teaches. You want more on it? Go read Romans 9. If you want to see it unpacked and devastate man -centered religion, go watch

Dr. White's debate with Layton Flowers. Next. What's the book of life?

Philippians chapter 4. What is the book of life? We got to ask that question. What is it?

Well, let's be honest. If we're going to do it faithfully, Paul's not talking about the book of life throughout all of his letters.

And so we have to use the principle of tota scriptura. Does the Bible talk anywhere else about book of life?

What's it say? Well, it happens to be the case that the apostle John talks actually quite a bit about the book of life.

And it's in the book of Revelation, the book you would probably think it would be in the most. And let's go to it.

Let's go to it. Revelation chapter 3. Every time we go to Revelation, everyone gets secretly excited, right?

Revelation chapter 3. John receives this revelation.

As you get there, I believe that the apostle John, he was really one of the only surviving apostles during the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, the predicted fall of Jerusalem.

I think that John received this revelation of Jesus Christ while in exile in a place called

Patmos. I believe that he was sent there by Nero. But all that to say, there's a particular context to John and these churches and who's being warned and who's being encouraged.

There's severe persecution going on. Roman persecution from the state.

And you've got persecution from people who say they are Jews. They're not. They lie. They're a synagogue of Satan.

That's what Jesus says. They're not real Jews. You're the true Jews. You're the true children of Abraham, the ones who have faith in Jesus Christ.

These are not real Jews. So they're persecuting you, but don't worry. They're not even really Jews. They're a synagogue of Satan.

You're the true Jews. So all kinds of encouragement because there is some severe persecution going on that's being spoken to in this particular book.

But in Revelation chapter three, verse five, it says,

I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Wow. It's awesome.

It's powerful. These are words that are promises from God and it's to a church.

It's to a church. It's not doing real well. And the promise is to those few, verse four, names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments for they're worthy.

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments. And I will never blot his name out of the book of life.

I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Names, names.

But there's a mention here about a book of life. I will never blot his name out of the book of life.

I don't think that there's any concern there in terms of God having an eraser. Don't worry.

I won't blot it out because I will blot some names out. I think it's a promise. And you're going to see here that it actually is a promise.

There isn't blotting out of the book. There's no erasing. There's no being rejected out of the book of life.

We'll expand on that later. But this, I wanted to point this out because I think it's important to note. John says, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments.

Some translations may say overcomes, but we have to ask the question, well, what does it mean to conquer?

Like, I want to be there. I want to overcome. Well, John wrote this and John wrote 1

John 5. So just take it to the left a little bit so you can see what it means to overcome, what it means to conquer.

And it's in 1 John 5. And let's just start at the very beginning here so you can see what

John says. Everyone who believes, verse 1, that Jesus is the

Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.

By this, we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey

His commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the

Son of God? So if you want to know biblically in context, John's writing here, what does it mean to be a conqueror?

What does it mean to overcome? When Jesus gives this promise about those who conquer, they'll be clothed and thus in white garments, those who overcome, they'll be clothed in white garments.

You have a word from God in 1 John 5. Who is it that overcomes the world? Who is it that conquers except the one who believes that Jesus is the

Son of God? It's faith. It's faith in Christ, trusting in Him. That's the overcoming.

That's the conquering. But the promise is that your name will not be taken out of the book of life.

Those who overcome, those who believe, those who trust in Jesus. Another verse,

Revelation 13, verse 8. Revelation 13, verse 8.

This is in the particular portion of Revelation where the beast is described.

Now, I'd love to do an entire explanation of what I think this is in detail.

I think I've done it in our series on Matthew just a little bit. I do believe that what's being described here is ultimately the

Roman Empire codified in Nero. Nero persecuted the saints for 42 months. 666 in the

Hebrew cryptogram spells Nero on Kaiser. Nero did demand ultimate allegiance and obedience.

Pastor James said at the beginning today, what were early Christians called? Atheists. Why? Because they denied the gods, right, of the

Romans. They denied all these gods. Rome's saying, look, that's fine. You can have your god in the mix, but you got to acknowledge our ultimate authority.

These gods are important too. Christians said, no, only Jesus is Lord. They wouldn't say Kaiser, Kyrios. Well, now you've got

Revelation 13 talking about a beast making war with the saints, trying to conquer them.

In Revelation 13, 8, it says, and all who dwell on the earth will worship it.

What? The beast. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world.

When is that? Before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb, the book of the life of the lamb who was slain.

So what do we know about this book of life? We know that it was written before the foundation of the world.

We know it's described as the book of life of the lamb who was slain. When was

Jesus slain according to scripture in terms of God's decree, his predestining? He's a lamb slain, what?

Before the foundation of the world. So this is a plan of God. It's a book.

It has names in it. But I want to point something out about this particular text. It says this, verse 8, all who dwell on the earth will worship it, the beast.

Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world. So it's interesting.

It's interesting. It doesn't say not worshiping the beast puts you in the book. Did you get it?

Not worshiping the beast will put you in the book. No, it says that everybody will worship the name of the beast who has not been written in this book.

Being in that book is the thing that keeps you from worshiping the beast.

Do you see the direction? Right? Foundation of the world, your name's in it.

Everyone whose name is in this book will be kept from worshiping the name of the beast. Starting to sound like Paul?

Right? He that began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

It's starting to sound like Calvinism and it's delicious. But it's important,

I think, just to make a pastoral note here in terms of this. I do believe that there's a lot happening here in the book of Revelation related to Rome, the conflict of the church with Rome.

Rome is persecuting the saints. You've got Rome elevating itself to the ultimate standard.

The emperor is the ultimate. He is ultimately God. There's the beast and everybody is simply following the ultimate.

Oh yes, Caesar, your Lord. Caesar will obey. Caesar will yield.

Your word is final. Your ultimate. We will give you full allegiance. Early Christians said no.

Jesus is Lord. He's the king. He's the ultimate. Human government is great.

It's good. But it can also become a beast. And what it says about the

Christians is that those who are written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world, these are the people who will not worship the beast.

They will not give it ultimacy. They will not give it the place of supremacy in their lives.

They will not bow and worship the beast. There's a lot of really solid application that can be made here in terms of our current circumstances with government.

Amen. Revelation 17 verse 8. Just pointing you to the text of this book.

Revelation 17, 8. It says, the beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.

And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast because it was and it is.

It is not and is to come. So again, here's an example of people marveling at this.

Marveling at this. And the ones who don't are the ones whose names have been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.

They will not marvel. Why will they not marvel? Because they've been written in this book. When? Before the foundation of the world.

That's what keeps them from marveling. It protects them. God preserves them. And finally,

Revelation 20, verse 11. Here it says, then

I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it from his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and make note of this books.

Books were opened books. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

So you have now this picture of the judgment of the day of final resurrection and judgment.

There is a day coming. There is a day coming. Make no mistake about it.

You can argue with it. You can disagree. You can choose to ignore, but there is a day coming.

And this is what's ahead of all of us. There is a day of judgment. And on this day of judgment, scripture says there are books and people are going to be raised to actually be judged by what's in these books.

What's in the books apparently are deeds. There are deeds in the books.

And then there is a book that we know, according to the text, was actually written before the foundation of the world.

And according to this, there are names in this book. There are books with deeds, a record.

People are judged by what they have done. They are storing up wrath. Even at this moment, there are books with deeds and they are judged and cast into the lake of fire in the end.

And then there is a book of the Lamb, a book of life. And this book has names chosen by God before the foundation of the world.

And so the question that has to be asked to a room and everybody listening across the internet is, is your name in the book of life?

Are you in that book? Is your name in that book? Or will you be the person standing before God's throne, the perfect judge who will always do right, who knows every detail of your life comprehensively better than you do.

Every thought, every step, every turn, every dark alley, every dark night, every secret room, every corner, every detail.

You see, there's this judge who has books with deeds. And people are raised to stand before the perfect judge and his law is perfect.

The Bible says, whosoever keep the whole law and stumble in one point, he's guilty of all of it.

You're a transgressor of the law, you're guilty. We are all guilty before God. But the thing that keeps people from incurring that judgment and the lake of fire is that they are in the

Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. There's a book with names. Is yours in it?

Is yours in it? Because this is the judgment. People will be judged according to their works. And Paul says in Romans chapter 2 very clearly, if you don't know

Jesus, if you don't trust him, you are storing up wrath for the day of judgment.

Every detail. There's a record and you'll be judged. And there is a lake of fire that you'll be put into.

But people will be kept from that. And who are they? They are those who are in the Lamb's book of life, whose names are in there.

Don't you... I find that so amazing. The description here, the emphasis is on books with deeds and judgment according to deeds.

And then there's a book with names. Names. That's so intimate.

It's so intimate. And it's the Lamb's book of life.

It's his book. It's his book. The one who was slain before the foundation of the world.

And here's the thing. Look, can we just say it already? This rubs against the flesh and human reasoning and our own haughtiness.

And we show that we are creatures in rebellion against a holy and a sovereign God, the only

God. Because when we hear a sovereign God who chooses, he gives mercy, he gives love, he sets his love upon people, he makes them alive, he saves them, he dies for them.

There's a book. And then there are those who are judged according to their deeds and they go to hell. We say, what?

First thing, what? That's not what? Fair. Let's be straight.

Let's be clear. Let's have a biblical worldview. Fair is that all those children of wrath go to that lake of fire.

What we do not want from God is fair. We don't want his justice.

You see, getting God's justice means all of us go to hell. Scripture doesn't talk in categories like that, right?

Like the people of God, those who've been saved by Jesus, we just want God to be just with us and judge us according to his law.

No, no. Flee from that. Hide in Jesus completely.

You see, what's fair for God is for all of us to burn in hell forever. That's the truth. Accept it, believe it.

That's the biblical story. You see, what's happening with the book of life is this.

Grace. Grace. You could ask a million questions.

You could say, yeah, but like why? And the answers you can get can only come from scripture if they're going to be certain.

Mercy, love, grace. Mercy, love, and grace. And somebody could say, well, why doesn't he just do it for everybody?

Why doesn't God do it for everybody? Why doesn't God just spread it out and give everybody mercy, love, and grace?

Friends, that's not the nature of special love and mercy and grace, but also, you know what's amazing?

I'm going to challenge you. If you are right now being challenged by what I'm saying about the book of life and God's free act of mercy, love, and grace and his sovereignty over it, if you're being challenged by it and you're saying, no, he should just give it to everybody, then

I want to point out an inconsistency is that you don't really believe that. And I have proof because you don't act like that in human courts.

You don't. Think about it for a second. A person who says, I don't like the book of life concept and God choosing before the world began.

And he says who he'll love and who he'll give grace to and who he'll have mercy to. And he decides to glorify his justice in this way.

I don't like that. It must go to everybody. I dare you to stand in a human court and behave like that, right?

You're sitting in the back of the courtroom. The judge has cases going on. You've got convicted murderers and rapists and thieves, and they are guilty.

They confess it. There's evidence and there's eyewitness evidence and there's cameras and video and there's admitting to it.

Can you imagine the person who says that God must just give grace to everybody and mercy to everybody standing up as a judge delivers a sentence to the rapist and to the murderer and to the molester and to the liar and saying, your honor, your honor, excuse me.

Why can't you just be merciful? Why can't you just be gracious? Why can't you just be more loving your honor?

What the judge would say is this is a place of justice. This is a place where we talk about victims.

This is a place where we deal with crimes. The judge is under no obligation in a courtroom setting to be merciful.

What's a judge's duty in that context? Justice. And you know what's the compelling aspect of the book of life and all these books and all the rest?

The amazing thing is, is that the perfect judge, the ultimate judge, the one that we are all at war with, the amazing thing here is not that there are books with deeds and a place of fire that we all are worthy to go.

The amazing thing that should be compelling to everybody is that there is a book with names called the book of life and people's names are in that book and they were purchased by a savior that they don't deserve, never will, and they are in the presence of God for all eternity experiencing joy and peace with a

God that they offended every day of their life and he chose as the perfect judge to give them mercy, love, and grace.

You see the really incomprehensible thing here is that there is such a thing as a book of life and that there are names in it.

So the question is, is your name in it? I have so much more to say but I'm gonna hold back.

If you want to dig into this, if you want to dig into this, you're saying this is new to me, I'm struggling with it,

I want to understand the sovereign God. I'll give you some good resources. I'll just announce them here to dig some further study.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Lorraine Bettner, important work. If you haven't read it, go read it.

It's free online. There's a pdf. I hate reading things online. I need a book. You can get either. It is free though.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Lorraine Bettner. You can get The Potter's Freedom by our pastor

Dr. White. Read through this. Understand these concepts. But I'll just finish with these thoughts.

You have to ask the question when you think about the book of life that was written before the foundation of the world, the people's names who were in it.

Their names being in it keeps them from worshiping the beast and from falling. They overcome because they believe in Jesus.

According to scripture, what do we all deserve? Justice. Answer that question for yourself and you'll see the glory of the book of life.

According to scripture, what do we all deserve? Justice. Question. Can grace be demanded?

No. Question. According to scripture, what is the condition of fallen man?

According to scripture, John 6, 44, unable. He's unable to come to the Father. According to scripture, Ephesians chapter 2, he's dead.

According to scripture, Romans chapter 3, he doesn't seek for God. He's not righteous. That's the condition of man.

When you put those biblical categories into the question of the book of life, you'll understand what makes the book of life so incredible.

So the question I asked you was, there's a book of life and is your name in it? It's clear from scripture, the people whose names are in the book of life, the people who are justified, the people who are saved, the people who are in Christ are people who are recipients of mercy and grace and love.

And you can identify the person whose name is in the book of life by the fact that they are those who believe.

They are believing. Now, this is key. This is so important. Can I please address sort of a

Christian cultural idol for a second? We have been inundated with a perverse version of the gospel and what it means to believe in evangelicalism in the

West. And it's sort of like this. If you just acquiesce to a fact, like you say, like, yeah, that's true.

And you pray this magic prayer that that means that you believed in Jesus. And so you're saved and you're fine.

And it doesn't matter if there's no change in your life, no love for the brethren, no love for God, no love for God's word, no sanctifying work going on.

Because there was one time a guy came to my door from independent flubbermental

Baptist church and he had me pray this magic prayer. And so I'm saved, right?

I did it one time 30 years ago. Ever been to church? Nah. Love for God? Nah. I'm saved.

You have a desire for holiness, long for it? No. See the way the Bible talks about belief in Jesus Christ is trusting in Jesus Christ, not simply saying that's true.

It goes beyond mentally saying that's a true thing, but it goes into actually coming to be joined to Jesus, to trust in Jesus as Savior and as Lord.

Those whose names are in the book of life before the foundation of the world are those who are believing in Jesus Christ.

Are you believing in Jesus Christ or are you still dead? Are you still dead?

Can I point you to two sections of scripture just that are my favorite?

And I think that this expresses, because you want to hear from Jesus on this. You want to hear from him? You talk about a book of life before the foundation of the world.

This is all God's work. I can think of no better place to take us, but to the spaces where Jesus is really in this conversation.

And so let's sum it up here in these texts. Go to John. We're in a lot of John today.

Go to John and John six. I'm not reading this whole thing.

You should read it later. But go to John six. I want you to hear

Jesus having this conversation about a people that he's come to save.

And in John six, let's start in verse 35.

And I just want you to hear it. If you haven't heard it, you should. 35, Jesus said to them,

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the father gives me will come to me.

And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. Just a note here for a second. Do you see that?

You've seen me and yet do not believe. You've seen me. You don't believe.

All that the father gives me will come to me. So he, watch, he actually announces that they're not coming to him in faith was because they were not given to him by the father.

It's the giving of a people to Jesus by the father that ends up in their coming to Jesus.

Jesus explains their unbelief with this. All that the father gives me are going to come. You're not coming because you weren't given to me by the father.

Book of life. For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life.

And I will raise him up on the last day. Book of life.

You seeing it? The father gave people to Jesus before the world began.

There is a book of life that was written before the foundation of the world. In comes Jesus. He says, you've seen me.

You don't believe all that the father gives to me will come.

And I'll raise them up on the last day. That's a gracious God. We could go on, but I want you to see one more section is in John 10.

This is the good shepherd passage. I hope you get to know it because it is beautiful.

John 10, Jesus says, truly, truly,

I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him, the gatekeeper opens the sheep, hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of the strangers.

This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly,

I say to you on the door of the sheep, all who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

I'm the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Here it is. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for who?

The sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he has a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own book of life and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for who?

The sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also,

Jews and Gentiles, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I've received from my father.

And here we go. You got to see this. Verse 22. At that time, the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem.

It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense?

If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. You get this. Now get this. Why are you keeping a suspense?

Tell us if you're the Christ. Jesus answered. You got to get this book of life stuff.

God's saving stuff. Sovereign will of God. Get this. Tell us. Stop keeping us in suspense.

Jesus says, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among among my sheep.

You do not believe because you are not among my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

I and the father are one. That is a sovereign, amazing, powerful, powerful

God. And I'll leave you with this. This is the spot where Jesus talks about this thing being recorded.

It's the spot. You've been waiting for it. Here it is. Luke 10, 10.

Jesus says, did I give you the wrong?

I did give the wrong one. Hold on. Google's great. What's that?

Is that what? Hold on. 10 20.

There you go. There you go. Okay. 10 20. Okay.

There it is. Jesus says, nevertheless, to his disciples, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

It's amazing. They're seeing all these, all this demonic activity. All these demons are in subjection to them.

And they're probably felt pretty, pretty tight about that. Right? Like, it's pretty cool. I got a lot of power. It probably felt pretty amazing.

There's a lot of stuff going, a lot of demonic activity going on at this time. And he says to his followers, don't rejoice over those ministry successes.

Don't rejoice over all your ministry success. Rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven.

Like that's the thing. That's the place Jesus anchors. It is in his sovereign will to save you. You're a sheep who hears his voice and believes because he chose you before the foundation of the world.

And your name is in that book solely by his sovereign grace and will alone. So all glory to God, all glory to God.

And the question I ask you again is this, there is a book of life is your name in it. And if you say, boy,

I hope so. I love Jesus. I would say, sounds like your name's in that book. Cause only people who are in that book love

Jesus and trust in him. So the call of the gospel is this to the world.

Jesus is the King. He's God in the flesh. He lived perfectly. He died for sinners and he rose again from the dead.

The command is to repent and to believe. Come and repent and trust in Jesus Christ.

So I call on you all turn to Christ and live. Let's pray.

Father, I pray you bless the word that went out today for the glory of Jesus. I pray that you would allow it to bring hope to your people, joy to your people.

And I pray Lord that this proclamation of your truth humbles the people who hear it and exalts

Christ in his power to save and to save perfectly. Thank you for that book,

Father. Thank you for your recording our names in heaven. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you purchased us and that Lord you are the lamb slain before the world even began, that there's nothing that's going to thwart your purpose.