The Book Of Life - [Malachi 3:16-18]

If you were tasked with trying to encourage someone, what would you say?

A brother or sister is going through a trial, something difficult, and you want to come alongside of them and

bolster them up.

What would you say to someone who's needing some encouragement?

Well, there's a variety of different approaches that you could take, but I'm going to give you a new one this morning.

You could talk to them about accounting, cost accounting.

How about that?

Let's talk to them about methods for recording transactions, keeping

financial records, performing internal audits, reporting and analyzing financial information to

the management and advising on taxation matters.

Would that be encouraging?

On a side note, I don't think I got any Ds or Fs in college except cost accounting 308.

I gladly paid the University of Nebraska that F grade.

What does accounting have to do with encouragement?

How could someone be encouraged because of accounting?

By the way, better ask this ahead of time.

Any accountants here today?

I know there's a few.

Would you be willing to admit it?

We love you anyway.

And now we're going to love you more because the way God often encourages His people

is that, He says basically this, I keep books.

I have many sets of books and I not only know your deeds that you do in My Son's name, but I

have a set of books that I wrote in eternity past with every Christian's name

on it.

And I know them.

I've unconditionally elected them.

I have their name written in the Lamb's book of life.

And I know everything that they do by their deeds.

And when the world is getting chaotic, when evil is going crazy, to see things from God's perspective,

He knows.

None of this has taken Him by surprise.

And He will never let the elect who've been written in the Lamb's book of life be shaken to the point

where they lose their salvation.

In Malachi, God encourages the people there by saying, I have a book of remembrance.

I have a set of books.

It's like cost accounting books that God keeps with the purpose of trying to

encourage the saints.

Before we go into Malachi, please turn to Psalm 73 this morning.

Psalm 73, I wanted to talk about it a little bit last week.

Answering and asking the question, is evil always going to

prosper?

Why do the wicked prosper?

Is it vain to serve God was one of the questions we looked at.

But evil people, they seem to prosper everywhere.

So how do we look at this problem and how do we solve it?

And so with the Lamb's book of life, with the book of remembrance, with every other issue in life, when you see

things from God's perspective, everything becomes clear.

From my perspective, dark, murky, anything except

crystal clear.

I see things dimly and through opaque glass.

But God, when you see from His perspective, everything just falls into place.

And Psalm 73 asks the question, why do people prosper who are evil?

And then the psalmist finally figures it out.

When I see things from God's perspective, everything's fine.

It is well with my soul when I look from God's perspective.

Or to quote Grandma Evie, Kim's grandmother who raised her, when you just

glance up at God every once in a while and you gaze upon all the world's problems and your own problems,

life is very difficult.

It is not well with your soul.

But when your focus is on gazing upon who God is and seeing things from His perspective,

and only then glancing a little bit at your problems, you'll be very, very content and very, very

joy -filled.

The Puritan Thomas Brooks said, two things are very rare.

The one is to see a young man humble and watchful.

The other rare thing is to see an old man content and cheerful.

To be watchful and humble and to be cheerful is found through seeing things

from God's perspective.

I know I want to be more contented, don't you?

I want to be more humble, don't you?

I want to be more cheerful, don't you?

Seeing things from the right perspective.

Psalm 73, I'll just walk through it very quickly because it really, along with Psalm 37,

is the go -to psalm for you to say, oh, I forgot about looking through the

world, through the lens of Scripture and seeing things from God's perspective.

You should just probably take your hand where the poem is right here and just do that

to your Bible so you get to Psalm 73 when you need to.

And if you have an iPad, well, no blessings for you.

Psalm, my iPad mini that I preach from, two years, never had a problem ever.

And then the thing burns to death basically two weeks ago.

So I thought, all right.

Psalm 73, and again, we're in Malachi.

Malachi is saying, do evil people prosper?

And this is going to lead us back into Malachi as we see things through God's perspective.

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

He's good to Israel, but I wonder if He's good to me.

And that's what the psalm must ask in verse 2.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped.

I'm losing confidence in you, God.

My trust in you is wavering.

It's teeter -tottering because the wicked people are prospering.

Why is this true?

Verse 3, for I was envious of the arrogant.

They've got it good when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Prosperity there is shalom, peace on every side.

They have a full life, a contented life.

Everything seems to be going their way.

They're making a dollar a minute.

Verse 4, they have no pangs until death.

Their bodies are fat and sleek.

They're not in trouble as others are.

They're not stricken like the rest of mankind.

See, this is making the psalmist stumble.

Therefore, pride is their necklace.

They just flaunt it.

Violence covers them as a garment.

They wear their evil deeds like clothes.

Their eyes swell out through fatness.

Their hearts overflow with follies.

I mean, their bank account bulges out of their eyes.

They scoff and speak with malice.

Loftily, they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth.

Who are you, God?

Mocking God.

You can't touch me, say the wicked.

Therefore, verse 10, is people turn back to them and find no fault in them.

Maybe the Israelites, maybe even I, the psalmist says, I'm tempted to go down that path because it's pragmatic, it works.

And they say, how can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?

I mean, God is not omniscient.

He can't see all this because if He was omniscient and He was powerful and if He was a God of justice, He'd

do something about it.

He's taken a nap.

Behold, these are the wicked.

Always at ease, they increase in riches,

exponentially growing in their contentment.

Has it been worth it?

Verse 13, the psalmist says, All in vain have I kept my heart clean.

I mean, I've been trying to live a holy life for no good reason.

Wash my hands in innocence.

They, the wicked, get prosperity and I, the godly, don't get anything.

It'd be bad enough if they prospered and I was okay or I got rewarded in life, but they get the goods and I get

nothing and it just seems wrong.

For all the day long, verse 14, I've been stricken and rebuked every morning.

And you can see, here's what's happening.

The emotions of the psalmist are getting to him.

Instead of saying, the Bible is going to be my guide, I put emotions over

that, I put experience over the Bible and then things begin crumbling.

I'm gazing at the problem.

I'm gazing at the wicked instead of glancing at them and my perception of the

Lord is just in the distance.

If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

I could influence people negatively.

I don't want to do that.

But when I thought how to understand this, here comes the sunrise.

It's dark outside.

The sun comes up over the horizon.

It seemed to me a wearisome task until, here's a change of perspective, until

I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end.

I see things now through the lens of the greatness of God, the majesty of God, the brilliance of

God.

I see things from God's perspective now and they're wicked people.

They're not going to prosper forever.

Verse 18, truly you set them in slippery places.

You make them fall to ruin.

How they're destroyed in a moment.

Swept away utterly by terrors, plural.

Like a dream when one awakes, oh Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantom.

They are here today and what?

Gone tomorrow.

I'm analyzing them wrongly through my own perception, through my own experiences.

They don't always prosper and they won't eventually prosper.

When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant.

I was like a beast toward you.

God, when I didn't think of things from your perspective, I didn't honor your word first.

I let emotions go, experience go, culture go, media go.

It all influenced me.

You know what?

I'm no different than a dog.

My dog doesn't analyze current events.

I think maybe my dog watched the GOP debate, but I don't know who she was voting for.

And if dogs don't vote, I know cats especially don't vote, right?

Just kidding.

Just kidding.

It's just an inside joke.

I'm going to look at the world through secular eyes.

That's what animals do.

So when I see the world, when I see evil, when I see our own government, when I

see ISIS, when I see all those things, I mean, it is fair to say, if left to our

own hearts, we could ask ourselves, do you know what?

This is going to get really bad before it gets any good.

And I don't know who could solve the problem.

And you become despairing.

You become not content.

You become not cheerful.

And this almost flashes back to remembering who God is.

Nevertheless, verse 23, I am continually with you.

Not I hold your hand, God, but you hold my right hand.

You're the one who's doing it.

You're in control of the universe.

You're the omniscient, omnipresent, just, compassionate, patient, sovereign

God.

You've got a hold on me.

You guide me with your counsel.

And afterward, you will receive me to glory.

They get hell.

I get heaven.

They get punishment.

I got a Savior who was punished in my place.

Therefore, why are these people so bad?

Is the earth going to get better?

No, the question is verse 25 instead.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

That's the right perspective.

There's none on earth that I desire beside you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion

forever.

And I just wrote down in my notes, that is like the Nesty Plunge commercial.

If you don't know the Nesty Plunge commercial, you can probably type on YouTube after the service.

And you know, it's an arid day.

It's a hot day.

It's in the middle of the summer.

And you're thirsty and you've been working out.

And you just drink that iced tea.

It's as if you just fall backwards into the pool and you're refreshed.

It's ah, a Nesty Plunge.

You want some of that right now, don't you?

Nothing has changed on the earth.

The evil people didn't repent here.

They didn't get better.

They didn't pass legislation.

They didn't stop eviling.

To make up words.

God, you're the rock of my heart.

That's the Hebrew.

You're my rock.

You don't move.

They move.

I move.

My emotions move.

Everything about me moves, except you don't move.

Verse 27, For behold, those who are far from you shall perish.

Do the evil always prosper?

No way.

But you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

On the flip side, Asaph, he knows what's right.

But for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your

works.

Verse 17 is the key.

Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end.

Now we can move to Malachi.

Please turn to Malachi chapter 3.

Do the evil always prosper?

Why do the wicked people have a good life?

The answer can only be found, not through our own eyes, not through our own experiences, not through our own

pragmatical approaches, not through reading H .G. Wells' History of the World.

Seeing things from God's perspective, then there's encouragement to the saints.

And so, what happens in the book of Malachi?

We move to see things from God's perspective.

There are some people who are wicked.

There are some saints who are struggling, followers of Yahweh, and they need encouragement.

And the encouragement is going to be found by seeing things from God's perspective.

What does God have to say about this?

I love this passage in Malachi.

And we're going to look at verses 16 -18 today of Malachi chapter

3.

In the middle of the hard words of Malachi.

Malachi I could term like a ball -peen hammer.

Know what a ball -peen hammer is?

Okay, a claw hammer.

What's another kind of hammer?

Sledgehammer.

That's the kind of preaching this is.

It's a burden.

It's an oracle.

And he is sledgehammering the recalcitrant hearts of the people

to make them soft and malleable and pliable.

And then out of nowhere, there's these wonderful words, encouraging words, kind

words.

I think it's fair to say that as I studied this passage this week, I said to myself, where's this passage been

all my life?

Why have I just skipped over it?

And I'm sure there are passages like that in Joel and Hosea and Amos and Obadiah and Jonah and many of the other

minor prophets.

I mean, sometimes I think, you know, minor prophets are only good for one thing.

When you do family Bible time and family worship time, you have teenagers, stay in the minor prophets.

Why?

Because God always judges sin.

He finds you out.

It's good for teenagers to know.

Adolescents need to know that.

There's also, of course, restoration and the kindness of God.

And here's one of those little flare -ups of seeing things from God's perspective and you go,

this can hold me through those days that I'm in the hospital ministering.

This will hold me through the days when I'm in the hospital being ministered to.

It's all for encouragement.

How do you encourage godly people in a wicked world?

God keeps books on His people.

He knows everything.

He's faithful and true and trustworthy.

And let's work through the passage and then we'll talk about the Lamb's Book of Life after we see the Book of

Remembrance.

We are going to answer the accusation that God lets the wicked off the hook

and never rewards the righteous.

Then, verse 16 of Malachi 3,

those who feared the Lord, feared Yahweh.

Notice it's the first time that feared the Lord is used in this verse.

There's going to be another time it's used in this verse.

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another.

The Lord paid attention and heard them.

And a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and

esteemed His name.

The wicked people, the naysayers, the unbelievers, they've had their say.

And now let's see things from God's perspective.

Those who feared the Lord began to talk to one another.

By the way, we don't know exactly what they were saying.

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew, said that they were speaking ill of the

things spoken by the wicked.

They were disagreeing with the wicked.

But we don't know exactly what they were saying.

But they were talking and they were the ones that feared the Lord.

They were the ones that said, I have a reverence for God, an awe for God, a fear for God.

The beginning of wisdom is the what? Fear of the Lord.

Fear of the Lord can be translated and described many different ways.

But if God the Son walked into the room, the adoration and respect and

awe and deference that you would have would show that you feared Jesus Christ.

Worshiping the conclusion, when all has been heard is, fear God and keep His commandments,

said Solomon.

And these people who fear the Lord in the midst of all the chaos, it says the Lord paid

attention and heard them.

I wonder if it's vain to serve God.

And a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name.

Okay, here's the setting.

Here's the background.

Kings back in the old days had records.

Who did bad things?

Who did good things?

And they were written down.

Let me give you a few verses from Esther.

On that night, the king Xerxes could not sleep and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds,

the chronicles, and they were read before the king.

He kept books of what happened.

Bad people who did things, he also had books for those.

Chapter 2, when the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men were both hanged on the gallows

and it was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.

When they impaled them on stakes, let's put that in the books of the king too, because kings become

senile, kings forget, kings don't remember.

And so the idea here, using scripture, is similar to an honor roll

for the king's perusal and similar to a dishonorable roll,

God remembers.

God knows the deeds of the evil and He knows the deeds of those who have

not, as it were, bowed their knee to Baal.

It's a scroll.

It's a written archives.

He's got a library.

He knows what they have done.

He knows what they've said.

He knows the godly people's accomplishments.

He knows all those things because they're written down.

God remembers.

He's got a book of remembrance.

The Net Bible translates it this way.

A scroll was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord

and honored His name.

Leon Morris describes it further.

In heaven, God keeps records of not just the actions of His people, but even of their thoughts.

This verse indicates His particular pleasure when His people truly fear the Lord and He occupies both their

conversations and their inward thoughts, even, perhaps especially, when most of their

contemporaries ignore or reject Him.

God knows, He understands, and it's been recorded.

He's not forgetting.

This is to encourage the people.

You know, on a much lower scale, you know, I minister to church people behind the scenes all the time.

Does anybody ever notice?

Well, certainly the Lord knows.

And do you notice a text?

Take a look at it.

Written before Him.

Constant reminder before the face of God.

Language so that we understand He never forgets.

We're always before His very eyes.

What we've done, what we've said before Him, right in His presence.

These are the names that He's written.

These are the deeds of the people that He has written down.

He knows.

Verse 17.

"'They shall be Mine,' says Yahweh of hosts, "'in the day when I make

up My treasured possession, "'and I will spare them as a man spares his son who

serves him.'".

Is it still vain to serve God?

When here, of course, for Israel, but it's true for the church as well.

Treasured possession.

They'll be Mine.

Treasured possession found eight times in the Old Testament.

Here's one, Exodus 19.

"'You yourselves have seen what I've done to Egypt, "'how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to

Myself.

"'Now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, "'then out of all nations you will be My treasured

possession.'".

My treasured possession.

You have a treasured possession?

How do you take care of your treasured possession?

I mean, if your house is burning down and you've got to run back in and grab one thing, what would you grab?

I sometimes ask myself the question, I guess it's Kim and

Haley and Maddie.

What's that one treasure?

I mean, for me, maybe it's my father's ring that he bought in Korea when he was at the war, and I just think that symbolizes

everything my dad was to me.

I want that.

It's a treasured possession.

I wouldn't want to lose it.

And now, think.

Israel wasn't chosen because they were good, great, grand, or righteous.

God just chose them and said, "'You're Mine.

They shall be Mine.

"'I choose you.

You're My treasured possession.'".

And life is going chaotically, and you can think now of the church and of 1 Peter kind of language

that's very similar to this.

Life is upside down, and I'm before the face of God.

He knows me.

He understands me.

And because of Christ's work for me, Christ's life, death, resurrection, what He's done,

He knows who I am.

And can you imagine?

I'm a valued, treasured possession.

It's amazing to me to think through that.

Is it vain to serve God?

Of course not.

Read through the lens of the New Testament and the New Covenant, the Belgic Confession of this idea states,

"'The faithful and elect shall be crowned with glory and honor, "'and the Son of God will confess their names "'before

God His Father and His elect angels.

"'All tears shall be wiped from their eyes, "'and their cause, which is now condemned "'by many judges and

magistrates as heretical and impious, "'will then be known to the cause of the Son of God.

"'And for such a gracious reward, "'the Lord will cause them to possess such a glory "'as

never entered into the heart of man to conceive.'.

Therefore, we expect that great day with the most ardent desire to the end that we may fully enjoy the promises of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord.".

I mean, a treasured possession?

This is the way because of Christ God thinks of me?

He should be thinking of me as an evildoer, but God who's rich in mercy.

They will be, what's the text say?

They will be mine.

Active God doing the work.

We can't make ourselves God.

He's the one that chooses,

sovereignly, unconditionally elects people.

My friend years ago had to go to Miami from Los Angeles to sell a million -dollar

set of earrings so this particular person could go to Kenny Bunkport for the Bush's special

party.

And he said, well, you know what?

You don't just bring a million -dollar pair of earrings.

You bring some other things along too that you might sell.

He said, so I brought a $100 ,000 bracelet and a few other trinkets.

I said, by the way, when she put the earrings on in Miami and you had your special Massad -trained bodyguard

there, you know, and all that, what'd you say?

He said, you don't say anything.

This isn't Zales.

Sorry, does anybody here work at Zales?

There goes the accountants.

There goes the Zales workers.

This isn't a retail store in the Sears Town Mall.

And so she said, yes, those are lovely.

I'll take them.

He said, well, I brought a couple other things that you might be interested in.

Oh, let me please see them.

So he put the $100 ,000 wrist bracelet on her or the bracelet on her wrist.

I'll never forget it.

He said, she shook her hand like that and said, that's mine.

What else do you have?

That's mine.

So I don't know how to experience that, but one day after that story, I was pushing the shopping cart to the dollar store.

I'm not kidding.

I had such a great time.

I was like having a charismatic moment in the dollar store.

And I would just throw a piece of duct tape in there.

That's mine.

Some red vines.

That's mine.

Around I went.

That's mine.

And I could pick whatever I want.

I could pick as many as I wanted.

I was sovereign over that dollar store.

I didn't have to pick anything.

And with us, He shouldn't have picked us.

He shouldn't have picked Israel.

And God chooses Israel.

And then we know from the New Testament, Ephesians 1, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Peter 1, He

chooses Christians in eternity past and He says, they're mine.

Their names are before Me.

I don't forget.

It's all language so we know.

We might forget.

We would forget.

But God doesn't forget.

Exodus 2, when she opened it, she saw the child.

Behold, the baby was crying.

She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children.

It's that kind of language like when Moses was rescued.

Is it futile to serve God?

They shall be mine.

That's the language of covenant.

You say, well, this is Israel.

Okay, Israel's covenant.

There is a new covenant of which we take part.

Deuteronomy 7, 6, Of Israel, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of

all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Valuable, personal choice.

Is it vain to serve God?

I can give you the possession kind of language in Titus 2.

Jesus gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and

purify for Himself a people for His own possession.

He's mine.

She's mine.

Verse 18,.

Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked,

between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

There'll be a day where there's a distinguishing between those who follow the Lord

and those that don't.

You can even get a flavor of that in the next chapter.

Chapter 4, verse 1, The day's coming, behold, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the

evildoers will be stubble.

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave neither

root nor branch.

But as for you who fear My name, the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing

in its wings.

To use New Testament language, Jesus said in Matthew 13, The Son of Man will send out His

angels and they will weed out His kingdom, everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

He who has ears, let him hear.

There is a distinction in God's economy and it might not come on earth, it might not come before your very eyes.

God grinds away His justice slowly but surely, but on that day, that

judgment day, there is going to be a difference.

The wicked may appear to prosper, but judgment is their final end.

So the passage here, God basically says through Malachi, I know My people, I know their

deeds, it's not vain to worship Me, the evil don't always prosper.

I have a book and I write down their deeds and as they do things for My name, in fear and

esteem and honor, I write down what they do.

But you know, God has other books.

He has other books.

For instance, let me give you another book.

Psalm 56 .8 says, You have kept count of My tossings, put My tears in your bottle.

Are they not in your book?

God recognizes those who are suffering and having tears and God records those faithfully.

He doesn't forget.

He has another set of books too.

Psalm 139, Your eyes saw My unformed substance.

In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for Me, when as yet there was none of them.

There's a book of deeds that God knows who's done things in the Son's name and who hasn't.

There's a book that records for God so we know He'd never forget that He

understands the suffering of His people.

And here with David, God has a book that tells you how long you're going to live, that tells God how long you're going to live

because He's ordained that.

But the book I want to talk about for the rest of the time this morning is called the book of life.

It's not written in time.

God doesn't notice your tears and then write this particular book.

He doesn't notice your good deeds and then write.

Here's a book that's been written in eternity past before you were born, before Genesis

1, all the way back on, as far as you can think, times infinite eternity

past, God had a book and He wrote people's names in them and that's what we're going to talk about the rest of the time

because as the deeds written by the Israelites would encourage them, this will encourage you as well.

So let us go to the book of Revelation please, the book of Revelation chapter 13 and we're going to talk

about how you can be encouraged through the Lamb's book of life.

I know many people who will say, I don't talk about unconditional election because people become

offended.

God chooses some and not all.

Well friends, if it's in the Bible you ought to teach it.

Secondly, it's not there to offend per se, it's there to encourage.

But I do know it offends because it strikes to the heart of man.

What do you mean God's in charge of my salvation?

What do you mean I don't cooperate?

What do you mean I don't contribute 5 %?

What do you mean that God in eternity past chose some to go to heaven?

That goes against my pride.

And that just reveals that when we all have said that before as we've learned and grown, or maybe

some of you are saying that now, it's just showing your desire to want to be God.

Say, I don't like the way you do things God.

And remember God shouldn't have chosen anyone.

He looks down the corridors of time and sees a bunch of sinners and still chooses them.

God encourages Christians throughout the centuries that their names are

recorded in heaven.

Luke 10, 20, Jesus said, Rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.

I don't care what you're going through, what's going to bolster you to the very end is, God loves me and

God has chosen me and He will not erase my name from the book.

He is faithful to call me and I'm going to make it to the end.

The suffering people in the book of Peter, what do you tell suffering people?

Oh, it won't last long.

That's not what He said.

He did say, yes, look at the example of Jesus, but before that He talked about election,

choice.

Rejoice not in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Daniel 12, everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued.

We're talking about heaven and hell.

The elect written down, selected by God.

The destiny of people, Revelation 13, 8.

The book of life or the Lamb's book of life, many passages throughout all the Bible, but I want to just hone in on a few

here in Revelation.

So you can see the context is contentment and encouragement.

Revelation 13, 5, let's just give a little context.

Our verse is in verse 8, but let's begin reading in verse 5.

And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was

allowed to exercise authority for 42 months.

It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling,

that is all who dwell in heaven.

And it was also allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them and authority was given it over

every tribe and people and nation and language.

Here comes our verse.

And all who dwell on earth will worship it.

Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of

the Lamb who was slain.

If your name's not in the book, these people are just blindly following, worshiping someone

who's not God.

And did you notice the text please?

Written before the foundation of the world.

Don't let anybody ever tell you when he has the altar call, come up to the church so God can write your name in the Lamb's book of life.

How encouraging is that?

But it is encouraging when you think eternity passed before the foundation of the world.

There's the book of life.

Second passage in Revelation.

Chapter 17 please.

The book of life from the foundation of the world that was written is also found here.

Revelation 17 .8 but we'll pick it up in verse 1 for context.

Probably it's a good habit for you to do anytime you study the Bible and someone says, look at verse 16 of this

chapter.

Just go to the top of the chapter and begin there.

Hey, look at John 3 .16.

Yes, it's a wonderful passage, but if you don't read the first 15 verses, you don't understand John 3

.16.

Then one of the seven angels, Revelation 17 .1, who had the seven bulls came and said to me, come I will show you the

judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual

immorality and with the wine of those are whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become

drunk.

He carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a

scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, had seven heads and ten horns.

The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls,

holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.

And on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of

earth's abominations.

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

When I saw her I marveled greatly, but the angel said to me, why do you marvel?

I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.

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

is not and is to come.

If your name's not written, you're just going to falsely worship.

Your name needs to be written in the Lamb's book of life that was written in eternity past.

Revelation chapter 20, please.

Just a quick survey of some of these verses that remind us when did this take place?

And it's a good thing to be in this book.

And at the end of the sermon, I'll give you the answer of how do you know if your name's written in the book or not.

I think you want to know.

Revelation 20, verse 1.

Switching to the NAS here.

I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it.

I mean, this is a mega throne.

This is a white, just, righteous throne.

And him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no

place was found for them.

I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne.

The books were opened.

And another book was opened.

Look at the book language.

Look at the accounting language, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds.

You've got some people written down in the book of life, and they're going to go to heaven.

And you've got other people.

They're written in books, but it's just their deeds.

What does the text say?

Verse 13, And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and the death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them.

And they were judged, everyone, according to their deeds.

Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

That is the second death, the lake of fire.

Excuse me, this is the second death.

And if anyone, verse 15, whose name was not found written in the book of life, he was what?

Thrown into the lake of fire.

It would be better if that person had not been born.

As John Bunyan said, Abandon hope, ye who enter here.

And then finally, turn to Revelation 21.

Revelation 21, and then we'll wrap things up.

Revelation 21, verse 27,.

But nothing unclean will ever enter it.

We're talking about the eternal state and all that goes with it.

Nor anyone who does what is detestable or false.

Who gets to go to heaven but only those who are written in the Lamb's book

of life.

And everyone who's been written in the Lamb's book of life goes to heaven.

Every single one.

In the book of life of the Lamb.

No wonder Paul says in Philippians, Yes, I ask you, 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.

I want to encourage you with ministry.

I want to encourage you with life.

How can you do that?

God chose me.

Think about Ephesians 1.

He chose us.

God's the choosing one.

And you know, sometimes one of my early days I would ruffle against

unconditional election.

And I think, you know what?

What I love in me, you mean I don't love in God?

What do you mean by that?

Well, ask me who my favorite teams are.

I'll tell you, my favorite teams, my sports teams, they all have yellow colors because in 1969 I like the word

yellow.

I mean, I like the color yellow.

I like the word yellow too.

Green Bay Packers, yellow.

Pittsburgh Pirates, Roberto Clemente, yellow.

Boston Bruins, true, yellow.

I mean, who couldn't like a guy who had a hockey mask with a bunch of scars all over it?

I mean, seriously.

I chose.

I played in the backyard Civil War with the Yankees and the Americans.

No, sorry.

Wait, what was I saying?

I'm just kidding.

Yankees and the Confederates.

And I was this one guy I always won at the end because I was the hero and I was the general and I didn't get shot in the

arm like Stonewall Jackson.

I was the guy.

And so I'm a little sovereign.

I'm made in the image and likeness of God.

And since I am made in the likeness and image of God, I choose.

I choose my wife.

I choose where to worship.

I choose all kinds of things because I'm a chip off the old block.

To put reverently, I've been made in God's likeness and image and God chooses.

He chooses 12 apostles, not 12 ,000.

He has 12 tribes of Israel, not Moab.

Some angels chosen, not all.

And here's the thing.

No one deserves to be chosen.

We're dead in trespasses and sins yet God chooses anyway because He's rich in mercy and He knows He

has to do something about it because we'll never make it.

All of salvation is done by God.

He chooses.

He loves beforehand.

He does everything and then He sends His Son to go die for those that He's chosen.

You see, life is hard.

Brothers and sisters, God chose you if you're a Christian.

You're elect.

You don't understand, Mike.

I've got this pressure.

God chose you.

That has gotten me through some very, very rough days, the encouragement that God chooses people

because you know what, friends?

If salvation was determined based on our performance in any way, we would not be saved.

If you could lose your salvation, you already did.

It's already done.

But what God started in eternity past, choosing us triunally

with the emphasis on the Father, then the Son dying for us and the Spirit sealing us, we are guaranteed to get

to heaven.

And you think, well, has God forgotten me?

This is a big trial.

Has God forgotten me?

And before His very presence is the Lamb's Book of Life, He knows who's going to heaven.

You cannot lose your salvation because God's name would be defamed.

I love permanent magic markers, indelible markers.

And I thought, how do you make one of those?

Does anybody know what's the difference between a regular marker and a permanent marker?

I found out.

The ink in an indelible marker comprises a main carrier solvent, a glyceride, a

pyrrolodion, a resin, and a colorant.

It makes it waterproof.

When God chooses somebody in eternity past, it is like the law of the Medes and the Persians.

It cannot be changed.

It is like Pilate saying, what I have written, I have written.

Sovereignty of God.

Yeah, I want to be sovereign, but I'm not.

And my own self -sovereignty would damn me.

But God interrupts.

He chose us.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say, we chose Him first.

Then God responded.

Even to the disciples, Jesus said, you did not choose Me, but I chose you.

We love because He first loved us.

And since I am so depraved and wicked, He had to have done it.

Friends, Malachi is basically saying this.

For the believer in God, the triune God, when you do things for God, He notices and He will

reward.

It's before His face, He'll never forget.

And the evil will perish.

And for us, the church, think about the decree of the Lamb's Book of Life.

He puts you in there in eternity past and He's not going to erase your name.

That's why when people have all these kind of awful ways to think of what's going to happen

with, does God erase your name?

No, He says in Revelation 3, I won't erase.

So that means He could erase?

No, it says, I won't erase.

Emphatically stating it.

And if you'd like to have some homework, you can go home and read Romans 9, which Spurgeon said, as long as Romans 9 remains in

the Bible, no man shall be able to prove Arminianism or writing your own name in the book.

So long as that is written there, not the most violent contortions of the passage will

ever be able to exterminate the doctrine of election from the Scriptures.

Okay.

You say, how do I know if I'm in?

You know, George Whitefield used to preach evangelistically, some people are chosen by God to go to heaven and other people

aren't.

And he wanted the people to then respond, I'd like to know if I'm in.

And then Whitefield would say, when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it

shows that God has already had your name in eternity past written, because what He starts,

election, and then what He finishes, it is finished at Calvary, will show up in your life.

When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sins, you don't write your name in the book of life, you prove that your name was

written.

So how would you like to go to heaven and be guaranteed that your name is written in the Lamb's book of life?

The answer is, if you truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll know your name is written there,

because it has been for eons.

So I ask you, do you believe in the Lord Jesus

Christ?

That's the question.

His death as a substitute, His life as a representative, and His resurrection to

guarantee it.

You must believe.

Or you, along with these people, whose names are not written, will be thrown into the lake of fire forever.

But for the Christian, that could never happen, because God's name is at stake.

And if He ever put His love on you, He'll always love you.

And in eternity past, just to think about it, I know it's less than maybe ultra

-reverent, but I think of God just looking at me or looking at you, and just

snatching us out and saying, that's mine.

I'll take that.

I'll take him.

I'll take her.

She's mine.

He's mine.

Father, thank you for our day in worship today.

I think of all the churches around the world who proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and King and Sovereign and Savior.

Different dialects, different languages.

We have no threat of losing our salvation, because you have said, even through Jesus in

Revelation, I will not erase His name from the Book of Life.

Father, there might be some here that need to be reminded they're not sovereign,

and that they are recipients of salvation.

Father, there are some here that need to be reminded in their discouraging times of trials and health

issues, emphatically assured that they will overcome,

because God cannot remove their names from that role.

Father, encourage Bethlehem Bible Church in weeks and months to come, and may we be like that book,

that church in Revelation.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

In Jesus' name, Amen.