Philippians 3:21-4:3

Amen.

Amen.

20th, 20th verse, chapter of the 3rd chapter,

verse 20, 21, and again, verse 1, 2, and 3 of chapter 4,

picking up right where we left off, as we've been doing, overlapping just a little bit, but again, there's

some very important information within this passage of Scripture that we just

kind of got to touch on a little bit last week, and we want to try to glean all that we can from the Word of God

this morning, but just to read the text, the Scripture says, For our citizenship is in heaven,

from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body,

according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to

himself.

Therefore, my beloved, and long for, brethren, my joy and crown, so stand

fast in the Lord, beloved.

I implore you, Odea, and I implore Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord, and

I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel,

with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names

are in the book of life.

And that's where we're going to stop reading there, and we're going to go back to verse 20 there of the third chapter, and

remember, Paul talks about, he's speaking to the apostles and encouraging, or to the

Philippians, I'm sorry, the Apostle Paul is speaking to the Philippians, and he's encouraging

them to continue in the faith, to be unified around the person and the work of Jesus Christ,

and he's reminding them, understanding that they are in the midst of

persecution, they are in the midst of troubles, they are in midst of hard times, probably I

would go so far as to say far more than worse than any of us have been made subject

to in our lives, and yet, for the sake of the gospel, Paul has this message

of hope, this message of joy to the Philippian church, and I want

to say this from the onset here too, as we continue forward in this, to remember, I said it

months ago now, I think it's been, if not just a few weeks ago, but in

understanding the book of Philippians, it's important to understand the book of Philippians, as well as

the epistles, the other letters that were written to other churches, in the context of the local

church, meaning that he was writing to a body of believers, much like a

body of believers here, who were in a specific locale or specific city,

and that being said, in understanding that it's in the context of a local church, because

the local church is what God has set up in order for his people to be able to

gather together week in and week out, so that we have a place that we can gather.

John, when you prayed, I'm not just trying to call attention to your prayer, but I'm

thankful for what you said at the beginning, you thank God for the privilege to come and to be here with

friends.

The book of Philippians, Paul's letter to the book of Philippi, the people of the church

were truly friends, they had to be friends, because the world was not their friend.

And I want to say that as well this morning, that when concerning and thinking about the

church of Jesus Christ, we are called to be separate from the world, not that we try to go out

and make enemies with the world, the world is already at enmity with the church,

because of its mindset.

Sin has separated the world from Jesus Christ, just as sin separates any of

you that are in here from Jesus Christ, and until you are born again, saved by the grace of God, you

are an enemy of God.

That's what the scriptures teach us.

But how good it is that we can come into a place like this and have friends, amen?

It's good that you don't have to sit there, and when we sing songs, look over your shoulder, wonder if somebody's going to

reach up and poke you in the back with something.

I've been at churches, and I'll say this jokingly, but I am going to say it, I'll say this jokingly, I've been at churches

before where the people were so close knit that one of the jokes was that when they were up

in the choir loft, that some of them, if you crossed them, they'd get their

knife out and poke you with it, just for fun.

It wasn't serious, just so that you know that.

Just so that we're clear on that, I'm not advocating stabbing your neighbor, or even poking your neighbor

for fun, I'm just saying it's good to be able to be in a place where we have friends, amen?

And that we are unified around the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

So to give you some more context about Philippi, again, this may seem like

unnecessary information, but I believe it to be necessary in understanding what Paul is saying

to the church at Philippi, and thereby for us to be able to understand, rightly interpret,

and to rightly apply what we hear and what we read from the Word of God.

Philippi, to give you context, was a Roman colony.

Did anybody here know that?

If you didn't, now you do.

Philippi was a Roman colony, which means this, they had been occupied, the city

itself had been occupied by Rome.

The practice of Rome in its day was to divide and to conquer.

Rome's purpose was to go in, to take over cities, to take over countries, and in

return for that city or that country's surrender, Rome offered that

city their protection.

Rome offered that city certain benefits, one of which, of the benefits of being a

citizen of Rome, was that they were, I

guess, say that they were exempted from taxation.

Exempted from taxation, meaning this, meaning when strangers would come

through Philippi or any other city that was occupied by Rome, they were not only

taxed, but they were taxed heavily, over and above.

This is why we read in the Scriptures, in the Gospels, when you hear the publicans and tax collectors

talked about, it wasn't in a good sense.

It wasn't in a good light, because the publicans themselves, they were kind of

subcontracted by the city of Rome, and they were able to set a taxation

amount on what people who were not citizens would be charged who came through the city, and

they in turn subcontracted out to the tax collectors themselves, which would, so that

they could prosper and so that they could benefit, would tax over and above just a little

what the publicans had set them to tax, so they could get their two cents, if you would have it.

So there was extreme abuse going on, but Roman citizens were made exempt

from this taxation just for being under the umbrella, if you would have it, of Rome.

Now what's that got to do with anything?

It's got everything to do with everything.

Just hang with me for just a minute.

As well, Roman citizens were given the right to due process of law,

meaning this, that they were guaranteed to be treated fairly in a court of

law as long as they were Roman citizens.

If they were not Roman citizens, they would do whatever they want with them and treated them any way they wanted

to do them.

And very quickly, I want to ask you to turn, and this may be more of teaching right now, but it's necessary,

again, for us to understand as we get into and we begin to look at this citizenship Paul talks

about.

If you would turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2 and verse

22, and I'm going to read to you just a few verses here,

and from the Scriptures, as always, I want to give the explanation

of what I just told you there.

From the Scriptures, we're going to see here that a couple of ways a person could be a Roman

citizen.

One, Roman citizenship could be Paul.

If you had enough money, you could become a Roman citizen and enjoy the benefits and the privileges of

Roman citizenship.

Another way to be made a Roman citizen was simply to be born a Roman citizen.

So Paul says, or the Scripture says here in Acts chapter 2 verse 22, wait

a second, I'm telling you wrong, Acts chapter 22 verse 22.

I apologize, I was reading it wrong.

Acts chapter 22 verse 22.

There we go.

And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and

said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live.

They're speaking about Paul.

Then as they cried out and tore off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the

commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks and said that he should be examined under

scourging, meaning to be whipped, speaking of Paul, so that he might know why

they shouted so against him.

So the commander called for Paul.

Paul, again, for preaching the gospel, is put in this circumstance, in this situation.

The commander says, Let's bring him and let's whip him until he tells us why he's doing

what he's doing.

So they're saying we're going to treat Paul the way we want to treat him because he's doing nothing but causing a

fuss.

And so let's do this.

However, the Scripture goes on to say this in verse 25.

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by,

Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?

So Paul said, Wait a second, before you do this, I need to know something.

Is it lawful for you to whip a person who is a Roman?

Because they knew the law.

And at least to some degree, they tried to adhere to the law that they themselves had

made.

Verse 26, When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander saying, Take

care what you do, for this man is a Roman.

Then the commander came and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman?

Paul said, Yes.

The commander answered and he said this to Paul, With a large sum, I obtained

this citizenship.

The commander said, I have paid a lot of money to be a Roman citizen and to get the

benefit that I'm fixing to give to you.

And Paul said, But I was born a citizen.

So those two basic ways that you become a Roman citizen, simply by

yielding allegiance to Rome, or by buying your way in, or by

simply being born a Roman citizen.

So then verse 29,.

Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him.

And the commander was also afraid after he found out that he was a Roman and because

he had bound him.

So Paul understood the rights and the privileges of

Roman citizenship.

For before he had already spoken this in the book of Acts, we read this

historical account of Paul understanding and knowing what citizenship was about.

But notice back over in Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, what Paul says,.

He says to the Philippian believers,.

But our citizenship is in heaven.

Paul was speaking to people who understood and knew what it meant to be a Roman citizens

and to be under the rule and the authority of Rome.

And yet he appealed to the higher power and he reminded

them as he has reminded them repeatedly throughout this letter that our

citizenship is in heaven.

In the book of Colossians, the apostle Paul spoke to the Colossian church and he reminded them,.

For we must set our affections on things above, not on things

on the earth.

It is very easy.

It is a matter of fact, and none of us are above it.

It is very easy for us to get caught up with the things that go on around us, that we lose

sight of the one who has saved us and the one who has redeemed us and the one who has

prepared a place for us in heaven.

This is the hope of the Christian and it is founded in the

resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a dead message.

Some may say we make the message dead by not choosing to do the things that they do.

But friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most live message that has ever been told.

Matter of fact, there is no other news that you could hear from a graveyard that has ever been so great

than the message of this, that he is not here, but he is

risen from the dead.

That was the message that came from the graveyard that changed the entire world.

And so understanding what Paul is saying here, that it is not just words that are being

pinned down on a page.

It is not words that are just being spoken.

The words matter.

Every single word in the word of God matters.

Every single letter in the pages of this book matters.

And so Paul said our citizenship is not in heaven.

Something else as we continue to move forward.

But you will notice the last words in that third verse of the fourth

chapter, Paul mentions the book of life.

Now, how are these connected?

And that is what I want to try to help do today.

Help us connect these statements.

Help us connect these phrases so that we might understand just a little bit of the

hope that we have in the eternal sovereign God that we serve today.

He said this in the last four or five words of that third verse of the fourth chapter.

He uses this term, the book of life.

Now, how is citizenship and the book of life?

How are those connected?

Well, my friend, in the Old Testament, well, you can read in the Old Testament that there are

references made to a book of life.

Now, there is one Lamb's book of life.

And that is the book of life that God has recorded the names of His redeemed

throughout all eternity.

Amen.

There is one.

But historically in cities and in countries and in regions, they kept

such meticulous records of the citizens of that country.

If there ever came up a question that said, how do we know oh so and so's from here?

They would say, let's go to the book.

And they would go to the book and they would look up the name and they would see and be able to tell if

this person was truly a citizen of that country.

Because if they were a citizen of that country, their name would be recorded and they would thereby

receive the benefit from being a citizen of that country.

But Paul, again, he's not speaking on a natural level to the people.

He's speaking to them of their hope in Jesus Christ.

He's speaking of the eternality of the salvation that God has given to them and the

resurrection of Jesus Christ as the source of their inspiration and as the source of their

hope.

He's speaking about Jesus Christ.

And so as we pick up here, understanding that truth

and continuing from the previous verses, remember maturity in Christ,

maturing in the faith.

I said this last week, I'm going to say it again.

Maturing in the faith is the inevitable result of biblical salvation.

Maturing in the faith is the inevitable result of biblical salvation.

How can you know that you are saved?

You are growing in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

That's how you know.

Are you becoming more Christ -like?

Are the evidences of salvation being demonstrated in your life?

Are you being renewed day by day?

The apostle Paul told another church that though our outward man perish to the Corinthians, he said this

concerning himself, though our outward man is perishing, though our outward man is being destroyed,

though our outward man is dying, yet on the inward man we are being renewed

day by day.

And that you could continue that phrase day by day by day by day by

day.

And you could go on for eternity for the work that Jesus Christ has done in the life

of his children is eternal.

So he said our citizenship is in heaven.

And heaven is where we look for Jesus Christ.

And not just for where we look for Jesus Christ to come from, but we

eagerly await this coming.

We sit and we eagerly wait his coming.

And the scripture goes on to say this, for the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not looking

for another.

We are not looking for another Christ to come

and to do the works that Jesus Christ himself has already done.

We believe that Jesus Christ came born of a virgin, lived a sinless life,

died the atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins.

Here you go, Kenan.

So that our sin might be propitiated.

Amen.

So that our sin might be done away with.

We might have and know the forgiveness of our sins.

And that he was laid in a borrowed grave.

Why was it a borrowed grave?

The only thing I can think of is because he wasn't going to need it for very long.

Amen.

He raised from the dead.

He raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

And he ascended to the Father where he ever lives, like that song we sung

said, to make intercession for his children.

Hallelujah for that.

That is the hope of the Christian.

We eagerly wait for the Lord Jesus Christ.

What do we eagerly wait for?

We eagerly wait for him who will transform our lowly bodies.

Our bodies are lowly.

Amen.

It doesn't matter how much you work out, how big you get,.

How swole,.

I guess that's the word that folks use nowadays.

I never thought I'd be at the place where I'd say what the kids say.

How swole you might be, how buff you think you are,.

John,.

It's a lowly body.

It is a lowly body that we have.

But we have the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that one day according to the scripture

he will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his

glorious body.

Because he came in the likeness of man.

He was the one who was found in fashion as a man.

He humbled himself and he became obedient unto death and even to the death of the

cross.

But because he did that God highly exalted him and he gave him

the name that is above every other name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow at things in heaven and things

in the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord.

What is he talking about when he says transform our lowly body unto his

glorious body?

Again, I'm not going to try to give you personal words or personal explanations.

I'm going to give you what thus says the Word of God.

If you turn to the book of Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians chapter 15 and let's begin

at verse 39.

To give you the context of this passage of scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 39.

The apostle Paul has stated and addressed the issue of those who say the resurrection is past or

that really there's no such thing as a resurrection.

And he addresses the issue by preaching to them the gospel of Jesus Christ and then he begins to give

an account or an explanation of what it means to be transformed, to have our lowly bodies

transformed and to be made like unto his glorious body.

Paul says, verse 39 there, all flesh is not the same flesh but there is one kind

of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish and another of birds.

There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies but the glory of the celestial is

one and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars for one

star differs from another star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead.

The body is sown in corruption.

It is raised in incorruption.

It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness.

It is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body.

It is raised a spiritual body.

There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body and so it is written the first

Adam became a living being and the last Adam became a life -giving spirit.

That reference to the first Adam is talking about Adam being the first created man in the garden.

God breathed into his nostrils and he became a living soul.

The second Adam that is made reference to here in the text itself is the Lord

Jesus Christ and so he goes on, however the spiritual is not first but the

natural and afterward the spiritual.

The first man was of the earth made of dust.

The second man is the Lord from heaven as was

also those who are heavenly.

And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we must also bear the image of the

heavenly man.

Now this I say brethren, flesh and blood, and Paul makes this distinction here.

He has told them that which is natural is natural, that which is spiritual is spiritual.

Jesus told Nicodemus the same thing, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born

of the spirit is spirit.

And so the apostle Paul here in verse 50 there, he said, I want you to know something brethren, flesh and

blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

We are not trying to make the earth now as we

have, or we ought not try to make the earth as we have it now heaven because it will never be because it is

corrupt.

And it has been corrupt since the fall in the garden of Eden.

Paul says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit

incorruption.

And so he goes on and he makes that distinction there to the Corinthian church.

But remember he is pointing them continuously to the finished work, and

I want to say this and I want to leave this with you, not only to the

finished work of Jesus Christ, but the eternal purpose of God

in Jesus Christ.

Salvation was not something that just happened.

The scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ was slain as of a lamb without spot and without

blemish from before the foundation of the world.

Salvation is not something that man has cooked up.

Man has belittled and made small the work of salvation that God has done,

and tried to reduce it down to a formula and a pattern and a method that

can be followed to be had.

Friends, salvation cannot be had by any method, by any pattern, or by any other means

other than by a man, woman, boy or girl being born again of the Spirit of God.

You must be born again.

And so moving on now back in Philippians, He will transform our lowly bodies

that it may be conformed to His glorious body according to the working by which He is able even

to subdue all things unto Himself.

That is important there.

We see in these two verses, we see something of the person and we

see something of the power of Jesus Christ compacted into these verses.

We see Jesus, as Paul mentioned, as Savior returning to take His children home.

We see Him as Redeemer returning to claim His purchased possession.

If you are saved today, you have been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul talked to the Corinthians that therefore because of this fact, because of this

truth, because of this reality, if you are Christ, you ought to glorify God.

How?

In your body.

That's what the Scriptures teach us.

So he goes on to say this.

We see Him as the One who alone has power to transform our lowly

body and make it to be glorified.

And overarching the theme is this.

We see Him as Sovereign over all.

I want to read to you a quote concerning this passage of Scripture.

John Calvin actually wrote this.

But John Calvin wrote this concerning this.

Paul on this account places before our eyes the boundless power of God that it

may entirely remove all doubt.

For distrust arises from this that we measure nothing by the thing itself by the

narrowness of our own understanding.

This is why I said it's important for us to understand the context.

Because you just read Citizenship, you might just read Book of Life, and if you don't understand the

context because you are framing and shaping your understanding of the Word of God simply by

what you know, then you're missing out.

We've got to always go to the Scripture.

Dig into the Scripture.

He goes on to say this.

Now, when we bear in mind that God who created all things out of nothing can command the earth and the

sea and the other elements to render back what He has committed to them, our minds are immediately roused

up to a firm hope.

Nay, even to a spiritual contemplation of the resurrection.

But it is of importance to take notice also that the right and power of

raising the dead, listen closely to what he said here.

This is in the 1500s this is written.

He said it is important to take notice that the right and power of raising the dead, nay, more

of doing everything according to His own pleasure is assigned to the person

of Christ.

It is the work of God to raise the dead.

It is the work of God to heal the sick.

It is the work of God to grant the forgiveness of sins.

It is the work of God.

And so, Paul points them to Jesus Christ in this.

And then in verse 1 of chapter 4, he uses this very personal, very loving language that he has

used from the beginning because guess what?

They are friends.

They are connected to one another through the trials, through the tragedies in preaching the gospel.

And he said, therefore, my beloved, and my longed for brethren.

He is still writing.

Remember, he is likely writing from the jail cell in Rome somewhere.

And he is still saying these words continued from the beginning.

I long to be with you.

You are my joy and you are my crown.

He said, so do this.

Stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

Stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

Hold fast to the Lord.

Cling to the Lord with everything that you have.

The beautiful thing about being a child of God is that God gives His

children persevering faith.

Can a Christian lose his salvation?

Absolutely not.

And I say it for this reason.

Because salvation is of the Lord.

It is the work of God through Christ, applied by the Spirit to those

whom He has called and elected to be His children.

And His work is eternal.

He will perform that which He starts in the life of His children.

In verse 2, this may be a verse that some of you have read and some of you have heard and some of

you may have read commentary or even heard commentary on it.

He said, I implore you, Odeah, and I implore Syntoche to be of the same mind in the Lord.

Now, I made myself a note here and I'm going to read it to you verbatim what I wrote myself to say

to you this morning concerning that statement.

The Scriptures themselves do not give any detail of the nature of the disagreement between the

women of the church.

So I will not read into it anything.

We'll let the Word of God speak.

And the Word of God be silent where the Word of God is silent.

We need not assume what the source of their drama was, but to know

what the Apostle Paul sent word to them to not be in disagreement with each other, but to

agree with one another in the Word.

And I'll say that because if you look back in chapter 2, you see Paul's exhortation to the church itself

before he named names.

And so, moving on, verse 3 continues on

and he says this, and I urge you also, true companion,

I'm assuming it was maybe one of the elders or the deacons of the church,

maybe one of the saints specifically in the church, but he said, I implore you also,

true companion, help these women who labored with me in what?

In the gospel.

I know I've lost some of you, but some of you are still with us.

In the gospel, that is the key.

With Clement also and with the rest of my fellow workers whose

names are in the book of life.

Our citizenship is not Philippi, technically speaking.

Our citizenship is not Seymour, technically speaking.

Technically speaking, our citizenship is in heaven.

For the Apostle Paul told the church at Ephesus, we are seated together with heavenly

places in Christ Jesus.

That is our citizenship.

And the question to you is this today, is your name on God's

role?

I do not know that.

I can tell you that according to the faith that God has given and according to the word of

God, I believe my name to be on His role.

Not because of what I have done in any way, shape, form or fashion, for I contributed nothing to

salvation, but the sin that made it necessary is one of the old timers say.

But I believe that God is faithful and true unto His word.

And that even the very belief that I have in God is not

something that I have produced in and of myself, but it is a gift of God.

That makes it eternal.

John wrote to

the churches there in one place, and he said, these things are written that you may know

that you have eternal life.

This book of life, two words make this up.

Two Greek words.

The first word for book is Biblos.

Does that sound familiar to anybody?

Well, we call this our Bible, right?

Actually, this is not just any Biblos.

This is the holy Biblos.

To be holy means to be set apart, to be sanctified unto the Lord.

This is not like any other book that has ever been written.

There has never ever, ever, ever, ever, no matter how long it's been on a

bestseller list, no matter how many Christians read it, that has ever been inspired

of God other than the Word of God.

By the way, that's the Reformation principle of Sola Scriptura, that there is nothing that compares to the Word

of God.

And so Biblos is the word used for book, and this is a Greek word, and the Greek

word for life is a word that's, and I had to press the little icon,

sound icon on Blue Letter Bible when I looked this up because I just looked stupid trying to pronounce something.

I don't know what it is, but zoe is how this word is pronounced, for life, that's used for life.

It is not speaking of temporal life.

It is speaking of eternal life.

And let me give you just real quick some definitions for that word zoe.

Some definitions from Vine's Expository Dictionary says this for that word zoe that's used there

specifically in this instance.

It's the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate.

The book of life in which God writes the names of His children are the names of

those who have been animated by Jesus Christ.

Does everybody know this?

You were once dead, if you're saved today, you were once dead

in your trespasses and sins.

You were inanimate, unable in any way, shape, form, or fashion to respond

and move to God.

But God, when the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates the heart of man, He gives you

life

and the next definition of the absolute

fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belong to God.

If your name is written in the book of life, you have

everything that you need that pertains to life and godliness.

All because your name is in the book of life.

The next definition was this, life real and genuine, a life active and

vigorous, devoted to God, blessed in the portion even in this world of those who put

their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions.

Among them, a more perfect body to last forever.

Sounds like it's oversimplified, but friends, the simple fact is this, what is the hope of the Christian?

The hope of the Christian is that I, who was once dead, have been made alive unto Christ,

spiritually speaking.

And I, who am dying, naturally speaking, every single day that passes, I'm

moving closer and closer and closer to death.

But when my body dies, when I breathe my last breath, I have the eternal

promise of God that one day after a while, when he comes back and the trumpet

sounds, that the dead in Christ are going to be raised first.

And then we, which are alive and remain, will be caught up together with him in the air.

That is the hope of the Christian.

The world will say that don't do nothing for me.

And if you can say that don't do nothing for you, I urge you and I say the words

over and over and over again, you must be born again.

You will never understand the hope of the resurrection until you are saved by God's grace.

Are you saved?

Do you know Jesus Christ?

Is Jesus Christ everything to you?

Preacher, if I don't think like you, let me say this, I do not expect you to think like me.

I do not expect you to be like me.

I don't expect you to believe everything exactly as I teach it from this pulpit.

I don't want you to be like me.

You are not called to be like me.

You are called to be like Christ.

And if you are not, then you need to examine yourself.

Two last references.

And I know we have been long this morning, but this is so important.

Two last references from the Scripture.

Luke chapter 10.

Luke chapter 10 verse 17 concerning the book of life.

Luke chapter 10 verse 17.

The context is this.

Jesus has called 70 and sent them out two by two to go

before His place in every city where He was about to go.

In other words, to go and to be His heralds, to tell the people of the cities in which He

was about to enter into that the Lord was about to be there.

You need to keep that in mind for next week because when we read about letting your moderation be known to all men, the Lord is at

hand.

That's important.

But He sent them out.

And in sending them out, He gave them promises.

He gave them power.

And then they come back to Jesus here in verse 17.

And this is what is said.

The 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in Your name.

And He said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

We see His sovereignty in that.

Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

And nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Love you all.

All things have been...

Listen to what He said.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father.

And no one knows who the Son is except the Father.

And who the Father is except the Son.

And the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

And then He went on to say this.

Actually, I skipped verse 20.

And that was the key verse there.

Nevertheless, He told them, I give you power.

Going back.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but that your names are

written in heaven.

Where is the book of life?

It is in heaven.

It's not in the Ark of the Covenant.

There's no need in searching for it in this world.

There's no need in searching for it in this life.

It is God's book.

In which God has inscribed the names of His children.

So He uses that.

And then last of all, in Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation.

The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ chapter 20.

Verses 11 through 15.

We see here the Lord bringing in the Revelation here.

We see in what will in time come to pass.

The Lord bringing to a close all things.

And the Bible says in verse 11 here in chapter 20.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven

fled away.

And there was found no place for them.

Remember, heaven and earth itself is fleeing from the holiness of God.

And I saw the dead.

The Apostle John speaking here.

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

The big sinners and the little sinners.

And the books were opened.

And another book was opened.

Which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged according to their works.

By the things which were written in the books.

Not in the book of life, but in the books.

For those whose names are in the book of life are not here.

The sea gave up the dead who were in it.

And death and hell delivered up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged, each one according to his own works.

Then death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast

into the lake of fire.

How can you know that you are saved?

Of a certainty.

To know that you are saved and that you have been passed from death unto life.

The Scriptures teach us that there will be a total change in your life.

That you will post salvation

after you know that you are saved.

That you will love God.

That you will love Him supremely.

That you will love Him cheaply.

That you will love Him more than you love your mother and your father.

That you will love Him more than you love your husband or your wife.

More than you love your children.

That you will love God supremely.

And that your chief end, as was stated in one of the old

confessions, that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

For who made you?

God made you.

Why did God make you?

To glorify Him.

Is your life glorifying to God?

Heavenly Father, as we come before your throne, I want to thank you and praise you for your Word today.

God, I want to thank you, dear God, for the truth and the power of your Word.

And God, I want to thank you for the sober realization

that your Word brings to me personally, God.

And Lord, it is my prayer now that for those who hear your Word,

dear God, that if they are saved, that you would encourage their heart and their mind

through the Spirit according to your Word.

And that you would be glorified in your church.

And if they be anybody, God, that does not have this

assurance of salvation.

To know that they've been passed from death unto life.

To know that their sins are forgiven.

Not based upon they themselves or anything of themselves, but solely based upon who

you are and upon what you have done.

I pray, God, that today would be the day.

God, it is a sovereign work of the Spirit that only you can do.

And so we yield them over into your hands and ask you to do as you

wish to glorify your blessing in your holy name.

Help us as we leave this place.

To hunger and to thirst after righteousness.

For it is in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen and Amen.