The Book of Life

Well, today I want to talk to you about books. If I asked everyone in the room what is the most important book in the world, I think we'd all have the same answer, wouldn't we? I would hope we would all have the same answer. But what if I told you there's another book that's at least equally or should be at least equally important to all of us? What would that book be, do you think? Yeah, Book of Life. There's a couple books that we should be concerned with. Let's go back to Revelation 13. Revelation 13, we read about this Book of Life in the context of the beast power that the Bible says will be coming upon the earth, a time that will try all the earth, a government that is of Satan and not of God.

Let's pick it up in verse 5 to get the flavor and to set the setting of what the world will be like at that time because the world will be under the sway of the beast power of Satan. It says in Revelation 13, he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth and blasphemed against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.

And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him. The whole world will be swayed. And he will have the power to say, I've got life and death in my hands. If you don't worship, I've got the power to buy himself. If you don't worship me, I can withhold whatever currency and make your life miserable. And all on earth bow to him will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb's slain from the foundation of the world.

So this book of life is very important to you and me, very important to be in the book of life. And that phrase there, the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth, from the foundation of the world, tells us a lot about that book. It's not something that was just thought of recently, not something that's just thought of when the beast's power comes about, when it's about time for Christ to return.

The book of life was something that God had purposed well before the foundation of the world. It's the book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, just as Jesus Christ before the earth was recreated and man was on it, was designated to sacrifice his life for you and me.

The book of life was there, too, because there's a purpose for mankind. And God, as he works with us and as he eventually works with all mankind, he's looking to see who will be in that book of life, who will receive eternal life and who, as we'll see a little later, go into the lake of fire. Because there are just two choices when we're born, and God did have a plan in mind and a purpose in mind for mankind. The book of life is his record of who does what he's looking for them to do. Let's go over to Revelation 21.

Revelation 21, we'll pick it up in verse 22. Of course, Revelation 21 has some beautiful pictures of the earth after this physical earth is done away and burned up when God is dwelling on earth with men. And it does some very good descriptions. So let's pick it up in verse 22 and read down through the end. I saw no temple, it says, in that new heaven and earth, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.

The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day, there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

So if we would like to see New Jerusalem, if we'd like to be around at that time after the white throne judgment, when God makes His home with man on the new heaven and new earth, the only ones who will be there are those who are found written in the book of life.

The Bible is pretty clear on that. So the book of life is something we should be cognizant of, something we should desire to be written into. And here in these verses we tell, we can see some of the qualifications for being in the book of life. In some religions they would say, all you have to do is be baptized and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior once you're written in the book of life, you're always in the book of life.

But there are some qualifications and some things that we need to do. We see a few of them here in verse 27. It says, there will be no means enter it anything that defiles. God is looking for clean people, spiritually clean people, physically clean people, people who have cleared the landscape of their minds, no defilement in their lives, nothing that would be apart from God.

And this book, this all-important book, the Bible, tells us the things that would defile a man. He's pretty clear on what our lives could be like, how we need to live. He gives us the Holy Spirit so that all that defilement and all that mess in our lives can be weeded out because we certainly don't have the power ourselves to scrub it clean. We need to have God's Holy Spirit to help us become undefiled in His eyes. Nothing that causes an abomination or a lie. We know what a lie is, but He says nothing that causes an abomination or a lie.

We talked, oh, what, a month, maybe two months ago, about abominations. You remember in a Bible study where we talked about clean and unclean meats. Remember, we talked about abominations and how the Bible uses the word abomination and that even unclean meats and unclean animals are detestable to God. Often we think of abomination as the abomination of desolation. It's a tremendous thing that Antiochus Epiphanes did, and tremendous in a negative sort of a word, where he went in and absolutely defiled the temple.

And he just, with an exclamation point, offended God and the Jews and just defiled the temple. It was an abomination, an abetestable thing, but that's not the only detestable thing that's out there. Let's refresh our memories a little bit here. Let's go back to Leviticus 18 and see a few of the things that God calls an abomination, because people that cause an abomination or people that are abominable in his eyes won't be in that book of life.

So we want to know what those things are so that we ask him and we let him eradicate those things from our lives and that we become pure, perfect, blameless, undefiled, as he has called us to become that. In Leviticus 18, and of course in Leviticus 18 you have a lot of the laws that God is reeducating or educating against for the first time Israel, he has to remind them and he goes into detail how they should live.

And he knows how they lived in, not England, Egypt, and so he gives them a lot of detail. And he's pretty detailed in some of the things he tells them. But wrapping it up or summarizing it here in 1st 26 of Leviticus 18, we kind of see where he is going with all of it. He says, "...you shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations." So if we look back, if we were to go back through Leviticus 1-17, the things that God says don't do, he considers those abominations.

His people don't do those things. He says, "...you shall not do any of these abominations. Keep my statutes and my judgments." With you going on in the verse, "...any of your own nation, or any stranger who dwells among you." 27, "...for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled." They committed these abominations in God's sight. The land was defiled.

God threw those people out, and he goes on to say, if He did it to them, He would do it to us as well. We don't want to be thrown out of God's kingdom. We don't want to be thrown out of the book of life. We want to be in the book of life. There's no purpose to life if we're not in the book of life. There's no reason for us being, because the alternative is simply death, as we will see. Let's go over to Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy 12, maybe we think of this verse, or these series of verses here, beginning in verse 29, especially at this time of year when we can go around and we can even go in the hall outside here and see some things that are going on in the land that people think they're honoring God in, but He doesn't see it that way.

He sees it as abominations in verse 29. It says, "...when the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, when you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you don't inquire after their God, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?

I'll do likewise." That's what the religions of this world have done. That's what the Catholic Church did when they adopted pagan customs and put Christ's name on it. They inquired, how did they worship their gods? Let's do the same. We live in a season, or we're in a season right now, where it's all around us. All the world thinks that they're honoring God by the things they do, but God is pretty crystal clear here.

It says, don't do that. Verse 31, "...you shall not worship the eternal your God in that way. For every abomination to Him which He hates, they have done to their gods." He tells us how to worship Him. This all-important book sitting in your lap, that tells us how He wants to be worshiped. That tells us what He wants. Nowhere in there do you find, adopt the customs of the pagans or the nations around you.

Nowhere in there does He say, put up a tree, decorate it with lights. I'm happy with that. He says, do it exactly the way He says. If you don't do that, that's an abomination in His sight. And He even shows how far their abominations went. Every abomination which He hates, they've done to their gods. They even burned their sons and daughters into fire to their gods.

He says, whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it. Do it exactly the way I say, God says. And those who are in the book of life will do it exactly the way God says. Those who add to or take away are defiled. Those who determine they'll do something else are committing abominations in His sight. We don't want that to define us. Let's go to chapter 25 of Deuteronomy.

Chapter 25 and verse 16. Let's begin with verse 13. Deuteronomy 25.13. You shall not have, He says, in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Eternal, your God, is giving you. God wants honest people. He wants us to be honest in business no matter what the world around us is doing.

Just because everyone else in the company is doing it doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. Do it exactly right. Be exactly honest is what He is saying. In verse 16. For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously are an abomination to the Eternal, your God. All who do such things won't be in the book of life. That's what God tells us in Revelation 21. All who do such things are an abomination to the Lord, your God.

Let's go to Proverbs. Proverbs 6. Your abomination shows up many more times. As I mentioned that night, you can do a Bible study on it and see all the things. But anything that is apart from God's way of life that He detests, He would call an abomination and know that those abominable things or causes someone to be an abomination will be in the book of life. Proverbs 6, verse 16 tells us seven things that God sees as an abomination. These six things the Eternal hates.

Yes, seven are an abomination to Him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. All those things are an abomination to Him. And we could go on and we could list a lot more. As we study the Bible, we might want to pay attention to the detail of what God tells us because it's important that we follow Him exactly the way He says to follow Him.

Let's go back to Revelation one more time. Revelation 17. Revelation 17, verse 4. In this chapter, God is talking about the religion that will be on the earth at that time, the kingdom, the beast kingdom that will be on earth. And in verse 4, He talks about the woman. When the Bible talks about a woman, especially here in Revelation, you know He's talking about a church. Let's see how He defines the church that is the dominant one on the earth at that time.

It says, The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup for the soul of abominations. So you can kind of see the picture. You can kind of see the disparity of what the picture you see is. You see a church that looks very attractive. It's got all the physical trappings, beautiful things, all the riches of earth attached to it. But in its hand, it's got this cup full of abominations, full of things that God hates, full of things that God detests.

We're told clearly in the Bible that woman, that church, is not the church of God. That is the church that is inspired by Satan, along with the beast power that's there. It looks good. The whole world will be enamored with it. They will bow down to it. They will want to follow it. But God says, pay attention to that cup.

It's full of abominations. Verse 5, in honor of forehead, a name was written. God names things what He sees them as. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. Everything that God hates and detests, this woman does. And it'll be this woman that the world is flocking to before the return of Jesus Christ.

And it'll be this woman that is doing a lot more than just attracting people, as we see down here in verse 6. I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Ah, she wasn't content to just attract people to her. Her mission was to kill the saints, to kill those who were dedicated to God and following His way of life. She has a twofold purpose. Kill and attract. Lead people astray and kill those who are following God.

She's drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints. Now we see a religion, or at least part of a religion on earth today, that will kill, kill people who don't agree with them. And I'll stress part of a religion. But it's coming, a time when there will be a major religion that says, if you don't agree with me, especially the people of God.

Let's go back to Revelation 14 and let's just see what the Bible defines the saint as. This woman is drunk with the blood of the saints. Who are the people that are the saints? Revelation 14, verse 12. Here's the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Pretty crystal clear. They keep the Old Testament and New Testament. They see the whole picture of God.

They keep the commandments of God. They have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They know who He is. They know His voice. They follow Him.

They also know God. They keep the commandments. They don't listen to the world that says, don't have to pay attention to that. Don't have to pay. We can compromise with that. They do things exactly the way God says, exactly the way Jesus Christ lived His life. He didn't compromise.

They didn't do away with any 10 commandments. He specifically says that in Matthew 5. Don't think that I came to destroy. I came to complete them. And so today we keep the commandments, not only physically, but spiritually in the manner that He taught. Here's the patience of the saints. That's who the woman full of abominations is killing. People like you and me that God has called.

They keep the commandments of God that have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

People who are following what the Bible would say, the things that would qualify them were then God's mind that would be putting them into the book of life. If they do it with all their heart and all their mind and all their soul, they would be in the book of life. Let's go back to chapter 12.

Chapter 12, we have quite an interesting chapter that talks about a woman, another woman, and talks about Satan being cast down to earth. And in the latter verses here, chapter 12 talks about a time when Satan will be cast down to earth again.

Let's pick it up in verse 13.

Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman. Remember, a woman pertains to church who gave birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she's nourished for a time, times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. Three and a half years. Same like the time that the beast powers extant on earth, the woman is given wings to the place that God puts her in. So, the serpent, Satan, we know it's Satan. It says that earlier in the chapter. So, the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman. He doesn't like this woman. This woman is the antithesis of what he stands for. He's for the woman who would kill those in this church. He's with the church that is full of abominations, looks really good, has plenty of riches, beautiful, beautiful surroundings appealing to the eye, just tasteful and detestable to God. So, the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth held to the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman. He wants her dead, just like the church that we read about. And he went to make war with the rest of her offspring.

And here's how they're defined, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Both live by the whole Bible, not just half of it. There are plenty of religions out there who live by just half of the Bible and say, we don't have to pay attention to this Testament, done away. Others say, we don't know Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we don't pay attention to that. Lives by the whole Bible. Every word of it learns the continuity of it, repents when God calls, changes their lives, are baptized, receives the Holy Spirit, and are led by that Holy Spirit, which enables us to become undefiled, to become pure in God's eyes. If we yield to Him, if we make choices along the way to use that Spirit, because it just doesn't happen automatically, it's something we have to work at and something we have to make choices.

And as we make the right choices, we get stronger and stronger and stronger in learning how to follow God's Spirit. You know, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 and 19, you don't have to turn there, but he makes the comment that keeping the commandments of God is what matters.

Even in the New Testament, over and over, Paul talks about how good the law is and that keeping the commandments of God is what matters. In Jesus Christ, in Matthew 19-17, he says of a young man, if you're a winner into life, keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. Repent and be baptized.

Give your life as a living sacrifice to God. And if we really understand what God has done for us, when we really understand who we are and what we are, how weak and insignificant we are, I mean, it's easier to understand what Paul is saying when he says it's our reasonable service to give our lives as a sacrifice to God because we were going nowhere, we had no future, nothing, nothing was there for us until God opened up all the possibilities. And a life beyond just the futility of what this life has to hold. So we really do owe Him, we really do owe Him everything because without Him we are absolutely, absolutely nothing. So we have this book of life.

And who knows how far in the future a beast power will be on the earth, just as the Bible says, and that beast power will be lording it over the people of earth. It'll be causing people to bow down to the beast, the government. It'll be holding power over people, the economy, and over people's personal economy. It will be leading people to bow down to it. And God says, you know, you don't take the mark of the beast, but the whole world will accept those who have been written in the book of life, those who have been written in the book of life.

It tells us that the book of life is open now. It's open now, isn't it? Open now for a group of people, not for the whole world, but for those who God has called now, whose minds He has opened now to understand His truth, to understand what the Bible means, to understand what His plan is, whose minds He's opened up to understand that if we yield to Him and use His power, there's a life and purpose beyond what we do physically that's so much greater than anything we do. And so He's looking at the people of God now, the people that in the future, the beast power and that other woman will be looking to swallow up. Let's go over to the second 1 Peter, 1 Peter 4.

1 Peter 4 and verse 17.

1 Peter 4, 17. The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.

It begins with us first. 2 Peter 4. People who God has called in this age, people for whom the book of life is opened now, and whose names will have been written in it if they don't fall to the mark of the beast or receive the mark of the beast. Judgment is now. Judgment is now on us, because God's called us, opened our minds. We've yielded to Him. We've committed to Him. We've said we will follow You.

He's given us His Holy Spirit. We have no excuse. We have no excuse other than if we yield to our own weaknesses and proclivities rather than following God, because He gives us all the tools we need to be in the Kingdom. He gives us all the tools to be in the New Jerusalem. He gives us all the tools, but we've got to use them. We have to exercise them. We have to learn how to use them in our lives to work toward the same purpose that He calls us to. Judgment is now on the house of God. Let's go back to Philippians 4. Philippians 4 seems quite a thing to be written in the book of life. We read about saints. We read about people who resist the beast power, who allow God to purify them, eradicate the defilement out of them, who are the people that are in the book of life.

Paul here, as he's talking to the church of Philippi, he is talking to them just as much as just like I would be talking to you. In verse 1, he says, Therefore, my beloved and longed for, brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. And then he starts naming names.

I could go around and name names of people that are sitting here among us. I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, through companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers. All of those were here working, participating, part of the work of God, part of the church of God, whose names are in the book of life.

People like you and me. People who have committed to God. People who he has put in his body.

Their names are written in the book of life. Your name, when you tell God, I commit to you, I will follow you, give my life to you. And you are baptized. And you say, away with the former life, put off the old and on the new. And you receive the Holy Spirit in the book of life, of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

He puts your name in that book of life. Well, there's an asterisk on it, and we'll get to that a little bit later. But people like you and me, judgment is now on the house of God. Judgment is now on you and me when we make that choice.

When we tell God that, when we make that commitment, there's one chance to follow God and to be in the book of life, to receive eternal life. Who is the judge? Who's doing the judging? Let's go back to John 5.

John 5. John 5, verse 22. John 5, verse 22. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, the same Son who has in his hands the book of the life from the foundation of the world, the same Son who lived the perfect life as a human, who didn't give in to the cares of the world, who didn't give in to temptations, who didn't give in to the weaknesses, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of life, the pride of the eyes, the same Son who is qualified to be our judge, because he lived that life perfectly exactly the way he expects us to be. Father judges no one. He's committed all judgment to the Son that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who doesn't honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Drop down to verse 26. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man. Judgment is now on the house of God. Jesus Christ is looking at us now.

He wants us to succeed. He's our intermediator. He's our intercessor. He asks God. He pleads on our behalf. He pleads with us. Make it. I want you to be in the book of life. I want you to be in the kingdom. I want you to be my bride. He's the judge, the same Jesus Christ who holds that pen in the book of life, the same Jesus Christ who in Matthew says to people who have his name but don't do the things that he said and don't live the way that he lived. Follow the example he said. He says, why do you say to me, Lord, Lord, and not do the things I say?

Several have his name. They know who he is. But he says to a lot of them, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things I say?

Maybe even worse, to those who say, Lord, what about us? We prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We used your name. And he says, get away from me. I don't even know who you are. You're not of me. You don't do anything, I say. You've added, too. You've taken away. You've adopted the ways of the world and put my name on it. That's not what God wants. That's not people who will be written into the book of life. It's people who follow the book, the Word of God, that's sitting in your lap. The key, the way we make it in, is by learning this book, by living by the book, by letting God's Holy Spirit make us become who He wants us to be. Not just memorizing it and being able to repeat it back, but by living it so that we and those around us see the changes in the way that we live. That's what will be written in the book of life.

Jesus Christ, the same Jesus Christ who lived on earth, the same Jesus Christ who will return to this earth, establish a kingdom that will last for a thousand years and that will have those who were written in the book of life that had the book open to them in this lifetime, there with Him, to reign with Him as kings and priests.

It's just you and I, everyone in this room, everyone who follows God, everyone who He's called, who responds to Him has that opportunity. Let's go over to Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12.

Verse 22.

Our names are there. Once we choose God, once we choose to follow Him, once we say, old life done, I recognize my errors, I recognize that this way of life wasn't what you wanted, and so I put it away and now the rest of my life I will follow what you say and plant into my life. Because if we don't do that, if people don't do that now or another time that we talk about, they simply won't be in the book of life. Hebrews 12. Verse 22.

That's who God's church today is. That's who we are.

We've come to His assembly. The general assembly and church are the first born, who God has called in this life, who will be part of the first resurrection.

Notice what He says, who are registered in heaven. He knows our name. We're registered. He already has our name up there. He's got a place and a plan.

He's got a place and a plan. The judgment is on us today. The book of life is open to us today, who God has called.

But we know that God hasn't called the whole world. We all have family members. We all have acquaintances. We all have friends who don't understand and just don't get what we know. They can look in the Bible, and when we see one thing, they don't see it at all.

They just don't feel at all compelled to follow God's way of life. What about them?

Let's go back to Revelation 20 and see the progression of life. God's way and God's plan includes every single man, woman, and child who have ever been born. Only God's true church preaches that and knows that.

A way of salvation for every single man, woman, and child by the very same process that you and I go through. Let's begin in Revelation 20. After Jesus Christ returns to earth, the early verses here of chapter 20 talk about Satan being bound and the thousand-year millennium under Jesus Christ reign begins. Verse 4, chapter 20, I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them. Who was them? Well, we'll see in a minute. It's the saints. It's the firstborn. It's you and me. If we continue on and endure to the end, if we allow God to really change us and deeply convert us, they sat on them and judgment was committed to them. They overcame this life. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, the people who yielded their lives, who didn't count it and today's life more important than what God had called them to. Then I saw those who hadn't worshiped the beast or his image. We've already read those who don't worship the beast or the image or those that are written, who have been written in the book of life. These did not receive His mark on their foreheads or on their hands.

They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Written in the book of life, the firstborn, part of the first resurrection, but the rest, verse 5, the rest of the dead didn't live again until the thousand years were finished. That was for that small group of people called today. But there's a whole bunch of other people. The vast, vast, vast majority of everyone who was ever lived that hasn't had the opportunity, you and I do. What about them? Well, he says here, that's what the rest of the dead didn't live until this thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection, and it's a good resurrection. There's a good thing that God has called us to. Blessed and holy is He who has part in the first resurrection. Overstuck the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years. See that? Over Him, the second death has no power. Eternal life. If you're written in the book of life, there is eternal life. To those of us today, God offers that today.

If you're in the first resurrection, your name is permanently in the book of life. Permanently in the book of life. If it's there at the time that Jesus Christ returns, if it's there at the time that the people of the first resurrection are raised from the dead, blessed and holy is He who has part in that first resurrection. And then after that thousand years, we see in verse 7 that Satan will be loosed again, and he will be out and about, and he will be doing what he does. Where God wants us to have life, Satan wants us to have the second death. He wants us to lose eternal life. God says, my will is that everyone, everyone would repent and come to eternal life. Satan's will is, I wish and I want everyone to fail. And so Satan is out about again. We battle him. People will battle him again, and it's kind of inconceivable that after a thousand years of peace, prosperity, and people living together in a way that they would yield to Satan. But they do. They do. But let's go down to verse 11. Then, then when the thousand years have expired, 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. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. What books? Greek Biblia, the word from which we get the word Bible. Books were opened. People understood what the books said, just like you and I say.

People saw. This is what God said to do. He didn't do it. He said, worship me in spirit and truth. He said, worship me the way that I said to be worshipped. I said, God said, follow these commandments. Have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Books are opened. We know those books that are opened. Next sentence. And another book was opened. Huh. For all the rest of the dead, who were resurrected after the thousand years. And another book was opened, which is the book of life, which is the book of life. The book of life is open for us today. The book of life is open for the rest of them during the second resurrection of the rest of the earth after the thousand years is completed. And then notice what it says, because there will be a time when God knows what's in their heart too. They will be tested. They will be tried. He wants people to in his kingdom in the new Jerusalem that have no defilement, no abomination, no lie. They don't cause other people to have an abomination. All those things that we read about in the Bible, they must be washed and he must be in their heart the same thing he's looking for in you and me. Total dedication and total commitment.

And notice what they're judged from. And the dead were judged just the way we're judged. The dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

How does God judge us? How will Jesus Christ judge us? I opened the books to you. You understood. It was crystal clear in there. It said, do this, and then you just ignored it. I said, don't add to and don't take away, and yet you did both. I told you it was an abomination to lie or do these other things. And I told you I would help you if you would just let the Holy Spirit lead you, guide you, and if you would just take and make the choices to let it happen and make the things that happen. Because God wants everyone to be able to change. And we just don't have the ability ourselves.

But when we yield to God and when we work together on it, we can change. Nothing is impossible with God, even though things are very impossible for us when we try to do it on our own. But here in the rest of the dead, they were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works, by the same standards that you and I have, the same standards that were established before the world began, the same qualifications for the book of life and who will be in it for now and the future. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Verse 15, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Two choices. Be in the book of life or be cast into the lake of fire. That's it! All of humanity is right here in chapter 20. It all comes down. You'll be in the book of life because everyone will have the opportunity to be in the book of life. You know exactly what you're going to be judged by sitting there in your laps. We read it every day. We talk about it every status. You read articles about it. You listen to sermons at home. It's right there. Either the book of life or the second death. Crystal clear.

And we know what it takes. We've talked about what it takes to be written in the book of life.

We know that Jesus Christ is the judge. We know that He is the one who has lived a perfect life. We've been told that the saints keep the commandments of God. They have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They live by every word of God, just as Jesus Christ said. We know that they have God's Holy Spirit. We know that they overcome. We know that they are going to be undefiled.

And we know that they're going to be blameless because God calls us to become blameless and perfect, just as our Father in heaven is perfect. We have to really know that.

We can't keep in the back of our mind this thing that's in the world that says, oh, once you're in the book of life, you can never, ever, ever be out of the book of life. All you have to do is understand God. He understands my family wants me to keep this holiday. My family wants me to do this on this day. God understands I'm just too tired to get up and go to his command assemblies.

I just don't want to do it. God understands. Yeah, God understands.

He understands that when we make those choices, we are not yielded to him.

And therefore, not qualified by the judge to be in the book of life.

He makes it clear what he wants us to do. So we have the whole world. We know what the book of life is. We've seen what it is, how important it is, because anyone not in the book of life receives the second death or is cast into the lake of fire.

But what about… Well, there's one more thing we should know. Let's go back to Revelation 3.

Revelation 3. Speaking to the church in Sardis.

And Sardis was not. Sardis was a weak church, if you will, referred to as the dead church, often. God says that up here in verse 1. But down in verse 5, there's some in that church who are still alive, who still follow God, who understand what they've been called to.

It says that in verse 4, you have a few names even in Sardis who haven't defiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes, he who overcomes self, he who overcomes world, he who overcomes the cares of this world, he who overcomes the addictions that we all have in some way or other, he who overcomes pride of life, lust of flesh, lust of eyes, all those things, he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. And I will not blot out his name from the book of life. I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

An all-important thing in the book of life, our names can be blotted out. When they're written in, when we're baptized, it's not written in in permanent ink.

It can be erased, or it can be blotted out. How can it be blotted out? We fail to do what we told God we would do. We don't overcome. We let the sin that does so easily be set. We let the things that we like to do continually overcome us. God hasn't called us to be overcome.

He's called us to overcome those things and to become like Him.

I will not blot out his name from the book of life, he who overcomes.

The churches of the world have it all wrong. Your name can be blotted out. Just being baptized, just accepting the name of Jesus Christ, just saying words doesn't equal eternal life.

It's those who endure to the end, those who really do become and put their heart and soul into becoming undefiled, who let God lead and judge them. Let's go back to Revelation 22. Revelation 22 verse 18. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

If anyone asks of these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. Very similar to Deuteronomy 12.32 that we read in the Old Testament. If you add to these, add to what God has written, he'll add to you the plagues. And when you read through the plagues that are in Revelation, they're pretty harrowing. No one would choose to go through those things. But when we choose to yield to self rather than him, that's what we're choosing. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the book of life. Keep the whole Bible. Know it. Live by every word of it. Make sure you're applying it into your life.

No excuses. God's given us the power necessary to make the changes if we choose to make the changes.

God will take away his part from the book of life from the holy city.

Those people won't see the New Jerusalem. The things that we talk about, the things that we read about. God will take away his part from the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. Pretty sad. Pretty sad if we fail to overcome.

We need to be sure that we're following God implicitly. We need to be aware of the things that can lead to our names being blotted out of the book of life.

Small things can turn into bigger things that eventually lead to the blotting out of the book of life of some names. Rarely does someone get faced with something and that they immediately would give up what God has given to them. But somehow along the line, people let things into their minds that a little grows a little bigger and pretty so the snowball is underway. It's our job to make the decision to stop it. Just as Jesus Christ has given us and told us the Holy Spirit would be the power we need to overcome and to recognize what it is that we need to overcome. Let's go back and look at a few things here in the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy, Paul, when he was writing in Timothy, he very much wanted everyone in that church and all the churches that he worked with to be in the kingdom. Very much the way you and I want everyone we know here and people in the church to be in the kingdom.

And as he was working with Timothy and training him the things that he should be at the lookout and Paul was giving him some of the experience that he had, he talked about some of the things that could trip people up and lead to them giving away the most precious thing that they've ever been given. Let's look at 2 Timothy 2 and verse 14.

He says, Paul writing to Timothy, he says, remind them. Timothy, when you talk to them, remind them of these things. Then he's talking about God's law, God's way of life. Employ them to stay with these things. Charge them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no profit.

Sometimes we can get involved in little discussions over little matters that really are interesting to talk about, but they really, most of the time, dwell on speculation.

And you can talk and talk and talk and talk about those things. And you've probably been involved in those conversations where the person just doesn't stop talking about it. And no matter what, you go back and show, they just want to talk about it more. What about this and what about that? Not bad to do. We all speculate when we read through the Bible. But the speculation should always be just that and not become a rise to the level of that it almost becomes doctrine to us, that we believe it almost more than the Bible itself because it's our idea. And he says, don't strive about words no profit. And notice he says to the ruin of the hearers. It hurts. It destroys. It does that.

Now, I won't elaborate here. Be diligent, he says to Timothy. Set an example to them. We should set an example to each other. Set an example in our families as well. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Know what's in it. Read it daily. Understand it and apply it into your lives.

But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

Ungodliness is detestable to God. Shun profane babblings. Nothing wrong with asking a question at all. And their message will spread like cancer. And we've all seen that happen. We've all seen where babblings and ideas, if they're spread, they become like cancer. Now, what does cancer do?

Cancer kills if it's not arrested. Cancer kills if it's not healed by God.

Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already passed and they overthrow the faith of some. They got an idea in their head and said, oh, that resurrection is already gone. Wouldn't listen to the words of the Bible. Wouldn't listen to what Paul had to say. And they took some others out as well, with a false premise.

Nevertheless, verse 19, the solid foundation of God stands having this deal, the Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Go over to chapter 4, verse 1.

I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, we've already talked about that, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

The time will come when they won't endure sound doctrine. They want their own doctrine. They read something on the Internet, and it seemed to really appeal to their senses.

Seemed to really appeal to them. And they defile themselves when they won't go back and look at the Bible and let God open that to them. The time will come when they won't endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they want more. They're not satisfied with just the truth. They're looking for something more. They will heap up for themselves, teachers. Look for the people who will agree with them, rather than looking to God and His truth. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

Oh, Satan uses all sorts of tricks and deception. He'll do anything to take us away from God. And for some people, it's going into and finding their own pet theory. And even with the plain words of God, they don't want to hear it. Then the time will come, he says, that this will happen. It happens today. It'll happen more in the future. With the advent of the internet, you can go on and you can find any pet theory that you want. You best know what's in the Bible.

You best know what the truth of the Bible is, because if you don't know what the truth of the Bible is, you can be led away. And you better not add to it, and you better not take away from it.

He says in verse 5, Be watchful in all things, endure afflictions. And he tells him to go on and be a good teacher. Let's go back to chapter 3. The heart of the book, the heart of the epistle here to Timothy, the 2nd Timothy, is admonishing him to work with the people, to teach them, to watch out for the things that can lead them astray, to help them, because we all want to be in the kingdom. But we all can be subject to something, and sometimes we need someone to help us get back in the right path. Chapter 3, verse 1, we often read this, and correctly so, that this is what the world will be like in the time of the end. It says there in verse 1, but know this, in the last days perilous times will come. And indeed, when we read through this list, we can kind of look at the world and say, check, check, check, check. They're all there. They're all there when we look at the world around us. But remember the context that Timothy is talking about here is about the people of the Church of God. And while he's talking about the world around us, because if we don't watch out, the world around us can rub up on us. It can make us think, it's okay to compromise a little. God doesn't care if I do this. It's important to do this. Isn't this more important than what God wants just this one time? No, no, no. It's always important what God wants first. So let's read this in the way applying to us, to me, to you. Know this in the last days, perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves.

Certainly that's in the world. Certainly we can see that even. Some of us are prone to that. Lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedience appearance, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal. And you can be brutal in words. It doesn't have to be physical brutality.

Brutal. Despisers of good. Traitors. Headstrong. Potty. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And notice they have a form of godliness. They say the right things. They use Christ's name, they use God's name, they can quote back. The Bible. They have a form of godliness but deny its power. Or deny His power. God says, or Paul says, the Timothy, God inspired it, from such people turn away. And he goes on and he talks about the danger.

These are all things that all of us have when we come in. We have to let God root this out of us with His Holy Spirit. He says in verse 6, for of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Well, let me tell you, it's not just gullible women. It's gullible men too who will listen to those things of this sort who will go in and say the things who are guilty, who haven't let God purge some of these things yet and can lead others astray. No one that causes an abomination will be in the book of life. Verse 8, now as Janus and Jombres resisted Moses, so these resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapproved concerning the faith.

People who were among them, the people somehow who let their minds slip away because they just didn't stay close to God. They just didn't overcome what they wanted or what they wanted to believe.

They will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was.

One more scripture, and then I'll close. First Timothy, go back one book, and I'm going to leave you with an open-ended thing to think about. We talked a lot today about the book of life, what God is looking for, who will be in the book of life, what he wants us to do. He talked about some of the things in Timothy that he says can lead people away from what God has promised us to do. Certainly there's a whole bunch more than what I've talked about here, and we need to be aware of those danger signals. One here in verse 2 that I think will certainly caught my attention. First Timothy 4 verse 1. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times—now, I think we would all agree here we are living in latter times—some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

Satan can make something look really good. It can sound like it fills in a gap.

But we better know the Word of God and what he says and what he doesn't say, and that we don't add to or take it away from. Giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 1 John 4.1 tells us we better learn how to discern the spirits and test the spirits, whether they are of God or of Satan, speaking lies in hypocrisy. That says a lot, doesn't it? Speaking lies in hypocrisy. Having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

And then he goes ahead and even gives examples that we can see extant in one of the major religions in the world today. Having your conscience seared with a hot iron.

You know what it's like to be seared with a hot iron? I don't. I've never had that done. But I understand that if I was to take my arm and take an iron with it and continually sear it, the first time it would hurt, but I'd think, you know what, I kind of want to do it again. I keep doing that. You know what's going to eventually happen? Besides you me thinking that I'm just kind of a real idiot.

Eventually, when that heals, there will be no feeling there at all.

I'd be able to put that iron on it and not feel anything. I'd be able to take pins and stick in it and not feel anything because it would just become hard and dull. When Paul says, don't let your conscience become that way. You know, our conscience is a very valuable thing.

When God's Spirit is in us, He lets us know. And we have thoughts on our minds. We shouldn't be doing this. We shouldn't be participating in this. And when we go ahead and do it anyway, we make the choice to ignore that. It's kind of like we're putting a hot iron on our conscience.

And if we keep doing it and keep doing it, keep doing it pretty soon, we'll start thinking, see, it's not that important to God. It's okay. He understands.

We don't want to have our conscience seared. Now, we could talk more about searing the conscience and the type of things that could sear our conscience, but I'm going to leave that to you to think about and to look at in your lives and to be sure that we're not searing our conscience in any way. That we're not doing things apart from God, but that we are looking at His Word honestly and openly and that we are committed to doing things exactly the way He said.

Because if we want to be in the book of life, that's what we must do.