How Will the Great Divisions of the World Be Healed?

You know, in a time, brethren, when people are tearing down monuments, and sometimes they don't think about why those monuments are there, and certainly if you go back to the time of the Civil War, this nation was divided. And oftentimes, these monuments that were put up were to unite the country, to bring the country together. So monuments can really serve a good purpose, and I'm sure that some could be divisive, and that's certainly so. But sometimes you wonder what is going on here as people are trying to rewrite history, which cannot be done.

It will not be done. I don't think, in fact, it will stand in the long term. But think about this. Ever since Adam, human beings have sought to build monuments, and oftentimes they are built to themselves. Go back to the time of Nebuchadnezzar. And the image, the great image that he built, was probably, and I've heard it said before, it was probably an image of himself. And people were to fall down and worship this image. But people build images, or they build monuments, and the reason they do it is to gain a type of immortality.

You know, so that they would never be forgotten. You know, why else would you call yourself Alexander the Great? Or why would you call yourself Cyrus the Great if you didn't want to be remembered, you know, basically on into the future? You know, think about it too, also, brethren, that nations have strived to export their way of life and their culture through the world.

I think the United States has tried to do that, and they've tried to basically send a message out to the world. It's not been so good, frankly, recently, the kinds of messages that we have sent out. But I think the big message, the really big message that we have sent out to this world, has been freedom. And as the sermon I talked about, peace. That we could have peace, that we can have freedom, and that we could have peace.

But why do people export their cultures? Why do they send, you know, again, their way of life around the world? It's because they do not want to disappear from the pages of history. And again, this is not necessarily something wrong of and by itself for a nation or a people to try to perpetuate themselves. Nonetheless, you know, both individuals, if there's an individual, whether whatever he calls himself, you know, Peter the Great or Alexander the Great or Cyrus the Great, you know, whether we're talking about individuals or we're talking about empires, we're talking about great nations, no matter what, all of them eventually will pass off the scene.

And for the most part, become a mere a footnote in history. You read about them, you know, somewhere in a history book. It may be a blurb here or there about it. It's interesting what David wrote over in Psalm 49 and verses 10 through 12. He said, He sees wise men die. Likewise, the fool and the senseless person perish and leave their wealth to others. And their inner thought is that their houses will last forever and their dwelling places to all generations.

They call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man, though in honor, does not remain. He's like the beast that perished. In other words, eventually they just pass off the scene. And like I say, they might become at best a footnote in history. This is what people desire with all of their being. This is a part of their life and what they strive for. This is what sometimes what you wonder, ask sometimes, why does a man who is worth, you know, 10 billion dollars want to be the President of the United States?

Because it gets down to power and it gets down to basically your lineage, you know, the reputation of your family that would go on into the future. I want you to think about this, brethren, that Jesus Christ sent out 70 men to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God.

And as they went, they did many miracles along the way. He did not send them out to build monuments to Himself. There is not one monument dedicated to Jesus Christ that you can trace back to the time of the early church. Jesus did not send them out to do that, but He sent them out to preach the gospel. Let's notice over here in Luke chapter 10 here, Luke chapter 10 verse 17, we'll go down to verse 20 here, but it says, "'Then the seventy, you know, after they had been sent out, they returned with joy and saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.' You know, they were astounded by this great power that they had, that they could cast out demons, and the demons would just obey, and they had to leave.

And He said to them, "'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.' Jesus was there to see and witness this time when Lucifer was cast down and his name was changed to Satan. And behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions that over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.' Jesus told his disciples, "'Nevertheless,' he said, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice in this,' he's saying, "'because your names are written,' it says, in heaven." That's what you ought to be really astounded by, that your name is written in heaven, which was evidenced by the fact when Jesus sent them out, they did these miracles, that God was working through them powerfully in a very powerful way, and they returned again, impressed by this great power that they had that Jesus really had given to them.

But Jesus said that wasn't the most important thing. You know, having power is not the most important thing. What is important is your name written in heaven.

And in fact, the word rejoice means that we should be full of cheer about that. We should be happy about that. He laid it that God has opened our minds and called us, and we we see the truth, and it's very clear to us. But what does it mean your names are written in heaven? What does that mean? What does it mean for us today? Is your name—I'm talking to you, whatever your name is—is your name written in the third heaven at God's throne? Is it there? Is a place where you can go up there if we and I were allowed to do so, and we would see our names written there at the throne of God? And if so, why? Why in the world would God need to write it down in heaven? I mean, God doesn't need to have anything written down, does He? I remember when I was like, you know, 15, 16, 17 years of age, and even for a while when I came to the ministry, I didn't have to write anything down. I'm not saying my mind was like God by any stretch of the imagination, but you know, I always thought it was sort of redundant to carry a schedule book around because I didn't need it. I really didn't need it because I could remember everything. I had all the appointments I'd set up, what time they were, where they were, and what I was supposed to do. Now, believe me, now I can't do that. In fact, what is my name? I've got to wonder what my own name is sometime. But when you're young, your mind is really sharp, and you can remember things. But God doesn't need to write things down. He knows the name of every star in the universe. That should really... if we look up in the sky, we should be amazed by that. He calls them by name. Don't have to write them down. So why do our names need to be written down in heaven? Let's talk about maybe that and see if we can come to some conclusions about it. Let's go over now to Philippians, the book of Philippians over here. Here Paul was sending some of those that traveled with him to visit an area in Philippi. And notice here in verse 3, he writes and he says in verse 3 of Philippians 4, he says, "...and I urge you also true companions, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also..." Here Clement, very highly respected minister of the church at that time, "...and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life." Here Paul is saying these people have their names in the book of life, and that should mean something. So here Paul mentions the book of life. You know, and we have this again tie-in to what Jesus was saying about your names written in heaven. And the book, by the way, the use of the word book here is biblios, which just means a singular book. A sheet of writing, as it's properly rendered, if you go look it up, and a different dictionaries and so forth, like Strong's, that will define Greek, but a sheet of writing, or properly the inner bark of the papyrus plant. You know, as it says here, again, in defining this particular word. So, brethren, is your name in the book, this singular book of life that Paul is mentioning here? Let's go to another place where the book of life is mentioned that gives us a little bit more detail about what this book is, and that's what this sermon is about, the book of life. I don't know if we talked about the book of life for quite some time, but I think we need to think about this particular aspect of the Bible. It is there, of course, very important for us.

And even the Bible talks about who's going to be in this book of life, who will be in this book of life. But in chapter 3 of Revelation, in verse 5, notice here when, you know, John is writing, he's recording what the angel says to Sardis here. But in verse 5 it says, He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments.

Of course, white garments are a symbol of righteousness. And what is righteousness? Righteousness is the keeping of the commandments, as defined, in fact, by Psalm 119.172. The Bible tells us that we don't have to wonder, you know, what righteousness is. And of course, we go above and beyond just the keeping of the letter of law. We keep the spirit of the law. And our righteousness must exceed that of John the Baptist. We're not going to be in the kingdom. And by that, we have to, again, not just keep the letter, but the spirit of the law. We got to go far beyond of what those in the Old Testament understood.

We've got to be, again, working on what's going on in our mind, what we're thinking. You know, the different problems that we have as human beings. I hope I'm talking to the right group of people. You know, do you still deal with lusts? Do you still deal with greed in your life? Do you deal with, you know, we mentioned one of the mentioned, I think, Mr. Knudsen did on the east side, is about the problem of lying.

How sometimes people tell lies because it's easier to tell a lie than to tell the truth. You know, so we're all still wrestling with those kinds of things, and we must continue to do so until we get a handle on it. The Spirit of God that God has given to us is the Spirit of self-control. We learn to control ourselves. And by learning to self-control, we learn to keep the commandments of God better, not just in the letter, but in the Spirit, in the mind that we're observing God's laws as God's people today.

And so here he says, going on here, he who overcomes is going to be clothed, it says here, in white garments or righteousness. And I will not blot his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Now, we can get three things. We have three clues here in this particular verse that are very important for us to understand about the book of life.

This is, by the way, the same Greek word, bibylios, that I referred to earlier in Philippians 4.3. Well, there are three clues. Number one clue we see here is Jesus Christ has charged himself of the book of life. He has the responsibility over the book of life. Seems to be very clear that he has that responsibility. I won't go to it, but I'll refer to you to a common scripture, Revelation 13, verse 8, because it's it talks about at that particular time when the beast and the false prophet are around, that many people are going to be deceived.

But in verse 8 it says, all who dwell on the earth will worship Him. That is the beast of the false prophet. But a worship Satan really is what it implies, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb. So it says clearly that it's the book of life of the lamb. It is the book of life of Jesus Christ. That Christ has charge of this book. And Jesus Himself said, I will build my church.

So Christ is with us. He is building the church. Of course, He's submitting to the Father. You know, He is working with the Father, and the Father is one that draws us to who? He draws us to Christ. But Christ is building His church, rather. And Christ is in charge of the book of life. He's the one that determines whether we're in the book or we're not in the book. He has that responsibility. And it says, the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Think about that particular scripture. I'll make a comment about that a little bit later. Number two clue that we get from this particular verse here is Jesus obviously can blot names out. The Greek word for that is exile-li-o-fo. And it means to smear out. So I guess if I can use this as an analogy, it's like ink you can race. Or you can just smudge it out. You ever seen one of these like grease boards? You could just take your hand and you smudge it out. It means also to obliterate, to blot out, or to wipe away. Simply wipe away.

And then number three that we learned from this verse here in verse five in Revelation 3, those in the book are presented by Jesus Christ to the Father in heaven and angels in the future. Now presumably this is going to take place at the time of the wedding.

The wedding supper, you know, we don't... again, that may... I think some have speculated that might happen in the clouds, you know, above the clouds, how it will occur. I don't know. But Christ will confess our names before the Father and the angels, that everyone will know we are an official part of the family of God. We'll be part of the God family at that time.

As astounding as that sounds, brethren. You know, people... a lot of people think that claiming to be a part of the God family is blasphemy. Well, God has always wanted to have a family. And Jesus is going to bring many sons into glory. And he wants to have a giant family. It will be a huge family in the final analysis. Let's go over to chapter 17 of Revelation. You get, again, several scriptures here that refer to the book of life.

Maybe because when we look at the book of Revelation, we're coming down to the end, aren't we? We're coming to the close of all of these things. And who knows how far away we are from the end of it all? But in verse 8, notice here in verse 8, the beast that you saw... of course, again, this is the beast of the end of the age... and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition, and those who dwell on the earth will marvel.

No, the world is going to be mesmerized when this beast emerges in the future. And we believe it's going to emerge out of Europe, and eventually will lead to the destruction of the United States. The cities will be laid waste, as Ezekiel 6 talks about. Ezekiel 5, you know, 12 over there. We read those scriptures in our country that we love so much. You know, actually the Bible indicates it's destined to fall apart.

And you know, brethren, if you look at what's going on right now, you see it's possible now. If you'd asked me, you know, this 20 years ago, I wouldn't have seen how it could happen. But I can see it now. I really can see it now. We are on the verge, brethren, and we better be prepared. But going on here, the world is going to marvel when this beast power emerges.

It's going to have this incredibly intelligent, wise, charismatic individual that's going to come to the fore. He's going to solve all the problems, and the world is going to be marveling by him. You know, it's interesting that oftentimes you'll hear a lot of people talking about this COVID-19. It's all in the data. Have you heard this a lot in the news, by the way? What is the data? What is the data? And a lot of people are saying, I trust the science on this. Well, brethren, I don't think we should mistrust doctors, necessarily. But I'll tell you what, if we're looking for scientists to solve the problem of this pandemic, or any other that comes of the future, if that is our salvation, I think we're barking up the wrong tree.

We're going to find it's going to be very disappointing. You know, the current trials on COVID-19, the vaccines that have been used, there have been some very negative things come back on it. That yes, it does build your immunity up, but it disappears rather quickly. They say it lasts maybe two or three months, and it's gone. You can get infected again. So anyway, you know, it's not necessarily all in the data.

Scientists do not have a solution to everything, and if we have our faith in them, we're going to be very disappointed. But going on here, let's notice here, and those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life. You know, if our names are not in the book of life, we're going to marvel at that.

We're going to be like every other Tom, Dick, or Harry in the world. We're going to be sucked in to all of that. And it says, their names are not written, the book of life, from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is. They're going to be amazed by it. So what we see here, those in the book of life will not be deceived by what's coming.

If you're truly in the book of life, you will not be mesmerized or marveling at this beast that ends up coming along. You know, let's face it, brethren, in the world today, in the world today, there is so much deception going on. Wherever you look, wherever you go. And, you know, if you are trying to somehow listen to what's being said out here from the media, particularly, and first, you know, if you listen to the media, they scare you half to death.

You know, you will be like the turtle with his head in and he closes up shop. You know, he clamps that shell down.

And I think we should exercise caution, and I think I've set an example of that myself. But again, if you listen to everything that everybody's saying, you are scared half to death. But, you know, we need to, again, look to God. Look to what God says in his Word. Ultimately, he's our protector, isn't he? He watches over us. And if we, brethren, keep our eyes riveted on him, we won't be deceived. But if we're looking at what the world is saying and trying to make sense of what's going on out there, you know, what happens to us if we get confused? And you know what? When you get into a state of mind where you're confused, that is when Satan can pump in anything he wants into you if you're confused. Interestingly, back in 1995, I will mention this, when all the Faust doctrine was being promulgated in the then worldwide Church of God, there was a flood of information came out. All of it, of course, was, for the most part, false. But what it served to do is confuse people. And once people were confused, then, you know, full advantage was taken because if people get confused, they say, I don't know. I don't know what the truth is. And people got deceived by false doctrine. And some of those same people are still deceived and confused to this day. So again, God's people, though, are not going to be confused. They're not going to be deceived by what's coming in the future. Those written, as it says in the book of life, from the foundation of the world. So this book has existed from the foundation of the world. That's what the Bible says. Now again, we don't know what He means by that. Does He mean when the earth came into existence? Maybe. The earth came into existence 4.5 billion years ago. Was it when the universe came into existence? Again, we don't know that. Was it when Adam came into existence that the book of life came into being? Again, these are not questions we can answer. But it's been around before man came along because it was at the foundation of the world, indicating that God had an ancient plan. He had an ancient plan that He was going to set forth. He was going to bring many sons in the glory. And when the great foundation of the earth was laid, God already had a blueprint of what He was seeking in His building plan. We often see in the Bible that about predestination. Some have the idea that God knew us by name. What our name was, like Cyrus, was named 100 years before he was born.

Not necessarily, that's not what predestination means. Predestination means that God was going to call people at a certain time. Not necessarily He was going to call us. No, He was going to call a people at a certain time. They were predestined to be a part of His plan. And we are here, of course, we are part of that plan that God has made. And Jesus talked about many are called, but few are chosen. Many have recognized the call when it came, but they weren't chosen because they did not live God's way of life. They did not choose to live righteously. They can't have on, again, the garments of righteousness, those white garments that the Bible talks about. But those names, brethren, written in the book of life will not be deceived in the future. They'll see things very clearly.

And so, brethren, now, though, we see that in the Bible that when Jesus comes back, He's going to reign a thousand years.

Going to have that entire thousand-year period. They're going to have advantage, frankly, over us. Right now, you and I, we have to battle against the devil all the time.

It's like we pray, you know, God, lead me not in the temptation, deliver me from evil.

What is the evil we battle against? We battle against ourselves, we battle against the world, and we battle against Satan. And, you know, the biggest problem we have is ourselves.

We have a problem with ourselves. And Satan, often, again, tries to trip us up. We've got to be careful, again, we do not allow him to do that. But, you know, God is going to have a thousand years where Jesus Christ is going to give judgment to mankind. And then, after that, is going to be the second resurrection. And when we look over in Isaiah 65, I'm not going to turn there for the sake of time, but it talks about over there that someone who is a sinner after 100 years is going to be accursed. So, we thought that there would be, after the ammonium, a hundred-year period, and it's, again, it's approximate time, that God would give to all those who will be brought up in that great second resurrection to make a decision whether they're going to obey God or not. And if somebody decides they're going to be a sinner, you know, permanently, then they will be destroyed forever. But the people during that time will have to do the same things we're doing right now, except they won't have to battle against the devil.

They won't have to fight the devil like we do. They won't have to do it during the time of the thousand-year reign, either. In fact, it will not happen until the end of the thousand years, when they'll come and there'll be a deception then, but Satan then will be put into outer darkness. He's going to be kicked out, presumably out of the universe, whatever that means.

He's going to be cast into outer darkness. I don't think any of us have a clue as to what that means, where that is. I don't know if any of you remember the old Superman movie, I think, was it the first one? I think it's the first one, where these bad guys and the Krypton were put inside of this mirror-like thing that just floated through, aimlessly through space.

I don't know. You can only speculate what it will be. Maybe some of them speculate that Lucifer and the demons will be cast into a black hole. Who knows, again, what will happen then with the Bible says they'll be cast into outer darkness. But when we add a thousand years to a hundred years, approximately a hundred years, we're looking at 1100 years plus from now, brethren, that God's plan extends to that particular time. But again, God is going to carry us through, and by the time we're in the millennium, though, we'll be spirit beings. We'll have been living for a thousand years, learning how to live God's way, learning probably how to create.

We'll probably learn quite a bit, I'm sure, when we've been given better minds than we have now in the kingdom of God. Imagine God may give us a... the first thing we may have to do is to build an ant. Who knows? We might have to build a one-cell amoeba. That might be where we'll start to think about all the things that God has done in His great creation that He's done.

There's some wonder, is the book of life this? Is it the Bible? No, Jesus said, my words are life. It certainly is a book of life, but it's not the book of life. It's the Bible.

This book is referred to differently in the Bible, actually, because when we look... I'm not going to go to Revelation 20, verse 12, but when we look over there, there seems to be a distinction between the book of life and this book.

When it refers to this book, it refers to Biblion in the plural. This book has 66 books that make up the Bible. Biblion is the description of this book in Revelation 20, verse 12, but the book of life is called Biblios.

So, it's not plural. It's one book. It involves one book. So, is the Bible the book of life?

You know, it is a book for living, but it's not the book of life.

In Revelation chapter 21, over here, Revelation chapter 21. Are you still with me, by the way, I haven't lost you. Revelation 21, I'm not going to read, particularly here, scriptures, but it deals with the descent of New Jerusalem out of heaven to the earth, this massive city that's going to descend upon the earth. And it's astounding. You know, it's got 12 gates or major pearls, all kinds of precious stones. You know, you talk to a gymnologist about what, you know, gems are mentioned here and a gymnologist will tell you this, the being that is designed this was God.

How beautiful it's going to be. The streets of this city will be made of gold.

But Revelation 21 deals with the descent of New Jerusalem after the thousand years are finished, and the hundred year period is passed. And the earth will become, at that time, there will not be no oceans on the earth. Remember, the elements will burn off, have been burned off, and then New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven. It's a city that will be 1,400 miles square and 1,400 miles high. It will be an incredible building, and this will house the people of God, those who will be a part of the family of God. So after 1,100 years, brother, you and I are going to move into a very big place. We'll be walking on the streets of gold in that time. What will be in this New Jerusalem? Now, that'd be an entirely different sermon, maybe, to speculate on what could be inside of such a city. But let's notice down here in verse 22 of chapter 21, it says, but I saw no temple in it. Revelation 21 verse 22, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of a sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the Lord illuminates it. The Lamb is its light. We don't have any. We have light all the time. There'll be a time when, brethren, you and I will not be sleeping. You know, we'll be able to stay active all the time. Time will not mean anything to us then when that occurs. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and their honor into it. So apparently, they're going to be people outside of this city. And obviously, they're going to have to be righteous because they can't come into the city unless they're righteous. But going on, in its gates shall not be shut at all by day, nor is there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. And there shall be by no means enter in it anything that files or causes an abomination of lie or lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

You see that? The Lamb's Book of Life. It's Christ's book. You have to be in that book to go into that city, to be in that city. You've got to be righteous. And the new residents, again, must be listed in the Book of Life. You know, we look in the world today, and like I said at the very beginning, now there are people are tearing down monuments. Some have even talked about tearing down the monument to Thomas Jefferson. You know, some have actually torn down images of George Washington, and others have been, in the same way, treated that way. So there are monuments that people have erected. You know, when we were in Hawaii, we went on a wahoo to see the Arizona that was sunk there, you know, in Pearl Harbor. And it was quite a moving thing to take a boat out there. Everybody was so somber and so quiet and very respectful, because it was there that those soldiers, again, were entombed in that ship that sunk so long ago.

And there's a plaque that is there, by the way, that has the names of everybody that died in that sunken vessel to honor them, that their names not be forgotten.

Fifty-five thousand Americans died in the Vietnam War. You can go to Washington, D.C., and there's a wall that is there with 55,000 names of soldiers that died in the Vietnam War.

Monuments. Memorials to people who gave their lives for this country. Perhaps, brethren, perhaps, the Book of Life will be like a memorial to God's loyal and holy servants, except we won't be dead servants. We'll be alive. Then maybe there will be a place, brethren, where, in fact, you know, this list of people, this Book of Life will be, and your name will be there. And hopefully my name will be there as well. But perhaps it'll be like a memorial to God's servants, his children, as they become a part of his family in a very real way. And we can only speculate that perhaps it would be a Book of Life that was put in a prominent position on a gold street somewhere. That it would be, you know, in a place where people could come and look at this. But it won't be, brethren, like a tombstone. Not going to be like a wall with names on it, like in Washington, D.C., because over time those were disintegrated. They will fall apart. Even the memorials to Lincoln and Jefferson will come to nothing eventually through time. But, brethren, what God will do will last for all eternity.

Your name will be there forever. There will never be a time when your name will not be listed as someone who is faithful and who are made a part of the family of God. Let's go over here to Malachi 3. Malachi 3, probably as I'm talking, you're thinking, oh yeah, what about that scripture over there? He didn't turn to that one. Well, let's do it. Malachi 3 and verse 16.

But in chapter 3 and verse 16, we often read these verses over here. Let's tie it in to what we're talking about here today, this morning. In Malachi 3 verse 16, it says, Then those who feared the eternal spoke to one another. And, you know, as Mr. Scriber was talking about, we love each other. We're a family. And it's difficult when we don't see each other.

Sometimes I'll call pastors and say, how are you doing? You know, I've talked to, you know, pastors in Dallas and Houston and even over in Oklahoma City. I remember talking to a couple of pastors and they said, let's have a teleconference where we can just see each other's faces.

We don't have to talk about anything serious. Let's just talk to each other. And we're going to try to do that. Of course, everybody's on vacation right now, just about during the summer time. But people oftentimes just want some FaceTime with each other. Like when you don't see somebody for a long time, you get lonely. You want to see them. It is good to see each other. It cheers you up to see one another. You know, people often say, it cheers my heart to see you. Or sometimes when you talk to somebody on the phone, it's good to hear your voice. It's been a long time. Brings back memories, doesn't it, to us. But going on here, it says, those that feared God. The fear of God, of course, is an awesome respect of God, which God's people have. And the Lord listened and he heard them, so a book of remembrance was written before him. Interesting here. It says, a book of remembrance was written before him. And it says, for those who fear the Eternal and who meditate on his name. And God considers them, again, special to him. He's going to spare them, as it talks about in the verse afterwards. And he's going to make a difference between those that do fear God and those that don't. But what is this book of remembrance here? It comes from the Hebrew word zikron, which means a memento, a memorial, a record. I remember when I came to the church way back in the sixties, the ministers very often said, you know, the book of Acts is not finished. And we're going to finish the book of Acts.

And baby brother, this is good evidence here from the scriptures that we are going to finish the book of Acts. And God's going to do it. We don't have to write it. God's going to write it. He may have somebody write it. I don't know that. But God has a book of remembrance.

He doesn't forget, brethren, what we have done. You know, of course, why does he, again, write it down? Again, God doesn't need to write things down. Who does he write it down for? He writes it down for posterity to read. Maybe there'll be a place where people will be able to go and read about their ancestors. You know, in a thousand years, when the second resurrection comes up, a lot of people are going to want to know about you, who you were. You know, I know my grandfather, but I never knew my great grandfather. I couldn't even tell you his name. I never knew my great grandmother on either my father's or my mother's side.

But people are going to be very interested in you because their lineage would go all the way back, and eventually they're going to come to you. And they're going to want to know, what did my great-great-great, whenever you stopped with the great-greats, you know, what did they do?

You know, but there will be a book of remembrance that was there.

Again, God doesn't need a book like that, so who is it for? Interestingly, archaeologists, archaeologists in the Middle East, they've done digs, and very often they have discovered these bottles, these bottles that they discovered. Let's go over to Psalm 56. Psalm 56. Psalm 56 over here. And down in verse 8, here David says, you number my wanderings.

Put my tears into your bottle. Are they not in your book?

Are they not in your book? This is David talk. Put tears in your bottles. What is he talking about here? But again, going back even to the time of David, there was a custom among the Greeks, there was a custom among the Romans. Again, archaeologists have dug these bottles out, and these bottles represented the tears of the mourners who mourned for people they loved, and they were sealed, and they were put in the tombs of the people that were buried.

And the symbolism was that God would not forget how much this person was loved, and God would not forget the sufferings of this person, what they went through, what they endured in their life. Think about that, that God has, again, you might say figuratively, our tears into his bottle. In his book, he writes about our sufferings so that God does not forget what we gone through. He doesn't forget the tears we've cried for brothers who have fallen and sisters who have fallen in the past. He doesn't forget rather than anything we have done.

Jesus himself said, you know, you give a cup to just one of the little ones, it won't be forgetting it. A cup of water won't be forgotten, this thing that you have done.

You know, in the Living Bible, in Psalm 139, verse 16, I do want to read you this. You know, David says, you saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book. In your book. You know, David, suppose that God had a book he wrote about our lives. Again, when that begins, we don't know. When does God start writing about us? About a history of our life. We just don't know. You know, our brethren, our earnest prayers written in a book of remembrance. You know, the Bible says that our prayers are like a sweet-smelling incense that rises before God. He loves to hear from us.

You know, we see little kids, and we just, it melts our hearts when they do things that are just so adorable. And you know, the fact of the matter is, I know we like to act like we're very mature, don't we? All of us. I mean, we're, after all, we're men and women. We're adult men and women. Well, I've seen some adult men and women do some pretty stupid stuff. And I'll tell you, some of us are not cute at all. But I am sure there are things that we do, brethren, that God says He must laugh at what we do sometimes. And He's like a parent who looks down at each of us, and in a way, He pities us. Because, you know, we do sometimes just dumb things, not purposely, but, you know, sometimes we do things purposely. But sometimes we do things, you know, we don't mean to do them. And, you know, they're just kind of funny. I remember when I was, I don't know, I must have been probably seven or eight years of age. We went over to Aunt Lola's house.

And I had, my mother had taken us down to Buster Brown's. I don't know, is there a Buster Brown's shoes placed at any point? Where anymore? But, anyways, she bought us new shoes, you know, at Buster Brown's. And back in those days, you know, they had the Husky Jeans and the Buster Brown shoes. And I remember we got them home, went to Aunt Lola's house, actually, from, because she was close to Buster Brown's. And I went over to the drawer where the spoons were, and I was going to use one of her spoons for a shoe horn.

And after I got my shoes on, and you know, you sort of stomp around a little bit and get those shoes. I was going to be a very good boy, and I was going to put it right back in the drawer.

And Aunt Lola, I mean, she just about hit the ceiling. No, no, no, don't do that!

Then I learned about this little thing called hygiene, which she lectured me about then.

I guess she didn't want to put that shoe, that spoon in her mouth afterwards.

But anyway, you know, you learn, you do stupid things. But sometimes we do that when we're adults. Hopefully not with the spoon, but other things that we do. But, you know, God wants us to think really the way David thought. The God is looking at what we're doing every single day, and He's writing it down. I told you, I think, when I first came into the church back in 1968, I walked into the church, and I looked over and I saw ministers. And this, I do not lie about this, I saw ministers and I said in my mind, I don't want to ever be one of those.

And I thought that would be just, just wouldn't be something I want to do. But I remember thinking at the time, and God wrote it down in His book. So if you ever say to God, you don't want to do something, don't be surprised if it doesn't come your way. And ever since I've been in the ministry, I said, I don't want to be pastor of Hawaii. And I really, of course, did. I'm joking about that, but I never knew that God would make it true. I never knew it would happen. And so my wife and I have been going over to Hawaii for so many years now. But David credited God with being there at His conception. In our experiences, brethren, are evidently kept in a book of remembrance.

Or maybe they're one in the same book of life. We don't know if they're two separate books.

Could be two separate books. Might be one book. We don't know about that. Who could ever know anyway? But think about when did God begin to take a hand in your life? And you began to change. You began to overcome. Sometimes I think, I thought that my wife and I talked about our lives. Frankly, I've said, there are what in the world have I ever done that has been noteworthy to anybody? And then we begin to think about the years. The years that go by. I don't know if the scrybers, if you guys have done this before, you go back through the years and say, there's been a lot of things that have happened in the last 40-something years in the ministry that we've gone through that we didn't expect.

Hey, baby, brethren, we did do some good things. Sometimes we think we don't, but God wrote them down. What will not be, brethren, in the book of remembrance or the book of life? What will not be there? Well, let me tell you what's not going to be there. Your sins are not going to be there.

I'm not going to go to the Scriptures. You can go over to Hebrews 8 and 12 over here.

For the sake of time, I won't go to it. But the sin that you committed, God says, if we put it together with Psalm 103, that God is going to put our sins as far as east as from west.

So your sins, your mistakes are not going to be there. What is going to be there? The good deeds that you did are going to be there. So, brethren, we can't just refrain from sinning. We need to do good works. We need to reach out. We need to do more than just obey the law of God. We've got to show love and outgoing concern for one another. You know, I'm not going to go to Ezekiel 18 in verses 21 through 25. But let me just simply give you the gist of it, basically.

God does not want to remember your sins forever. He wants to forget them.

The only thing we have to do, brethren, is make a choice. Will we obey God or not?

If we choose to obey God as God's people, are you going to be perfect from that time forward? No, you're not. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to fall down. And if you're a righteous person, you get up every time. You don't stay down. In times, brethren, when you feel like you're the lousiest person on the face of the earth, go and talk to God, no matter how you feel.

Don't wave the white flag of surrender and say, God, I can't change. You keep going to God. We will only fail if we give up. That's the only way we can fail if we give up. Don't ever stop praying. Don't ever stop studying. Don't ever stop meditating, brethren. You keep pushing forward. God has no pleasure in anybody that will perish, none at all. And Ezekiel really gives us that message.

He has no desire to preserve the knowledge of the wicked man. He doesn't want to hear about sin. You don't want to talk about sin for eternity. When the kingdom is set up, brethren, God, it's all going to be positive. It's all going to be good. It's all going to be righteousness.

So, brethren, what good deeds have you done this past year?

What will we yet do that might be recorded by God about it? About us? When we build righteous character, brethren, those experiences are recorded when we learn something.

It's like if you look at a baby book sometimes, and what little babies learn, and they learn very rapidly. And mothers are very much wanting to write down what little Johnny did, or what little Emily did, or what somebody else did in their book, their child.

But there is a flip side, brethren. God doesn't want to remember sin, but we need to remember that we can be blotted out if we give up. God seeks to make us, brethren, and not break us. He doesn't want to break us. He wants to make us. He wants to transform us.

So, what good deeds are you doing, brethren? When you curb your appetites, you restrain yourself from sin with God's help. God is interested in seeing you make those strides, those changes, just like any parent with their child. Look, he really has got that, or she's got that now. She understands. It inspires us, brethren, this year our children have grown.

Have we continued with patience and long-suffering in prayer? Have we taken care of the widow and others that are in need? What about our own teachability? Have we grown so big with our britches that we can't be taught? Or can we still learn?

Can we learn still?

So, have we done these things? What will Christ write about us in the coming year? What have we suffered through? What have we endured through?

Well, brethren, what really lasts are the positive attributes of true Christians.

That's what God's going to write about. What we know about the book of life should make us more supportive of the work that's going on right now.

We shouldn't be critical of the church. We shouldn't be critical of what the church is doing, but we should be supportive of what the church is trying to do and put our shoulder to the will and try to help to get it done. Would it be more diligent, obeying, and letting God shape His character in us to help us overcome?

Brethren, those listed in the book of life will have fame for eternity.

The weak of the world are going to confound the mighty.

We didn't go seeking for fame, but brethren, we're going to be in a book that will make us famous for eternity. We will, of course, be there during the judgment period of the Second Resurrection, and we'll aid the Jesus Christ during that time. The record of our prayers, the trials, are going to be written down. Brethren, obey our names, obey our prayers, obey our trials that we endure through, and our acts of contrition be recorded in the book of remembrance or the book of life, whichever, to serve as an eternal monument that will never fade away.

Let's make sure, brethren, we are looking to that kingdom of God and looking to make sure that our name is always in the book of remembrance and the book of life.