Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Philippians chapter 4. The name of the message is, Rejoice
in the Lord. Now, we're commanded in the Scriptures
to rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice. Well,
we know we don't do that all the time, do we? But you know
how we can? We start thinking about what
Christ has done for us. We start thinking about our names
being written in the Lamb's Book of Life before eternity. And
I'll tell you what, no matter what situation we're in, we're
going to start rejoicing. We will. And that's what the
aspect of this is, because none of us can rejoice all the time.
We're just not wired that way. But it's a command from our great
God. And I believe the way we can
do that is focusing on Christ. When I get my eyes off Christ,
I'm not rejoicing. When I keep my eyes on Christ,
no matter what the situation is, I can rejoice in my heart. Can you? I may not be outwardly
expressing that joy, but inwardly, oh my. Eventually it's gonna
leak out, isn't it? Like Brother Scott Richardson
said, it's gonna leak out. Oh yeah. Let's read the context
of our verses here. Let's read verses one to five
of Philippians chapter four. It says, therefore, my brethren,
dearly beloved, and long for my joy, my crown, so stand fast
in the Lord, my dearly beloved. So we see him twice here to tell
them that they're divinely loved. And they're divinely loved by
our great God, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit from eternity.
I beseech you, Euditis, and beseech Synthe, Synthe, that they be
of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true
yoke fellows, so now he's writing to the preacher here, help those
women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also,
and with other of my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of
life. Now, that's the key right there,
right? Whose names are in the book of life. Now, something
that I used to do before I was saved, when you read in the Bible,
like we were talking about, Chris, it's just paper and ink, there's
nothing there. And even when we're young believers and the
Lord hasn't illuminated the scripture for us, But now reading this,
I see these verses in a whole different context now. Because
how do we look at the next rejoice in the Lord always. And again,
I say rejoice in verse four, let your moderation be known
unto man. The Lord is at hand. Okay. So we have to connect rejoice
in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice with whose
names are written in the book of life. Beloved. Do we rejoice that our
names are written in the book of life? We do, don't we, Brother
Charlie? Oh my! We know what we are. We know who we are. Sinners saved
by the grace of God. Let us rejoice that our names
are written in the book of life. That's amazing! Sin is by birth,
nature, and choice. Our names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world? How long has Jesus been? He's
never ended, never had a beginning or end, has he? Right? And we're chosen in him? Who
has no beginning and no end? Before the universe was ever
created, before the stars were ever placed in the night sky, before there was a heaven and
an earth, we were chosen in Christ. Our
names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now that is a reason
to rejoice in the Lord, isn't it? Oh my! I was getting so excited putting
this together again. and seeing the combination of
this. Rejoice. We should be rejoicing
that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life because
there's nothing in us that would have God do that. We weren't
even born. We weren't even thought of. It's
before the foundation of the world. It's before there was
any humans. My! What grace! And I like that acronym, grace,
grace. God's, what is that? God's riches
at Christ's expense. Grace, there's an acronym for
grace. God's riches at Christ's expense. See, we're just receivers
of the mercy and grace of God, right? Do you know why we believe? Because we were given faith.
Belief on Christ is fruit of being given the gift of God,
faith. And it all comes from God. Isn't
that wonderful? Because we can't believe on our
own. And why do we believe? Why do we believe in our family
members? We all have family members who
don't believe. Why? Because our names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life from eternity. And Christ said, I
give my life for the sheep, and that's you and I, beloved. My rejoicing in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice. Oh, praise his mighty name. Praise the name of Jesus, who
redeemed me with his precious blood, gave his life for me.
So verse four, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say
rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto men, the Lord is
at hand. Oh, the Lamb's Book of Life,
it says here. And the Holy Spirit is the one
who had Paul pen this. He's saying to the Philippians,
Paul's writing to the Philippians, and by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit of God, he's saying, you are children of God, and your names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. from eternity. My! Because God knows everything,
right? Beginning to end. There's nothing
that's outside of his scope of sovereignty. Nothing. God knew us before we were ever
known. Let that one sink in. God knew
us before we were ever known. He put our names in the Lamb's
Book of Life before we ever existed and before anything ever existed.
Before there was a heaven, before there was an earth, before there were angels. My, what security we have in Christ.
Can those names be blotted out? Nope. They're written with indelible
ink, beloved. They're written by the God who
never changes. He doesn't change his mind and
go, well, Wayne, you're a rascal. Yeah, I am. So I'm going to blot
your name out. He doesn't do that. And the only reason we know we're
rascals is because God's showing us that, right? Do you know we're
the only people in the world, believers, true born-again, blood-washed
believers, the only people in the world who admit we're a bunch
of sinners? The world doesn't think that
of themselves. Religious people, you talk to
religious people, they don't think that. They say, well, I'm
not that bad of a sinner. Oh, yeah, you're a dead dog sinner
just like me. But praise God, I'm a saved dead
dog sinner, right? Oh my! Isn't God good to us? Isn't He merciful? What cause
for us to rejoice then? What cause for us to rejoice
in the Lord? Our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. My! What does it mean to have your
name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Turn if you would to
Luke chapter 10. Now the reason I started off
with this again is because we didn't get to finish last week.
And I wanted to take us here to Luke chapter 10. What does it mean to have your
name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Well, it means we're
citizens of heaven, doesn't it? Do you know we're citizens of
heaven right now? We're not waiting to be citizens,
Brother Charlie. We're already citizens. You guys are citizens of America.
I'm a citizen of Canada. That's where we were born. I'm
a resident alien here. I live here, but my citizenship
is still in Canada. But really, as believers, our
citizenship's not in this world. It's in heaven. It's in heaven, beloved. That's
why we're called strangers and pilgrims in this world. That's
why we're called that. Look at this in Luke. This is
the words of the master. And the 70 returned again with
joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us. Verse 17,
Luke 10, verse 17. And the 70 returned. So the Lord
sent out 70 people, and out they go to preach the gospel. And the 70 returned again with
joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy
name. Notice whose name it's through. It's through the name
of Christ. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven. See, he was there when Satan
fell. He cast him out of heaven. My, behold, I give unto you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the
enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Now people have
taken that verse and they've said, oh, we can handle serpents.
There's been a lot of dead people because of that. We don't tempt God, do we? No. This is spiritual. This is spiritual,
beloved. He conquered princes and principalities. And the armor of God is Christ. And we only overcome the enemy
of Christ's people because Christ is the victor. Because he's already defeated
them. Look at this. Notwithstanding,
in this, rejoice not. So he's saying to them, don't
rejoice in the fact that these demons are subject to you. Because, number one, it's all
by God's power, right? Notice, in thy name. It's all
by Christ. It's all by Christ, beloved. Notwithstanding in this, rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice
because what? Someone read that for me. Amen, brother. And in Philippians
chapter three says this, whose names are in the book of life. Look at that, beloved. So he's
saying, don't rejoice, don't rejoice in all this, this power
you have over those demons, because he's the one who gave it to them.
Rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven, and we
had nothing to do with it. Oh my! Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice. Oh my, don't make us rejoice,
Brother Brian. Oh my. It's wonderful, isn't
it sister? It's wonderful. Oh my goodness. God's people, their names are
in the book of life. Listen to this in Revelation
13, 8. And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him whose
names are not written in the book of life. That's speaking
of the Antichrist and those who will worship him, which is just
false religion. It's false religion. And all
that dwell on the earth shall worship him whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. My, there's God's distinguishing
grace, isn't there? God's people will worship the
Lamb. They'll worship him. Number one, because God chose
him in Christ. Number two, their names are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life from eternity. Number three, Christ came to
this world, the Word of God, the God-man, and redeemed them,
purchased their souls with his precious blood. Number four,
he rose again in the seat of the right hand of the Father.
He rose for our justification. Number five, he's our mediator.
And all for whom he died for shall one day be with him, because
he's the head and we're what? The body. Oh, isn't it wonderful? It's
wonderful, beloved. So those whose names are written
in that blessed book are all the names of God's elect, Old
Testament and New, all of them, from Adam to the last sheep. My. So let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord rejoice as the Lord says that our names are written
in heaven. Because we can rejoice too, because
Paul just tells us our names are in the book of life. A cause for her to rejoice, isn't
it, Sister Barb? Our names are written in it,
and we had nothing to do with it. God wrote them in there before
the foundation of the world. Oh my! What love! Everlasting
love! Mercy, grace, shown to we who
are his people. It's absolutely amazing. Rejoice, beloved of God. God's election is our security. We are secured by the blood of
Christ, you know that? We're secured by the blood of
Christ, by the seal of the Spirit, we're sealed by the Holy Spirit
of God. That means we're marked by him. We're his. He bought us, he owns us. And
we're willing bond slaves, aren't we? Oh, yes we are now. So let us rejoice, because our
names are written in the book, eternally, immutably, and forever
written in heaven. eternally, immutably, and forever
written in heaven in the Lamb's Book Alive. That's amazing. See, it's all Christ-centered,
isn't it? It's all about Christ. It's not about us. We receive
this mercy and grace because God is good to us. I was talking
to my son today. We were talking, something came
up. And I said, well, God's good
to everyone. And he goes, well, I don't really
know about that, dad. And I looked at him and I said,
he's good to you all the time. And he goes, well, what do you
mean? I said, you breathe his air. I said, you're wearing his clothes. That all comes from something
he made. I said, everything you have,
son, comes from God's hands. And that comes to believers and
unbelievers. His grace is distinguished. But I told Josh, I said, he's
benevolent to this world. He's kind to this world. People
hate him. They curse him. He still feeds
them, gives them air to breathe, gives them families to love. My oh my. But we don't see it
in our natural state, do we? Because the scripture says the
natural state and natural man is enmity with God. We hate him
in our minds. God is so good to us. God's electing love, it's God's
electing love that ought to give us constant joy. to know that
our names are written in heaven, to know that he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That gives me joy. Does
it give you joy? Boy, that raises my heart up
to think that, because I know there's nothing in me that caused
him to love me. It's all because of his pure
mercy, his pure grace. Our election to eternal life
ought to make our hearts dance. Just dance within us. with joy. My, it was God's electing grace that
comforted David on his deathbed. Right? It's God's electing grace
that's comforted his people through the years and through the ages. My, David danced before the Lord. He was so full of joy. But then there's times when David's
really down, isn't there? But he knows that God's made
a covenant with him that he will not break. Because he's one of the elect
of God, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
I ask all who are listening, is your name written in heaven?
I didn't have a clue. Somebody says, well, I don't
know. Well, neither did I. I found out after the Lord saved me at
once. Right? Someone says, well, I
don't know if I'm one of the elect. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. And I know if you do, it's because
God gave you grace and mercy and gave you faith. You were
born again to trust him. People get all spun out of control
about certain things, don't they? Basically, what they're saying
is when they say, well, I don't think God can save me, they're
saying that their sin is greater than God's grace. I'm here to
tell you it's not, is it? We're proof of that, aren't we?
We're living proof that God's grace is greater than our sin.
And I'm no different than anyone in prison, except for the grace
of God. Yeah. Yeah. Look at Paul. He was a
murderer. He was a false preacher. He was
a blasphemer. David was an adulterer. Murderer. Bare false witness. My. God told Moses, you can go
do that. Moses, I can't do that. My, oh my. Lot. Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah.
People look at Lot and say, Lot? Well, Scripture says he was a
righteous man. Oh my. God saves sinners. Right? The question is, are you
a sinner? Right? I'm a sinner. Praise God,
he saved me. But I didn't know I was a sinner
until he showed me. And now I'm a sinner saved by
grace, rejoicing. Rejoicing in God's grace and
mercy, right? All of us. It's wonderful, isn't
it? Undeserved, unsought after, unmerited
mercy and grace given to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the only way a sinner can know that his name is written
in the Lamb's Book of Life is by faith in Christ. That's the
only way. I know that my name's in there,
it's not presumptuous, because I believe on Christ. And I know
God gave me that faith to believe on him. Right? Belief, again,
is fruit of the gift of God, which is faith. And that faith has one object.
We believe on Christ. We don't believe on anyone else.
Isn't that amazing? And by the power of God's regenerating
power, we're born again to the Holy Spirit, given faith and
repentance. But faith is a gift of God. Repentance
is just like faith is on the same piece of paper. It's like
a piece of paper with two sides. Faith and repentance, they come
together. And repentance is just thinking differently about God
than we thought before. And it meant we're a bunch of
sinners now. Right? And by God's grace, we
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we can know, as Paul
writes to the saints here, our names are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, and they were written in there from eternity. That
leaves us in awe, doesn't it, Brother Travis? That leaves us
in absolute awe. My. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath everlasting life. Praise his mighty name. Praise
his mighty name. Whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." My oh
my. Praise God for him writing our
names in the Lamb book of life. Because we deserve what everyone
else got, right? Because we're sinners. See, hell
is for sinners. And there's a lot of so-called
good people in hell. Self-righteous sinners. Now,
here we are. We're sinners, too. That's what
I mean. The only difference between us and the people in hell is
the grace and mercy of God. That's it. That's it. Nothing
in us. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Hallelujah. What a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. My, oh, my. So let us not rejoice in our
giftings or our talents, because they all come from the Lord,
right? I can't boast in preaching, it comes from the Lord. He made
me what I am. And he continues to mold me into
the image of Christ, same as you. Isn't that amazing? So let's
not boast over our gifts or our talents, which we all have different
giftings, we all have different talents. The things we do in
this world, too, that we do, like you're a tile maker, brother,
I can't do that, but God's given you a gift to do that. Brother
Jim, you were an engineer, right? God gave you a gift to do that.
I'd be the worst engineer in the world. But God gave you a gift for that.
I mean, we can't even boast of that stuff, because it's a gift
from Him, isn't it? God gave me the ability to preach. I still see myself as a young
preacher learning and growing. And I hope that always is. Because
let us all have teachable spirits, right? We can't boast in anything.
We can't boast in what we know. We got to give God all the glory,
all the honor and praise. It's amazing. Let's look at that verse again.
Philippians 4, 4. Rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say rejoice. Now, I'll tell you, when we think
about our names being written in the Lamb's Book of Life, in
the Book of Life, before the foundation of the world, what
will that cause us to do? What does it cause you to do
when you stop and think, my name was written in the Lamb's Book
of Life from before the foundation of the world? Does that put joy
in your heart? That puts joy in my heart. Why? It leaves me in awe. Does that
leave you in awe? Do we not say like we all do,
why me? Well, because it pleased God
to do so. That's the answer. According
to His will and purpose. But Lord, I'm such a sinner. That's why we praise Him. That's
why we rejoice. We're in Christ, beloved. Christ
paid the debt for all our sins. Everything that God demanded
for the payment of our sins, he's paid it in full. That's
why when he cried, it's finished, he didn't say, well, it's mostly
done. Did he? It is finished. The work of our
salvation is complete. That's why we cease from our
labors when the Lord saves us. Because we know that our labors
of trying to gain favor with God. Because we know we can't
gain favor with God by anything we do. It's only through Christ
and what He's done. This is my beloved Son. And we're the beloved in Christ.
Right? Hear ye Him. He says, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. And then
further down it says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us. In Matthew 121, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall He shall save his people from
their sins. Oh my, he did it, didn't he? And we rest in him. We, by God-given
faith, look to him. It's absolutely amazing. We who are the born-again, blood-washed
saints of God will rejoice when we ponder this wonderful, amazing
truth, that from eternity our names were written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. Who's the Lamb? Christ. He's the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. So let that just sink
into our hearts, because it'll cause us to rejoice. Let us ponder
these things this week. We ponder all kinds of things
through the week. Let us ponder this wonderful truth, this blessed
truth. that our names were written in
the Lamb's Book of Life by God because it pleased Him to do
so. Just let that, just ponder that,
let it roll around our head this week. I've been letting it roll
around my head. Man, it causes you to rejoice. Because I know it had nothing
to do with me. It's all His mercy. It's all His grace. What great
love God has for us. And see, this causes us to love
God even more. And this causes the, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, it causes us to
love our brethren too, who are saved sinners just like us. My. Note the word rejoice. It seems to imply a reduplication. It's joy and rejoice, joy over
again. Look at this, rejoice in the
Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. So
rejoice, have joy, be joyful. It's a fourfold rejoicing, joy
and rejoy. And again, I say joy and rejoy. So this is a lesson for us, isn't
it? This is a lesson for us, to rejoice
in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord in good times,
rejoice in the Lord in bad times, what things we call bad times.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Just remember what he's done
for us. And we're going to spend eternity,
beloved, rejoicing, looking at the face of our Redeemer. Isn't
that amazing? and then we'll have no sin. We'll
really be rejoicing then, won't we? Oh my. Rejoice because Christ
is all my wisdom. I rejoice because Christ is all
my wisdom, do you? He's all our wisdom. He's all our righteousness.
He's all our sanctification. Jesus Christ is our all in all.
Let us therefore rejoice. Let us rejoice. God's electing love is not directed
toward the righteous. No. God chose sinners who needed
salvation. He didn't look down through time
and go, oh, such and such is going to tease me, so I'm going
to write his name in the land book alive. No. God looked down through time,
like one old preacher from the 1700s I read. He said, God looked
down through time and just saw a mass of humanity dead in trespasses
and sins. He said, I'll have mercy on that
one. Not one. Not one. My. That's incredible, isn't it?
My. He knows the end from the beginning.
He knows everyone who has lived in the past, and he knows everyone
who will live, and he knows everyone who's living now. Isn't that amazing? And he's
chosen the people out of them. It's incredible. And think of
this. Out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, God has chosen
the people out of every tribe, out of every kindred, out of
every nation. That's remarkable. That's remarkable, beloved. That's truth though, isn't it?
It's wonderful. Think of this, God has regenerated
we who believe and given us faith in Christ, not by anything we've
done, no. but all according to His sovereign
will and purpose. It pleased God to save us. And it pleased God that His grace
would be shown to us eternally in and through Christ in Him
alone. Because that's where we receive grace and mercy is through
Christ, isn't it? My. And God's electing love is not
directed toward the righteous, for none are righteous. No, not
one, the scripture declares. There's only one just man that
ever lived on this earth, and he's God in the flesh, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Only one righteous man that ever
lived, and he's the seed of the woman. Oh, none are righteous, but God's
grace is directed to hell-deserving sinners. in and through Christ. Now don't forget we're hell deserving
sinners. That's what we are. We deserve hell by what we've
done. But we receive mercy and grace
in Christ. Isn't that incredible? Isn't
that amazing? That alone will cause us to rejoice,
won't it? Why? My, God chose the foolish things
of the world to shame the wise, to confound the wise. Foolish
there is just common, common people, common people. You know,
God chose the harlots and the tax collectors, the blasphemers,
the rebels, the drunkards, the murderers, the adulterers. rebels to the core. And what
does he do? He turns us into trophies of
his grace. Oh my, that'll cause us to rejoice,
won't it? Oh my, remember those Pharisees?
He's sitting eating with a bunch of sinners. Praise his mighty
name, he is. Because that's me. Is that you? Isn't that wonderful? He's sitting there with them
tax collectors, those enemies of our country. Well, they were just working,
weren't they? Except they were working for Rome. They needed a job,
didn't they? But a lot of them were crooks
too, weren't they? Look at Zacchaeus. But what did Zacchaeus do? He
gave it back after the Lord saved him, right? My, the Lord was with a bunch
of harlots, a bunch of tax collectors, a bunch of singers, because that's where his people
are. Remember the barbarians, the Scythians, the Gentiles we've seen being
saved in Ephesus, a bunch of idol worshipers, whoosh, saved
by the grace of God. Oh my, it's wonderful. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
6. 1 Corinthians 6. I love this portion of Scripture.
I've never preached on it, but I'd like to one day, if the Lord
wills. This is amazing. And if I ever
did, I'd name the message, such were some of you, or such were
you. Or I could just say, such was
I. Right? Look at this. Look at
this. We're close with this. First Corinthians chapter six,
look at verses nine to 11. And may our souls rejoice in
this wonderful truth. Now remember, he's gonna give us a description
of what we were. But remember, our names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. So this is what we are by nature. Now we're new creatures in Christ.
But whether people admit it or not, this is what we are by nature.
Look at this. So he's writing to these Corinthians.
Remember Corinth was a city, they worshiped idols. Idols everywhere,
right? Look at this. Know ye not that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revivalers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God." Well, that pretty much covers everyone,
doesn't it? Right? I read that and I see myself
multiple times there, multiple times. But look at the wonderful verse.
that falls in verse 11. And such were some of you. Oh, and such were some of you
before the grace of God came into our lives, before we were
born again of the Holy Spirit of God. And such were some of
you. But ye are washed. Oh, praise his mighty name! You're
washed! You are sanctified. That means
made holy. That means set apart. And we know this is all in Christ,
right? This is all in Christ. But you are justified. Justified,
declared. Remember when we did that study
on Wednesday night? Justified means to be declared
righteous. We were all those things. Now
we're washed. Now we're sanctified. Now we're
justified before God. In who? In the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Praise His mighty
name. Now that'll cause us to rejoice,
won't it? Hey, brother? Our heart just
sings, doesn't it? My, oh my, what a great God our
God is. What a great God. Brother Chris,
can you close us in prayer?