Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four. Again,
I believe this today's message is going to be a great blessing
for we who are the born again, blood washed children of God.
We are going to see something that, as I was putting the message
together, and we've talked about this sister, about the book of
life, and we're going to see something that's absolutely incredible.
And this book that the saints' names are written in, our names
were written before the foundation of the world in this book. Now, God doesn't forget, does
he? So the book isn't for him to
remember our names. But like Weiss, the Greek scholar,
said, he said, I thought this was wonderful. Those names are
pinned in individually. in ever before the Lord. Ever
before Him. And Gil said it shows us how
particular we are. Our names are written in that
book. Before our parents even named us. You ever think of that? Before
we were ever before there was ever a world. Just marvel at this. God had
a people from before the foundation of the world, chosen in Christ. And if you're a born-again, blood-washed
believer, we are part of that people. And we are a people who trust
Christ. We are a people who are born again of the Holy Spirit
of God. We are a people who ascribe all our salvation to Christ and
Christ alone by his perfect redeeming work on Calvary's crops. And we are a people of no merit. We don't deserve this. We don't
seek it in our natural state because we're dead in sin. But when we're born again in
the Holy Spirit of God, we rejoice, don't we? In this wonderful truth. So the name of the message is
called the Book of Life. The Book of Life. Let's read the context of this
wonderful verse, which we'll be looking at today, which is
verse 3 of Philippians chapter 4. But let's read verses 1 to
5. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy,
and crown. So stand fast to the Lord, my
dearly beloved." Now there's twice he said, dearly beloved.
And remember, in our studies, we saw that was divinely loved
ones. How long have we been loved for? Eternity. Oh my. See how it ties into the Book
of Life too? Oh my. Besides the Erditis, And
beseech, Cynthia, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
And I entreat thee also, here's our verse, true yoke fellow,
help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement
also, and with other my fellow labors, whose names are written
in the book of life. Whose names are written in the
book of life. And then he says, rejoice in
the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Now,
can we rejoice knowing that our names are written in the book
of life? Oh yeah, we can, can't we? See, I never tied these two
verses together until this study. For years, you know, you see
the exhortation, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord always.
And we think, well, how can I rejoice in the Lord always? I'm a sinner. But let us just rejoice in the
fact that our names are written in the book of life because of
Christ, because God chose to put our names in there. And we're
going to see, we're going to turn to Luke 10 later on in the
study. And the Lord tells the disciples,
he sends them out and they're casting out demons. He said,
we got this power. And he says, don't rejoice in that power. Rejoice that your names are written
in heaven. Where are they written? In the book of life. From before the foundation of
the world. And all those whose names are
written in the book of life are all those who the Father gave
to Christ in eternity. My, my, oh my. He who has begun the work in
us, Shall finish it. Notice who begun it? God begins
it. And God finishes it. Born again
of the Holy Spirit of God. Conformed to the image of Christ
in glory, but planned and purposed way back in eternity. before the foundation of the
world. Brother Brian, he got us because
we're his. Not because of anything we did. He sought us out. He started
the good work in us. He continues the good work in
us. And he'll finish the work in us. Brother Henry Mahan said about
this verse, he said in verse three, this is evidently addressed
to the pastor. So when he says true yoke fell,
it's addressed to the pastor of the Philippian church who was to assist these women
in settling their differences. These women were a valuable aid
to Paul and Clement we see in others. And Henry says, let us help to
bring people together. As the union of the church and
the glory of Christ are much more important than personal
differences and disputes, end quote. That's more important, isn't
it? It's more important. The furtherance of the gospel
is more important than personal disputes. Let's read verse 3 again. And
I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which
labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other
of my fellow laborers, whose names are written in the book
of life. See the word and? It's a translation
of a Greek word. which assumes the granting of
the request just made. And it actually pursues the matter
even further. So Paul is expecting them, by
the grace of God, to listen to his exhortation. To listen to his exhortation.
Paul is suggesting to these women his confidence in their willingness
to comply with his request that they would be of the same mind
in Christ. So he has confidence that they're
going to comply to that. You know, we're born-again believers,
and when we're corrected, we take correction, don't we? Let
us ever be teachable. Norm and I were talking about
that. Having teachable spirits. You know, we pastors talk about
that all the time, because we desire that. And we desire to
see that in you too. And I believe we have a group
here where we have teachable spirits. We want to learn. We
desire to learn about Christ. It's not about me. I set myself
aside. I try to. I want you to look
to Christ when I'm preaching. I want you to think about Him. He's what's most important. And
then, as I was listening to the Philippians this morning for
the study, we're to esteem others better than ourselves. So, esteem
our brothers and sisters better than ourselves. My. Now, that's not hard for
us to do, because we see ourselves as the chief of sinners, don't
we? Each one of us see that. It's
so true. My, oh my. See the word entreat there? It's
from a word that implies a request that has behind it the authority
of the apostle. When he says, and I entreat thee
also, he's saying that with authority, beloved, in the Greek. So he's confident that they're going to take his exhortation
and apply it but he uses a little bit of authority too. You don't
see Paul do that very often. Not very often at all. And he's
not doing it to lord over them either. He loves these two ladies. They've helped him in the furtherance
of the gospel. They're out of fellowship with
one another because of some difference. And we see that Paul uses a very
tender word, pleading with them in all humility. For one must
be very careful with believers who are out of fellowship with
one another, and maybe even out of fellowship with the Lord.
Not that the Lord's gone anywhere, but maybe they backed off a little
bit. Right? My oh my. And they're definitely
out of fellowship with each other, aren't they? Because Paul's exhorting
them to have the same mind. And then we see the word true
before yoke fellow. The word true refers to that
which is true in the sense of genuine. I'm drawn to genuine
people, are you? I'm drawn to people who are genuine. I'm drawn to believers who are
genuine. We don't have anything to hide, do we? Nothing. I am what I am by the grace of
God. And I praise God He saved me.
We don't have to put no errors on. Life's tough, isn't it? It is. It's hard. But we press on, don't we? Keeping
our eye on the king. And we bear one another's burdens. Right? My oh my. God is so good to us. And then
the word yoke, fella. It's made up of a word referring
to a yoke. Remember in the olden days they
used to put a yoke on the oxen? I saw one not long ago when I
was with Jim at a yard sale, my buddy Jim, and this thing
was huge, beloved. It was like this size, and it
opened up, and it was about that thick, and it opened up, and
I tried to lift the end. It was so heavy. It was a heavy
yoke. But see, in this sense, when
he says yoke, fella, him and Paul are yoked together. in the
furtherance of the gospel. And he's a true yoke fella. He's
genuine. He's truly born again. He's proclaiming
Christ and him crucified. He's not trying to make a name
for himself. He wants Christ to be exalted. Right? Oh my. It's wonderful. It has reference
to the crossbar tied to end of a pole and has collars or loops
at each end by which two oxen were put into plow. And these
oxen would have to go in unity. You couldn't have one ox go that
way. It wouldn't work. They had to be in unity. They
had to be yoke fellas. Beloved word, yoke fellas in
the gospel. Isn't that wonderful? All of
us. And that burden, that yoke of religion, that heavy burden
of trying to do things, trying to earn our salvation, is gone,
isn't it? Isn't Christ's yoke easy and
light? Look unto me and be you saved,
all the ends of the earth. Just look and rest. My, someone says, is that simple? Yep. Look to Christ who finished
the work of salvation. He did it all. Isn't it wonderful? And he says, you must be born
again. And the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, gives us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
his shed blood that redeemed us, purchased us from all our
sins. It's wonderful, isn't it? Oh, my. And then Paul names Clement. And note also, look what he calls
the rest of the saints, my fellow laborers. You all are my fellow
laborers. Isn't that wonderful? Whether
one's a preacher, whether one's a teacher, whether we just sit
and listen, right? And support the work. I got the
privilege of just sitting and listening last week. That was
wonderful. I loved it. Now, I was chomping
at the bit to preach today, but it was sure nice to sit and
listen. My, oh, my. And I love this. He calls the
rest of the saints, my fellow laborers. Now, there's a host
of other humble servants of the Lord who Paul is with that we
will never hear of. We won't know their names. Think
of this. We know our names from here,
but who knows us outside of here? There is a host, beloved. There
is a host. A nameless host. Now their names
are in the Book of Life, but we don't know their names. Right? Their names will never be heralded.
But nevertheless, their names are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. We may know just a few people
outside in the world, even, right? Who know our names. Really, it's
a small group, right? Even if we got lots of friends,
it's still a small group compared to the world. And yet, we who
are truly believers, we are truly born again, our names are written
in the book of life. Make you want to shout, doesn't
it, Brother Charlie? Isn't that amazing? And who wrote
our names in there? God. And our names are in there, you
know, and God's immutable, right? He doesn't change. Therefore,
he won't take, he doesn't take no eraser and rub out our name.
I remember reading a commentary on Ephesians chapter one. I was
so mad, I almost threw it across the room. And I was in the guy's
church. We were there because Vicki was
taking some pictures. And I picked up his commentary
in his little bookstore thing. And it said, when someone believes
their name's written in the Lamb's book of life, and then he said,
Or no, how did he say? Oh no, he said people's names
are written in the Lamb's book of life. And if they die in their
sins, he takes a holy eraser and rubs out their name. That's
blasphemy. That's blasphemy. That's wickedness. God doesn't change, right? And
all those he gave to Christ, their names written in this book.
And they will never be taken out. Never taken out. As one fellow
said, written with indelible ink. Isn't that wonderful? And God's
immutable. He doesn't change, does he? Are
those names going to change then? Nope. Isn't that wonderful? Well, how do we know if our names
are written in there? We're born again of the Holy
Spirit of God. We find out. We don't know. You look at us
before we were saved, you wouldn't even know we were God's elect,
would you? We didn't even know our names
were written in that book, did we? What cause for rejoicing now
that we're born again to know that before the foundation of
the world, our names were written in the book of life. We were
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And he's the lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. And that which
is purposed and planned by God had to take place in time and
space. Christ comes into this world 2,000 years ago and redeems
us. Do you know we were saved 2,000
years ago? Really, we were saved in eternity, but it took place
in time and space 2,000 years ago when Christ shed his blood. I ask you, before you were saved, did you
know your name was written in that book? How does it make you
feel now? Makes you want to shout hallelujah,
doesn't it? It does. It does. I'll tell you what,
this is glorious. See what I mean? I told you,
we got a message that'll make us rejoice. And it all comes
to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his perfect
sin-atoning work, nothing to do with us. We're just receivers.
It's God's grace and mercy that he put our name in that book.
It's God's grace and mercy that he chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. It's God's free and sovereign
grace that he sent his son into this world to redeem us from
our sins by the shedding of his blood. It's God's grace and mercy
that Christ was raised again for our justification. It's by
God's grace and mercy that right now we have a mediator seated
at the right hand of the Father, full of grace and truth. A man,
the man Christ Jesus. See, salvation's in the person,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. God himself became
man and saved us from our sins. Why? Because we were chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. Because God's everlasting
love is set upon us. Because our names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the
world. Did we deserve this? No. Did we merit it? No. We merited death and damnation,
didn't we? And you know what Christ does? He goes to the cross and dies
in our room and place and bears the wrath of God fully. that
was deserving of all those whose names are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. And he extinguished that wrath
that was against us and said, it is, say it with me, finished. Praise his mighty name. Hallelujah,
what a Savior is Jesus Christ our Lord. My, oh my, it's wonderful. So Paul, he's asking his fellow
pastor, his yoke fellow, notice that he didn't say, well, I'm
Paul and you're here. He didn't say, my fellow yoke
fellow. I love that. We're all the same. The ground is level. We're saved
sinners, beloved. I love this. This just thrills
my soul. Because we're all on the same
level. We're just saved sinners. Servants
of the Lord. So he asked his fellow pastor,
we don't have his name, that he would help these two dear
sisters. Now note that Paul names Clement
and note he also calls the saints again, my fellow laborers. And
notice he says their names are written in the book of life. Now, this is a book of God's
eternal purposes and decrees. Divine predestination to eternal
life and being called a book in the
names of God's people are written in this book. Note the particular
love that God has for his people. Our names are written in the
book of life. Particular. Lazarus come forth. Particular, right? My. It's wonderful, isn't it, Sister
Barb? Brother Jim. Our names were written in a Lamb's
Book of Life from eternity. Whoo! Man, almost turned me into a
charismatic. Start saying hallelujah. This
is wonderful. My oh my. And notice his value
for them. Notice his, he doesn't forget,
but they're ever before him. They're ever before him. We're
ever before our king. There's never a time when his
mind is not upon us. And then when we get to heaven,
we'll ever see him in all his glory and praise him for eternity. And I say eternity because eternity,
there's an eternity, people say eternity past, present and future.
It's all eternity. Really, it's all eternity. Eternity
is eternity. That's where God dwells, right?
Now, we have a time because before the foundation of the world.
Okay, well now we've got a time, don't we? And don't forget God
is the one who invented time. It just makes our minds fizz,
doesn't it? But it's true. Before there was
ever anything, God chose us in Christ and our names were written
in the book of life. Oh. The Book of Life, note our names
are written in it. For those whose names are written
in it, they have spiritual life here and in eternity. Now we're born dead, aren't we,
in sin. We have no spiritual life. But then when we're born
again, now we have spiritual life. And we're given faith to
believe, faith that we never had before. And regeneration
always precedes faith. A man will never believe unless
they're born again. That's why our Lord said you
must be born again. You must be. Man or woman, we must be born
again. And in God, the Holy Spirit gives us life. Do you know we
have eternal life right now? Do you know we're as secure as the
saints in heaven right now if we're a believer? Sure, we're
going to die. We're going to pass from this
life to glory. But we're as sure as eternal
life now as if we're in heaven. You know why? Because it's not
dependent on us. It's dependent upon Christ. Now, is that an
easy yoke? Oh, my. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's wonderful. My, oh, my. So we have life now. We have life now here on this
world, in this world, spiritual life. And we have eternal life.
It's already ours. It's already ours, beloved. And
we'll have life in eternity. Spiritual life here, being born
again of the Holy Spirit of God and given faith to trust in Christ.
And we also have eternal life, which we have it now. We have to be taken out of this
world by our death, and then we'll be ushered into the presence
of the Lord, where we'll be for eternity, all because of his
perfect sin-atoning work. But go further back, because
our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Go further
back, because God chose us in Christ. Whew! Man, that's security, isn't it? See how the true gospel exalts
God and puts us in the dust. This is the same gospel Spurgeon
preached in Whitefield. You exalt Christ way up there
and put us in the dust. And praise His mighty name for
saving our souls. Praise our great God for choosing
us in Christ before the foundation of the world, because we never
would have chosen Him. and praise our great God for writing our
names in the book of life. And it can never be taken out.
That's why Henry Mahan used to say, we preachers are on the
trail of God's sheep, and God's gonna get them. Everyone whose
name's written in that book, we don't know who they are, so
we preach to everyone, right? Someone says, well, how do I
know if my name's in that book? Are you trusting Christ? Are
you born again of the Holy Spirit of God? And is Christ your all
in all? He's mine. I know I went from death to life
all by the power of God. And then the scripture says,
because you're sons, God sends the spirit of his son into your
hearts, whereby we now cry, I have a father. When did we become
sons? Way, way back in eternity. And everyone whose name is written
in that book is everyone for whom Christ died for. And you
know what the amazing thing is? It's a number that no man can
number. I mean, you can't even put, you
can't even come close to putting a number on it. And it's from
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Tribes that no longer
exist. People that no longer, their
families are wiped out. Maybe the Lord had one of them.
We know he had one in every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Scythians, the barbarians of
the barbarians, the worst of the worst. We know some of them
are saved, they're mentioned in Colossians. Woo, my! And then we say, yeah, he saved
the worst of the worst, right? Praise his mighty name, beloved.
What a great God. This is pure mercy, isn't it?
This is pure grace, isn't it? It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. I don't have time to finish our
cross reference. I got so carried away with it. We'll have to continue
this next week though. But let's look at a couple of
things here quick. Turn, if you would, to Daniel.
Daniel chapter... We'll get through this. Daniel
chapter 7. So let us marvel. Let we who
are the redeemed marvel that our names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. We had no idea. We had no idea. Look at this in Daniel chapter
7, verses 9 to 10. And then put your finger in Revelation
chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20 and Daniel
chapter 7. We see here in Daniel 7, verses
9 and 10, the scriptures declare, I beheld till the thrones were
cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was
white as snow, and the hair of his head was like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and
came forth from before him. Thousands, thousands ministered
unto him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The judgment
was set, and the books were opened. Now go to Revelation chapter
20. We'll have to close here. I'll have to continue this next
week. We'll get to Luke 10 next week. But look at this in Revelation
chapter 20 verses 11 and 12. This is the great white judgment
throne. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it
from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was
found no place for them. No one can get away from God. You go to hell, he's there in
his rock. You go to heaven, he's there,
in his mercy and his grace. Here on earth, you can't get
away from him. People try to, they can't get
away from God. No. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God, and the books were opened. And another
book was opened, which is the book of life. Oh. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works. All those who are written in that book of life are the
redeemed, saved, elect of God. And all the others were judged. Mercy shown to God's people,
right? And then others get what they
deserve, and we don't get what we deserve. Marvel, marvel, beloved,
that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It's
incredible. Brother Charlie, can you close
us in prayer?