He butler had a couple dogs called
Bruce and Bruchetta. Like those. He could only tell
the difference because he painted one toenail pink and the other
toenail blue so he could tell the difference. Well, it's good
to see everybody out this morning. Remember those who requested
prayer. The ones that have been added recently are Reggie Holden's
mother and Lou Jackson and Ann Welch. Remember these. Any other
you need to know about? Let's begin our worship service
with your handout, Unworthy. Unworthy am I of the grace that A maze that a king would reach
down to a slave. This love I cannot understand. Unworthy. Unworthy. A beggar. ? In bondage and alone
? But he made me worthy ? And now by his grace ? His mercy
has made me his own ? My sorrow and sickness ? Laid stripes on
his back ? My sins caused his blood to he shed. My faults and my failures have
woven a crown of thorns that he wore on his head. Unworthy, unworthy, a beggar
In bondage and alone, God, He made me worthy. And now by His grace, His mercy
has made me His own. Unworthy am I of the glory to
come. Unworthy were the angels to so much. A pauper, I walk with
the king. Unworthy, unworthy. A beggar in bondage and alone,
but he made me worthy. His mercy has made me His own. If you have your Bibles, turn to Revelation
21. The hymn after scripture reading and prayer
will be hymn number 46. Is that right? Hymn number 46. Revelation 21, I want you to
read one verse of scripture. The title of my message this
morning is You and Not You. Revelation 21, verse 27, And
there shall in no wise enter into it, that is, glory, anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh
the lie. But they which are written, in
the Lamb's Book of Life. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven,
we thank you for the distinction that you make in your word, the
clear, succinct, and precise division that you have placed
on humanity of those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life and those who are not. We praise you for your goodness,
that you counted us in that multitude that outnumbers the sands of
the sea and the stars of the sky, to bring into the fold of
grace, hold close to you and make them your family. We ask, Lord, that you would
give us thankful hearts as we recollect these things. Father,
we pray for those who are sick, those who are on the prayer list,
those who are going through trials and troubles and sorrows in their
heart. We know you've come to heal the brokenhearted, to set
it free, them that are captive, to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord. We pray you will deal in each
case with mercy and tenderness, as you are apt to do. Father,
help us this hour to worship you. Help us to know that thou
art God, there is none else. There is none beside thee, nor
is there any like thee. That you, as sovereign ruler
of this universe, declare the end from the beginning. And even things that aren't,
you declare them to be. Father, help us to worship you. You are worthy. We pray in Christ's
name, amen. Hymn number 46, O For a Thousand
Thumbs to Sing. The triumphs of His grace. The glories of my God and King. The triumphs of His grace. My gracious master and my God
assist me to proclaim to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that beats our sorrows, sees tears, He breaks the power of canceled
sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the phallus
clean. His blood availed for me. Your loosened tongues employ,
ye blind behold your Saviour. I'm gonna ask Sam and Stan if
they'd receive the album this morning, please. Let's pray, Father in heaven,
merciful and gracious, who has given unto us, your people, the
unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ, and with him freely given us
all things. You who chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, made him to be our surety and
assume our sin dead. Then come into this world and
take on the form of human flesh and being found in the fashion
of a man, became obedient even to the death of the cross. Wherefore
you have highly exalted him and given him a name. And of that
name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he
is Lord to the glory of the Father. We know that what we have, anything
we have this side of eternal perdition is by mercy and grace. And we thank you. We didn't deserve
any of your favor. And yet you shed abroad your
love in our hearts. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. With thankful hearts, let us
return unto thee that which you've given us for the preaching of
the gospel here and other places. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Stay still, I'll commission you. Life has entered the building. Revelation 22 and verse 27 makes
a clear distinction as to who is going to heaven. Stan called
me the other day. He had seen an advertisement
on TV, I think it was, and it says, Are you going to heaven
or hell? Or are you going to heaven or
no? Go to heavenornow.net and find out. When I say go to the Bible and
find out, because that's where the truth is. Our Lord says here,
and he makes this distinction, there shall in no wise enter
into anything, enter it anything, that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life. As I was writing up this message, I didn't see what I just saw
a few moments ago. That the distinction made between
the lost sinner and the safe sinner, because those written
in the Lamb's Book of Life qualify in the first part of that, as
every one of those things, is simply this. Their names were
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It has been held from time immemorial
that good people go to heaven. Of course, the measure of good
has nothing to do with God, but rather by comparing presumed
moral behavior. The only measure of goodness,
however, is God Himself. So if you want to talk about
being good as a measure to get you into heaven, then here's
how good you've got to be. You've got to be as good as God. That's a tall order. The only measure of goodness
is God. In fact, the name God is a derivation
or a transliteration of the English word good. when our Lord revealed his glory
to Moses, the first thing he revealed was his goodness. I
shall make my goodness to pass before you. The true and living
God is good, but of that goodness the natural mind is without a
clue. The problem then is that since
ignorant men have no true concept of goodness or what is good,
They have bought into religious notions of God, and therefore
their notion of goodness is completely eschewed. You listen to the language
of the day in which we live, it seems that everyone who dies
goes to heaven. I think it was Henry Mann who
told me one time, he was talking to a funeral director, he said,
I've been a funeral director for 50 years, I've never buried
a lost man. Never buried a lost man. Now this does not mean that people
believe that. This does not mean that everyone
who dies is necessarily good. But the anemic, emaciated, feckless
concept of God makes it veritably impossible or highly unlikely
for God to cast anybody into hell. There was a time not long ago
that even the vilest profligate believed that there was a place
called hell. Now it is rare to hear the word except in reference
to bad circumstances happening to good people. Their life is
hell, people say. I've heard many in this day say
that God is too good to send people to hell. The fact is that
He is too good not to send people to hell. This poor view of God
is born of the constant bombardment of false teaching that God loves
you that God loves everybody, that God loves everybody and
has a wonderful plan for their life, and God loves everybody
makes it more and more impossible for the natural mind to believe
that hell even exists. Such things have made preachers
to blame natural disasters on the devil and deny God altogether
when some person or child or group comes to a horrible end
They say things like, how can there be a loving God if he lets
terrible things like genocide, famine, murder, child abuse and
such exist in the world? That's their argument. It is
easier for such to deny the existence of God rather than admit that
they wish such a God existed to keep such things from happening
or to punish those who do such things. The natural mind, whether
inebriated with religion or not, simply cannot equate bad or evil
things with God, whom they've been programmed to believe is
good and loving by their mutated and carnally warped definition
of goodness and love. This twisted concept of the good
and loving God has made men question God based on circumstance rather
than judging circumstance based on the will of God. What if God the good and loving
God actually causes these things to happen. Isaiah 45 said, I create evil,
I create good, I create light, I create darkness, I do all these
things, all these things. In Amos 3.6 which was dealing
with the Chaldeans coming in to destroy Jerusalem. And the false prophets would
say, nah, the Bible don't say that. Preachers don't say that.
We'll look at that in this afternoon's lesson. Amos said, shall there
be trouble in this city? And the Lord not do it? The Lord
not do it? What if the good and loving God
actually created some men in order to destroy them? actually
created them in order to destroy them. God has created all things, saith
the scripture, even the wicked for the day of evil. Even the wicked for the day of
evil. What if God, says in Romans 9, what if it? Now what if means
it's not a question, it's a statement. it means what if he does this
you have nothing to say about it what if god willing to show
his wrath and make his power known endured with much long-suffering
the vessels fitted or made to destroy that he might show grace
and mercy to the vessels he's before prepared for glory what
if god What if God, out of the same lump of Adamic clay, made
some vessels for honor and some for dishonor? Some vessels to
be used for His glory. Some vessels made to use for
His justice and His wrath. What if God did that? What if the good and loving God
has appointed the moment of every man's death, and no matter what,
that man cannot pass? It is appointed unto man once
to die, and after that, the judgment, Scripture says. Man's days are
with God. His months are numbered. His
boundaries are set, and he cannot pass. It is God who kills, and God
who makes alive. It is God who brings up and it
is God who casts down. I, the Lord, do all these things,
saith the Lord. What if the good and loving God
actually LOVED some men and HATED others? Scripture says He hates the workers
of iniquity and the evil in Psalm 7 and Psalm 11. Romans 9, he
says, quoting Malachi 3, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I
hated. And religion says, well, that
makes God unrighteous. So Paul addressed that. He said,
you shall say, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he
said unto Moses, I will have mercy, on whom I will have mercy,
and whom I will, I will harden. What if the good in love and
God decided before the world began, even before one human
being existed, who would go to heaven and who would not be allowed
to go to heaven and would wind up in hell? God said this, and
there shall no wise enter into anything that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie. But who's gonna go, and why? They that are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Oh my. Such a God, it seems,
would be totally outside the control of men. Such a God would
not give account of His matters, Such a God would do exactly as
He pleases, when He pleases, with whom He pleases, and could
not be stopped under any circumstances once He's put His hand to a thing. Such a God would just think,
and it would be done. Just think it, and it would be
done. That's what He says in Isaiah
14, As I have thought, it shall come to pass. Such a God would
never fit puny man's mold to be a subject to his creature's
foolish dreams of being influential. Men think we can influence God
by holding hands or waving hands or calling down spirits from
heaven or empowering God. The way they talk, they empower
God to empower them. Let me tell you about your influence
with God. Zero. Zero. Then why pray? Because He told you to pray.
And if you love Him, you'll want to talk to Him. Nobody has to
force you to pray or sit three or four or five times a day.
If you're a child of God, you're going to be constantly thinking
about Him, even when you don't know you're thinking about Him. Such a God would be a God would
be God, and He alone would determine who would be accepted and welcomed
into his eternal home, and who would be rejected. People say
God has nothing to do with reprobation, and there is a sense in which
reprobation is a thing that has a beginning and brings to fruition
a course, if you will, in Romans 121, beginning with refusing
to acknowledge God as He is and ending with refusing to acknowledge
God. but also scripture says that
he's ordained some to condemnation he's made the wicked for the
day of evil and those who have turned against
the word of God do so because they're appointed to it that's
the language of scripture you say well that makes me uncomfortable
good would to God I could make men uncomfortable I can't but
the word of God can the word of God can I text here in Revelation
21 proclaims that some are welcome in his presence and some are
not. In that glorious church, that
New Jerusalem described in such wonderful symbolic and metaphorical
poetry, some are not allowed and will never be permitted entrance. In that place, some are welcome
and some are not. Not everyone who dies goes to
heaven. Everyone is not up there. looking down and watching over
those left behind. Those up there did not become
angels when they died. Angels are created beings, human
beings. They're created creatures, genderless
creatures, can take the form of many things. Human beings
are not such. Everyone up there is not up there
looking down and watching over those left behind. According
to our text, many who would think such a thing would have to crane
their neck and look up if they wanted to watch those left behind.
Our text clearly proclaims who will and will not be in heaven and why. First declares who will not enter
in and why. Devilers, abominators, liars
will not enter into heaven. Well, I can't go. I can't go. No wise will they enter in. Didn't
Paul say that to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter
6? And he was talking to church
members. The first letter that he wrote to the churches is 1
Corinthians. some twenty-some years after
the Lord went to glory. And you can see the church, because
it's filled with human beings, doesn't hold its integrity very
long. This is the first letter written
to a church, and this church is a mess. If you think hypocrites
go to church, you're right. If you think too many sinners
are there, you're right. That's the only ones that belong
there. Many years ago, one of the preachers up in the cove
They had these things called churching people on Wednesday
night. Once a month, they would throw people out of church if
they didn't meet the church's standards. And one of the preachers says,
go up there, Sequoyah, Tim, James, take anything. Yes. If you're ruined and wretched
and a sinner and know you have no hope in this world and in
yourself, I got something I can tell you.
It just might do you good. It just might do you good. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, he
says in verse 9, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
or idolaters, or adulterers, or effeminate, or abusers of
themselves with mankind. Now that covers a lot. Nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners
shall inherit the kingdom of God." Nobody's going to heaven,
it seems. And then he says, to those who
have been saved by God's grace, and such were some of you, and such were some of you, but
you've been washed, and you've been sanctified, you're justified
in the name of the lord jesus christ some people are going to heaven
but it ain't because those who do do go to heaven it ain't because
they're different than those that don't that's what you need
to remember there ain't no difference ain't no difference if god would
lift his sovereign hand of restraint from any one of us there is no
telling what we would do There is no telling. We sit in a house
full of murderers and liars by nature. That's what we are by
nature. Read Mark 7. In Revelation 21, 8, it says, But the fearful and unbelieving
and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers
and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which
birtheth fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Chapter 22 and verse 11 says,
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy,
let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy
still. What is the distinction made
there? The distinction is made back in our text. those who practice
such things as abominations and lies and set defilers shall not
are in but they which are written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. What a thing! What a thing! It seems utterly reasonable that
wicked men should not go to heaven. It seems utterly unreasonable
that wicked men should go to heaven because their names are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Even to that part of false
religion that retains some concept of the holiness of God it seems
reasonable that wicked men should suffer punishment if then some
are welcomed into God's presence who requires perfection to be
there and holiness and righteousness like His own You say, well, they must be opposite
of those that go to hell, but they're not. They must be good people. No,
they're not. There's none good, no, not one. There's none that
doeth good. There is not a just man on earth
that doeth good and sinneth not. By nature, those who enter in
are welcome there, are no different than those who refuse entry. They are not naturally good,
but they're rather indistinguishable from those who perish. How is
it that they are lovingly ushered into the presence of God, if
there's no difference between them? The answer is so plain
that it befuddles the natural mind. They have access, they
have gained entry, they are welcomed because their names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's the reason. That's it. That's it. They are there because God, because
He would, because He's God and He can. God wrote their names in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Why were they written there?
Because God wrote their names there. Don't look for another
reason. There isn't one. There isn't
one. Are they not believers? Yes,
they all turn out to be that because they are sheep and God's
sheep believe the gospel and follow Christ. But why are they
believers? Because their names are written
in the Book of Life. The Lamb's Book of Life. In Acts
13, verse 48 it says, Those who were ordained to eternal life
believed. prographical in our words graphic
from it they are written to life as many as were believed or written
did so because they are written to life the book in your hands tells us that the book in which
their names of the believers are written is the book of the
substitute the book of the Lamb. What was it John the Baptist
said when he saw Christ walking down the road? Behold the Lamb
of God, God's Lamb, and taketh away the sin of the world. The mark of the book of Revelation
is you find Jesus Christ set forth particularly and redundantly
and repeatedly as the Lamb upon the throne. The Lamb. It is the book of the substitute.
And all who are in this book are redeemed by blood, the blood
of the Lamb, and they are made kings and priests unto their
God. It says that twice in the book of Revelation. Verses in
Revelation 1, 5, and 6, He has washed us in His blood and made
us kings and priests unto God. In Revelation 5 it says, Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain, that has redeemed us by His blood
out of every kindred, nation, tongue, and people, and made
us kings and priests under our God. I'm looking at a bunch of kings
and a bunch of priests made so by God. This short yet precise
verse here says it all. Those who enter into heaven are
there by grace alone, Their works neither good nor bad had anything
to do with them being there. They are there because their
names were written in the book of God. Chapter 17 of Revelation. Verse 8 said, The beasts that
thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit and go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder whose names are not written in the book of life
from the foundation of the world. They'll wonder when they beheld
the beast that was and is not and yet is. They'll wonder, who
shall wonder those whose names are not written in the book of
life? Those whose names are written there, they know who the beast
is. They know who the beast is. Those who shall not enter do
not have their names in that book. In chapter 20 verse 15, he said, whosoever was not found
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. The
Lamb's book of life. I know, I remember hearing a
preacher one time, back when I was in false religion, he gave
an invitation at the end of a meeting. It was about a 15-minute job,
a lot of verses, just as I am, and begging and raising hands
and closing eyes and standing up and sitting down, a whole
lot of stuff going on. he said if you'll come down front
right now and confess Jesus Christ and
say the sinner's prayer then an angel from heaven will come
down and dip his wing in the blood of Jesus Christ and write
your name in the Lamb's book of life. That sounds nice but it's just
a lie straight out of hell. Because these names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. How could that be? God did it.
God did it. What this verse is simply saying
is what Jonah said when he was cast out of the belly of the
whale. Or right before he was cast out of the belly of the
whale. He did a whole lot to get out of that belly. He prayed,
he bade, he vowed. He said, look, I'll pay all my
vows. He's still in the belly. He said, I'll do what I'm supposed
to do, but he's still in the belly. He even told the truth. Salvation
is of the Lord. If I get saved, God's gonna have
to save me. He's still in the belly of the whale. That's when
God told the whale to spit him out, that's when he was saved.
When God tells the whale to spit you out, that's when you'll be
saved. people said can't be swallowed by a web. Last week it was in
the news. A fellow was actually swallowed
by a web and spat out because evidently it didn't taste good.
Must have been a clown. He must have tasted funny. I
don't know. Salvation. This verse, this passage,
simple and plain says that salvation is of the Lord. Lamb's Book of
Life is a roll. We used to sing a song, when
the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there. Well, if you're
in the Lamb's Book of Life when the roll is called up yonder,
you'll be there. In the Judgment Day, books are
opened to show men their sins, but not for the child of God.
Evil men will be judged out of the books. But then another book
is opened. And there are those there that
stand and wait for their name to be called, who do not fear
judgment, because as Christ is, so are
they in the world. And when God calls out their
name, they'll not start smelling like sulfur, because all their
sins will suddenly come up before them, and they'll have to confess
them. by the grace of Almighty God,
by the blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary Street, their sins
have been put away, for God will remember them no more, and if
He remembers them no more, they're not going to be called up to
the judgment. So what's going to happen? The Romans are going
to be called. Eric Burt. Jim Poe, here. My name is written in the Lamb's
Book of Life from the foundation of the world. One day you'll
hear the name called again. Called unto salvation the first
time, called unto glory the second. Who shall go to heaven? Those
whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. God bless
you. And forward. And again, to your
various jobs.