When God Opens The Book of Life Will Your Name Be Written There?
Sunday October 01, 2000
Luke 10:17-20
17 When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”
18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lightning!
19 And I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.
20 But don’t rejoice just because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered as citizens of heaven.”
Our subject today is: When God Opens The Book Of Life, Will Your Name Be Written There?
How do you know if your name is written in Heaven?
Study with us this morning and you will see that according to God’s Word you can have your name written in Heaven.
When you are born of God, The Lord writes your name in His book.
Now I want you to understand what I just said.
When you are born of God, not when you are born of you mother, but when you are born of God, then the Lord writes your name down in the book of life.
No man can put your name in the book of life and no man can take your name out of the Lord’s book.
It is you alone that has control over whether you get your name written in Heaven or not.
You know, that is a wonderful feeling to know that there is finally something that you and I have control over.
Not big brother, not your boss at work, not your husband, not your wife, no one in the world has anything to do or to say about your destiny.
When you give your heart to God, He writes your name down in the Book of Life and there is no one that can take it out of there but YOU.
As long as you live your life according to the Will of God your name will remain in the Book of Life.
In Luke Chapter 10 we read where Jesus had sent seventy of his followers out to preach the Gospel.
They were to heal the sick and they were to inform the people that the Kingdom of God is come very near to them.
Now in our text we have read that the seventy returned with joy and they were rejoicing that the devils were subject to them.
Jesus informed them that yes, he knows that would be the case for when living the way God wants gives you great power over Satan.
Now Jesus used this event to teach us a very significant lesson and that is that the number one reason for any Christian to rejoice is that your name is written in Heaven.
It only makes sense to us that if the seventy had their names written in heaven than it must be possible for anyone to have his name also written in heaven.
And since this is possible, then how does it happen?
Let us study in the scripture for the answer.
Hebrews 12:14-29
14 Try to live in peace with everyone, and seek to live a clean and holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
15 Look after each other so that none of you will miss out on the special favor of God. Watch out that no bitter root of unbelief rises up among you, for whenever it springs up, many are corrupted by its poison.
16 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau. He traded his birthright as the oldest son for a single meal.
17 And afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he wept bitter tears.
18 You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai when God gave them his laws.
19 For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice with a message so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking.
20 They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”
21 Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
22 No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to thousands of angels in joyful assembly.
23 You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge of all people. And you have come to the spirits of the redeemed in heaven who have now been made perfect.
24 You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which graciously forgives instead of crying out for vengeance as the blood of Abel did.
25 See to it that you obey God, the one who is speaking to you. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, how terrible our danger if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!
26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”
27 This means that the things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left.
28 Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
So we see that the experience of salvation has brought us to mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the church and the church is written in heaven.
God has recorded all those that have repented of sin and become part of the church.
God will give all of us that eternal life, if we will only accept Him as our personal savior.
Once He puts our name in the book we become the only one that can take it out.
The Bible tells us in Psalms:
Psalm 87:1-7
1 A psalm of the descendants of Korah. A song.
On the holy mountain stands the city founded by the LORD.
2 He loves the city of Jerusalem
more than any other city in Israel.
3 O city of God,
what glorious things are said of you!
Interlude
4 I will record Egypt and Babylon among those who know me—
also Philistia and Tyre, and even distant Ethiopia.
They have all become citizens of Jerusalem!
5 And it will be said of Jerusalem,
“Everyone has become a citizen here.”
And the Most High will personally bless this city.
6 When the LORD registers the nations,
he will say, “This one has become a citizen of Jerusalem.”
Interlude
7 At all the festivals, the people will sing,
“The source of my life is in Jerusalem!”
Yes, the Lord counts and writes up the people.
He records the names of those that are born again; born of the spirit of God.
When you repent of your sin and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, He records your name in his book of life.
And as long as you serve Him and do your best to please Him, your name will stay in His book.
If you allow Satan to deceive you into believing that you must commit sin and follow him, then the Lord will blot your name out of His book.
We read in:
Exodus 32:30-35
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will return to the LORD on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for you.”
31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, these people have committed a terrible sin. They have made gods of gold for themselves.
32 But now, please forgive their sin—and if not, then blot me out of the record you are keeping.”
33 The LORD replied to Moses, “I will blot out whoever has sinned against me.
34 Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Look! My angel will lead the way before you! But when I call the people to account, I will certainly punish them for their sins.”
35 And the LORD sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshiped the calf Aaron had made.
Here we have Moses talking to God trying to convince God to forgive the sin of the children of Israel.
Moses is telling God that if He will not forgive Israel then to blot his name out of His book.
God clearly let us know that He will blot out the ones that sin against Him.
Those that do not sin, their names remain in God’s book.
This is great news!
My name is in the Book of Life.
Praise God!
And I intend to do my best to live the way God wants me to so that my name remains in the Book of life.
How about you?
I don’t know for the life of me why it is so hard to get people to live for God.
We read of others whose names are in the book of life:
Philippians 4:2-9
2 And now I want to plead with those two women, Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement.
3 And I ask you, my true teammate, to help these women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. And they worked with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.
4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
7 If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
9 Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.
And again we read in,
Revelation 3:2-6
2 Now wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is at the point of death. Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God.
3 Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly and turn to me again. Unless you do, I will come upon you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.
4 “Yet even in Sardis there are some who have not soiled their garments with evil deeds. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
5 All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.
6 Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
So we see that it is He that overcomes that has his name in the book of life.
Praise God you can be one of the over comers today.
Jesus has paid the price for your sin and He will give you the power to overcome sin.
As He told us in our text:
Luke 10:19
19 And I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.
Yes He gives us power over all the power of the enemy.
The devil can’t make you do any sin when Jesus’ power is operating in your life.
Take Jesus as your Lord and tell sin and the devil good-bye.
A lot of people think that they have to commit sin because they have tried to quit and couldn’t.
Whenever that happens to any of us, that only means that we need to get a closer walk with God.
That we need to pray more and not allow satan to have any type of control in our lives.
You need the power of God in your life to overcome sin.
That power only comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you will turn your life over to Him as Lord, He will give you His power and then all things become possible.
The apostle Paul said it this way:
Philippians 4:13
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
You see, it says it all right there.
I can do ALL things through Christ that strengtheneth me.
All things, everything, power over satan, power over sin.
The closer we get to God the more our power grows.
If your name is not in the book of life, you will end up worshipping the beast:
Revelation 13:7-10
7 And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to overcome them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation.
8 And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life, which belongs to the Lamb who was killed before the world was made.
9 Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand.
10 The people who are destined for prison will be arrested and taken away. Those who are destined for death will be killed. But do not be dismayed, for here is your opportunity to have endurance and faith.
Yes, only those that have Jesus as their Lord, those that have their names written in the book of life know what they worship.
Many people today do not know what they worship; they are like the woman that Jesus talked to at the well:
As we read in,
John 4:21-24
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father here or in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans know so little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.
23 But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way.
24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Yes, many are like this poor woman.
They worship, but they don’t have any power to break free from sin.
They don’t know what they worship.
Their worship is beast worship.
They are bound to live after the animal part of man yielding to their passions and lusts lacking control over their flesh and mind.
If you dear listener, are snared in this trap, then this message is good news for you.
You can be free from the dominion of sin by taking Jesus as your Lord and allowing His power to operate in your life.
Your name can be written in the book of life along with the name of the millions of over comer’s that have lived down through the ages of time.
If you refuse Jesus as your Lord, then you have only the same eternal damnation to look forward to as do all that worship the beast.
Revelation 17:7-8
7 “Why are you so amazed?” the angel asked. “I will tell you the mystery of this woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast you saw was alive but isn’t now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit and go to eternal destruction. And the people who belong to this world, whose names were not written in the Book of Life from before the world began, will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who had died.
And again we read in,
Revelation 20:10-15
10 Then the Devil, who betrayed them, was thrown into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the one who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide.
12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things written in the books, according to what they had done.
13 The sea gave up the dead in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead in them. They were all judged according to their deeds.
14 And death and the grave were thrown Into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.
15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.
And so we see the final end of the devil, the beast, and all that worship the beast, yes, all whose name are not written in the book of life.
All who were deceived by the devil, all that believed the lies of the devil, all that did not know what they worshipped, all that lived after the beast of the flesh will end up in the same place - the lake of fire.
Friend, you don’t have to go there.
Jesus made a way for you to be saved today.
Listen to Him and get your name recorded in the Lamb’s book of life.
The only way to have your name in the Lamb’s book of life is to repent from sin and serve the Lord.
In Revelation chapter 21, John is telling us about the city of God; he says:
Revelation 21:27
27 Nothing evil will be allowed to enter—no one who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
John is letting us know that we will enter the city of God and keep our name in the book of life only by living a holy life.
God will not allow anyone to defile His city nor will He allow anyone to bring any abomination into it.
Nor will he allow those that have lived a lie to be part of it.
Only those who have kept their names in the book of life are and will be a part of the city of God.
If any tries to add his ideas to God’s word his life will reap the plagues that are in the Bible.
If any tries to take away part of God’s word, his name will be removed from the book of life.
Revelation 22:12-21
12 “See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay all according to their deeds.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. 15 Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.”
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let each one who hears them say, “Come.” Let the thirsty ones come—anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge.
18 And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.
19 And if anyone removes any of the words of this prophetic book, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.
20 He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!”
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all.
Is your name written in heaven?
Have you been born again?
The Lord, Himself writes the names in the book of life.
He keeps the record book.
He records the birth of every one that is born of the spirit.
Whoever sins against God has his name blotted out of the book of life.
They that overcome are in the book of life.
They obey and serve the Lord; they have gained the victory over the flesh.
They are living holy lives through the power of their Lord, Jesus.
When the roll is called up yonder, will you hear your name?
