How Do I Get On God's List?

This book that we’ve been talking about is called by different names - the Book of Remembrance; the Book of Life; or the Lamb’s Book of Life. Some people think there are three different books. Whether it’s three books or one doesn’t matter. What matters is that we get our names into this book, onto this list, as quickly as possible, because we sure don’t want to die without being on God’s list.

Some of the scriptures I’ve read to you tell us what to do to get on the list. We have to remain faithful to God, and love, fear, honor, and respect him. We can become marked for salvation through our faith in Christ. We can stand firm in our faith and know that we belong to God. We can put our trust in Christ to save us and secure our place in the new Jerusalem.

But if we read just a couple of verses farther in today’s scripture, we’ll see something else we have to do to get our names in the book. Daniel 12, verse 3 tells us that "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever."

We talked about wisdom and being wise in our Sunday School class last week. I believe that we decided that being wise means automatically knowing what God wants done. In order to do this, we have to know God intimately. We have to be close enough to him to be able to do his will instinctively. When we get this kind of wisdom, we’re on our way to being on God’s list.

But more importantly than just having wisdom, we have to be able to use that wisdom for God’s purpose. God isn’t going to give us wisdom like that just to have us waste it or use it for our own purposes. Wisdom is to be used to lead people to God. We’re supposed to use our gift of wisdom to further God’s kingdom here on earth, and to bring as many people as possible to salvation through Jesus Christ. That’s how we get on God’s list.

So what does it mean to be on God’s list? It means everlasting life. Eternal life in the new Jerusalem. Eternity spent in the throne room with God. Can you picture it? Can you imaging the wondrous joy that will be ours, if we can just get our names on that list?

As you might have suspected, I have a hymn in mind that speaks of the joy that can be ours, if our names are on the list. I’d like for us to sing it now. It’s number 303, and I know it as When the Roll is Called up Yonder. Let’s sing all three verses.