The Book Of Life

The Book of Life

September 7, 2014 Morning Service

Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK

Rick Boyne

Message Point: If your name is not in the Book of Life, you aren’t going to Heaven.

Focus Passage: Revelation 20:11-15

Supplemental Passage: These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13 NASB)

Introduction: On a recent trip to the Ukraine, the person in charge of making all the arrangements made reservations for us at a hotel in Frankfort, Germany, to spend the night on the way back to the US. They had stayed at that hotel many times and liked it because it was near the airport. This time, however, she failed to secure the reservation with a credit card. When we arrived at 10 pm, our rooms were given away and the hotel was full. There was only one room left and they would not let 8 of us stay in there. We were extremely disappointed, but the hotel helped us to find rooms at another hotel. They called a taxi for us, but the driver didn’t know where the new hotel was and dropped us off at a place where he thought it to be, but it wasn’t. In addition, we didn’t have any Euros and he didn’t take credit cards. We finally got it all worked out, but didn’t get to bed until nearly 1 am and had to be back a the airport at 6 am. While we thought we had rooms, our reservation wasn’t secure. Our names had been erased.

I. Fruitless Effort to Get in the Book of Life

a. Church membership

b. Good works

c. Teaching a Sunday School Class

d. Giving lots of money

e. Even getting baptized

f. In other words, you don’t write your own name in the Book of Life

II. God Writes your Name in the Book of Life

a. Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3 NASB)

b. that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:9-10 NASB)

III. Your Name Cannot Be Erased from the Book of Life

a. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13 NASB)

b. and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. (John 10:28-29 NASB)

Application/Invitation: Is YOUR name written in the Book of Life? If you arrive in the afterlife without a proper “reservation”, you won’t have a place in Heaven. It will be too late. There is nothing you can do about it at all. Your name CAN be written in the Book of Life if you trust Jesus as your Savior. You can’t write your name yourself by doing good things; only God can write your name there. But, once He writes your name, it can never be erased!