Revelation, the Revelation, chapter 21. Go to the back of your Bible and take a left. You will find it quickly. Thank you for coming out this morning. Be praying for those who are sick in body. those who were facing trials and difficulties. Look around you. If you miss someone, send them a card, tell them you're praying for them, if you really are praying for them. Revelation 21, let's begin reading in verse 1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared, as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these sayings are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away. in the spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God, its radiance was like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. on the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. And the city lies four square, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia, which is over 1,300 miles. Its length and its width and height are equal. He also measured its wall 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth barrel, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacent, and the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. And this is the key verse I want you to think about this morning. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, for anyone who does what is detestable or false, only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. One of the things, as I get older, most thankful for as we approach a season of Thanksgiving is that my mom faithfully saw to it that every Sunday morning I was in the Lord's house. Every Sunday morning she took me to Sunday school and I sat in Sunday school under the teaching and instruction of the Word of God. And after that, I sat in a worship service every Sunday morning, usually right beside her as the preacher opened up the Bible and preached the Word of God. I don't know really whether Mom understood or knew or really fathomed the importance of what she was doing, but week by week, Sunday by Sunday, I sat there as a young boy and my heart was sown with the seed of the Word of God. I probably was very frustrating a lot of Sundays to my Sunday school teachers and the pastor, one of the pastors in particular that I had when I was a boy, he made reference to the fact after I was converted of how disinterested I seemed always As he was preaching the Word of God and he had it correct, I was to a large degree disinterested in what he was preaching and paid little attention to it. But eventually there came a day when in God's purposes and by God's grace, the truth that had been sown in my heart came up and bore fruit in my life. And I was transformed by the grace of God. So I'm very thankful that Mom done the hard thing and faithfully took me to hear the Word of God even though I'm sure there were a lot of Sundays she was exasperated with me and I'm certain that my teachers were probably exasperated with me also. As I've got older, I think about those times in that church that we attended when I was a child and some of the things that I learned there, some of the things that I heard, some of the things that I was exposed to and the impact that they made upon my life. I'm certain there were a lot of things preached there on any given Sunday that I can't remember. There were a lot of messages and a lot of truths that were undoubtedly taught that probably went right over my head and especially at that time probably had very little effect on me. But as I've gotten older and I've thought about when I was a child going to the house of God, I realized that there was a lot of things that I heard that I didn't even really realize they were being implanted down deep in my heart and they eventually had a tremendous effect upon me. For instance, the reality of eternal suffering for those who die without Jesus Christ. That was planted deep down inside of me. There was not any doubt whatsoever as a young boy growing up of the justice and the reality of what the Bible taught about eternal suffering for those who die without Jesus Christ. It was written indelibly on my heart, I think, by the Spirit of God as it was taught to me as a child in the congregation of the saints. Another thing, the reality of judgment. As a young boy, I knew I must eventually stand before the judge of all the earth. And I trembled. I trembled at my unfitness to do so. I can't remember a pastor, I can't remember a Sunday school teacher taking me aside and saying, this is what's going to happen when you leave this life. But as it was preached and as it was taught, it just seems that the Spirit of God indelibly wrote the truth that I must stand before the God of all the earth and give an account of my life. He wrote that down deep in my spirit. And it was never a question of whether that would occur. I knew it would. I knew that I must give an account to God. And I trembled at the thought of it. Because I knew I was unfit to do so. There are so many things like that that were written on my heart as a young boy sitting under the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. Well, there's another one that I really hadn't thought of in a long time until this week. I told them in Sunday school that this week I went to my Bible on Monday morning as I try to go to my Bible every morning and I just, for some reason, I just sense that I should do something maybe a little different than I've been doing for a while. And I just, I can't explain it, but I just felt that I needed to read through the Revelation. So I began on Monday morning and I took two mornings of my time alone with God and I read through the book of Revelation, which I haven't done just from beginning to end in a while. And as I was reading through the Revelation, I was comforted. I was greatly comforted by the reality that this was written by John the Apostle as it was revealed to him by the resurrected Christ to comfort Christians who were suffering in a very bleak and dark world. And I found great comfort because, you know, there's all kinds of debate about what this means and what that means in the book of Revelation. But here to me, if you just read the Revelation and you can kind of get out of your mind all the stuff you've been taught about it that was wrong. The real message of the revelation is that in a dark world that is under the curse of sin, where there's all kinds of suffering and even the saints of God suffer, ultimately in the end our God will reign forever and forever and forever. The outcome is not in doubt. We know exactly. Read the end of the book and you know how it's going to come out. And as a Christian, you can even go to your grave and rejoice in the promise of what God has prepared for those who love Him. But as I was reading through the book of Revelation this week, I was reminded of something that I thought about. I don't know why, but I thought about a lot when I was a child. And that is that God has a book. And that in that book are recorded the names of all of God's people. And that book will eventually be brought out on the Judgment Day. And only those whose names are in that book will enter in to the New Jerusalem. So what I want to do for just a few moments this morning is I want to talk to you about the Book of Life. Now go with me back to the Old Testament, to Exodus chapter 32. And the first thing I want us to think about is that the Bible is plain and is very definite about the fact that God has a book recording the names of His people. And I want you to see that this is spoken to us or revealed to us throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, and then it is brought to us very clearly in the New Testament. Now, if you remember in Exodus chapter 32, the people of God who have just been brought out of the bondage and slavery of Egypt have just sinned a great sin. God has called Moses up on the mountain to meet with Him, and while Moses is up on the mountain receiving the law, the people are down at the bottom of the mountain breaking the law. And they make a golden calf and they worship the golden calf. And you know the story when Moses comes down, he breaks the Ten Commandments that are on the tablets that have been written by the finger of God as a symbol of the fact that the people have broken God's law. Well, Moses is going to go back up to God and intercede on behalf of the people. And I want you to see what it says in verse 30 of Exodus 32. The next day Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, this people have sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will, forgive their sin. But if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. Moses goes up to God and he says, Lord, these people have sinned a great sin. But Lord, if you are going to disinherit them, please disinherit me. If you are going to withdraw your grace and mercy from them, withdraw your grace and mercy from me. Blot my name out of your book. Declaring that there is a book that God has recording the names of His people. Go to Psalm 69. Not too long ago we went through Psalm 69 on a Wednesday night. I want you to notice how David writes this or how David declares this in the psalm. The 69th psalm is a messianic psalm if you read through it in its entirety. There are verses that are clearly prophecies of the person of the Lord Jesus. But David is writing about the persecution that is coming upon him from the ungodly. David is praying and he's asking God to deal with the wicked as they are seeking to destroy him. And look at verse 27 of Psalm 69. David prays, add to them punishment upon punishment. May they have no acquittal from you. We're saying, Lord, don't acquit them of their guilt and their sin. Then verse 29, let them be blotted out of the book of the living. You can read that and say, well, all he's saying is, Lord, take away their life. But notice the next line, let them not be enrolled among the righteous. So apparently, God has a role, a book upon which His people are written. Go to Isaiah chapter 4. You'll see it again in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 4, verse 2. In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning." So again there, the people of God are recorded in God's book. Go to Daniel chapter 12. Daniel is the last of the four major prophets of the Old Testament. Daniel 12, verse 1, speaking about apparently the time of the end. Daniel 12, verse 1, at that time shall arise Michael, of course he is an angel, the great prince who is in charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, every one whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever." Again, God has a book. Go to Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3 verse 16. Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them. And a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name. They, those in the book, shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him." So again, God has a book. Now if you're thinking that's only something found in the Old Testament, go to the book of Philippians. Remember when we went through the book of Philippians, there was a conflict in the church at Philippi between a couple of ladies. Paul writes to the church at Philippi to help these two ladies to reconcile and to work out their problems, whatever their problems We don't know what they were, but in Philippians chapter 4, look at verse 2. I entreat Udiah and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are where? In the book of life. Whose names are in the book of life. So it's not just that The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that God's people, the Jews, are enrolled in God's book, but it's that all of God's people, Jew and Gentile, in every age, are recorded or enrolled in God's book. And that's everywhere found in the Word of God. Old Testament, speaking of the Jew. New Testament, speaking of the Gentile saints. Now the next thing, go to Revelation, and you can stay in the book of Revelation because we'll spend most of our time there before we're done. But go to Revelation chapter 13. The next thing I want you to think with me about on this subject is that the Bible makes it clear that the names that are in this book were placed there before the foundation of the world. In Revelation chapter 13, we're given this John is given an image or a vision of a beast rising out of the sea. And the Bible says that the whole world is going to worship this beast. Let's begin at verse 5 of Revelation 13. The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them, and authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, the beast." The whole earth is going to worship the beast. But look at verse 8, or the rest of verse 8. everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain." You see nearly exactly the same thing. Go over to Revelation 17 real quick, and you see almost exactly the same terminology. In Revelation chapter 17, John is given a vision of a woman A harlot, a prostitute riding on another beast. And notice what it says in this case. Look at verse 6. I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with the seven heads and ten horns that carries her. The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written, in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and it is not and it is to come." Again, the same thing is said. Those whose names are written in the book of life, their name was written there before the foundation of the world. This is an undeniable Bible truth. As a matter of fact, I was going to read Ephesians chapter 1, but Joe Ray has already read it. where it says, Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it talks about how that He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. It is nothing other than the great doctrine of free, sovereign, electing grace. God has in grace chosen us to be His people before the foundation of the world and He has written our names in His book before He ever created the heavens and the earth. Now let me say a few things about this. I want you to hear what I'm about to say. No one understands more than I do how that the soul may have to wrestle with that. This is an exceedingly hard doctrine for many to wrestle with and to digest. But we have two choices. Either the Bible means what it says, or we have to look at what the Bible says and say it doesn't mean what it says. This does not mean that we do not preach the gospel to the whole world. We preach the gospel to every man, every woman, every boy, and every girl. This great doctrine is not an evangelistic doctrine as much, and it is a doctrine that is a comfort to the hearts of the saints of God. It is not some kind of banner that we unfurl to try to in some way cause controversy with our brothers and sisters, but it is a bastion, a place of comfort for the saints of God. Now think with me about it. Is there anything more amazing, more wonderful and more comforting to the saint of God than to know that God looked down through what we call time and He knew every sin that we would commit, every evil act, every wrong motive, everything that we would ever do that would dishonor the blessed name of our Creator, and yet God set His love on us in spite of all of that. That God didn't say, oh, I know this person will choose me, so I will choose them. But He looked and He realized that we would never choose Him because of the corrupt nature of our heart. And yet He chose us anyway. And He set His love upon us. His sovereign, free, electing love. The Bible is plain. The names are written in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Because our salvation is determined by God's grace and goodness, not by our performance. And if you ever get a hold of that, you'll say hallelujah. You may wrestle with aspects of it as we all do. You may have to bow your head before it and say, Lord, I don't really understand this. But just because we don't understand it does not mean that it's not so, and it does not mean that we have the right to cut it out of our Bibles and say it really doesn't say that. And I rejoice in the fact that as unworthy as I am, and as sinful as I am, and as deserving of God's wrath as I am, I rejoice in the fact that God knowing all that I would ever be, that God set His love upon me and said, put His name in my book. And until we understand that in some measure, the gospel is not going to be as amazing to us. as it otherwise would be. Number three, not only does the Bible make it plain that our names are written in the book before the foundation of the world, we are His by His gracious design. But another thing, notice that it's called the book of life, isn't it? The book of the living. Now why is it called the book of life? Because all those in it are alive. Not alive physically, but alive spiritually. Remember the great verse in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. Now listen to what I'm about to say. All Christians are alive, spiritually alive, because God has graciously granted to them His life. It's not just that we are guilty and we need to be forgiven, it's that we're dead and we need to be resurrected. And God alone can resurrect the dead. Everyone in the Book of Life, they're in the Book of Life because God has graciously made them alive. They are alive in Christ. They were dead in trespasses and sin, but God has shown them grace in the Gospel, and God has raised them from the dead, and God has made them alive. Alive in Christ. What is it that God gives to us that makes us Christians? Eternal life. That's not just the duration of the life that we have, but that is the quality of the life that we have. We are alive eternally. We have God's life restored to our spirit. Because the Spirit of God comes to live within us when we are regenerated. So the Book of Life is called the Book of Life because those who are in the Book of Life, they are alive spiritually, and they are alive spiritually because God has raised them from the dead. Raised them from the dead. You know, Kevin, he's not here today, but if someone were to come alive up at the funeral home, it would be quite a stir. But I want to say to you, there's no bigger miracle than when we come alive spiritually. The reason I sat there as a young boy in church disinterested in what I was being taught is because I was dead. But when I came alive, I could no longer be disinterested because a living person is completely different from a dead person. The book of life, it's called the book of life because those who are in it are alive spiritually. There's something else about the book of life in Revelation 13. It's called the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. The book of life of the Lamb that was slain. Now what's that communicating to us? It's simply this, that the book of life is Christ's book. Because Jesus Christ is the Lamb that was slain, the Bible said, before the foundation of the world, and He was slain as a substitutionary atoning sacrifice on behalf of His people. It's interesting, if you begin reading the book of Revelation, In chapter 4, John is given this vision of the throne of God, and in chapter 5, God on the throne has a scroll in His hand that is sealed up with seven seals, and no one in the universe is found worthy to open the seals and to open the book. Nobody is. John begins to weep because no one is found worthy to open the book. And one of the angels comes to John and says, no, don't weep because someone can open the book. And when John turns, he sees standing around the throne of God in the midst of the 24 elders and in the midst of the four living creatures around the throne of God, you know what he says he sees? I saw a lamb as it had been slain. He sees Jesus. The One who bore our sins in His body on the tree. The One who was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The One who took the wrath of God that was rightfully mine, and the wrath of God that should have been mine was expended on Him. He was slain in my place. The reason it's called the Book of Life of the Lamb that was slain is because the Lamb was slain and suffered in the place of every single person in the Book. The reason that our names are in the book is because Jesus bore our sins in His body on the tree and died in our place. And all of the wrath of God that should have been poured out on me was poured out on Him. Therefore, I go free because He suffered as my surety and as my substitute. You understand, people? Don't rejoice. and the amazing elements of doctrinal truth that are in the Gospel. We are only in the book because of the substitutionary atoning death of Jesus Christ. Now that's what makes what I said earlier so amazing, is that we were in the book before the foundation of the world, and the Bible said Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. In other words, God determined what He was going to do in grace for us before He ever created the heavens and the earth. What an amazing truth. And before we were ever born, God already knew that the wrath that we would deserve would be expended on His Son who would die in our place. What a great truth. One thing I heard just recently that just set my soul afire was I was in a service and the Spirit of the Lord was working as a preacher was preaching. And he said, God can never be angry with me again. When he said that, boy, I caught my attention. I wanted to hear what he had to say. He said, the Bible said God is angry with the wicked every day. But all of God's anger for my sin was poured out on His Son. He said, He can be displeased with me. I can grieve Him and quench His Spirit, but He can never be angry with me again because all of His anger for my sin and my rebellion was expended on the person of His Son, and I have gone free because Christ has bore the anger of God for my sin. Hallelujah. That's kind of like good news. It's the book of the Lamb that was slain. Go to Revelation 3 real quick. Another thing about this book is that our names can never be erased from it. Revelation 3. I love what it says. One of these seven letters to the seven churches, the church Sardis, notice how he concludes his message to this church, Revelation 3, 5. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." Now you may be thinking, well, Moses prayed that his name would be blotted out of the book. I challenge you to go through the Bible, and I don't think you'll find one place where a name that was ever in the book is ever blotted out of the book. You say, well, here he says that if they conquer, they'll be clothed in white garments and their name will not be blotted out of the book. But realize that the Bible is plain that all Christians conquer. 1 John 5, verse 4, Who is he that overcometh, but he that believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. The saints are given by God an indestructible faith. It may be battered, it may go through many storms and many trials, but the faith of God's people is an indestructible faith. We believe because God has worked in us and given us not only the ability to repent, but He has also given us the ability to believe. So Paul says of the believer, we are more than conquerors. This is connected to the great doctrine of perseverance, which simply means this, all true Christians will persevere till the end in faith because God perseveres with them. We keep the faith because God keeps us. So every Christian is an overcomer. Every Christian has a faith that will endure. Every Christian has a faith that will survive. So for those, the Bible said, their name will never be blotted out of the book. Now this is a great comfort. I'm glad that God doesn't write us in with a pencil and keep His eraser close by. That's the way I was raised. That's what I was taught as a child, is that God writes our name in with a pencil But he keeps an eraser close by, and if I mess up, he's going to grab the eraser, and he's going to erase me back out. You ever remember doing something like that in school when you were taking tests, and by the time you were done taking the test, it looked like rats had been eating your paper up, because you'd write it in, and you'd go, no, that's not right. And you'd erase it out, and you'd write it back in, and you'd erase it back out, and before long, you'd just devastate and destroy your paper. Understand it's not that way with God. God put our name there and He knows that He's going to be able to safely bring us home. Hallelujah! You better be glad it's that way. I was kind of raised in an environment where you wrote your own name in by your own determination and your own decision, and you had to keep it in. And some of you are raising your eyebrows because you've lived long enough. You know the futility of that, don't you? Not only can we not save ourselves, we can't keep ourselves saved. I'm glad God doesn't need an eraser. Did you notice something in Revelation 13 when it talks about the Lamb's Book of Life? Did you notice that everybody not in the book will worship the beast, but nobody in the book will? Did you notice it? It's teaching a simple truth. that the genuine believer whose heart has been transformed by God's grace will not render false worship to the beast. I've heard people say, well, if we're here when the Antichrist comes, we have to be careful that we don't mess up. It couldn't be plainer. We, the believer, if we're here when the Antichrist comes, will not render false worship to him. Two more things real quick. Revelation 20. This book will appear at the final judgment. Revelation 20, verse 11. I saw a great white throne, and Him who was seated on it, from His presence the earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened." Books, multiple. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done, and the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in and they were judged, each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. Look at verse 15. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Now if this teaches anything, it teaches this. There will be books opened at the judgment that record the deeds of our life. Men will be judged out of those books, but the primary book at the judgment is the book of life, which will be there to bear witness that our name is not there if we rejected Jesus Christ and not repented of our sins. So no one at the final judgment will be able to justly accuse God of wrong. It's the book that will bear witness because that book will be the defining book at the final judgment. One more thing and I'll quit. Everyone in the book will enter the New Jerusalem. Notice we read Revelation 21 about the New Jerusalem. But verse 27, nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false. No ungodly thing or person will enter into the New Jerusalem, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those who are in the book will enter in. You say, well, what's the... What's the symbolism of all of this? It's simply this. When God created man, He created man to enjoy fellowship with Him forever. Man, because of his sin, excluded himself from that privilege. And if you read the end of the book of Revelation, What you're simply reading is the fulfillment of God's eternal plan and purposes, and man is finally brought back into the presence of his Creator God. And it's all because of what the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, accomplished on behalf of sinners. So everyone whose name is in the book will enter into the city and eternally dwell in the presence of our God. We will be so identified with Him that the language that John uses is His name will be in our foreheads. Understand, God's purpose is not just to get us out of hell and to get us to heaven. It's to restore us in absolute grace to everything that Adam lost because of his sin. And you know what we're going to do throughout eternity? We're going to increasingly know Him and enjoy Him and honor Him. We're going to take our place with the elders around the throne and the living creatures and the multitudes upon multitudes, and we're going to bow eternally before Him and say, worthy is the Lamb. And when you've done it a million years, you won't be tired of it. And after a million years of singing and worshiping and honoring and obeying Him, your heart will be just as filled with adoration and wonder as it was the day you walked through the gates of the city. The old Presbyterian confession, the Westminster Confession asks the question, the Shorter Catechism, what is the chief end of man? How does it go, Daniel? To know and love God and enjoy Him forever. That's a little different from religion, ain't it? You say, well, how can I know if my name is in the book? Repent and believe the gospel. Make your calling and election sure. Give no rest to your spirit until you know that you rest in Him. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Holy Word. Some of these things are exceedingly hard to get our minds around. They can at times be offensive to our hearts, and yet, Lord, You have revealed them in Scripture. It's Your book. If Your Spirit lives within us, we know that our name is in the book, and we can only bow our head and our heart and say, how could You love us? And I pray if there are any who hear this message by way of CD or by way of the internet or those who are gathered here today who are troubled by what they have heard and are not certain that their name is in the book, may they seek your face and know that you are gracious and merciful and kind and that you show mercy to sinners. In Jesus' name, Amen.