Can Your Name Be Blotted Out of the Book of Life?

The most profound for God is the most simple for us. We won't be declared worthy by God because of our robe. We don't get it white by washing it. It's all by faith. Do you have all your rest and all your faith on Jesus Christ? Your salvation, what makes you worthy, is your faith in Jesus, not your works.

Jesus is still writing about our life today and your life. He's still writing because you are a Christian and you are the church! Are you part of the few names Jesus mentions at the closing part of the letter to the church in Sardis? Maybe this is why this book isn't often read.

When you worshiped the pagan gods in imperial Rome and you were excepted by the priest, or priestesses of those gods. You were given a white robe as a sign that you have been accepted so you can go further into the perversion that was happening in those places of worship. Do you ever notice how people get into weird stuff, they go deeper into more weirdness? Jesus was telling them He would give them a robe of righteousness that would never be soiled.

Ephesians 2:4-9 ~ "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

Saved - in the original Greek, means that it's a done deal. It's past tense. We need to move forward now. Stop wishing that one day you might feel saved. 

2 Timothy 3:14 ~ "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have learned it."

1 Timothy 4:16 ~ "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."

Acts 14:22 ~ "strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said."

Did he encourage them to tithe more? To serve in children's ministry? No, to start making time to gather together as a church especially in these last days so we can encourage and strengthen one another in our faith.


Hebrews 10:25 ~ "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

We need to make an effort to be more than Sunday Christians, not of us are that resilient to stand alone, we need to hang out with more Christians to gain strength and get strong.

When all hope seems to have slipped away, we must look to His approval. We only need to look to God, and no one else in this world for approval. Don't let the world determine your standards for living or self worth. They will always come up lacking and short.

Revelation 3:5 ~ "He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels."

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 ~ "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give when he had decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

What are you now planting for spring? Nothing? You'll get nothing. A little? You'll get a little. Some? You'll get some. A lot? You'll get a lot! We all want to hears the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter in." when we arrive in Heaven. Not over easy, scrambled or sunny side up!

When all hope seems to have slipped away, we must rejoice in His promises that endure.  Ever have those moments when you open your Bible, and a verse speaks to you as though God put it there for you especially? Those are apples of gold from God in your life.

Revelation 3:5-6 ~ "He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

There was the Lydian Roll of Sardis, if you born under that Lydian Empire, your name was on that scroll. There was the Roman Registry of the Empire, and there is the Book of Life. Every human being who has ever lived, every one of you right here, reading this, from Adam and Eve to Now, you have been placed in the Book of Life. Every citizen of humanity! From Hitler to Charles Darwin. Your name is in there if you have been born in this world on earth. Every single one! Don't be confused by the Book of Life and the Lamb's Book of Life.

But there will be a "blotting out day" to come says the Bible. What keeps your name in the Book of Life, is if your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. If you don't know Jesus, your name will be blotted out and you will face an eternal death. Just like the Roman Empire, your citizenship will be stripped away and you will be judged. No good works will get you in the Lamb's Book of Life. ONLY believing in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

All those who have been given life are recorded in the Book of Life. From the Book of Life, some names, it's not many names, that will be transferred over to the Lamb's Book of Life.

Revelation 21:27 ~ "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful of deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

Revelation 20:15 ~ "If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Psalm 69:28 ~ "May they be blotted out of the Book of Life and not be listed with the righteous."

If you are reading this now, your name is written in the Book of Life, but if you want to get to heaven, you need your name copied over from the Book of Life to the Lamb's Book of Life. It's like saying, go to the Book of Life, highlight your name, go to Edit, then click Copy. Then go to the Lamb's Book of Life, go to Edit, then click Paste. If your name isn't copied over, it is your own doing. It will be deleted and blotted out, from the Book of Life forever. It makes you discern whether you are a Christian or not and that is the point. If you are a Christian, a true believer, than you will never be blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life. Do you know Him as a personal Lord and Savior of your life.

In the Ancient Roman Empire, if you were tried and convicted of a "capital" offense, the judge would order your name removed from the Census or Registrar. And at that moment your citizenship was revoked, you were sold into the confines into the gladiators if you were a man and made to be part of their spectator sport, or you were then carried away to prison having no name. Please understand this, Jesus says, "I will confess his name (yours and mine) before my Father and His angels. When Jesus calls us, He calls us publicly!

Matthew 10:32-33 ~ "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. "

Jesus places a public call on every heart. You may have done it privately, but one day you will tell someone of your faith. That is your public call. Your confession of faith in Jesus. Hearing your name in a crowd, hearing your name in a conversation, there will come a day when you will hear your name, and I will hear my name,

Revelation 1:4b-17 ~"I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man." dressed in a robe reaching down the his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all of its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he place his right hand on me and said:"Do not be afraid." 

One day, Jesus will call us by name. He knows all about us. He will forgive you of your sins, by His sacrifice on the cross. He will stand proud before His Father and claim you as one of His own. Isn't that great? 

Luke 10:20 ~ "However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Hebrews 12:23 ~ "to the church of he firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect."

There is security in knowing that. Rejoice in that great news. What this must mean to us is this, the heart of the matter is this, how does a church die? When the people inside, fall asleep spiritually speaking.

Ephesians 5:14 ~ " for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

A sleepy pastor can kill a church, and/or sleepy Christians can kill a church! In the spiritual realm, I wonder what this church (our life) sounds like from the outside? Is there living worship spilling out on the streets? Or is there respectable, reverent silence that is interrupted by the occasional snore or twitch?

A personal passion, a personal explanation Is Your name written in the Book of Life and in the Lamb's Book of Life? Be afraid of those who can take your life and cast your life in hell. You can be in heaven based on what Jesus has done on the cross and you accept that, or you wind up in hell for what you neglected to receive into your own life. The Bible is perfectly clear, God sends no one to hell, they wind up their through their own choosing. Why would your name be blotted out? Only if you command it so.

Tomorrow we will take a look at the 6th church in the Book of Revelation!