In his sermon titled 'The Lambs Book of Life', Scott Brown explores the theological significance of the Book of Life mentioned in Revelation 13:8, which records the names of those who will worship Jesus. He explains that this book is fundamentally linked to the concept of Jesus as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, emphasizing that salvation is an act of divine grace predestined by God. The sermon delves into various biblical references to books, such as the book of remembrance and the book of tears, highlighting the importance of God's eternal record-keeping. Brown contrasts human lists, like genealogies, with the divine list found in the Lamb's Book of Life, which is based on God's sovereign love rather than human merit. He discusses the implications of this doctrine for both Old and New Testament believers, asserting that all are saved by faith through the cross of Christ, which retroactively applied to Old Testament saints. The sermon concludes by urging believers to let the cross shape their lives and relationships, portraying it as the central interpretive grid for understanding history and God's love.

When I was in elementary school, there was roll call every morning. There was a list. If you were on the list, your name got called. I want to read you a passage of scripture about a list and a lamb. Revelation 13, eight, if you can open your Bible, sir, Revelation chapter 13.

It's a great representative passage of the principle I'd like to address here regarding the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, the significance of it. Revelation 13 verse 8. All who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Would you pray with me? Father, in this sentence, you've given us much encouragement, much reality, and everlasting truth.

So we thank you that you've given it to us to help us think rightly about all of the ages. The ages past and all of the ages to come. Amen. So Revelation 13, 8 speaks of a people who worship Jesus and their names are written in a book. It is called the Book of the Life of the Lamb Slain.

It's the Book of Life of the Lamb Slain. And This book is the book of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So put those two thoughts together. What does it mean that Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world? And how is that even possible?

I thought he was slain in 33 AD by the Roman government with onlookers. And how is it related to the Lamb's Book of Life? And that's what I'd like to explain this afternoon. There's a relationship between the Lamb's Book of Life and the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. And of course, all of this has to do with the doctrine of the cross we're continuing to deal with the doctrine of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ this is a tenth message on it and we're focusing on the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world and he has a book and it is the lamb's book of life.

So I'd like to talk about those two things individually. First of all, I'd like to talk about that book, the Lamb's Book of Life. This is a terminology that you'll find in various places throughout the Bible. In Malachi chapter 316, we're informed that there is a book of remembrance of all those who feared the Lord. And those, the Lord says, they shall be mine.

They are my jewels. He says, I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. This is the book of remembrance. In Revelation chapter 17 verse eight, there's a testimony that there are names not written in the book of life. And those who dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life are very impressed by the beast.

They marvel at him. In Revelation chapter 20 verse 15, the names not written in the book are thrown into the lake of fire. And these words are terrifying. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, He was thrown into the lake of fire. So everyone's name is not written in the book of life.

You find the same thing in Revelation 21 verse 27. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of this himself in his own earthly ministry when he sent out the 70 to minister and they were casting out demons, they were healing the sick. It was a remarkable time and the 70 came back and they said, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. So they were amazed at what had been happening and Jesus says to them, I saw Satan falling down from heaven like lightning. And he tells his disciples that he's he gave them authority to trample on the devil in that way but then Jesus turns to them and he says something that's really important he says nevertheless do not do not rejoice in this.

In other words, don't rejoice that the spirits are subject to you. Don't rejoice so much that you're casting out the demons. He says, but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. And that is all about this book of life. So there's a relationship between the lamb slain before the foundation of the world and names written in the lamb's book of life.

Now this is a very old book. It's an ancient book. It's an ancient book, so ancient it's before, it's from the foundation of the world, which is code for an eternity past. And he wrote names in the book, and God keeps books. In the Bible, there's a book of condemnation.

Spoken of, there's a book of remembrance, like in Malachi 3. And people also keep books. They keep lists of infractions and concerns, and people's names are hooked to those things. People keep books too in a different way. Sometimes they put the names of these people in their journals, but if you were to open your books and read them, what would they read like?

Who's in your book? But here we find out that there's this book. Now the apostle in Colossians chapter 2 spoke of handwriting of requirements against us. There's also a book of infractions that for Christians is nailed to the cross and then it's taken away and thrown away. You'll find disappearing ink on it.

We know that the works of all people are actually written in a book. In Revelation chapter 20, verse 12, There is this book and their works are recorded in the book. That's in the book of life. It's also interesting that The Bible says that your tears are also kept in a book. Your tears.

I'm sure there have been quite a few tears shed by the people at Hope Baptist Church. And they have been kept in a book. Psalm 56 verse eight says, you tell of my wanderings, you put my tears into your bottle, are they not in your book? So God regards the tears of his people so much so that he actually seems to write about the tears, about your tears in a book. Isn't that amazing?

You know, he comes alongside to help. He is a compassionate high priest. He knows what you're going through and he actually writes down about your tears. So the Bible is full of lists of people, full of roles, roles. Some are called up yonder and some are not.

There are genealogies In the Bible that run from creation to the end, from Abraham to Jesus, you find in the Gospels genealogies that trace the lineage of Christ. You have lists of mighty men, of David. These are men that did remarkable things for David. Strong men. And there are lists of families in the Bible.

There are lists of individuals. And if you go to Ezra and Nehemiah, you'll find lists of returnees from the captivity and they all have meeting. So the question is really, you know, which book is your name written in? You know, let me illustrate the importance of books. For, Deborah and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary eight years ago, And I took Deborah to the island of Barbados to celebrate it there.

This was the place where her relatives first heard the gospel. They were in the island of Barbados in the 19th century, and some brethren missionaries were sent. And her relatives heard the gospel for the first time. We're not sure how they got to Barbados exactly, but there's a journal that exists that seems to indicate that her relatives were banished from England. There was some implication of persecution thinking differently and they were taken to Barbados.

There's some possibility that they were white slaves taken to Barbados, probably in the 17th century. And so they were living there, you know, the years had passed, it's now the 19th century, and brother missionaries showed up and they became Christians. This was the entry of the gospel in my wife's family. And that's why we went, is just to celebrate what God had done as a result of those missionaries in her family. And it was really a, the gospel had a remarkable effect in her family.

I think in, you know, since the 1900s, I think there were probably one divorce in her family. It all had to do with the gospel. No question about it. So we went there to try to find out as many details as we could. We spent hours and hours driving all over that country.

Of course, it's only 14 miles long or something like that. Might be 14 miles wide, but it's a very small island. But we covered that island. And the Anglican Church operated under the parish system and they took meticulous records about the families there. So we would go to churches built in the 17th century.

And they would have big vaults with large books with, you know, flourishing, beautiful writing, recording the names of the people that were in that parish. So we went to these various parishes and there was always a parish church that had a vault of these books and we would read through them, the histories of these families. We were looking for her relatives and we found some remarkable things about that that did we didn't know that weren't recorded in the journals of her family. But we sifted through the lists of people, people who are baptized, people who were married, and we were we were opening these books and there, you know, before us were the names of people made in the image of God and it recorded what had happened to them in their lifetimes or at least at least baptisms and marriages. And so we found her relatives getting married and getting baptized there a long time ago And Man mankind can't help himself.

He's going to keep books of lists. And God does too. And perhaps that's why man does it. Is he's made in the image of God and he makes lists like that and he writes them down. But it's very interesting, the Lamb's Book of Life is nothing even like the list of David's mighty men.

The list of David's Mighty Men records valiant acts of men who did things for David. But the Lamb's Book of Life tells of the valiant act that God did in saving sinners who didn't deserve it. David's list was comprised of deserving men. The Lamb's book of life consists of undeserving men and women. So, man's lists and God's lists are different.

It was a list of God's mercy, a list of God's sovereign, independent, electing kindness. And that takes us to the other phrase in this chapter in Revelation, and that is that he was slain before the foundation of the world. How could he be slain from before the foundation of the world? Well, this book of life is an everlasting testimony that didn't begin when you were born. Your name was recorded in there before you were born.

Your name was recorded there from before the foundation of the world because it's a it's a book of the grace of God toward you not yours toward him. And this this book and its existence demonstrates this everlasting love of the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. Now this this book is is a book of love because the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. 1st Corinthians 13 I think summarizes it all. Love never fails and the love of God does not fail.

God will save and God will keep and It will not fail because love never fails. It is a love before the foundation of the world It is for known love it's according to the foreknowledge of God in Romans 829 we read for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined these he also called, whom he called these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. This is love from the foundation of the world. So the book of the lamb is a book of love.

It's a book of eternal love. It is predetermined love, like Ephesians three verses nine through 11, according to his eternal purpose. It's that kind of book about that kind of lamb. In Peter's sermon in Acts chapter two in verse 23, the lamb slain, that event was ordered by God. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

This love was established in eternity past. This book is an everlasting book of love because it's a book about the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. When Peter's writing to his audience, those Jews who'd been dispersed by the persecution, those Christians who'd been dispersed by the persecution, and they were dispersed to Pontius in Galatia, and Cappadocia, and Asia, and Bithynia. In 1 Peter 1 verse 2, they were the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Because God foreknows all things about all men.

He knew these things before the foundation of the world, to quote the apostle. And you know, God did not look down the tunnel of history and say, well, we'll see what's going to happen. He created the tunnel of history and is guiding every part of it. He is bringing everything to sum up all things in Christ. God is not a risk taker.

Like some modern popular writers like to say, take a risk, be like God. No, that's false doctrine. God does not take risks. He foreknows, He foreloves, He has a persistent and permanent love. The greatest of these is love.

And that's the message here. In fact, the Bible says that God is love. God is love and therefore he creates an everlasting record of his love toward sinners. And so Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world? He was slain before sin ever entered the world as far as I understand it.

Now this also means that every Sinning person in the Old Testament was saved By the Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of the world. How are this answers the question? What about the Old Testament saints? How are they saved? They were saved from the foundation of the world by Jesus Christ's work on the cross.

One way to speak of it is that Christ's work on the cross retroactively saved. I think that might not be the best way to say it, but I think I'm trying to illustrate this because his slaying happened before the foundation of the world. And all who were saved from the beginning were saved by faith, by the faith of Abraham, the book of Romans makes this very, very clear. That Old Testament saints were saved the same way that New Testament saints were saved. There are not two dispensations of salvation.

There's one dispensation by faith. In the New Covenant, there are greater promises And there's more blessing in the new covenant than the old, but mankind has always been saved by faith from the foundation of the world through the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. Saved by grace, all saved by grace. The Old Testament saints were never saved by the keeping of the law. Abraham was saved because, as it says in Galatians 3.6, he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Well, the apostle in Galatians is just quoting Genesis 15.6. So all who were saved before 33 AD were saved by the cross and its quote-unquote retroactive power because Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world. And that's why the Apostle Paul could say, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's why the Apostle Paul could say, I determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. And so God is keeping a list.

And he's keeping a list of those people who are alive, where the old man has been crucified. It's a list of those who are not forsaken because Christ was forsaken. It's a list of those who've been crucified to the world and the world to them. They are the people who have had the powers and the principalities disarmed. So this is an ancient book that's recorded in Revelation 13, 8.

And all who dwell on the earth will worship it and everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear to hear let him hear. So I pray that as we have taken all this time to consider the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that We as a church would find more than ever that the cross would govern our lives, that it would move our tongues, that it would shape our emotions, that it would sweeten our relationships, that it would crucify us to the world and the world to us, that it would break down the walls of division that exist, that it would unravel our prideful autonomy, that it would be the lens through which we see all of mankind. It would be like the Rosetta Stone of translating all the great events of the day because the cross is the center of history. It's the chief interpretive grid of everything that has ever happened and that it would be the interpreter of my heart and that the cross would grow in influence in my life that it would make me who I really am which is God's design for the cross There's so much blessing in the cross.

At the beginning of this series we said the cross is like a diamond where the refractions are so diverse and beautiful. We said it was like looking through a telescope and then a microscope and then an electron microscope or the beauty just continues to unfold and you can't ever get to the end of it. It's like looking at a mountain from afar where you see it in one angle and if you keep walking around you think you're looking at a different mountain and if you start walking up that mountain you'll find it's it's more beautiful and more diverse and more amazing than anything and you're stepping over its rocks and seeing its foliage And you see that it changes and by the time you get to the top you think, this is a, where am I? This is so remarkable, it's beautiful. I can see everything from the top of this mountain.

The cross is a lot like that. And that's why the apostle Paul said, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray that would be the chief mark of the people at Hope Baptist Church. It'd be the chief mark of my life. Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for these remarkable and beautiful words that you've given to us, these ways to describe your love, your everlasting love. We thank you that you are love, that you have written a book of love. Father, that your son was slain from before the foundation of the world and that you have written a book with names. Oh Lord may it be that our names are in that book. Let us do all we can to know that our names are there.

In Jesus' name, Amen.