1 Corinthians chapter 9 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing
to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me. If I preach not the gospel, for if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
Okay, today's question comes from Sonia from Florida.
I love your station.
We listen often and are amazed at the vast differences between the teachings of Paul
and the Twelve.
It's also interesting to study more about how God gave him the special ministry of reconciliation.
My question concerns Philippians 4:3, and a video of a grace pastor who says,
we're in the book of life.
Something about that doesn't set right.
Can you help me please?
And then it says, I have several questions concerning the book of Romans.
And here they list a few questions.
And it says, we would actually love to hear you address the book of Romans verse by verse if possible.
So let's get to the book of life, but we may cover some of these questions you've listed here in the next podcast.
Okay, this is actually the second book of life question we've had come in this week.
We were sent another video of a pastor who's, well, he's leading folks down the universalist rabbit hole.
He says, we're not in the book of life.
He got that part right.
But around the 40 minute mark of his video, he said, in Philippians 4, where Paul mentions those in the book of life, he claims that they were first members of the little flock.
He said they were members of the little flock until they heard Paul's gospel, at which time they left that group and joined the body of Christ.
Don't adjust the sound.
You heard it correctly.
And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, someone in his audience spoke up
and said, so they got saved twice.
And he agreed.
He also added that their earthly inheritance changed and became heavenly.
When they heard Paul's heavenly message, listen, no one got saved twice.
This is pure and utter nonsense.
These that Paul referenced as being in the book of life, they believe the prophetic gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, and they had to endure until the end of their lifetime.
Helping Paul or being helped by Paul wouldn't have changed anything.
No believer from the little flock remnant of Israel ever crossed over from prophecy
to mystery, none.
Where's the logic there?
I'm reminded of what Rod Serling once said, Logic is the enemy and truth is a menace.
Okay, back to the teacher Sonia wrote us about.
He says we are in the book of life.
Now that's straight out error.
These men just can't seem to help themselves.
They continue to try and drag us back into Israel's prophetic program.
The book of life has nothing to do with us.
It's a record of the names of Israel's kingdom citizens of the prophetic program.
That book is for those under the covenant if system, again, endurance was required.
It was required to avoid their name being blotted out.
Israel will not be saved as a nation until the Lord returns in their times of restitution.
As for us, there's no book to be blotted out of.
We're Colossians 3:3, hid with Christ in God.
To blot us out, you've got to find us first.
The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12, verse 23, wrote, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.
Now that's plain.
Who's written in heaven?
The Hebrew general assembly, not us.
You know, Revelation 3:5, most of you know this, this verse is, uh, it's the one you've heard many try to use and to, to put us in the book of life, but the quote, he that overcometh here, that's the church in Sardis.
Just believe the book, the church in Sardis, the circumcision.
This is covenant ground, not grace ground, covenant territory for born again Israel.
Logic would ask, Hey, why would the body of Christ need their names in a book anyway?
It's not about us.
Our earthly names are no longer important.
Our position is seated in heavenly places.
Our communication, our conversation in heavenly places, we're a new creature, a new creature has a brand new identity.
Hey, while reviewing this video of this grace pastor, he said, quote, It makes perfect sense that the book of life would need to contain the names of saints, not only under the prophetic program, but also the dispensation of grace. And Philippians 4 verse 3 seems to confirm that. End quote.
It does no such thing.
Philippians 4:3, And I entreat the also true yoke fellow help those women which labored with me in the gospel with Clement also, and with other, my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life.
This isn't a problem verse.
At least it shouldn't be.
Let's break it down.
Here we have some body of Christ women who labored with Paul in the gospel.
They also labored with Clement, and they labored with some kingdom saints whose names are in the book of life.
Notice Paul made a separation by saying, Fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life.
By him saying that, well, that lets us know that these being spoken of here are not body of Christ believers.
Would it not have been odd now?
Now think with me.
If he were referring to members of the body of Christ who he wrote 13 letters to, how
odd would it have been for him to only in this one place, in this one letter only, to
all of a sudden out of nowhere describe the body of Christ as those with their names in a book.
Very odd indeed.
Instead, I say that he did that on purpose and he did it to make a distinction.
Paul, a tent maker by trade, made a straight cut, orthotomeo, a straight cut between the heavenly kingdom mystery saints in Philippi, the recipients of this letter, and the earthly kingdom prophetic saints, those who had been a great help to Paul.
The ones he called, Other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life.
And now think, think now, what about Barnabas?
He was a little flocker with his name written in the book of life.
He too was a fellow laborer to Paul.
Paul was a feared man throughout all Jerusalem and Barnabas, he was instrumental in defending Paul's apostleship.
He was a great help to him.
Barnabas acted as a sort of a mediator.
He confirmed him by speaking up and telling the disciples of Paul's encounter that he
had with the Lord and how he was a changed man.
No longer Saul the killer, but Paul the believer.
Acts 9:26, take a look at this with me, And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple.
Verse 27, But Barnabas, here he comes, Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
See, just because Barnabas, a little flocker with his name in the book of life was a great assistance to Paul, that didn't mean Barnabas jumped ship and became a member of Paul's church, the body of Christ.
He didn't get re-saved.
His earthly inheritance didn't change to heavenly when he heard Paul's heavenly message.
When this is understood, Philippians 4 presents no problem at all.
No problem exists when this is approached from a correct premise.
Just because the little flock's instructions from the Lord were different from what the Lord revealed to Paul, for us, that in no way means that they were not allowed to fellowship among the body of Christ.
It never meant that they couldn't help those of the body of Christ, or vice versa.
Receive help.
Clothing, shelter, a place to meet, whatever.
Hey, the two groups even ate together, Galatians 2:12.
They all shared a love for the Lord.
After all, we're joint heirs with them.
They are the born of God heirs, and we are the adopted heirs.
Two different heirs that received two different inheritances.
Acts 26:18, Jesus said, ...the Gentiles may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.
The "them" is the little flock remnant of Israel.
We have an inheritance among them.
Not the same as them.
The body of Christ, we inherit heavenly places.
While they, the Matthew 5:5, meek, they shall inherit the earth.
So, there would have been times when both groups would have been among each other, and would have had no problem laboring, no problem helping each other in any way they possibly could.
Even prayer is a labor, Colossians 4:12.
And I'm quite certain they would have had no issue praying for one another.
Doesn't mean the two groups joined, doesn't mean Paul preached his gospel to save the
little flockers.
We have to remember that the Book of Life kingdom saints had been scattered from their homeland out among these heathen idol-worshipping nations where Paul's churches were located, and Philippi was a city full of immorality and pagan worship.
They worshipped a slew of Greek gods.
So these Book of Life scattered little flock fellow laborers here in chapter 4 would have certainly welcomed any assistance from the Pauline believers of Philippi.
It wouldn't have been the first time.
Remember, Paul took up an offering for them once before, Romans 15:25.
Because in their obedience to the Lord, they had followed Acts 2:45 to the letter.
They had parted with all their possessions and were broke as the Ten Commandments.
Silver and gold have I none, Acts chapter 3 verse 6.
One real easy, one real simple way to answer this question, this question of who's in the Book of Life, just ask yourself, who's the Lamb's wife?
Who's in the Book of Life?
Who's the Lamb's wife?
That's who's in the Book of Life.
That's why it's called the Lamb's Book of Life.
It's for the Lamb's wife.
I don't understand what would lead a grace teacher to teach this.
He's placed you right back into Israel's prophetic program and has you being the bride of Christ, the Lamb's wife.
Be careful folks, be careful to avoid the great regressing that we're seeing.
Now, get Colossians chapter 4, we'll add another, we'll add one more layer here.
Paul again is going to make some distinctions for us.
Okay, verse, I want to get verse 10.
Let's start in verse 7, All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord:
Verse 8, Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts;
Verse 9, With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother... okay, now watch, ...who is one of you. See that? A distinction.
Paul tells the Colossians that Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.
Another distinction, but this time it's the opposite.
In Philippians, we saw Paul make a distinction of some that were not one of you, but had their names written in the book of life.
But here we see Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.
Words are important folks, there's a reason Paul did this.
Don't miss these Pauline distinctions.
Those who have their names in the book of life, they are not one of you, but Onesimus
is one of you.
He's in the body of Christ.
Now read on, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom ye receive commandments, if he come unto you, receive him, and Jesus, which is called justice, who are of the circumcision.
What?
Say that again Paul, Who are of the circumcision, again.
A distinction.
Onesimus is one of you, but these are of the circumcision.
Then he writes, Epaphras, who is one of you.
There he goes again with the one of you distinction.
Distinctions are important, even though we're seeing pastors popping up today who, well, they don't seem to think so.
They want to blend and conflate what Paul separated.
So the pastor Sonia wrote us about here, attempted to make the point that because Paul called those in Philippians 4 fellow laborers, that this means they're members of the body of Christ.
But here in Colossians, we've uncovered three or four people that Paul referred to as fellow laborers, but they are of the circumcision.
So it just don't add.
Again, to get your answer to who's in the Lamb's book of life, just ask, who's the Lamb's wife?
Rational thought suggests that the Lamb's book of life is for the Lamb's wife.
To make the names written in the book of life about us, you have to make it about us, because the scriptures do not.
Our salvation is not conditional on our names being in a book.
The book of life is not, as the pastor said in the video, quote, A book that God maintains that has the list of the saved throughout all time, end quote.
That's error.
He's conflating Israel's prophecy program with our mystery program.
The book of life is from the foundation of the world, Revelation chapter 17, verse 8.
But our mystery program was decided before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4.
And I noticed here at the 18 minute and 45 second mark, he referenced Exodus 32:33 as
if it was written to the body of Christ.
You decide, verse 33, And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
And he followed that up by saying, quote, See, what that tells you is you don't have
to do something extraordinary to get in this book of life. You're there. But when someone sins against the Lord, what happens? He blots their name out of the book of life. End quote.
I was left scratching my head.
I had to rewind and listen again just to make sure he said what I thought he said.
And sure enough, he did.
Hey, that verse isn't telling you anything.
Exodus 32 is covenant ground.
It's covenant territory where you don't belong.
Your name can't be blotted out of a book you're not in.
In Acts 7, Jesus was angered by the stoning of Stephen and all those who had blasphemed the Holy Ghost.
By their blasphemy, the children of Israel found themselves in quite the predicament.
They no longer had any hope of salvation under that kingdom program.
Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost was unforgivable, and God had concluded them all in unbelief.
Thankfully, a couple of chapters later, Acts 9:15, the Lord said that Paul is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and here it is, the children of Israel.
That takes care of those that blasphemed.
Their only shot at salvation was now Paul's due time gospel.
Fortunately for them, it was time for the God was in Christ reconciling the world to
be revealed.
The God has stopped imputing sins to the world gospel.
It came just in time for those who had committed the unforgivable sin.
The switch in the administration meant that now there was no need to be forgiven because there was no sin to forgive.
No sins are being imputed.
So their unforgivable sin was unforgivable, alright, because it wasn't even being imputed.
The only hope for the children of Israel, who didn't get into the little flock by believing the prophetic gospel of the kingdom and accepting Jesus as their Messiah, their only hope was Paul's gospel.
No need to be confused about this book of life.
If it was written from the foundation of the world, then guess what?
It was known.
It was known during the prophetic program.
Hey, that leaves you out.
The only way to make it about us is to digress backward, stop rightly dividing, and fuse prophecy with mystery.
Because when the book of life was written, the new creature, the church which is His
body, we were still a secret in God.
The body of Christ can't function during Israel's rise.
Not going to happen.
The body of Christ cannot function during Israel's prophetic program.
If their prophetic clock is ticking, we're not in the picture.
We're nowhere in sight and whatever's going on has nothing to do with us.
We have no dealings with their prophecies, their miracles, their signs, their wonders, their speaking with other tongues.
We have no dealings with their resurrection to have their sins blotted out and to be born again.
We have no dealings with their books of law or the Lamb's book of life.
If we say we choose Paul as our pattern, let's just go ahead and follow our pattern.
How about that?
As ambassadors, we've been made stewards of things pertaining to an entirely different administration.
Our destination is heaven, not earth.
The book of life is associated with the gospel of the kingdom participants that will dwell on earth.
Now watch.
John, the apostle of the circumcision, watch what we find in chapter 22, verse 19.
This is important, And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book.
For me, three things immediately jump off the page here.
What about you?
First, notice, John said, prophecy.
Well, he just lost me right there.
That's not me.
That's not you.
Next, he said, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.
This is conditional covenant ground and not our territory.
Thirdly, John mentioned the holy city.
Now what part do you and I have in Israel's holy city?
Luke 10:20, Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
Whose names?
Now some of these men are trying to drag you back into the kingdom.
The kingdom saints, it's their names that are written in heaven.
And that fits perfectly with what is said of their city, which is also in heaven.
Revelation 21:2, And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Now drop down to verse 12, And had a wall great and high and had 12 gates and at the
gates, 12 angels and names written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes
of the children of Israel.
Then verse 14, And the wall of the city had 12 foundation and in them, the names of the 12 apostles of the lamb.
Tribal names of the children of Israel and the names of their apostles seem to be important, but that's in a different program.
You see, the picture becomes clear when we simply allow the word of God to unfold on
its own minus personal conjecture.
Sadly, we're among those who are, who they insist on creating space for themselves, space to wiggle around and teach their own personal beliefs, teach from their feelings.
Their twisted scriptures, out of context, you'll hear them overused, Romans 14, Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
That's used as an excuse to teach all sorts of things when the context of Romans 14 is food and holy days.
That's the secondary issues Paul's speaking of.
Not all these other things being taught today.
So I suggest you be discerning, my friend, be very discerning.
We've got those who leave twistianity, and they come to us.
They're excited to learn more about this grace message.
They come with hopes of being a part of an unified body, but instead they get here.
They look at each other and say, Hey, this isn't any different than the denomination
we just left with all the divisions.
Stop spending your free time trying to come up with some new thing to gain a larger following.
That shouldn't be your focus.
There are lost souls dropping off into hell every second of every day.
Hundreds will do just that before you even get through listening to this podcast.
So if you're saved, you've been commissioned to go out and spread the quote, word of reconciliation, go out and give a lost person the gospel be instant in and out of season, get it popping and stop being slothful.
Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, and continue in prayer.
Shun.
You've got to shun these weird teachings going around.
If you've been diligently in this book, studying and rightly dividing the word of truth, these teachings, these men are attempting to put over on you, they should stick out like a sore thumb.
They should sound strange as soon as they touch your ears.
Concerning the truth, they have erred, shun their profane and vain babblings for they're only going to increase unto more ungodliness.
Their words are of no profit, but we'll eat as death a canker and overthrow the faith of some.
As Paul said, They have swerved and turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor where of they affirm.
Make no mistake, you don't have to wait to hear if your name is found in the book of
life.
The old man is dead.
For most of us, our name only has about 80 years.
After that, it's of little importance.
And spiritually speaking, in Christ, it's not important even now.
Second Corinthians 5:16, Know we know man after the flesh.
Then in Christ, nothing associated with our flesh means anything.
That includes our name.
We're hid in Christ and don't need a book to tell us that.
Our earthly names won't mean anything in heaven.
We're Colossians 2:10, Complete in Him, not in our own name.
We were buried with Him in baptism and have risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised Him from the dead.
An operation took place and we're not who we once were.
Our identity has changed.
It's now in Christ, not the name our parents gave us.
Israel is God's chosen people for earth.
The body of Christ is His chosen people for heaven.
Their name is important, important enough to be preserved in a book.
But our name died with the old man.
We won't stand at the judgment seat with our earthly name, and thankfully so, we'll stand there as one who's put on Christ.
For as many of us have been baptized into Christ, we've put on Christ, Galatians 3:27.
As one who has put on Christ, I am not concerned with finding my name written in a book.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17, he is a new creature. Old things passed away. Behold, all things become new.
How many things become new?
All things, which would include my name.
My old man with his old name was crucified and buried with Him.
It didn't come up out of the grave.
That's why we're told that in Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, male or female.
What female is going to stand before the Lord as Mary?
What male is going to stand there as Mark or Steve or John?
And not one Jewish person will be recognized as a Jew.
People just have a hard time believing God and His Word.
You know that?
You've heard the saying, what's in a name?
Well, for those of us in Christ, nothing.
Not so for those Jews of time past.
For them, what you named your child was important.
Names were important and it's why God renamed Abram.
He renamed Jacob and others.
But that's not our program.
Don't allow these men to put you back under this stuff.
Let me remind you that it's much harder to go through Scripture and make these straight cuts.
If you haven't got yourself grounded and settled in the word of reconciliation, until you get firmly planted in the fact that God stopped imputing sins at the moment His Son shed the last drop of blood and gave up the ghost, you'll remain open to all sorts of confusion.
It's as if you've laid out a welcome mat for doctrinal errors to come in and set up camp.
One thing you need to get straight is you're not a right divider.
We're not right dividers, we're ambassadors.
Ambassadors with the ministry of reconciliation.
Get your identity straight.
Rightly dividing is something we do, it's not who we are.
So many don't know who they are and it's why they don't know what their commission is.
In this parenthetical but now, we're commissioned to herald the good news that God stopped imputing sins.
If you want to see your understanding catapult, avoid the grace compromisers.
Those trying to grow the agree to disagree, let's all get along grace love club.
They'll only serve to hold you back.
For ministers of reconciliation, it's incumbent that we not blend and join what God separated.
There are many unsearchable distinctions found in Paul's ministry to the new creature, the church which is his body.
Significant differences.
The book of life is all about Israel, a promise that they will not have their name blotted out if they remain faithful unto the end.
The book is not ours.
I'm reminded of a song I heard as a child, From Genesis to Revelation, every promise in the book is mine. Every chapter, every verse, and every line. All the blessings of His love divine, every promise in the book is mine.
From a very early age, children are taught to be thieves by the religious system, stealing promises that were made to the children of Israel.
It's identity theft.
That's what it is.
No one in this dispensation has any part in their law program.
No one in this dispensation has any part with being born again.
We're not priests.
We're not waiting on the holy city, New Jerusalem, to drop out of heaven.
We have no part in a water baptist ceremony.
Circumcision is no longer necessary.
We don't tithe and we don't expect our name to be written in the book of life.
If it's the Lamb's book of life, who better to be in it than the Lamb's wife?
Sonia, happy to help with your question, and we'll try to address some of these questions in Romans in an upcoming podcast.
That's my time.
Don't forget to download the free app and to all ambassadors, the ones who are not here to play, but take your ambassadorship seriously.
We want to encourage you to keep telling the world of their non-imputed sins and of their eternal resurrected life that awaits them in Christ.
If they'll simply exercise faith, through faith alone, believe on Christ alone and receive God's free gift of salvation.
We beseech you and we pray that you'll keep fighting the good fight.
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