James Richards

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Sunday Morning Service

Jeremy Richards

Copalis Community Church

19 October 2025

Bible References

• Philippians 1:
• Luke 10:17-20
• Hebrews 12:18-21
• Colossians 1:12-14

Audio MP3 PDF

Philippians. Okay, Philippians. And I don't know if anyone remembers, but for a couple weeks ago that I had the chance to share, we were talking about Cinque and Judy, I believe were their names, two women that had gotten into some sort of disagreement or had different opinions on a matter. And as a result, Paul wanted to restore these relationships between these women, encouraged the body of Christ to come in alongside of them, to help them in a biblical path, to restore the unity of the body of Christ, that it might regain the fruitfulness that existed before that disagreement. And first of all, I just wanted to say that from this passage that women are an essential part, an integral part of the spreading of the gospel.

Just want everyone to understand that. That sometimes it may be. It may seem as though that men have taken a leadership role in which they should, but that is not to diminish the role that women have in actively spreading the gospel in your family and in your community in the way that God has called you to do. Number two, to go back just a little bit, that even though Paul feels the need to rebuke people public, it is not an end to an individual's ministry or should even be to their feeling of being of service. Sometimes people who are called out tend to shrink back, right?

That if I were to take the time to list names in the church here, some people might not be seen in the church. Again, everyone chatting with me that sometimes a public rebuke ends public ministry. But that is not the case. Paul quickly turns around the idea of trying to restore these relationships with a blessing. And that's what I want to talk about today.

And these individuals who were ministering with Paul, even though there was an agreement at one time, Paul will pick up in verse three. And I'm just gonna focus on that last four words of verse three. But we'll start in verse three. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the Gospel with Clement also and the rest of my fellows, workers whose names are in the book of life. Whose names are in the book of life.

There is in. See where we are in Luke, if you remember, the 70 disciples were sent out, right? And they were given power to heal people, to pray for them, that demons would be possessed out. And they went out performing that ministry that they were called to and came back excited over the spiritual work that they had seen accomplished as a result of. Of the authority that Jesus had given them.

So in chapter 10 of verse 17 it says, Then the 70 returned with joy, saying, lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning for heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. There is a tendency to focus on the ministry that we've been given, whether the failures or successes in it. But Jesus says, hey, look, even though those things are important, what is actually more important, whether or not you experience success or failure, whether you're the one getting rebuked for stepping out of line or experiencing the blessing of walking in obedience to Christ, we.

What's really important, Jesus says, is in verse 20, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven. What is really important, even more important than the work we do, like they said to Jesus in the beginning, lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons and do all these wonderful works in your name? And Jesus will answer them. I tell you the truth, I never even knew you. What's important is that our names are written in the Book of Life over what you spiritually are a part of, whether great arrivals or this, and that what an individual needs to know is whether or not their name is written in the book of life.

You may accomplish a lot of things in your bucket list and have a lot of things that you want to do and have, but. But what's really going to be important on that day is not whether you went bungee cord jumping when you stand before the great white throne of Judgment. What he's not going to ask is how many little plastic, you know, things, trophies you have stored up in your room somewhere. What you're going to really want to know is whether your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. What's really going to be important to you on that day, more important than your birthday or anything you've ever accomplished, is whether your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

We're going to go to Revelations to get kind of a picture of what that. Of what that looks like.

Not sure where that was. These aren't good book markers, but we'll see if we can find that later. Okay. In Revelations. End of revelations, in chapter 20, verse 12, it says, in Revelations, chapter 20, verse 12.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. And Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged, each one according to their works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. We're going to just skip a couple verses to chapter 21, verse 3.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. And he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and will be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said, write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give the fountain of water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my son. For those whose names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, there is going to be a rest from your work. There is going to be a relief from your sorrows.

That pain that that you have experienced in this life, you will experience the reward from the Lamb himself and enjoy perpetually in eternity that place which he has prepared from the foundations of the world. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Those who are judged according to their works will be found to be cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, sexually immoral as sorcerers. And a result of what they have done, they will be cast into everlasting fire. This is a reward for the wicked and for the righteous.

Astonishing difference between the two. How could two groups of people go to such a different place? The difference is some of these people's names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The others were not. The other were judged according to their deeds and were found lacking.

They could not enter that celestial city. Number one, they could not enter into it because they would defile it. Number two, they could not enter into it because they chose by their lifestyle that they wanted nothing to do with it. They chose by their works to demonstrate a hatred and warfare against God and his commandments. By purposefully deciding to war against him through their sin, they cannot enter into heaven and therefore go to a place that God has designed for the devil and for his angels.

So you and I are in a spot. And my question to you and I today, is your name in the Lamb's book of life, or will you be judged according to what you have done? We need to look at it a little bit. In Hebrews, chapter 12, the message of Christianity is this message. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and burned with fire.

In Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 18, blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. This is Mount Sinai in the wilderness. And remember, there was great thunderings and lightning. And the Lord spoke the word to them and said, all that I command you, you must do.

The people subscribed to the oath and said, what you have said, we will do. And the blood of the covenant was sprinkled on them. They committed that they were going to obey all the works of God that we see they could not do, even though they brought themselves under that law, just like you and I, where we are expected to keep the law. I believe that if you have lived this week that you and your neighbors could see, even though you wanted to keep the law, there was failure at doing it, you could not do it. You may not have heard the rumblings from heaven or the lightning flashes, but in your soul you know that when we sin, we break God's commandments.

But here Paul is saying in Hebrews, you haven't come to that mountain, that mountain of judgment, that mountain of condemnation under whom everyone was convicted of sin and all fell dead in the wilderness, none of them could keep it. Neither can you. But you have come to a different mountain, verse 20 or 28, 20 and 21, to finish the same thought. For they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.

And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. Some of you have had an experience where you were engaged in sinful activity and caught by an authority who had responsibility over that area. Some of you may be in high school and your teacher or the principal called you to their office. You know, we were having such fun destroying the classroom, throwing pumpkins and throwing things at the ceiling and such. And we felt so brave.

But when we were called to the principal's office, some of us started trembling. You know, I feel just so confident flying down the road and my van with my family in the back, just raining and road construction. I was just like. But when the sirens go on me, I lose my confidence. Some of us feel like we would sin in the face of God and have no problem standing up to his face.

But I'm telling you that when the heavenly sirens come on, you're going to lose your strength. You're going to tremble like Moses. But there's another place, another mountain. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. To God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect.

To Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. You haven't come to that old covenant which convicts sinners of their sins and sends them to hell. No, you come to the heavenly Jerusalem and to Jesus, a mediator who is willing to offer his life for yours, who reaches out to sinners and saves them and writes their name in a book, the Book of Life. That's the mountain you have come to. It's interesting that everyone, it seems if we look, I'm not positive names were written in the Book of Life originally.

Originally, it says in Matthew 5 that the hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, that it maybe was not a place originally prepared for humans. In Psalms, he prays that his name not be blotted out of the Book of the Living. Moses early on says, if I pray, blot me out. If you don't save these, the Jews that are with me, if you don't save them, then blot me out of the book. I believe that you and I are blotted out of the book because we choose to sin against God, making ourselves unworthy to participate in heaven for eternity.

But Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant who takes individuals and writes their name back into the Book of Life, guaranteeing them access into heaven. But who does he draw from? Who is the list that is written in the Book of Life? Where do their names come from? I want to go to Corinthians.

Corinthians. Who are these people whose names are written there? We see that in John 3:16 that Jesus came to those who were already condemned.

In chapter 6, verse 9 it says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetousness, covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. These are the ones who are cast outside, while those whose names are written in the Book of the Life, Lamb's Book of Life, are inside the heavenly city, enjoying the crystal clear water that comes from the throne of God, being able to access the tree and the leaves which are for the healing of the nation. But outside are the dogs, are the immoral, are the idolaters, are the sexually immoral?

But whose names and where do they come from who are written in the Lamb's Book of life? In verse 11 it says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Individuals who first belonged to those who should have been cast out, who, if they would have been judged by their works, would not have been found worthy to enter the city, who would not, who would have been excluded from heaven because of their works. But from these people, there was a people that Jesus chose to wash, to sanctify, to make worthy. And these are the individuals who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

I'm going to go to Colossians real quick, and my hope for you is to experience good things in this life. I try to train my children to work hard with their hands. Whatever you have been put to do, do it with all your might. There's no room in this world for lazy people. There is always work to do somewhere.

I spent nine years of my life doing work that I was not paid for, which I'm not sure you could get me to do again with a gun. There is always work to do. Stealing is wrong, but lying about stealing is worse. I try to change my children. All these things are important, these lessons.

But there's one thing that's even more important is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

It says in Colossians chapter one in verse 13. We'll start in 12. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Number one, it's the Father who qualifies some of us. You know, if you're being in sports or other different things, you try to qualify for a team or for whichever.

Here we see it's not based on what an individual does, but by on the Father qualifying you. Okay, verse 13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son, of His love. This is a work which the Father does in taking irreligious, sinful, God hating people. And he transfers them, he conveys them, he takes them from one kingdom and he moves them by his power to another one.

How does he do it? He has delivered us from the power of darkness. There was a strong man. And over your and I's life He held dominion. He subdued us, he ruled, he played upon our passions, he moved us to accomplish those things which are degrading and unlawful in God's sight.

The devil is the prince of this air. And he moved us in accordance with those ungodly desires. But Jesus came as a stronger man than him and robbed him of all that he trusted in. He destroyed, he demolished the works of darkness and he is willing to do that for the of people.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom and the Son of His love. A conveyor belt. A transfer is one that takes information that has to accomplish some object. And so Jesus also prepared made available to transfer people who were once caught in a spot. I had an interesting experience, if I can.

I got the call or the text last night. Jeremy, you have a bull on the riverbank. A cow on the riverbank. A cow is a bovine species. It's not necessarily a general term for an animal.

Right. It was not a cow, it was a bull. Right. And he's kind of ornery. And somehow he had got pushed over a cliff that is about 8 to 10ft tall.

And he was standing on a piece of riverbank that was about 2 to 3ft wide. And so I thought, this is interesting.

How are we going to get that bull eight feet up onto the bank where he's supposed to be? And the thought was, well, it's getting dark, I have to go down there and be with that bull. And so I get down there. Bulls are normally in some cases, afraid of cases. They're not afraid of people at all.

And I had gotten myself into a position where that bull was more afraid of the position he was in than in me. And so he ran to the one end of the bank and it was about this far and he got river on one side and bank on the other, and he decided that he wanted to go to the other side as Fast as he can. And so I'm watching him come. I'm not even sure why I'm telling this story, but he comes by me fast and thrusts his head at me and I'm, you know, just flatten myself against the wall because I don't want to get hit or thrown into the river.

Anyways. The bull. The bull. I did finally get him into the river and he swam down the river and did got up and then he met. The reason probably he was in the river was the bigger bull.

And the bigger bull continued just to push him and push him and probably was the one who pushed him over the cliff onto the bank in the first place. Okay, that was a little bit distracting. I'm sorry. Let's start again.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. That Jesus does a work in order to move people from a sinful condition into that one through the book of life, that they are able to enjoy heaven. It says the way he does it in verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. The only way for a person to be conveyed from darkness to light is through the power of Jesus cross where his blood was spilled so it could atone for people who deserved hellfire. This is the way you and I name can be written in the book of Life.

It is because of that work of Jesus Christ that there is the possibility that a sinner could actually have their name recorded in the book of life. But it does not necessarily mean their names are written. Because for you and I, there must be a willingness and a desire to enter heaven because of the work of Jesus Christ. It says they loved darkness more than light. Therefore they refused to come to the light that they might be saved.

Foreign individuals named to be written in the book of life. First of all, there has to be a desire to have their name written in there. If you don't want your name written in the book of life, God will not force you. He will not take hostages kicking and screaming to heaven. He won't force you to participate in eternal glory.

He will not say to you, I, at the point of forcing, take you into heaven itself. A person first of all has to be willing and desirous to have their name written there.

Do you want your name written in heaven? There is a couple ways. Stacy and I are considering strongly going to Israel right now. And it is a strong desire for me and for her to do. But that strong desire, though important, is not enough.

There has to Be a willingness to purchase tickets to go to Israel. To desire to go. Desire to go to heaven is a good thing. It's beautiful to want to be in heaven for eternity, to experience the benefit of Jesus Christ and what the Father has to offer you and I. But there is a way to get there.

The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. An individual has to have a desire and express a willingness through their mouth that they want to accept the path that Jesus has opened up for them through his death. A confession. An individual who cannot confess Jesus as Lord is not saved. They belong to a different ruler.

They may be confused as to who that ruler is, but every Christian knows who their master is and willingly confesses it.

I serve the Lord Christ. While it is important to confess, it is equally as important to obey that. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised you from the. That God raised him from the dead. If you think about an individual hiring a lawyer, and I said, you know, look, I want to hire this lawyer.

And I went to the trial with him, but every time the lawyer got up to speak, I jumped up instead and gave my own defense. I started my anger, my excuses, and the lawyer's like, you know, sit down. I got this right. Let me handle this case. But every time he should have been speaking, you got up.

There is also a necessity in a Christian's life because of a belief in their heart to walk with Jesus. It is imperative for a Christian to take up their cross and follow Jesus actively. If you call him Lord but will not take up his cross, you are not following him. The cross is always the evidence Jesus uses in every situation. The cross is the one by which we lay down our rights.

We choose to suffer with Christ rather than stand upon our own rights. We choose to take what we Christ has to offer us as our own, and we walk within it. My hope for you is that you desire to be saved. That old children's song. Heaven is a beautiful place filled with glory and grace.

I want to see my Savior's face because heaven is a beautiful place. This world has some things to offer, but it is not the desired intention of the Father for us. You can get some good things out of this world. Sunrises and sunsets are nice, but they're not the intended habitation for the fulfillment of your soul.

It's designed for something better than this. The entrance into that eternal kingdom is your name being written in the Lamb's book of life. Where you're not judged according to your works. You're not judged according to what your hands have done. No, in spite of that, we see Jesus name written there and what he did and the punishment he received on our behalf.

My hope is that seeing that Jesus has prepared the way for you, that you'd willingly come to him and publicly confess to him. I want you as the Lord of my life, my hope for you as a person.

Because this world has nothing eternal to offer that you would confess Jesus as the Lord of your life. Do you mind if I tell you something? This world has nothing that is going to last. It's going to burn up. But Jesus has something eternal that is of better quality than what we can experience here on earth.

And as such, I hope that you find it easy to confess Jesus as Lord, and in confessing him as Lord, that you take up in obedience that path which he has laid out for you, which is his cross for your life, that you would lay down your own life and the rights that you think you possess and take up his. And if so, I believe that on the authority of Scripture, what it clearly demonstrates that your name will be written in the Lamb's book of life, that you should have assurance that on that day there will be no judgment, but a welcoming into an everlasting kingdom that God has prepared for people from the foundation of the world.

Oh Father, Lord, give us a heart to desire heaven to take our minds off of earthly things and put them on eternal. Lord. And in seeing that Jesus is the only way to convey sinners from death into life, that we might confess him, and in confessing, we may follow in obedience that path of the cross, I just ask in Jesus name. Amen.