This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
The Bible says that if anyone draws back, his soul doesn't
have pleasure in him. But thank God, if we're really a
child of God, we can't turn back forever, can we?
God speaks to us, he humbles us, he breaks us, and he draws us
back to himself, doesn't he? And all of us have a testimony
of that, I'm sure. And each time that we come back,
we come back with the strength and the vigor and a decisiveness
that I'm no longer interested in, in heading back.
Being a true child of God means that Jesus will never leave us.
No matter how far we've backslidden, Jesus will break us
down and draw us back to Him. There aren't enough excuses we
can make that will keep Him away.
Each time we come back, we must come back with a determination
to no longer be interested in the excuses.
Today, Pastor Clark teaches us that as believers, we have the
Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, and he convicts us where we need
correction, always pulling us back to him.
Now. Here's Pastor Clark in
Revelation chapter 20 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. Some of us are here and we
unfortunately, if Christ tarries or some of us are taken out at
what is called the rapture, the catching away.
And those who are left behind that never committed themselves
truly and fully to Jesus Christ, because of them lingering and
missing that return of Christ and because of their love for
the present world system, they will be deceived into taking the
mark of the beast, the mark of the Antichrist.
And some of you here today will perhaps end up taking that.
That is not my prayer. It's not the Lord's Prayer.
He's not willing that any should perish, but all that come, come
to repentance. But things are going to get so
bad during that tribulation that if you're left here with,
without faith in Christ, you will be tempted and most likely
moved to say, well, this doesn't make sense not to take this
because if I don't get this identification code, I don't
have any ability to access my bank accounts.
I can't work at my job anymore. I can't buy food for my family.
I'm going to get that mark. And the mark is the ultimate
betrayal of of your soul to the devil.
And once you take that mark of the beast, you'll never be able
to withdraw from that commitment.
Hebrews tells us about the subject of what we call the
perseverance of the Saints. And if you're really gods today,
if you really belong to him, if you've really been saved and
your life has been radically transformed, you don't have to
worry about being left behind and you don't have to worry
about any kind of mark on your body that will represent your
allegiance to Antichrist. It says therefore in verse 35 of
Hebrews chapter 10. Therefore do not castaway your
confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of
endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you
may receive the promise for yet a little while, and he who is
coming will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back,
my soul shall have no pleasure in Him.
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition or hell, but
are those who believe to the saving of the soul.
So we use this term sometimes backsliding.
And we've all been there where we've been walking with the Lord
and we've been following him. And then some events, some
crisis, some temptation, some trial, some failing our life
causes us to move away from the Lord.
In other words, we we're like lot, we're lingering in an area
that we shouldn't be hanging out in.
Or perhaps some of us are, are like lot's wife that we're
falling the Lord and and the devil's whispering in our ear.
Well, you're missing out on this and you don't do this anymore
and wasn't this good and, and all of a sudden you look back
and Jesus is saying, if you're truly called to follow me in the
Kingdom, you put your hand to the plow and you just keep going
forward. You keep going forward.
You're not going to look back anymore.
And I've looked back different times in my life and I suffer
the consequences of looking back when I was in Bible college as a
young and I I'm dealing with the emotions of a young man and the
instability and the weaknesses of my own will and the
immaturity of my own walk with the Lord.
And I'm in Bible college and I'm hearing about unreached people
group people have never once heard the gospel.
And I had this compulsion in my heart that want to be involved
in going to reach people I've never heard.
But you know, when I go out on weekends to visit families from
the church we're attending nice houses, nice cars, nice careers.
I'm thinking, Lord, why can't I be like one of those people?
They love you, but they have, they sort of have the best of
both worlds. They have you and they have the
world at the same time, right. But there was this emptiness in
them as I would meet with them because they sort of wanted what
I wanted in the sense of being a missionary, but I sort of wanted
what, what they had. You know what I mean?
It was like a paradox. And I had this, this tension in
between. And so I had my hand at a plow,
but I was looking backwards and, and, and I, I caused myself to
be put on a shelf for a period of time because, you know, the
Lord can't use us if we're not totally committed, if we're,
we're looking back and we still want what the world has to offer
it. And the Lord says, well, I'll
catch up with you later and you'll see the consequences of
what that decision will be upon you.
And so the Lord gave me my desires and I was able to, you
know, achieve a certain amount of success in the world, but I
paid a terrible sacrifice for that.
I almost lost my marriage 39 years now married by the grace
and only by the grace of God. I was in Bible college and I
said, Clark, what are you doing, man?
You know, I said, well, the Bible says if you don't have the
material to finish the tower, it's better that you don't
start. So I, I made-up all kind of
excuses why I, I didn't think it was really worth being totally
sold out to Jesus Christ. And as I said, I, I suffered the
consequences. And the Bible says that if
anyone draws back, his soul doesn't have pleasure in him.
But thank God, if we're really a child of God, we can't turn back
forever, can we? God speaks to us, he humbles us,
he breaks us and he draws us back to himself, doesn't he?
And all of us have a testimony of that, I'm sure.
And each time that we come back, we come back with a strength and
a vigor and a decisiveness that I'm no longer interested in and
heading back. And I have a compassion and an
understanding for people that have setbacks in their Christian
lives. I don't judge because I've been
there, but I want to be an example and also tell my story
so that I might be able to prevent a young man like Cameron
from going back into the world. And when we see people, our
brothers and sisters, who are going back into the world, we
need to pray for them. We need to admonish them and
exhort them and warn them of the consequences of falling, because
falling is a very, very horrible thing to do.
Falling away from the Lord. He is no fool to lose what he
cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.
So at 45 years of age, we had some crises in our lives as a
family, long given up any kind of hopes of ever being in the
ministry. That was the last thing on my
mind in my life. And my kids were going to a
church that had this this youth thing they wanted to go to.
So Cindy and I weren't going to any church at the time.
So I figured, well, I'll go down there.
And it wasn't my style church. It was just really hyper
emotional and that kind of stuff.
But there was an old time missionary that spoke and he was
in his late 70s and he was talking about what life's really
about and what's most important in life.
And as you look at your life, you know, where is it today?
And the Lord used this old missionary guy to really get to
me. It was a revival called People
Coming Back to God. And it started out, I think the
first night there was like 2829 people.
And then each night it went down and until the end, the last
night, there was only a few of us there.
And it was like God had this revival.
That's for me. And so I went forward and I
said, Lord, you know, I've just sort of wasted my years from the
day I got saved and I was 20 up until my mid 40s now, I was in
the churches for a long time. I was a Deacon and I teach a
young married class. I was going through the motions.
I was doing what was expected that I was, I was dying inside
because I was, I was living for the world and I wasn't living
for Christ. And people might have thought I
was because I looked on the outside like I was, but I knew
down deep inside that I was messed up.
So I went on my face before the altar there and I just said,
Lord, here's my life. I want to give it back to you.
I understand that I've wasted a lot of years.
And if by chance you would give me an opportunity to have things
made right with you today, I'll do whatever it is that you want
me to do in the days ahead. Oh, God began to stir my heart
again and do something in me. And I'd had no interest in being
a pastor or anything or making any kind of great promises of
God. It was like a baby step.
I had no idea other than I'm just surrendering my will to the
Lord. My daughter's telling all her
friends, I have a new dad. I wasn't like his horrible
father. I mean, I cared, you know.
But all of a sudden I'm, I'm compelled again to be the father
of my home that I need to be and the husband I need to be to lead
my family in the ways of God. I'd sort of checked out on that.
You know, I've depended on the church to do it for me, right?
The youth group to do it for me. Some of you guys know what I'm
talking about. And so one thing led to the next
The Lord put on our heart about this church plant to be a
ministry of restoration and reconciliation for ruined lives,
which Cindy and I had. That God can restore the years
that the locust has eaten, that there's not one of us here that
has fallen so far that we're away from the outstretched arms
of God calling us back to Himself and to draw us to
Himself. And I know the people that God
calls it his church are people that are broken in, contrite and
desiring His will. Now, as we see in Revelation
chapter 4, that there will be these people that will not take
the mark of the beast, and because of that, they'll be
martyred. Now for us who are raptured out
of here, we're going to miss the real hell, the tribulation.
We're going to be taken out. God's wrath will not come upon
His church, but there will be people during that tribulation
that will be saved, that will be anointed by God to be witnesses,
and they will refuse to take the mark of the beast.
And because of that, they will be beheaded.
They will be beheaded and martyred.
Verse 5 it says, But the rest of the dead did not live again
until the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection. Blessed is he who has part in
the first resurrection over such the second death has no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign
with him 1000 years. Now we think of the Old
Testament Saints. Whenever Jesus was crucified, it
says in Ephesians, he went into the lower parts of the earth to
lead captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
So Hades is split into two sections.
You have hell and you have paradise.
The Old Testament Saints were in paradise waiting for the
finished work of Christ at the cross and his resurrection.
As Christ rose from a dead, He went in there and released as
captive in the bosom of Abraham, and brought them into the
Kingdom with him. That they take part in the first
resurrection, it tells us in First Corinthians, I believe.
Let me just double check here. Yeah, First Corinthians chapter
15, verse 20. It says now Christ has risen
from the dead, and he became the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by
man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as an Adam all die, Even so in Christ all shall be made
alive, but each one in his own order.
Christ is the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ
at his coming. Then comes the end, when He
delivers the Kingdom of God to the Father, when He puts an end
to all role and all authority and power, for He must reign
till he has put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy will be destroyed, which is death.
So when Christ rose from the dead, you remember in the
gospels where it talked about the people that came out of the
graves mystery, they were taking part as Christ is the first
fruit of the first resurrection. He's the 1st.
And then the Old Testament Saints of the bosom of Abraham,
those who were resurrected out of the graves during the time of
his resurrection in the Gospels. And then we have those of us who
will be raptured and taken into the Kingdom of heaven.
We're taking part as the first fruits of the first
resurrection. And then we have those, those
Saints in the tribulation period who were beheaded that Christ
will bring forth into life again, and they'll rule and
reign with him in that millennial Kingdom.
The first fruits taking part in the first resurrection with our
new bodies, all those who are redeemed will be raised up.
The second resurrection doesn't occur until the end of the
millennial Kingdom after the 1000 years.
And if you're here today and you're not saved, you won't take
part in the first resurrection. Unfortunately, you'll have to
deal with the second resurrection.
And the second resurrection is not a resurrection you want to
take part in because all those who are raised out of the graves
are being raised for the final judgment where the Bible says
the book will be open and the Lamb's book of life.
And whosoever's name is not found written in the Lamb's Book
of life will be cast into the lake of fire.
It's the resurrection of judgment.
And So what will this millennial Kingdom be like as we begin to
conclude here in this chapter today, chapter 20?
Well, there'll be peace. There'll be no more war.
Isaiah Chapter 11 If we flip over there for a minute, there's
a few verses here. Isaiah Chapter 11 verse 6
through 9. It says the wolf shall dwell
with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with
the young cat, goat, the calf and the young lion and the fat
lean together, and the little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze.
The young one shall lie down together.
The lion shall eat straw like the ox.
A nursing child shall play by the cobras hole.
The wean shall shall put his hand in the viper's den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy at all.
My holy. A mountain for the earth shall
be full. The knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea. Imagine that, having a baby
today and letting your baby play with a snake.
No one in their right mind would do that, right?
Well, during the millennial Kingdom, the snakes will be
friends. They won't hurt anybody.
There won't be any ravenous lion.
It's going to come and attack anybody.
I mean, it's just perfect peace. There'll be incredible happiness
and Isaiah 12 three. Therefore with joy you will draw
water from the wells of salvation.
You'll have long life and health.
Isaiah chapter 33 verse 24. This is a precursor to the
Kingdom that'll reign forever and ever, and the inhabitant
will not say I am sick. The people who dwell in it will
be forgiven their iniquity. There will be a time of
incredible prosperity on the earth.
Not like the prosperity teachers are teaching today that self
fulfilling, self willed prosperity.
This prosperity will come from the throne of God.
It says in Isaiah 35 verse one. The wilderness and the wasteland
shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom
as a rose. It shall blossom abundantly and
rejoice even with joy in singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it.
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory, the Lord, the Excellency of our God,
prosperity. And then there will be joy in
our employment. And unlike today, many of us are
working, the Bible says, with a sweat of our brow.
And there's a lot of aggravation and tension in the job markets
today. But in the days of the
millennial Kingdom, and it says they shall build houses and
inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and
eat their fruit. They shall not build and another
inhabit. They shall not plant and another
eat. For as a days of a tree, so
shall be the days of my people, and my elects shall long enjoy
the work of their hands. How glorious that will be.
And our inheritance will be an inheritance for those who are
truly born again. If you flip over to Romans
chapter 828, we know the Bible says all things work together
for good to those who love God, and are called according to His
purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He
might be the first born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He predestined, these He called, and those He
called, those He justified, Whom He justified He also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, referring to Jesus, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against
God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is
he who condemns? It is Christ who died and
furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also makes intercession for us.
It tells us over in first Peter, if you flip over there first
Peter chapter 2, as this ends in Revelation chapter 20, verse 5,
referring to the priesthood. You know, the Catholic Church
teaches about a priesthood and the Orthodox Church, some of
these other churches teach about the priesthood.
So the priests are here and all of us are down here, right?
And we have to go to the priest to get absolution for our sins
or go to the priest to be our mediator between God and man.
That's not biblical. The Bible tells us there's one
mediator between God and man. Who's that?
The man Christ Jesus. I'm sorry, but man can't help
you. You don't have faith and
dependence on the legs of a man. You have faith in the Lord.
Godly men will point you to Jesus Christ as your intercess.
We can pray for one another and God answers the prayers of His
righteous faithful servants, but Christ is the one who mediates.
I was here with Cameron and Cameron was being convicted by
the Lord to come to Christ. I sat on my knees here before
the Lord. Lord, you alone are the mediator
between the Father and between Cameron.
You're the one who has to save him.
You're the one who has to reach into his life and show him his
lostness, his sin. I can tell him, but unless the
Spirit shows him, he won't know why he needs to be saved.
And if you're here today, only God can show you you're lost.
All of us have to come to a point in our life to know that
we're lost and we need a Savior. And once you know you're lost,
then you know you need to be found.
The one who can save you is Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
It tells us in first Peter 9 that you're a chosen generation.
This is referring to us here today who are part of God's
family, the Christian, the born again, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the
praises of Him who's called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, who once were not a people.
Meaning one time we weren't part of this family, we weren't part
of his Kingdom, but are now the people of God who had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
As we study the Book of Revelation, we study it for two
reasons, to learn what it's what's going to happen in the
last days or we're not living in fear and we have confidence in
God's promises. But we also teach this book
because we know there are people here who are lost in any given
church and there are people here today that need to come to
Christ to see him as their only hope of forgiveness and
salvation. It tells us in First Timothy 2,
as it says, there is only one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus. He desires all men, all people
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
There's not one of you here today that God does not love and
doesn't want you to get saved. When I was beside Cameron here,
I said, Cameron, you have to come to the Lord yourself.
I can't do it for you. So I just encourage you to pray
to him from your own heart, what best you know to say.
And when I heard him opening his heart to God and speaking to
God, I knew that God was taking him from death to life, from
darkness into the beautiful glory of his Kingdom.
And he just shared very simply, Lord, I know I'm a Sinner.
You know, Lord, I've been around the block a few times, as we all
have, and as only a Sinner could cry to a merciful God, he did,
and God radically saved him and changed his life for all
eternity. If you're here today and you
have not experienced the saving grace and love and work of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, I encourage you to come forward
today. If you're here with someone you
know wants to come, come with them, take their hand and come
with them and pray because God wants to save you.
You don't want to be left here in this time of impending
tribulation that will soon come upon the world where you'll be
so propelled and so compelled to take that mark of the beast that
you'll be lost for all eternity. If you're here today and you
know that you're lingering and the world, and the world has
part of you and the Lord has part of you and you're wrestling
and you're tired of walking in two places.
You want to walk and the ways of God.
You've had it with the world. You don't want it to influence
you anymore. You don't want it to direct you.
You don't want it to oppress you or control you.
You want to be set free from the influences of that world.
I encourage you to make a prayerful commitment that you
surrender your life anew and afresh to God so that He can you
for the purpose of why He created you.
This has been Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Clark.
We're going through the challenging and also intriguing
Book of Revelation. Whether you're a fan of reading
ahead in books of fiction, there's such a benefit to
reading ahead in the Bible to read about how it all ends.
But in an interesting turn of events, the Book of Revelation
is not really the end, but rather the beginning.
It's the end of life as we know it here on earth, but there's so
much to look forward to. But what comes after all?
The judgement of the earth and those who reject God?
There's a lot to work through, and it can be heartbreaking to
read through the intense judgements and wrath that will
come on those who hate God with all their might.
The thing is, God has given chance upon chance to these
people and they don't want it. So the outcome is that there are
judgments and consequences for those who've rejected the good
news and the gift of salvation that's offered through Jesus's
death and resurrection. Are you one who has heard about
these things but doesn't really want it because you want to live
life on your terms? Trust me, living for Jesus is so
much better. That doesn't mean it will be
easy. As you listen and read through
Revelation with us, you'll come to a stark realization that you
don't want to be on Earth when the apocalypse happens.
So check out Calvary Chapel online.com to learn how to come
to a saving grace through faith that will allow you to be with
Jesus for eternity. We'd also love to meet you in
person at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland and join us at 400
E Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.
This has been living Waters of Grace.