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.
Anything in your life or mine that causes us to love whatever
it is more than we love. God is appealing to the lust of
the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life.
It's called worldliness. Anything that moves you away
from God's will is worldliness. Anything that causes you to not
pursue God with all your heart is worldliness.
Anything that causes you to spend your money on things that
are going to perish, as opposed to investing them in things that
are going to last for eternity, is worldliness.
It's far easier to live worldly lives than we realize.
The smallest things that we've been conditioned to believe and
perceive as normal hold us back from seeing Jesus daily.
Allowing our hearts and minds to be filled with self love and
money continues to blind us from the sin that we've become numb
to today. Pastor Clark teaches us that
giving our time, energy, and love to things of this world
hinders us from setting our affections on the things above
where Christ resides now. Here's Pastor Clark in the Book
of Revelation chapter 20 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. Revelation chapter 20, verse 4.
And I saw Thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was
committed to them. And then I saw the souls of
those who had been beheaded for the witnesses to Jesus and for
the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his
image, and had not received His mark on their foreheads or in
their on their hands. And they lived and reigned with
Christ for 1000 years. But the rest of the dead did not
live again until the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy 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 as we're studying the
millennial Kingdom, the beginning of of God's 1000 year
reign when He rules with authority and power on the face
of the earth, when the devil is bound for that 1000 years.
We're told some wonderful things regarding this future House of
God when Christ comes and rules in Jerusalem from his throne and
temple. And it says in chapter 2 of
Isaiah, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem now shall come to pass in the latter days, that
the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on top of
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all
nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say,
Come, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the
House of God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and
we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth
the law and the word of the Lord.
From Jerusalem He shall judge between the nations and rebuke
many people. They shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their Spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war anymore. O House of Jacob, come and let
us walk, and the light of the Lord.
And then in Isaiah chapter 35 says, 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 I give to it the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the Excellency of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are fearful hearted, Be strong, do not fear.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with a recompense of
of God, and He will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the
deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a
deer in the tongue of the dumb, saying, For water shall burst
forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land
springs of water, and the habitation of jackals.
Where each lay. There shall be grass with reeds
and rushes. A highway shall be there in a
road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.
The unclean shall not Passover it, but it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beasts go up
on it. It shall not be found there, but
the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransom of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy in
their heads. They shall obtain joy and
gladness and sorrow, and sign shall flee away.
How awesome is that going to be, huh?
1000 year reign. No more politics, no more world
rollers trying to take control of the earth.
We'll be under the authority of Jesus Christ and him alone.
There'll be perfect peace on that earth.
At that time, everybody, the New Age people are thinking they're
going to push Nirvana into place and have the world come together
in the concentric circles and bring in a peace.
But there will be no peace until Jesus Christ comes.
He is the Prince of Peace and we need to be praying for the peace
of Jerusalem in these days because as that peace comes upon
Jerusalem, the peace will come upon the whole world.
And so this is what we look forward to at the end of the
tribulation period. But what we see in verse 4 here,
it says I saw Thrones and they that sat on them and judgment
was committed to them. The picture of the privilege
that we will have, the position that we will have and enjoy
during this millennial Kingdom. It says in verse four that it'll
be granted to them authority to judge under Jesus Christ.
In first Corinthians chapter 6, verse two and three, it says, do
you not know that the Saints will judge the world and if the
world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge in the
smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall
judge angels? How much more things that
pertain to this life? So you're going to be a judge
one day under the authority of Jesus Christ, sitting on a
throne and judging under his leadership.
We have no idea in our small minds, our finite minds, the
great things that God hath prepared for those who love him.
It says in Luke chapter 19. And he said to him, well done
good servant because you were faithful and a very little have
authority over 10 cities. And the second came saying,
master, you're 1 minor or money equivalent to three months wages
has earned 5 Minas. Likewise he said to him, you
also will be over 5 cities. As we live our lives, all of us,
everything we're doing right now will have an effect on what
we'll be doing in the millennial Kingdom.
If you're faithful in the small things in this life, God has a
plan for you in that thousand year reign, a very specific
honorable plan that he's going to give to you to lead and to
serve in that millennial Kingdom.
Some of us might think, well, boy, I don't really have much of
an influence and impact in this life, in this world.
I guarantee if you're faithful in the smallest of things in
this life, God will blow your mind and what He's going to give
you the privilege to do in the millennial Kingdom under His
authority. Some of you might be mayors and
governors. Some of you might be running
different types of business enterprises.
And in this life, it seems like you never get a shot or you
never have the privilege to do maybe what you really would like
to do or what you think you're capable of doing.
I love it. What it says in First
Corinthians 1558. Be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work for the Lord, for as much as you know
your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
And then that day in that millennial Kingdom, when God
calls your name and says, this is what I have for you to do for
me during this millennial Kingdom, you'll turn around and
think, He can't be talking to me.
But yes, He will be talking to you because everything you do in
this life, no matter how small it might seem, is being written
and recorded by Him in the book of remembrance, and He'll have a
very, very special job for you in that Kingdom.
And the Scriptures tell us that in this time of judgment,
there's souls of those who have been beheaded for their witness
to Jesus and for the Word of God.
Why? Because they did not worship the
beast or his image. It had not received his marker
on their foreheads or on their hands.
This world is very alluring. It's very tempting, isn't it?
It's very easy for us to be drawn into things that we
shouldn't be drawn into as Christians.
Every day we have to fight against the temptations of our
fallen nature that still tries to raise its ugly head up.
We have to be on guard continually against the Wiles of
the devil. The devil is insidious in how he
approaches us and how he wants to trap us into things that
would cause problems for us in this life.
James tells us in chapter 4 verse four, he refers to those
who have an affinity or a love for this present evil world as
adulterers and adulteresses. It says, do you not know that
friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Meaning, if you're a friend with the world, you're an enemy of
God. Whoever therefore wants to be a
friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
You can't serve 2 masters. The Bible says you'll love the
one and you'll hate the other. It tells us in first John
chapter 2. If you flip over there for a
minute regarding this world system, First John chapter 2
verse 15, it says do not love the world or the things in the
world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lusts of the flesh, the
lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of the world, and the world is passing away in the
lust of it. But he who does the will of God
abides forever. All of us are struggling and
fighting against this power of this world every day.
The lust of the eye, the things that we see that seems pleasant,
as we've studied in the book of Genesis, the woman looked at the
tree and it was pleasant to her eyes.
The eye is is a gateway to the mind.
That's why it tells us don't stand in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor sit in the seat of the scornful.
The enemy would try to draw us into evil through the things
that we see with our eyes, the lust of the flesh, that is where
she saw the tree, that it was good for food.
And this appeals to our lower appetites, the old nature, the
things that are vain in our lives.
The Scriptures say, Pray that the Lord would take my eyes from
beholding vain things. And then the pride of life.
It's a tree, she said, to be desired.
And the the devil said it's a tree to be desired, to make one
wise. And the pride of life manifests
itself in flaunting our materialism and affluence, to
try to make impressions upon other people by perhaps the car
we drive or the house we live in, or the things that we own.
And Jesus says that man's life does not consist in the
abundance of the things he possesses, but everything in
this world will be to appeal to the lust of the eye, the lust of
the flesh, and the pride of life.
The marketers spend big money to make you feel that your life
isn't fulfilled or satisfied unless you acquire whatever the
advertisers are going to put on. I mean, the amount of money that
they spend in the Super Bowl to advertise their product.
You know why? Because they know it works.
They know there's going to be countless millions of people all
over the world watching that football game and they'll do all
they can to appeal to the lust of the eye, the lust of the
flesh and the pride of life. Now, worldliness is a matter of
the heart. And I struggle myself with this
aspect of worldliness that I have to constantly be on guard
about. And worldliness is defined as
having an allegiance or a loyalty to anything that you
would love more than you would love God.
Jesus said to these people that ask them the questions, what's
the most important commandment? And Jesus says to love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all
your soul, with all your strength, and to love your
neighbor is yourself. If you do these two things,
you'll fulfill the entire law. Anything in your life or mine
that causes us to love whatever it is more than we love.
God is appealing to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh,
the pride of life. It's called worldliness.
Anything that moves you away from God's will is worldliness.
Anything that causes you to not pursue God with all your heart
is worldliness. Anything that causes you to
spend your money on things that are going to perish as opposed
to investing them in things that are going to last for eternity
is worldliness. Anything that is profane and
lustful and focused on your own self will is worldliness.
That's why the apostle Paul said in Colossians chapter 3 verse 2,
set your affections on things above, not on things on earth.
Set your affection on things that are above, not on things
that are on the earth. And you have to ask yourself
this morning, where is my affections?
Are they upon the things above, where Christ resides, where my
life is hid with Christ and God, Where I'll spend all eternity
someday? Definitely during the millennial
Kingdom serving Him. And then at that final battle of
Gog and Magog at the end of the Millennium, I'll spend all
eternity with Him in the heavens.
Or are my affections on the things of the earth?
Am I wasting my life? You know, the one servant that
was given the money to invest in the Lord's Kingdom, he hid it in
the ground because he was fearful of the master, that the
master came back and if there was nothing left, then he would
be in big trouble. Well, the Lord is looking for
fruitfulness in all of our lives.
So He gives you and me one life, one shot, one chance in this
life that we're going to either blow or we're going to used for
his purposes and for his Kingdom.
And so the picture of that servant, he hid the money in the
ground. And when the master came back,
he said, well, what do you have to show for what I entrusted you
with? And he said, well, master, I was
afraid you. I thought you were a harsh
servant. So I hid it in the ground and
here it is. And the master was livid in the
sense that I gave you this and I entrusted you this with this to
multiply and to grow and to increase and, and you didn't do
that. In all of our lives, Christ is
looking for a harvest, a fruitful existence, so that at
the end, when we stand and give an account of ourselves before
the Lord and our lives are put through that judgment seat of
Christ where everything is revealed as to what our
priorities were in this life and what we were living for.
That it won't burn up and just have nothing.
It says some will be saved as oh by fire.
God in his mercy will save and is saving those who come to Him
and trust in Him. But salvation is more than this.
Asking Christ that came into our life and forgive us of our sins
so that we can have eternal life.
Salvation is the beginning of a new destiny for all of us to
live for purposes that will last for all eternity.
That our life no longer is benefiting ourselves, but it's
benefiting and prospering other people.
Jim Elliott, the famous missionary who was struggling to
go to South America to work with the the tribal Indians, just
like us, a normal guy. But everybody eulogizes and puts
Jim Elliott on a pedestal because he was an amazing man.
He was martyred for his faith in Christ.
But Jim was challenging himself whenever he had the call to go
and be a missionary. The couple weeks before he left,
he was saying, am I nuts? Selling all my stuff, giving it
away, going to a group of people that you know could care less
maybe or what's the consequences of going there and he's
struggling back and forth just like we all do.
Whenever God begins to work by his spirit and challenge us and
say, I want to draw you into a deeper relationship with me.
I want you to know my heart for your existence.
I want to live my life through you and for my glory.
And all of us when we start hearing God that way, we have
several attitudes. Wow, this is awesome.
And yes, Lord, I want what you want.
And then we also have the the fear at times, well, what will
this cost me? What will this require of me?
And Jesus says if you want to find your life, you have to lose
it. If you want to save your life,
you have to lose it for my sake. And that's a paradox.
If we really want to find real life, we have to actually lose
it, lose what we think is important so he can show us what
really is important. Well, Jim Elliott, he said that
famous phrase that he's known for after his martyrdom.
He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep to gain what he
cannot lose. He is no fool to lose what he
cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Going back to Sodom and we're studying in Genesis.
We haven't gotten to this section yet, but a lot is in
this horrible place, Sodom and Gomorrah, and it's a picture of
the world as it is back then, as it is today.
The world is full of evil and wickedness and ungodliness and
impurity. The majority of the human race
detests. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
want to have anything to do with Him, and if He was here on earth
again, they would crucify Him. This as they crucified Him last
time. So Lot is told to get out of
that city. And as he's being basically
dragged out of the city by the angels, it says he lingered for
a while. And lingered means it's like
sort of slowing down. And like, yeah, I know I'm
supposed to go this way, but I'm just, you know, I'm just not
like really wanting perhaps to go with all my heart.
I'm just sort of still have a longing to be back here.
But it says in the Bible that God's grace pulled them out of
that city. Lot, his wife and his daughters.
They were told not to look back behind them.
But his wife, unfortunately, as she was walking away from Sodom,
her heart still long for the world and they were warned not
to look back. And when she looked back, she
turned into a pillar of salt. Her life was destroyed, Jesus
says in Luke Chapter 9 verse 62. But Jesus said to him, no one
having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the
Kingdom of God. I don't know where you are
today, but as we're studying this Book of Revelation, 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 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 were like a
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 suffered the consequences of looking back
when I was in Bible college as a young man.
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 wanted to be involved in going to reach people have
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 of 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.
In the Book of Revelation, Pastor Clark is taking us
through all kinds of events and happenings that are predicted
for the future. But for those who believe and
follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to in heaven with
Jesus. However, for those who are here
on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that
will unfold. The Bible talks about an
Antichrist, false prophet, and of course that evil enemy Satan.
Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to
disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?
The true Savior of the world is God and how he comes to rescue
through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take
over for God in heaven was cast out, Satan will try to convince
people on earth that he is the triune God to be worshipped
instead of the legitimate God in heaven.
It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his
schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and
Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.
Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness
that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait
indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.
We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want
to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head
over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with
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Be sure to join us for weekly services at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601. This has been living waters of
grace.