This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
I remember Clark, man, he used to get drunk all the time.
He was fun. He used to get stoned.
It was so cool being around him. We had a good day.
I can't stand being around him now because he doesn't do it
anymore. Why doesn't he do it?
They think it's strange that I don't run in the same
dissipation of the way I used to live with them.
And I'm sure that's the case with many of you.
But it says they will give an account to him who is ready to
judge the living and the dead. It's important to be an
influencing factor in this day that you live.
What Pastor Clark just shared might come as a surprise to you.
Having heard all the wonderful Bible teaching from Pastor
Clark, it's sort of hard to imagine him drunk or doing
drugs. And yet, we know that everyone
has some sort of past before they came to Christ.
Pastor Clark reminds you today that your past can be used to
minister to others. In fact, that's the reason that
God allowed you to go through what you went through.
Again, our lives on earth are for the sake of others.
Your story can and will bring God glory if you choose to let
Him now. Here's Pastor Clark in
Revelation Chapter 6 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. This book, this chapter today is
a difficult chapter. I probably struggled more with
preparing this message than most messages I've worked on down
through the years and different reasons.
Because number one, what this chapter discusses is something
that you don't want anybody to have to deal with, that you
love, that would be left behind #1 #2 is that there's a lot of
imagery in this chapter that would cause perhaps some
difficulty and understanding, or people would have different
positions about how these things transpire.
And it's important to realize when we study the end times,
there's never anything in the end times that we argue about
because these are all futuristic things.
And we will know these things clearly when they truly come to
pass. But we're still looking ahead.
Now, some things are very, very clearly revealed and we can
grasp and comprehend. And some things, quite frankly,
we read them and they, they perplex us.
So what does that really mean? And how's that going to work
out? So I'd like to just give you a
little bit of foundation so that as we study this book going
forward, you'll understand more about the great tribulation that
is soon to come upon this world. This is where it begins in
chapter 6. So I'm going to give you a
little bit of background first before we get into the actual
text of the Scripture. Now, when we think of prophecy,
prophecy is given for the purpose of helping us to see
into the days ahead. The apostle Paul said that he
desires that we would prophecy more than anything else, and
that's just not this ability to communicate something that
hasn't occurred yet, but in the sense of what prophecy means.
It's the ability to edify, exhort, and comfort the church.
So today I trust that when we study this, that you will be
built up in your faith with the Lord Jesus, that you'll be also
worn in regard to perhaps some things that maybe are in your
life today that need to be cleaned up by the grace of God
and repentance. And, and then comfort that as
you think about loved ones who left this world, who died in
Christ, you have the hope, as Paul said, that we don't sorrow
as those who have no hope. So those three important issues
of prophecy are to be revealed to each of us today.
But the events of the end time will follow the rapture of the
church, which is the next major event that we believe is
evangelical Christians that are on, that's on the horizon, that
we will be removed from this planet prior to God pouring out
his wrath upon the earth. And we have a lot of proof texts
for that. I was thinking this morning as
my mom was going through this message that, you know, I have
children, I have grandchildren. I can't think of any time in my
life that I put them through a test, a difficult test that I
knew they wouldn't be able to pass, to prove that they love
me. I just knew that my kids love
me. Even when they were rebellious
and said all kind of mean things to me, I always knew my kids
down deep inside love me. And I know my my grandchildren
are like that too. And I, as a, as a grandfather
and a father, would never intentionally do anything to put
them into a circumstance that would potentially destroy them.
And God, our Father, is the same way.
He would never do that to any of us.
He loves us and we're his children.
And so this time period that occurs after the rapture is
called the period of preparation.
During this period, and it's actually occurring right now,
there's been discussions as to this world government that will
eventually arise on the political horizon.
Some people for years thought it was made-up of countries such as
Russia and Germany. And but as time goes on, we've
shifted a lot of us in our thoughts because none of us
understood the influence and the power of Islam like we do today.
When I was growing up, I didn't even know what Islam was, let
alone what a Muslim was or who Mohammed was.
I, I knew nothing about that. Today it is the most influential
apart from Christian Christianity, most powerful by
most dynamic force upon the face of the earth.
It's the fastest growing religion right now, whether you
know it or not. Some of the cities in America
are being inundated with the growth of Islamic people and our
country, our nation, a wonderful country.
We invite everybody in and this is a home for a lot of different
people groups, and we don't want to discriminate or look down
upon anybody, any group of people.
But we need to understand that the agenda of the Islam nation
is to destroy the infidels, which is who we are.
So if there was ever a movement on the face of the earth that
was designed by the Evil 1 to wipe out Christianity, it is the
empire of Islam. If we study back in church
history, some of the most horrendous atrocities that
occurred on Christian people was by the Islamic nation.
And so as we think about the potential countries that will
form this political alliance in the Middle East, the Middle East
is where everything's happening. It's the hotbed as we think
about this Islamic Arab nation state where the Antichrist will
raise up and be a ruler. These are the nations that we
believe will be involved in that Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
If you think about those nations today, they are heavily
dominated by Islamic rule, so much so that if you're a
Christian in these countries and your vocal and outspoken about
your faith, you have the potential of being imprisoned
and being martyred. And, and as we speak right now,
our brothers and sisters in Christ in these countries are
being martyred and they are in prison awaiting martyrdom.
So what we're studying about sometimes in Revelation is sort
of outside the realm of where we live every day.
But if you live in these countries, you understand the
horrendous events of being under a rule of Antichrist movement.
But this leader is going to emerge from this 10 nation
confederacy, and he's going to be in charge of everything.
And Daniel 724 and 25 gets into that.
You can check that out on your own.
But this evil one who raises up the Antichrist, he's going to
have the power to enter into a covenant with Israel to bring a
form of peace. Now we know every president that
has been in office has worked to try to bring peace in Israel
between the Arab nations and the Jewish people.
No one succeeded. Some people will get peace for a
couple months, maybe six months, but eventually it falls apart.
But this particular individual will have so much charisma and
so much intellectual promise that he'll be able to develop
this covenant. And this peace treaty will
actually look like it's working for about 3 1/2 years.
The world at that time, they're going to be amazed and
mesmerized by this leader. And they're going to say, hey,
this is finally someone that'll get things straightened out.
The economic situation will improve, prosperity, peace, all
that kind of stuff. And he's the one that'll
eventually bring rest to the relationship between Israel and
their Arab enemies. This person is defined as an
intellectual genius. He has extraordinary power.
He will work to destroy the nation of Israel.
He'll be very shrewd in how he goes about things.
He'll let the nations rest in a sense of false security for
those first 3 1/2 years, and then he'll move to destroy them.
He'll magnify himself above everything that's called God,
doesn't matter what religion, including Christianity.
He'll set himself up in the temple actually when it's
rebuilt, and he'll declare himself to be God, and that's
called the abomination of desolation.
He'll be able to control all the nations in human life and he'll
be worshipped as God and he will be the the strength of the
nations at that time because of the prosperity he brings.
As I said, for half of this seven-year period, this peace
treaty will be in place and it'll look like it's working at
the midpoint of this 7 1/2 year of this seven-year period.
The treaty will be broken about 3 1/2 years and the Antichrist
will then rise up and he'll proclaim his position as ruler
of the entire world and then persecution will then begin.
The final 3 1/2 years will end at the rain when Jesus Christ
comes and the second coming. That's the only thing that will
bring this horrendous cataclysmic time on earth to a
conclusion. And that will be preceded by a
Great War prior to Christ's return called the Battle of
Armageddon. So as we begin to move through
Revelation 6 through 18, this will begin to revealed to us
this period that is called the Great Tribulation.
And more specifically as we study we'll we'll really see
clearly the last 3 1/2 years before Jesus begins his descent
to roll and reign for the millennial Kingdom on the face
of the earth. So let's pick it up in verse 9
of chapter 5 before we jump into 6.
There's groups that believe that the church will be in the
tribulation or part of the tribulation amid tribulation
people or post tribulation folks.
We don't believe that's an accurate assumption of what's
going to happen in verse 9 of chapter 5.
This is a scene in heaven prior to the seals being open.
In chapter 6, the beginning of the tribulation, it says, and
they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals. For you were slain and have
redeemed us. And you might want to underline
us in your Bible to God by your blood out of every tribe and
tongue and people of a nation. And it made us kings and priests
to our God. And we shall reign on the earth.
So this is spoken of prior to the establishment of the
millennial Kingdom, the thousand year reign in the face of the
earth. So we're not going to be in the
scene in chapter 6. So that is a very, very
important verse to be reminding yourself of because you know,
when things start to unravel and and they're on the verge of
unraveling any day now, no one knows the time or the season.
The Bible says only the Father in heaven.
But we don't want our faith to be shaken because of some
adversity that comes upon us wondering, was God true to His
word or is he going to be faithful to what He promised?
If you were living in Sudan today and you're a believer, you
would have a hard time thinking you weren't in the tribulation
right now because of what you're having to deal with presently.
But believe me, as bad as things are in Sudan and some of the
other places, the world, it doesn't come close to what it's
going to be like during this great tribulation period.
So the tribulation doesn't really actually begin until
these seals are broken in chapter 6.
And so as I said, the throngs that we just read about in
Revelation 59, that's us. We're not going to be there with
what's going to begin to happen in chapter 6.
So let's start in chapter 6, verse one.
Now I saw when the Lord opened one of the seals, and I heard
one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like
Thunder, come and see. And I looked and behold, a White
Horse, he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him
and he went out conquering and to conquer.
Now a lot of people think, well, White Horse, this, this is a,
this is Jesus. He's he's coming back and he's
going to, you know, establish his Kingdom and he's going to
rule and reign. But this is a, a deception here.
This is truly not Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
because when he comes, he conquers with the sword.
There's no sword in the hand of this rider.
In this White Horse. He has a bow, but he has no
arrow. The crown he has isn't the crown
that's defined in the Greek diadem.
When Christ comes, he will have a crown on that'll be declaring
him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So this person on this horse represents the Antichrist, the
false Messiah. And he's coming at this time to
conquer the earth, to begin to control the forces and the
circumstances of of the human race.
He's going to set up his authority and he's going to have
this power, and his emergence as a world roller will begin at the
beginning of this first seal being opened up.
And it tells us in Second Thessalonians, it's important to
realize that what's going to happen, the only thing that's
preventing it from happening right now is the church, the
body of Christ. We're still on earth, we're
still having influence, we're still having salt and
influencing ungodly people. But it says in Second
Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 7, For that which hinders shall
hinder until it is taken out of the way, and then the son of
perdition will be revealed. Now the church is always seen in
the Scriptures as a preserving influence, a purifying entity.
And if you flip over to Matthew 513 for a minute, Jesus talks
about the the ability of salt. He says in verse 13, You are the
salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its
flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled
under foot by men. Now salt in the early days was
used as a preservative to keep meat from developing surface
bacteria. It kept it edible for people to
eat. It kept it from rotting.
And what what's happening here right now, today is that you and
I are the influence in the world.
And I, I pray you grasp that today.
I need to grasp that more that your word and your testimony and
your walk and your faithfulness to Christ is having a pushback
influence on an unbelieving world.
You don't think sometimes, well, what does my little life do or
how does it affect anybody? People are watching you.
They are many times going to go do something or get involved in
something or say something. You being there makes them
uncomfortable. So they're not inclined to maybe
tell the filthy stories or do the deceptive evil deed.
Your influence is, is preserving and and protecting them in a
sense to keep them aware of pressing into things that are
evil. That's why the Bible tells us
that we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves
together. The most important thing for you
and me as Christians is to be with believers to keep us on
track. Because I'll tell you, if you're
not in the body and you're not plugged into the Word, and
you're not worshipping God and you're not letting the Word of
God influence you and affect you, you will drift.
You will drift and you will begin to lose your influence on
others. You'll begin at times to find
yourself doing the very things that those people that are lost
are doing. I speak from experience.
I know what it means to drift. And we're all bound and
potentially capable of any sin, aren't we?
Of any crime? It's only the grace of God, the
power of the Holy Spirit, that keeps us in the place that we
need to be as pure instruments of salt.
But when the salt has been silenced, in other words, when
we are taken out of this world, the unbelieving world's going to
party. Hey, those people are gone.
Basically. Literally all hell will break
loose. Well, anyway, that's what it's
going to be like. I mean, people are going to be
going wow. Then they're just going to be so
excited that goody 2 shoes isn't around anymore.
That that prude or that the bigot or that fanatic is no
longer here to challenge me about my lifestyle and to warn
me about the wrath of God to come.
If you flip over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 for a
moment. And my heart, when I teach this
guys, isn't this a teach history, Future history?
That can be interesting, but it can also be really boring.
The importance of these truths in the Book of Revelation is to
cause you and me to in a practical sense, live
differently. I, I trust when you hear these
things that you're thinking, I got to change my life's got to
become more influenced by the things of God and less
influenced by the things of this world because this chapter and
what we're studying, guys, this isn't where our minds are every
day. Our minds are working, creating,
you know, building, developing, experiencing, buying, selling,
having fun. I mean, you know, and God does
allow us to have fun, obviously, but it's so easy to get outside
the realm of what Christ is wanting to fulfill in these last
days, isn't it? And what happens for me today,
teaching this and I trust for you being here is that it
energizes your mind again to think about as Jesus said, look
up your redemption draws an eye. And so as we look in 2nd
Corinthians 214, this is what's happening when you're out there
in the world every day. It says thanks be to God who
always leads us to triumph in Christ and through US diffuses
the fragrance of his knowledge to every place I pray in my life
today is diffusing the fragrance of the Kingdom of God and the
Lord Jesus Christ into your lives today and you to me for we
are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being
saved. This being together.
It's good to be. With the brothers and sisters,
isn't it? It's good to dwell with brothers
and sisters who dwell together in unity in Jesus Christ.
It's a smell that is unlike the smell that I smell when I go
into the world every day, because the world doesn't care
about what we're talking about today.
They're not interested. They're ignorant of it, and
they, quite frankly, most of the time don't want to even talk
about it. But I can come here and you guys
can come here with a group of people that actually are
anticipating the return of the Lord.
That's rare, it's precious and it's vital.
And so we should smell that fragrance in one another's
lives. Soon as we see each other, we
know we're part of the same family and and among those who
are perishing, it's a different fragrance to the one we are.
The aroma of death leading to death, and the other, the aroma
of life leading to life. And so when you're out there in
your influence of being salt, you remind people of their
mortality. You remind people of the
impending judgment and that one day they will stand and give an
account of themselves to God because you've probably told
them that. And so every time they see you,
there's that person again that's making me feel guilty or they're
making me feel uncomfortable. And that's not our intention.
We're just like being who we are.
We're in a sense no better, but we're changed, right?
We have the light of Christ in us.
We have the Holy Spirit dealing with us and purifying us and
cleansing us and that we're filled with God's Spirit.
So when we're around people, we are different.
We're, we should be radically different at this as much as
when we're around each other. Like last night we had the
worship night. It was awesome just sitting here
worshiping the Lord and listening to different people's
skills and talent. You know, if you were lost and
you didn't know Christ, you'd sit here and say, these people
are nuts. You know, what are they doing?
You know, what's this mean? But we were singing about our
love for Christ. We were worshiping him and those
of us who were here, we're connecting.
We were feeding off that in each other's lives.
It was just a blessed time. First Peter chapter 4, verse
one. Therefore, since Christ suffered
for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same
mind. For he who suffered in the flesh
has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of
his time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of
God. It's time for all of us guys no
longer to live after the lust of this world, but live for the
will of God. For we spent enough of our past
lifetime, Amen. We spent enough of our life
wasting it and doing the will of the gentiles or the lost when we
walked in, lewdness and lust and drunkenness and reverently
drinking parties and a bomb on our idolatries.
In regard to these, they think it's strange that you don't run
with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of
you. In other words.
Again, salt. I remember Clark, man, he used
to get drunk all the time. He was fun.
He used to get stoned. It was so cool being around and
we had a good time. I can't stand being around him
now because he doesn't do it anymore.
Why doesn't he do it? They think it's strange that I
don't run in the same dissipation of the way I used to
live with them, and I'm sure that's the case with many of
you. But it says they will give an
account to him who is ready to judge the living in the dead.
It's important to be an influencing factor in this day
that you live. 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, a 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 and 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
us today. And if you'd like to connect
further with this ministry, find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also download our mobile app at calvarychapelonline.com.
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.