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.
Have you ever been drunk? I hope you haven't, but if you
have, you know what that's like. You don't think about anything
or anybody but your sordid self, your own foolishness, your own
pride, and all you can do to take advantage of everyone else.
That's what a drunk does. It's all about them.
This is what the system of the Antichrist will be like.
It'll revel in the destruction of the godly, just like a drunk
rebels in their wine. We are all aware that getting
drunk impairs our cognitive ability.
That's why there are laws preventing people from drinking
and driving or operating heavy machinery.
Oh, some people think it's all fun and games until the morning
after, but really, it's no joke. In Pastor Clark's message today,
he points out the biblical comparison between drunkenness
and the celebration of evil. It might seem like a good time
when the godly are being destroyed, but in the end, the
wicked will face their ultimate destruction.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation Chapter 17 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
False religion is a deception of the Antichrist, and we see that
happening today everywhere. It's amazing what people are
saying. You know there's all roads lead
to heaven. This is the common thing that
you hear. It doesn't matter what you
believe as long as you believe something.
Anybody that doesn't know the truth will tell you that they
just want to water it down. Second Timothy chapter 4 verse
three and four says for the time will come when they will not
endorse sound doctrine. Well, the time has come.
People will not endorse sound doctrine but according to their
own desires because they have itching ears.
Tell me, basically, tell me what I want to hear, not what I need
to hear. They will heap up for themselves
teachers and will turn their ears away from the truth and be
turned aside. The fables like Diwali, like
Babylonian New Age heresies. If you turn to 2nd Thessalonians
chapter 2, verse 9 through 12, this also speaks of the coming
of the Lawless 1, the Antichrist.
The coming in verse nine of the Lawless 1 is, according to the
working of Satan, with all power signs and lying wonders and with
all unrighteousness deception among those who perish because
they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be
saved. So people who are blowing off
the truth and ignoring it and walking away from it and want to
be part of the world system, they don't have any love for the
truth that they might be saved. And so it says in verse 11.
And for this reason God will send them a strong delusion that
they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned
who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in
unrighteousness. Verse one and two, it talks
about this scarlet woman who makes the inhabitants of the
earth are made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
How she does this, she gets people to compromise.
The world system gets people to compromise with spiritual
idolatry. You know, a Christian has no
business sitting in Zen prayer circles.
A Christian has no business in being involved in yoga.
A Christian has no business being involved in any of the
eastern religions because they are all Pagan.
But today it's amazing. Churches will have yoga classes
in the basement of their church and you can go online.
Churches in Greensburg yoga and Christianity see how they mix.
They don't mix. 1 is light and truth.
The other one is darkness and destruction.
People don't realize when they do yoga.
They think it's interesting, you know, just do stretching
exercises. Nothing wrong with stretching
exercises. But if you do stretching
exercise under a yoga teacher, you don't realize, and many of
them don't realize it, but the positions you're sitting in are
setting you up to be in line with the energies of the Pagan
demons. And you allow yourself as a
Christian not to be possessed, but to begin to be oppressed by
forces of darkness that will affect you and even your own
family. You shouldn't have anything in
your house that has anything to do with paganism.
You should burn it and get rid of it.
I have a bunch of books that have to do with that subject
that I've needed to study and become aware of.
And, you know, to some extent I understand.
So I'm just not talking from my hip, so to speak.
But I, I know people who are in these places.
I've had long, lengthy discussions with them why they
believe what they believe. And those books aren't in my
house. They're in the garage underneath
a plastic tub. So that stuff won't get out of
them into the rest of the house, so to speak.
You know, and the reason I have them there sometime I have to
refer to them. You know, you meet a Hindu, you
know, you want to love them. You want to help them understand
why their beliefs are false in any way.
You can unfortunately do that at times is know a little bit about
why they believe what they believe.
But anyway, first John chapter 4 verse 3 says, and every spirit
that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh,
meaning that there is a literal incarnation of God being
manifest in Christ, God in Christ, God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit, God in Christ coming to this world as
both man and God. Any spirit that does not confess
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard
was coming and is now already in the world.
In verse 3 through 6, this is what John sees.
He carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a
woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of
blasphemy, having 7 hens heads and 10 horns.
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adored with gold
and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup
full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery Babylon the
Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the
earth. I saw the woman drunk with blood
of the Saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I marvelled with great amazement.
That's all the Father. We're going to go through 6
today, but I'll finish up with the notes, this book and this
chapter. I'll tell you, I, I fear even
teaching on this stuff. I, I wish I could go back to the
Beatitudes. They're a lot easier to teach
on. They seem more practical.
They seem to me much more easy to understand.
This stuff in Revelation at times is wild, isn't it?
It's like, other than this world.
I mean, it really makes it clear that Jesus said his Kingdom
isn't of this world. When you read Revelation, you
realize his Kingdom is not like anything any of us have ever
seen or experienced in this present world.
But anyway, John is carried away in the Spirit into the
wilderness, and it shows us that the wilderness is always seen as
a place of desolation, a place where you see a vision of
judgement. And this is what God's taking
him to. He sees this harlot sitting on a
scarlet beast. She's riding the same beast that
we see written about in Revelation 13, one, and this
refers to the Antichrist and his dictatorship.
Her position is riding and supported by political powers of
the beast. She has a dominant role and is
outwardly controlling and directing the beast.
So we see as the Antichrist is being brought into power, when
he eventually becomes a real human being and he's walking
around the earth and he's beginning to speak what's going
to carry him and his authority. Even though he's the mindset, so
to speak, of the authority that is experiencing all this horror
on the earth and this leadership style, the world system is
already going to be in place for him to walk in and be accepted
by the world as a new international leader of the
masses and the populace. It's amazing how Europe is
trying to push together one world government. the United
Nations and the Common Market, European nations, they're all
working together and unfortunately, the United States
is right in the mix there. How can we have one world
currency, right? We're talking about that now any
of you are involved in banking, realize that's not this a good
idea that's going to happen one day because it's the only way
that the financial markets can eventually become stable by
having a common currency that's the same in every country and
every culture. It makes good financial business
sense, but there's a dastardly picture and and vision behind
the reason for this, and it's certainly not to make you
wealthy. It's designed to control and one
day force you to receive the mark of the beast in order for
you to buy and sell anyway. God sees this blasphemy very
clearly, but to the people on the earth at this time, she'll
look. This world system will look
great. I mean, I, I have people I know
that are very excited about a one world government.
They're very bright, they're very smart and they think, man,
you know, this is the way to go. We're going to stabilize the
financial markets. There'll be no more poverty,
there'll be equality around the earth world.
There'll be no more starvation and suffering.
We'll be able to heal all the diseases of the world because
all our medical resources and technology and minds will be
brought together to work for the common good of the the nation,
the nation, the nation under Antichrist, the people on the
earth. They're going to look at this
religious system. It's going to look real
spiritual on the outside. It's going to promote a kind of
faith that everybody's going to want.
You know what kind of faith it is?
It's a faith of prosperity, health, wealth, and yourself as
being God that's being preached right now on the networks of
major televisions. Joel Osteen is the one of the
greatest teachers of the modern prosperity and health movement
is check his doctrine out, check what he teaches, check what he
believes. It'll appall you.
He says I'm not a preacher. He says I'm a motivational
speaker. So people like hearing what he
says because he's affirming them that they have a right to be
prosperous, they have a right to be healthy and that they
basically are the center of the universe.
People like that. Do you believe it?
That is the largest church in America today, the largest
church in America, 40,000 people attend that church on a weekend
and on the Airways even more millions around the world
because it says in the last days people will what be looking for
teachers that will tickle their ears.
And that's what's happening. And some of you might be
involved in listening to that. I warn you as a pastor, run as
far from that stuff as you can. Run as far as you can from the
Benny Hinn teachings and the Word of Faith, prosperity
teachers such as Kenneth Copeland and all those on the
Airways that are pushing this spirituality that is completely
not found in the Scriptures. It says that these system at the
time and the the picture of what's occurring at the time.
The woman is arrayed in purple and scarlet and adored with gold
and precious stones. This is the emblems of luxury
Mercedes-Benz and Lexuses and the the high life, you know,
400, five, $100,000 homes and precious stones, gold and silver
and jewels and and luxurious diamonds and, and, and that that
time and the government in Rome, the color of purple, the dye
that was used to make the garments, the colors that are
being described here was very, very expensive.
And so we see then in the last days, the rulers of this one
world government, one world system, this movement of a
so-called Christian spirituality will be flaunting their luxury.
Do you see it all these Word of Faith preachers on the
television. Jesus came.
He had no place to lay his head. He came to his own, his own
received him not He wasn't born in the Ritz Carlton.
He was born in a through of a horse stable.
The apostles own nothing. They died with nothing.
They died martyr's death. But today, some of the leaders
in the so-called Church of America are flaunting their
wealth on the backside of ripping you off.
Their money that they receive isn't going to what they tell
you. It goes to, It goes to their
five and six and eight mansions around the world.
It goes to their Mercedes Benzes and their fancy cars.
And I can't understand. But the people are blind and
they keep thinking these people are wonderful and they keep
writing the checks in or. Meanwhile, the modern missions
around the world have less than 2 1/2% to reach the World with
the gospel. They don't have the money to get
the gospel out to the ends of the the earth because the
Christians are being deceived thinking they need to send their
money to TBN and Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen and a bunch of other
heretics on television. It's tragic.
She offers the world system, offers idolatry, abominations
and impurity, filthiness for fornication in this prosperous
situation and people are going to be drawn to it.
The purple and scarlet is the colors of splendor and
magnificent, and if you read down to the course of church
history, one of the deadliest marks of church corruption is
the lust for power. Purple and scarlet are the
colors of rulers. If you go into some of these old
line historical churches, I don't know why they have to have
all the robes and the fancy headdresses and the expensive
vestments. That doesn't make sense to me.
They walk around like they're in control of everything and people
are to bow down and kiss their ring and and then they're told
to not have one offering, but we have two or three or four
offerings and a service. You know, we believe we're God,
Gods. He provides.
We don't need to get into your pockets and tell you we need
money. God will work in your heart.
As Steve said, as you pray, what is it that the Lord has put on
your heart? The purpose in your heart to set
apart for his Kingdom. We're not using your money here
to ride in Mercedes-Benz or live in $400,000 mansions.
Your money and you can check for with Anna Morris.
She'll be more than happy to open the books to you.
For the most part is intended to take care of the livelihood of
what's happening here in this ministry, but more importantly,
to take care of people who need help with missions around the
world. I got a call recently, an e-mail
from someone who said there's some missionaries in the
Philippines that need some help. They're very, very poor.
This person worked with them at one time and she she knows them,
knows their hearts, and they needed $350.00 a piece to be
able to go complete their mission.
Now, $350.00 might not seem like a lot to us, but to them it was
almost like $3500. Well, because of your
faithfulness and giving, we didn't have to take a special
offering today. We pulled it out of the budget
and earmarked that money to go to those missionaries in the
Philippines. And those people were ecstatic.
This overwhelmed that their simple need was being met by a
group of people in a church in America that they know nothing
about. That's God's heart, isn't it?
God's interested in the people in the hearts of the lost and
the impoverished and the broken down.
And I'll tell you, you're not hearing that from Joel Osteen on
a Sunday morning. Lord have mercy on his soul.
On her forehead was a name written in spite of her glory,
in spite of the world's systems glory and power.
This system is nothing but a sellout to the truth of Jesus
Christ. In essence, we can call it
spiritual prostitution, trying to have a form of godliness, but
deny the power thereof. The mystery of Babylon the
Great, the spiritual mystery, the mother of idolatry,
spiritual adultery. The harlot is the embodiment of
Satan's ecumenical movement, as I said, the movement toward the
One World Church. Today, again, people are telling
you it doesn't matter what you believe.
Have the boldness and the courage to tell them it does
matter what you believe. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
the living God. There is no salvation apart from
Christ. For Jesus said I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father, but
through me. It says this leader, this world
system is drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood
of the martyrs of Jesus. If we're not speaking up today
to the best of our ability against false religion, false
ideologies, false churches, speaking the truth and love,
we're only going to perpetuate the influence of this ungodly
movement of the One world Church in these last days.
And your silent voice and mind will only cause more having for
those who one day will be persecuted on this earth after
we're long gone. At the rapture, it says this
system will reveal the destruction of the godly as a
drunk revels in the wine. Have you ever been drunk?
And I hope you haven't, but if you have, you know what that's
like. You don't think about anything
or anybody but your sordid self, your own foolishness, your own
pride, and all you can do to take advantage of everyone else.
That's what a drunk does. It's all about them.
This is what the system of the Antichrist will be like.
It'll revel in the destruction of the godly, just like a drunk
revels in their wine. John says he marvels in great
amazement. He marvels in great amazement at
the end of verse 6. Why would he marvel?
It'd be like you and me. Now, I don't know if you marvel
or not, but I don't watch television, so I don't even know
what these people are saying half the time anymore.
But there used to be a time I put it on and my wife would yell
at me. Turn that off.
That man. Can't you see the devil in his
eyes? Why would you listen to that?
I sort of was humored by watching some of these people at
times. But it's far from humor.
It's it's heartbreaking, the persecution of the truth under
the guise of religion. The counterfeit religion is
being received and believed on. As we speak today to the
persecution of the faithful, you realize the more the salt loses
its Savior, the more we allow 11 to enter into the community of
the elect and the true followers of God, the worse it's going to
be for those who are without Christ in the days to come.
Some of the worst persecutions in human history, in church
history, have come from the people that call themselves
religious or spiritual, that they've been corrupted.
What happened during the Crusades and what happened
during other times where churches felt it was their duty
to persecute and destroy and martyr people again.
Lord, have mercy on the church. Next week we're going to look at
John's interpretation of the great harlot.
The subtitle in the next session in my Bible says the meaning of
the woman and the beast. And I'm glad the apostle doesn't
leave it up to us to figure out what all this stuff means.
He gives us good direction, good insight, good explanation and
declaration as to what's going to be happening as we continue
through the study of the Book of Revelation.
Now you can have one or two thoughts here today.
Zion, the sermon, you can say to yourself, I know the Lord, I'm
glad I know Him. I'm glad I'm walking in the
truth and I continually want to walk in the truth.
Or you can be here today and say I never heard anything so
outlandish and crazy in my life. That guy must have been drinking
wine before he came to church. No, this is all in the Bible.
If you had your Bible open today, you would have seen this
very, very clearly. But if you are here today and
this is all new to you, the simplified is that Jesus came to
this world to die for the sins of the Sinner.
And if you today understand that you're a Sinner and that's all
of us and you've never ever asked Christ to be your Lord and
Savior. If you've never turned from your
sin and you just don't pray a prayer, easy believe ISM.
I believe I'm in you got to repent.
You got to say, Lord, my life is wrong.
I'm living in real sin and I know it and I can't keep living
this way. I need to turn from my sin and I
need to turn to you. And when you turn for sin, that
means forsaking it. That's not like for a little
while and then going back again. No, it's saying I'm done with
that. Life doesn't mean you're going
to be perfect. You're still going to stumble.
You're still going to struggle. You're still going to fall, but
you're not going to stay down. You're going to get up and keep
heading toward the Lord. There's a devil in the world,
and your own fallen nature keeps trying to pull you back this
way. You know, now you can't go that
way anymore. You want to follow Jesus, and
that's salvation, following Christ as Lord and Savior.
And today you can just say to the Lord, Lord, I'm here not by
circumstance or coincidence. I believe I'm here because you
brought me here today and I know all this stuff's going to one
day come on the world. I don't want to be left behind
with all this stuff. I want to go where you are and
where the Christians are. Lord, I want you to forgive me
of my sins and come into my life and save me and forgive me, and
I'll follow you all the days of my life.
If you can pray that kind of prayer from your heart, God will
be merciful to you. But if you don't understand why
you need to be saved, you're not going to want to be saved.
Anyone who can show you you need to be saved is the Holy Spirit.
He's the one that convicts you of sin, not me, only the
spirits. I pray that the Holy Spirit
today is working here to convict not only the ungodly of their
sin, but the Christian of their sins.
That as we study this book, it should cause us to move toward
personal holiness. Amen.
That's what it should cause all of us to do.
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 for 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. They don't want it.
So the outcome is that there are judgements 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, but 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. Come join us at 400 E Pittsburgh
St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.
This has been living waters of grace.