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.
What kind of excuse do we have that we don't really follow the
Lord fully? Well, we might say I'm weak, or
I'm this wishy washy, or I'm complacent or you know, I have a
tendency to back, or we can make all kind of excuses, right?
Instead of saying, Lord, I don't want to be that way.
I don't want to have any excuses in my life in regard to my
relationship with you. I want you to work on my heart
so that I don't have an excuse. I want you to remove everything
that I use as an excuse so that there is no more excuses.
We all know what it's like to hear excuses.
If you're a parent, I'm sure you've heard dozens of reasons
why your kids shouldn't have to clean the room.
Or if you're in a management position, I'm sure you've heard
every excuse in the book as to why your employees can't make it
to work on time. Well, today Pastor Clark urges
you not to make any more excuses as to why you're not ready to
follow Jesus. Today is the day to take up your
cross and follow him. So what's holding you back now?
Here's Pastor Clark in Matthew chapter 19 with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. Again, though, in marriage, you
know, some people get some warped ideas in the culture that
somehow a sexuality is not a good thing.
It's a good thing in marriage, but only in marriage.
That's why Paul says the marriage bed is undefiled.
There's no corruption in the marriage bed with the sexual
union between the husband and the wife.
So we're not talking about marriage here.
In regard to the context of why these people chose to be
virgins. I don't think if you went out
there in that time, in the last days, could any of these people
actually find a godly woman If everybody's heart is thinking
evil continually, the pickings are pretty slim.
Some of you single folks know the pickings are sort of slim
now. Or you know, you look and you
say, well, where is a godly man or a godly woman?
Are you willing to wait on the Lord before you would try to get
involved with someone just because you think you need to be
married? You'll you'll regret that the
rest of your life. Perhaps no godly women or men
are left to marry at this time. And so these people like Paul
chose to be entirely separated to Christ for the ministry in
this time of tribulation. So they're not affected by
distractions. Some people are called to this
idea of a celibacy and and being virgins.
Turn over to Matthew 19 and very interesting comments that you
find that as I read what Paul said and also what Jesus says
himself here in Matthew 19 verse 11 and 12, he says to them, all
cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been
given. So in other words, if you have
the gift to be celibate and to be single, this clicks with you.
He says most people can't accept this saying, only those to whom
it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were
born this thus from their mother's womb, and there are
eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who
have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of heaven sake.
He was able to accept to accept it.
Let him accept it. So again, a calling for some
people to be in that place of perpetual virginity.
Why were these guys like this in Revelation?
I really believe it enabled them to have an undivided heart for
the Kingdom of heaven's sake. It was by choice and by gifting
that they were able to do this. So the full focus on ministry
was definitely done by these 144,000.
They had such an amazing testimony.
Now I think about their heart, their compassion, their, their
passion for the Lord, their love for the Lord.
It says they're the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he
goes. Man, I I pray that's what's
going on in our hearts here that every day we get up.
Lord, what is it that you want of our lives today?
What's your plan for me today? I'm just not coming to church
Sunday just to fulfill some kind of religious obligation.
Lord, I want to be encouraged today that in in my job, in my
marriage, in my home, with my kids, if I'm single, whatever
I'm doing, Lord, that I want to be a follower of you.
I want to be called to be a follower of Christ and be
willing to sacrifice and to seek the things that are above and
not the things that are upon the earth.
I think of Jesus when he speaks to us in the Gospels about
discipleship over in Luke Chapter 9 verse 57, the cost of
discipleship. Now it happens, they journeyed
on the road that someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you
wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head. Then he said to another, Follow
me. But this person said, Lord, let
me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead
bury their own dead, but you go and preach the Kingdom of God.
Another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go
and bid them farewell who were in my house.
But Jesus said to them, No one, having put his hand to the plow
and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.
Now Jesus is not saying if your dad dies, your mom dies, that
you know, you shouldn't be interested in giving them a, a
Christian burial and that kind of stuff.
Or, you know, you want to say goodbye to family before you're
called to the mission field. So you just blow them off.
It's the heart that he's looking at.
What's really tying you into this world and preventing you
from fully surrendering to me? What kind of excuse do we have
that we don't really follow the Lord fully?
Well, we might say I'm weak or I'm this wishy washy or I'm
complacent or, you know, I have a tendency to back.
We can make all kind of excuses, right?
Instead of saying, Lord, I don't want to be that way.
I don't want to have any excuses in my life in regard to my
relationship with you. I want you to work on my heart
so that I don't have an excuse. I want you to remove everything
that I use as an excuse so that there is no more excuses.
And then by your grace, I'll follow you as a faithful
disciple. I need you to move certain
things out of my life in order to make me more willing to
surrender to you. And John chapter 12, Jesus says
in verse 24 and 26, he says, most assuredly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and it dies, it
remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much
grain. He who loves his life will lose
it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for
eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him
follow me. And where I am, there my servant
will be also. If anyone serves me, him my
Father will honor. So we're called to die to
ourself, all of us. And as we die to our self,
tremendous things come out of our lives and ministry for the
sake of others. And anytime you do something for
Jesus, there's a cost. And lots of times you don't get
the reward in this world. You're not going to see the
reward until you stand before him.
And then he says to you, looking into your eyes with that love
and that compassion, well done, good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of the Lord. My favorite verse when I get
down and discourage, as we all do, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in your work for the Lord.
For as much as you know, your labor is not in vain in the
Lord. So no matter what it is that
you're called to do, and you might think it's insignificant
or unimportant, there's not one thing that Christ has called any
of you to do, witnessing your job, whatever it is, that's
insignificant or in unimportant. God doesn't level.
And he says, well, this is more important to me than this level
of service. No, we're all equal at the foot
of the cross. We all use our gifts for him.
And whatever is he's given you the capacity to do, you do it
with complete conviction that he's worthy to serve.
And then the last one over there in Luke Chapter 9 verse 23.
Luke Chapter 9, 23 Then he said to them all, If anyone desires
to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his
life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for
my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man
if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost?
For whoever is ashamed of me, in my words of Him, the Son of Man
will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his
Father's, and of the holy angels.
So the good news is, is that God is calling all of us to deny
ourself. And you might want to pray even
today. Lord, what is it in my life that
you want me to deny myself of? Is there anything currently in
my daily life that's getting in the way of my relationship with
You? Am I too obsessed with my
career, maybe as my mind and my focus, too overwhelmed with all
the stuff I have to do around my house?
Or, you know, am I? Am I allowing weight in this
life to weigh me down so that I don't have your joy anymore and
I don't have your purpose and I don't have your plan in my life?
Lord, help me to like cut loose of the stuff that isn't really
your intention so that I can truly sacrifice and lay it down
and just say, Lord, take it so that I can be more responsive to
your will. And these people, it says were
redeemed in Revelation chapter 14.
They were redeemed. They were redeemed from among
being firstfruits to God the Lamb.
I love what it says over there in First Corinthians chapter 6
about this subject. You know, when you're talking
about laying your life down, it isn't like one of these things
like, well, maybe I should consider that.
Maybe I don't have to consider it.
We all have to consider it because this is what Paul says
regarding the subject and especially in regard to sexual
immorality in the context he says in first Corinthians 615,
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of
a harlot? Certainly not.
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is 1 body
with her, For the two he says shall become one flesh, but he
who is joined to the Lord has one spirit with him.
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is
outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins
against his own body. Or do you not know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you
have from God, and you are not your own?
That should be a wake up. We're not, we don't.
I don't own this body. You don't own yours.
That's why he says that we're present our bodies to to God, a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is
our reasonable servants. He says you are not your own.
Your body is a temple, the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you
have from God, and you are not your own, for you were bought at
a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and your spirit, which are gods.
Paul Dye told us in the men's study last week that that was a
life changing verse for him when he realized that he couldn't
make promises to God. I'll do this, I'll do that as a
missionary. He knew they'd all fail.
All he could do was say, Lord, here's this body, this vessel,
this clay, and I'm just going to surrender it to you for you to
move it around and do with it what you please, what you want,
what we're redeemed with. Peter says in first Peter 118
and 19, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things like silver and gold. Jesus in bias with money.
Some people say money can buy everything.
It can't buy your salvation. It can't buy mine, can't buy
yours, can't buy anybody. But this is what we're redeemed
with by the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot,
without blemish. You know, you think about the
fourth first portion here, that he, there's so much in these two
verses. We could go on and on, but when
you slow down and you think about every little statement,
every little word within 2 verses, you can, as I say, have
a lot of teaching material. But the first portion in regard
to the nation of Israel was the harvest spiritual awakening in
Israel. And this is a picture of the
preparation that God has for Israel in the millennial
Kingdom. In Romans Chapter 9, he talks
about the number of the children of Israel will be as a sand to
the sea. The remnant, the first fruits
will be saved. And then he talks about it in
Chapter 11. He says Even so then at the
present time there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. God in His divine sovereign
decree has those He's called already prepared for this time
in Revelation. He's not scrambling around
trying to recruit people to hey, you want to sign up to be part
of this amazing group of people. They're already called, like
Paul says, I was called in my mother's womb before the
foundation of the world to be an apostle.
That's crazy. I mean, all those years, he
certainly didn't give any evidence that he was called.
He persecuted Christians. He he came after them and you
know, and then God says, hey, Paul, it's time.
And on that road to Damascus, he met the Lord Jesus Christ.
And right away he knew it was, and he said, Lord, what would
you have me to do? And so be encouraged, you know,
in all the laws of the people you care about, you're
preaching, you're sharing, you're praying, nothing seems to
be happening. But the God in his mercy, when
it's time for those he's called, he reveals himself, and they
can't help but to come. The Lord in his grace draws us
by his Spirit. This is goodness that leads us
to repentance. So the first stage of the final
harvest of Israel and in Revelation 14 four.
These are the ones that keep God's word, his commandments and
have the testimony of likeness of Jesus Christ in their lives.
In verse 5, as we begin to wind down, it says in their mouth was
found no deceit for they are without fault before the throne
of God. I think about how do we walk.
The Bible says our tongue is like a poison.
Have you ever been guilty of using your tongue for something
you wish you never did or said? Yeah, it's it's a very, very
embarrassing thing. As you look back, you wish you
could take words back. You wish you could have not said
certain things. The Lord forgives us as we
repent. Sometimes people don't.
All we can do is ask for humility and ask for their
forgiveness. But the tongue is very, very
dangerous. So how do we walk?
Are we like these people that in our mouth is found no lies, no
deceit, no lies? Can you remember a time when you
thought it was OK to tell a little white lie?
Or maybe even now you're telling some lies and your heart's
convicting you and you know you shouldn't, and He's asking you
to come clean and tell the truth, no matter what the cost,
that your conscience is so connected with the Holy Spirit
that the slightest little thing that's just not right, you can't
live with. You got to make it right.
You can't hide it, you can't ignore it.
You can't act like you didn't see it when God shows it to you.
Got to do something about it, right?
I'm going through my reports at work on the computer and there's
this one account that the business went down.
So I call them up and they say we this in an area I don't call.
And they say, and if I get credit for it, they say, well,
we don't even use you. We don't send any worker.
I'm thinking, well, who's sending us this 6 or $7000 of
business a month and it's coded under me, right?
I'm thinking, well, no one knows about it but me and you, Lord,
my boss doesn't know about it. The company doesn't know about
it. I just keep getting credit every
month. I can't, I can't live with that.
There was a time when I would have probably just like ignored
that. No big deal.
Business is business, church is church.
But you can't do that, can you? When God is in your heart and
he's working in your life, everything has to be right.
No deceit. So Monday I got to e-mail them,
hey, I don't know who these people are, but I shouldn't be
getting credit for this. No deceit, no lies.
Proverbs chapter 8 says listen, I will speak of excellent
things, and from the opening of my lips will come right things,
for my mouth will speak truth. Wickedness is an abomination to
my lips. All the words of my mouth are
with righteousness. Nothing crooked or perverse is
in them. That's Proverbs 8 verse 6
through 8 if you want to look at that later without fault.
John the Apostle says these people are how can they be
without fault? Is any of us here today?
Can any of us raise our hand and say them without fault?
I know my fault, you know yours. But the beautiful thing in
regard to the economy of God and through Christ is that he makes
us blameless from his throne's perspective because he he looks
at us in the person of Jesus Christ.
He looks at us through the blood of the Lamb.
When Jesus died for your sins, He died for every one of them,
the ones you committed and the ones you haven't committed.
That's hard for our minds to grasp that He's made us
blameless. Blameless people represent holy
behavior. They're faithful because of
God's grace to be something far beyond what they themselves
could ever exhibit. God gives us favor when we
commit ourselves to Him to serve Him.
I have a lot of faults, but I have a lot less faults than I
used to have. That's not because I'm getting
better. It's because Christ is taking
over me more as I yield. And as you yield more and more
to the Lord, we become conformed to His image and His likeness.
We can't take credit for that, can we?
None of us. It's a work of His grace.
So wonderful. It happens for all of us.
It happens in all of us and God makes us what we know we could
never be in ourselves. And so before the throne of God,
it's I began to wind down here. He says that I look at this
picture in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah had this vision.
He's a prophet. He has this vision of the throne
of God. He sees the Lord on the throne
high and lifted up, and his train filling the temple.
He hears the Sarah from crying out.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And this is Prophet Isaiah's response.
Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the
midst of an unclean people. And as he's saying that, he's
freaking out because the post to the temple and the door is
shaking and the whole house is filled with the glory of God,
the smoke of God's presence. He says, woe is me, I am undone.
And all of us could, I'm sure, relate to that.
Even today, as we are here in the presence of God, we say, woe
is me, I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips at
times, and I dwell in the midst of an unclean group of people,
even in the church. But what's beautiful is a
seraphim brings this coal and puts it on the lips of Isaiah.
And this is a picture of the grace of God, the work of God,
because he makes Isaiah someone he could never be in himself.
He takes His Holiness, God's own holiness, and he pours it out
upon the lips of his servant Isaiah.
And he touches his lips and he says to him, Your iniquity is
taken away and your sin is purged.
And that's all we need to do. We ask the Lord, come and purge
me, cleanse me, touch my heart, touch my lips, touch my mind so
that I can become blameless. First, John 19 tells us that if
we confess our sins, and that's part of being blameless, I make
a mistake, I sin against God, I repent of it, I confess it.
I hurt you or you hurt me. We come to one another and say
please forgive me. I was insensitive, I was
ungodly. I have no excuse for my
behavior. Forgive me and Christ will
forgive us of our sins through the power of his blood.
And as we do that first, John tells us in chapter 1 verse 5,
this is a message which we've heard from him and declare to
you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and we walk
in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanses us from all sin.
The blood of the Lamb is what makes us blameless.
The blood of the Lamb is what cleanses us from all our
impurities and unrighteousness. And He says if we say that we've
not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in US.
I'm so thankful that God is helping me by His grace to get
over pride in the sense of not being willing to admit to God
when I don't do what's right. I want to be quick with
repentance. I want to be fast with being
upfront about my life with the Lord, with my wife, my family.
If I mess up, I don't want to act like it didn't happen and
ignore it. I want to go right to the
situation and say I was wrong. Please forgive me.
And God is merciful because you know no matter what it is you've
done in your life or what you could do or what you you
shouldn't have done, whenever you make it right with the Lord
through repentance and you humble yourself among other
people. They might not forgive you, but
they can't point the finger anymore and say you're.
This is because they know you saw it was wrong and you wanted
to make amends. You did what you were supposed
to do right. You set things right on your
side of the fence. What they do with it, that's
between them and God that you've walked away as a blameless
person and it tells us in Jude chapter or Jude does only 1
chapter verse 24. It says not to Him who is able
to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless or
blameless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
Remember, it's not works of righteousness which you have
done. It's nothing.
You could do nothing in my hands.
I bring Amen only to the cross. I cling and rest assured in Him.
Not to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to
present you faultless. You can't present yourselves
faultless, guys. I can't either.
He's the one that does that. Worthy is a lamb that was slain
for the foundation of the earth, for you and for me who trusts in
me. 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.
I'd 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, 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.