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.
Who am I not to forgive other people of their sins?
It goes hand in hand. We're to be reconciled to God,
but to be reconciled to one another.
And for the life of me, I don't understand how we as human
beings, probably because we're just still sinners and we were
screwed up at times and fallen or whatever, messed up in our
heads that someone does something to you that hurts you
or wounds you or upsets you or betrays you.
And then you want to cop an attitude.
You want to get bitter and you want to get angry.
And I'm not going to forgive them because they don't forgive
me. When someone causes you pain,
whether it's physical or emotional, it's pretty common to
feel that urge to retaliate. Having to forgive someone isn't
quite as simple as it seems, but have you ever thought about how
your Creator chose to forgive you by allowing His only Son to
suffer on your behalf? Today, Pastor Clark invites you
to open your heart to the power of forgiveness.
God decided to reach out and mend things with you because of
his deep love for you. Can you do the same with others
now? Here's Pastor Clark in the book
of Acts Chapter 13 with today's edition of Living Waters of
Grace. The focus of these things that
we're looking at here are emphasizing what God's done, the
focus on what God does. 11 times that God chose the fathers, He
made the people great. He led them out of Egypt.
He put up with them in the wilderness.
He destined 7 nations in the land to have their own space in
Canaan. He gave them land as an
inheritance. God gave them judges, he gave
them Saul, he raised up David. God brought Israel a savior
Jesus as he promised, and a prophet John who said he wasn't
worthy. This remarkable.
And so we continue in verse 26, men and brethren, this is Paul
again preaching sons of the family of Abraham.
They were proud that they were descendants of Abraham.
And you remember what Paul said, that God could raise up the
stones to give praise to God. There was nothing special in the
sense or entitlement of being a child of Abraham.
It didn't automatically guarantee you salvation unless
you believed so. There was really no distinction
between a Jewish person and a Gentile person in God's eyes.
He came first to his own. The Bible says his own received
him not, but his picture in his vision of humanity was to be a
savior for the whole world and all people, men and brother and
sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear
God, this is the Gentiles to you.
The word of this salvation has been sent for those who dwell in
Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him,
nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every
Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him.
And through and though they found no cause for death in Him,
they asked Pilate that he should be put to death.
Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him,
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.
But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen by many as
he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.
So the ignorance of the nation of Israel, they're studying the
law and the prophets every Saturday.
Why was it that they couldn't understand or know him?
That's the mystery. God bless you.
That's the mystery. You can be here today hearing
the Word and maybe half hearing it, or your mind's wandering, or
maybe you're here and I don't have a clue what this guy's
talking about. That was them.
And there are people like that every Sunday in churches all
around the world that can be in a building and hearing the
truth, but they're really not hearing it unless God gives us
ears to hear and eyes to see, right?
That's the mystery. It only can happen through the
work of the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus came, I think one
of the issues that Israel had was they were anticipating this
world king and all this majesty and all this.
He came as a humble servant. Matter of fact, it tells us in
Philippians 2, He made himself of no reputation.
He didn't have horns and trumpets blowing about His
greatness and His deity and that He's truly God Incarnate in the
flesh, the one that they were to receive and believe on.
He came humble and just did His ministry, and many did follow
and believe and become saved, but the majority of people
didn't. And to this day the Bible says
that the road that leads the life is narrow and few there
aren't find it. But the road that leads the
destruction is broad and many are on that path.
And so they were so compelled against His message that they
felt it was their responsibility to have him crucified.
And so they asked Pilate in verse 28 that he should be put
to death. Now, when you think about these
things, this religious tradition that these people were so
enamored by and so into, they, they thought they were
righteous. The religious people thought
they were right, righteous. I mean, there's churches today,
guys, and some of you have come from them guys and gals that
you, you know, you look back, you say, I never heard anything
like this. I heard try to be good, do
better, you know, every week and a guilt trip, you know, and I'd
come and I know like I'm failing and this just isn't working.
And that's what stopped me from going to church as a young man.
I just this is just impossible. This does not make sense.
Who can live this way because I was compelled to live away
opposite of what the Bible teaches because of my sin.
It tells us a little bit about our condition as Paul's
preaching this gospel. Keep in mind that the book of
Romans wasn't written yet, but it would be written based upon
these texts in this context of what he's preaching about in the
book of the Acts in Romans chapter 3.
Many of you familiar with this, but I want to read it for those
of you who may not be familiar with it, It tells us in verse
21. But now the righteousness of God
apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ to all and all who will believe.
So that's taken basically right from what he's preaching in Acts
right now, that no one, including Jewish people, can be
justified by following the 10 commandments.
It's not that we disrespect the 10 commandments or don't think
they're valid. They're there's consequences of
breaking the law and we all know what it is.
But every one of us have broken the law, right?
Every one of us. And, and Paul's clarifying to
them as people who were conditioned to think they had to
be perfect, that they cannot be justified by the law.
And he said it's through faith in Jesus Christ that we are
justified to all and all who believe, for there is no
difference for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of
God. So everybody, you know,
including yourself, have fallen short of God's glory.
We have not met his perfect standard, which is perfection.
So the whole world is guilty before God.
And then he says we're the good news in the next section.
We're being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption. It is in Christ Jesus.
So there's no payment. There's no work that you and I
have to do. There's nothing we could do good
enough to to save ourselves. This is completely a gift of God
for each of us who would receive it.
Now we get it because we've received it.
Maybe you're here today and you've never received it.
So the good news is you can receive this gift of being saved
by his grace from your sin. Meaning there's no need for
guilt or regret or feeling condemned or unworthy.
But God accepts you as you are, a Sinner, which we all are, but
a Sinner who needs either to be saved by grace or judged one day
because they refused to come to Christ.
And so it says that God set forth as a propitiation, A
sacrifice by his blood through faith to demonstrate His
righteousness. Because of his forbearance, God
has passed over the sins that were previously committed to
demonstrate at the present time as righteousness that He might
be just and a justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus Christ.
So the law is God's righteous standard, and the law demands
100% adherence and obedience, which is impossible for any of
us to do, to be accepted by God based upon our own
righteousness. And so Paul's message was a new
message to all these people. They had never heard this in the
synagogue ever. And maybe some of you have never
heard this either. I don't know, but today this is
not being proclaimed in most places that call themselves
churches. Someone told me a little earlier
today, it's better to be in a church that feeds you than makes
you feel good. But the good news is another
person said, well, can we have both?
Yeah, we can. If we hear the word and we do it
and we listen and we follow on, we believe, you know, God bless
us, doesn't he? But the good news is that God
accepts us in because of Jesus. He changes our lives and we also
see others this way. If God has been so good to me to
reconcile me to himself and forgive me all my sins, who am I
not to forgive other people of their sins?
It goes hand in hand. We're to be reconciled to God,
but to be reconciled to one another.
And for the life of me, I don't understand how we as human
beings, probably because we're just still sinners and we were
screwed up at times and fallen or whatever, messed up in our
heads that someone does something to you that hurts you
or wounds you or upsets you or betrays you.
And then you want to cop an attitude.
You want to get bitter and you want to get angry.
And I'm not going to forgive them because they don't forgive
me. And so we basically, you know,
invalidate not from our salvation point of view, but
from our relation point of view, the power of the gospel that can
make us in love with one another and in love with God no matter
what. Forgiving 70 * 7 getting over
stuff that bothers us and not letting it like mess with our,
our calm, the peace of God. And so Jesus said, by this way
of living, this love, this way of living, people will know
you're my disciples, right? The only way they're going to
know we belong to the Lord isn't by all the stuff we say.
But how do we love each other? That's the most important thing,
isn't it? How do we love each other?
How do we forgive each other? And so this beauty of this
truth, I think in Ephesians 432 it says be kind, tender hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, I've
forgiven you. So when I think about all that
the Lord has done to forgive me, who am I to not forgive other
people? This word justified means to
have our sins forgiven in such a way.
That's God's honor and His Holiness and integrity are
presented and preserved by it. God doesn't ignore our sins.
He didn't say, oh, I forgive you, no big deal, don't worry
about it. But he does in a way when he
puts our sin on Jesus Christ, he says, Clark, don't worry about
what you've done in the sins you've committed, because I've
forgiven you through the perfection of the one who lived
the law 100%, who shed his blood and died for you.
And my wrath and my anger that really should be poured out upon
you was placed on my son Jesus Christ.
Isn't that awesome? He accepts us and forgives us
because of what Jesus has done for us.
God's justice is an attribute. He's a holy God.
He says without holiness, no man will see the Lord.
It's not your holiness that presents you acceptable to God.
It tells us in Ephesians that we're accepted in the beloved
holy and without blame. You and I are accepted in the
person of Jesus Christ being holy and without blame.
We'll never be accepted in ourselves as being holy and
without blame. It's in him.
It's completely in Him. And so God found a way to lay
the guilt and sins of our lives upon Jesus.
Sin must be judged. Sin must be atoned for.
There's a reparation for an offence.
The satisfaction of God's perfect justice is the fact that
there's no compromise for sin that had to be paid for and God
only could do it through Christ. God forgave you and me through
the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
That's why Jesus said, and we're called bigots and close minded
people because we believe this because there is no other way.
Jesus said I am the way, I am the truth.
I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
through me. The only way you can be forgiven
and be acceptable to your creator God is through what I've
done for you. That's what he's saying and
everybody says, well why can't there be another way there?
There can't be anybody else but Jesus that can die for you and
forgive you because He's God Incarnate.
He's gone in the flesh, He's perfect, He's the perfect
sacrifice. Buddha, Krishna, all these other
people, they might have been nice people, but they can't
atone for your sin because they're sinful people.
And so in Acts 412, if you skip over in your Bible to the left,
Acts 412, this clarifies it. It says the stone in verse 11,
which was rejected by you builders.
He's talking about Israel and the nation of Israel, which has
become the chief cornerstone, Jesus as the chief cornerstone.
They rejected him trying to build a ministry and a synagogue
and whatever without the core person, Jesus Christ.
And then it says, nor is there salvation in any other.
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which
we must be saved. Amen.
There is no other name. That's why we're called to
proclaim Christ. That's where we're what we're
called to teach the Word of God, the whole council, the word of
God, not part of it, but every verse of it so that people can
hear. And the picture of justification
is full acceptance. God fully accepts you as you are
because you're in Christ. And so today you and I have a
choice. We can accept the death of the
Lord Jesus on our behalf and his life that he gives to us, and we
can be free from all the things that we've done and messed up
with, which are ton. I know mine have been a ton from
I, I can be freed. You can be freed from all these
things. God's love is poured out upon us
and begins to heal our scars, our hurt, our anguish, our
broken lies, and we begin to be more whole And the basis of
being justified by faith. Amen.
And justification is not a past tense concept.
I'm justified yesterday, I'm justified today, and I'm
justified tomorrow, as you are too.
Because we still sin. We still make mistakes, we still
act in ways or say things that we shouldn't think, things we
shouldn't think. And this atoning blood that
keeps us pure and justified and forgiving and cleanse is present
tense. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, isn't He?
And to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.
Anybody still have unrighteousness in your life?
Yeah, we all do, right? Aren't you glad that the blood
and never loses its power and and and the mistakes aren't to
condemn us. We we know where we go to get
free from this stuff so that we're not disturbed in our heart
and our minds by stuff that we can't fix or change.
It's happened. How wonderful, how marvelous
what our Savior's done for us. So when all these things have
been fulfilled, in verse 29, it was written concerning him.
They took him down from the tree, laid him in a tongue.
God raised him from the dead. Acts 1331.
He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.
And we declare to you glad tidings that promise which is
made to the Father's. God has fulfilled this for us,
their children, in that He has raised up Jesus, as it is
written in the second Psalm. You are my Son today I've
begotten you this again, the prophecies that have been
fulfilled by Jesus and that he raised him up from the dead.
No more to return to corruption. He spoke and I will give you the
sure mercies of David. Therefore he also says in
another Psalm, you will not allow your holy one to see
corruption. Jesus when he was put in the
tomb body didn't decompose, wasn't corrupt.
You put me or you in the in the grave and go by a week later and
dig it up. Guess what the worms, the ants,
everything's all over. It's I don't want to gross you
out, but it's like starting to like this deteriorate and
eventually it's just nothing but bones there.
OK, Christ didn't have to go through that.
And because He didn't have to go through that, when we die, we
don't stay in that grave, in that body.
We are absent in the body, and we're present with the Lord for
all eternity. For David, after he served his
own generation, by the will of God, he fell asleep.
Great leader, loved God, God used him, but he died like we
all do. He was buried with his father's.
His body saw corruption, but he whom God raised up saw no
corruption. Therefore let it be known to
you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the
forgiveness of sins. And by him everyone who believes
is justified from all things from which you could not be
justified by the Law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest what has
been spoken and the prophets come upon you, behold, you
despisers marvel and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you will by no means believe, though one word
He declare it to you. So this beauty here of the
message that we're hearing today was so powerful when it was
first preached in the synagogue. Over 2000 years ago.
It's the same message that is powerful today, that can change
and save lives. Amen.
It can completely give people a brand new start, a fresh start
with God. I preached this message before I
went away on vacation and I felt I needed to preach it again
because I find that in my own life at times I forget the
basics. The basics.
Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells
me so. For God so loved this world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, that that the world through him might be saved.
The more I meditate on these things personally, my wife and
I, as we talk about this stuff and pray about it and endeavor
to live it out, I'm made more and more aware of how powerful
and how special this message is that God has granted to us to
experience on a daily basis. No condemnation, no guilt, no
matter what people will try to throw on you at times, you don't
have to receive that because God doesn't throw that on you, does
He? When people say hurtful things
or do mean things to you, or slander you, or call you all
kind of whatever, May God give us grace to remind ourselves
that God never says that about us.
He never thinks that way about us.
Each of us are the apple of His eye.
He loves us with and everlasting love.
He's redeemed us. He paid for us with His precious
blood, and He says to you and me that we were worth saving.
He gave it all for us because He saw something in us that none of
us can see in ourselves. He sees value, He sees His
likeness, He sees His creation, and He gave it all that He might
redeem this creation and bring broken people away from
desolation, bring people that hearts are broken back to
healing, bring people who have been destroyed by a life of sin
to a new life of having victory and power over sin, becoming new
creations in Christ, new creatures in Christ.
We no longer have to live under the enslavement of the power of
sin. That's the gospel, isn't it?
That's what we need to continually be reminded of every
time we gather that this is who our God is and how great he is,
and leave with our shoulders lifted, our heads looking up and
having hope and joy for tomorrow in a world that seems to be
decaying and falling apart. The good news is you aren't
decaying and falling apart, are you?
Are you getting older? Yeah, that looks like a decay,
right? But you know the best is yet to
come for us, right? The best is yet to come for us.
So be encouraged. Thanks for joining us on today's
edition of Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Calvary
Chapel, Westmoreland. Today, Pastor Clark is teaching
about the Book of Acts, And as we learn more about Acts, it
becomes clear that the early church didn't miss a single
opportunity to share the Gospel. In nearly every chapter, you see
apostles like Peter and Paul stepping into conversations,
crowds, and crises with boldness, ready to proclaim the
name of Jesus. Their example challenges us to
consider how we might step into gospel moments in our own lives.
What doors might God open this week for you to speak truth,
offer hope, or live out your faith in a way that points
others to him? The story of Acts reminds us we
are part of the same mission. Today, let's live with eyes open
and hearts ready to respond. We hope you are challenged by
today's message. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
area, we'd love to see you in person this Sunday at 10:30 AM
at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
For more information, visit calvarychapelonline.com.
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