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.
And so as you and I look ahead to the future eternal Kingdom
and the Lord Jesus reigning at the time of the Millennium,
realize all this stuff is going on.
And in between the Rapture and the Millennium, all the people
you love and you care about, we need the power of the Holy
Spirit to cause us to be intense, lovingly intense, not
obnoxious, but lovingly concerned.
So they, at least they understand it.
All right. Once they understand it, you,
you said your piece, you. That's it.
Let the Holy Spirit then deal with it and work in their lives.
How much time do you have left on earth?
If you're listening and you're 20 years old, you might say 60
plus years or so, and I pray that's true.
But if you're listening and you're 80 years old, you might
say 10 to 15 years. And if the averages are true,
you're probably right. The point is, no one truly
knows. We must share the gospel with
our loved ones so that they can experience the joy of eternal
life with Jesus after they pass from this earth.
That is our purpose here on earth.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation Chapter 6 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
It's important to be an influencing factor in this day
that you live. I remember one time I was in
Florida and I was playing golf at Amelia Island.
It was a company deal and they put us in these foursomes and
all this kind of stuff, and for some reason we only had a
threesome. So I drove in the cart myself
and the other two guys in front and they were just having a good
old time pounding down the Miller lights and just talking.
And, you know, one thing led to the next and the discussion
started to get pretty risque. So my golf cart started getting
farther and farther behind. There's I didn't want that in my
head, you know. So I just, you know, backing up
and all that and doing my thing. And finally I get up at a golf
course to putt and then one guy says to me, are you religious or
something? I said, I said no.
I said I'm a Christian, but I wouldn't consider myself
religious. And I follow Christ, you know,
he goes, yeah, he says, and this blew my mind.
This is how the Holy Spirit works.
He goes, well, are you a ministry or something?
I said, yeah, I passed her a small church back in Greensburg.
Oh, yeah. What's the name of it?
Calvary Chapel. He goes, I can't believe it.
Chuck Smith married my wife and I, And then he goes, I know I'm
not living the way I should be, the Holy Spirit.
Now, I don't know what happened to him after that, where he
went, what's going on with his life now.
If I would have been like, it's OK to have a beer.
I don't recommend it personally, because if I have a beer, I want
to have 2345. That's just me, you know?
So I don't have any anymore. But some people can have a beer
and it's not a problem right now.
If I would have had a beer or two, I would have been more
like, you know, everybody has their own opinions about things.
They say what they want. I wouldn't have been energized
even say anything. Matter of fact, I would have
probably said, boy, who am I to say anything right now?
I'm not living as a spirit filled Christian.
I'm more influenced by the alcohol than the Holy Spirit.
So, you know, I was just so grateful that the Lord, you
know, kept me from having to be involved with that kind of thing
at that particular time. But it's important to realize
that which hinders, and that's you and me, the body of Christ,
when our influence is out of this world and out of our lives,
of our families. Like mom and dad, I don't know
where your kids are with the Lord, your grandpa or your
extended family member as as much as our kids or our friends
or our relatives can't stand us talking about Jesus when we're
gone, no one's going to really tell them about Jesus.
You know, today we have people that say they're Christians, but
they're really not following the Lord.
They they don't. It's a drag to give up an hour
and a half on a Sunday morning. And so I'm just not going to go
anywhere. I don't want to hear it or I
don't want to deal with it. You know, we're like the frog in
the frying pan. The heat's being turned up.
We don't realize what we're moving toward.
And of course, Revelation makes it clear.
And so we sort of think life's going to be the way it is
forever and it isn't. There will be a lake of fire
that everybody that doesn't have Christ will be thrown into and
they'll be suffering torment forever and ever and ever.
I don't think we see that clearly.
I don't think it's something that rivets our attention and it
just, it sort of just goes over our head lots of times.
But when this influence, the body of Christ is taken out of
the way, this man of sin is going to be revealed.
Now let's see what this Antichrist is going to be like.
Turn to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2.
And this gives a really clear description of this guy verse
one. Now brethren, concerning the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to
him and that gathering together refers to the rapture that we
have been taken out to be with Christ.
It says not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by
spirit or by word or by letter as if from us, as though the day
of Christ had come. People back in those days were
telling them that the Lord had already come back.
There's people today, they're called preterists.
They believe that Christ came back in AD 70 and we're actually
living in the Kingdom age right now.
If this is a Kingdom age, we're in a, we're in a cult man.
This is not seriously, this is not the Kingdom age.
I have no idea how they come up with this stuff.
This is, let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will
not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin
is revealed. That's the Antichrist, the son
of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is
called God, or that is worship, so that he sits as God in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
That's the abomination of desolation.
He'll actually do that in the middle of that tribulation when
he takes over everything says, Do you not remember that when I
was still with you I told you these things, and now you know
what is restraining? That he may be revealed in his
own time. For the mystery of lawlessness
is already at work. In other words, the spirit of
Antichrist has been at work since the Garden of Eden.
Has not God said twisting the word, deceiving, lying?
It says He who now restrains will do so until he has taken
out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and
destroy with the brightness of His coming.
The coming of the lawless 1 is, according to the working of
Satan, with all power signs, 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.
That's all. The people that didn't listen to
what we were saying, they're on the earth when this guy comes to
power and they didn't receive the love of the truth that they
might be saved. They're going to believe a lie
it says, 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 and
unrighteousness. So a lot of people, whenever
we're raptured and taken out of here, who on the earth, they're
going to be relieved that we're gone and they're going to be
breaking into your house and mine and trying to figure out
how to get your assets and bank accounts.
There's going to be a lot of prosperity for 3 1/2 years
because a lot of people are going to be taken out at the
rapture. And also the situation of the
evil one in the sense of how he comes to influence people, the
people who are left that remember what you said and says,
oh man, my dad was right. Why didn't I believe?
And, and now I'm in this, this tribulation period.
And what am I going to do? And I know this guy, this
Antichrist, I'm not going to follow him.
I'm not going to take the mark of the beast.
I'm not going to be under his authority.
Those people will be martyred. Those people will be in prison
and destroyed. And we'll talk about the, the
martyrs in a couple minutes here.
And so the Holy Spirit in the Church of Jesus Christ, we will
be lifted up to be with the Lord at the rapture, the body of
Christ, the influence, the sustaining salt, the
purification, the the press back influence against ungodliness.
Now the Holy Spirit is God, He's omnipresent, so he doesn't go up
there and he's nowhere else. The Holy Spirit is everywhere
present and fills all things. He's not a little power you put
in a box and you take him here and there and he's, he's God,
the Holy Spirit. So he will also still be on the
earth influencing and convicting people of sin.
There'll be 144,000 Jewish spirit filled believers on the
earth at that time. That'll make Billy Graham look
like he was sleeping at the wheel in regard to his
evangelism. These are hardcore St. talking
evangelists that will be out there giving their lives for the
sake of the gospel along with other witnesses at that time.
So there will be people who will get saved during that time, but
they'll have to endure this horrible, horrendous period of
time. So for 3 1/2 years there'll be
peace and prosperity. And then this Antichrist will
begin to, after the 3 1/2 years, begin to change things.
Let's go back to Revelation now. Revelation chapter 6, verse 3.
And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living
creature saying, come and see another horse.
Fiery red went out, and it was granted to the one who sat on it
to take peace from the earth, and that the people should kill
one another. And there was given to him a
great sword. So we see this second horse
bringing death, bringing horrendous things upon the
earth. Fiery color means blood and
destruction. This, the third horse then will
begin to release, and we'll just keep reading here.
When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature
say, come and see. And I looked and behold a Black
Horse. And he who sat on it had a pair
of scales in his hand. And I heard the voice in the
midst of the four living creatures saying, A quart of
wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius
and do not harm the oil and the wine.
So the third horse, after all this death is poured out in the
earth. There's going to be this famine
that follows. And some people believe what
happens in the midst of the fiery red horse is a Holocaust,
a nuclear Holocaust. And we, and this time that we
live, we are closer than ever to having another Hiroshima.
It's in the hands of so many rogue nations now that have the
power with the atomic bomb. And Iran is, if they're not
already there, they're real close to to having it and
they're continually working on it.
And, and for whatever reason, it doesn't seem like anybody's
trying to stop them. And so we see the fallout, you
know, nuclear Holocaust, the fallout upon the face of the
Earth will destroy food crops. They won't be healthy to eat.
People won't be able, they'll be, they'll be starving.
And as bad as we see on TV with the children starving in
Ethiopia, it'll be across the face of the Earth like in Africa
as we see those starving. It'll be like that all around
the world. And it talks about the financial
system at that time that the common labor.
Now, you'll still have people who prosper and they'll still be
able to get the good wine and the good oil, and they'll still
be like trying to like live the good old life like they always
did. Eventually that'll end too.
But the average person that works like most of us, that
works for a hard day's labor, all will make during that time
because inflation will be so high that a bag of gold will buy
a piece of bread basically. And if I go out and work
basically all I do, I make enough money to feed myself.
Just a horrible situation that will be upon the face of the
earth. And verse 7 it says, And when he
opened the 4th seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living
creature saying, come and see. And I looked, and behold A pale
horse, and the name of him who sat on it with death.
And Hades followed with him. And the power was given them
over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger,
with death and by the beasts of the earth.
And so we see this next horse, the pale horse.
It's sort of like a greenish color.
It's symbolic of rotting flesh. This the body decaying and
corrupting and the plague upon the face of the earth at the
time 1/4 of the population that wake you guys up.
I see some, I see some of you guys sleeping and I, I just feel
like shaking it because this is like big time.
I mean this is like it this is what it's all about you know,
and Paul says don't sleep right. He says don't sleep because some
have not the knowledge of God and I speak this your shame.
I about broke my hand give a karate shop wouldn't have been
wild if my hand when I went right through this and the whole
pulpit with a split, but 1/4 of the population will be wiped
out. That means 1 billion people, 1
billion people. I mean, it's, it's staggering.
The plagues are going to affect the face of the earth. 1/4 of
the population will be wiped out in verse 9.
And he opens 1/5 seal. And I saw under the altar the
souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and
for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord,
holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those
who dwell on the earth. How long?
And then a white robe was given to each of them, and it was said
to them that they should rest a little while longer until both
the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who
would be killed as they were, was completed.
The Bible says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of his Saints. One of the best ways to leave
this life is to be martyred. Not that any of us would want to
sign up for it, but they're going to be received in a
special way before the Lord. He gives them that special robe,
that white robe of righteousness, declaring them as
incredible people who didn't deny their faith in Christ.
They stood up against the evil influence and the Antichrist,
and they were willing to die for what they believe.
And as we study church history throughout the ages, there have
been many thousands upon thousands of men and women who
have given their life for the sake of Christ and who have been
tortured in horrible ways. If you read Fox's Book of the
Martyrs, some of that, and it tells you the stories of people
who died for their faith. And we're afraid sometimes of
telling someone that we follow Jesus because they might laugh
at us or think we're weird. I mean, that's pretty, pretty
weird, isn't it? These people are dying and
shedding their blood, and they'll be remembered.
The blood actually is put under the altar as a symbolic picture
of their sacrifice and what it costs them to follow Christ.
But there'll be this great revival during this tribulation
period. As I said, all these Jewish
believers will go out and spread the gospel, and all the people
that refuse to take the mark of the beast at that time will be
be martyred. In verse 12 it says.
And I looked when he opened the 6th sea, and behold, there was a
great earthquake. And the sun became black as
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops
its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
And then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and
every mountain, an island was moved out of its place.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, the rich men, the
commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every freeman,
hid themselves in a caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
And said to the mountains and rocks fall on us, and hide us
from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath
of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath
has come, and who is able to stand.
You know, the Earth is out here in the middle of the universe on
an axis and spinning and everything is smooth and
everything is going OK, and we have the seasons and the
harvests and all the wonderful things that we can experience
living on this Earth. But if a meteor hits this Earth
at the right trajectory, it can knock this earth off its axis
and cause the earth to begin to wobble.
And as the earth begins to wobble, everything begins to get
shaken up. The waters and the seas and the,
and the valleys will begin to just have tremendous pressure
and begin to push things in directions that they never were
intended to go. In cataclysmic events, a
constant unstable movement of the earth.
As these things shift, the oceans will begin to push and
the mountains will begin to cave in and be pushed into the areas
that they never were intended to be in.
And the weight upon the crust of the earth.
And I don't, I'm not a geologist.
I don't know a whole lot about how the earth is formed.
All I know is that it's a miracle how God did it all.
But the foundation of the earth, of the plates and the crust,
some parts of the earth have a thinner layer of crust that's
supporting it. It will collapse and the water
will push and the mountain range, as I said, will begin to
shift. And it talks about this day of
the Lord who will be able to stand.
Aren't you glad that it promises us that we are saved from the
day of wrath? I mean, what a wonderful Savior
who loves us and died for us and gave up everything for the sake
of us and for the whole world. You know, He doesn't want
anybody to go through this, but there will be a time when
enough's enough and he's given people a chance to repent and
believe and they still don't want to do it.
And his judgment is in a way, a kind judgment, but a righteous
judgment because in the midst of his judgment, he knows that
they'll still be people that will begin to say, I need a
Savior, I need the repent of my sin.
And they'll come to know Jesus Christ during that time.
Romans 59 says much more than being now justified by his
blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. 10th verse says we shall be saved by his life, and
the great day of his wrath is soon to come upon this earth,
and we're closer than ever. Do you guys know anybody that's
going to probably go through that?
Raise your hands. What are we going to do about
it? Yeah, stay on them.
It's our responsibility to pray and to don't give up.
Don't get tired of witnessing. Don't get tired of sharing the
faith. You and I can't make anybody get
saved. It's all the work of God's
Spirit. But we're the mouthpieces, the
spokespeople, and we're the ones that proclaim this glorious
gospel that Christ uses to bring people to himself.
If you flip over as we begin to conclude in Matthew 24, the
first section I'm going to read is about the first half of the
Tribulation. We'll pick it up in verse 4 and
we'll read the 14. And Jesus said to them, Take
heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name,
saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.
See that you are not troubled. For all these things must come
to pass. But the end is not yet.
For nation will rise against nation, and Kingdom against
Kingdom. And there will be famines and
pestilences and earthquakes in various places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and
you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.
And then many will be offended. Will we betray one another and
will hate one another? Then many false prophets will
rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound,
the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end
shall be saved. And this is the gospel.
The Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to
all the nations, and then the end will come, the second-half
of the tribulation, 15 to 26. Therefore, when you see the
abomination of desolation, and that's what I was talking about,
in the middle of that tribulation, when the Antichrist
goes into the temple and sets himself on the throne and says
he's God spoke by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy
place, whoever reads, let him understand.
Then let those who are in the Judea flee to the mountains.
Let him who is in the housetop not go down to take anything out
of his house, and let him who is in the field not go back to get
his clothes. But woe to those who are
pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days.
And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the
Sabbath. For then there will be great
tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the
world. Until this time no, nor ever
shall be. And unless those days were
shortened, no flesh would be saved.
But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened.
Then if anyone says to you, look, here is a Christ or there,
do not believe it. For false Christs and false
prophets will rise and show great signs of wonder and
deceive if possible, even the elect.
See, I've told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you,
look, he's in the desert, do not go out, or look, he's in the
inner rooms, do not believe it. And the 27 to 31 tells us about
the preparation for the second coming of Christ when he
returns. For as a lightning comes from
the east and flashes to the West, so also will be the coming
of the Son of Man. For whenever the carcasses is
there, the eagles will be gathered together.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the
sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens
will be shaken. Then the Son of the Son of Man
will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will
mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory.
And he will send His angels with the great sound and a trumpet,
and they will gather together His elect from all the four
winds from one end of heaven to the other.
So we have this exciting time on the horizon and you know, I
look, I jump from the rapture and you know, not going to be
here for the tribulation, but our prayers, Thy Kingdom come on
earth as it is on heaven, in heaven.
Our ultimate goal is to see Christ come back at the second
coming because that's when all justice is going to be restored.
He's going to roll with the iron hand and his righteousness will
cover the whole earth. And so as you and I look ahead
to the future eternal Kingdom and the Lord Jesus reigning at
the time of the Millennium, realize all this stuff that's
going on in between the rapture and the Millennium, all the
people you love and you care about, We need the power of the
Holy Spirit to cause us to be intense, lovingly intense, not
obnoxious, but lovingly concerned so that at least they
understand it. All right?
Once they understand it, you said your peace, you.
That's it. Let the Holy Spirit then deal
with it and work in their lives. Second Peter, we're going to
look at that. That's the last section.
Second Peter, chapter 3. Beloved, I now write you the
second epistle to stir up your pure.
Minds by way of. Remembrance that you may be
mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy
Prophets. And of the commandments.
Of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first,
that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to
their own lusts and saying, where is his?
Promise of his coming. For since the fathers fell
asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of
creation. For this they willfully forget
that by the word of God, the heavens were of.
Old and Earth. Standing out of the water, and
in the water by which the world that then existed perished,
being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth,
which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for
fire. Until the day.
Of judgment and perdition. Of ungodly men, beloved.
Do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is is
a. 1000 years. And 1000 years.
Is one day the. Lord is not slack concerning His
promise is some kind slackness, but His long-suffering toward
us. Not willing that any should.
Perish. That that all should.
Come to repentance and none. His 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.
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.
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.