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.
I love that word uttermost, don't you?
Not part way, only maybe. Not real, sure, not complete.
No. God is able to save to the
uttermost those who come to Him through Christ.
And I love the promise Christ is always living to make
intercession for us. And how much more as we study
that we need to be making intercession for one another,
not grow weary in well doing or faint in our mind praying for
each other by name. Did you know that Jesus prays
for you? The Holy Spirit dwells within
you, making Jesus your intercessor.
Intercessor isn't a fancy word for translator.
Jesus doesn't just make your prayers sound prettier to God.
He actually prays on your behalf.
He prays for you by name to God. Today, Pastor Clark teaches the
importance of your prayers. You must pray for others by name
so Jesus can lift up those prayers by name specifically for
that person. Our prayers have true power when
given to the Lord. Now here's Pastor Clark in the
Book of Revelation chapter 21 with today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace. Revelation chapter 21, we're
going to pick up in verse 9 and go to verse 21.
Let's read that. Then one of the seven angels who
had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to
me and talked with me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride,
the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the
Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most
precious stone, like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal.
Also she had a great and high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels
at the gates, names written on them, which are the names of the
12 tribes of the children of Israel, 3 gates on the E, 3
gates on the N, 3 gates on the South, and three gates on the
West. Now the wall of the city had 12
foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of
the land. And he who talked with me had a
gold Reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
The city is laid out as a square, its length is as great
as its breadth, and he measured the city with the Reed 12,000
furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height
are equal. Then he measured its wall 144
cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an Angel.
The construction of its wall was of Jasper, and the city was pure
gold like clear glass. The foundation of the wall of
the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones.
The first foundation was Jasper, the second sapphire, the third
Chaldoni, the 4th emerald, the 5th Sardonics, the 6th Sardis,
the 7th crystallite, the 8th barrel, the 9th Topaz, the 10th
Christoph phrase, 11th Jacinis, and the 12th amethyst.
The 12 gates were 12 pearls, each individual gate was of 1
Pearl, and the street of this city was pure gold, like
transparent glass. That sound like a place you want
to go to? In verse 9, it talks about this
Angel and this is the same Angel that we remember studying about
earlier who was involved with pouring out the the bowls of the
wrath of God, the last plagues upon the face of the earth.
Now he has this privilege to introduce the apostle John to
the beauty of this eternal Kingdom that is going to descend
from the heavens one day, the new Jerusalem.
The apostle John had the privilege to see this thing
actually come to pass, to come to being.
And we see there's a much more detailed gaze as we were reading
the earlier verses in Revelation, verse one and two of
chapter 21. This is what he saw.
I saw this new new heaven and the new earth, for the 1st
heaven and the first earth had passed away also.
There was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy City,
New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride or dorn for her husband. What a beautiful experience this
man had. Can you imagine what he saw?
It would be hard to explain in human terms what he actually was
seeing because it was something that no one has ever seen
before. And so in his writings, he's
going to write about it in ways that we might be able to connect
with as far as physical matter. But he's seeing something that
is miraculous and eternal. And what's interesting and how
John writes this book through the direction of the Holy Spirit
is similar to how he work with Moses when he put Genesis
together. But in the 1st chapter of
Genesis, God works through Moses and gives an overview of the
creation. And then in the 2nd chapter, he
goes into great detail as to what it is that he's describing.
In the 1st chapter of Genesis. We see this also the same kind
of format that the the Holy Spirit is using with John as he
is writing this 21st chapter of Revelation.
Now we understand that what he's seeing here is a glorious
Kingdom that's coming down out of heaven.
And if you turn over to Matthew, you think about Jesus when he's
being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Matthew chapter
4, verse 8. And it says again, the devil
took him up on an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to them, him, All these things I will give you, if
you will fall down and worship me.
And Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written,
Ye shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you
serve. And the devil left him, and
behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
How ridiculous it would be, right?
When you think about the context of the devil to come to the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords and tempting him with the puny
kingdoms of this world that are going to pass away.
The Lord is omnipresent and he's also omniscient.
He knows everything. And so his, he's looking at the
Satan's temptation here. I'm sure he's like, if you could
only see and realize what is yet to come.
Whatever you have to tempt me with cannot even come in the
faintest sense near to what the Father has planned for those who
love him. And when you think about
temptation in your own life, we're all tempted, aren't we?
And the devil is very cunning and he tempts us with very
beautiful things, things that are very alluring and exciting.
It wouldn't be a temptation if it was ugly and discouraging,
disappointing or boring. God the Father allows the devil
to come with something that's very enticing.
And when the devil comes, we have to realize that whatever
we're being tempted with, God has something so much more
beautiful and so much more wonderful for each of us as we
walk with the Lord. And so that's why the Bible
tells us there's no temptation. It's taking you, but such as is
common into man. But God will provide a way of
escape from the temptation. You might be able to bear it.
So I trust as we're being tempted by the devil, we'll be
like the Lord and we'll tell the devil that this to go away.
We're not interested in his lies and his deceptions.
But we see this new Jerusalem through the eyes of the apostle
coming down suspended over the earth.
The Bible tells us when the first creation was designed by
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It's like a stone cut without
human hands. There will be no physical
manifestation of human beings involved in the making and
development of this glorious new city to Jerusalem.
It's coming down. We read in verse 11 it says
having the glory of God. Her light was like a most
precious stone, like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal.
And you might want to underline in your Bible that he's saying
it was like this. He's not saying it was exactly
that, but he's saying, the only way I can describe this to you
is that it reminds me of something I saw on the Earth,
something I saw sometime in my own experience.
He says it's like, and this comes from the theological term
called anthropomorphic, and this is a term that means something
that is described or viewed in terms of the language,
experiences and knowledge of man.
And so John is saying this is what the city looks like to me,
and if you were there, you might have a different way of
describing it. He talks about this first
beautiful stone, Jasper. I don't know if you've ever seen
a Jasper stone. I never have.
My wife has seen just about any kind of precious stone and
mineral and gold and silver that exists 'cause she's always
trying to kind of drag me into jewelry stores.
They'll look at all these different beautiful things.
I can't tell one versus the other.
All I know is when she gets what she has a desire for, and it's
in our budget and we prayed about it and God permits it, she
puts it on and she loves it. You know, and women have all
those different things on. I just have $125.00 silver Kmart
ring I've had for 40 years now. I wanted to get a, what did I
want to get? A plastic ring.
They had yellow, orange, red and green.
I was a hippie. So I figured, hey, they're like
2 bucks, put that on. That's good to go.
Cindy says no way. Then I wanted to get like a
leather band and she said no, that'll fall apart.
We can't get that. So we, we made a deal.
I think they were two for 45. So but, but since that time
she's upgraded. She's got those things like
Revelation talks about on her hand now and I'm I'm still
wearing this, you know, but anyway, I, I think of this
Jasper and what it reflects the beauty and how excited he is
about what it is. He's seeing something like he's
never seen before, clear as crystal.
And I think about what it says in First Corinthians chapter 2,
verse nine. I hath not seen nor ear heard
nor entered into the heart of man the things that God has
prepared for those who love him. So I, I trust today you're
getting excited about what we're studying and realizing what God
has prepared for you. I mean, salvation is a wonderful
thing. We're going to be saved.
We're going to be in heaven forever, but it isn't just going
to be a a normal place that you've seen before.
I believe when we go there, we're going to be so excited
throughout all eternity. We're going to say, did you see
that, Barry? Did you see that?
Bethany, come over here, look over here, look at this.
Every day. It's a new discovery, something
that will just blow our minds. And I think about how difficult
it must have been for John to be able to express in human terms
what it was he was seeing. It would be like Baptista.
Baptista is a former witch doctor in the Yanomano tribe.
When he became a Christian and he got born again and got saved,
he began to get discipled. He became an elder in his
church. And when Mike and Gary would
come to the US to speak to the major colleges, anthropology
departments, they would bring Baptista so he could speak to
them through the communication and the translation of Mike and
Gary to explain to the people, the listeners, what is life like
in the jungles with the Yanomanos.
And of course, he would describe some things to the people here
that like, man, what's he talking about?
I never heard about anything like that.
Never saw anything like that. And he would put it in terms
through the interpreters that we might be able to relate to.
Well, when Baptista came to America, Mike told me it was
wild. He, he first of all, gets a huge
bird that he never saw in his life called a jet airplane.
He gets in and he's like, this thing's actually going to fly.
And Mike's explaining to him how it's going to fly and what the
wings do and everything. And so he gets in and he's like
totally stoked. I mean, never, never, never
comprehended there was such a way of transportation.
He comes to America and he lands and he gets in these vehicles
and he sees, you know, cars everywhere and everywhere he's
looking, large skyscrapers and buildings.
He, he just can't begin to comprehend everything he's
seeing. It's like overload, the senses
of what he's encountering, and that's what it's going to be
like when we go to heaven. It's going to be sensual in the
sense of overload. We're not going to be able to be
able to take it all in. It's just going to be
overwhelming. But Baptista would have to go to
eventually back to the jungles and they would ask him what is
it like there in America? And he would use a term, what we
would call jungle pocentric, and he would try to communicate in
terms of jungle life what he had seen in in this culture, in this
country. You can imagine how difficult
that would be. He might describe a Boeing 747
with its flaps down as an elephant flying with people on
it, a huge elephant flying with people on it.
But we see here on this day, this heavenly city in chapter
21, verse four. And we covered this several
weeks ago. Last week we covered the
importance of fasting and I trust that God is working in
your hearts regarding fasting. Something we got to continually
pray about and encourage each other to do, especially for the
obstacles in our lives that Jesus said cannot be moved
without prayer and fasting. But it says in verse 4, And God
will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.
There shall be no more pain for the former things that passed
away. As a pastor, I sense your pain,
your sorrow, your heartache many times, and I'm sure you sense
mine as well as God's servant. But I'm looking so forward to
that day that I won't have to comfort anybody anymore from the
horror of tragedy, of the ruination of people's lives
because of sin and bad choices and mistakes.
I won't have to be with someone at a Funeral Home.
I won't have to give a funeral. I won't have to carry the
burden, nor will you, of the heartache of loved ones who have
gone into eternity, especially those who have not received
Jesus Christ and will have to suffer the consequences for all
eternity. But it'll be so wonderful to be
able to see you there with smiles on your faces as wide as
your grin can possibly be. Never discouragement anymore.
No more sorrow, No more suffering, no more pain or
anguish. No more hopelessness.
I mean, what God has planned for us guys is this beyond our
ability to take in. You won't have your wife broken
hearted crying, or your husband discouraged or disappointed.
You won't see your child coming home from school because people
said mean things about him or a bully beat him up.
You won't have rejection. You won't have depression.
You won't have sickness or disease or illness or
addictions. It'll all be pure and holy and
perfect. That's what God has prepared for
those who love Him. John then begins to describe the
physicality of this incredible holy city of God and verse 12,
this Great Wall with 12 gates, 12 angels at the gates, and
names written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of
the children of Israel. The 12 gates represent the 12
tribes of Israel and the 12 foundations represent the 12
apostles. And what's beautiful in this
particular experience here in this place is that the group of
people that are going to be here, Revelation chapter 15
verse 3 says they sing the song of Moses, a servant of God, and
the song of the Lamb, saying great and marvelous are your
works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King
of the Saints. So we see in the Kingdom the Old
Testament Saints that were familiar with the song of Moses
and the New Testament believers who were or familiar with the
song of the Lamb. Both groups of people will be
there because we're all saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
Those in the Old Testament who trusted in the Messiah to come,
and those in the New Testament that were able to see the
finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross, His death, His
burial, his resurrection, and his soon coming.
The wall that we're looking at here that's being described
manifests the eternal security of our God, that only in God's
family are we secure and safe. I love the word when it says no
weapon that's formed against us shall prosper.
That God is our refuge, our strength, our fortress, our
strong tower and time of trouble.
God is faithful to protect and to save us to the other most.
If you turn to Hebrews Chapter 7, I love this verse.
Whenever things get tough and you find that you're getting
discouraged and you think, boy, how in the world can I ever
fulfill the purposes of God in my life?
And you see the promise of God here in seven 25 of Hebrews.
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who
come to God through Him, since He always lives to make
intercession for them. I love that word uttermost,
don't you? Not part way, only maybe, not
real, sure, not complete. No God is able to save to the
uttermost those who come to Him through Christ and I love the
promise Christ is always living to make intercession for us and
how much more as we study that we need to be making
intercession for one another, not grow weary and well doing or
faint in our mind. Praying for each other by name,
remembering each other's faces is a body of Christ here at
Calvary Chapel going through the church directory and going name
by name. You don't know all the details,
but God does. Having the people in your heart
and, and praying for God's provision and guidance and
direction and protection upon their lives.
And as we do that in our feeble attempt and by the grace of God,
we try to do these things faithfully daily, to pray for
the things that God puts in our heart.
Here we have our Savior who's ever living before the right
hand of the Father, living to make intercession for us night
and day. He doesn't stop praying.
He's praying always for you and for me and the fulfillment of
His plan in these last days. We need to be reminded of these
things. First John chapter 5.
And this is a testimony that God has given us eternal life and
this life is in His Son. If you're here today and you're
a child of God and you're born again and you're a follower of
Jesus Christ, this is to you that God has given us eternal
life and this life is in His Son.
He who has a Son has life. If you're here today and you
don't have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, this is the
message to you. He who does not have the Son of
God does not have life. You might be living, but you're
not living in God's kind of life.
You're living in a life that's going to suffer in hell forever
if you don't come to Jesus Christ today.
And he said in verse 13, these things I written to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God.
I love this that you may know that you have eternal life, that
you may know that you have eternal life, that you may know
No, no, no, right may know that we have eternal life.
Why? That you may continue to believe
in the name of the Son of God. And I love this.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears us and we know that He
hears us whatever we ask. We know that we have the
petitions that we've asked of Him.
Go to verse 18. We know that whatever is born of
God does not sin. So if we're followers of Christ,
we don't have a desire to live in a habitual sin anymore.
If you say you're a follower of Christ, turn from sin.
Don't condone sin. Don't justify sin, don't accept
sin in your life if you're a follower of Jesus Christ.
It says if we're born of God, we don't sin.
That means we have to live in a way that's holy.
We have to live in a way that's obedient to the Lord Jesus, not
in our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. The Bible says it says, But he
who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked 1 does
not touch him. So often Christians are paranoid
about the devil. The devil's doing this.
The devil's here. People talk more about the devil
than the victory that we have in Jesus Christ.
I love this promise. If we who have been born of God
walk with the Lord and stay away from sin, the wicked 1 does not
touch us. We know that we are of God and
the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an
understanding that we may know Him who is true and that we are
in Him who is true in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is a true God and eternal life.
Isn't that beautiful? I love the the description
description here. He's given us understanding that
we may know him who is true. We are in him who is true in his
Son. You talk about security and
protection and peace that we are in Jesus Christ.
And then the admonition at the end, little children, keep
yourselves from idols. Do you have idols in your lives
today, guys and gals, if we have idols, we need to repent of
those things. Cast the idols down.
But for followers of Christ, there's no room for idolatry in
our lives. Foolish focus upon things that
are going to perish and be destroyed.
I love the foundation of this particular city.
It reminds me of what it's tells us over in the book of Ephesians
chapter 2. If you turn over there for a
moment, our foundation is not made out of bricks and mortar.
It says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens, with the Saints and the members of the
household of God having built on the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. Isn't that amazing?
The Church is built upon Christ. On Christ the solid rock I
stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
I'm not standing on Calvary Chapel, and I hope you aren't
either. I'm standing on Jesus Christ.
Amen. On Christ the solid rock we
stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
And what's on top of Christ is the foundation of the apostles
and the prophets. Thanks for being with us today
here on Living Waters of Grace. We're in the Book of Revelation,
and we find it fascinating how influential and involved the
angels are in this book. They bring about whatever it is
that God has instructed them to do, but it's through their
actions that much of the judgements come on the earth.
The angels are in submission to God as their authority, but He
utilizes them in unique ways throughout this book.
Like angels have a specific purpose from God, you have a
unique purpose and plan too. God wants to use you in your
life as a testimony to others and to bring others who are
currently lost into the fold of God.
God would love more than anything for all who are willing
to come to Him for salvation, but He wants it to be their
choice, not a forced situation. This is the way God works, not
forcing himself on anyone, but giving each person free will.
If you're interested in learning about this choice that's free
and that it's a gift, go to calvarychapelonline.com and
click on the About Us tab and then find the link for what we
believe. We'd love to be a help and a
resource for you as you walk through what it means to be a
follower of Jesus. If you find the contact tab on
our website, you can get in touch with us or submit a prayer
request. We'd love to hear from you.
That's all for today's edition and Revelation, but there's much
more that Pastor Clark plans to share with us from this
culminating book of the Bible. Stay tuned for that and make
sure to mention this radio program to others.
Invite them to tune into Grace FM 91.7 FM.
They can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.
This has been Living Waters of Grace.