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.
There's a purpose in all these things and God is ultimately
glorified. And one day this enemy of our
souls and the enemy of the Kingdom of God will be one day
in that final judgement cast into the lake of fire forever
and ever and ever to bother or hassle anyone again.
But he's always working to trouble the church.
His big focus is to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ.
The good news is Jesus Christ says I will build my church and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
I was recently encouraged by a friend who shared with me that
we need not fear the devil in his schemes.
He said that gates are a defensive structure, something
used to prevent or withstand an attack.
If hell has gates, that means that Christ and all of heaven
along with him is on the attack. Pastor Clark reminds us today
that while we ought to be wary of the devil and his Wiles, to
be vigilant, but we should also walk in confidence knowing that
we've already been given the victory through Christ.
Now here's Pastor Clark in the Book of Psalms Chapter 32 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
He promises He'll never leave us or forsake us.
Sometimes we feel like God, where are you?
I felt like that at times. I'm sure you have too.
You're going through something. You're like, Lord, where are you
in all this? But He's there, He's always
there. He promises never to leave us.
He walks through it with us. I like what Psalm 32 says.
He says, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
on those who hope in His mercy to deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive. And in falling.
Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield,
for our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in
His holy name. Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon
us, just as we hope in you. He says that in these trials, in
the midst of these trials, they're rich.
And James says in chapter 2, verse 5, Listen, my beloved
brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in
faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He promised to them who
love Him? I think about the Christians in
Haiti. You've seen them on TV, haven't
you? They have lost everything.
They didn't have anything to begin with.
One of the most poor countries in the world.
They have this horrendous earthquake that wipes out over
200,000 people. Many of them lost their
children, their spouses, their loved ones, their friends and I
was blown away to see them assembling together, raising
their hands and worshipping God. Poor inheriting the Kingdom of
God. He speaks about the adversary,
the devil, and he is a real being.
He is interested in destroying all of our lives.
The Bible tells us the devil has come to seek and to kill and to
rob and to destroy. He is involved in this world
every day to keep it from knowing the truth of Jesus
Christ. He is sending his emissaries out
all the time to prevent you and me from growing and the grace
and the knowledge of God. He wants us to be stunted,
immature Christians. He wants us to live without our
inheritance in this world, not experiencing the Kingdom of God
within. He'll do everything he can to
destroy your faith. The Lord allows him to work.
That's the mystery. And the purposes of God are
sometimes very, very complex for our human frail minds to
understand. But the Bible tells us that
God's ways aren't our ways. Neither are his thoughts.
Our thoughts for his ways are so much higher than our ways, and
His thoughts so much higher than ours.
There's a purpose in all these things, and God is ultimately
glorified. And one day this enemy of our
souls and the enemy of the Kingdom of God will be one day
in that final judgment cast into the lake of fire forever and
ever and ever to bother or hassle anyone again.
But he's always working to trouble the church.
His big focus is to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ.
The good news is Jesus Christ says I will build my church and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
The enemy can take everybody out, but it can't stop the work
of God moving on. And many of these people had
given their lives in this day and Smyrna for the sake of the
gospel. But it hasn't stopped the
movement of the gospel 2000 years later.
He speaks about these people that are enemies of God and
they're tools of the devil. It says these folks say they are
Jews and they are not two different kind of Jews.
Jews that have a heart for Messiah.
Jews who are waiting. Jews, even at the time of Christ
crucifixion, were sensitive, even though they couldn't
understand that he at this time was the one they were waiting
for. They had a vulnerable, a
vulnerability of softness. Many of them eventually did come
to believe on Christ. Because the early church was
made-up primarily of Jews and they carried the worship of the
synagogue right into the New Testament.
Many of the symbolism and the pictures and the art and the
design of the priestly garments and robes were carried through
from the Jewish temple. It's interesting as we're
reading right now in Exodus, isn't it the, the, the specific
detail on how God wanted that Tabernacle built, the colors,
the, the length of the, the material that was used, the
embroidery and the, the symbolism, the type at this,
this mind blowing of the, of the beauty of, of God and and his
Kingdom, his church. But there were obviously as
there is today, not any Jews but Gentiles who cannot stand the
gospel of Christ and they are the enemies of the gospel.
I would say organizations like the ACLU, they are dead set
against our freedoms as Christians and the message that
we proclaim the person we believe in and trust in his Lord
and Savior. Many, many people today on the
liberal side of the agenda that are pushing all these teachings
of of really ungodliness are against what we do here, what we
do as churches in these last days, standing on the scriptures
and teaching the word of God. And so because of the large
population of Jews in Smyrna, the Christians were really
overrun by all these people that wanted to destroy them.
It was a tough place to be a Christian in.
They were the main enemies of the gospel.
Verse 10, he says to them again, don't fear these things which
you are about to suffer. Luke chapter 12, verse 4, Jesus
says to the disciples, my friends, do not fear those who
kill the body and after that have no more that they can do,
but fear the one who has the power to cast 1 into hell.
So Christ himself reminding us that we're not to fear what man
can do to us. You know, there's this element
of fear that we all have, a fear of disease, fear of failure,
fear of financial ruin, fear of losing job.
We all, we all struggle with a certain type of fear, but a fear
of knowing that you're in the jail cell tonight.
This is your last night on earth.
And you know, tomorrow you're going to be thrown to the lions
or you're going to have your head cut off because of your
faith. And you're probably walking
around pacing in the cell saying, Lord, I really believe
you. But I really have to go through
this. Is there another way out of
this? You know, would you mind if I
just, you know, I really believe in you, but would you mind if I
just told him I didn't? I'm sure those things would go
through all of our minds and our hearts, especially when our
families maybe were at home and we knew that we wouldn't see
them again until the next life. The struggle of having to wait
for the Lord to bring everything to a final culmination in the
last day. But I think about martyrs.
I think about Stephen, the first martyr in the New Testament in
Acts Chapter 7. This is what happened after he's
being accused of treason and he's speaking out and
proclaiming the gospel with all his heart, all his mind, all his
soul is strength, such conviction and fervor and love
in his heart for the people he's speaking to.
He's speaking to them about who Jesus is and what he did for
them. It says that people were so
angry they clenched their teeth. They just like, let me, Adam,
let me get rid of him, just like they wanted to get rid of
Christ. And it says, but he being full
of the Holy Spirit. And that's the key, guys.
No matter what we're going through in life, the struggles,
the fears, the anxieties, the pressures at work or home or
wherever, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we're
overcomers. But when we're filled with our
own vanity and pride and our own fear, we're basket cases.
Stephen's full of the Holy Spirit.
He gazes into heaven and God gives him a vision.
He sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand
of God. I love that Christ stood up.
He it says right now he's seated at the right hand of Father ever
living to make intercession for us, his Saints day and night.
He's praying for us all the time.
But there's a limit, isn't there?
What he's going to allow to happen to his kids.
And so he sees what's going on with Stephen and he couldn't
help but to stand up. And one day he's going to stand
up and not only stand up, but come back and put all things in
order and he's going to destroy wickedness from the face of the
earth, and no one will ever raise their hand to one of his
children again. What a day that'll be.
When are Jesus? We shall see when we look into
his face, the one who saved us by his grace, the old song, what
a day, glorious day that will be.
And so Jesus, he stands in the right hand of the Father.
And Stephen says, look, I see the heavens opened and the Son
of man standing at the right hand of God.
What a privilege he was given. And as they began to stone him,
he's calling on God, and he's saying, Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit. He kneels down and he cries with
a loud voice. Lord, do not charge them with
this sin. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. He went to be with the Lord.
What love, huh? You know, the the example of
martyrs, they're not proud and they're not hating the people
that are killing them. Their hearts are breaking for
the people that are taking their lives.
And that's the love of Jesus Christ.
I think of what he said when he was being crucified on the
cross. He said, Father forgive them for
they know not what they do. All of us are responsible for
crucifying Christ. We know we're guilty and we know
it's our sin that caused him to die.
And he says to his Father, Father, forgive all those people
for they know not what they do. And and then we see Stephen, a
stunning example of the person of Jesus Christ and his witness,
his testimony, his countenance. Lord, don't charge us to them.
Don't charge us sin to them. I think of the the gospel and
the Beatitudes when Jesus says love your enemies, pray for
those who despitefully use you and say O manner of evil about
you for my name's sake. Guys, if we're not loving
people, the people that drive us nuts, the people that mess our
lives up, the people that hurt us the most and wound us the
greatest, if we don't love them, then we aren't like Stephen, are
we? We're not like Jesus.
We need to say to the Lord, when people do things to us, Lord,
don't charge this sin to their account on my behalf that we
love them. That's the gospel.
That's what Christianity is, isn't it?
Not a bunch of words. It's real action, real love.
First Peter 314 says even if you should suffer for righteousness
sake, do not be afraid of their thoughts or be troubled or their
threats or not to be afraid. And the, the definition of
fearlessness, being fearless is not necessarily a total absence
of dread. You know, when you're facing
something that you know, man, you're, you're scared and you
don't know how you're going to get through it.
When you're fearless, it doesn't mean you don't have a sense of
dread or what if or you know that's human stuff.
But rather it's the refusal to succumb to the intimidation of
the circumstance of trial so that the threats of harm do not
turn you back from your loyalty and faith in Christ, no matter
what. He speaks about this warfare in
verse 10. Do not fear these things which
are about to come upon you. The testing, the persecution.
The devil, he says clearly is about to throw some of you into
prison that you may be tested. He says you will have
tribulation for 10 days. You know, the devil is, it's
interesting his, his influence. On one hand, he's a destroyer.
On the other hand, God uses them in some sense to be a
sanctifier. Isn't that ironic?
Because like in Job, a book that Christians don't like to read,
the worst of things happen to this guy, right?
And there was a conversation in the 1st chapter where God's
talking to Satan. Where you been?
Oh, I've been roaming up and down on to and fro, going all
around, you know, and this subject comes up about Job.
He's a man of great faith, a man who would never deny and always
be faithful. And Satan saying, well, you
know, it's easy for him. You got a hedge around him.
Nothing can touch his life. I bet if you took that hedge
down and gave me some opportunity to mess with him,
he'd curse you. Well, Job never cursed God.
He struggled through the circumstances and the trials.
His heart was broken at times. He had questions.
God can handle the questions when you want to ask him.
Doesn't mean you're going to get an answer.
But he did give Joe some pretty profound answers.
Were you there when I hung the universe in space and suspended
the stars? He just begins to talk about his
great creative power and his incredible miraculous ability to
create all this out of nothing. And I can just see Joe because
he's hearing that. I get it, Laura.
I get who am I? Who is any of us the question of
greatness of our God, but the testing will make us stronger in
the Lord. When you guys go through trials,
I know it's not something you want to jump up and down and be
excited about, but it says in James 1/2, it says my brother
encountered all joy. When you fall into various
trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience,
it's going to make you more like Jesus.
It really, it really does. And all of us who have been
through trials and testings and difficulties, we're becoming
more like him. But whenever we fight the trials
and we try to run away from them, we don't want to deal with
it. We have to later on go back and
go through perhaps something different in order to learn what
it is that the Lord wants us to learn.
Jesus tells us in the Gospels in Matthew 5.
Blessed are you when there reviling and persecuting you and
they're saying all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in
heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before
you. So when you got people that
really hate you because of your stand for Christ or they want to
make comments about you because they don't think you're perfect
enough or whatever, just smile, enjoy it because great will be
your reward when you are given persecution and criticism and
remarks about your walk with the Lord and your faith.
That's a wonderful thing to have the privilege of, of, of
hearing. And if you accept it lovingly
and pray for the people that are saying these things about you,
he promises a great reward in heaven.
First Peter chapter 1, If you flip over there just for a
minute, so much of this parallels the the writings of
some of the other apostles. First, Peter, I want you to read
this for yourself first. Peter, chapter one, verse 6
through 9, it says in this you greatly rejoice, though now for
a little while if need be, you have been grieved by various
trials. Some of you today I know are in
various trials and you're grieved about it.
You don't like what you're experiencing.
You don't like what you're going through.
But the purpose of this is in verse 7 that the genuineness of
your faith being much more precious and gold that perish,
though it's tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and
glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In other words, is our faith real?
If it's real, it'll last the trial, it'll get through the
difficulty. It won't abandoned the gospel of
Jesus Christ. It'll get stronger and closer to
the Lord. What's the scripture say?
Though he slay me, yet I will trust him.
That's someone who knows who God is, someone who loves God and
knows, hey, this body going to last 7080 years at best.
But my Lord and my God, I will be with him for all eternity.
For Peter says whom having not yet seen you love, though now
you do not see him yet you believe you rejoice with joy
inexpressible and full of glory receiving the end of your faith,
the salvation of your souls. He talks about this ten days of
of trials and it's not so much we're just going to have 10 days
of problems here and everything is going to be cool.
Now there was actually in the sense of we take a literal
perspective of what he's he's representing here.
There was a wave of persecution that began and continued to the
3rd century unlike any other time of persecution on the face
of the earth, unlike any time up until the soon coming
tribulation that will fall upon this earth in Christ timing.
There was 10 actual empires, emperors that persecuted the
church throughout the first 3 centuries.
And so we believe this is what this is referring to.
And it's important to realize that we all want everything to
go great in our lives, right? I mean, that's just human
nature. No pressure, no hassle.
Martyrdom, boy, God bless those people.
Not here in America. Let that stay over there in
Indonesia and China and Afghanistan and Sudan.
Not here, but I don't know where we're going as a country.
It doesn't seem like we're going in the right place right now.
And if things don't turn around, if Christians don't stand up for
the truth and that our light is not hid under a basket, but it's
seen in the workplace, the marketplace, the community.
If we're not preaching and being using the freedoms we have,
we'll lose the freedoms. And but we're not, we're not
promised to be protected from martyrdom.
I can't stand here today and tell you this.
Keep believing in Jesus and love Him.
And you'll have no problems in your life.
Joel Osteen will tell you that. I can't tell you that.
The Bible doesn't tell you that, does it?
In the world you will have tribulation, Jesus says, would
be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.
And so Jesus says, be faithful unto death, and you'll receive
the crown. James 112 says blessed is a man
who endorsed temptation. For when he has been approved,
that means when he's been seen as being faithful, he will
receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those
who love him. And he promises that these folks
in Smyrna, if they endure, when they're tested, he will give
them the crown of life and they will not have to deal or be hurt
by the second death. Revelation 2040 talks about
that. You flip over there.
We'll get to that down the road. But 2014, it says the death,
then death in Hades, it's the end of time.
We're cast into the lake of fire.
This is a second death, and anyone not found written in the
Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
No call to repent in this church.
How would you like to be a member of the church in Smyrna?
Any hands raised? You'd rather be in Ephesus or
Laodicea? They're rich and everything's
going great. And Jesus says that you know
you're naked and poor, wretched and blind.
How many months have joined the Church of Smyrna here?
I don't think any of us want to join that church because of what
they went through. But look at the promise that God
said they're going to have. See the problem with us as
humans? We're looking at like the here
and now. We need to have a vision of
eternity, guys, right? Because all this stuff here
today isn't going to last. What's going to last is what's
going to be in eternity. Souls, humans, people who are
saved, heaven and earth will pass away.
But he that does the will of God, the word of God abides
forever. I pray though, that we have a
kind of heart like Smyrna, though, guys, not Ephesus, but
be hot. Be hot for the Lord in the
trials that you go through. Let the Lord make you deeper and
more faithful and more radical in your commitment and your love
for him. And I love the fact that this
church wasn't given the admonition of needing to repent.
Because when you're in trials, you don't need to repent because
you're, you don't, you don't know 1 needs to tell you to
repent. You are repenting, right?
The first thing that happens when we go through a trial.
Is there anything, Lord, in my life that you need to deal with?
And if there is, here it is. I give it to you.
I want what you want. I don't want my way.
I want your way. And, and then man, your, your
life as a Christian is astounding.
And so God knows when to bring the trials and he knows what
he's doing in all of our lives, whether we think he does or not.
I don't want to see anybody have to deal with the second death
being thrown into the lake of fire and hell forever.
If you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ, this is not
made-up here. What I'm talking to you guys
about this is the word of God. Your soul's weigh in the
balance. You hear the gospel, you hear
the message, you hear the truth of Jesus Christ.
The day is a day of salvation. If you're here today and you've
never said, Lord, I'm a Sinner and I need Jesus to be my
Savior, Just quietly in your own heart, just let the Lord do
that. Let him save you.
Just submit to him that you're a Sinner.
It's real simple. And that you want him to save
you and that's, that's it. And then He'll Holy Spirit comes
into you, and He begins to show you the way to walk and makes
things clear. We are digging into the Book of
Revelation here on Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Clark is tackling this challenging book as we try to
discern the messages that are within its pages.
There's so much imagery and at times you're not always sure
what's literal and what's metaphorical.
At one point there's a reference to an adulterous woman riding on
a beast. And as someone else mentioned,
at one point it almost sounds like a rodeo from hell.
And in actuality it kind of is. You learn about the downfall and
demise of a sinful and rebellious world, falling down
in worship to someone who is the anti hero, the enemy, Satan
working his insidious ways into the minds of fallen people.
It's sad and it's heartbreaking, but it's a classic story of good
versus evil. Thankfully, we know how this
story ends. Jesus wins, Jesus reigns, and
evil is conquered once and for all.
We pray and trust you've received Jesus as your Savior.
But if you haven't, don't wait until the events in Revelation
become what's happening on the streets.
None of us wants you to be there at that time.
Instead, we'd love for you to be with us in heaven as we
celebrate the marriage supper with Jesus as his bridegroom.
To get a better understanding of where we are in the Book of
Revelation, to listen to any messages before or after this
one, you can find them at our website,
calvarychapelonline.com. That's it for today's edition,
but we hope you'll want to hear Pastor Clark teach more from the
Book of Revelation. It can be exciting to think
about the future for believers, but it can feel a bit harrowing
for those who don't believe. Come hear more next time on
Living Waters of Grace.