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.
How could a loving God allow such a horrible situation to
occur there? God's judgement, and I'm not
saying Haiti is God's judgement it but it says in the last days
there will be birth pangs and a frequency of cataclysmic events
occurring on the face of the earth to cause men and women and
children to begin to look up and to wonder about is there a God?
And then, if there is a God, am I ready to meet Him?
A common question among many people is how could a loving God
allow terrible things to happen? Some believe bad things are
God's judgement, natural consequences, or even evidence
that God doesn't exist. Ultimately, we can make all
manner of assumptions and speculations, but we must
realize that God's ways are higher than our ways and His
thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
In today's message, Pastor Clark attempts to convey what
Revelation might be telling us about events in the final days.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation chapter one with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
In verse 15, it talks about his, his voice being the sound of
many waters. I love to sit by the ocean when
there's no one there and no distractions.
And I love this to close my eyes and just hear the waves
crashing. This continual, there's no
silence. It's just continual noise.
And every wave seems to have a different sound effect in my
ear. Every wave that flows in is not
exactly the same as the wave that came before it.
And it's just a continuation of this, an outpouring of the, the
sound and crashing of, of the surf upon the sand.
And God's sound, his voice is like the sound of everlasting
waters. If you ever been to Niagara
Falls and you stood at the base of the falls, you're in the Maid
of the mist. You just hear the, the crushing
sound of the water this relentlessly coming down off the
the cliffs there into the into the pond or lake of stream
there. It's just continue.
It's a sound of his absolute power and authority.
I think of a, a storm at night, a thunderstorm or a lightning
storm or a hailstorm. And, and this the, the sound of
the Thunder is so crushing. And at times it, it shakes you,
it, it, it makes you fearful. The fact that God is so
magnificent and so powerful that he could wipe any of us out in a
second. And it, it's just overwhelming.
And then you think of the the sound of earthquakes or
tornadoes or hurricanes or typhoons, the tremendous power
that God has in the midst of this universe, it would cause
you to to fall on your face and be broken, as we will see John
here in a few moments, falling on his face.
But no one can stop these sounds but God.
No one can stop the fury of the Thunder and the lightning and
the hurricane and the earthquakes.
But God, he has control over this whole universe.
Nothing occurs outside of His will and His plan.
Someone mentioned recently about the crisis in Haiti.
How could a loving God allow such a horrible situation to
occur there? God's judgement and I'm not
saying Haiti is God's judgement it but it says in the last days
there will be birth pangs and a frequency of cataclysmic events
occurring on the face of the earth to cause men and women and
children to begin to look up and to wonder about is there a God?
And if there is a God, am I ready to meet him?
Am I ready to stand before him? This sound of the voice in
heaven speaks with power and authority, and it says in verse
16 that out of his mouth when a sharp 2 edged sword.
We read in Hebrews that the word of God is sharper than any 2
edged sword, piercing, dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
is a very discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. It's just so wonderful when you
sit down, you're reading through the Bible this year and and as
you read it, it's purifying you. It's it's convicting you.
You, you see your own life and the life of Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob and Sarah and Hagar and all these people and and the
scriptures. You, you say, boy, that person
reminds me of me a little bit, you know, and it shows you God's
action and intervention in their lives and his mercy and his
grace and his forgiveness. And you're, you're encouraged,
you know, the fact that God is such a compassionate, loving,
merciful God in spite of the foolishness of the human race,
in spite of the foolishness of the human heart.
And this sword that's coming out of his mouth speaks with
authority. It's the living word of God.
Ephesians tells us that it's the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God. He gives us a description also
of the of the seven stars in verse 16, and these seven stars
are descriptive of perhaps he refers to the name Angel.
Angel means messenger. We prayed this morning before we
came up here that God's angels would protect this place,
surround it from the attacks of the evil. 1 And God has sent
forth his army of angels in the midst of these days that we
live. I love what it tells us in
Hebrews, the beginning of Hebrews, about the angelic
creatures, aren't they ministering spirits, sent forth
to minister to them who are the heirs of salvation?
You have a guardian Angel. Do you know that?
Do you believe that? Well, the Scriptures declare
that you do. And that poor Angel, what
they've had to put up with, right with all of us.
I'm sure my Angel would love to trade places with one of you
guys. He's been with me for 58 years
now. But even the angelic beings,
whenever the word of God is proclaimed and preached, they
like to hang around in the atmosphere because they never
get tired of listening in and hearing the mystery that's
revealed through the church, the gospel of God's salvation.
The angels could also in some commentaries refer to the
pastors of the churches because we're messengers, we're
responsible to declare to the community, the body, the the
message of the, the word of God. And verse 16, it refers to his
countenance. It says his countenance was like
the sun shining in its strength, the sun SUN.
When you look up in certain times of the day, you wouldn't
dare gaze into the brightness of the sun because you'd burn your
retina. But in certain times a day you
can sunset, you can look at it, look at the beauty, and it isn't
as bright. But the countenance of Christ is
like the fullness of the brightness of the sun at its
greatest point, at its fullest of strength.
That was experienced by Peter, James and John whenever they
were at the base of the Mount of Transfiguration.
When Christ appeared in his glorified state and the
brightness of His glory was exceedingly manifest, and Peter
and James and John, it was so bright they had to fall on their
face. And this is the way our Savior
is now. He's transfigured, He's changed,
and John is actually able to experience this again.
He's before them. His face shines like the sun.
His clothes become white as the light.
The ancient teachers of the Word described as light as uncreated
light. You know when God said let there
be light and he created the moon by night and the sun by day and
the stars by night. The light that is manifest in
the Holy Trinity is always existing, it's self existent.
It never had a start and never had a beginning.
And that's why the Word tells us that God is light and in Him is
no darkness or shadow of turning.
Psalm 8411 says, for the Lord God is a sun, SUN and a shield,
a purifier and a protector. So it's a wonderful thing to
know that God's brightness, the exceeding image of his glory and
His perfection as it reveals to us our sin, convicts us that we
can repent and be purified and be made as gold, pure gold.
But he's also the protector that he knows how much we can deal
with in any given moment. If he turned all the light on on
me in one nanosecond, I would be completely pulverized and non
existent. But God understands what we're
able to deal with. And so he comes in the midst of
his glory to John with a heart that is full and also heavy and
broken because of the state of his church in the days that this
was being written. And his heart is still heavy
today for the state of the church today.
Christ, we see in this revelation here is no longer the
quiet Carpenter, is he? He's no longer the obscure and
lowly servant. He's now risen, glorified, and
manifest in His full authority to prepare to judge the nations
first. Peter 417 says for the time has
come for judgment to begin at the House of God.
This is what's occurring here. Jesus is revealing to John the
revelation of Himself in the midst of His church in the last
days. Peter says for the time has come
for judgment to begin at the House of God.
It has to begin here, guys, with you and me, doesn't it?
Our judgments, our concerns about those without Christ are
important to pray for God to save our families, our
neighbors, our loved ones. But we must come clean before
the Lord ourselves, not be living double ways, not be
living one way in church and another way outside of church.
We must realize that God has to deal with our hearts, the House
of God. If it begins with us first, what
will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Peter questions verse 17 and 18. John begins to respond to this
vision, this unveiling, this revelation of Jesus Christ.
What was his posture like? It says.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
A lot of people, they have a very lackadaisical, superficial
understanding of what it's going to be like to enter into the
Kingdom of God. Some people think they're going
to be going in high 5, high 5 and the Lord say, Cole, hey,
we're here. It's not going to be like that.
Every one of us will be on our face before God praying that
we'll hear his voice say, well done, good and faithful servant,
enter into the joy of the Lord, not depart from you cursed.
I never knew you. That's why the Bible tells us,
work out your salvation today with fear and trembling.
Today is a day of salvation, not tomorrow.
If you hear his voice today, don't harden your hearts as
those who harden their hearts in the wilderness.
So he falls at the Lord's feet as a dead man.
This is the one who put his head on the breast of Jesus.
His relationship with Christ now is different in some sense
because he's fully aware of his exaltation and his glory, his
magnificence and power. He falls at the Lord's feet.
Have you ever been at the time in your own life where you're in
prayer and you're at His feet and you're aware of His Holiness
and his greatness and his purity and your own sinfulness?
I think we need to be in those kind of places more and more in
these days that we're living, that we would be real with God
as Isaiah was Isaiah a prophet, a great man of God, Whenever he
had the revelation of the throne of God, he said, woe is me, woe
is me. I'm a man of unclean lips, a
declaration of repentance, and I dwell in the midst of an unclean
people. That's all our declaration,
isn't it? Woe is me.
We are all people of unclean lips and we dwell in the midst
of unclean people. Who knows what occurred in the
lives of the people in this church this week and the secret
places where only God could see? What type of sin might we have
carried into this place that I trust was laid at the feet of
Jesus at the Lord's Supper? Christ wants His church to be
purified. He wants it to be whole and the
holy be holy. He said Be holy, for I am holy.
Be perfect as your heavenly Father who's in heaven is
perfect. And that's not in our own
strength. This is an impartation of God's
gift to you and me, His grace that as we yield to Christ,
Christ will fulfill his will in our lives and he'll conform us
to the image of his Son. That's what he promises every
one of us, right? That he will transform us and
make us into his likeness. So John is laying at his feet as
a dead man. Daniel chapter 10, verse 8.
He says I saw this great vision. Whenever Daniel saw this vision,
this is what he said about himself.
He said no strength remained in me, for my vigor was turned to
frailty in me. I retain no strength.
His face was to the ground and he heard this voice, and the
voice told him to stand upright. And when Daniel stood upright,
it says he stood trembling. We need that same experience
that John has had in our own life.
We need that experience that Daniel had, Isaiah had, Peter
had whenever he recognized when Jesus spoke to him after the
miracle. And Peter's words were, Lord,
get away from me. I am a sinful man.
And these are the servants of God, understanding what they are
apart from the grace of God. And this is the wanderer of
God's grace where he says to him after he's on his face, he
didn't say, you dirtbag, you need to stay down there because
you're scum and you're no good and you're, you're totally
depraved. How dare you think you even have
a right to be in my presence? He isn't that way, is he?
He reaches down and he puts his hands on his servant and he
says, do not be afraid. Even though all of us will be on
our faces before the throne of God, those who truly are His, He
will touch and say, do not be afraid.
His grace is so manifests His mercy that His right hand is
upon us. So this is the way things are.
He says now I am the 1st and the last.
I am he who lives and was dead, the declaration of the
resurrection. Christ died for our sins.
The Gnostics and the false teachers back then and even of
the day say he really didn't die.
He was just sort of unconscious. Here's a declaration of Christ
himself, He who lives and was dead.
And behold, I'm alive forevermore.
Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and
death, of hell and death. He tells him to begin to write.
You know, I read this and as I study this and prepare to teach
it, I realize my own life, how I need to pray to see Him this
way, that my heart would be full of awe when I'm in His presence
when we were worshipping today. I don't know about you guys, but
sometimes I just get a intense sense of His presence that I
feel like my knees are going to buckle.
This not an emotion, it's a sense of the reality of who He
is. And who am I to come up here and
stand before you and talk about this holy God?
It strikes terror in my heart, but I know his hand is on my
shoulder saying, do not be afraid.
And he's saying that to each of you as you come and understand
his greatness and His Holiness, and you know your own sin, your
weakness, And he touches each of you today and says, do not be
afraid. Where do we need to be?
Someone told me Psalm 51 is a good Psalm to pray every day.
David's lament. He said, my sin is ever before
me and against you only have I sinned and done this evil in
your sight. The places of humility is where
God wants all of us to be. This is what he also says.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a
contrite heart. These, O God, you will not
despise. That's where God wants us to be,
guys. It's to be real.
As we come in here as brothers and sisters, God gives us his
joy, his peace, his presence. But we all need to be contrite,
right? And this admitting what we are
not trying to be some way that we're not, or trying to impress
some and they think we're something we're not.
God knows all of us, even on our best day, we're the worst in
light of who he is, right? There's not one of us in here.
They're better than the other or worse than the other.
We're all in the same boat, right?
To be able to know what we are and to see our hearts in light
of God's word. Repent, repent, repent.
I remember that old song by the birds.
Turn, turn, turn. That's what repentance is.
I'm going this way and I come to the realization of my mind.
I'm living the wrong way, going the wrong way, and I need to
turn and go in the direction of the will of God.
That's repent, repent, repent. The modern understanding of
repentance is the actions or process of repenting for
misdeeds or moral shortcomings. Yeah, I did this.
I shouldn't have done it. That was wrong.
But, you know, hey, we're all human.
You know, it's, you know, I'm not perfect.
You know, we make excuses. And that's the modern concept of
repentance. The modern concept of repentance
is I'm driving down the road and I get a speeding ticket.
I know I'm wrong. I paid a fine, but instead of
going by the speed limit, I go out and buy a speed detector.
I really wasn't repenting. All I'm hoping is that next time
I'm speeding I won't get caught. That's the modern understanding
repentance. In the Greek understanding, it
means a change of mind which results in a change of actions
and awareness of our utter insufficiency to be holy in and
of ourselves. I need a Savior, a sin bearer,
want to lift my guilt and to transform me, to see my thoughts
and actions change, and to receive God's mercy and
forgiveness. I'm walking this way.
The Spirit is convicting me before I know Christ and all of
a sudden I realize that no matter what I do, what kind of
promises I make, what kind of self help book I read or what I
try to do, I'm not going to be able to change my wicked ways.
The self help gurus say we'll read this book and this will
help you understand why you are the way you are.
And it always points back to your parents.
It's their fault. So the kids have these arguments
with their adult parents. I am the way I am because of
you, how you raised me. A lot of guilt to throw in your
parents. You know, our parents would then
say, well, it was my parents who did it.
And then we go all the way back to the garden.
And sure, there is some reality that Adam and Eve were the the
ones that began this insanity. But if it was you or me, we
would have done the same thing there.
But the point is, is that instead of looking and trying to
cast blame to someone who is, I think, responsible for my own
sin, I need to say I'm a Sinner and I need help, I need a
Savior, I need Jesus. I need his mercy to forgive me
and to change me from what I am and who I am, and to give me a
spirit so that I can become a new creation in Christ, so I can
become a new person, the child of God instead of the child of
the devil. That's what repentance is.
Repentance starts and it's very important because the whole Book
of Revelation is a message of repentance.
He tells the book the the church in Ephesus repent and go do your
first works. Someone visited the church one
time. They said, I don't like your
church. Why?
Because you guys have too much emphasis on repentance and
humility. Well, that's all there is.
That's the church. That's the message of Christ to
repent. David says in Psalm 51 three,
and this is a picture of the beginning of the act of
repentance. It confessed to God.
He says I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is
always before me against you. You only have I sinned and done
this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak
and blame this when you judge. If I don't realize that what God
is speaking to me about is honest and true and just then
I'm living in delusion. The first step of repentance is
acknowledge the sin and understand what I've done, that
I'm guilty. The second step in repentance is
then to begin to cease the sin against God and resolved by his
grace, as Jesus said to the woman, go and sin no more.
Jesus doesn't forgive this and say go ahead and go, go, go sin
again. We'll we'll talk 5 minutes
later, an hour later or two weeks ago, we'll, we'll go
through this process again. This Yeah, you're forgiven.
OK, go and have a nice day. And you know, a million times
during the day, asking forgiveness for the same thing,
That's not repenting repentance. It's turning from our sin and
resolving to sin no more. Our resolve means to not repeat
the offense. That's why Paul tells us in
Ephesians and Colossians we're to put off the old man, which is
corrupt according to deceitful lust, and put on the new man,
which is after God created in righteousness and true holiness.
Take the old coat off, burn it, and put the new coat the cloak
of His righteousness. And then, as God is merciful
working in my heart, I want to make amends for the things I've
done wrong in my life. 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 judgments 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 in 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 in to Grace FM 91.7 FM and they can stream
worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM. This has been living waters of
Grace.