This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Today doctrine is out and emotional experience is in.
Signs and wonders are so alluring that doctrine no longer
matters. And Jesus says to those who
profess these signs and wonders, we cast out devils in your name.
We did many wonderful works. We prophesized in your name.
And Jesus says to them, I never knew you depart from me you that
work iniquity. Matthew 7, verse 22 and 23.
Who doesn't love a good thrill? Just look at how many people
pack out the theme parks looking for some excitement, or the
movie theaters, or even just check out the news headlines and
notice how sensational they are. Why?
Because that's what sells. It's what people want.
In today's message, Pastor Clark warned you about the dangers of
emotionalism over substance. It's a great thing to experience
feelings, but are those feelings grounded in truth?
Are they anchored in the Word of God?
Now here's Pastor Clark in the Book of Revelation chapter 17
with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Revelation chapter 17, verse 7. But the Angel said to me, why
did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of
the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has seven
heads and 10 horns. We spoke of the issue of this
scarlet woman who rides the scarlet beast in the 1st 6
verses of Revelation chapter 17 this week.
The apostle is telling us that the Angel is going to describe
in a more clear way what some of the symbolism means.
And even with the Angel explaining this, believe me,
this is still tough to understand and comprehend.
It's not something that is is very, very easy.
Matter of fact, a lot of commentators talk about this
chapter and some of the things it discusses as being very, very
difficult to get a handle on. These things are futuristic.
So as a result, we have to be careful in how we discuss these
things and teach these things. Certain things in the scriptures
you can be dogmatic on and very sure and precise.
But when it comes to prophecy, these things are futuristic.
So I would not want you to think that somehow I've figured all
this stuff out. Something things are clear.
Some things are a little bit obscure, and the reason they're
obscure is that they're still yet to be determined and
revealed. But the Angel is explaining to
John the mystery of this harlot, focusing on this speech.
This beast is the false religious system that will rise
up, the religion of Antichrist. It'll be a very spiritual
movement. It's not going to be something
that people aren't going to look at and say, wow, this looks
really spiritual and this is good.
And it's going to be something that's very, very attractive to
people. In verse 8, it says the beast
that you saw was and is not and will ascend out of the
bottomless pit and go to perdition or hell.
And those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not
written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,
when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is.
This beast is carrying the harlot again is the false
religious system and we talked about this in Revelation 13 as
well. Verse 4, it says they worship
the dragon who gave authority to the beast, saying who is like
the beast who is able to make war with him, and the Antichrist
will use this false religion as a tool to accomplish his
deceptions. It says those who dwell on the
earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of
life from the foundation of the world.
So the majority of the people that will be on the earth after
the rapture obviously are people and the Lord.
The mystery of election and predestination, these things
that are taught through the scriptures is a mystery because
God knows before the foundation of the earth those who will be
His. And that's something that's hard
to even begin to comprehend. So God has created a people for
his name. We can't earn that place of
relationship. We don't deserve it.
It's only because of his grace that we receive eternal life and
salvation. But it says these names in this
particular verse are not written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world. And so those who are lost and
those who are hell bound and those who have no interest in
believing in Christ will receive this world religion and be
excited about it. They'll embrace it.
They'll think it's the best thing that's ever happened to
the world and they'll be very, very easily deceived.
In verse 9 it says, and here is the mind which has wisdom.
The seven heads are 7 mountains on which the woman sits.
The seven mountains are associated with the beast.
A lot of commentators believe that this is a figure of the
governments that are seen in Daniel chapter 2.
Verse 35, seven mountains representing the seven world
leaders and nations. Verse 10 it says these are also
the seven kings that are 7 leaders. 5 have fallen, one is
and the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must
continue a short time. So these seven mountains are
representing the seven world leaders and nations.
And there's a connection with these seven mountains between
the religious Babylon and the current move of the apostate
Protestant Catholic Church that we're living in right now.
The movement away from sound doctrine is escalating at a
speed quicker and faster than anything I've ever seen in my
years as being a follower of Jesus Christ.
It says the approval, the anti Christian beliefs will be at an
all time high impacted by the new age.
It's interesting, I don't know if you remember years ago there
was a worldwide broadcast of Pope John Paul and he had a lot
of people sitting on the stage of the Vatican outside the
church there. And there was Christians and
Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Indian spiritists.
They were all sitting around just trying to have this
spiritual meeting. He told the participants that
their effects, this whole group of people were and quote,
unleashing profound spiritual energies in the world, bringing
about a new climate of peace. The Pope pledged that the
Catholic Church intends to share and promote such ecumenical and
inner religious cooperation. This is approved by both the
Pope and the Dalai Lama. Not a goal to be achieved
immediately, the Dalai Lama said, and the Pope.
But a day may come when the love and compassion which both Buddha
and Christ preach so eloquently will unite the world in a common
effort to save humanity from senseless destruction and
leading toward the light in which we all believe.
Isn't that amazing? The light in which we all
believe. There's only one true light, and
that's the light of Jesus Christ.
All the other lights are counterfeit, it says in Second
Corinthians Chapter 11 verse 13 through 15.
For such are false prophets, apostles, deceitful workers
transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an Angel
of light. Therefore, it is no great thing
if his ministers also transform themselves and the ministers of
righteousness whose end will be according to their works.
I sat in shock and awe whenever I saw this meeting.
They were chanting. They were integrating all these
different spiritual beliefs or energies under this common
umbrella of what would bring peace to the earth.
There was only one individual that had the guts to stand up
and proclaim that there is only one truth.
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
And it was an Orthodox monk somewhere from Greece who ended
up on that stage that actually spoke out against what the Pope
was saying. I was just shocked at how many
people are embracing these kind of things in these last days.
Jude verse 3 says ungodly men who turn the grace of God into
lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what the Pope was doing in essence right and those who
are on the stage with him. These are sensual persons who
cause divisions, not having the spirit.
Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 3 says let no man deceive
you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away. 1st and that the man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition, a turning away from the truth within the
professing church. It's second Timothy 43 says for
the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
Today doctrine is out and emotional experience is in.
Signs and wonders are so alluring that doctrine no longer
matters. And Jesus says to those who
profess these signs and wonders, We cast out devils in your name.
We did many wonderful works. We prophesize in your name and
Jesus says to them, I never knew you depart from me you that work
in equity. Matthew 7, verse 22 and 23,
There's a form of godliness, but it denies the power thereof.
People will wear robes. There'll be symbols in the
church. There still may be a cross, but
a lot of the newer churches that are being built have no cross
because the pastors say that the cross is something that will
stumble people. And you know, we don't want to
offend the seekers. Well, the Bible clearly says the
cross is to them that perish. Foolishness.
It's a stumbling stone to them that perish.
The majority of the churches out there nowadays do not believe
that Jesus is God Incarnate. They don't believe in the virgin
birth. They don't believe in the
resurrection. The Barnab organization took a
poll of the percentage of people that claim to be evangelicals.
And evangelicals were always known as people that believed in
the importance of being born again, the inerrancy of
Scripture, the infallibility of God's Word, the faithfulness of
the truths of the gospel. That Christ came to die for our
sins, according to the Scriptures, they was buried.
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and
he rose, and he shall come again with glory to judge the quick
and the dead. His Kingdom shall have no end.
One of the statements in the Nicene Creed that was one time
proclaimed by all Christian churches, and that's another
document that's no longer even affirmed by most churches.
The number of people that go to church without their Bibles.
I was driving up here, I had to run back home to get something.
I'm riding by a church and and I see people going, looks like
nice people just sort of walking in, you know, just do my thing,
you know, no Bible. Why would anybody go to a Bible
teaching church without a Bible? I don't understand.
I mean, whenever we don't need the Bible, we don't need the
church anymore. It's a waste of time going to a
church. If you don't have a Bible, you
need to carry your Bible to church.
If you don't take your Bible to church, do you believe the
Bible? Now we have Bibles here, in case
you forget. I'm not trying to condemn
anybody or anything like that. The point I'm trying to make is
whenever churches do not have the focus on the Bible anymore,
the people that come to church or the pastors, it's obvious
that the church has moved toward this movement of hypostasy and
the One World church. They'll be sucked in very easily
by this integration of all these different religious systems.
The greatest contributor to apostasy today, an apostasy, and
you read about it in Hebrews and other sections of the Scripture.
Apostate person is someone who at one time claimed to believe
and know the truth, and they moved completely away from it.
It's amazing how some scholars of the Bible and people who once
proclaimed the authority of the Scriptures will be on their
deathbed and they'll be refuting the Scriptures.
They'll be saying, well, I don't believe this stuff anymore.
It was a hoax. It's not important.
I mean people at one time who were supposedly sound in their
Bible teaching. The greatest contributor to
apostasy today is this self-centered religious movement
called the faith movement and it's run by faith teachers and
faith movement. Another name for it is a
positive confession movement. It promotes a faith devoid of
moral and doctrinal content and which promises that whatever one
truly believes and confesses with one's lips will come to
pass. You ever hear that?
It's like a mind power visualization, the faith in
yourself, not faith in God. Your faith is more upon what you
affirm and what you say, and somehow through that power you
develop these energies to be able to receive all these
manifest blessings of heaven. Eastern mysticism and the mind.
Science cults like Christian Science and the positive
thinking of Norman and Vincent Peale, the possibility thinking
of Robert Schuller, the positive confession teachings of Hagen
and Copeland and Price and David Cho and Osteen and others.
Man, by thinking he can bring into his experience whatever he
desires, becomes little gods. I remember one time years ago
when I was a follower of Kenneth Copeland and when I was involved
in bad doctrine many years ago, he said, you're going to become
like little gods. Well, this is exactly what these
faith teachers say. We create our own world.
We're partners with the infinite, a universal creative
mind which receives the impress of our thought upon it.
Go to Second Timothy 4, three and four, for the time will come
when they will not endorse sound doctrine.
You think that's come yet, but according to their own desires
because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves
teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth
and be turned aside the fables. But it says exhorting us, but
you be watchful in all things and door afflictions do the
working of evangelists fulfill your ministry and verse 2 it
says preach the word. Be ready in season and out of
season, convince, rebuke, exhort.
With all long-suffering and teaching, we need to in love,
point these errors out to people because if they don't repent and
see the errors they're in, they're going to be sucked in.
To this apostate world, One world church movement, this
beautiful building that the Lord bless us with at one time was a
Swedish Lutheran Church. It came over over 100 years ago
with godly people that taught the Word of God, that believed
in the importance of the Lord's Supper weekly, that believed in
the importance of repentance, that taught the Word of God
faithfully. The Church of the Lutheran
Evangelical Synod, and I don't know how many years it happened,
they no longer began to have the emphasis on the Word, but
started looking at social programs.
They began to do such things as ordination of women pastors,
which the Bible clearly deep affirms.
And nothing against women, and women are just as spiritual as
men, if not more so many times. But the role of a pastor in the
church is a male role. It says in First Timothy chapter
3 that he desires the office of the Bishop or pastor.
Elder Shepherd desires a good thing.
It's not a female role, but it doesn't mean that females can't
serve in a church and minister in the church.
But they're not to be the pastor.
Well, this church, this movement became ordaining women, and then
it began to be open to the homosexuality movement and
ordaining homosexuals. And this is not any happening in
the Lutheran Church, but in the Methodist Church and the
Presbyterian churches. It's appalling what's happening
in these last days that we live. It says in the last days, First
Timothy 41 people will give heed the seducing spirits and
doctrines of demons. Second Timothy 32 says for men
shall be lovers of their own selves rather than lovers of
God. Robert Schuller wrote a book
called Self Love, the Dynamic Force of Success, and he is
impacted very deeply. Billy Hybels of Willow Creek as
well as Rick Warren in Saddleback.
I mean, why in the world that these guys wanting to hang out
and their conferences and that kind of stuff.
It's scary because it just goes to show that any of us,
including myself and pastors in Calvary Chapel and other
churches that are endeavoring to be faithful in these last days
can be sucked in by compromising and listening to the teachings
of false teachers. It says there is a new concept
in practice today. Peter Wagner, a famous teacher
on revivals. This is interesting.
Wagner has the audacity to say Jesus and Paul in the early
church fathers didn't know about this stuff.
In other words, there's new insight.
There's new revelation now. OK.
He says they now hold the key to spiritual breakthroughs and
worldwide revival. What they talk about is like
praying against territorial spirits, spiritual mapping,
ground level spiritual warfare, occult prayer warfare, strategic
level sin warfare, cosmic sin warfare, and praying through
windows. Now where in the world did you
ever see Jesus talking about this stuff or the apostles?
The Bible verily clearly says resist the devil and he'll flee
from you. Jude again tells us, and this is
Michael the Archangel, one of the highest created angels in
the Kingdom of heaven. He's having this discussion.
He says yet Michael the Archangel and contending with
the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses dared not to
bring against him a rebelling accusation, but said the Lord
rebuke you. How many times you've heard
people like thinking that they got some authority to twist the
devil around in their own authority in their own name?
I mean, if Michael the Archangel who's on the outside of the
throne room of God's heaven has fear and also a healthy respect
of the Prince of darkness, realizing he doesn't have the
authority. He doesn't have the power.
But the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who has the authority
over the power of the enemy. And we have authority over that
enemy through the power of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy
Spirit who lives us. It says resist the devil and
he'll flee from you. So these delusions from the
counterfeit revival are becoming very, very big in the sense of
impacting the evangelical community.
It's just unbelievable what has happened and occurred.
They called it the Holy Laughter movement and people were barking
and acting like animals. And I mean, this stuff that had
nothing to do with any kind of biblical premises or teachings
of what real repentance is and what real Holy Spirit revival
is. You know, the counterfeit, it
looks so close, it looks so good that the Bible says it can
deceive the very elect if possible.
You know, one time I remember leaving at Kenneth Copeland
conference and I was high but. Wasn't high on the Holy Spirit.
I was so out of my mind in the sense of what was reality that I
drove through a red light and it was a miracle I didn't kill
someone. And the counterfeit, the
delusion. And if any of you are involved
in any of these false teachings, if you're embracing any of these
counterfeit revivals, I would ask you before the Lord to
repent. Throw the books away, burn them,
get rid of them. Turn your back on anything that
is not the truth. You can't mess around with light
and darkness if you can't mess around with leaven.
The Bible says a little leaven, a little sin will destroy the
whole body. So John talks about these
nations in verse 10. He says that there are 7 kings,
5 have fallen, and one is the five that have fallen in John's
day was Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo, Persia, and Greece.
And the one it was at that particular time was Rome.
The other is yet to come, the one world empire to come, a
revival of the Roman Empire. Verse 11 he says the beast that
was and is not is himself also the 8th and is also of the seven
and is going to perdition. So we see the manifestation of
this individual called Antichrist who will have control
over this one world religion, one world government, one world
financial and banking system. As we talked last week, the 10
horns which you saw are 10 kings who have received no, no Kingdom
as yet, that they receive authority for one hour as kings
with the beast. These are of one mind and they
will give their power and authority to the beast.
So in other words, the beast is going to use this false
religious system to accomplish his goals up until a certain
time. Once he accomplishes what he
wants to accomplish, he could care less about that group of
people and their religion. Matter of fact, he's going to
come against it and destroy it. These will make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of Lords
and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen
and faithful. So the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he comes back at that final battle of Armageddon, will come
against all these false religious movements as well as
the authority of the One World Government and the Kingdom of
the Antichrist. And then he said to me, the
waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples,
multitudes, nations and tongues. So there's going to be a
tremendous amount of people that are in this deception where this
one world religious ruler and government will rule and reign
for a period of time. And it says in verse 16, and the
10 horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the
harlot, make her desolation naked, eat her flesh and burn
with fire. So we see all the sudden the
uptight feelings of all these nations that thought that they
were in good with this world ruler.
He commits treason against them. He doesn't want them and said
now they're angry and they're going to try to come after him
to destroy his system. And this is what's interesting
here again with God's sovereignty and Providence in
verse 17. For God has put it into their
hearts to fulfill His purpose to be of one mind and to give their
Kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.
So everything's under control. Whenever you see all this crazy
stuff happening in the world, don't panic, don't worry, don't
get upset, don't get fearful. Get closer to the Lord.
Deal with your own heart, but look up.
Your redemption's drawing nigh because God has everything under
control. Aren't you glad?
You don't have to worry. You don't have to fear what's
going to come upon the world. Doesn't mean there won't be some
difficulty, perhaps for us, our persecution or trial, some
degree of tribulation in the world.
You will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, he says.
I have overcome the world. 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.