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.
We're not to fear anybody or anything in this life but God,
but why is it so often that we fear our wives, or we fear our
husbands, or we fear our employer, or we fear the bank
statement, or we fear the stock market, or we fear brothers and
sisters in Christ? It's crazy the things that we
get intimidated by, but the Bible only wants us to be
fearful of one thing, and it's a holy fear.
What are you afraid of? If you do a quick Internet
search, you'll find that there are lists of over 500 types of
phobias that people experience. Everything from the fear of
spiders, to the fear of heights, to things like the fear of long
words or even the fear of being afraid.
It is message. Today, Pastor Clark wants you to
know that there's only one fear you should have according to the
Bible, a holy fear, the fear of God.
That is to humble yourself before God that you might
experience his mercy. Now here's Pastor Clark in
Revelation Chapter 14 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. Then I saw another Angel flying
in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue,
and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory
to him, for the hour of his judgement has come and worship
him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.
And another Angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen.
Is fallen that great city, because she has made all nations
drink of the wine, of the wrath of her fornication.
Then an Angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If
anyone worships the beast in his image, and receives his mark on
his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the
wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into
the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the
presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascends
forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, who
worship the beast and the image, and whoever receives the mark of
his name. Here is the patience of the
Saints. Here are those who keep the
commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Right, blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord from now on.
Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their laborers,
and their works follow him. Then.
Then I looked, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud
that one like the Son of Man, having his on his head a golden
crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
And another Angel came out of the temple crying, with a loud
voice to him who sat on the cloud.
Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to
reap, for the harvest of the earth is right.
So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the
earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another Angel came out of
the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another Angel came out from the altar who had power over for
fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp
sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the
clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully
ripe. So the Angel thrust the sickle
into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it
into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came
out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1600
furlongs. Sometimes when you look at
artwork, different types of artwork, abstract art,
impressionist art, you see different things in the artwork.
Every one of us, if I had a painting up here today and ask
you what you saw, you might say, well, I see this or I see that.
I see this color or this, this sort of design or this image,
and someone else might have a completely different perspective
of what they're observing. And that's what it's like
sometimes when we read into the Book of Revelation.
All of us here are at different places in our pilgrimage today,
in our Christian life. And some of us will sit here and
say, yeah, OK, what, what time is it now?
And he'll be done maybe in 45 minutes and we can get out of
here. Some of us will grab something
today and they'll see it and they'll say, wow, I never
noticed that before. Some of us might have some
different perspective about some things, and that's OK because
Revelation is open to a lot of various interpretations.
But the the things that the apostle John is conveying to us
today are from my perspective, quite clear.
And of course, as a pastor, I study these things, pray about
these things. I have a, a responsibility to
have some sense of what I'm talking about here this morning.
But at the same time, as you listen to these things, I want
you to have your hearts open to be prepared for what God would
have for your life in regard to the light of these Scriptures.
The first verse we look at here, verse 6, very, very interesting.
This Angel flying in the midst of heaven.
It has this everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on
the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people.
The Bible declares that in the last day, when Christ comes and
establishes His Kingdom, there will be this event called the
marriage supper of the Lamb in the throne room of heaven.
What's going to be interesting is that they'll be
representatives at that banquet of every tongue, tribe, kindred,
a nation. And sometimes we wonder how in
the world will that ever come to pass, the day we look at the
modern missionary movement. Unfortunately, in most churches
today, missions is the most neglected focus of the local
church. There's more emphasis on
buildings and gymnasiums and coffee shops than there is in
the getting of the gospel out to the ends of the earth.
It's ironic, I would think that as the Lord looks upon the
responsibility that we have as a church here and as a church in
the world today, the body of Christ, that the last mandate he
gave was to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every living creature, teaching them to observe everything I've
commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. He said, lo, I'm with you
always, even unto the end of the age.
So that was the last thing that was on his heart and he had the
expectation that the church would be responsive and obedient
to what it is he called the church to do.
Recently we had a new Tribes missionary here.
He told me after the service, Clark, there's still
approximately 780 people groups in the world that have still not
yet heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He said that might discourage us at times we might feel like
we're not getting anything done, but we are making progress.
But it seems because of the rebellioness of man's heart and
even Christians that we we have this propensity to dig our heels
in and just sort of want to do things our way in the church.
And so the Lord in his wisdom, I find this great comforting.
Not that it takes us off the hook, but in the last days
before he comes in his second coming to establish his Kingdom,
This angelic being will go around.
Don't ask me how it's going to happen.
All the details. It's nonetheless here very clear
that this Angel will be responsible for preaching to
those who dwell on the earth, every nation, tribe, tongue and
people, so they'll never be a part in this time of life that
we can blame God for. Those who have never heard,
everyone will hear, Everyone will hear the gospel.
The Bible tells us that even in our conscience, even if you
lived in a remote island somewhere where you never heard
of Christianity, your conscience brings conviction because of
your life. You know there's something
wrong, you know there's something missing.
You look up in the sky at night and you see the beautiful moon
and the stars and you diss in your mind as a native say, how
did that get there? Who made that?
What's the story behind that? People begin by the Spirit of
God, who's everywhere present and fills all things, beginning
to seek the God of creation. And God is faithful to our
conscience because our conscience cannot excuse our
behavior. We know what sin is.
Even if we've never heard the word sin, we know it's wrong.
It's written in our heart that it's wrong to murder and to kill
and to steal and to do all the things if the commandments tell
us even without us ever hearing them.
But God is faithful for a conscience that begins to be
convicted. He gets a missionary there.
He gets a witness there. And even in some of these Muslim
countries right now, where these Muslims are in jail cells
because of crimes and atrocities they've brought against the
people of freedom there, some of them have cried out wanting to
know the truth and if God is really real, and it has been
visions of people experiencing witnesses in the midst of a
prison cell. God is able to do anything,
isn't he, to get his word across the people and show them their
need of a Savior. And so this Angel will preach to
those who dwell on the earth at this time, preaching the gospel.
And this is the everlasting gospel.
It's the same gospel that you've believed, the same gospel that I
believe. It's the same gospel that was
preached throughout the Old Testament regarding the coming
Messiah. It was the same gospel that John
preached and Jesus preached and Paul preached and we all
continually preach until Christ comes.
Akin now that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day
according to the scriptures, and ascendeth into heaven and
sitteth at the right hand of the Father.
And the Bible tells us he shall come again with glory to judge
the quick and the dead whose Kingdom shall have no end.
He says in verse seven with a loud voice, this Angel speaking
out, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his
judgement has come and worship him who made heaven and earth,
the sea and the springs of water.
We're not to fear anybody or anything in this life but God.
But why is it so often that we fear our wives, or we fear our
husbands, or we fear our employer, or we fear the bank
statement, or we fear the stock market, or we fear brothers and
sisters in Christ? It's crazy the things that we
get intimidated about, but the Bible only wants us to be
fearful of one thing, and it's a holy fear.
It's not an intimidating fear where we put our hand up
thinking we're going to get smacked by God because God
doesn't work that way. He loves us.
He apprehends us by His grace. But nonetheless, we're to fear
God, realizing that one day His judgement will come and we will
all give an account of ourselves to God.
And I want to have a good defense in that day of judgment,
don't you? I want to be able to stand
before the throne, not in my righteousness, but in his, his
blood that was shed for me, having a clear conscience,
knowing there was nothing left unrepented of in this life.
And stand and hear Him say well done, good and faithful servant.
And he speaks to the world, this Angel about this impending
judgment. And he says give glory to him.
Now all these people on the face of the earth at that time,
outside of those 144,000 witnesses and those who will get
saved during the tribulation, the majority of people will
still be rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They're animus, they're secularists, they're humanists,
they're atheists, they're agnostics and they don't believe
the truth of God. And what will it take for them
to believe? Well, God sends a spectacular
representative here, an Angel, and begins to speak to them
regarding the creation. The evolutionists will once
again be challenged of their premise that what they say is
true is not true. It's a lie.
And he clearly defines and delineates that God himself, the
God of heaven, the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and
the springs of water, you will give an account to one day.
The hour of his judgement has come, the Angel saying, and it's
no wonder when we think about all those during the
tribulation, there'll be many, many people saved during that
tribulation which will give encouragement to you with you
have unsaved loved ones. Don't give up hope.
If the rapture would happen tomorrow, that doesn't mean it's
too late for them. It says after these things in
Chapter 7 verse 9, I looked and behold a great multitude which
no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples and
tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb
clothed with white robes with palm branches in their hands and
crying out with a loud voice saying salvation belongs to our
God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the
four living creatures, they fell on their faces before the throne
and worship God, saying Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever
and ever. So the good news is there will
be many people that will get saved and many will believe this
testimony of this Angel. This Angel also tells the whole
world the importance of willingly surrendering their
life to the Lord. And if we don't surrender our
life to the Lord in this life, we will have the responsibility
before the holy God to surrender our life in the next World.
But it'll be too late. This will be what will happen.
Philippians chapter 2, verse 9 through 11.
Therefore, God has also highly exalted him, referring to Jesus
and giving him the name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of
those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every
tongue. You may want to underline that
in your Bible. Every tongue Achminajab, the
leader of Iran, every tongue, all the world leaders and the
rulers who scoff at Christianity and call it a futile religion, a
dead faith, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And the irony of this to us should be that all these people
on this earth today are damning themselves because of them
personal personally rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ in
this life. And the irony again is one day
they'll be forced to face the reality that Jesus Christ is
Lord, right? I think of all the great
athletes that are lost, all the great people that we idolize,
unfortunately, because of their athletic ability or, or their
ability to act on movie screens or whatever, we all have the
people we we think are really something, you know, And yet
without Christ, they're nothing. And so all the success and all
the adulation they've received in this life, they're going to
have to bow down and all the sudden realize I blew it.
I live my life for something that was ridiculous and now it's
too late. And they will see him as he is
and have to say, Jesus Christ, you are Lord to the glory of God
the Father. And what a tragedy that'll be.
And the apostle John says this is the everlasting gospel
preached to those in the latter part of the tribulation, the
last call of grace to a world gone mad, to a world that
refuses to acknowledge Christ's lordship.
Do you think the world's gone mad yet?
It's, it's his past madness. It's it's, it's at the point of
insanity. I mean it, you know, we're sort
of isolated at times because we're believers and we're in the
word and we sort of like to hang out with like minded people.
And so, you know, but we still get exposed to plenty of garbage
out there. It's just ludicrous.
What's what's happening in this world today.
So as a result, you know, people are just doing, doing crazy,
crazy stuff. And as a result, their lives are
falling into an eternity with without Christ and without God
because they refuse to acknowledge the lordship of
Christ. I love this promise though, that
it's going out to every tongue, tribe, kindred a nation, because
this will be a fulfillment of the Great Commission.
And it says in Matthew 2414 and this gospel, the Kingdom will be
preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and
then the end will come. This dovetails perfectly into
what the apostle John is saying in Revelation 14 here regarding
the prophecy fulfillment of what occurs in verse 6.
Jesus himself says this gospel will be preached in all the
world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will
come. So in the meantime, the
responsibility is up to you guys and me.
As much as we like to see the Angel get it all done and about,
you know, how long will it take the Angel to do that?
I don't know. It'll be pretty quick, I'm sure.
But we're to be faithful because God's given us the
responsibility and our time to our generation, to our family,
to our kids, to our neighbors, to the people we work with, the
people we live with every day. Are you ready for the Lord to
come? Do you know Jesus Christ as your
Lord and Savior, your friends in school and college?
Everybody is in need of a Savior.
We're all missionaries. You all have a mission field
where you are every day, and we pray, Lord, that you would use
us. And verse 8, it talks about
another Angel, the second Angel, saying Babylon has fallen this
great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine,
of the wrath of her fornication. Babylon is depicted in the
scripture in numerous ways, a literal city, a political
system, a false religious system.
In the light of this context here we see this as this, the
movement of this false religious system that the Antichrist has
established in the last days, that the consequences of people
who respond and obey his commands and worship him.
It says in verse 9, those who worship the beast and receive
his image, his mark on their forehead or on their hand,
they're going to have to suffer, offer the terrible consequences
of following a false savior. Now the Bible describes us as
fornication and verse 8, this idea of fornication, we all know
what it means literally and in the fallen state of our
humanity. Unfortunately, some of us were
involved in those things at what the one time.
But the good news is I love what Paul says, but such for some of
you. But you are awash, you're
sanctified, you're justified. I mean, the blood cleanses us
from all of our sin. And so we don't carry the guilt
and nonetheless we don't point the fingers at others who are
stuck in those sins thinking we're better.
We show forth the love of Christ and tell them about a savior.
But the apostles referring to a spiritual fornication.
And it's the idea of worshipping false gods, people who are
worshipping Buddha and Allah, Muhammad, Krishna, all these
false ideologies today that are out there that people are
wrapped up in. It's having a spiritual
connection with something that is not real and is not true.
And so the judgement upon these people at this time for
worshipping these things, the third Angel warns of this coming
judgement in verse 9 through 11. And it says that they will be
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the
holy angels in the presence of the Lamb.
It says in verse 11, the smoke of their torment ascends forever
and ever and they have no rest day and night.
Who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the
mark of his name. I'll tell you guys, I I don't
like thinking about this stuff. The horror of hell for people
that we walk by every day that we.
Know that maybe we haven't had the courage yet to tell them
about what Jesus has done for us.
We haven't given them Full disclosure about, hey, you know,
I'm not telling you this because I'm perfect and I'm better than
you, but I'm telling you this because Christ died for me and
saved me and has forgiven me of my sins.
That you need a savior too. And if you don't have a savior,
the consequences that are going to fall upon you in your life
one day are going to be without end torment forever and ever and
ever. I'll tell you, I don't think our
hearts, as Rick prayed this morning are are broken enough.
And and I don't mean we're walking around in South class
and ash type attitudes, but it's just like we have this
vulnerability and this love in our hearts that we want
everybody to get saved. That's really what we should be
like, right? We should have this great desire
to this love on people and see them come to know the Lord that
has revealed himself to us. But the judgement upon these
people are are it's without end. And as the result of their
deception, it's going to be, it's going to be a lot of
pressure on the earth at this time because we have to do
commerce, but people still have to buy and sell.
People still have to make decisions financially.
And there's going to come a type of government that's going to
make it very, very difficult, impossible really for us who are
believers. Of course, I don't believe we'll
be here. We'll be raptured out prior to a
lot of this stuff coming into full bloom.
But nonetheless, those who are left behind that come to know
Christ at this time will have to make a decision to refuse to
accept the mark of the beast. And as a result, they're going
to be martyred. They're going to be put in
internment camps, concentration camps, much like the Jews had to
go through during the Holocaust. And they won't be able to live
in this world anymore because the Antichrist will have full
control. It was almost like what happened
in the early days of the church where the people were commanded
by Caesar to take a pinch of incense and throw it at the idol
of the person of Caesar, pledging allegiance to him.
And those who pledge allegiance to the Antichrist, as it says in
verse 10, are forced to drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
the cup of wrath. Those under judgement will be
forced to drink this. This is expressed many times in
in the Scriptures Psalm 75, eight it says for in the hand of
the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red.
It is fully mixed and he pours it out.
Surely it's dreg show all the wicked of the earth drain and
drink down Jeremiah 2515. For thus says the Lord God of
Israel to me, take the wine cup of fury from my hand, and cause
all the nations to whom I send you to drink it again.
The fulfillment of these very things that were written
thousands of years before by the psalmist and the prophet
Jeremiah talking about things and I'm sure at times they
couldn't really grasp and put their minds fully around.
And now the apostle John is clearly defining to us what will
come to pass. And then Jesus himself in
Matthew 2639, he says, if it is possible, let this cup pass by
me. He had to drink that cup of
God's wrath for you and me. He had to take upon himself the
anger and the wrath of his Father for the sins of you and
me. And Jesus willingly took the cup
of God's wrath that you and I deserve.
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.