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.
All your loved ones, your friends, your neighbors, your
relatives, all the people that scoff at.
The message of Jesus. Christ, I don't need them.
Who needs them? It's not real whatever they're
blinded by this Prince of. Darkness, Satan, it says.
All of us before we came to Christ.
Also, we're blinded by this one, and it's the one who works in
the sons of disobedience. Anyone who doesn't believe in
Christ is a son and daughter of disobedience.
You don't have to be taught growing up how to reject God or
ignore God, do you? You just do it naturally.
If you've ever been around children, it's pretty clear that
we're all rebellious from a young age.
Next time you're with a child, take away something that they
want but isn't good for them. See just how upset they'll get?
In today's message, Pastor Clark says we're all rebellious from
the beginning. Our natural instinct is to run
away from God. You must remain in Him, allow
Him to lead you, and run back to Jesus when you feel like this
world is tempting you. He loves you and wants to
protect you at all costs. Now here's Pastor Clark in the
Book of Revelation chapter 13 with today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace, chapter 13, verse one.
If you need a Bible, folks, there's one in front in the Pew.
Feel free to use that. If you don't want to read this,
listen. And it says in verse one I stood
on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the
sea having 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns, and
on his head's a blasphemous name.
Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet
like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
The dragon gave him power, his throne and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it had been mortally wounded and
his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marvelled and
followed the beast. So they worship the dragon who
gave authority to the beast, and they worship the beast, saying
who is like the beast who is able to make war with him.
And he was given a mouth speaking great things and
blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42
months. Then he opened his mouth to
blasphemy against God, to blasphemy His name, His
Tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
It was granted Him to make war with the Saints and overcome
them, and authority was given to Him over every tribe, tongue, a
nation. All who dwell in the earth will
worship him whose names have not been written in the Book of Life
of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity.
He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints.
So we see here in the. Chapter 13.
Verse 1, John's having another vision about what it's going to
be like in the last stage. Keep in mind this was written
over 2000 years ago, give or take a few years.
He's writing about things that in his foggiest intention or his
mind, he can't actually understand what it is God's
showing him, but he knows he's to write these things down for
what's going to come to pass and the future.
Now here we are 2000 years later, and as we study some of
these things, it's really clear that we can make more sense out
of these things as the years have.
Moved on and developed. So we'll make sense of some of
this today as we study this together.
So John standing, it says, on the sand of the sea.
Most likely looking into the Mediterranean Sea and the sea
always has represented in biblical times the chaos of the
nation's the waves rolling, the sounds of the Thunder and the
sea represent the. The nations, the vessels, the
voices of the sound of many waters, it talks about in
Revelation, the many nations that actually live in this area
at this given time. I looked on the globe as I was
studying this, the nations that surround this area and you.
Can see how the. World is in chaos right now
through some of these countries, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan,
Egypt, Libya, Greece. Spain, Italy, Algeria and Iran.
We know Iran's intention to this day is to build nuclear
ballistic missiles to land into Israel and destroy the nation.
That's their hell bent on doing that.
That's our focus every day. But.
We know that God will prevent the nation of Israel from total
destruction, but nonetheless, Israel has many enemies around
the world. Out of this water though, he
sees this crazy creature coming up and and you read this, it
seems like science fiction. He sees this new world roller
are rising out of the water, and it says that this individual has
seven heads and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns, and on his
heads, head heads, a blasphemous name.
The seven heads. Represent the seven geographical
territories. That will be controlled by the
Antichrist in the last days. So you look at the continents in
the world. There's seven major continents
that will all be influenced and controlled by this world leader,
the Antichrist. Now, right now, there's certain
individuals in our world that have tremendous influence in
certain parts of the world. The ruler of China.
Of course, the president. Of the United States, the ruler
of Russia. You know, the leaders in Iran
and Iraq and Afghanistan. So we have world rulers that
will eventually come together in geographical territories that
will submit to the control the Antichrist.
The 10 horns represented in this first verse represent the 10
kings. These are the leaders that will
support. The agenda and.
Goals of this world ruler, the Antichrist.
What's interesting, and we don't have time to win the book of
Daniel, but Daniel is parallel with the Book of Revelation in
the sense that it talks about the very same prophecies, yet
thousands and thousands. Of years before this was
written, Daniel's visions compare with many of these
visions and revelations, and they give support to the end
time development of a group of nations that merge together for
the one world. Government, one day there will
be one world currency. That's the only way there can be
stability in the sense of the financial markets.
And so we're moving toward that a cashless society to every one
of us have debit cards. I, I remember when I first
became a Christian when I was 20 and read how Lindsay's book the
late great Planet Earth. Anybody ever read that book?
Amazing book written back in the 70s, still very popular about
end time prophecy. And he talked about this
cashless society, some type of embedded ship that would.
Go in the forehead. Of.
People who pay homage. To this Antichrist world ruler
or. In the side of their forehand.
But now we know because of debit cards.
They have access by numerical codes and you have to have a
code and be approved by a bank in order for your debit card to
be able to work. So you have the ability to buy
right, sell, pull money out of a Mac machine.
If you don't have the right code, the right numbers, your
debit card is not going to work. Well, it won't be too difficult
for a world leader and a world. Government and a world.
Currency system to establish a identification code that
everybody rabbit card will have to have or it won't work.
And we know the number 666 is synonymous with the evil 1, the
devil. It says eventually, as we
studied, that those who don't have this mark will not be able
to buy and sell. And do commerce.
So the difficulties that are on the horizon for those who don't
have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
In verse 2 we see that the piracy to this enemy is actually
Satan himself, the Bible. Describes the devil as the
Prince of the. Power of the Air, who's actually
very much alive. There was another book that
Lindsay wrote. Satan is alive and well.
On planet Earth, we can't see Satan.
We can't physically. Connect.
With his agenda, nonetheless, it's working.
Everyday to keep people in darkness.
The reason people don't believe the message of the gospel and
the reason people reject Christ isn't so much just their own
human pride. They've been blinded by the
devil to believe that they. Even have a need of a Savior, it
tells us in Ephesians chapter 2 it says you.
He made. Alive who were dead?
In trespasses and sins. At one time there was someone in
your life working before you became a Christian to keep you
lost. In your sin he keeps you dead in
trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the
course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of
the air, the Spirit who now works in.
The sons of disobedience. So all your loved ones, your
friends, your neighbors, your relatives, all the people that
scoff at. The message of Jesus.
Christ, I don't need them. Who needs them?
It's not real. Whatever they're blinded by this
Prince of. Darkness, Satan, it says.
All of us before we came to Christ.
Also, we're blinded by this one, and it's the one who works in
the sons of disobedience. Anyone who doesn't believe in
Christ is a son and daughter of disobedience.
You don't have to be taught growing up how to reject God or
ignore God, do you? You just do it naturally.
I mean, I remember as a kid growing up, the last thing I
wanted to do was sit in church on Sunday and hear this kind of
stuff. I just had a natural propensity.
To not be interested. Couldn't wait till it was over.
Matter of fact, my Mama dropped me off for Sunday school.
I take the offering, wait till she goes in to teach and I go up
to the five and nine place to play pinball and get a milkshake
and hamburger for $0.25. It tells you how old I am, you
know, and I come back later on. She know how was Sunday school.
It was great. You know what they talk about.
I don't know. I can't remember, you know, but
you know it was the in my mom and dad.
They they both had a faith they they.
Desired to raise their kids up in the Lord, but.
You know, you can't make anybody, anybody be a follower
of Christ. You can't make anybody be a
Christian. That has to come by the holy.
Spirit's work on a person's heart.
So anyway, this is, this is the agenda, the evil 1 And it says
among whom also we all conducted ourselves in the lusts of the
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the fleshing of the mind, and
we're by nature children of wrath, just as others so.
This human fallenness. Shrouded and clotted by.
Satan himself. This caused us to be sinful
people. And and not even really thinking
about it, excuse me or worrying about it. 2nd Corinthians.
Also talks about this. Individual and a.
Lot of people. Will say well you know I believe
in the God of this world you know well who is the God of this
world and this might be interesting for you to consider
today but Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3 says but even
if our gospel is veiled today is I'm preaching the.
Gospel if it's obscure. If it's hidden, if it's hard to
grasp or you just like, what in the world is this guy talking
about? It says it's failed or it's.
Clotting your mind because you're perishing meaning.
You're going to die without. Christ without His.
Mercy, it says. Whose mind's the God of this age
has blinded those who do not believe, lest the light of the
Gospel, the glory of great Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them so even today.
In churches around the world, whenever the message.
Of the word of. God is going forth.
People sit and they don't see. People sit and they don't hear.
There's a there's a disconnect. They just can't.
Can't. Relate and believe me, it's very
clear here. The God of this age, Small G not
referring to the God of the universe.
The God that's working in this fallen world.
Blinds those who don't believe. So everybody you know that
doesn't understand or accept what you have accepted in your
life are blind. And we have to pray for them.
We can't judge them. We can't criticize them.
We can't condemn them. We need to pray, Lord, open
their eyes like you opened our eyes to help us.
See the truth, right? We can't get angry.
And judgmental and condemning people.
We need God to turn the light on for people to see.
So in the last days, in this time of tribulation that we're
studying here, Satan will begin to be physically manifest as a
human being who will truly be the Antichrist, the world ruler.
And verse 3 of Revelation 13 it says, and I saw one of his heads
as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound
was healed, and the world marveled and followed the beast.
This world ruler. Is so successful.
That there's an assassination attempt upon his life.
Some people believe that he was literally killed.
In this assassination attempt. But miraculously, he survives
this assassination attempt. And he resurrects basically from
the dead. And so he impacts the world so
much, the people, the world so much that they're like, wow,
man, you know, like, you believe what happened.
I mean, CNN, Fox, every major news, the network's going to
proclaim that this guy's life was taken and he's pronounced
dead and all the sudden he comes alive.
It's sort of like John F Kennedy.
Many of us remember the tragedy of what happened in his life
when he was assassinated. It would be like him coming back
to life again. Do you realize the influence the
world would be impacted by his life?
He was an astounding leader. He was a charismatic
personality. I'm not saying he's the
Antichrist, but I'm trying to give you a picture.
It's going to impact world's civilization and culture so much
that they're going to be mesmerized by the the leadership
and the incredible miraculous situation.
That has occurred. And so in verse 4, it talks
about the the the worship this individual who's given authority
to the beast and they worship the beast saying who is like the
beast? Who is like who's able to make
war against him in other? Words.
This world ruler is so astounding, so powerful, so
influential, there's no one like him.
And that's what we should say about the God of the universe
who is like unto the God of heaven, right?
Matter of fact, the psalmist even uses that.
But people will be declaring. This person as the leader and
this particular given time, I think about the horror of
Hitler, Adolf Hitler. Who would have ever thought that
a group of people in a country could lift someone up to this
kind of authority and leadership?
The furor and basically claim him as the new world ruler to
exterminate anyone who wasn't of the particular bloodline that he
dictated. Basically to wipe out the Jews.
That was the biggest attack from the evil one in in modern days,
along with Stalin and Lenin and many other dictators.
Who are anti God and living on the face of the earth today but.
People paid homage to Hitler. If you were a kid and you found
out your parents really weren't supportive of his movement, his
agenda, your job for the state was to turn your parents in.
And the Bible says even in the last days that mother will be
against son and father against daughter, and there'll be this
chaos and families because of the.
Blindness of those who don't believe against those who do
become believers during this time.
There was a terrible persecution in the country of Romania during
the times of Stalin. I watched the video recently and
the horror of what they did. They took anybody that professed
faith in God who were Christians, and they took them
to a concentration camp and their goal.
They had medical doctors that shot them up with drugs and they
had. All this psychological
intervention to try to break the will and the spirit of the
people. So that they would break their
personality and their temperament.
And they put these people through incredible heartache and
tragedy and difficulty for many years until it was brought out
into the rest of the world. And Russia decided at that time
that they would close the prison down and destroy those who the
prison guards and the prison leader and anybody who was
involved, the doctor. So no one had any kind of
knowledge about what had happened.
But there was some testimonies of some Orthodox Christians that
came out of this horrible experience.
And they gave their testimony of how God's grace spare them in
the midst of the horror of the persecution and the trials and
the trauma. And it was horrible when you it
broke your heart when you thought about what people go
through in different parts of the world.
And yet God in his mercy is so strong in them that they don't
abandoned their faith. And they give hope to many
others. But this Antichrist is going to
be. Such a hateful.
And vindictive person. That anybody who's discovered on
the face of the earth during that time, who has become a
believer, will be. Persecuted and his goal is to
destroy them. He'll be given tremendous power
and authority. He'll have control over the most
powerful of nations, including. Us, this country, he'll speak.
Great things and blasphemies. He'll claim himself to be God.
This is also identified in Daniel.
Chapter 7 and 11. Just a little picture of what
this guy's like in Second Thessalonians Chapter 2.
It's it's wonderful that God gives us the insights and the
Scriptures so we don't have to be deceived.
But he says in chapter 2, verse one, brother, brethren,
considering the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our
gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in
mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter,
as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not
come unless there's a falling away that comes first, and the
man of sin is revealed, the Son of.
Perdition. So the good news for Christians,
for believers, we're not going to be here during this time of
great tribulation. We believe in the rapture of the
Church, that Christ will take us out prior to the time of the
Antichrist ruling, and will be taken up into heaven.
It tells us in Thessalonians chapter 4 that there'll be a
sound of a trumpet in the voice of the Archangel, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with the Lord, to meet
the Lord in the air, and to meet the Lord in the clouds, and so
shall we ever be with the Lord. And, and Paul tells the
Christians at that time comfort one another with these words,
right to comfort each other. But there were people during
this time that the Bible is written, they're going around
telling people all the Lord's already come, you've been left
behind, and now. You're going to have to suffer
all this trauma, but this will be the signs of some of the
things that will begin to transpire prior to us being
taken out of here. It's.
Quite possible that this world leader will come to a role even
in our time before we're taken out of the rapture.
All hell doesn't really break loose until the 2nd 3 1/2 years
of this tribulation. The final 3 1/2 years.
But there will be this also this falling away.
And we're living in a day in an age where churches are dying
around the world. The attention or interest in the
things of God are becoming less and less as we move closer to
the last days. Now those who really know Christ
are getting hotter and hotter, but those who are like fair
weather Christians say, I'll follow Christ as long as life's
good and everything's cool. Follow him.
But soon as things get difficult.
There's a group of people that aren't real believers that
they'll begin to fall away, the Bible says, and they'll actually
begin to curse. Him and.
Deny that they've ever even known him.
And so we see that this Antichrist, he'll set himself up
above all that is called God, or that is worship, and he sits as
God in the. Rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem The
temple that the Jews use will be rebuilt to continue sacrifices
during the Tribulation. Once this thing's rebuilt,
sometime after the 1st 3 1/2 years of this tribulation, this
Antichrist is going to show his true colors and he's going to
have the audacity to sit on the throne in the temple and claim
to be God. It says Paul says, do you not
remember that when I was still with you, I told these things,
told you these things, and now you know what is restraining or
what is holding back, that he may be revealed in his own time.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
Only he who now restrains will do so until he's taken out of
the way. And we?
Believe that what restrains us force of evil and helly's
persecution on the earth today is the body of Christ, the
church. Whenever we're taken out of this
world as a group of believers, it doesn't matter what
denomination, as long as you're a true believer in Jesus Christ,
you've been born again. You're trusting in him for your.
Salvation, you'll be taken out. The Holy Spirit's still going to
be working on earth, but. The salt and light that affects
the culture that keeps pushing back the darkness, the people
that deal with the government and still try to vote for things
that are for God's Kingdom and his glory and fight against the
lives of abortion and all these other things that are going on
today in our culture that are becoming more and more.
Acceptable, you know. The groups that affect.
That in a positive way and the sense of deterring.
The force of darkness, moving on, is the Christian right.
For the most part, it's people who have faith in Christ that
believe in the moral rules of the government of God's Kingdom.
And so but whenever. That influence is taken.
Out then this lawless one will be revealed, but it says the
Lord will consume him with the breath of his mouth, and destroy
him with the brightness of. His coming.
So when Christ comes back at the end of the Tribulation in the
second coming, what a great victory that will be whenever
He. Deals with this evil one once
and for all, but this one will speak great things and he'll
blasphemy. He'll.
Curse and he'll hate anything that has to do with the Lord and
His church and his people. In verse 7, it tells us in verse
Revelation 13, verse seven, it was granted to him to make war
with the Saints and to overcome them, and the authority was
given him over every tribe, nation and tongue.
You know you want. To warn people you love guys,
that they need to receive Christ.
Now everybody thinks, well, I got time.
I don't know why in the world we try to push off the greatest
gift that we could ever be given as human beings.
But again, that's the force of darkness deceiving us.
But today's a day of salvation. Why push it off?
I don't know. The rapture could happen
tomorrow. It could happen next week,
within the year, I don't know. But we're sooner and closer than
ever before. Why would someone want to be
left here on Earth? To face these horrible things
that are about to come. Upon the earth.
Those who become believers during the Tribulation.
And there will be hope, many people.
That will be on the earth at that time will realize that all
the things you told them when you were living were true and
they're going to say, wow, that that that thing I heard in
church or my friend or my relative or my loved one told me
I needed to get saved. It's really true.
I'm going to follow. I want to believe what they told
me. God is to believe and and the
Lord will be merciful. He'll save people during the
tribulation, but it'll be an unbelievable time to have to
live. And those who become believers
during this tribulation will suffer.
As I said in the Book of Revelation, Pastor Clark is
taking us through all kinds of events and happenings that are
predicted for the future. But for those who believe and
follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to in heaven with
Jesus. However, for those who are here
on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that
will unfold. The Bible talks about an
Antichrist, a false prophet, and of course, that evil enemy,
Satan. Do you see how there are such
clever attempts for the enemy to disguise himself as God and even
the Trinity? The true Savior of the world is
God and how he comes to rescue through his triune nature God
the Father, Jesus the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Just like Satan tried to take over for God in heaven and was
cast out, Satan will try to convince people on earth that he
is the Triune God to be worshipped instead of the
legitimate God in heaven. It's an attempt, and although he
will capture plenty in his schemes, he will not win.
The true God wins, and Revelation unpacks how that will
all happen in detail. Be encouraged because there's a
way out for all of this madness that will ensue on this earth.
But you don't want to wait indefinitely to make that
decision about Jesus. We don't know when the church
will be raptured, and you want to be ready to be with Jesus.
To learn more about this, head over to calvarychapelonline.com.
We're so glad you've been with us today.
And if you'd like to connect further with this ministry, find
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This has been living waters of grace.