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.
You can't do it by the energy of your human ability and your
flesh. It's through the power of God's
Spirit. And if God's Spirit lives in US,
he's the one that enables us to live the Christian life.
Amen. It's God's Spirit.
And that's good news because you can't fake it.
And if you've been faking it, get the pressure off yourself
and just finally say, God, I can't do this.
I need you to be my Savior. I need Your Holy Spirit to live
in me to enable me to keep these commandments that I continually
have a tendency to break. Picks your little kid helping
his dad mow the lawn. Sure, he's walking behind the
mower with his hands on the handlebars and the grass is
getting cut, but his dad is the one who's actually pushing the
mower and doing the work. In today's message, Pastor Clark
teaches you that you can't follow Christ in your own
strength, but it's the Spirit of God within you who empowers you.
The Christian life cannot be lived in the flesh, but you must
walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation Chapter 16 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
We're all blind until Christ comes into our life.
Christ is the one that gives us true vision.
He's the one that gives us the ability to see into the
spiritual dimension. And when our eyes are anointed
by the Spirit of God and we're able to see things for the first
time, all of a sudden we know our lives have changed.
You remember the guy in the gospel, they're asking him what
happened to him when he met Jesus and he didn't know a lot
about the Bible and he didn't know much about theology or
doctrine. He said, hey, this is all I can
tell you. This is all I know.
I was blind and now I see. And so for us here today that
have had that encounter, we can say Amen to that.
And we see at that time also the love that we're to have for
Jesus Christ. If He's truly awakened us and
caused us to be able to see what he sees and what he ordained and
what He knows, then we have this hatred in our lives for sin.
God hates sin, and He hates it so much that He put his Son on
the cross and He allowed him to be crucified on behalf of all of
us. That's how much He loves us.
And so we should love him because of what he's done for
us. A matter of fact, the Bible says
we love him because he first loved us.
And we need to love what God loves and we need to hate what
God hates. And so that's why he gives the
admonition to the church in Laodicea.
Be zealous therefore, and repent.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
There isn't a week that goes by in this church that the subject
of repentance isn't spoken about him and brought up.
Why? Because we need to be zealous
and repent. We are part of this Laodicean
movement in these last days, and we're doing everything we can by
the grace and the power of God to be less likely to be numbered
with that church. We want to be like the church in
Philadelphia that had still a little faith and was faithful
and remain faithful to the end. But we need to be zealous.
And to be zealous means to be fired up.
It means not emotionally stirring and jumping around like
a fanatic, but having a tenacity in our hearts and our lives that
we are seeing. Serious about the gospel.
We're serious about holiness. We're serious about repentance.
We're serious about living the way the Bible tells us that
we're to live. And so as a result, when things
come up in our lives that are inappropriate, we don't mess
around with it. We repent of it.
We ask the Lord for his mercy. We ask him to cleanse us and to
forgive us from our unrighteousness.
And when we repent, as I said last week, we stop going this
way and we start going God's way.
And every time we're tempted to move back a little bit or we we
struggle or we stumble, we, we, we don't stay there.
We just keep getting up by the grace of God in his mercy, and
we just keep walking toward him. In continual metanoia, which is
an active verb tense, which means to continually live in
repentance, moment by moment by moment by moment by moment.
Someone might say, well, is there a time when I don't have
to repent? Yeah, when you're in heaven.
But until that time, you repent continually.
And it's a wonderful thing to have that blessing to be able to
recognize and acknowledge our wrongdoings in turn from them,
because God will cleanse us and strengthen us and restore us to
to fellowship with him. This is something that Jesus
says in John 14 verse 15. If you love me, keep my
commandments. If you love me, keep my
commandments. So the adverse would be, if you
don't love me, you won't keep my commandments.
So that's a a heart check for all of us.
You just say to yourself today, do I really love God?
If I do, it should be reflected in me keeping his word.
If I'm not keeping his word, I don't love God.
Who am I trying to kid? I certainly can't kid him.
That's how he tests me. If you love me, Clark, you'll do
what I tell you to do. You'll you'll follow my word,
you'll follow my ways. Another translation says if you
love me, you will keep my commandments.
It isn't a like this question he's asking will you love me
keep my commandments? It's an imperative statement
that if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
He says in first John chapter 5 verse 2.
By this we know and the importance of being short of
your salvation, not being nervous about well boy, I hope
I'm saved. I think I'm saved.
You can know that you're saved if this life reflects what he
says is true in this first John chapter 5 verse 2.
By this we know that we love the children of God.
By this we know you could say it this way.
We know we're part of the family or we're in the family of God
when we love God and keep his commandments.
Now, we're a body here today. And if some of us are here today
not loving our brothers and sisters here today, which is the
first Test of being a true Christian, and we aren't loving
God and keeping his commandments, then we don't
know. We're uncertain, we're unsure.
And some of us here today might be in a place in our life where
we're wondering, are we really Christians?
Well, you can test yourself. You love the brothers and
sisters. Do you love God or you keeping
His word? If you are by His grace and by
the work of His Holy Spirit in you, you know that you're in His
family. You know that you belong to Him.
But if you're not doing that, you're not living that way, be
concerned, be nervous, be paranoid, be uptight, because
your life is weighing in the balance of heaven and hell, and
you need to allow the Lord to transform your life.
And this is something none of us can do ourselves.
We need the work of God's grace and his Holy Spirit to transform
us. We can't this well, I'm going to
do better this week and I'm going to promise God I'll do
this and I'll, you know, you can't do it by the energy of
your human ability and your flesh.
It's through the power of God's Spirit.
And if God's Spirit lives in US, he's the one that enables us to
live of the Christian life. Amen.
It's God's Spirit. And that's good news because you
can't fake it. And if you've been faking it,
get the pressure off yourself and just finally say, God, I
can't do this. I need you to be my savior.
I need your Holy Spirit to live in me to enable me to keep these
commandments that I continually have a tendency to break.
For this in verse three of first John 5 is the love of God that
we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burden
burdensome. They're what enables us to
overcome sin. They live in victory as
Christians. They have an overcoming life.
It's the work of God's Spirit in us.
So you look at the commandments of God.
There might have been a time that you looked at in this way.
I know I did man those 10 commandments.
That's just part of it, you know, and, and I, I break them
all, you know, and I, what am I going to do?
These are impossible. Did you ever look at those
things and be honest with yourself and say these are
impossible to follow? Even on your best day, you're
not going to get 10 out of 10. You're going to break some of
them. Even you and me as Christians,
we break them. We break his commandments every
day. If we don't have him above every
other God, we're committing idolatry.
And how often do we allow the things of this world to get in
the way of our relationship with God and we've become idolaters.
We have to be serious and say, Lord, work on my heart by the
power of your spirit that I will not sin against you.
You're worried, Have I hid in my heart that I will not sin
against you? And it's awesome when the Holy
Spirit works in our lives because we find ourselves like
sort of floating in the sense of that we're overcoming things
that in the past we never were able to overcome before.
And and you might have a life besetting sin.
I know Christians that still struggle with life besetting
sins. The book of Hebrews say says we
all have them. A sin is so easily besets us,
but that doesn't mean just because it's a weakness that God
isn't able to cause us to overcome that sin if we follow
Him and obey His Word. So we ask for His mercy and His
help, and God is the one who's able, as it says in Jude, to
keep us from falling and present us faultless before His glory
with exceeding joy. It tells us in verse 15 of
Revelation 16 that Jesus is going to come as a thief.
A sudden surprising event. It's unexpected.
It's an unannounced appearance. Many years ago, when Cindy and I
were first married, we didn't have two cents to rub together,
but we had paychecks from Spencer gifts that that week.
And so we were so tired and it worked so hard.
We were in this like motel room in the winter, they run out and,
you know, you're right on the beach.
And, and so we, we loved it and we, that's all we had.
We they had, it was furnished and all we have is like a couple
duffel bags with some clothes in.
And we had money that week to actually buy some groceries, you
know, so we go to bed and we're tired.
Had one of those Polaroid instant cameras.
Remember those old cameras? You take the picture, you put
the film in and then you peel it back and the picture comes
alive. And, you know, it was like, wow,
this is, I think it was one of the first things we got after we
got married. But, but anyway, we're asleep
and we're tired. And for some reason that night,
I, I, I don't remember putting the chain on the door.
It was weird. I just turned the lock on the
door. So we're sound asleep.
All this sudden in the room, I felt God woke me up.
The Holy Spirit woke me up and I felt this darkness in the room
and, and I and I opened my eyes and I sat up and I saw this guy
Crouch down the bottom of my bed.
It freaked me out. I mean, just having someone in
your room that you weren't expecting to be there, an
unannounced guest and someone is visiting, you know, and you
weren't inviting them. And our hearts are pounding.
And all I know is that I started getting up.
I yelled something. I just started getting up.
Guy could have had a knife and killed me and raped my wife or
whatever, and it could have been horrible.
But by the grace of God, that guy took off and I went outside
to see where which way he went and he was completely gone.
And I'll tell you, that night was so difficult to go back to
sleep because every time we fell back to sleep, we'd wake up,
we'd be stirred thinking he's here again, he's here again,
he's in the room, he's here. And that's sort of how we have
to think about the presence of God.
He's here, He's here again, He's in this room, He's with us, He's
watching us, He sees us. We have time, guys, to deal with
our hearts. We have time to have our lives
change. We have time to forsake sin.
He's going to come as a thief in the night.
Sudden, surprising, unexpected. And so this is endorsement by
God's word that you would keep your heart clean, that you would
keep your garments clean through holiness and repentance.
You would be living for God and not living for sin.
And when he comes back, we wouldn't be ashamed at what he
might find us living for, right? That he would come back and we
could smile and say, man, I'm glad you came today because the
day's a good day with you, Lord, I'm doing exactly what I'm
supposed to be doing. I'm in the place that I'm
supposed to be. I'm I had a good devotional day
and I had a, a day of maybe I shared my faith or I honored my
boss or I love my wife or I love my kids the way the Bible
teaches me, or I'm, I'm seeking the things which are above and
not the things which are below. And, and, and how awesome will
it be when the Lord comes for us in the rapture and for those he
comes forth the second coming that have gotten saved in that
tribulation period, that he, he finds us doing the things that
he told us to do versus finding us doing things that we
shouldn't be doing. I mean, if we're saved by God's
grace, we're still going to be saved.
But I want to be ready, don't you, that He, the Master, finds
me doing as a Scripture, say what He told me to do.
So just as the first coming of Christ involve many phases over
33 year period of Christ's life, from the Annunciation to the
ascension of Christ, the second coming of Christ encompasses
phases that take place before, during, and beyond the
seven-year tribulation. We covered phase one several
times in the Book of Revelation and Thessalonians where Christ
comes from the church at the rapture.
First Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13 and 18.
You can review that and look at that again later.
Phase two of this movement of God in these last days was when
when Christ comes to judge the rebellious nations remaining on
the earth during the Tribulation.
And He does that through the seal judgment, through the trump
trumpet judgments and the and the bold plagues from Revelation
chapter 6 through Revelation chapter 18.
Phase 3 is when Christ comes to destroy the Antichrist and his
massive armies at Armageddon. And we'll get into that
Revelation chapter 1911 and phase 4.
The final phase is when Christ comes and establishes on earth
the prophecies millennial Kingdom of God and we read about
in Matthew 25 and Daniel chapter 2.
So we see in verse 15 for all of those who are awaiting this
event, whether those of us right now who are waiting for the
rapture of the church or those who are living in the time of
the tribulation to become Christians that will go through
this battle of Armageddon at the end of the tribulation.
Verse 16 through 18. And they gathered them together
to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.
And the 7th Angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud
voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying it
is done. And here we have described
what's spoken about in the book of Joel chapter 3.
The armies of the antichrists are ascending down to Armageddon
and in the valley plain of Jordan and that this huge piece
of real estate approximately 10 by 40 miles from northwest to
southeast, the gateway to Jerusalem.
This is where this battle will occur.
And we know from Revelation chapter 14, verse 19, it talks
about the great winepress of the wrath of God.
This is where this is going to happen.
This would be in the most cataclysmic battle in human
history on the face of the earth 17 to 21.
It speaks now about the 7th Angel pouring out this final
bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple of
heaven from the throne room saying it is done.
So this is the last major horrendous judgement that's
coming out from the the throne of God prior to this great
battle of Armageddon. He says it is done just like
Jesus said. It is finished when he's on the
cross. No more wrath of God to be
poured out on those who come to Christ.
The wrath of God is only to be poured out on those who reject
Jesus Christ. And we see here the 7th bowl is
concluding with these cataclysmic events here.
It speaks about this in verse 18.
Noises and thunderings and lightnings, and great earth
earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not
occurred since men were on the face of the earth.
Now the great city was divided into 3 parts, and the cities of
the nation fell, and great Babylon was remembered before
God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His
wrath. Again speaking about this this
judgement of God's wine press. Every island fled away, and the
mountains were not found, and great hail from heaven fell upon
men. Each hailstone about the weight
of a talent approximately 90 pounds.
Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since
the plague was exceeding great. And so we see this gigantic
hail, worldwide earthquakes, destruction of the Antichrist,
his reign and his role. These lightnings and thunders
that are spoken about in verse 18 remind us of what we read
about in Exodus chapter 19 as Moses began to come down off the
mountain and it says the people trembled because of the sound of
the Thunder and the brightness of the lightning.
People were aware this was not a normal weather pattern.
This was the holiness of God shaking the foundations of the
earth and this great earthquakes.
All these great scientists in the face of the earth, they're
bright, they're brilliant, they study, they know certain things.
Unfortunately, many of them aren't understanding the signs
of the times of the seasons that they don't believe that the
Bible is real and they don't believe that Jesus Christ is
God. And, and they got a lot of a lot
of problems, but nonetheless, this is one thing that many of
them agree on. There's this geologic fault line
and it's amazing how far this thing extends.
It extends through Palestine, Jordan Valley, down into Africa
and through the California coast.
I I pity people who are moving to California.
I'm glad for people who are moving away from California.
I'm just kidding. Randy's here going to
California. Gary and Cather are moving from
California. You need to talk to us brother
about the prophecies that are coming up.
But Calvary Chapel is all through Southern California and
will be will be take will be taken out before these things
are occurring. Praise God.
But the move of God that will give way of what sinners have
believed supported them all the all the people on their face of
the earth right now. They they ignore God for the
most part. They walk around the world like
it's their own. They don't understand or
acknowledge a creator. They could care less even if
there was 1. They're not going to pay
attention to them or listen to them.
And they're standing on this ground saying this is stable.
This I got control. I have, I have energy, I have
wealth, I have materialism, I have great gain.
I'm the master of my domain. I'm the king of my household and
nothing's going to change that. I'm in charge when this
earthquake begins to occur, the massive earthquake like the
world has never known. And I haven't ever been through
an earthquake. But people that have been, they
tell you it's like a horror, that you don't want to go
through it. It's extremely frightening.
Your whole world begins to fall out from under you.
Literally. Those who ignore this at this
time will be the ones that will realize that they laughed at us
because we have a crutch. They call our faith in Jesus
Christ. You guys need it because you're
weak. You need a crutch.
They're going to wish they could find a crutch during that time
of the earthquake because they'll be nothing that will be
able to hold them up but the mercy of God.
And it seems that the majority of people will still, as we read
last week at the end of verse 11, they did not repent of their
deeds. So this great city is divided,
it says, into three parts, Babylon.
Some people think Babylon's an ancient Rome, the revived Roman
Empire. Some people think it's Baghdad.
You know, it doesn't really matter where it is or what it
is. It is a literal place.
And it'll be revealed in the in the last days.
But it's also symbolic of the corrupt world system led by the
Antichrist. And this earthquake is going to
split this city in three parts. And we'll get into that in more
detail next week in chapter 17 and 18.
In verse 20, it talks about these islands and mountains that
are affected by this earthquake. Some people think that this will
occur when Jesus comes back and lands literally on earth and his
feet touch the Mount of Olives. And this the holiness of God
touching this wicked world, that's when everything will
begin to just break apart and his Messiah's triumphant
millennial reign that will eventually be set up as we read
in Psalm chapter 2, the weight of this stone, these hailstones
coming out of heaven that says uses this word talent, which is
parallel to the the weight measure 95 lbs.
So you can imagine something 95 lbs coming down out of the
heavens. The damage and the death it'll
cause will be incalculable. I don't want to be there and I
won't be there. And I pray if you're here today
and you're still on the fence about your need of a Savior and
salvation, you don't stick around for this.
I really believe that these things are sooner than later
just because of what's going on in the world.
I mean, there's never it's, you know, people talk about the
stars being lined up when when Christ comes back, it seems like
everything is just falling into place.
And the prophecies, it says in the last days people will be
lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God.
That's apparent everywhere. People will go to churches to
have their ears tickled. You know, they want to have
things that will tell them how the wonderful they are, make
them feel good and know what they would perceive as
negativity or, and no down or message.
You know this make tell me how great I am and, and make me feel
good and comfortable in my sin and what I want to do and, and
don't bother me. Don't don't say anything that
would cause me to be convicted or something.
But God, God, you know, he is so patient and so merciful.
It's a wonder he hasn't done this already to everybody.
But in his mercy he has a body, a bride, a group of people, the
elect that he loves and he cherishes.
And and he's come to this world that has not received him and
rejected him. And he came to his own and his
own received him not. And yet he comes with love to
save the world from their sin. And very few people and the
populace from the beginning of time to the end of time come to
him. It's it's a mystery.
And so these people, when all this is happening, Can you
imagine this weight of these hailstones coming down?
There's no place to go, no place to run, no place to hide.
And they're still cursing God. They're blaspheming him.
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
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 in to Grace
FM 91.7 FM and they can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.
This has been living waters of grace.