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.
For Christians, we're not of this world.
The Bible says we have a heavenly Father who's builder
and maker, who's God. So the believers are not under
the authority of the devil. But if you're here today and
you're lost and you don't know Jesus Christ, you're caught in
the snare of the devil. You're under the power of his
influence and you're in bondage to do His will, and the only way
you can get free from that is the gospel.
Do you want to be here to deal with this stuff if you're not a
Christian? Pastor Clark asks you a pointed
question today. So do you?
Do you really want to be around for the things that are
mentioned in the books of Second Thessalonians in Revelation?
As Pastor Clark continues on in his message, you come to realize
that the wrath of God is meant as a consequence for those in
the world who have willfully run the other way from salvation.
So let me urge you today, run toward Jesus, run toward
salvation. It will be the greatest choice
you will ever make. Now here's Pastor Clark in
Second Thessalonians chapter 2 with today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace. Only he, capital H, referring to
God Himself who now restrains, will do so until He's taken out
of the way. What's restraining all this
stuff from occurring right now to a great degree is still the
Church in this world. And when the lawless one will be
revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breadth of his
mouth, and destroy with the brightnesses of his coming.
Even though this Antichrist will be raised up one day and he'll
rule and reign for a period of time on earth, Christ will come
back at the second coming in and deal with Him in a very, very
dramatic way. The coming of the lawless 1 is,
according to the working of Satan, with all power signs and
lying wonders and with all unrighteousness deception among
those who perish because they did not receive the love of the
truth. That's what's heartbreaking, all
the people in the face of the earth being deceived to believe
and to follow this world ruler because they did not receive the
love of the truth, that they might be saved.
I pray today, if you're here, you would receive the love of
the truth that you can be saved. And for this reason God will
send them a strong delusion. God will send them strong
delusion, and they should believe a lie, that they all may
be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in
unrighteousness. Now, when John is speaking here
in chapter 4 and writing down the things that the Lord has
given him to reveal to the body of Christ, he's seeing all this
stuff and living color way ahead of the time it's supposed to
happen. And this book was written, It
was written a long time ago, thousands of years ago, and it
is so contemporary and current with the times that we are
currently living in now. And so he's seeing all that's
going to take place as a prelude to the tribulation, which will
actually start in chapter 6, verse one.
We'll get to that in the weeks ahead.
That's when Jesus, a lamb, will open up the first seal.
And the first seal is a picture of this Antichrist on the face
of the earth. He's going to pose as a savior
of the world. And in verse 1 of chapter 4, he
says again, the future is insight.
He says, I will show you the things which must, must take
place after this. He says he was caught up.
He was told to come up here and God would show him what was
going to be revealed. And I'd like you to look at
First Thessalonians chapter 4. This is really an important
section of Scripture for us here today who believe that the Lord
will come before this great tribulation.
It says in First Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13, Paul, his
passion for the church, He doesn't want people to be in
ignorance. He wants us to know what's going
to happen, what's going on. I love what he says here, but I
do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who
have fallen asleep, meaning those who've passed on and who
have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so God
will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.
Now when someone dies, a Christian dies and their bodies
in, you know, the casket that isn't that person anymore.
Their body is a shell. They're out of that body.
The Bible says they'd be absent in the body is to be present
with the Lord. So as soon as you die, if you're
a Christian, soon as I die, I'm not going into some ground and
the worms are going to get me and you aren't either.
We're going to be taken out by God's power and taken up to be
with Jesus is the apostle Paul says to be absent.
The body is present with the Lord, but the physical body will
still be in the grave. I did a funeral this week and I
reminded the people that this dear woman who died at 92, that
love Jesus wasn't at the grave site going into the ground.
She was already with the Lord, but her physical body, her old
body, was going into the ground. And it says For this we say to
you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain
until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those
who are asleep. For the Lord himself will
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an
Archangel, and with the trump of God.
It's interesting that that trumpet shows up every time
we're talking about this truth of the rapture being caught
away. And it says, and the dead in
Christ will rise first, meaning the physical bodies of all those
Christians and believers in the Old Testament, New Testament
that died, that their bodies are in the grave.
When Christ comes back, those bodies are going to be
resurrected, where the Bible says this mortality will put on
immortality, this corruptible, the old dead body will put on
incorruption and we'll be receiving these resurrected
bodies. Those who are dead in Christ at
this time, keeping in mind that we're referring to the body,
their spirit will be reunited with the new body that they'll
have at the time of the resurrection.
And then it says in verse 17, then we who are alive, that
means people like us that are still walking around on the
earth shall be caught up. And that's where we get the word
from, the Latin word rapture. We will be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet, keep the Lord in the air and
thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Isn't that awesome? It says, therefore comfort one
another with these words. We need to remind each other and
encourage each other no matter how tough life gets and what
comes down on us at times that the best is yet to come for the
Christian. So you know, you're driving down
the road, you're in an airplane, you're getting ready to get your
tooth pulled and you think, man, I'd love to miss this
opportunity of getting this pain with this dentist right now.
All of a sudden, the Trump sounds and you're out of there.
You're just getting right ready to write your check to the IRS.
You got to pay them taxes again, right?
And you're taking out right at the right time.
You know, I mean, there's so many awesome things that are
going to occur and we're going to be literally vanishing from
the earth. So the people in the world that
are still here, what happened? Where did these people go?
And there'll be some kind of government conspiracy thing.
All what? These people were the real
troublemakers and they were the wackos and the fanatics, you
know, and they finally, like, all hid and took off somewhere
and we don't know where. I mean, they'll make up all kind
of stories to try to keep the human race stable in such a
period of catastrophic like, why, how, how could this happen?
And so the importance of understanding the rapture of the
church, we ascribe to the rapture of the Church of Jesus
Christ prior to the great tribulation.
Don't confuse the rapture with the second coming of Jesus
Christ, OK? Because that's a completely
different event that occurs after the tribulation.
And verse two or three of chapter 4 of Revelation, it says
that God is on the throne here. Immediately I was in the Spirit
and behold, a throne was set in heaven and one capital, O&E,
that's referring to God. He's sitting on the throne, and
this throne is a throne of judgment.
This is a throne where God's going to begin to cast down all
the things upon the earth that need to occur in order for the
discipline and the justice of God's anger over a world that
like completely ignores his love and doesn't want to have
anything to do with them. And so in his fury, he's pouring
out this wrath on this rebellious world.
Now keep in mind as we're studying this guys, that God is
a God of love. God, it breaks his heart.
But he's just, he has to deal with the crimes of the human
race. He just can't ignore them and
act like they're not a big deal because look what they do to
people. They destroy lives everyday.
Babies are being aborted, right? I mean, there's more babies
being aborted in this world since the beginning of time than
any kind of Holocaust or any kind of world.
How long will God be able to put up with this?
There's a time when he says enough's enough.
The the sex slave trade of little children in India and and
Pakistan and other places in the world where they're taking young
kids 5-6 years old and selling them into sex slavery.
I mean, it's horrible. I mean, we're we're sort of
isolated at times on to the horror of the world that happens
behind the scenes every day. If we could see it the way those
people have to experience it and hear their tears on their
pillows at night crying out to a God they don't even know exists.
Many of them, we would say, like they say at the end of the Book
of Revelation, Maranatha, come quickly Lord Jesus, come
quickly, Lord Jesus. And that was the heart of the
early church. And so there's this beautiful
rainbow though around the throne at the same time.
And this is a beautiful truth here.
The rainbow around the throne is representing God's mercy in the
midst of judgment. In the midst of God's judgment
when He destroyed the earth the first time with the flood,
right, He promises after that event that He would put a
rainbow in the sky. And every time we would see that
rainbow, we would be reminded that He would never destroy the
earth by a flood again. God's mercy in the midst of
judgment and His promise in Genesis 9 regarding that the
earth will not be destroyed by a flood again even in this time of
judgment. And the wrath of God is about to
be poured out upon the earth, His mercy still going to be
present on the earth at the time.
Do you know that there's going to be many people who will come,
believers during that tribulation period?
They'll be your friends, your relatives, your neighbors, your
coworkers that you tried to tell about the gospel.
You tried to remind them about the love of God.
And they need to get saved. I'll do that later.
It's no big deal. I'm not interested.
Whatever. And so, you know, you only can
tell them, right? You only can warn them, tell
them the house is on fire. They don't want to get out, that
you, you know, you try to drag them out.
But people, they don't want to think that the house is on fire.
They think everything's OK. What's going to happen, though?
You're gone. And all of a sudden the first
thing you're going to think is I remember what he told me or she
told me. This is that event that they
were always excited about and anticipating coming and
happening. What they said is true.
And now I realize that I need Jesus too.
And so many will become believers at that time.
There'll be no bow or beautiful rainbow around the last judgment
as we get in chapter 20. When we get near the end of the
book, that's a great white throne judgment, and that's when
there's no more chance. That's the final judgment when
God will separate the sheep from the goat, the believer from the
unbeliever, and those who are not found written in that book
of life. Because because God puts down
everybody who believes in a book.
Our names are there today, guys. It can't be taken out.
And the good news is, is that when we stand before the Lord in
that last day, all of us in that final judgment, He'll see your
name in there. If you're born again, you're
going to be sent into the Kingdom.
But those whoever's name was not found written in the Lamb's book
of life, all unbelievers, all those who rejected Christ will
be cast into the lake of fire and be in hell forever and ever.
And there's no more second chance.
No more second chance. Now the elders it refers to in
Revelation 4, chapter 4 and five, there's these 24 elders
sitting on these 24 Thrones. And we believe this symbolizes
the leaders of the congregation in the Old Testament, in the New
Testament, that in the Old Testament there was 12 tribes
that ruled in Israel. And the representatives, the
leaders of those 12 tribes will be sitting on 12 of those
Thrones. And the other 12 will be in the
New Testament. There are 12 apostles
representing us before the Kingdom of God.
And they're sitting, physically sitting, which is a beautiful
picture that they're wrestling from their earthly laborers.
There's no more work to do. Everything's been accomplished.
They've finished their task on earth.
They've been faithful to do what the Lord's told them to do.
And they're just sitting there waiting and they're clothed in
white raiment, white clothing. And this is a picture that God
has justified them from their sins, the garment of Christ's
righteousness. You know, the beauty of
salvation and what Christ has done.
I, I still sin and you'd still sin, right?
We, we know that the Bible says if we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. We're, we're, we're deluded If
we think we're perfect, none of us are perfect here.
The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is
that whenever you come to Christ as a Sinner, Christ wraps you in
his righteousness. His blood cleanses you from all
your sins. And so as a father sees us now,
he doesn't see us as rebellious, hateful, ungodly people anymore.
He sees us as his kids, and he sees us wrapped in the
righteousness and the robe of Jesus Christ, the unbeliever.
When he stands before the Father, a Sinner has no covering
to protect him from a holy God. Because the only way you and I
can stand before a holy God is by having Christ in between us,
right? Because if we don't have Christ,
we have no foundation, no leg to stand upon.
And so they're also wearing these beautiful crowns.
It says they are, they have crowns of gold on their heads.
And these crowns represent victor crowns.
These people were faithful in their life to follow the Lord.
And they're being rewarded because they overcame through
Christ's blood upon their struggle on this earth.
And the wonderful thing is that you and I are all, we're all
going to be given crowns if we're true followers of Jesus
Christ. And these crowns are beautiful
because they represent a life. And, and I know you guys and,
and myself, we all have trials and struggles.
We have tragedies that come into our life.
We have difficulties that sometimes we don't know how
we're going to get through the next day.
But what causes us to persevere and to keep pressing on is the
Lord, isn't it? He empowers us, He strengthens
us. Some people might say to you,
how did you get through that? How did you make it through that
that difficult time in your life?
And you know there's only one answer.
It's the Lord. And you'll be given a crown one
day for overcoming. And it wasn't your own strength
that caused you to overcome. It was Christ in you that gave
you the power to overcome. It isn't amazing.
He gives us a crown. What do you give me this for?
Lord, I didn't deserve it. I know you didn't, but I did it
for you and I love you. Wear it, enjoy it.
And the beauty of that crowd is one day we'll be able to take
them off. And when the Lord is on the
throne at the end of time, we'll be able to go up and offer
something to Him, something He gave to us to give back to Him.
And it'll be so wonderful to cast our crowns at His feet.
Revelation chapter 2, verse 10 talks about Smyrna, the
persecuted church. They were tested and they were
tried and they had different difficult trials.
I bet they were given a crown of life because they overcame
through Christ. Jesus says in the world you will
have tribulation. Anybody have difficulty in here
today? Raise your hand.
Anybody have trials? And sometimes you don't know how
you're going to get through the next day.
We all are there. But he says this is Jesus in the
world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer have
overcome the world and so we overcome through Christ and
these that represents the leaders and those who are
wearing a crown of life. They're the faithful ones that
were faithful to death. They didn't ever give up.
They never denied Christ. They never renounced him once
they received him. They believed until the end.
These 24 we believe in this chapter 4 have already been
caught up into the heavens as we just studied in First
Thessalonians chapter 4. Now they're witnessing and
they're awaiting the beginning of God's righteous judgment upon
an ungodly world. So we're all going to be up
there at this time in in the future, and we're going to be
aware of what's going to begin to transpire upon the face of
the earth. And I believe as Jesus is ever
living to make intercession for us.
Praying for you and me right now, every one of us that will
have strength to persevere. We will be praying along with
him in the Kingdom for all those loved ones who are left on
earth, that God's mercy will reach them and they'll become
believers even in that horrible time.
As we conclude the last thing he talks about verse 5, we'll pick
up verse 6 next week. He talks about the throne
proceeding lightnings and thunderings and voices the
lightnings and thunderings and voices, a picture of ominous
judgement. They all symbolize God's
presence coming near for judgment.
We see this when God gave the law on Mount Sinai.
You guys watch the 10 commandments and the movie and
whenever Moses went up there and the lightning and the Thunder
and the noise and this the the cloud and this the glory of God,
it was, it was frightening. Everybody on the face of the
earth at the time below the mountains had their face to the
ground. They were wondering what in the
world is going on. And Moses had to go up and walk
in the midst of that, God's presence being near.
And this was seen at the time that God gave his law to Moses,
saying, this is my character, this is what I want for the
people I've created. This is my holiness, my
righteousness. It says it came to pass on the
third day in the morning that there was thunderings and
lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of
the trumpet was very loud. So to all the people who were in
the camp trembled. I don't know about you, but
sometimes I'm at home and there's a lightning storm or
Thunder and you hear it a distance, no big deal.
But when it comes and it sounds like it's coming upon your
house, it shakes you, doesn't it?
I mean, what is, man? That you are mindful of us,
Lord. 1 Little ZAP on a golf course could take you or me out
like that. And the Thunder and the
lightning of God's power and His glory being revealed, and the
and the wrath of God coming down upon the earth.
People are going to be fleeing for their lives, trying to hide
under the rocks and mountains. But you can't hide from God's
presence during the apocalypse. There will be great physical
violence and disaster about to be poured out upon the whole
earth. Revelation 11.
We'll talk more about that in verse 5.
It talks about the seven lamps. And this portrays the all
present Holy Spirit who's everywhere present and seeth all
things. And the Holy Spirit is a witness
here today with us guys. In John 16, it says the Holy
Spirit is here to convict the world of sin, of righteousness
and of judgment of sin because they do not believe in me.
The Lord God wants everyone to believe.
He's not willing that any should perish, but all should come to
repentance. The Holy Spirit's main ministry
is to convict us and show us I'm lost and I need a Savior.
That happened to me when I was 20 years old.
I didn't think I needed anybody. And then God got me in a place
in my life, as I'm sure He has many of you.
There was no more opportunity to negotiate.
I needed a Savior. I needed to be saved.
He convicts of righteousness because he goes to his Father
and you see me no more. In other words, the work is
finished. Christ proved He is who He said
He is. He's at the right hand of the
Father and of judgment. And that's the last conviction
because the ruler of this world is judged.
Second Corinthians 44 talks about Satan being the God of
this world. There is a counterfeit God and
there's a real God. The counterfeit God is Satan.
His major influence is over the mindset expressed by the ideals,
opinions, goals, hopes, and views of the majority of people.
The way the world Thinks guys is jaded because it's influenced by
the God of this world. It says his influences encompass
the world's philosophies, education and commerce.
The thoughts, ideas, speculations and false religions
of the world are under the control of the deceiver, the
liar, Satan, and they have sprung from his lies and his
deceptions. And it started right in the
garden. Remember Eve?
She's there and she's dealing with this temptation and the
devil's telling her, hey, if you eat this apple, you can become
like God. And she's like thinking, wow,
that sounds pretty, pretty interesting.
And she gets Adam over there and convinces him this is what they
should do. And Satan just took the word of
God, just twisted a little bit and said, hath not God said?
That's a little bit of doubt to not trust what God had told them
to stay away from this particular fruit.
But even though we have this enemy who's influencing this
world, he's referred to as a God of this world.
He's not the true God, and the true God is still in overall
control. Satan only can work within the
boundaries God has set. He only has dominion over lost
people. He doesn't have dominion over
you and me now, right? We're Christians.
We're not of this world. The Bible says we have a
heavenly Father who's builder and maker is God.
So the believers are not under the authority of the devil.
But if you're here today and you're lost and you don't know
Jesus Christ, you're caught in the snare of the devil, you're
under the power of his influence, and you're in bondage
to do his will. And the only way you can get
free from that is the gospel. Do you want to be here to deal
with this stuff if you're not a Christian?
I mean, why wouldn't you want to give your life to Christ today,
to be spared from the wrath that's to come?
And sometimes people think, well, what's that mean to become
a Christian? What do I have to do?
All you have to do is believe. You have to realize that Christ
is who he said He is, that he died for you, and that he rose
again and he's the only one that can save you.
This has been Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Clark.
We're going through the challenging and also intriguing
Book of Revelation. Whether you're a fan of reading
ahead in books of fiction, there's such a benefit to
reading ahead in the Bible to read about how it all ends.
But in an interesting turn of events, the Book of Revelation
is not really the end, but rather the beginning.
It's the end of life as we know it here on Earth, but there's so
much to look forward to. But what comes after all?
The judgement of the earth and those who reject God?
There's a lot to work through, and it can be heartbreaking to
read through the intense judgements and wrath that will
come on those who hate God with all their might.
The thing is, God has given chance upon chance to these
people. They don't want it.
So the outcome is that there are judgements and consequences for
those who've rejected the good news and the gift of salvation
that's offered through Jesus's death and resurrection.
Are you one who has heard about these things but doesn't really
want it because you want to live life on your terms?
Trust me, living for Jesus is so much better.
That doesn't mean it will be easy, but as you listen and read
through Revelation with us, you'll come to a stark
realization that you don't want to be on earth when the
apocalypse happens. So check out Calvary Chapel
online.com to learn how to come to a saving grace through faith
that will allow you to be with Jesus for eternity.
We'd also love to meet you in person at Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland. Come join us at 400 E Pittsburgh
St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.
This has been living waters of grace.