This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
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?
Have you ever eaten something that tasted bland?
Maybe it was some chicken that was under seasoned or some
guacamole that was missing its salt and lime.
You see, salt helps everything have some flavor and can change
the complexion of a meal. In today's message, Pastor Clark
says you must be the salt and light in this world.
Everything around is saying to turn away from God, but it's
your job to make a difference. Change what people think of who
God is and push them to have a relationship with him.
Now, here's Pastor Clark in the Book of Revelation chapter 13
with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
It's sort of like John F Kennedy, as 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?
As a matter of fact, the psalmist even uses that.
But people will be. Declaring this person as the
leader in 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 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
they'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 him to
a concentration camp. And their goal, they had medical
doctors that shot him 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
spared them in the midst of the horror of the persecution and
the trials and the trauma. And it was horrible when you it
doesn't 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 the 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 role even in our time before we're
taken out at 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 we're like fair
weather Christians, hey I'll follow Christ as long as lifes
good and everything is cool I'll follow them.
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 said, 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 greatly 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 let 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 is 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 when 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. I was 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.
But you know, Jesus said, and it says here, that the devil in
this particular section of Scripture will overcome them.
So we know this. Isn't the church this is
referring to believers who people who become believers at
the time? Of the Tribulation, because
Jesus said upon this rock I will build my church, remember.
He's talking to Peter and he's telling them, Peter, who do you
say that I am? And Peter said, you are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus told him, upon this affirmation, upon this belief,
upon this faith for all people, I will build my.
Church and what do you say and the.
Gates of hell will not prevail against it so.
In the instance here where it tells us that the devil is going
to prevail and overcome them, we know it's not referring to the
Church because, as I said, the church has been.
Taken. Out at the rapture and in verse
8 it says all who dwell on the earth will worship him whose
names have not been written in the book of life.
So all. The people on the earth, whether
they want to or not, will be forced to worship this.
One the way they'll worship him is to.
Receive the mark of the Beast, they'll pay.
Homage to him And basically when you take the mark of the beast,
it's all over. There's no more opportunity for
repentance. You've already cast your vote to
trust and believe in the Evil 1, The Book of Life if you flip
over to Revelation 20 if you've never heard of it.
I want to. Encourage you today that.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has a book in heaven
that your name is written in. There won't be any mistake on
the last day of judgment. The books will be.
Open. And this is what it'll this is
what will happen. And I saw Thrones, and then that
sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.
I saw the souls of those who have been beheaded for the
witness of Jesus and for the word of God, who had not
worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received His
mark on their foreheads or on their.
Hands the wonderful glory, you know God, you know our bodies
can be taken out of this world, but no one can kill our souls.
What's going to live? Forever is our.
Souls in heaven. With God in a new body.
And so even those who were martyred during the tribulation
period, we see them in this heavenly scene at the end of
time that they're alive, they're not dead, and they're given
glory because they didn't worship the beast, they didn't
receive his mark in their foreheads.
And they lived and they reigned with Christ for 1000 years, the
thousand year reign, the millennial Kingdom after the
second coming and verse 5 but the rest of the dead did not
live again until the thousand years were finished.
And this is the first resurrection.
It says blessed and holy is he who has part in the resurrection
over such the second death has no power, but they shall be
priests of God's God and of Christ, and shall reign with him
1000 years so. The good news is, today, if
you're a Christian and you're trusting in Christ, where's your
name? It's written in the book of
life. Can it be erased?
Oh God has no eraser. Once you're there, he's placed
you there for all. Eternity if it was.
If there was an eraser, that would be up to you then, right?
Oh, I messed up. I got to do something to try to
get back in again. It's because of Christ.
And what He's done for us, His grace and His mercy, that our
names are written in the book of life.
Jesus says to the. Disciples.
They're out and they're evangelizing and they're all
excited and they come back. We had power over the devil.
We cast out demons and we did this.
They're all excited. About the miracles and.
Jesus says I saw Satan fall from.
Heaven like lightning, he says. Don't be excited that you have
authority over spirits and they're subject to you.
But he says rejoice. In this because your names.
Are written in the Book of Life. Your names are written in
heaven. That's what we rejoice in.
That's the good news. So where are we today?
Where are you? Today, do you truly love God?
Do you love? Christ do you?
Love the Holy Spirit. Or do we daily?
Have no relationship. With God is your.
Back to God today. Do you curse God?
Do you ignore God? Or do you desire to have a
relationship with God? Do you love Him?
Do you seek to honor him? Do.
You seek to serve Him. Do you seek to worship Him?
Do you seek to praise and magnify Him?
Do you live your life in continual metanoia, which means
repentance? Lord, have mercy on me, the
Sinner. If you live that way and you
examine yourself daily because you want to be found faithful by
the grace of God, then Christ is your Savior.
And this is not your savior, but your Lord.
A lot of people think, well, I can come to Jesus and disbelieve
a fire insurance policy, don't have to go to hell and all that
kind of stuff, but I don't have to really follow him.
That's a deception. The Bible clearly says and Jesus
says. Himself.
Why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things I say at the
final judgment when he's judging the sheep from the goat?
He knows those who are his and those who aren't.
And those who claim that they knew him by all the things they
did in their life, Jesus says depart from you cursed.
I never knew you. So we see that as we look at
what God is doing in these last days and how he's.
Moving, we all have to realize. If anyone has an ear, as it says
in verse 9, let him hear. It's also interesting in verse 9
of chapter 13 it doesn't say If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
What the Spirit says to the church.
He said that in chapter 2 and three, the church is no longer
here. He's speaking to those who are
going to be. Living during that time, if
anyone has an ear, let him hear. First Revelation, chapter 3 Six.
When he talked to the churches, he said he who has an ear, let
him hear. What the Spirit says to the
churches. So again, evidence and
documentation that the Church has been removed from the earth.
Outside of this chaotic. Time.
So the devil's going to make war against the Saints, against the
believers in the Tribulation. He's going.
To take them captive and he's going to destroy them.
It says in verse 10 he leads into captivity, 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. It tells us in the book of
Psalms, precious in the sight of the Lord is the.
Death of his Saints. I don't want to be martyred.
I prefer to live a long life and to stop breathing, you know?
That's my preference. When one guy died on the 18th
hole of the golf course, that's a nice way.
He sunk the putt and then he had a heart attack.
He died. That's the preferable way,
right? But you know, to be a martyr for
Christ is really a glorious thing.
We studied the earth early church in the in the apostles,
how they were taken out of this world through martyrdom, the
early church fathers who were martyred.
For their stand and their faith in Jesus Christ, there's a
special blessing for those who have been martyred.
In Revelation chapter 6 as we start to wind down verses 9, it
says when he opens the 5th seal he says I saw under the altar
the souls of those who have been slain for the word of God and
for the testimony which they held.
Wouldn't it be awesome? I'm not trying to be like heroic
here, but to be recognized in heaven that I died for my faith
in Christ. And for the word of God, and it
says a crowd with a loud voice. These are the martyrs saying,
How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you a judge and avenge our
blood on those who. Dwell on the earth.
You know the. Martyrs are waiting for the.
Day when justice will come. And God will deal with the.
Ungodly on the face of the earth.
And it says a white robe was given to each of them, and it
was said to them that they should rest a little while
longer, until both with the number of their fellow servants
and their brethren who would be killed as they were were.
Completed So all those who've been martyred from the beginning
of time are walking around in robes of righteousness in the
heaven. They're distinct from everyone
else, not better, but different because of how they gave their
lives for their faith, and they'll be remembered throughout
eternity for why they did. What they did?
But their heart is also. Burden and concern.
For all those who are still on earth that will have to die the
tragic death that they've died and the.
Suffering and the struggle and the trials, but it's wonderful
to know that we see here in Revelation that these martyrs.
Aren't dead, but they're. Living and they're walking and
they're relating with the. Throne of God and.
As it said in Revelation. Chapter 20.
The souls of those who have been beheaded for their witness to
Jesus and for the word of God, they not had not worshipped the
beast or his image, and not received his mark in their
foreheads or on their hands. God knows your heart, He knows
mine. He knows where you're at.
He knows where I'm at. But this say for.
Example that someone interrupted our church service.
Today and they came in and they were with such and such
government and. They had to make us aware of
some changes that were happening and effective today there would
be no ability for you to use. Your bank account.
Unless you receive this new number in homage to the new
world ruler, that you have to be under surveillance and be under
his control. And you know, you have to have
this, this mark in order to feed your kids and to pay your bills
and your mortgage. And that they're lying.
They're saying everything's going to be better.
It's going to be you're going to prosper and everything's going
to be good. If you didn't know what this
said, you'd be real tempted to think, well, that makes sense,
right? I'm going to get it right.
You'd be crazy not to. But knowing what the Bible warns
about and teaches, how many of us would this get up and stand
up and say, I'm sorry, I can't take that and walk out?
That's a question you have to ask yourself because that's
really the dividing line between real faith and real trust in the
Kingdom of God or actually having your trust in this
current world system that we live in today that has already
failed us right? Numerous times.
The stock market crash of 29 when everybody lost everything.
People jumping out of buildings because they were trusting in
their finances. The financial crash that
happened a few years ago where many of us that had any kind of
investments lost at least half of them, if not more.
Jesus says, you know, don't trust in uncertain riches,
layout for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do
not corrupt or thieves break in to steal away.
Jim Elliott, that famous missionary, said he is no fool
to lose what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.
So May God exercise our hearts as we think about these things,
preparing us for the return of the Lord today.
If you're here and you've never put your faith in Christ and
trusted in Him explicitly, and God will be merciful to you if
you mean it, and pray and repent and ask Him to save you.
And if you're here today as a Christian and you've just sort
of been playing around. And sort of slip sliding away a
little bit there. You want to allow the Lord to
bring you back into that place of fullness and depth with Him
so that you can walk closely with Him and also have a mind
every day that you want lost people to know what Christ has
freely told you. It's good news, right?
And people need to know. But I'd hate to be a neighbor or
friend and they knew you or me their whole life.
And all of a sudden we're gone. Like, what?
What happened? Where did they go?
Well, and the government's saying, hey, aliens took them or
who knows what conspiracy it'll come up with.
The world will believe it. And then the people are here.
And then they're sort of finding out that we didn't tell them
what they needed to know. I'd be upset, wouldn't you?
Someone like claimed to be a Christian that didn't actually
give me Full disclosure. I'm not.
I can't make anybody. You're just giving the
information for what it's worth and let them make the decision.
But at least there's there's disclosure, right?
So we need to pray that God would help us.
Disclose the truth to. Lost people.
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 for 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
judgments 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
judgments 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.