Sermon

Living Waters of Grace for May 6th, 2026

Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  1. This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark

  2. Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County

  3. of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he

  4. continues teaching through God's Word.

  5. The world system is a system where people live against God.

  6. They have no conscience. They have no conception of good

  7. or evil. They just basically do whatever

  8. they want to do. They're under the influence, the

  9. Bible says, of the Prince of the power of the air.

  10. Who's Satan? He's the one that blinds people

  11. to their need of a savior. He's the one that tells you it's

  12. not hip to follow Christ. It's not cool to be a Christian.

  13. It's better to follow the ways of darkness.

  14. Throughout history, we see nations conquering nations.

  15. There were times when that might have meant just wiping people

  16. out and taking their land. But many times the people were

  17. given a choice to pledge their loyalty to the conquering nation

  18. and assimilate into its culture. In today's message, Pastor Clark

  19. wants you to know that even if you live in this world, you

  20. don't have to pledge your loyalty to it.

  21. As a Christian, your loyalty belongs to Christ, and you have

  22. no part in the Kingdom of darkness.

  23. Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation Chapter 17 with

    Revelation 17 chapter mention

  24. today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

  25. Revelation 17 and some of your bibles will have a sub heading

  26. over the chapter. Mine says a scarlet woman and

  27. the scarlet Beast. Sounds like a good title for a

  28. movie, huh? And it's fascinating that we're

  29. living in these days of the religious world of Babylon.

  30. We talk about Babylon as at one time being a literal city in the

  31. Mideast, and it will rise up again in the last days to be the

  32. place of power for the Antichrist to roll into reign.

  33. But we are also living in this time of Babylon now, which is

  34. also seen and described in the history of the church as the

  35. world system. And unfortunately, we are all

  36. part of this religious Babylon. We're living in the world.

  37. The Bible tells us we're in the world, but we're not to be of

  38. the world. Amen.

  39. But we are all being exposed to the falseness of the religious

  40. system that is coming up on our country right now and the rest

  41. of the world. And so we'll get into that in in

  42. a couple minutes. But we studied back in

  43. Revelation chapter 16, verse 19 and chapter 14, verse 8,

    Revelation 16:19

  44. declaring the history of the eventual destruction and fall of

  45. Babylon. And in Revelation 17 and 18,

  46. which is what we're going to be studying the next several weeks,

  47. the fall of Babylon is very carefully detailed.

  48. It's interesting. Babylon is mentioned in the

  49. Bible 287 times in the Scriptures, more than any other

  50. city except for Jerusalem. Babylon at one time, as I said,

  51. was a literal city on the Euphrates River.

  52. In Genesis Chapter 11, verse one through 9, we see right after

    Genesis 11 chapter mention

  53. the flood that Babylon was the seed of the civilization of the

  54. world at that time, and it was a place that expressed organized

  55. hostility toward God. It's where the tower Babel was.

  56. If you remember when all those folks thought that they could

  57. figure out the secrets of the universe, if they build a tower

  58. high enough into the heavens, they would be able to find out

  59. what was happening behind the curtain, so to speak.

  60. Later on, Babylon was the capital of the empire that

  61. cruelly conquered Judah. To the Jews, Babylon was the

  62. essence of all evil, the embodiment of cruelty, the foe

  63. of God's people, and the lasting type of sin, carnality, lust and

  64. greed. In John's day, the apostle

  65. John's day, the city of Rome was seen as a type of this city of

  66. Babylon. It was and and a sense Babylon

  67. at that time because it antagonized and opposed the

  68. Christians faith. Now, when you think about cities

  69. today and where we live, you might think of the most

  70. decadent, ungodly cities in the nation.

  71. Usually they're the cities that have the most population, like

  72. Los Angeles or New York City. We think of Paris and and some

  73. other places in the world that just have a tendency to be

  74. cities that are set up to live in all kind of depravity and all

  75. kind of immorality and ungodliness and greed and lust.

  76. And they're cities that are, for the most part, clearly forsaking

  77. God and their political decisions and how they lead

  78. their communities. The concept of Babylon is even

  79. more intense, as we'll study in Revelation 17 and 18 here in the

  80. next couple weeks. The reign of Antichrist is

  81. spreading around the world today, even though he's

  82. literally not a real person as of yet.

  83. But today and throughout history we see Babylon as the world

  84. system and under the Antichrist it will even be more evident

  85. when he is set up on the earth as never seen before.

  86. Ephesians chapter 2, verse two and three.

    Ephesians 2 chapter mention

  87. This is what it describes about the world and about where many

  88. of us were at one time and where some of you still maybe are.

  89. It says at one time you walked according to the course of this

  90. world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the

  91. Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also

  92. we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh,

  93. fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

  94. And we're by nature children of wrath just as others.

  95. So the world system is a system where people live against God.

  96. They have no conscience. They have no conception of good

  97. or evil. They just basically do whatever

  98. they want to do. They're under the influence, the

  99. Bible says, of the Prince of the power of the air.

  100. Who's Satan. He's the one that blinds people

  101. to their need of a savior. He's the one that tells you it's

  102. not hip to follow Christ. It's not cool to be a Christian.

  103. It's better to follow the ways of darkness.

  104. There's a propensity in the human heart before we become

  105. Christians to want to follow the Prince of the power of the air.

  106. We believe that there's a God, but before we know Christ, our

  107. God is the God of this world, the Bible says, and it's Satan

  108. himself. It says he's the spirit who now

  109. works. And everyone who's rebelling

  110. against God, everyone who hates God, everyone who denies God,

  111. everyone who's walking away from God is controlled by this spirit

  112. of Antichrist. And it says at one time all of

  113. us, not the some of us, all of us lived in some degree in the

  114. lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of what our fallen

  115. nature dictated to us. And we were by nature children

  116. of wrath, meaning enemies of God, even as the rest of the

  117. human race. So the only hope for people is

  118. Jesus Christ, because later on in that chapter it says, but God

  119. in his rich mercy when we were dead in Christ has quickened us

  120. together with Christ. By grace you are saved.

  121. So unless Christ came to pull us up out of that darkness and out

  122. of that place of rebellion, all of us would be doomed, right?

  123. Aren't you glad that Christ reached down to you when you

  124. weren't perhaps looking for Him, but He drew you to Himself?

  125. He called you to Himself and pulled you out of this wicked

  126. system of this world? Not the beauty of creation that

  127. God has made. The oceans, the mountains, the

  128. rivers, the wildlife, the forests, all the wonderful

  129. things of God's creation has been defiled by the evil 1 And

  130. so instead of man looking at the creation and worshiping and

  131. glorifying God, man ignores the creation, acts like there is no

  132. God, and changes the worship of God for the worship of the

  133. creators. It tells us in Romans chapter 1.

    Romans 1 chapter mention

  134. And God eventually gives those who worship this world system

  135. over to a reprobate mind to do the things that are convenient

  136. for them. And that gets into all the

  137. sorted sexual perversions that are so rampant and prevalent on

  138. the face of the earth today. It tells us in first John

    1 John 2:15

  139. chapter 2, verse 15 and 17. You might want to just flip over

  140. there. That's just a little bit to the

  141. left of the Book of Revelation there.

  142. And this also describes the present world system that we're

  143. living in right now. And this tells us in first John

    1 John 2:15

  144. chapter 2 verse 15, it says do not love the world or the things

  145. in the world, meaning do not love the world system are the

  146. things that are in the world system.

  147. If anyone loves the world or the world system, the love of the

  148. Father is not in him for all that is in the world.

  149. Again, the world system, the lust of the flesh, the lust of

  150. the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of

  151. the world system of the world and the world or the world

  152. system is passing away and the lust of it.

  153. But he who does the will of God abides forever.

  154. So much of what you and I are impacted with or by daily,

  155. whether it's the media, the television, the movie industry,

  156. the music industry, the publications, the Internet, it

  157. we're being bombarded by the Prince of the power of the air.

  158. He's in control of the media. He's in control of the Airways,

  159. the marketing strategies. Talked to someone yesterday and

  160. and this woman, she hasn't watched TV.

  161. She said a long time and she told me that she was visiting

  162. some relatives and they had the TV on.

  163. They were watching some kind of sports thing.

  164. And what was being advertised on the TV and how it was being

  165. portrayed would have been seen as being pornography when she

  166. was a little girl. But we have been so like watered

  167. down. We're like the frogs in the

  168. frying pan. Our conscience isn't even

  169. bothered by some of the stuff that we see and hear anymore,

  170. not realizing that we're collectively, even as

  171. Christians, being sucked in by the world system.

  172. Many of us are impacted by the fashion industry and we look and

  173. we say, well, this is what the world's wearing.

  174. This is what I got to wear, or this is what the world's

  175. watching. I got to watch it, or this is

  176. what the world's buying and I got to buy it.

  177. And we're not supposed to be of this world, right?

  178. Jesus says, my Kingdom is not of this world system.

  179. He says come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the

  180. Lord. And so we see in first John

    1 John 2 chapter mention

  181. chapter 2, the apostle John who also is writing in the Book of

  182. Revelation talks about this world system of being full of

  183. lust and pride. The definition for lust is self

  184. absorbed desire for an object, person or experience.

  185. You place it above all things in your life, especially God.

  186. Have you ever been guilty of that?

  187. I have lust. It makes you leave the path of

  188. the holiness of the person of God and begin to have a desire

  189. for something that is independent of His will.

  190. Pride, the definition of pride, independence of the Creator God.

  191. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that.

  192. I'm going to go here, I'm going to buy this.

  193. I'm going to without ever running it by the Lord.

  194. Independence of the creator God, living as though he doesn't even

  195. exist. Living like there is no

  196. judgement Day. Inordinate self focus.

  197. The esteem of self that you're better than everyone else.

  198. An unreasonable conceit of 1's own superiority and talents,

  199. beauty, wealth and rank or position of life.

  200. The contempt of God, the contempt of humility, the

  201. contempt of love, and the contempt of living and sacrifice

  202. for the sake of God's Kingdom and others.

  203. That's the definition of pride. So in the last days in the world

  204. system, it says men will be lovers of themselves rather than

  205. lovers of God. And you see it everywhere,

  206. right? And we're also impacted by it,

  207. aren't we? If we're honest, we all get

  208. sucked into it to some extent. And that's why we have to

  209. continually ask the Lord to search our hearts and to purify

  210. us that we be holy even as He is holy.

  211. In the Revelation chapter 17, verse one and two, it says, then

    Revelation 17 chapter mention

  212. one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked

  213. with me, saying to me, come, I will show you the judgment of

  214. the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings

  215. of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants

  216. of the earth were made drunk with the wine or for

  217. fornication. Again, we're seeing here

  218. describe religious Babylon described by this Angel.

  219. Here it says, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot

  220. and thank the Lord that one day this world system will be

  221. judged. I hate seeing what it does to

  222. people. I hate seeing how it destroys

  223. marriages and causes young people to rebel against their

  224. parents and how the systems of education now in the world are

  225. anti God and contrary to God, pushing evolution and scientific

  226. theory above the fact that we have been created in the image

  227. and likeness of God. I hate seeing young people who

  228. are growing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord

  229. getting sent off to colleges where many of these colleges

  230. unfortunately are destroying the very faith that these young

  231. people wants to firm. I hate seeing what it does when

  232. parents send their kids off to school and the kids are being

  233. tempted to do what the world does, drink and have sexual

  234. immorality and take drugs and not follow the paths and the

  235. ways of God. But one day the Bible says that

  236. this fate of the suddenly girl ungodly world system will be

  237. destroyed. And as far as I'm concerned, the

  238. sooner the better. Amen.

  239. That's what the early church was right like they cried out, come

  240. quickly, Lord Jesus. They were living in such

  241. persecution and such difficulty with the Roman Empire.

  242. I mean, to be a believer in those days, it cost you your

  243. life. And so people were martyred and

  244. they were persecuted and they were in prison.

  245. And so the body of Christ, they saw the intensity of the

  246. wickedness of the world and they want it out of the world.

  247. And today, unfortunately, we don't sense that.

  248. As I said, we're like the frogs in the frying pan and the heat's

  249. being turned up and we don't realize how we're compromising

  250. our very lives in Christ. We have to come out and be

  251. separate, saith the Lord. So the system of Babylon, the

  252. interesting fact that existed long before Christianity even

  253. came into play, and yet it was aware of the fact that one day

  254. the Messiah would one day come. The system of Babylon again

  255. controlled by the devil and the devil's whole concern and

  256. interest in his Kingdom is to keep people from coming to know

  257. Jesus Christ. And this is some interesting

  258. history here and some people say it may, it may be legend, but

  259. there's some similarities and weaving into the Scripture

  260. regarding this story I'm about to tell you.

  261. They believe that this concept of Babylon was founded by

  262. Nimrod's wife. Her name was Simarius SEMIRAMIS

  263. Simmer Miss or something like that.

  264. She was a high priestess of idol worship.

  265. She gave birth to his son, birth miraculously.

  266. Her son's name was Thomas and he was considered a savior.

  267. There's even ancient artifacts that have been dug up throughout

  268. the years that point back to this and shows her as pictures

  269. showing her holding the savior infant Tamas.

  270. He was killed supposedly by a wild beast and miraculously

  271. brought back to life. And Bahel was the local

  272. Canaanite name for the Babylonian tamas.

  273. So it's interesting how it's it's similar to the story of

  274. Christianity, right, with Christ and what he's done.

  275. What's interesting, it's referenced in the Babylonian

  276. religion and Ezekiel touches on this and Ezekiel 814 he's

  277. speaking about and protesting against the ceremony of weeping

  278. for this person named Tammuz. TAMMUZ Jeremiah 718 mentions the

  279. heathen practice and making cake for the queen of heaven.

  280. Jeremiah 44 also speaks of offering incense to the queen of

  281. heaven. So there there is this legend

  282. and also biblical history that ties into this story and

  283. teaching that Babylon and in this section of Scripture

  284. speaking about this scarlet woman, this evil ungodly

  285. representation of someone who would call themselves the queen

  286. of heaven is a part of this ungodly, wicked system.

  287. It says that this one sits on many waters.

  288. And if you look at verse 15 of chapter 17, it says, he said to

  289. me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are

  290. peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.

  291. So the Antichrist will preside over many nations.

  292. The unification we see today, the One World Church, believe it

  293. or not, we don't maybe sense it here because we're not part of

  294. it. But the Church is moving toward

  295. this interest in becoming under one world ruler, 1 spiritual

  296. leader, one religious authority. If you're familiar with the

  297. World World Council of Churches, made-up of Orthodox Catholic

  298. Protestants, it's amazing what this organization is about.

  299. It has nothing to do with the scriptures.

  300. It has everything to do with humanism.

  301. It's let's set up a religion in this world that has nothing to

  302. do with anything that's going to get anybody uptight.

  303. We're basically going to make it up as we go along and we're not

  304. going to mention God really other other than a theory.

  305. And we're certainly not going to mention that Jesus Christ is the

  306. Messiah and the only way to the Father.

  307. And so these so-called religious leaders of these many

  308. denominations and big powerful spiritual entities are corrupt

  309. and they're bringing in all kind of false religion,

  310. representatives from apostate Catholicism and apostate

  311. Protestantism and apostate orthodoxy.

  312. And they're bringing in all these other religions of the

  313. world. It's called syncretism.

  314. They're bringing in the the Mormons and the Jehovah

  315. Witnesses and the Hindus and the Sikhs and the Muslims and this

  316. whole idea of having this simple organization that will rule the

  317. world spiritually, which is represented here as this great

  318. harlot in Revelation chapter 17. This woman represents the false

    Revelation 17 chapter mention

  319. religions and the tribulation and not just corruption of the

  320. Vatican. And we know the Vatican has a

  321. lot of problems today. It's it's common knowledge.

  322. I mean, it isn't anybody's particular opinion.

  323. It's documented through the legal courts right now of all

  324. the ungodly things that have happened in the name of

  325. Catholicism. And we can come up with plenty

  326. for Protestant Protestantism, too.

  327. It isn't just the Catholic Church, it's a Protestant Church

  328. too, where they're teaching deceptive doctrines, seducing

  329. spirits, doctrines of demons, and this is what the devil

  330. specializes in. It says in the last days people

  331. will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.

  332. It's amazing when you study these different denominations or

  333. religious groups to find out what their trust is in their

  334. trust many times is in the magisteria, magisterialism.

  335. Their, their trust is in the, the ceremonies of the church.

  336. Their trust is in anything and anything but Jesus Christ.

  337. And this is what's happening in these days that we're we're

  338. living as well, the compromise of our world leaders, our our

  339. government leaders, the compromise of our churches and

  340. our pastors and our people that are supposed to be pointing

  341. people to the truth are continually watering down.

  342. And it's almost like what Karl Marx said.

  343. And he said something that was really true, even though he was

  344. a extreme atheist and heretic. He said religion is the opiate

  345. of the masses. And if you want to retranslate

  346. that in a Christian way, false religion is a deception of the

  347. Antichrist. And we see that happening today

  348. everywhere. It's amazing what people are

  349. saying. You know, there's all roads lead

  350. to heaven. This is the common thing that

  351. you hear. It doesn't matter what you

  352. believe as long as you believe something.

  353. Anybody that doesn't know the truth will tell you that they

  354. just want to water it down. Second Timothy chapter 4, verse

    2 Timothy 4 chapter mention

  355. three and four says for the time will come, well, they will not

  356. endorse sound doctrine. Well, the time has come, people

  357. will not endorse sound doctrine, but according to their own

  358. desires because they have itching ears.

  359. Tell me, you know, basically tell me what I want to hear, not

  360. what I need to hear. They will heap up for themselves

  361. teachers and will turn their ears away from the truth and be

  362. turned aside. The fables like Diwali, like

  363. Babylonian New Age heresies. If you turn to 2nd Thessalonians

  364. chapter 2, verse 9 through 12, this also speaks of the coming

  365. of the lawless 1, the Antichrist, the coming, and

  366. verse nine of the lawless 1 is, according to the working of

  367. Satan, with all power signs and lying wonders and with all

  368. unrighteousness deception among those who perish because they

  369. did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.

  370. So people who are blowing off the truth and ignoring it and

  371. walking away from it and want to be part of the world system,

  372. they don't have any love for the truth that they might be saved.

  373. And so it says in verse 11. And for this reason God will

  374. send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie,

  375. that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth

  376. but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

  377. Verse one and two, it talks about this scarlet woman who

  378. makes the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk with the

  379. wine of her fornication. How she does this, she gets

  380. people to compromise. The world system gets people to

  381. compromise with spiritual idolatry.

  382. You know, a Christian has no business sitting in Zen prayer

  383. circles. A Christian has no business in

  384. being involved in yoga. A Christian has no business

  385. being involved in any of the eastern religions because they

  386. are all Pagan. But today it's amazing.

  387. Churches will have yoga classes in the basement of their church

  388. and you can go online. Churches in Greensburg yoga and

  389. Christianity see how they mix. They don't mix. 1 is light and

  390. truth. The other one is darkness and

  391. destruction. People don't realize when they

  392. do yoga, they think it's interesting.

  393. You know, just do stretching exercises.

  394. Nothing wrong with stretching exercises.

  395. But if you do stretching exercise under a a yoga teacher,

  396. you don't realize, and many of them don't realize it, but the

  397. positions you're sitting in are setting you up to be in line

  398. with the energies of the Pagan demons.

  399. In the Book of Revelation, Pastor Clark is taking us

  400. through all kinds of events and happenings that are predicted

  401. for the future. But for those who believe and

  402. follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to in heaven with

  403. Jesus. However, for those who are here

  404. on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that

  405. will unfold. The Bible talks about an

  406. Antichrist, a false prophet, and of course, that evil enemy,

  407. Satan. Do you see how there are such

  408. clever attempts for the enemy to disguise himself as God and even

  409. the Trinity? The true Savior of the world is

  410. God and how He comes to rescue through his triune nature God

  411. the Father, Jesus the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?

  412. Just like Satan tried to take over for God in heaven and was

  413. cast out, Satan will try to convince people on earth that he

  414. is the Triune God to be worshipped instead of the

  415. legitimate God in heaven. It's an attempt, and although he

  416. will capture plenty in his schemes, he will not win.

  417. The true God wins, and Revelation unpacks how that will

  418. all happen in detail. Be encouraged because there's a

  419. way out for all of this madness that will ensue on this earth.

  420. But you don't want to wait indefinitely to make that

  421. decision about Jesus. We don't know when the church

  422. will be raptured, and you want to be ready to be with Jesus.

  423. To learn more about this, head over to calvarychapelonline.com.

  424. We're so glad you've been with us today.

  425. And if you'd like to connect further with this ministry, find

  426. us on Facebook or YouTube. You can also download our mobile

  427. app at calvarychapelonline.com. Be sure to join us for weekly

  428. services at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.

  429. This has been Living Waters of Grace.