Sermon
Living Waters of Grace for April 27th, 2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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This wrath is a passionate anger and it's one day going to be
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poured out in such a degree that the world has never known.
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As horrible as Hiroshima was, as horrible as tsunami and some
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other devastations, the Holocaust, things that we have
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read about in history, nothing is going to compare to what is
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going to come upon this world through these prophecies of the
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Book of Revelation. The world we live in has seen
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some truly horrific events in its history.
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The volcanic eruption of Pompeii that wiped out an entire
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civilization. The Holocaust where 6,000,000
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Jews were murdered. Many other tragedies where lives
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were lost. In today's message, Pastor Clark
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warned you about an even greater devastation that will come upon
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the earth during the Great Tribulation as a result of sin.
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Jesus died for your sin so that you don't have to have you
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turned to Him to receive forgiveness now.
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Here's Pastor Clark in Revelation chapter 15 with
Revelation 15 chapter mention
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Revelation 15 verse one. Then I saw another sign in
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heaven, great and marvelous, 7 angels having the seven last
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plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.
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And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire.
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And those who have the victory over the beast, over his image
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and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on
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the sea of glass, having harps of God, they sing the song of
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Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
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Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just
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and true are your ways, O King of the Saints, who shall not
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fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name.
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For you alone our holy, for all nations shall come and worship
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before you, for your judgments have been manifested.
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After these things I looked and behold, the temple, the
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Tabernacle, the testimony in heaven was open, and out of the
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temple came the seven angels, having the seven plagues clothed
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in pure bright linen and having their chests girded with golden
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bands. Then one of the four living
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creatures gave to the seven angels 7 golden bowls full of
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the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
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The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from
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His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the
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seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
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As we study today, this is taking us back to a place to
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realize that there is a time that's going to come upon this
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world that is called Armageddon. Many of you have studied that,
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read about it. There was a movie I think a
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while back called Armageddon, and the world is moving towards
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that final battle on earth between good and evil prior to
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the second coming of Jesus Christ when he comes to roll and
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reign on this earth. So where we're picking up today
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is the scene as we move through the Book of Revelation.
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The seal judgments have already been dealt with.
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They were horrible enough in and of themselves.
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The trumpet judgments were also poured out upon the earth, very
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cataclysmic and unbelievable to have to deal with.
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The 7th trumpet is about to blow and the bulls of wrath now are
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going to be poured out upon the earth.
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So God will finally bring His righteous judgment upon the evil
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wicked people of the world who refused to acknowledge Christ as
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Lord and also to spare the people He loves and bring them
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into the eternal realm with Him. After this last, last
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consequential outpouring of of His anger and His wrath upon the
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earth, we see in verse 1, he talks about another sign in
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heaven, the signs of heaven marvelous.
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He says, now John has the privilege of being able to see
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what you and I can't see. He he sees something that's
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indescribable, but he's doing what he's able to do by the
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Spirit of God, writing these things down that we too might be
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able to have some degree of insight and vision into what he
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saw. And he says that what he's
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experiencing and seeing is marvelous. 7 angels having the
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seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.
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It's describing the end of the Tribulation with a horror, as I
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said, at the battle of Armageddon.
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Now John's going back to describe God's judgment in more
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detail. Whenever we study the Book of
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Revelation, we have to understand it's not a
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chronological study. It's it's shifting back and
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forth into different time periods to give us more
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illumination and more insight, more clarification in regard to
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these prophecies as we compare this various scripture in the
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Book of Revelation along with Daniel and Ezekiel.
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As we look at this particular section today, the plan of the
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prophet, he's reviewing, he's recapitulating and he's
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enlarging upon the scene. He is already sketched out.
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We already read about the end of time in Revelation chapter 6 if
Revelation 6 chapter mention
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you flip over there for a minute.
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This is for a review 12 to 17. He says I looked when he opened
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the 6th sea. And behold, there was a great
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earthquake. And the sun became black as
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sackcloth of hair. And the moon became like blood.
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And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as fig tree drops its
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late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
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And the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every
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mountain and island was moved out of its place.
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And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the
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commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man,
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hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
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and said to the mountains. And the rocks fall on us, and
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hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the
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wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath
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has come, and who is able to stand?
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John takes us over the same material again, but in greater
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detail in Revelation Chapter 15, reminding us that again, this is
Revelation 15 chapter mention
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not set up chronologically. And this is what makes this book
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difficult to study and also to teach.
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Believe me, this is the hardest book I've ever taught on.
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You can't wing it. Not that I try to wing anything
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anyway, but you can be a little bit more extemporaneous when
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you're teaching to be attitudes. You got a lot of illustrations
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that you can make common to people about praying for enemies
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or loving people who hate you. We all got illustrations of how
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to work that out at times. But Revelation is a is a very
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specific book about specific subjects.
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So you don't dare try to make comments that aren't rooted in
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what has been clearly given. You don't want to make it up and
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you don't want to add to it. The Bible warns us at the end of
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that book that God help the person.
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It adds to the book, the words to the Book of Revelation.
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Now we see in verse one these 7 angels.
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They have the seven last plagues.
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And God has been waiting patiently throughout the history
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of civilization to bring righteous judgment upon the
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earth to an ungodly world. Now some people might think,
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well that's not fair. Why would a God of love be so
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angry? We can't understand.
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Maybe as we're growing and maturing in our Christian life,
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we can understand the horror, the devastation of sin and what
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it does to people, what it has done to your own life and mine
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as we've done things against God's law and His Word.
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The Bible says whatever you sow, you will reap.
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Anybody in here in the process of reaping anything, raise your
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hand. We've all sown things that we
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shouldn't have sown. And you think that you'll never
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see him again when you're young, you think, well, I did that no
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one else knows about it. And I'll never have to deal with
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that again and forget about it. And as life goes on and the Holy
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Spirit's working to purify your heart, God bring something out
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that maybe you did when you were 10 or 12 or 15 or 20 or 30.
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And all of a sudden, man, I thought that was gone, you know,
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and God doesn't bring it on you to condemn you.
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He brings it on you to free you and to cleanse you and to purify
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you and to and to transform your life.
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You know and but as God looks upon the horror of sin, there's
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a difference between what we see sin like as believers and what
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the lost or unconverted or doomed See.
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When you're a Christian, sin bothers you.
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It disturbs you. You want to repent of it.
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You want to get it off your chest.
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You want to confess it. You want to ask the Lord for
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mercy and cleansing and forgiveness.
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But when you're a Pagan, you just seem to relish in sin.
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The more sin the better. You don't think about the
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consequences or the the the outcome of what that might cost
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you one day. You're just thinking you're
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having a lot of fun, you know, on the highway to hell.
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And people don't understand that God is holy.
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God is perfect. This is his world, this is his
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universe, this is his creation. And he has every right to demand
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of his creation allegiance and worship and holiness.
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But we're not holy until Christ comes into our life.
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We're not holy until the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to
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our bankrupt souls. When Christ comes into a
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sinner's life, He washes away our sins.
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He cleanses us. He declares us righteous and
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pure and just, and it's a marvelous thing.
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We don't realize all the ramifications of justification.
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It's one thing to know, well, if I die today, I'm going to go to
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heaven. And and that's a good thing if
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you're trusting in Christ to know.
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But it's so much deeper than that, because what Christ has
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done for us at the cross in atonement, remitting our sins,
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is that we have this benefit now because of the blood of Christ
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and because of what Jesus Christ has done.
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That as a father looks upon us, he doesn't see an enemy of God
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anymore. He sees a son and daughter of
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God. He sees us as being part of his
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family. His wrath, his judgement has
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passed over us. But all those who are still on
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the earth who don't have Christ, his judgement is waiting to be
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poured out upon them. And he's been more than patient,
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hasn't he? How many thousands of years has
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he waited and patiently has to everyday look upon the sordid
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heart of the human race, the heart of man that perpetually
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desires to do evil continually? You might remember a day before
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you knew Christ where your thoughts every day was.
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What kind of evil stuff can I do today?
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What kind of sin can I get into? Who can I RIP off, or who can I
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take advantage of, or who can I put the move on, or whatever it
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was that might have been our agenda.
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And God has to look on that every day and see the heart of
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men and women and children who are rebelling and hating and
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refusing to follow Him. And then he looks down upon His
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church, His bride all around the world.
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And that's what gives him pleasure.
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That's what gives him glory and praise and honor, because he can
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look at all the brothers and sisters all around the world who
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have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.
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And that's what keeps Him from destroying this earth, the
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remnant that is upon the face of this earth, that He's blessing
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to continually do His will until He comes again.
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All of us here today, I trust our Christians.
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We know Christ, and if we know Him today, we can relax in the
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sense of having peace and knowing it is well with our soul
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and that if tomorrow is the end of the world, it's not going to
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be a big problem for us, is it? The best is yet to come for the
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Christian. But if you're here today and
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you're without Christ, Jesus says in John 336, He that hath
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the Son hath life. That means you have life, his
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life. He that hath not the Son of God
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hath not life, but what the wrath of God abideth on them.
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And it's a horrible thing once you get a heads up that God is
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angry with you because of your sin, that every day you should
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be a nervous wreck because you don't want to leave this world
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with God's wrath upon you. You don't want to leave this
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life without a Savior. And this is the whole purpose of
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the Book of Revelation. It's a prophetical book for the
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world to understand that this is the consequences of a sinful,
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ungodly world that will have to come to grips with the reality
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of a holy God having his just righteousness and his due time.
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And so the wrath of God is being stored up.
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And some people see it and it's described in the Scriptures as a
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cup of trembling. Jesus took that cup as I spoke
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briefly last week on the night of his betrayal prior to his
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crucifixion. He said it, if it is possible,
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let this cup pass from me. He asked for this to pass from
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him three times. The cup of God's anger, the cup
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of God's wrath that was poured out on our Savior Jesus Christ,
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who took our sins upon himself and took our punishment and
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everything we deserved upon himself that we might go free.
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And the Son of God, God Incarnate, had to take upon
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himself and experience that horrible, horrible wrath of God.
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But Hallelujah, when he was on that cross, He was able to say
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it is finished. He completed it for the glory of
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the Father and for the sake of those he died for and cleanse
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from their sin. But this wrath is a passionate
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anger and it's one day going to be poured out in such a degree
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that the world has never known as horrible as Hiroshima was, as
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horrible as tsunami and some other devastations, the
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Holocaust, things that we have read about in history.
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Nothing is going to compare to what is going to come upon this
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world through these prophecies of the Book of Revelation.
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And this anger of God will come to a point of completion.
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It will it says in verse one. For in them the wrath of God is
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complete. In other words, finally it is at
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the top and, and, and, and the timing is perfect and everything
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that God has waited for all these years will finally be
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poured out. And he's not pouring it out
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because he's an evil God. He's a loving God.
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But enough is enough. He's waited over 6000 years so
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patiently. And he waits because he says
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he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
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to repentance. God's righteous anger and His
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wrath will fulfill his eternal purpose.
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And verse 2, he talks about this vision of this sea of glass, a
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multitude of standing on the sea like a crystal.
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In Revelation 4, it describes a sea representing the holiness of
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God, the purity of God. And in the midst of the sea,
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there's this element of brightness and and some
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commentators see this as the fire being mingled within the
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purity of the glass, representing the fires of God's
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judgment that are waiting for those who don't repent and come
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to Christ. Now, it's beyond me outside of
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understanding that there was a time that I was like, forget
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this, I'm not interested in this stuff.
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Anybody would tell me about it. I want to go the other way.
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If I saw a religious tract somewhere, I just like, you
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know, didn't want to deal with it.
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You know, I was doing everything I could to resist this love of
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God because I was comfortable in my sin.
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I love my sin. The Bible say men love sin.
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Men love darkness rather than light.
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Why? Because their deeds are evil.
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I remember a day. Is anybody remember a day when
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you love sin? Raise your hand.
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There's about all of us in here and maybe some of you are still
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loving your sin. I pray by the day time you get
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out of here today, you're going to want to flee from your sin
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and run from your sin. As we read in verse 2, he talks
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about this sea glass being mingled with fire.
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Those who have victory over the beast, His image, His mark, the
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number of His name. These are the ones that endured
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the consequences of the persecution of the Antichrist.
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They were martyred, they suffered the consequences
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because they refused to take the mark of the beast and give
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homage to Antichrist. But now they're in this
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wonderful state in the Kingdom, experiencing the beauty of, of,
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of the, of the Kingdom of God. And they are standing on the sea
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of glass and they have harps. They are able to, to play music
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unto the Lord. What a wonderful worship time
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that these people are encountering and experiencing
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now as we look at the images that we're studying in this Book
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of Revelation, Many of these things remind us of things we've
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read about or studied about in the book of the Exodus.
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And the Revelation speaks of Moses in verse 3.
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Here they sing the song of Moses.
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And Moses was a prototype of Christ in a way, and the sense
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of being the deliverer, the one who took the people out of the
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bondage of Egypt under an ungodly ruler, Pharaoh, who
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abused and took advantage of the children of Israel.
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They prayed for a deliverer. God sent Moses as a deliverer,
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and Moses delivered the children of Israel out of the bondage of
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Pharaoh through great signs and wonders that the Lord allowed
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him to bring forth for his glory and for his honor.
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He delivered the children of Israel through the Red Sea.
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He brought plagues upon Egypt to get Pharaoh to realize he needed
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to let the people go. He warned them through the
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plagues and the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments and
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even the bowl of wrath that's going to be poured out.
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The intention of God the whole time he's doing this.
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Yeah, justice and righteousness. But will someone wake up when
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judgment comes? Will someone finally say I need
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to repent, I need to turn for my sin, I need a savior?
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And many people do come to know Christ during this time of
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consequence of tribulation. But the plagues are beyond
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anything that anyone could imagine.
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And we know as we study the book of the Exodus, how horrible they
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were. And we'll get into more detail
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on these plagues next week. But the plagues also, we we read
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in here that he talks about a Tabernacle in heaven, a temple
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in heaven. The cloud of God's glory as
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Moses experienced that and the Old Testament as they took the
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tent of meeting and God met with the children of Israel through
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the cloud that enshrouded the tent and it represented the
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divine presence and manifestation of God's living
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reality among the people. The ultimate exodus.
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So in Revelation is that God is delivering his people out of
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this fallen world and we won't have to deal with it anymore.
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Deliverance from a sinful and persecuting world.
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I think about what Janine Janine shared today that should strike
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some degree of terror in our hearts, that we can't be too far
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from the time of the Lord's return, that this kind of agenda
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is being perpetrated upon the the world, our our country,
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nations. The UN, quite frankly, seems to
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be a entity that is being set up to establish A1 world
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government, A1 world roller, one world currency.
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It has tremendous impact, tremendous power.
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It's pretty much anti God as a as a an organization that is
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directing the affairs of the nations.
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Some of the most scandalous people are involved in the
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leadership of the organization, some people who have brought
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atrocities against other nations and people groups that are
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allowed to continually develop their own agendas.
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And and we're like the frogs in the frying pan.
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We don't know about this stuff again, unless people like Janine
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or others bring stuff into pastors.
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You guys are responsible, as I am, for the truth of God.
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In these last days, you read something, you hear about
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something, you're upset about something, something isn't
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right. You know, I don't care a
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politician or a presidential candidate or anybody that is
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perpetrating and bringing upon this country and upon the rights
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of the citizens things that are unconstitutional or things that
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are against the word of God. We have every right given by God
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in this nation under God to stand up and say enough's
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enough. But if we just keep ignoring
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this stuff and not voting and thinking it's too late, what can
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anybody do? God help us in our country.
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God help the churches in this country.
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We're not to be that way. We're to be outspoken.
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We're to be lovingly and humbly aggressive about righteousness
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in this land. Verse 2, it talks about those
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who had the victory over the beast.
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And this is again the the tribulation martyrs and they
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were also described in Revelation Chapter 7, nine
Revelation 7 chapter mention
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through 17. You can check that out later.
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These we're reading about now though, the completion of those
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who survive the tribulation because that that tribulation
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isn't over yet until after the bowls of wrath are poured out
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and the battle of Armageddon is over and then the second coming
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of Christ occurs. But this period is we're reading
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about right now is within the time parameters of the
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tribulation. And as I said, that the bowl
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judgements are still waiting to be poured out.
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This has been Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Clark.
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We're going through the challenging and also intriguing
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Book of Revelation. Whether you're a fan of reading
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ahead in books of fiction, there's such a benefit to
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reading ahead in the Bible to read about how it all ends.
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But in an interesting turn of events, the Book of Revelation
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is not really the end, but rather the beginning.
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It's the end of life as we know it here on earth, but there's so
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much to look forward to. But what comes after all?
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The judgement of the earth and those who reject God.
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There's a lot to work through, and it can be heartbreaking to
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read through the intense judgements and wrath that will
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come on those who hate God with all their might.
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The thing is, God has given chance upon chance to these
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people. They don't want it.
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So the outcome is that there are judgments and consequences for
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those who've rejected the good news and the gift of salvation
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that's offered through Jesus's death and resurrection.
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Are you one who has heard about these things but doesn't really
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want it because you want to live life on your terms?
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Trust me, living for Jesus is so much better.
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That doesn't mean it will be easy, but as you listen and read
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through Revelation with us, you'll come to a stark
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realization that you don't want to be on earth when the
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apocalypse happens. So check out Calvary Chapel
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online.com to learn how to come to a saving grace through faith
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that will allow you to be with Jesus for eternity.
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We'd also love to meet you in person at Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland. Come join us at 400 E Pittsburgh
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St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.
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This has been living waters of grace.