Sermon

Living Waters of Grace for April 24th, 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 good news is, is that when you think about the heartache

  6. and the despair and the deception in the world today,

  7. you can get hopeless. You can become overwhelmed and

  8. discouraged and say, what in the world can I do?

  9. Well, you and I can't do anything, but Christ can do a

  10. lot through you and me. Simple people.

  11. Just take that gospel and give it to people.

  12. When God gives you an opportunity, pray for your kids,

  13. pray for your loved ones. Don't give up, don't get

  14. discouraged. Your prayers carry more weight

  15. than anything you can imagine. Boy, I'll tell you, when you

  16. look around at the world, there's a lot of wickedness that

  17. goes on. It seems like people's hearts

  18. are hardened and evil prevails. Shootings, bombing, senseless

  19. murders, all kinds of flagrant sexuality just thrown in our

  20. faces daily. In today's message, Pastor Clark

  21. encourages you to not lose heart.

  22. God is still on the throne and the gospel is still the power of

  23. God unto salvation for all who believe.

  24. Keep sharing Jesus with people. Keep praying for your loved ones

  25. who are lost now. Here's Pastor Clark in

  26. Revelation chapter 14 with today's edition of Living Waters

    Revelation 14 chapter mention

  27. of Grace. Now the Bible describes us as

  28. fornication in verse 8. This idea of fornication, we all

  29. know what it means literally in in in the fallen state of our

  30. our humanity. Unfortunately, some of us were

  31. involved in those things at what the one time.

  32. But the good news is I love what Paul says, but such for some of

  33. you. But you were washed, you're

  34. sanctified, you're justified. I mean, the blood cleanses us

  35. from all of our sin. And so we don't carry the guilt.

  36. Nonetheless, we don't point the fingers at others who are stuck

  37. in those sins thinking we're better.

  38. We show forth the love of Christ and tell them about a savior.

  39. But the apostles referring to a spiritual fornication.

  40. And it's the idea of worshipping false gods, people who are

  41. worshipping Buddha and Allah, Muhammad, Krishna, all these

  42. false ideologies today that are out there that people are

  43. wrapped up in. It's having a spiritual

  44. connection with something that is not real and is not true.

  45. And so the judgement upon these people at this time for

  46. worshipping these things, the third Angel warns of this coming

  47. judgement in verse 9 through 11. And it says that they will be

  48. tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the

  49. holy angels in the presence of the Lamb.

  50. It says in verse 11, the smoke of their torment ascends forever

  51. and ever and they have no rest day and night.

  52. Who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the

  53. mark of his name. I'll tell you guys, I, I don't

  54. like thinking about this stuff, the horror of hell for people

  55. that we walk by every day that we know that maybe we haven't

  56. had the courage yet to tell them about what Jesus has done for

  57. us. We haven't given him Full

  58. disclosure about, hey, you know, I'm not telling you this because

  59. I'm perfect and I'm better than you, but I'm telling you this

  60. because Christ died for me and saved me and has forgiven me of

  61. my sins that you need a savior too.

  62. And if you don't have a savior, the consequences that are going

  63. to fall upon you in your life one day are going to be without

  64. end torment forever and ever and ever.

  65. I'll tell you, I don't think our hearts, as Rick prayed this

  66. morning are are broken enough. And and I don't mean we're

  67. walking around in South class and ash type attitudes, but it's

  68. just like we have this vulnerability and this love in

  69. our hearts that we want everybody to get saved.

  70. That's really what we should be like, right?

  71. We should have this great desire to this love on people and see

  72. them come to know the Lord that has revealed himself to us.

  73. But the judgement upon these people are are it's without end.

  74. And as the result of their deception, it's going to be,

  75. it's going to be a lot of pressure on the earth at this

  76. time because we have to do commerce.

  77. People still have to buy and sell.

  78. People still have to make decisions financially.

  79. And it's going to come a type of government that's going to make

  80. it very, very difficult, impossible really for us who are

  81. believers. Of course, I don't believe we'll

  82. be here. We'll be raptured out prior to a

  83. lot of this stuff coming into full bloom.

  84. But nonetheless, those who are left behind that come to know

  85. Christ at this time will have to make a decision to refuse to

  86. accept the mark of the beast. And as a result, they're going

  87. to be martyred. They're going to be put in

  88. internment camps, concentration camps, much like the Jews had to

  89. go through during the Holocaust. And they won't be able to live

  90. in this world anymore because the Antichrist will have full

  91. control. It was almost like what happened

  92. in the early days of the church where the people were commanded

  93. by Caesar to take a pinch of incense and throw it at the idol

  94. of the person of Caesar, pledging allegiance to him.

  95. And those who pledge allegiance to the Antichrist, as it says in

  96. verse 10, are forced to drink of the wine of the wrath of God,

  97. the cup of wrath. Those under judgment will be

  98. forced to drink this. This is expressed many times in

  99. in the Scriptures Psalm 75, eight it says, for in the hand

  100. of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red.

  101. It is fully mixed and he pours it out.

  102. Surely it's dregs show all the wicked of the earth drain and

  103. drink down Jeremiah 2515. For thus says the Lord God of

  104. Israel to me, take the wine cup of fury from my hand, and cause

  105. all the nations to whom I send you to drink it again.

  106. The fulfillment of these very things that were written

  107. thousands of years before by the psalmist and the prophet

  108. Jeremiah talking about things and I'm sure at times they

  109. couldn't really grasp and put their minds fully around.

  110. And now the apostle John is clearly defining to us what will

  111. come to pass. And then Jesus himself in

  112. Matthew 2639, he says, if it is possible, let this cup pass by

  113. me. He had to drink that cup of

  114. God's wrath for you and me. He had to take upon himself the

  115. anger and the wrath of his Father for the sins of you and

  116. me. And Jesus willingly took the cup

  117. of God's wrath that you and I deserve.

  118. In verse 10 here we see the enemies of Jesus.

  119. They, they have a choice, but basically they have no choice

  120. because they're going to be forced to drink this cup.

  121. It's going to be forced upon them, this cup of indignation.

  122. And this anger comes from a God who's settled.

  123. You know, sometimes they think of God, what's his, what's his

  124. temperament like? Is he really happy one day and

  125. joyful and blissful and loving and another day he's like really

  126. mad and angry, you know, is he erratic in his personality like

  127. we are so often does he does his temperament move with the tides

  128. of seasons or the opinions of people Know this comes from a

  129. settled disposition of this God's character.

  130. And I couldn't even begin to explain to you the magnificence

  131. of God's character, the perfection of God's character.

  132. But there's a couple Greek words that help us to understand this

  133. indignation of this anger that comes from this holy God.

  134. The first word is orge, and it's the common word that is used for

  135. anger in the New Testament, used many, many times.

  136. But this particular word here in this rendering in the in the

  137. Book of Revelation comes from the word thymos.

  138. It means it's a passionate anger and it's used only 11 times and

  139. 10 times it's used in the Book of Revelation.

  140. So the the anger of God is just, I wouldn't say it's seething or

  141. it's in the background. It's just present because he's

  142. holy and without holiness. There can not be a separation

  143. between vindication and justice, right?

  144. And anger. But it comes from a calm throne

  145. of God as he is completely in control, as we sang about.

  146. And the clear teachings here is sometimes you run into people,

  147. especially in these last days. Well, I really don't think

  148. there's a hell. You know, a lot of churches,

  149. unfortunately, are moving away from the message of hell.

  150. Hell isn't a good thing to talk about, they say in churches on

  151. Sunday because it offends people.

  152. Who makes them uncomfortable? I mean, it's crazy.

  153. You know, it's just like, what are we supposed to do?

  154. Like RIP out pages of the Bible and say, well, this is

  155. acceptable because this will make people happy, but this

  156. won't. And, you know, now, if you're

  157. saved, you don't have anything to worry about.

  158. You're not going there. But if you're unsaved today and

  159. you're lost, you would have some concern.

  160. I would hope today that you don't want to end up in this

  161. place where there's this eternal punishment and destiny waiting.

  162. Those who love sin and hate God, they're tormented with fire and

  163. brimstone. The scriptures declare here,

  164. tormenting them forever and ever.

  165. The word brimstone is actually in the the Bible.

  166. They talk about these people long ago who were out in the

  167. street corners. They would call them fanatics

  168. because they were telling people about fire and brimstone.

  169. What's real? It's true, and it awaits those

  170. who don't have a Savior in the presence of His holy angels.

  171. This is all being seen in the presence of the Lamb, and God

  172. will not be absent from hell. Some people describe hell.

  173. Yes, the fire. What's the fire?

  174. Well, the fire may be the holiness of God.

  175. That this burns everything away that isn't righteous.

  176. And the only way we'll be able to stand in the midst of God's

  177. holiness is because of the righteousness of Christ.

  178. He's our protection. He's our shield.

  179. But if you're without a savior, that, that brightness and that,

  180. that fire of God's holiness will burn your soul forever and ever

  181. and ever. You, you can't hide from it.

  182. You can't cover your eyes, you know, because the brightness is

  183. all exceeding and it just goes through the, the entire being of

  184. the, of the human heart. And, and there's no place to

  185. run, no place to hide in this life.

  186. Now it says men love darkness rather than light because their

  187. deeds are evil right now. They think they can get away

  188. from the light, but one day they won't be able to flee from the

  189. light. And it says the smoke of their

  190. torment will send forever and ever and ever eternal hell.

  191. And so why do we preach the gospel?

  192. Why is it so important to preach the gospel?

  193. Second, Peter 29 says the Lord is not slack concerning his

  194. promise, as some count slackness.

  195. We're slackers, aren't we? We all are.

  196. We don't want to be slackers, but we are slackers.

  197. But you know, we say God work on my heart so I'm less a slacker

  198. and that I actually am interested in telling some

  199. people about what you've revealed to me.

  200. That's like how you get away from being a slacker.

  201. You begin to do what he would do if he was walking here today

  202. still, but this is the Lord. He's long-suffering toward us

  203. means he's so patient and so loving.

  204. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come

  205. to repentance. He doesn't want anybody to have

  206. to suffer this torment. He loves the whole world.

  207. That's why he gave his only begotten Son.

  208. He doesn't want anybody to have to experience this horror.

  209. John chapter 317, the gospel John says for God did not send

  210. his Son into the world to condemn the world, right, but

  211. that the world through him might be saved.

  212. What a God, a God of love who doesn't condemn us, but there

  213. will be that day when it's too late.

  214. And that's why we preach the gospel.

  215. And it says in verse 12 and 13 regarding those who stood for

  216. the Lord and suffered martyrdom and suffering because they

  217. wouldn't receive the mark of the beast.

  218. It says, he hears a voice from heaven saying to me, blessed are

  219. the dead who die in the Lord from now on, yes.

  220. The Spirit says that they may rest from their laborers and

  221. their works follow them. These people endured patiently

  222. and faithfully. They stood the test regardless

  223. of the consequences and what encouragement that should be for

  224. all of us. I don't believe we're going to

  225. maybe sense this kind of martyrdom.

  226. At least I pray we don't. Our kids, our grandkids, our

  227. great grandkids. I just pray the Lord comes back

  228. soon. I really do.

  229. That's the only answer. But when you're standing in your

  230. life to be faithful, when people persecute you, when they

  231. ridicule you, when they laugh at you, when situations don't work

  232. out the way you were praying and they say, where's your God?

  233. Or you're in a situation where someone, you know, maybe he's

  234. listening for a while and, and, and all of a sudden you know

  235. you're offended because of how they responded to you or how

  236. they rejected you. The Lord encourages us in First

  237. Corinthians 1558 for you and me as well.

  238. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in your work for the

  239. Lord. Don't give up, don't get weary

  240. and well doing, always abounding in your work for the Lord, for

  241. as much as you know your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

  242. That's my life verse, my favorite verse, as a matter what

  243. I see in my life, in my ministry, or what happens or

  244. what doesn't happen happen, and none of that stuff's important.

  245. All I want to do is just keep being faithful to what I believe

  246. God called me to do. I want you guys to be faithful

  247. to what God's called you to do. Don't worry about the results.

  248. Don't worry about the success. Don't worry about what you see

  249. being answered or the prayers that you want to be answered

  250. that you never see answered. Just keep your nose focused, as

  251. Paul said, toward Christ, keeping your eyes on him.

  252. Be steadfast and movable, always abounding in your work for the

  253. Lord. I love this last part.

  254. For as much as you know, your labor is not in vain in the

  255. Lord, If you have a spouse who's struggling, don't get

  256. discouraged. Just keep praying.

  257. Pray for their soul. Pray for your kids.

  258. Pray for your neighbors and your loved ones, your wayward family

  259. members. Don't give up.

  260. Just keep praying and keep praying and always abounding,

  261. being steadfast and movable. Your work, your labor is not in

  262. vain in the Lord. Regardless of what happens, God

  263. will credit these things to your account in the coming Kingdom.

  264. 14 through 16. It talks about the reaping and I

  265. read the verses from Matthew regarding the the tares and the

  266. wheat. And this is a time when Jesus

  267. will bring in the harvest. It refers to him in verse 14.

  268. He's the one that sits on the cloud, one like the Son of Man,

  269. having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp

  270. sickle. He's going to come out and begin

  271. to reap for it says a harvest of the earth and 15 is ripe and

  272. he's ready to come and deal with the lies and the false

  273. professions and those who claim to be something they're not

  274. because he, he knows everything we can't see that He knows he'll

  275. come and he'll reap and he's coming not in this rush.

  276. He's waited how many years now that the world has been in

  277. existence over 6000, right? That's what some people claim.

  278. I'm not a a scientist, so I, I, I don't understand all the

  279. carbon data readings and all that, but I know that this earth

  280. is not super old and yet God says a day with him is like 1000

  281. years and 1000 years is like a day.

  282. So regardless of how old the earth is, if you want to call it

  283. the 20,000 years, that's 20 days.

  284. That's not a long time from God's perspective.

  285. But he comes patiently not rushing into judgement and he's

  286. harvesting the evil. He's gathering and binding and

  287. burning up the tares as he promised he would do prior to

  288. the return of his son on the earth, this reign and roll.

  289. He talks about the winepress in 17 through 20, and the Angel

  290. comes out and it's interesting. These angels are coming out of a

  291. temple and in heaven there will be this temple.

  292. It gives very descriptive. We'll get into that in the in

  293. the latter chapters, what it's going to look like, but there'll

  294. be this place of worship, God's holy temple, and this is where

  295. God does his bidding and he sends out his ambassadors to

  296. finish and complete the job prior to his millennial Kingdom.

  297. This one Angel comes out who had power over fire.

  298. He crows with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle,

  299. saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters

  300. of the vines of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.

  301. And the Angel thrusts the sickle into the earth and gathers the

  302. vine of the earth and throws it into the great wine press for

  303. the wrath of God. The carnage of judgment, and the

  304. last day beneath the omnipotent hand and power of God will be

  305. like no other war or conflict that the world has ever known.

  306. The battle of Armageddon, prior to the return of Jesus Christ,

  307. his second coming, will be referred to as World War Three.

  308. And the blood will be so spread around that it'll be splattered

  309. up upon the horse's bridal. It says in verse 20, it's quite

  310. graphic. The blood came of the winepress

  311. up to the horse's bridles for 1600 furlongs.

  312. We see this area within the city of Jerusalem, approximately 200

  313. mile radius, the valley of Megiddo, where this final

  314. conflict will take place. It's going to be a gathering

  315. time together of this final battle prior to Christ's second

  316. coming and chapter 14 clearly depicts for us today the Lord

  317. God is a triumphant 1 all powerful and he's in control.

  318. God, the Messiah, God watching out for his elect, his bride,

  319. his church continually throughout the ages.

  320. So as we look at these horrendous things that are going

  321. to come upon the earth. What do you what do you think

  322. about when you when you hear these things?

  323. I mean, it's just like not another study and another

  324. Sunday. I I believe every time we go

  325. through the scriptures and, and when God has us here personally,

  326. there's this accountability that all of us have because we hear

  327. things that we're responsible for, right?

  328. All of us. The Bible declares that to him

  329. is given much light. Much is required.

  330. And the benefit of going through the Scriptures like this is that

  331. none of us are in the darkness. We're all in the light today,

  332. and that's a good thing. And so there is someone in your

  333. life, someone somewhere that God wants to use to bring them to a

  334. saving knowledge of his, of his Son, Jesus Christ.

  335. And then those who are in backslidden conditions, and I've

  336. been there. We've all been there at times

  337. when we haven't been as zealous for God for some reason, we get

  338. out of the Word, we stop praying, we get too busy with

  339. other things, right? And all of a sudden we find that

  340. we're not really connecting with the Lord, right?

  341. Have you ever prayed in a time of need and you feel like God's

  342. 1,000,000 miles away and you're like, Lord, I just want to hang

  343. out with you and what you do. I haven't heard from you for

  344. like 3 years, you know? You know, all of a sudden you

  345. want to like have this close relationship again.

  346. Yeah, Lord, I really do. And God is so good.

  347. I mean, to us, he doesn't make us jump through a million hoops.

  348. If he truly sees our repentant heart, He runs at us like the

  349. prodigal, right? Because we all are prodigals.

  350. But the good news is, is that when you think about the

  351. heartache and the despair and the deception in the world

  352. today, you can get hopeless. You can become overwhelmed and

  353. discouraged and say, what in the world can I do?

  354. Well, you and I can't do anything but Christ.

  355. Can do a lot through you and me. Simple people.

  356. Just take that gospel and give it to people when God gives you

  357. an opportunity. Pray for your kids, pray for

  358. your loved ones. Don't give up, don't get

  359. discouraged. Your prayers carry more weight

  360. than anything you can imagine. If you could see what was

  361. happening in the throne room of God when your prayers are being

  362. sent up to him as a sweet smelling savor, an aroma to his

  363. nostrils, he immediately listens and responds and takes it in and

  364. he's active. He's active even before we begin

  365. to pray because he knows what's upon our hearts, whether it's

  366. situations of family and marriage and kids and and health

  367. issues or every area God is involved in.

  368. And one of the things he spoke to me about in closing when

  369. Cindy and I were away in this retreat last week.

  370. Sometimes I think, boy, it's great.

  371. Get away, brain drain, not think anything.

  372. God doesn't let that happen with me.

  373. He says, Clark, we got some business to do here.

  374. I said what? I want to show you some things

  375. in your heart. Oh, God, you're kidding me.

  376. I don't. I don't know.

  377. Well, you're going to see it, Clark.

  378. OK, Lord. And Cindy and I just had a time

  379. of praying and and being open before the Lord and with each

  380. other. And he was showing me things on

  381. my heart. He was showing me how easy it is

  382. to be discontent. The horrible sin of

  383. discontentment is a horrible thing.

  384. Paul said to be content in whatever state you find yourself

  385. in. And you know, when you're

  386. discontent, you're aggravated. You're disappointed because

  387. things aren't working out the way you'd like them to work out,

  388. right? And so you're despondent and

  389. you're despairing and you're unbelieving and you're hopeless

  390. and you're faithless. And the devil loves to fish in

  391. that water. He did.

  392. Hey, man, that's such a right where I want that guy.

  393. I'm going to really take him down the drain here.

  394. We got to just right away say, Lord, it's wrong.

  395. I'm to be rejoicing in the Lord in all things, give thanks in

  396. all things, Amen, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus

  397. concerning you. Paul said godliness with

  398. contentment is great gain. And so, you know, he said to me,

  399. Clark, start making a list of things that you can know for

  400. sure that I have done that you can be thankful for.

  401. Focus on my mercies that are new day by day.

  402. And he's given me more mercies than I deserve.

  403. I don't deserve one mercy. I don't know about you, but he's

  404. given me a boatload of mercies and I need to focus on the

  405. goodness of the Lord, Amen, and the land of the living.

  406. So that was one thing he really clarified to me.

  407. And he also told me that whenever I'm discontent, that's

  408. what breeds fear and anxiety. What if this happens?

  409. What if that happened? What do I do about this?

  410. What? I.

  411. And your whole mind is like, totally messed up, right?

  412. Anybody ever been there? Yeah.

  413. Maybe some of you are here today.

  414. I don't know. But you know, we just come and

  415. say, Lord, I I see this clearly as you are showing it to me.

  416. And you don't want me to walk around like this.

  417. Sorry. I repent about.

  418. I give it to you. I lay it at your feet and I want

  419. to rejoice in the Lord. I want to rejoice in the Lord

  420. forevermore. I'd like to tell you that that's

  421. a done deal for me and no more problems.

  422. It's not that way. This is something you said

  423. you'll be working on till the day you meet me in the Kingdom.

  424. But I'll remind you when it's surfacing again, when you're not

  425. content, when you're living in anxiety and fear and

  426. hopelessness and desperation. I'm going to remind you to come

  427. back to me and trust in the Lord with all your heart, right?

  428. Not leaning into your own understanding and all your ways

  429. acknowledge Him. He's not a liar, is he?

  430. And all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct our

  431. path. In the Book of Revelation,

  432. Pastor Clark is taking us through all kinds of events and

  433. happenings that are predicted for the future.

  434. But for those who believe and follow Jesus, there's much to

  435. look forward to in heaven with Jesus.

  436. However, for those who are here on earth during the Tribulation,

  437. there's all kinds of chaos that will unfold.

  438. The Bible talks about an Antichrist, a false prophet, and

  439. of course, that evil enemy, Satan.

  440. Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to

  441. disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?

  442. The true Savior of the world is God and how he comes to rescue

  443. through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and

  444. God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take

  445. over for God in heaven and was cast out, Satan will try to

  446. convince people on earth that he is the Triune God to be

  447. worshipped instead of the legitimate God in heaven.

  448. It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his

  449. schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and

  450. Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.

  451. Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness

  452. that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait

  453. indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.

  454. We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want

  455. to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head

  456. over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with

  457. us today. And if you'd like to connect

  458. further with this ministry, find us on Facebook or YouTube.

  459. You can also download our mobile app at calvarychapelonline.com.

  460. Be sure to join us for weekly services at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

  461. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601. This has been living waters of

  462. grace.