Sermon

Living Waters of Grace for April 23rd, 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. Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,

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

  4. continues teaching through God's Word.

  5. We're not to fear anybody or anything in this life but God,

  6. but why is it so often that we fear our wives, or we fear our

  7. husbands, or we fear our employer, or we fear the bank

  8. statement, or we fear the stock market, or we fear brothers and

  9. sisters in Christ? It's crazy the things that we

  10. get intimidated by, but the Bible only wants us to be

  11. fearful of one thing, and it's a holy fear.

  12. What are you afraid of? If you do a quick Internet

  13. search, you'll find that there are lists of over 500 types of

  14. phobias that people experience. Everything from the fear of

  15. spiders, to the fear of heights, to things like the fear of long

  16. words or even the fear of being afraid.

  17. It is message. Today, Pastor Clark wants you to

  18. know that there's only one fear you should have according to the

  19. Bible, a holy fear, the fear of God.

  20. That is to humble yourself before God that you might

  21. experience his mercy. Now here's Pastor Clark in

  22. Revelation Chapter 14 with today's edition of Living Waters

    Revelation 14 chapter mention

  23. of Grace. Then I saw another Angel flying

  24. in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach

  25. to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue,

  26. and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory

  27. to him, for the hour of his judgement has come and worship

  28. him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.

  29. And another Angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen.

  30. Is fallen that great city, because she has made all nations

  31. drink of the wine, of the wrath of her fornication.

  32. Then an Angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If

  33. anyone worships the beast in his image, and receives his mark on

  34. his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the

  35. wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into

  36. the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire

  37. and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the

  38. presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascends

  39. forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, who

  40. worship the beast and the image, and whoever receives the mark of

  41. his name. Here is the patience of the

  42. Saints. Here are those who keep the

  43. commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

  44. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Right, blessed are

  45. the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

  46. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their laborers,

  47. and their works follow him. Then.

  48. Then I looked, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud

  49. that one like the Son of Man, having his on his head a golden

  50. crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

  51. And another Angel came out of the temple crying, with a loud

  52. voice to him who sat on the cloud.

  53. Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to

  54. reap, for the harvest of the earth is right.

  55. So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the

  56. earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another Angel came out of

  57. the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

  58. And another Angel came out from the altar who had power over for

  59. fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp

  60. sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the

  61. clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully

  62. ripe. So the Angel thrust the sickle

  63. into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it

  64. into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

  65. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came

  66. out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1600

  67. furlongs. Sometimes when you look at

  68. artwork, different types of artwork, abstract art,

  69. impressionist art, you see different things in the artwork.

  70. Every one of us, if I had a painting up here today and ask

  71. you what you saw, you might say, well, I see this or I see that.

  72. I see this color or this, this sort of design or this image,

  73. and someone else might have a completely different perspective

  74. of what they're observing. And that's what it's like

  75. sometimes when we read into the Book of Revelation.

  76. All of us here are at different places in our pilgrimage today,

  77. in our Christian life. And some of us will sit here and

  78. say, yeah, OK, what, what time is it now?

  79. And he'll be done maybe in 45 minutes and we can get out of

  80. here. Some of us will grab something

  81. today and they'll see it and they'll say, wow, I never

  82. noticed that before. Some of us might have some

  83. different perspective about some things, and that's OK because

  84. Revelation is open to a lot of various interpretations.

  85. But the the things that the apostle John is conveying to us

  86. today are from my perspective, quite clear.

  87. And of course, as a pastor, I study these things, pray about

  88. these things. I have a, a responsibility to

  89. have some sense of what I'm talking about here this morning.

  90. But at the same time, as you listen to these things, I want

  91. you to have your hearts open to be prepared for what God would

  92. have for your life in regard to the light of these Scriptures.

  93. The first verse we look at here, verse 6, very, very interesting.

  94. This Angel flying in the midst of heaven.

  95. It has this everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on

  96. the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people.

  97. The Bible declares that in the last day, when Christ comes and

  98. establishes His Kingdom, there will be this event called the

  99. marriage supper of the Lamb in the throne room of heaven.

  100. What's going to be interesting is that they'll be

  101. representatives at that banquet of every tongue, tribe, kindred,

  102. a nation. And sometimes we wonder how in

  103. the world will that ever come to pass, the day we look at the

  104. modern missionary movement. Unfortunately, in most churches

  105. today, missions is the most neglected focus of the local

  106. church. There's more emphasis on

  107. buildings and gymnasiums and coffee shops than there is in

  108. the getting of the gospel out to the ends of the earth.

  109. It's ironic, I would think that as the Lord looks upon the

  110. responsibility that we have as a church here and as a church in

  111. the world today, the body of Christ, that the last mandate he

  112. gave was to go into all the world and preach the gospel to

  113. every living creature, teaching them to observe everything I've

  114. commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and

  115. Holy Spirit. He said, lo, I'm with you

  116. always, even unto the end of the age.

  117. So that was the last thing that was on his heart and he had the

  118. expectation that the church would be responsive and obedient

  119. to what it is he called the church to do.

  120. Recently we had a new Tribes missionary here.

  121. He told me after the service, Clark, there's still

  122. approximately 780 people groups in the world that have still not

  123. yet heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  124. He said that might discourage us at times we might feel like

  125. we're not getting anything done, but we are making progress.

  126. But it seems because of the rebellioness of man's heart and

  127. even Christians that we we have this propensity to dig our heels

  128. in and just sort of want to do things our way in the church.

  129. And so the Lord in his wisdom, I find this great comforting.

  130. Not that it takes us off the hook, but in the last days

  131. before he comes in his second coming to establish his Kingdom,

  132. This angelic being will go around.

  133. Don't ask me how it's going to happen.

  134. All the details. It's nonetheless here very clear

  135. that this Angel will be responsible for preaching to

  136. those who dwell on the earth, every nation, tribe, tongue and

  137. people, so they'll never be a part in this time of life that

  138. we can blame God for. Those who have never heard,

  139. everyone will hear, Everyone will hear the gospel.

  140. The Bible tells us that even in our conscience, even if you

  141. lived in a remote island somewhere where you never heard

  142. of Christianity, your conscience brings conviction because of

  143. your life. You know there's something

  144. wrong, you know there's something missing.

  145. You look up in the sky at night and you see the beautiful moon

  146. and the stars and you diss in your mind as a native say, how

  147. did that get there? Who made that?

  148. What's the story behind that? People begin by the Spirit of

  149. God, who's everywhere present and fills all things, beginning

  150. to seek the God of creation. And God is faithful to our

  151. conscience because our conscience cannot excuse our

  152. behavior. We know what sin is.

  153. Even if we've never heard the word sin, we know it's wrong.

  154. It's written in our heart that it's wrong to murder and to kill

  155. and to steal and to do all the things if the commandments tell

  156. us even without us ever hearing them.

  157. But God is faithful for a conscience that begins to be

  158. convicted. He gets a missionary there.

  159. He gets a witness there. And even in some of these Muslim

  160. countries right now, where these Muslims are in jail cells

  161. because of crimes and atrocities they've brought against the

  162. people of freedom there, some of them have cried out wanting to

  163. know the truth and if God is really real, and it has been

  164. visions of people experiencing witnesses in the midst of a

  165. prison cell. God is able to do anything,

  166. isn't he, to get his word across the people and show them their

  167. need of a Savior. And so this Angel will preach to

  168. those who dwell on the earth at this time, preaching the gospel.

  169. And this is the everlasting gospel.

  170. It's the same gospel that you've believed, the same gospel that I

  171. believe. It's the same gospel that was

  172. preached throughout the Old Testament regarding the coming

  173. Messiah. It was the same gospel that John

  174. preached and Jesus preached and Paul preached and we all

  175. continually preach until Christ comes.

  176. Akin now that Christ died for our sins according to the

  177. scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day

  178. according to the scriptures, and ascendeth into heaven and

  179. sitteth at the right hand of the Father.

  180. And the Bible tells us he shall come again with glory to judge

  181. the quick and the dead whose Kingdom shall have no end.

  182. He says in verse seven with a loud voice, this Angel speaking

  183. out, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his

  184. judgement has come and worship him who made heaven and earth,

  185. the sea and the springs of water.

  186. We're not to fear anybody or anything in this life but God.

  187. But why is it so often that we fear our wives, or we fear our

  188. husbands, or we fear our employer, or we fear the bank

  189. statement, or we fear the stock market, or we fear brothers and

  190. sisters in Christ? It's crazy the things that we

  191. get intimidated about, but the Bible only wants us to be

  192. fearful of one thing, and it's a holy fear.

  193. It's not an intimidating fear where we put our hand up

  194. thinking we're going to get smacked by God because God

  195. doesn't work that way. He loves us.

  196. He apprehends us by His grace. But nonetheless, we're to fear

  197. God, realizing that one day His judgement will come and we will

  198. all give an account of ourselves to God.

  199. And I want to have a good defense in that day of judgment,

  200. don't you? I want to be able to stand

  201. before the throne, not in my righteousness, but in his, his

  202. blood that was shed for me, having a clear conscience,

  203. knowing there was nothing left unrepented of in this life.

  204. And stand and hear Him say well done, good and faithful servant.

  205. And he speaks to the world, this Angel about this impending

  206. judgment. And he says give glory to him.

  207. Now all these people on the face of the earth at that time,

  208. outside of those 144,000 witnesses and those who will get

  209. saved during the tribulation, the majority of people will

  210. still be rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  211. They're animus, they're secularists, they're humanists,

  212. they're atheists, they're agnostics and they don't believe

  213. the truth of God. And what will it take for them

  214. to believe? Well, God sends a spectacular

  215. representative here, an Angel, and begins to speak to them

  216. regarding the creation. The evolutionists will once

  217. again be challenged of their premise that what they say is

  218. true is not true. It's a lie.

  219. And he clearly defines and delineates that God himself, the

  220. God of heaven, the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and

  221. the springs of water, you will give an account to one day.

  222. The hour of his judgement has come, the Angel saying, and it's

  223. no wonder when we think about all those during the

  224. tribulation, there'll be many, many people saved during that

  225. tribulation which will give encouragement to you with you

  226. have unsaved loved ones. Don't give up hope.

  227. If the rapture would happen tomorrow, that doesn't mean it's

  228. too late for them. It says after these things in

  229. Chapter 7 verse 9, I looked and behold a great multitude which

  230. no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples and

  231. tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb

  232. clothed with white robes with palm branches in their hands and

  233. crying out with a loud voice saying salvation belongs to our

  234. God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

  235. All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the

  236. four living creatures, they fell on their faces before the throne

  237. and worship God, saying Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom,

  238. Thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever

  239. and ever. So the good news is there will

  240. be many people that will get saved and many will believe this

  241. testimony of this Angel. This Angel also tells the whole

  242. world the importance of willingly surrendering their

  243. life to the Lord. And if we don't surrender our

  244. life to the Lord in this life, we will have the responsibility

  245. before the holy God to surrender our life in the next World.

  246. But it'll be too late. This will be what will happen.

  247. Philippians chapter 2, verse 9 through 11.

    Philippians 2:9–11

  248. Therefore, God has also highly exalted him, referring to Jesus

  249. and giving him the name which is above every name, that at the

  250. name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of

  251. those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every

  252. tongue. You may want to underline that

  253. in your Bible. Every tongue Achminajab, the

  254. leader of Iran, every tongue, all the world leaders and the

  255. rulers who scoff at Christianity and call it a futile religion, a

  256. dead faith, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

  257. Lord to the glory of God the Father.

  258. And the irony of this to us should be that all these people

  259. on this earth today are damning themselves because of them

  260. personal personally rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ in

  261. this life. And the irony again is one day

  262. they'll be forced to face the reality that Jesus Christ is

  263. Lord, right? I think of all the great

  264. athletes that are lost, all the great people that we idolize,

  265. unfortunately, because of their athletic ability or, or their

  266. ability to act on movie screens or whatever, we all have the

  267. people we we think are really something, you know, And yet

  268. without Christ, they're nothing. And so all the success and all

  269. the adulation they've received in this life, they're going to

  270. have to bow down and all the sudden realize I blew it.

  271. I live my life for something that was ridiculous and now it's

  272. too late. And they will see him as he is

  273. and have to say, Jesus Christ, you are Lord to the glory of God

  274. the Father. And what a tragedy that'll be.

  275. And the apostle John says this is the everlasting gospel

  276. preached to those in the latter part of the tribulation, the

  277. last call of grace to a world gone mad, to a world that

  278. refuses to acknowledge Christ's lordship.

  279. Do you think the world's gone mad yet?

  280. It's, it's his past madness. It's it's, it's at the point of

  281. insanity. I mean it, you know, we're sort

  282. of isolated at times because we're believers and we're in the

  283. word and we sort of like to hang out with like minded people.

  284. And so, you know, but we still get exposed to plenty of garbage

  285. out there. It's just ludicrous.

  286. What's what's happening in this world today.

  287. So as a result, you know, people are just doing, doing crazy,

  288. crazy stuff. And as a result, their lives are

  289. falling into an eternity with without Christ and without God

  290. because they refuse to acknowledge the lordship of

  291. Christ. I love this promise though, that

  292. it's going out to every tongue, tribe, kindred a nation, because

  293. this will be a fulfillment of the Great Commission.

  294. And it says in Matthew 2414 and this gospel, the Kingdom will be

  295. preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and

  296. then the end will come. This dovetails perfectly into

  297. what the apostle John is saying in Revelation 14 here regarding

  298. the prophecy fulfillment of what occurs in verse 6.

  299. Jesus himself says this gospel will be preached in all the

  300. world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will

  301. come. So in the meantime, the

  302. responsibility is up to you guys and me.

  303. As much as we like to see the Angel get it all done and about,

  304. you know, how long will it take the Angel to do that?

  305. I don't know. It'll be pretty quick, I'm sure.

  306. But we're to be faithful because God's given us the

  307. responsibility and our time to our generation, to our family,

  308. to our kids, to our neighbors, to the people we work with, the

  309. people we live with every day. Are you ready for the Lord to

  310. come? Do you know Jesus Christ as your

  311. Lord and Savior, your friends in school and college?

  312. Everybody is in need of a Savior.

  313. We're all missionaries. You all have a mission field

  314. where you are every day, and we pray, Lord, that you would use

  315. us. And verse 8, it talks about

  316. another Angel, the second Angel, saying Babylon has fallen this

  317. great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine,

  318. of the wrath of her fornication. Babylon is depicted in the

  319. scripture in numerous ways, a literal city, a political

  320. system, a false religious system.

  321. In the light of this context here we see this as this, the

  322. movement of this false religious system that the Antichrist has

  323. established in the last days, that the consequences of people

  324. who respond and obey his commands and worship him.

  325. It says in verse 9, those who worship the beast and receive

  326. his image, his mark on their forehead or on their hand,

  327. they're going to have to suffer, offer the terrible consequences

  328. of following a false savior. Now the Bible describes us as

  329. fornication and verse 8, this idea of fornication, we all know

  330. what it means literally and in the fallen state of our

  331. humanity. Unfortunately, some of us were

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

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

  334. you. But you are awash, you're

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

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

  337. and nonetheless we don't point the fingers at others who are

  338. stuck in those sins thinking we're better.

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

  340. But the apostles referring to a spiritual fornication.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  350. holy angels in the presence of the Lamb.

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

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

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

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

  355. like thinking about this stuff. The horror of hell for people

  356. that we walk by every day that we.

  357. Know that maybe we haven't had the courage yet to tell them

  358. about what Jesus has done for us.

  359. We haven't given them Full disclosure about, hey, you know,

  360. I'm not telling you this because I'm perfect and I'm better than

  361. you, but I'm telling you this because Christ died for me and

  362. saved me and has forgiven me of my sins.

  363. That you need a savior too. And if you don't have a savior,

  364. the consequences that are going to fall upon you in your life

  365. one day are going to be without end torment forever and ever and

  366. ever. I'll tell you, I don't think our

  367. hearts, as Rick prayed this morning are are broken enough.

  368. And and I don't mean we're walking around in South class

  369. and ash type attitudes, but it's just like we have this

  370. vulnerability and this love in our hearts that we want

  371. everybody to get saved. That's really what we should be

  372. like, right? We should have this great desire

  373. to this love on people and see them come to know the Lord that

  374. has revealed himself to us. But the judgement upon these

  375. people are are it's without end. And as the result of their

  376. deception, it's going to be, it's going to be a lot of

  377. pressure on the earth at this time because we have to do

  378. commerce, but people still have to buy and sell.

  379. People still have to make decisions financially.

  380. And there's going to come a type of government that's going to

  381. make it very, very difficult, impossible really for us who are

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

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

  384. lot of this stuff coming into full bloom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  392. control. It was almost like what happened

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

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

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

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

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

  398. the cup of wrath. Those under judgement will be

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

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

  401. the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red.

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

  403. Surely it's dreg show all the wicked of the earth drain and

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

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

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

  407. The fulfillment of these very things that were written

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

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

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

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

  412. come to pass. And then Jesus himself in

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

  414. me. He had to drink that cup of

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

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

  417. me. And Jesus willingly took the cup

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

  419. We are digging into the Book of Revelation here on Living Waters

  420. of Grace. Pastor Clark is tackling this

  421. challenging book as we try to discern the messages that are

  422. within its pages. There's so much imagery, and at

  423. times you're not always sure what's literal and what's

  424. metaphorical. At one point, there's a

  425. reference to an adulterous woman riding on a beast.

  426. And as someone else mentioned, at one point it almost sounds

  427. like a rodeo from hell. And in actuality it kind of is.

  428. You learn about the downfall and demise of a sinful and

  429. rebellious world, falling down in worship to someone who is the

  430. anti hero, the enemy, Satan working his insidious ways into

  431. the minds of fallen people. It's sad and it's heartbreaking,

  432. but it's a classic story of good versus evil.

  433. Thankfully, we know how this story ends.

  434. Jesus wins, Jesus reigns, and evil is conquered once and for

  435. all. We pray and trust you've

  436. received Jesus as your savior. But if you haven't, don't wait

  437. until the events in Revelation become what's happening on the

  438. streets. None of us wants you to be there

  439. at that time. Instead, we'd love for you to be

  440. with us in heaven as we celebrate the marriage supper

  441. with Jesus as his bridegroom. To get a better understanding of

  442. where we are in the Book of Revelation.

  443. To listen to any messages before or after this one, you can find

  444. them at our website, calvarychapelonline.com.

  445. That's it for today's edition, but we hope you'll want to hear

  446. Pastor Clark teach more from the Book of Revelation.

  447. It can be exciting to think about the future for believers,

  448. but it can feel a bit harrowing for those who don't believe.

  449. Come hear more next time on Living Waters of Grace.