Living Waters of Grace April 14th, 2026

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

Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County

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

continues teaching through God's Word.

The. Salt and light that affects the

culture that keeps pushing back the darkness.

The people that deal with the government and still try to vote

for things that are for God's Kingdom and his glory and fight

against the lives of abortion and all these other things that

are going on today in our culture that are becoming more

and more acceptable. You know, the groups that affect

that in a. Positive way.

And the sense of. Deterring.

The force of darkness moving on is the Christian right?

Have you ever eaten something that tasted bland?

Maybe it was some chicken that was under seasoned or some

guacamole that was missing its salt and lime.

You see, salt helps everything have some flavor and can change

the complexion of a meal. In today's message, Pastor Clark

says you must be the salt and light in this world.

Everything around is saying to turn away from God, but it's

your job to make a difference. Change what people think of who

God is and push them to have a relationship with him.

Now, here's Pastor Clark in the Book of Revelation chapter 13

Revelation 13 · chapter mention

with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

It's sort of like John F Kennedy, as many of us remember

the tragedy of what happened in his life when he was

assassinated. It would be like him coming back

to life again. Do you realize the influence?

The world would. Be impacted by his life.

He was an astounding leader. He was a charismatic

personality. I'm not saying he's the

Antichrist, but I'm trying to give you a picture.

It's going to impact world's civilization and culture so much

that they're going to be mesmerized by the the leadership

and the incredible. Miraculous situation that has

occurred and so in verse 4 it talks about the the the worship

this individual who's given authority to the beast and they

worship the beast saying who is like the beast who is like who's

able to make war against him in other words this world ruler is

so. Astounding.

So powerful, so influential. There's no one like him.

And that's what we should say about the God of the universe,

who is like unto the God of heaven, right?

As a matter of fact, the psalmist even uses that.

But people will be. Declaring this person as the

leader in this particular given time, I think about the horror

of Hitler, Adolf Hitler. Who would have ever thought that

a group of people in a country could lift someone up to this

kind of authority and leadership?

The furor and basically claim him as the new world ruler to

exterminate anyone who wasn't of the particular bloodline that he

dictated. Basically to wipe out the Jews.

That was the biggest attack from the evil one in in modern days,

along with Stalin and Lenin and many other dictators.

Who are anti God and living on the face of the earth today but

people paid homage. To Hitler if you were a kid and

you found out your parents. Really weren't supportive of.

His movement, his agenda, your job for the was to turn your

parents in and the Bible says even in the last days that

mother will be against son and father against daughter and

they'll be this chaos and families because of the.

Blindness of those who don't believe against those who do

become believers during this time.

There was a terrible persecution in the country of Romania during

the times of Stalin. I watched the video recently and

the horror of what they did. They took anybody that professed

faith in God who were Christians, and they took him to

a concentration camp. And their goal, they had medical

doctors that shot him up with drugs and they had.

All this psychological intervention to try to break the

will and the. Spirit of the people so that

they would break their personality and their

temperament and they put these people through incredible

heartache and tragedy and difficulty for many years until

it was brought out into the rest of the world.

And Russia decided at that time that they would close the prison

down and destroy those who the prison guards and the prison

leader and anybody who was involved the doctor.

So no one had any kind of knowledge about what had

happened. But there was some testimonies

of some Orthodox Christians that came out of this horrible

experience and they gave their testimony of how God's grace

spared them in the midst of the horror of the persecution and

the trials and the trauma. And it was horrible when you it

doesn't broke your heart when you thought about what people go

through in different parts of the world.

And yet God in his mercy is so strong in them that they don't

abandoned their faith. And they give hope to many

others. But this Antichrist is going to

be such a hateful and vindictive person that anybody.

Who's discovered on the face of the earth during that time?

Who has become a believer will be.

Persecuted and his goal is to destroy them.

He'll be given tremendous power and authority.

He'll have control over the most powerful of nations, including.

Us, this country, he'll speak great.

Things and blasphemies. He'll claim himself to be God.

This is also identified in Daniel.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

Chapter 7 and 11. Just a little picture of what

this guy's like in Second Thessalonians Chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

It's it's wonderful that God gives us the insights and the

Scriptures. So we.

Don't have to be deceived, but he says in chapter 2, verse one,

Brother, brethren, considering the coming of the Lord Jesus

Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not

to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by

word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ

had come. Let no one deceive you by any

means, for that day will not come unless there's a falling

away that comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son

of perdition. So the good news for Christians,

for believers, we're not going to be here during this time of

great tribulation. We believe in the rapture of the

Church, that Christ will take us out prior to the time of the

Antichrist ruling and will be taken up into heaven.

It tells us in the Thessalonians, chapter 4, that

there'll be a sound of a trumpet in the voice of the Archangel,

and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up

together with the Lord, to meet the Lord in the air, and to meet

the Lord in the clouds, And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

And, and Paul tells the Christians at that time comfort

one another with these words, right to comfort each other.

But there were people during this time that the Bible is

written, they're going around telling people all the Lord's

already come, you've been left behind, and now you're going to

have to suffer all this. Trauma, but this will be the

signs of some of the things that will begin to transpire prior to

us being taken out of here. It's quite possible that this

world leader will come to role even in our time before we're

taken out at the rapture. All hell doesn't really break

loose until the 2nd 3 1/2 years of this tribulation, the final 3

1/2 years. But there will be this also this

falling away. And we're living in a day in an

age where churches are dying around the world.

The. Attention or interest in.

The things of God are becoming less and less as we move closer

to the last days. Now those who really know Christ

are getting hotter and hotter, but those who we're like fair

weather Christians, hey I'll follow Christ as long as lifes

good and everything is cool I'll follow them.

But soon as things get difficult.

There's a group of people that aren't real believers that

they'll begin to fall away, the Bible says, and they'll actually

begin to curse him and deny that they've ever even known him.

And so we see that this Antichrist, he'll set himself up

above all that is called God, or that is worship, and he sits as

God in the. Rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem The

temple that the Jews use will be rebuilt to continue sacrifices

during the Tribulation. Once this thing's rebuilt,

sometime after the 1st 3 1/2 years of this tribulation, this

Antichrist is going to show his true colors and he's going to

have the audacity to sit on the throne in the temple and claim

to be God. It says Paul said, says, do you

not remember that when I was still with you, I told these

things, told you these things and now you know what is

restraining or what is holding back that he may be revealed in

his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness

is already at work. Only he who now restrains will

do so until he's taken out of the way and we.

Believe that what restrains us force of evil and Helly's

persecution on the earth today is the body of Christ, the

church. Whenever we're taken out of this

world as a group of believers, it doesn't matter what

denomination, as long as you're. A true believer in.

Jesus Christ, you've been born again.

You're trusting in him for your. Salvation.

You'll be taken out. The Holy Spirit's still going to

be working on earth, but the. Salt and light that affects the

culture that keeps pushing back the darkness, the people that

deal with the government and still try to vote for things

that are for God's Kingdom and his glory and fight against the

lives of abortion and all these other things that are going on

today in our culture that are becoming more and more

acceptable. You know the groups that affect.

That in a positive way and the sense of deterring.

The force of darkness, moving on, is the Christian right.

For the most part, it's people who have faith in Christ that

believe in the moral rules of the government of God's Kingdom.

And so, but whenever that influence is taken out, then

this lawless one will be revealed.

But it says the Lord will consume him with the breath of

his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of.

His coming. So when Christ comes back at the

end of the Tribulation in the second coming, what a great

victory that will be whenever He.

Deals with this evil one once and for all but this one will

speak greatly things and he'll blasphemy, he'll curse and he'll

hate anything that has to do with the Lord and his church and

his people in verse 7 it tells us in verse Revelation 13 verse

seven. It was granted to him to make

war with the Saints and to overcome them, and the authority

was given him over every tribe, nation and tongue.

You know you want. To warn people you love guys

that they need to receive Christ.

Now let everybody thinks, well, I got time.

I don't know why in the world we try to push off the greatest

gift that we could ever be given as human beings.

But again, that's the force of darkness deceiving us.

But today is a day of salvation. Why push it off?

I don't know. The rapture could happen

tomorrow. It could happen next week,

within the year. I don't know.

But we're sooner and closer than ever before.

Why would someone want to be left here on Earth?

To face these horrible things that are about to come upon the

earth, those who become believers during the

tribulation. And there will be hope, many

people that will be. On the earth at that time.

Will. Realize that all the things you

told them when you were living were true.

And they're going to say, wow, that that that thing I heard in

church or when my friend or my relative or my loved one told me

I needed to get saved. It's really true.

I'm going to follow. I want to believe what they told

me. I was to believe and and the

Lord will be merciful. He'll save people during the

tribulation, but it'll be an unbelievable time to have to

live and those who become believers during this

tribulation. Will suffer as I said.

But you know, Jesus said, and it says here, that the devil in

this particular section of Scripture will overcome them.

So we know this. Isn't the church this is

referring to believers who people who become believers at

the time? Of the Tribulation, because

Jesus said upon this rock I will build my church, remember.

He's talking to Peter and he's telling them, Peter, who do you

say that I am? And Peter said, you are the

Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus told him, upon this affirmation, upon this belief,

upon this faith for all people, I will build my.

Church and what do you say and the.

Gates of hell will not prevail against it so.

In the instance here where it tells us that the devil is going

to prevail and overcome them, we know it's not referring to the

Church because, as I said, the church has been.

Taken. Out at the rapture and in verse

8 it says all who dwell on the earth will worship him whose

names have not been written in the book of life.

So all. The people on the earth, whether

they want to or not, will be forced to worship this.

One the way they'll worship him is to.

Receive the mark of the Beast, they'll pay.

Homage to him And basically when you take the mark of the beast,

it's all over. There's no more opportunity for

repentance. You've already cast your vote to

trust and believe in the Evil 1, The Book of Life if you flip

over to Revelation 20 if you've never heard of it.

I want to. Encourage you today that.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has a book in heaven

that your name is written in. There won't be any mistake on

the last day of judgment. The books will be.

Open. And this is what it'll this is

what will happen. And I saw Thrones, and then that

sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.

I saw the souls of those who have been beheaded for the

witness of Jesus and for the word of God, who had not

worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received His

mark on their foreheads or on their.

Hands the wonderful glory, you know God, you know our bodies

can be taken out of this world, but no one can kill our souls.

What's going to live? Forever is our.

Souls in heaven. With God in a new body.

And so even those who were martyred during the tribulation

period, we see them in this heavenly scene at the end of

time that they're alive, they're not dead, and they're given

glory because they didn't worship the beast, they didn't

receive his mark in their foreheads.

And they lived and they reigned with Christ for 1000 years, the

thousand year reign, the millennial Kingdom after the

second coming and verse 5 but the rest of the dead did not

live again until the thousand years were finished.

And this is the first resurrection.

It says blessed and holy is he who has part in the resurrection

over such the second death has no power, but they shall be

priests of God's God and of Christ, and shall reign with him

1000 years so. The good news is, today, if

you're a Christian and you're trusting in Christ, where's your

name? It's written in the book of

life. Can it be erased?

Oh God has no eraser. Once you're there, he's placed

you there for all. Eternity if it was.

If there was an eraser, that would be up to you then, right?

Oh, I messed up. I got to do something to try to

get back in again. It's because of Christ.

And what He's done for us, His grace and His mercy, that our

names are written in the book of life.

Jesus says to the. Disciples.

They're out and they're evangelizing and they're all

excited and they come back. We had power over the devil.

We cast out demons and we did this.

They're all excited. About the miracles and.

Jesus says I saw Satan fall from.

Heaven like lightning, he says. Don't be excited that you have

authority over spirits and they're subject to you.

But he says rejoice. In this because your names.

Are written in the Book of Life. Your names are written in

heaven. That's what we rejoice in.

That's the good news. So where are we today?

Where are you? Today, do you truly love God?

Do you love? Christ do you?

Love the Holy Spirit. Or do we daily?

Have no relationship. With God is your.

Back to God today. Do you curse God?

Do you ignore God? Or do you desire to have a

relationship with God? Do you love Him?

Do you seek to honor him? Do.

You seek to serve Him. Do you seek to worship Him?

Do you seek to praise and magnify Him?

Do you live your life in continual metanoia, which means

repentance? Lord, have mercy on me, the

Sinner. If you live that way and you

examine yourself daily because you want to be found faithful by

the grace of God, then Christ is your Savior.

And this is not your savior, but your Lord.

A lot of people think, well, I can come to Jesus and disbelieve

a fire insurance policy, don't have to go to hell and all that

kind of stuff, but I don't have to really follow him.

That's a deception. The Bible clearly says and Jesus

says. Himself.

Why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things I say at the

final judgment when he's judging the sheep from the goat?

He knows those who are his and those who aren't.

And those who claim that they knew him by all the things they

did in their life, Jesus says depart from you cursed.

I never knew you. So we see that as we look at

what God is doing in these last days and how he's.

Moving, we all have to realize. If anyone has an ear, as it says

in verse 9, let him hear. It's also interesting in verse 9

of chapter 13 it doesn't say If anyone has an ear, let him hear.

What the Spirit says to the church.

He said that in chapter 2 and three, the church is no longer

here. He's speaking to those who are

going to be. Living during that time, if

anyone has an ear, let him hear. First Revelation, chapter 3 Six.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

When he talked to the churches, he said he who has an ear, let

him hear. What the Spirit says to the

churches. So again, evidence and

documentation that the Church has been removed from the earth.

Outside of this chaotic. Time.

So the devil's going to make war against the Saints, against the

believers in the Tribulation. He's going.

To take them captive and he's going to destroy them.

It says in verse 10 he leads into captivity, into captivity

shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must

be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the

faith of the Saints. It tells us in the book of

Psalms, precious in the sight of the Lord is the.

Death of his Saints. I don't want to be martyred.

I prefer to live a long life and to stop breathing, you know?

That's my preference. When one guy died on the 18th

hole of the golf course, that's a nice way.

He sunk the putt and then he had a heart attack.

He died. That's the preferable way,

right? But you know, to be a martyr for

Christ is really a glorious thing.

We studied the earth early church in the in the apostles,

how they were taken out of this world through martyrdom, the

early church fathers who were martyred.

For their stand and their faith in Jesus Christ, there's a

special blessing for those who have been martyred.

In Revelation chapter 6 as we start to wind down verses 9, it

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

says when he opens the 5th seal he says I saw under the altar

the souls of those who have been slain for the word of God and

for the testimony which they held.

Wouldn't it be awesome? I'm not trying to be like heroic

here, but to be recognized in heaven that I died for my faith

in Christ. And for the word of God, and it

says a crowd with a loud voice. These are the martyrs saying,

How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you a judge and avenge our

blood on those who. Dwell on the earth.

You know the. Martyrs are waiting for the.

Day when justice will come. And God will deal with the.

Ungodly on the face of the earth.

And it says a white robe was given to each of them, and it

was said to them that they should rest a little while

longer, until both with the number of their fellow servants

and their brethren who would be killed as they were were.

Completed So all those who've been martyred from the beginning

of time are walking around in robes of righteousness in the

heaven. They're distinct from everyone

else, not better, but different because of how they gave their

lives for their faith, and they'll be remembered throughout

eternity for why they did. What they did?

But their heart is also. Burden and concern.

For all those who are still on earth that will have to die the

tragic death that they've died and the.

Suffering and the struggle and the trials, but it's wonderful

to know that we see here in Revelation that these martyrs.

Aren't dead, but they're. Living and they're walking and

they're relating with the. Throne of God and.

As it said in Revelation. Chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

The souls of those who have been beheaded for their witness to

Jesus and for the word of God, they not had not worshipped the

beast or his image, and not received his mark in their

foreheads or on their hands. God knows your heart, He knows

mine. He knows where you're at.

He knows where I'm at. But this say for.

Example that someone interrupted our church service.

Today and they came in and they were with such and such

government and. They had to make us aware of

some changes that were happening and effective today there would

be no ability for you to use. Your bank account.

Unless you receive this new number in homage to the new

world ruler, that you have to be under surveillance and be under

his control. And you know, you have to have

this, this mark in order to feed your kids and to pay your bills

and your mortgage. And that they're lying.

They're saying everything's going to be better.

It's going to be you're going to prosper and everything's going

to be good. If you didn't know what this

said, you'd be real tempted to think, well, that makes sense,

right? I'm going to get it right.

You'd be crazy not to. But knowing what the Bible warns

about and teaches, how many of us would this get up and stand

up and say, I'm sorry, I can't take that and walk out?

That's a question you have to ask yourself because that's

really the dividing line between real faith and real trust in the

Kingdom of God or actually having your trust in this

current world system that we live in today that has already

failed us right? Numerous times.

The stock market crash of 29 when everybody lost everything.

People jumping out of buildings because they were trusting in

their finances. The financial crash that

happened a few years ago where many of us that had any kind of

investments lost at least half of them, if not more.

Jesus says, you know, don't trust in uncertain riches,

layout for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do

not corrupt or thieves break in to steal away.

Jim Elliott, that famous missionary, said he is no fool

to lose what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.

So May God exercise our hearts as we think about these things,

preparing us for the return of the Lord today.

If you're here and you've never put your faith in Christ and

trusted in Him explicitly, and God will be merciful to you if

you mean it, and pray and repent and ask Him to save you.

And if you're here today as a Christian and you've just sort

of been playing around. And sort of slip sliding away a

little bit there. You want to allow the Lord to

bring you back into that place of fullness and depth with Him

so that you can walk closely with Him and also have a mind

every day that you want lost people to know what Christ has

freely told you. It's good news, right?

And people need to know. But I'd hate to be a neighbor or

friend and they knew you or me their whole life.

And all of a sudden we're gone. Like, what?

What happened? Where did they go?

Well, and the government's saying, hey, aliens took them or

who knows what conspiracy it'll come up with.

The world will believe it. And then the people are here.

And then they're sort of finding out that we didn't tell them

what they needed to know. I'd be upset, wouldn't you?

Someone like claimed to be a Christian that didn't actually

give me Full disclosure. I'm not.

I can't make anybody. You're just giving the

information for what it's worth and let them make the decision.

But at least there's there's disclosure, right?

So we need to pray that God would help us.

Disclose the truth to. Lost people.

This has been Living Waters of Grace.

With Pastor Clark. We're going through the

challenging and also intriguing Book of Revelation.

Whether you're a fan of reading ahead in books of fiction,

there's such a benefit to reading ahead in the Bible to

read about how it all ends. But in an interesting turn of

events, the Book of Revelation is not really the end, but

rather the beginning. It's the end of life as we know

it here on earth, but there's so much to look forward to for what

comes after all the judgement of the earth and those who reject

God. There's a lot to work through,

and it can be heartbreaking to read through the intense

judgments and wrath that will come on those who hate God with

all their might. The thing is, God has given

chance upon chance to these people.

They don't want it. So the outcome is that there are

judgments and consequences for those who've rejected the good

news and the gift of salvation that's offered through Jesus's

death and resurrection. Are you one who has heard about

these things but doesn't really want it because you want to live

life on your terms? Trust me, living for Jesus is so

much better. That doesn't mean it will be

easy, but as you listen and read through Revelation with us,

you'll come to a stark realization that you don't want

to be on earth when the apocalypse happens.

So check out Calvary Chapel online.com to learn how to come

to a saving grace through faith that will allow you to be with

Jesus for eternity. We'd also love to meet you in

person at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.

Come join us at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

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

grace.