Living Waters of Grace, March 25, 2026

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

Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,

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

continues teaching through God's Word.

Because they were prevented by death from continuing.

But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable

priesthood. Therefore he is able to save to

the uttermost those who come to God through him.

Since He always lives to make intercession for them, He's able

to save to the uttermost those who come to Him, mediating on

our behalf, praying to the Father on behalf of us, and

we're taught to do what He does. Did you know that Jesus is

praying for you right now? The Bible is clear.

Jesus is making intercession, which is just a fancy word for

praying right now. As you hear the sound of my

voice, as you listen to Pastor Clark teach through the 8th

chapter of the Book of Revelation, Jesus is praying for

you. This is a wonderful and life

giving truth that should impact your day-to-day life.

Now this should also stir you to pray for others, to lift others

into the presence of Jesus so that they may experience the

deep peace of Christ. Now here's Pastor Clark in

Revelation Chapter 8 with today's edition of Living Waters

Revelation 8 · chapter mention

of Grace. Heavens worship is it's

completely unlike anything that any of us have ever touched or

experienced, believe me. And so it says that there's

silence in the midst of this period that John is about to

encounter. The sound is deafening.

The silence is deafening because what's about to transpire on the

face of the earth is horrendous, but also majestic in the sense

that as Christ has opened those seals for the first time in the

history of the universe, he has conveyed his full plan to all

the angelic hosts. And they're speechless.

They're astounded at what he has in store, not only in the sense

of his anger and his wrath toward an unbelieving and

ungodly world, but his plan for the future of his Church, the

bride of Jesus Christ. So we see in verse one the

mention of silence. We see in verse 2 the mention of

musical instruments, trumpets. We see in verse 3 and 4 the

offering of incense. And what's interesting is I

don't know about you, but I've been in a lot of different kind

of worship situations. I've been in like really crazy

stuff where people are jumping around and running around and

dislike doing all kind of wild stuff.

And I've been in real conservative type of worship

experiences. I've experienced liturgical

worship experiences, experience, obviously Calvary Chapel kind of

worship experiences. But as good as we might think

our worship is, and it is good, we have a godly worship leader

and team. These guys love the Lord and

give their hearts to serve Christ fully and worship every

week. But we fall short, don't we?

We all fall short of understanding what true worship

is. It's not an emotion or a high,

although we can get kind of like joy, obviously, when we think

about the greatness of God and worship him.

But it's much deeper than that. And so we're getting a glimpse

into heaven. Now as Protestants and as a New

Testament Christians, we have an interesting perspective on how

we look at the development of historical worship from the age

of the Tabernacle, right, in the temple in the Old Testament,

right? And we don't see any visible

temple or Tabernacle right now in our day and age, right?

But it's going to be rebuilt. The sacrifices will begin to

continue during that time of the Tribulation.

The Antichrist will set himself up in the temple as God, the

abomination, the desolation, and a lot of very, very interesting

things are going to occur. Even now in Israel.

There is plans for the structure to build the the robes are being

developed. The Sacramento aspect of how the

Jewish nation connected and worshiped with God will be

reinstituted. And but what I find fascinating

is, is that from God's perspective, that never ended,

right? It's still going on, even though

there is no physical temple or Tabernacle on the earth right

now in the sense of the way it was in Israel with the ark of

the covenant and that kind of stuff.

In heaven right now, there is this element of worship that

most of us have never, ever encountered, But one day we

will. And some people might say, I

don't like the smell of incense. Some people get sick, get

headaches when there's incense. But in heaven, the good news is

when we're there, we won't have the the same kind of physical

maladies. And incense will be awesome

because it's like the most fragrant of perfumes and it it

pleases God. He has it in his throne room

24/7 throughout all eternity. And the incense represents the

prayers of the Saints. We'll get into that in a minute.

But in the Tabernacle or in the temple, there was a golden

altar, different types of altars in the midst of the temple, the

Tabernacle. But this specific altar was

right before the veil entering into the Holy of Holies.

And the responsibility of the temple priest was to burn

incense because it represented the prayers of the nation of

Israel and in heaven. Now, as we read, as John is

teaching us, that this incense is representative of the prayers

of Saints, believers throughout the course of human history.

And so we see in verse one this silence.

Again, just going back to this half hour of silence, it's

dramatically indicating the profound awe at the opening of

the 7th seal. It's no wonder that the Sarah

from and Sheriff from can't help but to continually proclaim,

holy, holy art thou, O God, if we were there, that's going to

be our description. What else can we say?

Holy, holy, holy, aren't you, O God.

And Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 20, it says, but the Lord is in

Habakkuk 2:20

his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence

before him. God enjoys silence.

We don't. We have to have noise all the

time. We always have to have some kind

of media on iPod, TV, headphones, music.

I mean, the more noise, the more happy we seem to be at times.

But you take a time of silence and that makes a lot of people

uncomfortable. That's why prayer is so

difficult at times, because it is a time of silence and we're

before God and it's just our thoughts and our heart laid bare

before Him. And sometimes that makes us a

little awkward because we're not used to having silence.

But God says that he's in His holy temple and it's pleasing to

him that the earth would be silent before him.

In Zephaniah chapter one, verse 7, it says be silent in presence

of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand.

For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and he's invited his

guests. Be silent in the presence of the

Lord. And again, it's something that

sometimes we're not accustomed to.

Or you get with some people and you're going to pray and this

person prays and that person's that person prays.

And then all of a sudden there's a period of silence and, and

sometimes people like restless, well, like who's going to pray

next? Or how long will this silence

last? Does that mean we're done or is

it over? But I think from God's heart,

the silence represents just the beginning of our being open to

what it is that He wants to say to us, more so than what we

think we need to say to God. In Zechariah chapter 2, verse

Zechariah 2:13

13, it says be silent all flesh before the Lord, for he is

aroused from his holy habitation.

Be silent, all flesh before the Lord, the one that you're all

familiar with. Psalm 4610 Be still and know

that I am God. I will be exalted among the

nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

And I think it's, it's healthy at times when we come together

as as Christians and, and pray even on Thursdays, it isn't so

much what we're saying, it's what we're hearing, right?

Because so often our prayers are circular.

Lord bless me, mine, you know, me, myself and I or bless my

people or my family or my job or my finance.

I mean, sometimes our prayers are like really, really boring.

God hears him and he loves us. He's merciful.

But like you realize you're saying the same thing all the

time. You realize, like I've answered

like the majority of those things, but you're still asking

me and I've already done it. I mean, do you have any capacity

to pray outside your comfort zone, to pray for people that

you don't know or situations that you're normally not

interested in? You have the heart to let me put

my heart in there to expand your awareness of what it is I

specifically want you to pray about right now at this time and

this day and this age. And verse 2 of Revelation 8, we

see these 7 angels. I saw 7 angels who stand before

God, and to them are given the seven trumpets.

These bodily powers that Victoria so beautifully sung

about represent the Old Testament priests who also

sounded the trumpets during the temple worship.

You know, sometimes when we read the New Testament and the Book

of Revelation and disconnect it from the roots of what worship

has been about since the beginning of time, we, we

unfortunately distort really what the meaning is or we, we

pull things unfortunately sometimes out of context.

But in Joshua chapter 6, verse 13, it refers to these guys.

Joshua 6:13

It says the seven priests bearing 7 trumpets of Ram's

horns before the ark of the Lord went on and continually and blew

the trumpets. And you remember what happened

eventually as a result of blowing those trumpets, right?

The walls fell down, God moved miraculously.

First Chronicles chapter 16, verse 6.

1 Chronicles 16:6

Benanaya and Jehaziel, the priest regularly blew the

trumpets before the Ark of the Covenant of God.

Psalm 96, Six, honor and majesty are before him.

Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

So we see this view of heaven of of music, right?

Where's the guitars? Now there is stringed

instruments you'll read about in Revelation, but in this

instance, there's trumpets and verse 3.

This is when it gets interesting.

Then another Angel having a golden censor came and stood at

the altar. He was given much incense that

he should offer it with the prayers of all the Saints upon

the golden altar which was before the throne.

Much incense is present in heaven, much incense, and it's

offered along with the prayers of the Saints.

If you go back to chapter 5 of Revelation verse 8, it says now

when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and

the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and

golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the

Saints. Psalm 141 two says, let my

prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my

hands as the evening sacrifice. I mean the beauty of how God

designed worship for Himself. It's not about us.

We're given the privilege to worship Him.

But whenever we can worship Him the way He has orchestrated and

desired, what does that do to His heart?

Let my prayer be set before you. Psalm 141.

Two as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening

sacrifice. So we see in Revelation that

incense is the visible sign of the prayers of all the people.

Symbolism is important. The dove represents the Holy

Spirit. The cross represents the

crucifixion, the death of burial and resurrection of Christ.

Baptism. Immersion is a sign of dying to

our sin and coming out as new people, new life, the Lord's

Supper that we take every week. The bread represents Christ's

body. The cup represents His blood.

God is not making this stuff up as He goes along.

These are specific things He has put in place that we might truly

know how to worship Him. You remember in the Old

Testament when those priests took strange license to attempt

to worship God with strange fire and strange incense?

It wasn't pleasing to Him. We have to think about our own

worship before him. Lord, does this really please

you today so much worship today. And I'll tell you guys and and

these guys work real hard to pick the songs that are about

God to God for God, not songs that are you could sing to your

girlfriend or your wife, you know that are just like you were

these words. What do they mean but songs that

are doctrinally correct and pure and magnify the glory of of God

in Malachi chapter one, verse 11, it's interesting.

It says for from the rising of the sun even to its going down.

That's that's a picture of eternity.

My name shall be great among the Gentiles and every place incense

shall be offered to my name for my name shall be great among the

nations, says the Lord of hosts. He says in every place, in every

place. Incense is a beautiful gift that

was given to our Lord at His birthright.

Incense, frankincense and myrrh were given to Him at His birth

and we see as we reflect on the Jewish temple, the worship its

continuation in heaven. I love this section in Luke

chapter one, verse 9 through 11. According to the custom of the

priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense.

This is Zacharias as he's doing his responsibility before the

altar of God and the Angel of God is speaking to the family

that Elizabeth is going to have a child and it's an

impossibility because she's been barren.

How in the world can this happen and he's burning the incense and

he he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude

of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense

again the the the community when the prayers of the the incense

was the representation that we now are lifting up the

fragrance. Our prayers are like fragrance

unto God. And an Angel of the Lord

appeared to him to Zacharias standing on the right side of

the altar of incense, A literal physical altar that is not any

on earth at the time, but will also be in heaven.

We're seeing John talk about it. So the worship and revelation is

very different from ours, isn't it?

Completely different from ours? And verse 4, it talks about the

smoke of the incense with the prayers that are ascending

before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers

that ascends. Saints ascended before God from

the angel's hand. So the Angel has a sensor that's

coals fire to burn the incense, and he's sensing that altar

before God's throne. And God immediately sees that as

the prayers of his people growing up into heaven from all

the earth throughout all time, and that he has our prayers in

bowls. I, I can't imagine the size of

those bowls, that all the prayers of every person and

every broken heart throughout all time has never been dumped

out. And that one day all our prayers

are going to be answered. And some prayers we're waiting

for and waiting for, we think, well, God, did you miss that one

or wasn't it important to God? Every prayer of his children is

priceless, so priceless that he stores them all in these bowls.

And verse 5, we see the Angel. He takes the sensor, fills it

with fire from the altar, and he throws it to the earth.

And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and

earthquake. The casting of this sensor to

earth shows the prayers of the Saints in the sense of how long,

Lord will it be till you bring righteousness, not vengeance on

our part? Lord, I hope you get that person

that really messed me up in my life years ago.

I hope you get even with that dirtbag and that, you know,

whatever. And we're just like, you know,

no, it's not about that. It's God's righteousness that

we're waiting to be completely satisfied.

If you look at Revelation chapter 6, we were there a few

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

weeks ago, 9:00 and 11:00. This is the heart of what is

happening. When He opens the 5th seal.

I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for

the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

And they crowd with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord,

holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those

who dwell on the earth. Then 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 the number of the fellow

servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were,

was completed. And so the the the prayer for us

is OK. Lord, how long will these things

occur on earth where mankind refuses to acknowledge your

existence? Where we feel as countries that

we don't need God, that we want to take down the crosses in

public places. We want to eliminate the prayers

from our Senate and our House and our government.

We want to change the name of our country to something that is

completely independent of God, who He is.

You know, I don't make this stuff up.

I have no political agenda. I hope you sense that when I

preach, I'm not lifting up the Republican or Democratic Party,

but the theocratic government of God.

And God's justice is clearly revealed in the Scripture for

what he says is right and what he says is wrong.

And I don't care what ideology we have politically, if our

ideology does not line up with God's intention, then we're to

be judged. And we're the ones that are

responsible for communicating what is true in our nation.

The freedom of religion that we have the precious right to have

in our country that is slowly being dismantled and we're not

even clearly aware of it. The casting of the center to

earth. Finally, the one who has the

right to bring judgement. Casts that down and it

represents the fire of God coming from heaven and the

beginning of the second period of the tribulation, the

devastation upon the earth begins to be poured out.

The thunderings, the earthquakes signify the judgment of God and

it is eminent at this point prior to, and we'll get into the

rest of the chapter next week. Next week we'll get into the

more radical aspects of the development of this difficult

time on the earth. But then I think about this

silence in heaven for half an hour.

And if you pick up nothing from the sermon up until this point,

think about this. This is a prophetic revelation

that he's been given a long time ago.

He's seen this. So really, the half hour is like

a really long time for all of us right now.

Christ is not willing that any should perish, but that all

should should come to repentance, right?

So from this vision of God's impending justice and wrath

coming out upon the earth, we've had all these years to scope

this landscape out and have an opportunity to let people know

that today is a day of salvation.

It isn't too late to repent. You can still come to Christ.

You can still be saved. All the people we love and care

about, it's not too late yet, but you don't want them to be on

this earth at the end of that half hour time period which we

still have time. In verse 3, as we begin to

conclude, there is this other Angel, this other Angel, another

Angel. It's very interesting how this,

this angelic being is depicted. He came and he stood at the

altar of incense and offered prayers up to the throne of God,

the ministry of intercession, the one whoever lives to make

intercession before the throne of God.

Night and day for who? For you and me.

Your prayers for me are valued, and I trust my prayers for you

like we pray for you guys. But there is one who is ever

living to make intercession before the throne of the Father,

night and day. He does not sleep, He does not

become weary. He's constantly praying for the

things that are on your hearts, guys and gals, the ministry of

intercession. And we intercede, as Ron talked

about on Thursday nights. What we're doing is we're

lifting our own prayers up before the Father on behalf of

one another and the person we believe that this Angel

represents as Jesus Christ himself.

For it says in Hebrews 924 For Christ has not entered the holy

place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into

heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

And Hebrews Chapter 7, verse 23 and 24 also there were many

Hebrews 7:23

priests, because they were prevented by death from

continuing. But He, because he continues

forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

Therefore, He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to

God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for

them. He's able to save to the

uttermost those who come to Him. He's mediating on our behalf,

praying to the Father on behalf of us, and we're taught to do

what He does, to pray to the Father on behalf of one another.

It's a privilege to be given the opportunity to stand in a place

of intercession. It's the greatest ministry of

all because that's what our Savior does 24/7, right?

He's interceding before the throne for you and me.

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 judgment 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.