Living Waters of Grace March 16, 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.

That he's pictured in tight and the Old Testament is a Passover

lamb. That he is the true Lamb of God

that has the ability to take away the sins of the world.

Well, John is giving us a picture as though it had been

slain, and he's describing what he's seeing in this this vision.

And the lion is referring to the one who judges as sins of the

ungodly, the lion of the tribe of Judah.

Stop and think about a lamb. They are furry, fairly docile

and approachable. Have you ever heard of a lamb

attack? No, lambs are harmless

creatures. As we just heard from Pastor

Clark, Jesus is described as the Lamb, the Lamb of God.

Why would God describe His Son this way?

You'll learn today that Jesus is described as the Lamb of God

because he is directly correlated to the Passover lamb

that was sacrificed for the Jewish people just before the

exodus from the land of Egypt. Now here's Pastor Clark in the

Book of Revelation Chapter 5 with today's edition of Living

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

Waters of Grace. They represent his government

over the four corners of the Earth.

The first one is referred to one who looks like a lion,

representing one who has majesty and authority and power.

We think of Jesus being the lion from the tribe of Judah.

We see the second creature is described as a young bull or

like an ox, meaning someone who is a servant and we know Jesus

Christ is a servant to all. The third one is has a face of a

man that represents intelligence and moral choice and

responsibility. We know that God Himself became

man and dwelt among us, and so the picture of the humanity of

our Savior being fully God and fully man, and the fourth

creature is symbolized as looking as a flying eagle,

representing the majesty and the swiftness and the transcendence

of our God. I love that verse in Isaiah that

says that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their

strength. They shall mount up with wings

like eagles. They shall run and not be weary,

and they shall walk and not faint.

And boy, don't we need that at times, huh?

We get weighed down in life, the struggles, the difficulty, and

to be able to wait upon the Lord.

And He promises us if we wait upon Him, He will renew our

strength. And I know I need that all the

time. And this vision that John is

receiving is pretty much the same kind of vision that Isaiah

saw in chapter 6 of the book of Isaiah when he was standing

before the throne of God. And he had the vision and heard

the voices of the cherifim and the seraphim.

Holy, holy, holy art thou, O God, who was and is and is to

come. This is a picture of worship

again of the throne of God. As we speak.

There is continual worship. The worship is never over and

the creatures are always ascribing to the Lord his honor.

Do holy, holy, holy art thou, O God.

Whenever I look at this and I'm at a different stage in my life,

when I would read this when I was a fairly new believer, I

would sort of say, well, that sort of sounds nice, but is that

all they do up there? I mean, when they get boring

after a while, I mean, just like, what else do you do?

Well, I'm sure there's a lot of things we do the scriptures, you

know, there's, there's so many things that are not yet in this

book. The Bible says all the things

that Jesus both spoke about and did, all the books in the world

could not fill everything that He had actually accomplished.

But in regard to worship for me at this stage of my life, I want

Christ more than ever in my life.

And I found in my own heart that He's enough to satisfy me.

There's nothing else I long for in earth or in heaven but the

Lord. And so in my own mind, at the

stage I'm at my life, to me this is bliss.

This being in the presence of God and worshipping Him, it

just, it satisfies the deepest longings in my heart.

No distraction or no temptation or no other thought would come

near. No other experience would come

close to experiencing this kind of presence right with God.

And I trust that as we study this book, that Christ will

become your All in all that as you are being taught of him and

as you're being drawn closer to him, that he fulfills your heart

in a way that nothing or nobody else can.

And because it's that's what it's going to be all about.

And those of us I think that come to understand that in a

deeper way on this side of heaven, we'll be able to be

prepared to receive the richness of this experience when we see

it face to face, as opposed to going and saying, what are they

doing? Can you explain why are they

doing that? Well, go back in the Book of

Revelation. This is what's going on.

I mean, we're going to continually learn in the in the

in the heavens. You know, it isn't like we're

going to get there and we don't need to learn anymore.

It tells us in Ephesians that in the ages that come, He will

reveal his riches and his glory and His kindness to us in Christ

Jesus. And so as we see these

creatures, keep in mind that heaven is full of all kind of

experiences and a different type of manifestations of things that

God has created. Specifically in the heavenly

realm of that first sphere where they, Sarah from a cherub, from

standing, give watch to the throne of God, angels,

archangels, Sarah from cherubim. And what's happening here?

This is the prelude to the tribulation, judgment, the

celebration, the worship, the glory of God, the excitement,

the anticipation that's happening right now is that

they're on the edge of God, finally bringing justice upon

the earth, upon the evilness of this earth.

David says, why do the wicked rage and the people imagine vain

things? Why is it that the wicked

prosper? I'm sure you think in your own

life, people that have done bad things to you in in your life,

why do they get away with it? Why is there seeming no justice?

But one day there will be justice.

And one day God's anger in his wrath is going to come down upon

the ungodly people upon the face of the earth.

And even then, his love will still be manifest because that

judgement, even though it's a judgment that's due, it's a

judgment that will cause many to realize Jesus is who He said He

was. I remember all those people that

would tell me about him, and they're no longer here that have

been raptured or taken out. I know now that what they told

me was true. And I need this Savior as well.

And so His holy judgment is about to be unleashed.

And we'll get into that next week in chapter 6.

As we look in the verse nine now, it says these living

creatures, they give glory and honor.

And we see in this picture the attributes of God being

magnified. In verse 9, it tells us that the

one who sits on the throne, he lives forever and ever.

God is an eternal being. There is no beginning or ending

with God. He's the Alpha and Omega, the

1st and the last, the beginning and the end.

And verse 11 it says He is worthy, the worthy one.

His worthiness to receive glory, honor and power.

That's something we need to learn, isn't it?

More about that. Our prayers before God and our

offerings to Him. He deserves our worship and so

often our prayers are, Lord, I need this, help me with this.

This isn't going right. I'm not happy with this.

And we our prayers many times are complaints and

unthankfulness to God, wanting him to to do all kinds of

things. But can we learn to just give

him glory and worship him and give him honor and give him

praise. Think about your prayer life

this week when you sit before the Lord.

How much of your time is this praising Him and thanking Him

and honoring Him and glorifying Him?

And then verse 11 it says that He has created all things.

This is a good proof text for those who are trying to cram

evolution down your throat. Just smile and say, well, it

says here that God creates all things.

They just didn't happen. God has made these things and He

has brought all this to pass and He does this, it says for His

pleasure. These are created.

And it isn't like this ego selfish type concept.

It means for his desire they were created.

You know, God has created everything on the earth to bless

us. Everything He's made, everything

He's designed was with the intention of blowing our minds

and blessing us and this being good to us.

Think about that when you see a beautiful sunset or you see the

blossoms of the spring come this don't say, well, this is just a

cycle. Again, it happens every year,

spring, summer, winter and fall. No, God rejoices in the

daffodils and the lilies and all the flowers in the bloom.

It magnifies Him and gives him glory, but it also regenerates

us, doesn't it? It makes us alive and it

strengthens us. And so again, God does these

things for various purposes. And I think of that song, Open

the eyes of my heart, Lord. We need the Lord to open our

eyes that we may know how to worship Him.

I know I need to learn a lot about what that means to worship

Him. Worship is a selfless act, isn't

it? Worship is all about being

totally empty of our own interests and our own desires

and our our thoughts and our intentions are only upon the

Lord. It's important that our hearts

are empty of our self will when we come to worship God so that

our focus and our attention can be on Him.

And boy, what a day that's going to be when we are in the heavens

and I can worship and I don't have to think about Monday

morning anymore. You know what's going to happen

Monday morning with my job or my boss or the trials and the

struggles of life? It won't be like that anymore.

What a freedom it'll be. It'll be like a eternal

vacation, won't it? It's going to be awesome.

And in verse 10, it says that the four and 20 elders, they

cast their crowns before the throne.

And there's different types of crowns we see in the Scriptures.

James 112 talks about the crown of life.

It's for those who endure temptation.

And Jesus says that those who love him will receive this

crown. You know, when temptation comes

our way, we have one or two choices and and God doesn't let

us get tempted. He he permits the temptation,

but he doesn't cause the temptation.

The Bible says when we're tempted, we're drawn away by our

own lusts. And while lust is birth, it

brings forth evil. So no one can say they've been

tempted by God. But the interesting thing about

temptation is that there's never a temptation that's set up, so

to speak, by the evil one that you're going to look and say, oh

man, that's horrible. Who would want that?

The temptation is always going to be the most alluring, most

exciting, most dynamic type of possibility that you could ever

fathom. It's a temptation.

It's called temptation because it wants to draw you to itself

and draw you away from the Lord. Well, the beauty of you

resisting temptation by the grace of God, every time you

guys resist temptation, you're saying and proving that you love

God. The crown is given to those who

endure temptation because they love him.

So how can we prove that we love God?

Resist temptation. Every time you give in to

temptation, you're basically saying I don't love you God.

I want this more than you was taught to me many years ago.

And every time I'm tempted, I think of that.

If I give into the temptation, I'm not loving God.

But if I resist the temptation, God knows that I love him.

The crown of righteousness And Second Timothy 48, this is for

all those who love his appearing.

So that's a crown that you're all going to have because if

you're really a Christian, you're, you're looking forward

to his appearing. You're you're you're excited

about it. The next crown is a clown of

crown of glory. First Peter 54 it fadeth not

away. It's again given to those who

are excited about his appearing. And then first Thessalonians 219

talks about the crown of rejoicing and that's for those

who have lived their life for the purpose of reaching others,

winning people to Christ, telling people the gospel,

seeing people come into the Kingdom.

Those we reached for Jesus Christ who now stand in the

presence of God with us. And then the last crown is the

crown of life again, similar to the first one I described.

And this is given to the martyrs and we'll read about this.

We already read about it in the second chapter of Revelation.

These people have been faithful to death.

And you think about all those who have given our lives for the

gospel and history of the church that died horrendous deaths,

burned at the stake and horrible things happening to them

physically. And they didn't renounce their

faith in Jesus Christ. They were faithful to death.

The Bible says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death

of his Saints. And we'll get to cast these

crowns at the feet of Jesus Christ, just like the elders.

And when we go through the judgment seat, which is a

judgment for believers, our works are going to be tried as,

oh, by fire. Gold, silver, precious stone or

wood, hay and stubble. If you died today and your life

would go through that fire, what would be left of your work on

earth, would it? This burn up like man?

There's nothing there. It says there will be some saved

as oh, by fire, meaning by the skin of their teeth, and then

there'll be others that out of their life will flow gold,

silver, and precious stone, and have a big pile of stuff that

you can take and lay at the feet of Christ and cast at his feet.

I'll tell you, the Bible says that there will be some who will

suffer loss in Jesus. It says in Revelation, we'll

wipe away all the tears that people will have.

There'll be a lot of heartache and heartbreak at that judgment

because we'll say, oh, if I would have known how glorious

this was and how real it truly is, I would have lived my life

so differently. But May God give us grace this

morning to sit here not thinking just about words, but may these

words penetrate our heart to wake us up to the reality of

what lay lies ahead for those who belong to the Lord.

And in chapter 5 we see it says, I saw on the right hand of him

who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back

sealed with 7 seals. This scroll was written on both

sides. There's seven seals.

The Romans whenever they had a document in regard to a deed of

title, it was sealed 7 times and this is seen as the title deed

to to the earth and Christ is the only one that can receive

this. The judgments are already

written on this scroll. It isn't like, well let's figure

this out as we go along. All this has been preordained by

God. Everything has been established.

It's just waiting to be a manifest.

And the seal is, these seals are made with wax and it forbids any

unauthorized opening. This particular scroll, this

document has never ever been opened in the past.

And it will be open at that time prior to the the wrath of God

being poured out onto the face of the earth at the start of the

tribulation period. And these 7 seals represent the

tribulation judgments that will be manifest by these seals.

Verse 2 says, I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud

voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to lucid seals.

And no one in heaven are on earth or under the earth was

able to open the scroll or to look at it.

And the reason that is, is that we're all sinful people.

There's only one that has the power and the ability and the

right to cast judgment. Right now, you and I aren't to

judge. The Bible says judge not lest ye

be judged. One of my prayers every day is

Lord, help me to judge my own sins and not the sins of my

brothers and sisters. It's easy for us to judge, but

our judgments have no power. They have no authority, and I'm

not talking about the judgments of sin or church discipline.

Those have been given to us that authority by the word of God.

But in regard to judging sinful people, well, this person

deserves to go to hell because of this and this and that.

Well, if that's the case, we all deserve to go to hell, right?

There's none of us that are worthy.

Praise God that when you look at someone who's messed up, that

your heart would pray for the Lord to save them and work in

their lives as He's worked in yours, and that you wouldn't be

casting judgment. But John's weeping, this was so

broken understanding that we are so unholy compared to the

greatness of our God, our Savior Jesus Christ.

And John 87, it says he that is without sin among you, let him

cast the first stone. Who of us here today can pick up

a stone and throw it at each other?

None of us. God's our Judge.

The Scripture reminds us about this picture of the scepter of

God's righteousness that only is given to the one from the tribe

of Judah, Jesus Christ himself. In Genesis 44910, it says A

scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from

between his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the

gathering of the people be. And we see that verse 4 says he

wept so much that no one was found worthy to open and read

the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to

me, do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of

Judah, the root of David has prevailed to open the scroll and

to lucid 7 seals. And so the the beauty of this is

Jesus isn't only the descendant of the throne of David, but he's

the one who established the throne before the earth was

made. So David truly is a descendant

of our Savior, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

But in Jesus humanity, he is a descendant of this lineage

through David's father Jesse. And the Messiah is this word

Shiloh is taken from the word meaning Messiah, and he takes

the scepter, the symbol of the right to govern.

There's only one that has the authority to govern the universe

and the whole world, and that's our Savior Jesus Christ and all

those in the line of Judah. David and Solomon and Rehoboam

were actually kings from the line of Judah, but Jesus himself

is truly the King of kings and the Lord of Lords that was

preordained and prophesized by the Old Testament Saints and the

prophets. And Acts 13 is an interesting

verse that ties into this. If you got your Bible to flip

over there to Acts 13, it's amazing how all these things

connect together. Acts 13 verse 22 and 23 it says

Acts 13:22

and when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as

king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found

David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do

my will from this man's seed. Referring to David, according to

the promise God raised up for Israel a Savior Jesus.

And so Jesus is this one that's being spoken about in the Book

of Revelation. The lion of the tribe of Judah,

the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose

its seven seals. Jesus is seen as he looks in

verse 6. And behold, in the midst of the

throne, and of the four living creatures, into the midst of the

elder, stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having 7 horns

and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out

into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll

out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

Again, when we study the Book of Revelation, some of these things

are quite graphic and strange. You know, that we would think,

OK, here's here's the Lord here referred to as a lamb, the Lamb

of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

That's what John the Baptist said whenever he saw Jesus

walking at him. He said, behold, the Lamb of

God. Now, Jesus was not coming down

the road as a lamb, but he's pictured in type and the Old

Testament is a Passover lamb, that he is the true Lamb of God

that has the ability to take away the sins of the world.

Well, John is giving us a picture as though it had been

slain, and he's describing what he's seeing in this this vision.

And the lion is referring to the one who judges the sins of the

ungodly, the lion of the tribe of Judah.

And the seven horns represent the complete omnipotent power of

God. 7 is always a number of completeness and perfection.

The seven eyes show the omniscience of God, that God is

all seeing. He's everywhere, present and

knows all things. I mean, today he looks into your

heart and mine. He sees it all.

We can't see each other's hearts, but God sees it all.

He's receiving now, taking into His own hands the title D to the

universe. The beautiful picture is that

only the Father has the authority to give this scroll,

and only the Son has the power and the authority to receive it.

No one else. And what happens in verse 8 when

he takes this scroll? The the living creatures, the

four creatures and the 24 elders, they fall down before

the Lamb. They fall down and adore Him and

worship him. Thanks for being with us today

here on Living Waters of Grace. We're in the Book of Revelation,

and we find it fascinating how influential and involved the

angels are in this book. They bring about whatever it is

that God has instructed them to do, but it's through their

actions that much of the judgements come on the earth.

The angels are in submission to God as their authority, but He

utilizes them in unique ways throughout this book.

Like angels have a specific purpose from God, you have a

unique purpose and plan too. God wants to use you in your

life as a testimony to others and to bring others who are

currently lost into the fold of God.

God would love more than anything for all who are willing

to come to Him for salvation, but he wants it to be their

choice, not a forced situation. This is the way God works, not

forcing himself on anyone, but giving each person free will.

If you're interested in learning about this choice that's free

and that it's a gift, go to calvarychapelonline.com and

click on the About Us tab and then find the link for what we

believe. We'd love to be a help and a

resource for you as you walk through what it means to be a

follower of Jesus. If you find the contact tab on

our website, you can get in touch with us or submit a prayer

request. We'd love to hear from you.

That's all for today's edition and Revelation, but there's much

more that Pastor Clark plans to share with us from this

culminating book of the Bible. Stay tuned for that.

And make sure to mention this radio program to others.

Invite them to tune in to Grace FM 91.7 FM and they can stream

worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM. This has been living waters of

grace.