Living Waters of Grace March 4, 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.

The church had a problem with compromise.

The church was known to be dealing with idolatry.

There was pressures internal within the church itself.

As they were worshipping, they were worshipping not any God,

but they were worshipping. Idols Apollo, the sun God, was

established in this particular city, and what happened was, as

the church was endeavouring to do the things that it was

supposed to do, they allowed false teachers.

To be in the church. False teachers have always been

a problem in the church. Whether modern day or the early

church era, there have always been people seeking to

capitalize on the body of Christ for personal gain.

We are reminded that the ultimate authority of the church

is Christ. Whatever pastor or preacher you

may have. Pastor Clark gives insight into

this church mentioned in Revelation as a lesson to us to

be critical of those who would stray from Scripture and lead us

astray from the gospel of Jesus. Now here's Pastor Clark in the

Book of Revelation Chapter 2 with today's edition of Living

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

Waters of Grace. Revelation chapter 2, verse 18

Revelation 2:18–29

through 29. And to the Angel, the church in

Thyatira, right these things, says the Son of God, who has

eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.

I know your works, your love, service, faith, and your

patience. And As for your works, the last

are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few

things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who

calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants, to

commit sexual immorality and eat things, sacrificed idols.

And I gave her time to repent and her sexual immorality, and

she did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a

sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great

tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

I will kill her children with death.

And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the

minds and the hearts. And I will give to each one of

you according to your works. Now to you I say, and to the

rest in Thyrotyra, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have

not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you

no other burden, but hold fast what you have till I come.

And he whoever comes and keeps my works until the end, to him I

will give power over the nation's.

He shall rule them with a rod of iron.

They shall be dashed to pieces like the Potter's vessels, as I

also received from my father, and I will give him the morning

star. He who has an ear, let him hear

what the Spirit says to the churches.

This particular church, Thyatira, the 4th church we're

studying now in the Book of Revelation, is given the longest

letter of all. The churches that we've studied

so far and the city of. Thyatira, about 40 miles.

Southeast of Pergamus, which is a church.

We studied about last week. This particular church is

involved with a lot of issues that churches shouldn't be

involved with at all these centers in false teaching.

That's what happens whenever churches begin to fall apart.

Doesn't matter how many people are there, how few, or how many,

whenever the Church begins to deviate from the teachings.

Of the word. Of God and begins,

unfortunately, to make things up as they go along the church then

begins to become a problem to the people that go to.

The church this particular church in in.

General, you might have remembered.

Back in Acts chapter 16, in your studies of the Scripture, this

Acts 16 · chapter mention

city is mentioned regarding a certain woman named Lydia, the

first convert in the city of Thyrotaira.

She's mentioned in the book of the Acts, and it says that the

Lord opened her heart to heed and listen to the things that

were spoken to by Paul. And when she and her household

were baptized, she begged us, saying, if you have judged me to

be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

And so she persuaded us. And that.

Was the beginning of the church in Thyatira the Lydia.

Seller of purple. The city itself was a

manufacturing port. Also a military city.

And of all these cities that we're studying right now in the

Book of Revelation, this church again has received the largest

letter. In this city, there's a town

that people are making a living by the Guild.

In order to make the living, you had to be part of a.

Guild or you couldn't work. A Guild was like a trade union,

a trade association, and in order to make your livelihood

you had to belong to these guilds.

But the problem at that time or the conflict at the time was

that the church was being tempted to compromise its

convictions. And this is what the John is

addressing as Christ is speaking to him regarding this church in

Revelation. The church had a problem with

compromise. The church was known to be

dealing with idolatry. There was pressures internal

within the church itself. As they were worshipping, they

were worshipping not any God, but they were worshipping.

Idols Apollo, the sun God, was established in this particular

city, and what happened was, as the church was endeavoring to do

the things that it was supposed to do, they allowed false

teachers. To be in the.

Church and false. Teachers were like teaching

things that weren't part of. The Apostles doctrine or the

foundation of the Teachings of Christ and the Church, instead

of dealing with the false teaching they were allowing.

These things to go along, they weren't saying anything.

They weren't mentioning anything about it.

They weren't stopping it. And the responsibility that the

church has myself as a pastor. And Elder.

And Howard and Rick. Is that?

There can't be false. Teaching in the church, we could

be doing 90% of the things right and 10% wrong.

And as I said, the rat poison is always 2% arsenic and 98% weak,

and that's what causes rat poison to be lethal.

So when the church has a little leaven, a little sin, a little

impurity, it begins to corrupt the whole church.

If I'm living a double life and I'm walking in immorality in my

private life, and then I'm coming.

Here preaching you and. Even though I might sound right

and I'm teaching. Doctrine and all these.

Things. There's no power in what's being

said because it's being filtered by delusion and deception and

morality and impurity. And the same thing when you come

to church on Sundays, you want to come with your hearts pure

before the Lord. You don't want to bring in the

world and the lust of the world into the body of Christ.

When we take the Lord's Supper, we sit down and we take it to

have our hearts purified together, don't we?

We all need to be purified. We're out in the world all week

and we're rubbing shoulders with all kind of stuff and we hear

things and we see things and many of these things obviously

enter into our heart and they cause.

Us to be cold. And lukewarm and lack attention

to the things of God. And what happens then?

It begins to invade our families and our marriages and our

households and our. Community and those we.

Work and live with. And so the importance of the

church having no compromise. Now, some of us are dealing with

struggles, I'm sure, in our own lives, personally.

Sometimes we have business. Dealings or relationships with

certain people and we feel that we sometimes shouldn't say what

we really need to say because if we did, it might affect the

business deal or it might affect the relationship, or something

might not go right. Or maybe we could lose our job.

And maybe the boss is asking you to do something you know is

morally unacceptable and against your convictions and you're

having struggle. You're thinking, well, Lord, if

I don't do what he tells me to do or she tells me to do, then I

could lose my job. What do I do, Lord?

Well, the Lord would always have us do what he tells us to do,

right? But we all have a tendency at

times to compromise, don't we? And we need to step back and

say, Lord, I need to do what's right no matter what the cost

is, even if it costs me my job, it costs me my house, it costs

me my livelihood. Because ultimately, Lord, you're

the one that provides for me. It's not man, it's you.

And we all struggle with believing that at times.

It's like the old phrase Lord, I believe helped my unbelief.

We want to trust God and we want to follow Him, but sometimes we

compromise and we need. To repent of compromise and we

need to ask the Lord to free us from the fear of.

Man and the fear of the culture. And that the one thing we want

the most is to do what's pleasing in his sight.

So these self professed prophets arise here.

He's speaking to this church and it says these things, says the

Son of God, this. Is the only instance in this

Book of Revelation that this phrase Son of God is used, and

it's used to refute the Son God Apollo, who they worshipped as

the God of their culture? And Jesus is clearly delineating

that he is the Son of God. He has eyes like a.

Flame of fire. And his.

Feet are like brass. You know when Christ, Christ.

Is in our midst today. He's here.

He is so focused on you and me because He loves us.

His eyes are so intent upon your heart that He's searching and

moving by spirit and through His Word and through worship and

through the Lord's Supper to separate the stuff in our heart

that needs to be taken away and taken out.

It's like an infection that needs to be excised from our

hearts. Sin we think isn't that big of a

deal sometimes, but the Bible says a little leaven, a little

sin ruins the whole body. That's why David was so intent

on saying, Lord, search me and know my heart, try me and know

my thoughts, and see if there's any wicked way in me, and leave

me in the way everlasting. He was so focused upon purity

after he fell into sin. He did terrible things like many

of us have, and yet God in His mercy forgave him and restored

him and renewed him, didn't he? But David wasn't the same man

after that fall. He was so aware of his heart and

his propensity to sin against the God who loves him.

And so in his prayers he said, search me Lord, and know my

heart. He wasn't saying search other

people, get them straightened out, deal with them.

No Lord, search me, know my heart, know my thoughts and see

if there's any wicked way in me and leave me in their way

everlasting. Let the words of my mouth and

the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my

strength and my Redeemer, That that would be our prayers as we

worship God, as we come before him in prayer and our private

lives, that we're asking God to change our hearts and to purify

us. Christ is seeing everything and

he wants to eliminate everything and purify us so that we don't

have to. Stand in judgment before his

throne one day and give an account for ungodliness.

The judgment seat of Christ is a judgment for believers.

The great White Throne judgment is a judgment for the unsaved,

The loss. If you're a Christian, you won't

be at the great White Throne judgment.

But if you're a Christian, you will be at the judgment seat of

Christ. And the Bible says you will give

an account for every idle word and every corrupt deed that you

hadn't repented of. And so today we ask God to

purify us and to cleanse us so that all of us can stand in that

judgment and hear well done, good and faithful servant enter

into the joy of the Lord. And so Christ, as he looks with

these eyes that are so pure and so holy and so perfect, he's

searching the heart of this church and our church.

As well here today. It says his feet are like fine

brass, he says. I know your works, your love,

your service, your faith, your patience.

And As for your works, the last or more than the first, this

church in comparison to. Ephesus, you know, Ephesus lost

their first love. They began to become weak in

their devotion to Christ. They weren't loving Him anymore

with all their heart, with all their mind, and with all their

soul and with. All their strength.

This church in the other side, though, is apparently pressing

in to love God more, to seek his face more, and to end up doing

better near the end than they were in the beginning.

I I see so many of us at times. We come to Christ.

We're excited, we're all stoked because of what Jesus did and we

just. Want to serve him?

And we got all. These promises we want to make.

And all these things. We want to do and then I see,

you know, people that. Start well and then all of a

sudden I don't see them anymore. They're not finishing well.

It's like the parable, the sower.

The person that. Receives a word with joy and the

beginning. Oh Jesus, he's so great.

He did this and saved me and oh, I'm so excited.

My life's changed and all this stuff.

And then it says, in the cares of the world, the deceitfulness

of riches. And the lusts, other things

choke the word. And then what happens?

Anybody know? We become unfruitful.

There's no life in US. The seed obviously didn't take

and the. Seed ends up dying, but the

parable the sour the 4th. Soil, it brought forth 51

hundredfold. I think back in my own life,

Jeff and I were talking about that.

This week on the phone. About the Lord.

And his work in our lives. And I had had an experience with

the Lord. When I was 20 and I thought it

was salvation, I was all excited and I was radical and I was.

Changing and I was. Wanting to tell people about the

Lord and all that kind of stuff. But it didn't.

Last real long. It lasted for a couple years and

then all of a sudden I found my desire to go back to the old

ways and to do the same old things again.

And so I had a Christian life for years.

It was sort of like schizophrenic.

I was this way one time and then I was this way another time and

then in my early 40's the Lord dealt with me through some

family crisises and I remember going to.

A church where there was a. Revival going on and.

There was only a few people there that attended the.

Revival. But the revival was for me, and

I listened to the pastor talk about what is real salvation,

what is real conversion, what is a real work of God's Spirit and

a heart. And I realized that what I

thought I had, I didn't have. And so I went down by myself on

gun on my face and said, Lord, this Christianity isn't working

for me. Something wrong?

I know what your word says and I know how great you are, but I

don't live like this is real. And I asked Him to do whatever

needed to be done in my heart in order for it to become real.

And He did. And I'm ashamed of so many of

the things I've done in my life. Or I thought I was a Christian

and I wasn't. But the Lord is merciful, and

He's so faithful, and He's a God of the second chance, isn't he?

For all of us? God's got to have a sense of

humor because six months after that He's calling me into

ministry. I'm saying I am the least

qualified lawyer, he says. Not many wise, not many mighty,

not many. No boar called.

But God has chosen the. Weak and the foolish things of

this world. To confound the wise.

So that no flesh would glory in His presence.

So I'm not interested in compromise.

Anymore. One time I was, I thought.

That was just the way it was. Everybody compromises.

Yeah, you believe, but you really don't.

Live like you believe sometimes. Because we're all human, you

know, We all cut each other's slack.

You know, I got drunk last night, you might say.

And the other person. Yeah, I was drunk two weeks ago.

I know I shouldn't have done it, but I did it.

That's not the gospel. That's not salvation.

It tells us in Galatians 5. It gives a.

List of the sins of compromise and this is written to believers

galatians chapter 5 he says the works of the flesh in verse 19

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

are evident adultery, fornication, uncleanness,

lewdness, idolatry and this church was.

Full of idolatry and thyrotyra. Sorcery, hatred, contentions,

jealousies, outspursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,

heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the

like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told

you in time past, that those who practice such.

Things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

God has called us for holiness and purity.

People many times ask me, do you?

Believe in eternal security, do you?

Believe once saved, always saved.

You believe you can be saved and not be saved.

That's not the that's not the question we should be asking.

Am I living in light of what the Bible says is true salvation?

Or am I kidding myself that someone just make me feel good?

You know, I get a kick out of these people that sometimes.

These churches, they get them to come.

Up front and. They'll come up front if you

want to accept Jesus a day. And you don't want to go to

hell. And who in the world?

Wants to go to hell so everybody comes up.

I mean, that sounds like a good deal.

Jesus died for my sins. If you ask him to come in your

heart and save you. You won't go to hell, you'll go

to heaven, man. Who wouldn't want that?

But there's no message of death to self.

If any man will follow me, let him deny himself he who finds

his life for my sake. Must first lose it.

There's a cost right to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

If any man will follow me, let him deny himself and take up his

cross daily and follow me. So the people come down and so

the passage I prayed his prayer after me.

Lord Jesus, I'm a Sinner, please forgive me of my sins.

Came into my heart and saved me. So I don't have to go to hell

and I can be in heaven with you forever.

So the person praise it. Then the pastor goes, praise

God, you're a Christian, you're saved.

And the person's like I am. Sometimes I don't feel

different. I don't sense anything's

happened to me or but I guess if that's what you're saying, I

guess that's what I am. And so they come to church week

in and week out, month in and month out and year in and year

out, thinking that they're Christians because they prayed a

prayer. But down deep inside, their

heart is still. Doing the same things, thinking

the same things. You and I, we can't save our

self. It's the mercy of God.

It's his grace. And when God changes a life,

folks, He changes a life. We don't have to pretend it.

We don't have to fake it. We don't have to.

Have power positive thinking well yeah I pray this prayer

even though I'm. Still acting this way.

You know I'm saved because I. Prayed a prayer.

No, we're. Saved.

If we are living like Jesus Christ, we're saved if we love

the things that he loves and hates the things that he hates.

We're saved if we're new creations, right?

If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation.

Old things are passed away, right?

My old desire is to do the things I used to want to do are

passed away. I don't want to do them anymore

because my heart's been changed. All things have become new.

So if we're here today and we're still struggling with old things

and things haven't become new, we're still without Christ.

And the good news is, is that Christ is still here and.

Able to save. And so he's speaking to this

church. He's talking about judgment.

He's talking about the need for repentance.

Repentance is critical to conversion or salvation or

change or purity. In the church.

The church is a place that repentance should be the most

intense, guys, not the world. It's US.

Judgment, the Bible says, must first begin with us, and with

us, the House of God. What is it that we are

compromising with secretly? What is it that we're thinking

or? Watching or seeing or.

Doing that only God sees and no one else sees.

What is it that we're turned on by?

What is it that we're turned off by?

What is it that comes on the? TV that the Spirit of God is

just crying out. You turn that.

Filth off. I don't want you to be defiled.

I don't. Want you to become impure?

I don't want your thoughts to be corrupt.

I don't want you to be defiled as we're studying in the Old

Testament right now about the. Purifications systems.

And all that and the and the roles that God.

Gave to Moses regarding the ministry of the sacrifice.

And touching what's clean. And and not touching what's

unclean. I'll tell you God was so clear

on his displeasure for. The slightest.

Thing that would defile or make one impure or unholy.

And do you realize a thought that comes into your heart that

is not sent there by God is designed to defile you and

corrupt you? It says that we're to cast down

imaginations and every thought that exalts itself against the

knowledge of God. How many thoughts did you have

this week that came to try to exalt themselves against God's

knowledge in your life? Recognizing where they're

coming. From why they're being sent,

what the source is, it says to bring every thought into

captivity, into the obedience of Christ, every thought.

Thanks for being with us today here on Living Waters of Grace.

We are 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 to. 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 into Grace FM 91.7 FM.

They can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.

This has been Living Waters of Grace.