Living Waters of Grace - Feb 13, 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.

We believe that most of the prophecy that we read in

Revelation has yet to be fulfilled and it awaits future

fulfillment. We look at everything from

chapter 4 to the end of the book as a very short period before

the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. The main point though, when we

study this book is to realize that the Book of Revelation was

written to be understood, not to confuse people.

There is much light that can be given to you as you study this

book. My great grandmother loved

puzzles. Despite her dementia.

She could knock out a puzzle quicker than most and attempted

many puzzles, some big, some small, and all with varying

success. Without the box, however, it

becomes much more difficult. Similarly, the Book of

Revelation becomes difficult to comprehend without an

understanding of the bigger picture.

In today's message, Pastor Clark helps us start to assemble the

pieces of John's visions that he has recorded in this final book

of the Bible. Now here's Pastor Clark in the

Book of Revelation chapter one with today's edition of Living

Waters of Grace. The Book of Revelation.

A lot of different views and different parts of the body of

Christ. Confusion for some people.

Some people getting arguments and debates about what this book

means or what it's all about. I'm not going to do that.

I'm not interested in arguing about the Bible, you know, I

just want to follow the Lord. Just have a simple walk with the

Lord and love him and do what he tells me to do and not argue

about things that people seem to get uptight about.

So we want to approach the book from a very practical point of

view, a very simple point of view, and at the same time do

justice to the theology and the history and the teachings of

this book by the person of the Holy Spirit.

So I'm going to give you some background information today,

and I hope it won't prove boring to you, but I think it's

important to have a infrastructure of basis, a

foundation of understanding the book and what it is conveying.

The word revelation comes from the Greek word called the

Apocalypse and that is the unveiling and the uncovering of

what has not yet been seen or revealed up until the time that

this book has been given by the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's called the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now the Apostle John wrote this book as he was spoken to by the

Angel of God and at times Jesus Christ directly.

And as a result of that we have some similarities that we can

draw upon from some of his style of writing.

He's the one that wrote the Gospel of John.

He also wrote the three epistles.

Of course, John the Apostle, the beloved one of Jesus Christ, He

had a tremendous relationship with the Lord.

And so this book, as it says in first one, the revelation of

Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show his servants things

which must shortly take place, things will eventually soon take

place. There's four approaches or views

historically of how to interpret this Book of Revelation being

predictive prophecy. The first reference that I want

to share is called the historic approach.

And the historic approach was sort of the Protestant view of a

lot of people down through the ages, from the time that John

wrote this book till the fulfillment of the second coming

of Christ at the end of time. The people that take the

historic approach look at the fulfillment of the truths and

revelation as a process of progress going from the time of

Christ's ascension to the time that he returns.

And this has been unfolding over the last 2000 years.

That's an approach. Another view is the preterist

view and the preterist believe there's two types of preterist,

the full preterist and the partial preterist.

The full preterist would actually say that everything in

Revelation has already been fulfilled.

That's crazy. But they believe the second

coming of Christ occurred after the destruction of Jerusalem in

AD 70 and that we're living in a Kingdom age now.

And I don't know about you, but if this is a Kingdom age, I'm

going to have to like look for a different savior because this

ain't working, right? So for me, that's absurd.

You know, I've met people to have that view and it's

heretical. I remember Paul declaring about

those in the time that he was living that proclaimed that the

Lord had come and that the people had missed the rapture.

And I mean this. And he said that these people

come to overthrow the faith of the week and they're not

biblical people. Also, we have the view of

partial preterist and partial preterist.

See the final chapters of the Book of Revelation yet to be

revealed. So they're obviously not in the

same camp as full preterist. They are looking forward to the

second coming of Christ. I think like the Bible answer,

man Hank, he's one of those guys that are considering himself as

a partial preterist. I don't know when people call

themselves a Bible answer man, and they claim that they're

speaking for everyone that believes the Bible, think it's

shaky. I think he has some valuable

things to say, but there's some things that he says that I don't

think you're rooted in sound biblical exegesis.

And then there's a spiritual approach.

And this is the group of people that look at everything in

Revelation is symbolism or allegory.

They see it as a drama depicting transcendent spiritual

realities. They see these historical events

throughout the ages rather than time specific fulfillments.

And they believe that revelation can be a part of any age.

So those are three of the major views.

Our view is a futuristic approach and nowadays people

that you listen to on the radio that you might like or respect,

like of course, Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel, John MacArthur,

Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, guys that you hear on the radio

that are still sound, David, Jeremiah that are very similar

in their approach and teaching the word that we are here all

are futuristic exegetical Bible teachers.

And so we believe that most of the prophecy that we read in

Revelation has yet to be fulfilled and it awaits future

fulfillment. We look at everything from

chapter 4 to the end of the book as a very short period before

the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. The main point, though, when we

study this book is to realize that the Book of Revelation was

written to be understood, not to confuse people.

There's much light that can be given to you as you study this

book, as we study it in the light of other prophetical books

like Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel, and others.

So when you're studying this book, we encourage that, as John

promised, there's a special blessing for those who read this

book and hear the book and do what it says.

So that's the most important thing.

Now, when we look at futuristic events, they are, to be honest

with you, somewhat obscure. When you read certain things,

you sort of in your own mind, think, well, how will this come

the past and how will this actually work out?

And you have some questions, which is good.

And if you have questions as opposed to thinking you know it

all, that's a good thing because you want to approach this book

with humility, understanding that there's still some things

that need to come to pass. And you'll definitely know them

after they come to pass. But before they come to pass,

sometimes you know, you're looking through a glass starkly.

You just don't know for sure yet.

But the bottom line we one thing we do know for sure is that

Christ is coming back again. He promised he would come back

again. So to gain a correct

understanding of this book, first of all you have to

recognize that this book was written as an epistle to a

certain group of churches at the time that the apostle John was

living. It was very, very important, the

things that he was addressing because they were given to him

by Jesus Christ. And the churches at that time

were in disarray just like they are today.

You could take those seven churches of Revelation and

compare them to churches in our time and you could say, well,

what kind of church is Calvary Chapel, you know, and you would

be able to hopefully look at that list and line us up with

hopefully the Church of Philadelphia that still has a

little faith and is persevering. Hopefully you wouldn't say,

well, recoveries like Laodicea, that would be a real horrible

thing to be in a church like that prior to the return of the

Lord. But in the last days, it talks

about many falling away from the faith as we've studied in Jude

and the epistles of John, giving heed to seducing spirits and

doctrines of demons, people who are believing things today that

they wouldn't have believed 20 years ago.

And so I believe that we are moving more toward the days of

Laodicea. Matter of fact, it says when the

Son of Man comes, he says, well, I even find faith on the earth.

And this the great falling away is the tragic thing where people

will no longer value the truths of the word of God.

They'll no longer find a need to worship God.

They'll have many other things that are capturing their

attention and they'll begin to slip away from what is really,

really important. But this book addresses the

specific needs and interests and issues at the time that it was

written, what these people were actually going through.

But it also needs to be understood how it's applied to

the circumstances and the days that we're also living.

And if you look at the book that way, then you're able to more

objectively transfer certain truths to our own times with our

own specific needs and issues. So Revelation is a book of

prophecy that's designed to encourage you, to warn you, and

to comfort you. Now, if you're a believer today

and you're walking with the Lord, and as the old hymn says,

it's well with my soul, you can be totally engulfed in

everything this book's teaching because you're anticipating and

looking forward to the return of the Lord.

If you're backslidden or you're not following the Lord or you

don't know Christ yet, this book can be a horror for you because

it will begin to expose you to some very, very serious things

that await those who are without Christ.

And if it's what brings you to Christ and gets you saved,

that's a good thing. You know, God doesn't use

illustrations to destroy you. He writes these things that you

might be saved. So chapter 2 and three, as we

will eventually look at that will give us a history of the

testimony, as I said, of the seven churches of Asia Minor.

But as I said, this message of revelation is given to comfort

the persecuted people at the time that they were living.

The persecution on the face of the earth during the days of the

apostles was unbelievable. The Roman Empire was evil.

All it wanted to do was destroy and martyr the Christians.

And so John is writing this book not only to educate them about

what's going to eventually happen, to comfort those who are

persecuted, afflicted in their righteous walks, and also called

a repentance to those who are straying.

So chapters 4 through 22 will give you a predictive analysis

of the events that will be occurring after these things are

established. Now, the Book of Revelation is

apocalyptic literature. As you see this, you might say,

man, what in the world is that? It looks like some guy's on an

LSD trip or something. You know, it's just very, very

bizarre, the symbolism and the metaphors that are used in that

kind of stuff. It's like other than this world,

but as we study it, we're going to see that even though it's

apocalyptic and it's expanse, it's very, very practical and

many things can be actually seen as literal.

Apocalyptic literature during the time of John was very

popular. There was other books that were

written that weren't considered part of the Canon or the Bible

that we have today. And so they talked and they use

this kind of writing back then and it reveals certain mysteries

about heaven and earth, about man and God, about angels and

demons and the life of the world today and the world to come.

So all these things are part of what you're going to be getting

exposed to in this book. It's a very, very important

book, especially for these days that we're living.

The book was written in the times of intense persecution

somewhere around 96 AD, where you had different Antiochus

Epiphanes, you had Cyrus, you had Nero and had Dormition.

These different world rulers at the time were Roman empires and

they were ungodly. And so their whole focus was to

destroy this new group of people called Christians.

John talks in verse 9. He says I'm your brother and

companion in this tribulation and Kingdom and patience of

Jesus Christ. So he's in the situation himself

as well of understanding the times that they're living in,

great suffering at that time and also great suffering that's

lying ahead for those who will still be on the earth after the

rapture, martyrdom, recurring theme throughout this book, the

number of people who have died for their faith since the

inception of the gospel. Is this unbelievable?

We're fortunate enough to live in a country where at this point

in time, we're not being hung on crosses or burning oil.

Now, what's interesting here, these seven churches were in

what today is considered modern Turkey.

Now, if anybody knows anything about Turkey today, it's

primarily an Islamic country. 90% of the population in Turkey

is Islam. There's only a few Orthodox

Christians left there in that country.

And that country initially was one of the Seas of the early

church. Constantinople, one of the

largest churches built in our history, was built in that

particular country. And now it's this, a museum.

But as we look in this book, the vision of John is imagery that

you just in your own mind, outside of looking at Movies

Now, going to the theater, we're all familiar with monsters and

Dragons and that kind of stuff. But he uses all these pictures

in this book to convey deeper thoughts.

And there's also a lot of numbers that are given in the

book, names depicting the conflict between good and evil.

Now, symbolism in the sense of me just making it up as I go

along, I think it means this. I think it means that I'm not

going to do that to you. I'm going to give you some

history from other books of the Bible that will help connect

some of the symbolism and make it more literal.

But you just can't arbitrarily take what's in this book and try

to make everything literal because not everything is

revealed yet. We're still waiting for some of

these things to develop in the future.

And there's an old term in seminaries and Bible college

called hermeneutics. And hermeneutics is a study of

how to interpret Scripture. And it says when the plain sense

of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense.

But take every word at its literal meaning unless studied

in the light of related passages, something else is

indicated otherwise. And so when we look at this,

we're going to look at it in regards to the related passages,

But as we think about some of the things that John was going

to be writing about, a lot of these symbols that he's speaking

about really relate to personal and national entities at that

time that they were living and what would eventually develop in

the future. Many of these leaders are

portrayed as animals. We see the symbolism of the Lamb

and it refers to our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was

slain before the foundation of the earth.

The dragon is referred, Satan himself and the beast, the

demonic spirits and the mutant locusts, all these things that

we'll read in time. He also discusses cities and

they're depicted as harlots and a bride.

And we look at Babylon and Sodom and Egypt and Jerusalem, and in

the context of those kind of things also at that time, as he

looks at the symbols that he's been given, they represent

political upheaval that will eventually occur and also terms

of cosmic disruptions. We read in Matthew about the sun

and moon, and also in Revelation being darkened, the stars

falling, every island, the mountain disappearing.

Also the number 7 is used throughout this book.

And #7 refers to completeness and perfection in the Scriptures

and throughout the Scripture, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and

Proverbs, this number is used many, many times.

In the Book of Revelation, this number is used to refer to the

seven churches, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven

bowls, the seven thunders, and the seven beatitudes.

There are beatitudes in the Book of Revelation and the first one

we read the day about. Those who read this book are

blessed. Those who hear the words of the

prophecy are blessed, and those who keep those things which are

written in it for the time is near.

That's the first beatitudes of the seven in the Book of

Revelation. There's also fractions and

numbers given like 1/3 multiples of 12, like the 24 elders before

the throne and 144,000 witnesses during the time of the

tribulation, the thousand year reign. 10 days, one hour, a

little while he uses all these times.

As we look at this book, Revelation, it is completely

different pretty much than any other book in the Scriptures.

Matter of fact, there was a lot of controversy in the early

church as to whether it should be part of the Canon.

Now, the apostles, obviously they're the forerunners of the

church, and what they were given is what we have today in our

Scriptures. But there was a lot of confusion

back then because of the inability to even begin to

comprehend in the slightest way what this book was saying at

that time. But it is truly inspired by God

as a prophecy. It identifies very clearly to us

the name of its true author. It actually predicts the future,

and it's an epistle in the apocalyptic mode that predicts

events of the future under the inspiration of God, the Holy

Spirit. Now, the reign of this emperor,

the mission, he was a very, very terrible, mean ruler.

He wanted to persecute the whole region.

Nero just had the ability to affect Rome at the time.

But as the church grew, this man who was in charge, the emperor

at the time, had the ability to deal with the whole area and try

to destroy everybody that lived at that time.

We study in history that Nicodemus was one of those who

were martyred during this time of this reign of this evil

emperor. Also Timothy.

Timothy was out in the streets speaking against the ungodly

role this leader and the things that were happening and the

people came upon him and clubbed him and physically beat him in a

couple days after his beating he he died.

It's taught that John the Apostle was boiled in oil before

he was sent an eggs out to this Isle of Patmos.

And so he, as he said in verse 9, I'm your brother and

companion in the Tribulation. He was experiencing the horror.

And so as we look at these churches, they were all at

different levels in their spiritual foundation as to how

they were following Jesus Christ.

As we study the book, you'll see there's a lot of allusion to

other parts of the Bible, but there's not one quote from

another book clearly defined in the Book of Revelation.

There's imagery from hundreds of Old Testament passages though it

gives a symbol of 2 olive trees referring to the two witnesses

in Chapter 11 at Echo Zechariah 43. 11 through 14 referring to

Zerubbabel and Joshua. There's hundreds of allusions to

familiar images in the Old Testament from the book of

Isaiah alone. 79 times alluded references Daniel 53 times

Ezekiel 48 Psalms 43 times Exodus 27 times Jeremiah 22

Zechariah 15 Amos 9 Joel 8. The Old Testament was the

foundation of what the apostles taught from.

They didn't have everything like you and I have now, so

everything they drew upon was the Old Testament scriptures.

It also gives us the insights of the matrix that are set up in

the book. Like for example it gives the

illustration of the Babylonian exile and Exodus and also

comparing it to the life of Jesus.

We see an evil power in the book of Exodus persecuting God's

people, Pharaoh in Egypt, but we see an evil power persecuting

God's people in the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist.

We see plagues of darkness and hail and locusts and boils and

frogs and water and turn into blood in the book of Exodus.

We also see this revealed in the Book of Revelation.

It talks about being delivered by the blood of the lamb in the

Old Testament. In the book of Exodus, when the

blood was put on the doorposts and the Angel of God spoke to

the children of Israel saying when God sees the blood, he will

pass over that house that the blood is applied to and they

will not lose the life of the first born.

But we also see in Revelation that we are delivered by the

blood of Jesus Christ. Talks about the dragon,

referring to the dragon in the Angel, the demonic forces of the

devil in the Book of Revelation. Also in Ezekiel 29 three talks

about the crossing of the Red Sea where they sang the song of

Moses and the Redeem will sing in the Book of Revelation The

song of Moses and the Lamb. In Revelation 15 it also

discusses the Tabernacle and all its furnishings.

In the book of Hebrews it discusses that the earthly

Tabernacle is a model of the heavenly counterpart.

A matter of fact, when you want to learn about worship, and I

think we all have a lot more to learn about worship.

Even though we worship the Lord here in spirit and truth and we

lift our hearts up to God, we're only we've got a glimpse, a

minor glimpse of what it's going to be like to worship and the

Kingdom of heaven. But if you really want to see

pure, divine, holy, God centered, God ordained worship,

you read the worship in the Book of Revelation.

John describes the atmosphere golden lampstands that are

present in chapter 1 verse 12, hidden man associated with the

ark of the covenant in chapter 2 verse 17, the altar of incense

chapter 8 verse 3 through 5, the holy of holies in Chapter 11

verse one and 15 verse 8, and the Ark of the covenant in

Chapter 11 verse 19. We think about the birth of

Christ and the death and the burial and the resurrection and

his victory over Satan. A reference frequently in this

book because it's all about Christ.

His birth and ascension is depicted in chapter 12, verse 5.

What's fascinating is when they talk about the two witnesses

that will be on the earth during the time of the Tribulation,

proclaiming the Kingdom of God and the coming of Christ.

They mirror Christ's earthly ministry almost identically.

Their ministry lasted 3 1/2 years.

Christ's earthly ministry after the baptism was 3 1/2 years.

Revelation 11 and Three speaks of these two witnesses.

We believe they are Elijah and Enoch.

Some people believe Elijah and Moses, but Elijah and Enoch,

those two were the ones that never tasted physical death.

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 judgements 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.

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.