Living Waters of Grace 12.08.25

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.

In your life and mine, the things that we've done or

situations where we shared our faith that it's just been a

complete bust is never in vain because the Lord promises His

Word won't return void if people laugh at you or scoff at you or

reject you or ridicule you because of what it is you

believe and what you're committed to in your life.

We should just trust God in that.

Even though it didn't work out, we wish it would work out

better, right? But sometimes it doesn't, and

that's the mystery of life. If you ever woken up and thought

to yourself, today is going to be a great day, and then

everything went wrong, what a disappointment.

When you start your day feeling like you're on top of the world

and then experience Murphy's Law, whatever can go wrong will

go wrong. Pastor Clark relates to you in

his message today that even when sharing Jesus with others seems

to go wrong, God is still pleased.

You may not start a revival, but when you're faithful to plant

that seed of faith, God will use it.

Now. Here's Pastor Clark in Acts

Acts 23 · chapter mention

Chapter 23 with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

Paul says to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall

for you sit to judge me according to the law and do not

command me to be struck contrary to the law.

So that wasn't a good way to start out when friends and

influence people in a conversation before the

authorities, right? He's antagonizing this high

priest and everything he said is obviously true.

But Paul responded out of an emotion that made him angry.

Now, Jesus, whenever he was hit on the mouth, he didn't respond

this way. Matter of fact, Jesus didn't

open his mouth most of the time whenever he was being harassed,

something we can learn from. But Paul not being God,

obviously, and neither are we. When we get in a situation we

don't like and we think it's unfair, we're going to fight to

the end to prove that we're innocent.

And Paul wasn't going to take any guff from these people or

from this high priest. And so he basically says

something to him that he's a hypocrite.

Now, when I was in Israel and I saw the tombs and I was on the

Mount of Olives and looking down, I remember Jesus talking

about the Pharisees being like whitewashed sefolickers.

In other words, the tombs, they look really clean and beautiful

on the outside, but inside they were full of dead man's bones

and corruption. And I'll never forget that.

When I looked down and saw that, it just, you know, resonated and

reminded me of that because they look beautiful, but inside they

were just full of nothing but broken lives and dust and souls

that will unfortunately be on their way to a Christ less

eternity in hell because they never believed that Jesus was a

Christ. But what's happening here is

that Paul is tying him into this dead religion and this false

leadership he had that he's contrary and he's judging

unrighteously now. This guy eventually was caught

up couple years later before Rome was sacked and the Jewish

people had to scatter. But the Jewish people did find

this guy and eventually assassinate him.

So eventually he was judged for his crime of godless leadership

in government. And it says in verse 4, and

those who stood by said, do you revile God's high priest?

So first of all, this was an impromptu meeting.

And so there wasn't any kind of regalia and robes and all that

kind of stuff. And him sitting on a throne like

some big shot, he came in, sat there talking and listening and

Paul wasn't even aware that the high priest was there.

And this is interesting. In verse 5, Paul says, I did not

know, brethren, that he was the high priest.

For it is written, you should not speak evil of a ruler of

your people. So regardless of what Paul

thought about this man's leadership and his call and his

ability to lead the people at this time, then like him,

hypocrite, scoundrel, Pagan, all the different names you could

put on him, he knew the scripture said you're not to

speak evil of a ruler of your people.

Now, I wonder how many pleasant things you or I have thought or

said about Joe Biden lately. He's making a lot of crazy

moves, isn't he? Yet he's the president of our

country. He was elected.

Whether you think he was elected fairly or unfairly, it's not the

point. The point is God has appointed

him to be the president right now, and I don't like it any

more than anybody else, but he's our president, so I'm convicted.

Like, do I pray for him? I'm commanded to pray for those

who are in authority that the Lord would work in his heart,

that he would cause him to come to some kind of reasoning in his

mind to realize that the legislation that he's making is

causing us not to be 1 nation under God anymore, but one

nation under humanism and this immorality and this disgusting

agendas. Every time we turn around some

kind of new things coming down. So we're not.

We have to be real careful, all of us.

And I'm telling you about myself, doesn't matter who's in

office or who you like, who you don't like, you need to pray for

those who are in office. That's our responsibility as

Christians and we need to do that.

And maybe if we began to do that, maybe there would be some

changes in our nation because that man needs God's mercy, just

like you and I do. And there was times in our lives

that we probably were worse than the way Joe Biden acts or lives

perhaps. But this is a very clear

statement that Paul said you shall not speak evil of the

ruler of your people. In verse 6 it says, but when

Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and other

Pharisees, he cried out in the council of men and brethren, I'm

a Pharisee. He was proud to say that he was

a Pharisee. He was a son of a Pharisee.

Concerning the hope of the resurrection and dead, I'm being

judged. So all Paul's wanting people to

know is that Christ rose again from the dead.

Amen. But Paul's whole focus was to

let these people know the good news that there's life after

death, there's forgiveness of our sins, and that we can

believe on Christ as our Messiah and have the promise of

everlasting life and never die. That's good news, right?

And they're wanting to silence Him.

Now what's interesting here is that when He said that the

dissension began to occur in verse 7.

And when He said this, the dissension arose between the

Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

Now He wasn't intentionally trying to cause some kind of

uproar, but He was just stating a case relating to what His past

was and the need for them to understand that there is a

resurrection. Well, the Pharisees were wow,

Amen. That's what we believe that too.

But the Sadducees in verse 8 say there is no resurrection and no

Angel or spirit, but the Pharisees confess or believe

both. Then there arose a lot outcry

and the scribes in the Pharisees party arose in protest and

saying we find no evil in this man.

So now the Pharisees are supporting Paul.

There's really no crime he's committed.

There's no reason for him to be in chains or to be smacked

around or to be persecuted right now.

Absolutely none. And they're admitting there is

no evil in him, and so let's let it go.

If an Angel or spirit had spoken to him and gave him this other

revelation, they're saying let us not fight against God.

So now when there arose of great dissension, the commander,

fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them,

commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from

among them and bring him into the barracks.

So this was getting dangerous. I mean, there was a big outroar

here. There was a potential here of

murder upon Paul, and so they had to get him out of there.

It was this mass confusion. So here's Paul.

Now think about this. It's like your greatest

opportunity to share your faith with your family, maybe on a

holiday or someone you work with and and you think the timing's

perfect and it's all set up and you're just praying it's going

to go well. And you got all the verses lined

up and you got your testimony ready, and you begin to tell the

people about what Jesus has done for you, and it falls on deaf

ears. They begin to yell at you or

complain, or they don't want to hear it.

They bring up all your flaws and faults that you've had in your

life and saying, who are you to say that you're a Christian when

you did this or you acted this way or you said that and you

know what it's like. And you would be deflated,

right? You would be discouraged.

You had the chance to tell them and it seemed like it didn't

work out. Like Lord, why?

I really practice, I was really prepared and my intention and my

desire was to really be a blessing.

And this is a mess. I've made a complete mess out of

all this. Now if Paul would have listened

to the people in regards to not going up to Jerusalem right now,

all this wouldn't have gone down this way.

But keep in mind that the Lord says all things work together

for good to those who love Him and are called according to His

purpose. So in your life and mine, the

things that we've done or situations where we shared our

faith that it's just been a complete bust is never in vain

because the Lord promises His word won't return void if people

laugh at you or scoff at you or reject you or ridicule you

because of what it is you believe and what you're

committed to in your life. We should just trust God in

that. Even though it didn't work out,

we wish it would work out better, right?

But sometimes it doesn't. And that's the mystery of life.

God causes all things to work out according to the counsel of

His own will, not my will or your will.

His will be done right. So we're to be obedient to do

what He tells us to do, regardless of the potential

consequences, especially in regard to sharing our faith or

standing up for our faith. But Paul is, I'm sure,

discouraged. Now he's in this prison.

It's not a pleasant place to be. And this isn't verse 11.

But the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, now

the Lord is faithful to be with us and our failings.

He's not like people who will reject us and tell us we're

worthless or we're disqualified. Or, you know, the Lord is the

God of the second chance, the third chance, the fifth chance,

the hundred chance. He never gives up on us.

He always comes to us to assure us and to encourage us and to

love on us. He doesn't come to revile us or

to condemn us or to to judge us as his kids.

He's a loving father and he knows how to minister to us.

He knew Paul felt like a failure.

He knew Paul had the heads up not to go.

And Jesus didn't say, well, the reason this has happened is

because you didn't listen, right?

Like I would as a parent, I'd say to my kids, if you wouldn't

have done that, like I told you, you shouldn't, this wouldn't

have happened. That's not the best way to

minister to your kids. You should try to figure out a

different way to get to them, right?

But we're all the same way. That's how we all act.

And it's just, you know, self righteousness or being judges or

whatever. But this is the Lord here.

He says to him, be of good cheer.

Paul's down in the dumps, be of good cheer.

You got to be kidding me. This is how God loves us.

And he says Paul, for as you have testified for me in

Jerusalem and he didn't give an attitude of how well it went or

how bad it went. He just said you testified for

me in Jerusalem. That meant something.

So you must also bear witness at Rome, and Paul's greatest desire

was to eventually get the room before he died to share.

Paul loved being in the big cities and seeing the

architecture and reading about the artwork and meeting all the

interesting people. He loved to sightsee and he was

a Taurus, but he was also an apostle and whenever he went

into a city he wanted to become all things to all men that he

might win some. He tried to have start up

conversations to be able to find a place of relating with people

on their term as opposed to speaking down to him.

He was just that way and something we can learn by his

methodology and evangelism. He didn't pound people on the

head like many of us have done at times.

And so he's encouraging Paul and I pray today, wherever you're at

and spiritual and walking and life and circumstances and

things that don't seem to be working out right the way you'd

like him to, but the Lord's coming alongside of you telling

you to be a good sheer, Don't be discouraged.

Don't be dismayed for your Lord, your God is with you wherever

you go. He promises He'll never leave us

or forsake us. People will leave you, People

will forsake you. But Jesus will never leave you,

will He? He promises He won't.

And when you're alone in your house or in your bed crying or

going through some tough time or some situation because of life

that happened that you weren't anticipating and people, maybe

you're telling you you brought things upon yourself and you

deserve or whatever, God won't minister to you that way.

When you're his kid, he'll come and he'll tenderly restore you

and build you up and strengthen you so you have the courage to

go on. Be of good cheer means be of

good courage. Don't give up.

And so, and when it was day, some of the Jews in verse 12

banded together and bound themselves under an oath,

saying, and this is the insurrection group here, the

people that really hate Paul, that they would neither eat nor

drink until they had killed Paul.

So they're fasting, preparing to do something they think is going

to be a righteous act. Get rid of Paul.

Now, there were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy, not

a few people. It's a big group.

They came to the chief priests and elders and said, and what's

interesting here, they're not going to the Pharisees.

The chief priests and elders are representing the Sadducees, and

these people that want to kill him are the group of the

Sadducees. We've bound ourselves under a

great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed

Paul. Now you therefore, together with

the council, suggest to the commander that he'd be brought

down to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further

inquires concerning him. But we are ready to kill him

before he comes near. So this is a setup against the

Apostle Paul. Paul's in a prison, no one to

help him except the one who said of good cheer.

He controls everything. He controls all the

circumstances of all people and all places at this time in this

next verse, only God could cause this to happen.

So when Paul's sister son heard of their ambush, then we never

heard of Paul's sister before, let alone his family.

His nephew's there in this area. He happens to be walking by.

Maybe he's out playing with his buddies.

He goes down one of those alleys and he hears these guys talking

about what it is they're going to do to Uncle Paul.

So he goes and he went and he enters the barracks and told

Paul what he had heard. He tells Paul everything that's

going to go down. And then Paul called 1 of the

centurions to him and said, take this young man to the commander

for he has something to tell him.

So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, Paul,

the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young

man to you. He has something to say to you.

Now this is interesting. Most commanders wouldn't have

any time for some young kid. Hey, get away from me kid, you

bother me. You know I don't want to.

But this commander was compelled by God, the sovereign God, to

listen to what this kid had to say.

And he asked him privately, what is it that you have to tell me?

And he said, the Jews have agreed to ask that you bring

Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were

going to inquire more fully about him.

But do not yield to them, for more than 40 of them lie and

wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they

would neither eat nor drink until they have killed him.

And now they are ready waiting for the promise from you.

So he gives them the whole skinny of what's going down

here. And the commander in verse 22,

let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that

you've revealed these things to me.

And he called in verse 23 for two centurion saying, prepare

200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spear men to go to Caesarea

at the third hour of the night and provide Mons to set Paul on

and bring him safely to Phoenix. The governor and he wrote a

letter in the following manner. So this is a setup.

This is half the Garrison army that the high priest was working

with. And this other guy here now is

involved with getting Paul safely out of the city so he

won't be assassinated. And this is a big entourage here

of a lot of people. They were going to walk about 47

miles to the first city, stay overnight.

The next morning they were going to be on horseback and get Paul

safely into Caesarea, a Roman province, and he would now be

under the jurisdiction of the Roman government.

And so Claudius Lyceus writes the letter that they're going to

give to Felix whenever Paul's delivered their greetings.

This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by

them coming with the troops. I rescued him, having learned

that he was a Roman. Now, of course, he was involved

with wanting Paul to be beaten as well until he found out he

was a Roman citizen. But he learned a lot about the

issue that Paul wasn't really guilty of any crime.

And so in verse 28, and when I wanted to know the reason,

reason they accuse him, I brought him before the council.

I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their

law, but had nothing charged against him deserving of death

or change. And when it was told me the Jews

lay in wait for the man, I sent him immediately to you and also

commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against

him. So what a beautiful letter.

I mean, Paul's guiltless. There's no reason for him to be

treated like this, and he's passing them off to the next

government leader in the province of Rome.

Farewell then the soldiers in verse 31, as they were

commanded, they took Paul and brought him by night at TI

Pytis. That was the place 47 miles

away. And the next day they let the

horsemen to go with him and return to the barracks.

And when they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to

the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

And when the governor had read it, he asked what province he

was from. And when he understood that he

was from Cilicia, he said that's a region of Syria.

Paul came out of Tarsus and the all these regions are all part

of this Roman area. He says I will hear you when

your accusers have also come. And he commanded him to be kept

in Herod's Praetorian. So what's beautiful here is that

he is in. He's got it made.

Now. This isn't like any kind of

jail. He's in the palace of the

leader. This is really nice place to be.

Paul probably got there. I can't.

The Lord really is with me, isn't he?

It's my best life now, right? I got prosperity now.

This is good. It goes from doom and gloom.

To joy and excitement and that's how the Lord is many times we

get in situations that seems all Hell's broken loose, we're in

doom and gloom. We think there's no hope, right?

We get there sometimes and then the Lord reminds us and in his

time he changes the circumstances of our lives and

they become completely different, don't they?

And we can all give testimony of how good God's been to us, all

of us in times of challenge of life.

And I think the take away from this, at least for me, you know,

sometimes you read a chapter and you say, like, how is this going

to connect with anybody here? That's history, It's the Bible.

It's true, we need to hear it. But like, where are you guys

going to find some place to dig your heels in and say, hey, this

is helping me. I can stand on this and be

reminded of what I learned today.

And it's going to help me realize that the Lord's with me

and he's not going to forsake me or abandoned me.

And so that's one thing I pray that you take away today, no

matter what you're going through right now or what the challenges

are, how difficult life might be.

At times it is. Sometimes it's wonderful and

everything's going great. Other times it isn't.

But when you go to those times, it isn't wonderful and it's

hard. Remember the promise of the

Lord. He'll never leave you or forsake

you. And he says be of good cheer,

have courage. He said that to Joshua, Be

strong, be not dismayed, neither be thou afraid, for the Lord thy

God is with you wherever you go. Have not I commanded you, Be

strong and of a good courage? Be not afraid, neither be thou

dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with you wherever you go.

And he says that to you and I every day.

You're getting up for work, getting up to raise a kid,

you're getting up to go to the doctor, you're getting up to pay

the bills or whatever it is you got to do.

You're in a maybe a hard marriage, maybe your kids are

going crazy. Whatever he's saying, I'm with

you. I'll help you, depend on me,

trust in me, rely upon me. And he's faithful.

If he wasn't faithful, none of us would be here today, but

we're here because we know his promises are true.

He's not a liar and he'll be with you to the very end.

One be with you to the very end. And whenever you have a decision

to make, and sometimes you make the wrong decision, don't beat

yourself up because of the decision you've made.

Learn from waiting on the Lord. Wait on the Lord for the

decisions that you need to make in your life.

Let's praise the Lord, Father. God, we thank you for the joy,

Lord, your presence, your peace, Father, all the good things,

God, that you give to us every day.

And Lord, we're so thankful for your frankness and your reality

and the simplicity of the Bible and how you teach us because we

can relate to it as people, Lord, human beings failed,

flawed people that you're perfecting and changing and

making more like Jesus a little bit every day.

And Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for the Apostle

Paul and his willingness, Lord, to serve you the way he did.

And he never looked backwards. He just kept going forward.

He kept depending on you until his eventual martyrdom, Lord,

when you did take him home to be with you.

We look forward to meeting him one day as we obviously looking

forward to meeting you. But all these people that served

you, boy, we could talk to them for hundreds of years about what

they experienced, what they went through, what it must have been

like, and share our stories as well, Lord, because they're just

as powerful. The testimonies.

Have your faith on us, love. Thank you for listening to this

edition of Living Waters of Grace.

Pastor Clark is teaching us about the book of Acts in this

series. Acts is a powerful and unique

part of Scripture, not just because it records the spread of

the gospel geographically from Jerusalem to the ends of the

earth, but also culturally. Acts shows us how the message of

Jesus moved beyond its Jewish roots and began to reach the

Gentile world. What started with Peter leading

a small group in the Upper Room became a global movement with

Paul taking the gospel to cities, synagogues, and

marketplaces across the Roman Empire.

Acts captures this vital transition and reminds us that

the good news of Jesus is for all people in every place.

May we be inspired to carry that same gospel boldly into our

world today. Living Waters of Grace comes to

you from Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.

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