Living Waters of Grace 11.13.25

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.

The Bible tells us faith comes by hearing and hearing by the

word of God. Even today, despite listening,

Holy Spirit will increase your faith because the power of of

faith comes from the word of God.

And so this group of people in Berea are just amazing and

fascinating people. Therefore many of them believed.

Why did they believe? Were they found in the

Scriptures that the things he was teaching were true?

That's why they were able to have the confidence to believe

in what it was they were hearing and what was being taught.

What are the most important things to bring when you visit a

new place? Well, a map should be close to

the top of your list. Whether you're in a new city or

exploring a National Park, having a map or a compass is a

good way to make sure you can find your way when your

surroundings become unfamiliar. Today, Pastor Clark reminds you

that God's Word is the map you need to find your way through

life. And becoming intimately familiar

with that map will help you grow your faith in the Lord.

Now here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts Chapter 17 with

Acts 17 · chapter mention

today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

Jason is being accused here as harboring them or giving them a

safe place to be, and these are all acting contrary to the

decrees of Caesar. So they're basically saying that

Paul and Silas are causing a rebellion against Caesar as a

king, and that was never the case.

Jesus was accused of causing problems in the political arena.

Jesus could care less about the political arena, he said.

My Kingdom isn't of this world. Politics isn't what gets the

Kingdom established here in the earth.

Jesus Christ is the only one that can establish the Kingdom,

and the Kingdom isn't of this world.

It's not of America or Russia or China or Saudi Arabia or the

Mideast or Africa or whatever. It's a supernatural Kingdom that

Christ is going to bring forth when he returns again.

And that's what our eyes need to be on, not what happens 2 years

from now in Washington. Now I have my desires and you do

too. But whether they come to pass or

not is immaterial to the Kingdom of God.

Because Christ said He will build His church and the gates

of hell will not prevail against it.

His church isn't dependent upon Republicans or Democrats or

communists or socialists. His Kingdom is rooted in

supernatural power. He said His Kingdom will come

and when his Kingdom comes, it'll last forever.

There will be no war, no nation, no person, no leader that can

tear or destroy or circumvent the Kingdom of God.

And so all this upheaval that's happening throughout the ages in

the book of the Acts to the day that we live now, people are

paranoid about people like us that have a stand for the Lord

Jesus. And so they were saying that

there's another King Jesus. Well, yeah, King Jesus, he is

the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

He's been that before the foundation of the earth.

And that's his throne. And he's on the throne in spite

of what we see happening in this world today.

His will will be done as it is in heaven.

It will be done on earth. He promises that in his prayer,

the Lord's Prayer. And so they're having to listen

to this nonsense of this crowd, these authorities at the time

and these comments that are being made.

And as they're saying this, it says in verse 8, and they

troubled the crowd and the rulers of this city when they

heard these things. So they're really getting

uptight. We got a problem here.

There's an insurrection going on there.

They want to bring down Caesar and they're thinking mentally,

if Caesar is diminished in the eyes of the city of

Thessalonica, they'll lose all the benefits of being part of

the Roman Empire. It was all self-serving

politics. So when they then took security

from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

So the whole deal was Jason had to give them a certain amount of

money, promising them that he would get Paul and Silas out of

the community and then he get his money back.

So verse 10. Then the brethren immediately

sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.

So I don't want to lose any money here.

Paul and Silas, you know you, I mean, we're glad you're here,

but you're probably better off going on down the road now,

going somewhere else. So when they arrived, they went

into the synagogue of the Jews and now they're in this place

called Berea, this other city, these people in Berea it says in

verse 11, very powerful. A comment made about these

people, may it be said of us, these were more fair minded than

those in Thessalonica and that they received the word with all

readiness and search the Scriptures daily to find out

whether these things were so. We need to be Bereans.

I'm thankful for the focus that Calvary Chapel has around the

world and their churches to go through the Bible

systematically, verse by verse, line upon line, precept upon

precept. I don't have the right or the

privilege to make it up as I go or to go somewhere that the

Bible doesn't tell us to go. You know, we're locked into a

responsibility as teachers to teach the whole council of God.

And the privilege of being able to do that is we learn things

like we're learning today. And I hate to say it, but in

most churches a day you will not hear this kind of teaching. 30

years ago, a lot of the Bible churches taught this way.

Nowadays there's less and less. It says in the last days there

will be a famine for the word of God.

Men will be lovers in themselves rather than lovers of God and

it'll be hard to find places that teach sound doctrine.

And so these Bereans were already developed by the power

of God to does not take anything they heard lightly and say,

well, this guy taught this. He seems to know the Bible.

So I guess it's true. You have to know the Bible like

I'm responsible to know the Bible.

All of you guys are responsible to know the Scriptures so that

when you're listening, if something's going the wrong way,

you're going to know right away it's going the wrong way.

It's going to convict you, it's going sideways, it's not true.

And you're going to hold the teacher accountable to something

that they taught that isn't founded in the scriptures.

It's fascinating. And in Second Timothy chapter 1,

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

he talks about this importance of preaching of, of the word of

God and of sound doctrine. It's important to not make it

up. It's important to, to stay with

the truth. You know, whenever we don't stay

with the truth, we're going to, we're going to be in falsehood.

You know, Second Timothy 113 hold fast the form of sound

words which thou has heard from me in faith and love, which is

in Christ Jesus. That's being spoken to Timothy

and the church. And this is your responsibility

as well as mine to hold fast to the form of sound doctrine.

And so as we're studying this, these Bereans understand the

importance of sound doctrines. They're searching.

They're just not listening. They have the ability to read

these manuscripts or how the scrolls, whatever they had at

the time. He's talking about Isaiah.

What did Isaiah really say in chapter 53?

I want to see it for myself and they probably found it and

underlined it or whatever memorized it to find out whether

these things were so it's really important for you and I to know

that these things are so the Bible tells us faith comes by

hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Even today, just by listening, Holy Spirit will increase your

faith because the power of of faith comes from the word of

God. And so this group of people in

Berea are just amazing and fascinating people.

Therefore many of them believed. Why did they believe?

Were they found in the Scriptures that the things he

was teaching were true? That's why they were able to

have the confidence to believe in what it was they were hearing

and what was being taught. Therefore, many of them believed

and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well

as men. So again, a move of God and

people getting saved, women in the synagogue and influential

women. We're also coming to faith in

Jesus Christ. Verse 13, the troublemakers

again. But when the Jews from

Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul

at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowd.

So there's this group of people. We're going to shut these people

down. Let's let's inflamed these

troublemakers and pay them money to cause anarchy in the street

so that we can dissipate this energy of this movement.

Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go to the sea.

So they've learned enough now that every time this crowd

comes, get out of town and this goes somewhere else.

And I believe this is one of the ways the Holy Spirit stirred

Paul's heart continually to go to the regions beyond.

He never wanted to build upon another man's foundation.

He never got like, hey, I'm comfortable here.

He was an apostle, a church planner.

He wasn't called to be in one place his whole life.

He was itinerant. He was a tent maker.

He made his living by making tents.

And in the interesting, in this particular chapter, you'll find

when you study Philippians of the Philippian believers

provided revenue or financial support so that Paul and Silas

had the ability to really concentrate on the ministry that

they were doing in these missionary journeys.

So they send Paul away to go to the sea, but both Silas and

Timothy remained there. So those who conducted Paul

brought him to Athens. So now he's going to Athens.

Exciting place and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to

come to him with all speed. They departed.

So Silas and Timothy are hanging out in these places to help

these new churches develop for a while.

They'll eventually catch up with Paul, but Paul now is going on

his own to Athens now. Athens, Greece back then as

today, is a incredible city. It's a city of influence.

It's a city of intellectualism. It's a city of philosophy.

This is a place of Socrates and Plato, these philosophers,

Aristotle. This is what caused people to

think about a lot of things in life.

And whether they were true or false, they were, their minds

were stimulated by the the brilliant people that lived

there. It was a city of idolatry.

To this day, there's the Parthenon and the Acropolis and,

and all these kind of places that you can go and actually see

these buildings that have stood the test of time throughout the

centuries of history of some idol and just every street

corner but a memorial to some God or goddess who lived at one

time that the people were influenced to worship Pagan

idolatry. And so Paul, he's, he's here in

Athens now. Verse 16.

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was

provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to

idols. So he's there like a Taurus

maybe initially, but he knows why he's really there.

He's fascinated by what he sees, but he's like, I can't believe

that these people are so deluded into worshipping all these false

gods. These beautiful buildings

they've built. They're void of truth.

They're void of God. There's no evidence of Christ

anywhere here. He sees and he saw that the city

was given over to idols. That broke his heart.

He wasn't judging them. He was like, these people are

messed up and they need to hear the truth.

Therefore, verse 17, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews

and with the Gentile worshippers.

So again he has this privilege and this opportunity to go into

the synagogue and get some things going.

He also has this opportunity to deal with the Gentile

worshippers. So you had Jews and Gentiles in

the synagogue and and it says he didn't end there.

And then the marketplace daily with those who happen to be

there. That's interesting.

St. Ministry, how do you do that

Nowadays? Anytime I see St.

Ministry, it's never real attractive because it's some

wacko out there with signs saying God hates fags or he

hates this and you're all going to hell.

And it's not like endearing. I go to State College lots of

times on business, and there's the Willard preacher there who's

very gracious and how he stands outside the science building and

tries a dialogue with people about spirituality and that kind

of stuff to build a bridge to be able to have a conversation with

someone who's reasoning out of philosophy versus the truth of

the gospel. But sometimes you'll see people

out there screaming with a microphone telling all the Penn

State students that they're on their way to hell.

You know, that's not the way. I think you start with the

communication of the gospel. I think you best start with

God's love, because that's what softens the heart.

A God who's going to send me to hell.

I don't want to even know who he is, right?

Because I don't even think he loves me.

And when you tell people first about the love of God and what

he did for them, then all of a sudden the message of the need

for repentance to be saved from hell begins to sink in and make

good common sense. So as they're preaching here,

these other philosophers, verse 18, certain Epicurean and Stoic

philosophers encountered him. Some said, what does this

babbler want to say? The Epicureans were developed

about 300 years before this incident took place.

They were the people that believed in the good life, the

best wine, the best food, the best entertainment, the best

buildings and property, the ability to have, you know, the

best sensuality or whatever sin they might be able to experience

in their flesh and their body. It was all reasoned on.

This is how we're to live and enjoy all this good stuff.

They didn't want to deal with any negativity, nothing.

It was painful. Anything that had to do with

suffering. Their whole focus was your best

life now, right? You know, someone that proclaims

that the best life now that's Epicureanism, multimillion

dollar mansion, expensive jets, the best clothing, one of the

most influential churches in our country today.

And it's all rooted in Epicurean spirituality.

It's it's sad, it's tragic. And then the Stoics or the other

group where they were like real hard nosed kind of people.

They believed in this idea that God was in everything and good

and bad and evil whatever, and different, and they didn't want

to participate in life like these Epicurean kind of people.

Both of these philosophies are very warped and distorted, but

they had their followers at the time, and so they're calling

Paul a babbler now in that community.

At the time, this was known to discuss heady spirituality, new,

new stuff. So when someone came into the

community, they would go up on Mars Hill and they had the Agora

marketplace on the bottom. And as you went up, there was

these rocks these brains would sit on and they would talk until

midnight, I'm sure about their philosophy of what they think

truth is. And up on the top was a

Parthenon. It was very influential in the

in the wisdom of of Greek mythology, whatever.

And so they're here to have a conversation with him, with

Paul. Others said this is about Paul.

He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached

to them Jesus in the resurrection.

They never heard anything like this before.

And so they took him in verse 19 and brought him to the Areopagus

saying, may we know what this new doctrine is of which you

speak for you're bringing some strange things to our ears.

So they're, they're sort of inquisitive here.

Therefore we want to know what these things mean for all the

Athenians. Verse 21 And the foreigners who

were there spent their time and nothing else but either to tell

or to hear some new things. So this was a cool place to go

to. You got an idea of philosophy, a

new religion, a cult, a false teaching.

They're all weird. They want to hear what you have

to say. This because it fascinated them.

So he goes up there and addresses them in verse 22.

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Aeropagus and said, men of

Athens, I perceive that on all things you're very religious.

So he starts with a compliment. He doesn't condemn them about

their idolatry and put them all down.

He's saying, like you guys seem to be involved in spiritual

things, that in all things you're very religious.

That probably puffed them up a little bit.

Well, this guy's pretty cool. He thinks highly of us.

Yeah, we, we got our act together here, for as I was

passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I

even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

Very intriguing way of dialoguing with people about

their need of Christ. Try to find common ground with

someone when you're talking with them to see if there's any

ground that you can have to have a conversation about the gospel.

If there's not a foundation of some kind of place of ground

that you can communicate, you're not going to get too far with

people. But if you're able to listen and

thank and ask God for wisdom to, to get into their minds and

their hearts a little bit, the Lord will show you how.

And Paul is an ultimate specialist in this kind of

communication. Of course, he's gifted and he's

apostle and the Holy Spirit's in him and all through him and on

upon him. But nonetheless, he says God who

made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven

and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands.

So right away these people have these facilities, these

structures that, you know, convey spiritual atmosphere.

You go in and you can say, oh, this is so beautiful.

The gold, the silver, the the artwork, whatever.

This is like really special here, very majestical, whatever.

And maybe that made them feel like there was some sense of a

God that was in the building. And then Paul gradually begins

to explain to them that this Lord of heaven, this Creator

does not dwell in temples made with hands.

Now, how many people in our culture today think that God's

only in the in the house? We come here.

This is where God is. When we leave, he's not here

anymore. I mean, he's not with us

anymore. He's at the house, nor is he

worshiped with man's hands. So they make all this great

stuff. And I'm not putting down, you

know, artwork or beautiful structures and that kind of

stuff. He's educating them here that

that God doesn't get excited about everything you built or

made or spent to give people this atmosphere of worship as

though he needed anything. God doesn't need anything.

We can be out on the hillside, we can be out in the

countryside, we can be at the ocean, we can be in the woods,

whatever. You can worship God really

anywhere. If you know who God is, you're

going to be able to worship anywhere.

The benefit of the church is we get to worship God together,

which we're called not to forsake the assembling of

ourselves together as a man or some, but exhort one another so

much more as we see today approaching.

So we get together and we encourage each other through the

Word and worship and praise, but God doesn't need anything.

We're providing for Him in the sense of our human ability.

It's all what He's given to us. And so the most you can give God

in a way that would honor Him is to be thankful and to follow the

truth of His Word. It says He gives to all life,

breath and all things. It's like you might want to

underline that in your Bible. He gives to all life, breath and

all things and he has made from one blood every nation of men to

dwell on the face of the earth and is determined to purported

times and the boundaries of their dwelling.

So the sovereignty of God, evidence in these scriptures.

God created us from one blood. We're all descendants of Adam,

every nation, doesn't matter what color of skin or what

ethnic background or what culture people have been from.

We all come from this one God, one blood, every nation of men

to dwell on all the face of the earth.

God knows the time that you and I have.

He knows before we get here and He knows the time and when we're

going to go. So he says in verse 27, so that

they should seek the Lord and hope that they might grow for

him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

And that's the picture of of someone in darkness.

It's, it's tragic. Where's the answer to life?

I'm feeling here, I'm touching this, I'm experiencing that, I'm

trying this. I still can't find an answer.

People grope. People groped all day long, all

night long, bottles of alcohol by the bed.

They're trying to find an answer to life.

They're depressed. People take their lives because

they're groping. They can't find the truth.

Jesus is the truth, He's the way, He's the life, and the only

way they're going to know is by you and I and people like Paul

and Silas and Timothy telling these people the gospel so they

don't have to grope anymore. They can find the Lord because

faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

We're so glad you joined us today on this edition of Living

Waters of Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching through

the Book of Acts, which is the only book that chronicles the

history of the early church immediately after Jesus

ascension. It gives us a front row seat to

how the Gospel began to move outwards, starting in Jerusalem

and reaching into the heart of the Roman Empire.

In just three decades, a small group of frightened ordinary

believers became a bold, spirit empowered movement that

transformed the known world. Acts is not just a history

lesson. It's a reminder of what God can

do when His people are surrendered, obedient, and

filled with the Holy Spirit. Their perseverance still

inspires us today. May we follow their example and

live faithfully for Christ in our own time.

We hope today's message encouraged you.

Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel,

Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA

area, we'd love to have you join us in person.

Our Sunday service begins at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

Unit 6B. Be sure to visit

calvarychapelonline.com to confirm times and learn more.

If you are in the Greensburg area, you can listen to Grace FM

on the new 91.7 frequency. Please pray about supporting

this outreach. Gifts can be sent to Grace FMPO,

Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601. Stay connected through Facebook,

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Join our e-mail list, submit prayer requests, and give online

all at calvarychapelonline.com. Thank you for tuning in and

spending this time in God's Word.

Be sure to join us again for Living Waters of Grace.