Living Waters of Grace 11.05.25

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.

Jesus said I am the way, I am the truth.

I'm the life. No man cometh to the Father but

through me. It's not through any church

system, it's not through any Sacramento rights, it's not

through any kind of works of righteousness, which we have

done, but it's according to His mercy.

He has saved us and these are serious issues.

We might take it for granted because we are in a Bible church

and there's many churches still like this out there.

Thank God for that. We usually find ourselves

crafting our own set of rules. Some might believe that just

showing up at church or racking up good deeds is the ticket to

heaven. But spiritual maturity is all

about realizing that the key to eternal life begins with

receiving Jesus into your heart. Today, Pastor Clark shares

insights on how Jesus is the only way to heaven.

He hung on that cross bearing the weight of your sins.

Without him, there's no chance for your sins to be wiped clean

and heaven will be out of reach. Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts

Acts 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 as he continues his message, the gospel of grace.

So there's this problem in the church.

Some people are saying, well, what do we do?

What's the truth? There's a problem here.

So Peter and Barnabas are getting them calmed down,

reinforcing the truth of the gospel, and they're going to go

up to Jerusalem and present this issue, this problem that's

arisen in the New Testament church at the time of this idea

of circumcision being part of what saves someone from their

sin. Now at this time, there was this

growth of the New Testament church.

Church is being planted everywhere.

Headquarters was sort of Jerusalem, but there really was

never any headquarters in the church on earth.

The headquarters of the church is in heaven, and that's God the

Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

They are the ones that lead and run the church.

We don't need a hierarchy to keep things under control.

We don't need a a place in Rome to tell us what's right or

what's wrong. We don't need a place in Costa

Mesa where Calvary Chapel started that tells us what's

right or wrong. We know this word tells us

what's right and wrong right. And so we are accountable to

what the Bible teaches. And soon as something is being

taught contrary to the Bible, then it all goes S very, very

quickly. James was the half brother of

Jesus and he was sort of the main guy in the church in

Jerusalem, the first among equals if you may.

And so he would sort of preside over this council that they were

going to have regarding this issue of circumcision.

This is a big deal because it's going to wreck the church if it

isn't straightened out. Just like if a heresy came in

here and someone started teaching something that wasn't

biblical, it would wreck the church and scatter the sheep.

So being sent on their way by the church, they were sent up by

this church in Antioch. They passed through Phoenicia

and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles and

how they caused great joy to all the brethren.

So it was so wonderful how all these people were getting saved

miraculously in these church plants that the Paul and

Barnabas were establishing. It was like a revival.

It was just amazing how this, the preaching of the simple

gospel, was convicting people and bringing them to faith in

Jesus Christ. There was no rituals, there was

no ceremonies. There was no hierarchy of people

telling them, yeah, you put your faith in Christ, but then you

got to do these three things or four things in order to make

sure you're really saved. That wasn't happening.

Verse 4. And when they had come to

Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and

the elders, and they reported all the things that God had done

with them. But some of the sect of the

Pharisees, and this is the false cult of the Pharisees, the

Judaizers who believe rose up saying it is necessary to

circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

Paul tells us in Galatians and in this book of Galatians was

written to communicate these issues and problems that we're

continuing in the early stages of the church.

And he's very emphatic and what he says here in Galatians

chapter one, verse 6 through 9, this ties right into this.

Paul says, I marvel that you were turning away so soon from

him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel,

which is not another. But there are some who trouble

you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

But even if we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel

to you than what we have preached you.

Let him be accursed, as we have said before.

So now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you

than what you have received, let him be accursed.

That's pretty deep and pretty powerful, what he said there.

And so I run into people, you run into people.

Unfortunately, the body of Christ on the earth is so

fragmented between so many different denominations and so

many different opinions and so many different liturgies and

rituals and ways of doing things and way of not doing things.

But anytime a ritual supersedes the gospel, it's a heresy.

Nothing wrong with the ritual. Some people use candles and

incense. Some people use drums and

guitars to worship God. There's nothing inherently wrong

in any of that. But if we lift any of the ritual

above the truth of the Word of God, we've become false

teachers. So you have different groups

that say you cannot be saved unless you confess your sins to

a priest maybe? Or you can't be saved unless you

speak in tongues. Or you can't be saved unless

you've received the second blessing and called the holiness

doctrine. And these people teach that you

have this experience, you'll never sin again.

I mean, it's craziness, you know.

And so you have all these people with these different agendas

and, and different ways of adding things to what the

Scriptures say. And so as a result, the

simplicity of the gospel is corrupted by the gospel being

Jesus plus something else. And the gospel is that Christ

died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was

buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the

Scriptures. Jesus said I am the way, I am

the truth, I'm the life. No man cometh to the Father but

through me. It's not through any church

system, it's not through any Sacramento rights, it's not

through any kind of works of righteousness, which we have

done, but it's according to His mercy.

He has saved us. And these are serious issues.

We might take it for granted because we are in a Bible church

and there's many churches still like this out there.

Thank God for that. Bible churches that teach the

Bible, not man's ideas of what the Bible says, are teaching

things that aren't in the Bible. I'm amazed at how many people

look at tradition, and I don't care what the tradition could

be. It could be the tradition of

Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy or Reformation theology.

As soon as you make something more superior, a system to the

truth of the simplicity of the gospel, which Paul was worried

about, the thing that bothered in the most is that our minds

would be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ

Jesus. It is enough that Jesus died and

that he died for me. That's enough.

But all these other things, they make people religious, they make

them proud, they make them self-righteous.

So this brother said to me, you know, how could they tell me,

you know, what's the basis of me losing my salvation?

What sin is it that I could lose my salvation?

David committed the worst of sins, adultery and murder, and

yet because he was a man after God's own heart, the Spirit

convicted him, and he repented of his sin, and God still

declared him even after his sin, that he was a man after God's

own heart. Aren't you glad?

Psalm 50 ones in the Bible, restore unto me the joy of my

salvation. Create in me a clean heart, O

God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.

There's no sin once you've become a believer in Jesus

Christ that would prevent you from entering into the Kingdom

of heaven. Now I don't recommend you sin

because you have this security in Christ.

If you love Christ, you don't want a sin.

If you love Christ, you'll send less.

If someone says they're a believer and they decide they no

longer want to follow Christ, you pray for them and pray that

the Holy Spirit will convict them.

God inscribes us in the palm of our hands.

He promises He will never leave us or forsake us.

He doesn't make us a son or a daughter and then disown us.

So these teachings are really very, very dangerous out there.

You cannot lose your salvation. If you could lose it, you never

had it. And so this is a big issue at

this time. And this sect is evil and

they're trying to cause problems.

In verse 6 now the apostles and elders came together to consider

this matter and when they had had been much dispute, Peter

rose up and said to them, and it must have been a chaotic

environment. The Judaizers yelling, the true

believers arguing it wasn't probably a real calm room and

meeting. I mean people really pretty

uptight about this because they were both passionate on both

sides. Peter rose up and said to them,

of course we know Peter was a Jew.

He had that vision of on the rooftop of don't call something,

it's clean, unclean. I mean, he had this revelation

all the sudden that there is no difference between Jew and

Gentile. There is no preference from God

between those who are kosher and those who aren't.

Thank the Lord for that vision. Men and brethren, you know that

a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentile

should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them

the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction

between us and them. In other words, again, there is

no distinction between the Jew and the Gentile purifying their

hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test

God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which

neither our fathers nor we were able to bear, but we believe

that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be

saved in the same manner as they.

Then all the multitude kept silent, and listened to Barnabas

and Paul, declaring how many miracles and wonders God had

worked through them among the Gentiles, and after they had

become silent, James. And of course this is the half

brother of Jesus, the one who wrote the book of James as well

answered, saying, Men and brethren, listen to me.

Simon had declared how God at first visited the Gentiles to

take out of them a people for his name.

And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is

written. And this is from the book of

Amos. After this I will return and

will rebuild the Tabernacle of David, which has fallen down.

I will rebuild its ruins. I will set it up so that the

rest of mankind may seek the Lord.

Even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the

Lord, who does all these things known to God from eternity are

all his works. Therefore, I judge that we

should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are

turning to God, but that we write to them, they're going to

give them direction. Now, these are the things that

are important to to understand once you're born again and

you're saved and you got this group of Jews and Gentiles

learning how to worship together, realizing that to

Jewish people growing up in Judaism, being kosher was

important. Being gentile.

We'd eat pigs, we'd eat whatever, you know, we didn't

care about that didn't make us any better or less holy or

didn't make them any more holy. But it was a tradition of their

upbringing. And so the wisdom of the

apostles and James and all those who got together was they gave

them some direction here. Abstain from things polluted by

idols. In other words, don't

necessarily intentionally eat in the presence of your Jewish

brothers and sisters who are in Christ things of food that would

have been offered the idols. And Paul gets into that later in

the book of Corinthians. We'll get to that again.

It's a sensitivity of conscience that you don't want to stumble

people unnecessarily about what you do or what you like Or

they're called mores. What is right and wrong for the

child of God according to the word of God?

Some of you in here probably don't go to movies anymore.

You probably haven't stepped your feet into a theater in

probably years. And that's a big issue for you

because of how you perceive, you know, Hollywood and graphic

violence or immorality that's depicted in most movies.

But everybody has a conscience. Some people can watch a movie,

and it's not that they condone those kind of things, but

they're looking at the storyline and, you know, they're focusing

on, you know, the good parts of the movie, whatever.

So but someone maybe would see you going to a movie theater and

say, well, you can't be a Christian if you're going to

movies. Some people act that way or

playing cards. What are you doing tonight?

I'm I'm going to play 5 stud poker, 5 card poker with my my

neighbor. What don't you know that's

gambling or you know you you shouldn't be playing.

We were in Bible cards. They taught us we could play

cards, but we only could play Rook or Melbourne.

We couldn't play face cards because face cards were sinful

crazy. We were told that we couldn't

listen to any music other than Christian hymn music.

You couldn't listen to country, you couldn't listen to rock, you

couldn't listen to jazz, you couldn't listen to classical.

I mean, it's crazy Legalism, and legalism is a horrible thing to

be under bondage to now. When I was in Bible college, I

liked rock. I still like some of it now, but

in order to listen to it without stumbling someone, I hadn't

remember those old stereo headphones you put on.

You put this big plug in, you know you.

So I was listening to bread, you know, that was far from rock.

It don't matter to me. Remember that this calm music,

but the Bible call you just thought that was evil music.

I could see Metallica or maybe some of that stuff would be out

there. But, you know, there's nothing

wrong with bread, you know, or America or some of these

different calm bands. But anyway, if you were caught

listening to that kind of music, people would question your

salvation. Or you're in a restaurant and

you're looking around. Well, I don't see anybody here

that knows me. I guess I could have a, a Miller

Lite or I could have a Cabernet or I could have a Merlot.

And, you know, I'm just going to have one And, and that should be

OK. But someone comes in all of a

sudden. Did you see such and such?

They had a beer on their table. I mean, come on.

You know, the Bible teaches moderation, but it doesn't teach

abstinence. So all these things are all part

of this thing of adding something to what it is that

makes us acceptable to God. At the end of the day, I don't

care how perfect a life you live and how holy you think you are,

if God still shows you what's in you, you would scream.

We are depraved people, as soon as we don't understand it, we

still have a sinful nature and we are totally unholy compared

to the holiness of God. No matter how good we work and

how hard we try, at the end of the day, we are still falling

creatures. Amen.

And I mean defend you if you think you're perfect in here

today. And I have to tell you, you're

seriously disillusioned, you know?

So what makes you acceptable to God is Jesus Christ.

He's your holiness. He's your righteousness.

He's your redemption. It's because we are in Christ

that we've been made acceptable to God.

But we forget, well, I'm going to really try to be a good

Christian and we should want to be faithful to God and not

dishonor him. But if at the end of the day,

you think of all the stuff you've done and you lay your

head down the pillow, well, God, I did a pretty good job today.

I didn't swear, I didn't lust, I didn't think this, I didn't

judge, you know, and, and, and the Lord's just up there

smiling. Well, let's see how tomorrow

goes, because eventually you're going to break.

You're just human. You're going to break.

So churches that teach these kind of things, and in this

instance we got this issue of circumcision, but it's anything

that tries to make you feel righteous by something you've

done versus what he's done. Ephesians 289 says for by grace

you've been saved through faith. And this is not yourselves.

It's a gift of God, not a works. So no one compose, no one

compose, and then he says, for we are his workmanship created

in Christ Jesus unto good works which got us before ordained

that we should walk in it. So the Holy Spirit's job is to

transform us and to make us more into the likeness of Jesus

Christ. And he does that through the

teaching of the Word. Our minds are renewed.

We begin to think more like God thinks.

You got a new believer that doesn't know much about the word

yet. They're going to make a lot of

mistakes and do a lot of stupid things, just like we did in our

early stages of our development in Christ.

You got to be patient. They're going judging them and

condemning them and giving them a list of do's and don'ts.

The Holy Spirit will be faithful to convict them.

And they might come up and say, you know, I'm really having a

problem with this area in my life.

And you can say, yeah, I used to too.

And this is what I discovered is the Lord worked in my life and

set me free from this besetting sin and gave me grace to become.

A little bit more like Jesus every day.

And, you know, I don't even think about that.

I don't even want that anymore. I don't like it anymore.

And so, you know, the apostles here are telling the people,

this is the ruling here. Don't eat foods offered to

idols. Abstain from sexual immorality

and from things strangled and from blood.

So the Jewish people would not eat anything that had any kind

of trace of blood in because it would be seen as unclean.

And so they had agape lunches. I like medium rare steak.

You guys, every meter. You don't want to sit down with

a kosher Jew and have a dinner and they're eating, I don't

know, whatever they're eating a kosher and your steaks bleeding

all over the plate. There's nothing wrong with them

or medium rare meat, but that stumbles.

So they would have these meals and they would try to like, OK,

how can we have some degree of compromise on mores?

What's right and wrong for the child of God according to the

word of God? So the Jews, you know, they were

brought up kosher. Like, I have this one account in

Pittsburgh. He's a great guy.

And I said, hey, you know, we want to try to get more business

and we'll take you to the Capital Grill.

He says, Clark, I can't go there.

I'm not kosher. I said, OK, well, then you tell

us where you want to go, and then we'll go where you want to

go. So you want to be sensitive, You

don't want to be judging, OK, that kind of stuff.

So anyway, it says for Moses has throughout many generations,

those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogue

every Sabbath. So the the wisdom of these

leaders at the time came down to the path that there needed to be

this understanding that there was no need for circumcision to

be saved. That's clarified.

Then it please the apostles and elders with the whole church to

send chosen men of their own company, Verse 22, to Antioch

with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who also named Barsabbas

and Silas, leading men among the brethren.

They wrote letter by them, the apostles, the elders and the

brethren. This letter went out to the

brethren who are the Gentiles and Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.

Greetings. Since we have heard that some

who went out from us have troubled you with words

unsettling your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep

the law, to whom we gave no such commandment.

It seemed good to us, being assembled with 1 accord, to send

chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men

who have risked their lives through the name of our Lord

Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and

Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth.

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you

no greater burden than these necessary things, that you

abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things

strangled, and from sexual immorality.

If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

Farewell. Nothing added, nothing

subtracted from the simplicity of the centrality of Christ and

the gospel. So when they were sent off, they

came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude

together, they delivered the letter, and when they had read

it, they rejoiced over its encouragement.

What a relief it had to be for these people now to not be

worried about needing to get circumcised now.

Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also exhorted and

strengthened the brethren with many words, and after they had

stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings

from the brethren to the apostles.

However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there.

Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch teaching and

preaching the word of the Lord with many others also.

Thanks for joining us on today's edition of Living Waters of

Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.

Today, Pastor Clark is teaching about the book of Acts.

And as we learn more about Acts, it becomes clear that the early

church didn't miss a single opportunity to share the gospel.

In nearly every chapter, you see apostles like Peter and Paul

stepping into conversations, crowds, and crises with

boldness, ready to proclaim the name of Jesus.

Their example challenges us to consider how we might step into

gospel moments in our own lives. What doors might God open this

week for you to speak truth, offer hope, or live out your

faith in a way that points others to Him?

The story of Acts reminds us we are part of the same mission.

Today, let's live with eyes open and hearts ready to respond.

We hope you are challenged by today's message.

If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to see you in

person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

Unit 6B. For more information, visit

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