Living Waters of Grace 09.24.25

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.

What would cause you or me to be willing to go through

persecution or to have a uncomfortable conversation or

relationship with someone who doesn't like us because we want

to tell them about Jesus? The only thing that would cause

you or me or these guys to do what it is they're doing is that

they are full of the Spirit and that Holy Spirit attributes are

Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, temperance,

and self-control. Sharing Jesus despite resistance

is like planting seeds in rocky soil, trusting they'll grow

anyway. In today's message, Pastor Clark

reveals how your willingness to face persecution or tough

conversations comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit empowers you. Without the Spirit, you'd

hesitate. His presence makes you

courageous. You are equipped to endure for

His sake. Are you relying on the Holy

Spirit's power to share Jesus even when it's uncomfortable or

difficult? Now here's Pastor Clark in the

book of Acts Chapter 3 with today's edition of Living Waters

Acts 3 · chapter mention

of Grace. So Moses spoke about the Messiah

who was to come. The nation of Israel has gone

through tremendous heartache, burned in ovens, all kind of

things going on. And it isn't over yet.

The, the, the army of the north, Russia in the last days will be

that country that will descend upon them to try to destroy

them. And you used to think, boy, I, I

don't know. It doesn't seem possible.

Russia seems like a very calm country, right?

Sort of picking up some of the ideologies of capitalism and

free enterprise and religious freedom and all that, and then

all of a sudden this rogue leader in Russia has become a

tyrant, right? Do you think it's possible that

if he does this to Ukraine, he could do this to Israel?

The intentions prophetically are directed that way.

And in time this will all be unfolded.

I don't know if it's going to be in our lifetime, another 100

years, whatever 1000, but it is prophetically in the Bible

regarding what will happen in that last period of the

seven-year tribulation, in the last 3 1/2 years.

So Moses is being referenced by Peter.

Peter knows the prophets and knows the Old Testament Torah in

the Scriptures. This is this is how they preach.

They preach from the Old Testament.

Now as New Covenant believers, we preach the gospel primarily

from the New Testament. We can use the Old Testament,

but the New Covenant's far better than the Old Covenant.

The Old Covenant we learn historically of how God worked

through his nation Israel, unfortunately, almost to no

avail. The nation of Israel, in spite

of having all these blessings and promises, they've still

refused to believe for the most part that Jesus is the Messiah.

And so Peter's telling them that Moses told you guys that Jesus

is the Christ, the Messiah. You're to hear from him.

Verse 24. Yes.

And all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as

have spoken have also foretold these days that this wasn't

Moses, there was others. You are sons of the prophets and

of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to

Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall

be blessed to you first. God having raised up his

servant, Jesus sent him to bless you and turning away everyone of

you from your iniquities. And so the gospel is the same

today as it was in the days of the book of the Acts.

It's still empowered by the the work of the Holy Spirit and it

convicts people and it causes them to see their need of Jesus.

But for some reason right now, and you can study this later, we

went through it extensively when we went through the book of

Romans. You can read Romans chapter 9:10

and 11:00 and it'll sort of encapsulate all this plan that

God has for Israel while they're blind, in part so that the the

gospel would come to us and we would receive it, and that

eventually Israel and the Jewish people would become jealous of

us because we've become partakers of this covenant that

God gave to Abraham. They've sort of cut themselves

off from the covenant temporarily because of their

unbelief, but God promises in the 11th chapter of Romans the

answer the question from Paul was, was God through with

Israel? No, he isn't.

He's got this plan for Israel that the nation would be saved

in the last days. So there was this great revival

in in Israel and many, almost all the population that hadn't

been martyred during the tribulation will come to faith

in Christ. Matter of fact, it says whenever

he returns a second coming, it'll really dawn on them

because it says every eye will see him and they'll look up when

he's coming and they'll see him whom they appear 1st and it'll

it'll 'cause their hearts to be broken and contrite and

repentant and believe. So they preach this message.

Now I'm thinking about Peter as an individual human being like

us. How different he was weeks

before this event. What compelled him now to do

what it is he's doing here? They're going to face

persecution because of this, this message he's proclaiming.

Why did he struggle that night when they asked him directly if

he knew who Jesus was? Well, the big difference is the

empowerment of the Holy Spirit. He's a different man now and I

don't think at times we realize how different we are or how

different we could be because of this same Holy Spirit that lives

in US. Many times we have challenges

and I don't, I can't do this or I'm not able to do this.

And that's a good recognition in regard to spiritual work.

I, I can't do what I'm doing here today apart from the work

of the Holy Spirit. There's no way.

And I know that in the core of my being, I have one or two

alternatives. I come up here in my own

strength and I do some study and I try to give you some

information and hope that it has some impact.

But that's futility because without the Holy Spirit, there

will be nothing happening here today in your heart of mine.

And so there is a difference between us living life,

believing and loving God, trusting God, and also being

empowered and filled with the Spirit of God.

And as we're studying this book, I hope my prayer is that myself

as well as you are investigating more and more of this need to be

filled with God's Spirit. He may be putting something on

your heart about a ministry or a service or something that you're

stalled because you're thinking, I can't commit to this, I can't

do this. I don't have the strength, I

don't have the ability. I mean, we got all these excuses

before God and the Lord already said, well, without me you can't

do anything. So why don't you just ask me to

do it in you and I'll do it through you?

Well, that's a novel idea. I never really thought about

that. I never really thought about

asking God for help. I thought I had to do it all

myself, right? You ever think that way?

But we can say, God, I, I, I sense what it is you want and

what it is you desire and I'm willing, but you have to give me

the grace and fill me with the power to do what it is you've

called me to do. And he'll do that for you.

He really will. So now they're entering this

chapter 4 and they're, they're in the process of getting

arrested, Peter and John getting arrested.

They're going to be arrested by the same people that came

against Christ and had him crucified.

Now, I would be somewhat intimidated in saying, boy, this

looks somewhat familiar here. These same, some of these same

characters that took Jesus and, you know, beat him and, and

eventually crucified him. What's going to happen to us

now? But they weren't worried about

that because they were in power by the Holy Spirit.

And you read the writings of the apostle Paul and imprisoned

numerous time. He was never crying about, you

know, what was happening or afraid of what was going to

happen. He distrusted God and, and it's

because of the Holy Spirit's influence and power in his life.

And so now these guys are going to encounter some persecution.

And when you think about persecution, what wouldn't, What

would cause you or me to be willing to go through

persecution or to have a uncomfortable conversation or

relationship with someone who doesn't like us because we want

to tell them about Jesus? The only thing that would cause

you or me or these guys to do what it is they're doing is that

they are full of the Spirit and that Holy Spirit attributes are

Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, temperance,

and self-control. So the love of Jesus was so deep

in these guys that they were willing to sacrifice their own

lives for the sake of others coming to know Him.

They asked Paul at times, you know, one verse in the in the

Bible, they they said, well, what what causes you to, to put

up with this abuse and rejection and frustration with the

churches at times. He said, it's the love of Christ

that compels me. The love of Christ is so

powerful that it can cause us to overcome the greatest

adversities and challenges of life.

And now as they spoke to the people, the priest, the captain

of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them being greatly

disturbed. They, these guys are uptight,

they're mad. This isn't a calm conversation

that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the

resurrection of the dead. Though the Sadducees of the of

all these leaders were the group that didn't believe in a literal

resurrection. They didn't believe in life

after death. They didn't believe in the

Spirit, and so this was a complete affront to their

religion and their theology. And so they took great offense

at what this message was about. The Pharisees believed in the

resurrection, so they were on a different page than the

Sadducees, but nonetheless, they were all against this person,

Jesus Christ. They were against them when they

crucified him, and now they're against him with his followers.

They're greatly disturbed that they taught the people and

preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead and

they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next

day. So they're they're thrown in

jail and they spend the night in jail.

But it was already evening. However, many of those who heard

the word believed and the number of the men came to about 5000.

So as I said in the early part of Acts 3000 came to know the

Lord. They hear this message of

Peter's preaching. Several thousand more people

come to know the Lord. So there's this great, great

movement of God's Spirit opening the eyes of many, many Jewish

people to believe that Jesus is a Christ.

Nonetheless, there's still a lot of people that aren't wanting to

believe or, you know, refusing to believe.

So Peter addresses the the Sanhedrin.

And the Sanhedrin is this group of, you know, political leaders.

And they set the precedent for the rules and regulations of how

things go down in their religion.

The Apostle Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin, obviously, before

he became saved and met the Lord Jesus.

And we'll study about that down the road in the book of the

Acts. And it came to pass on the next

day that they're rulers, elders and scribes, as well as Anis,

the high priest, Caiaphas, John and Alexander, and many were of

the family of the high priest were gathered together in at

Jerusalem. So what's interesting is when

these people like retired or died, it was like the ultimate

nepotism. I mean, they had their family,

their kids, their relatives, all controlling what's happening in

the in the particular empire at the time.

And so some of these guys were familiar and some of them were

descendants of the other ones. And when they had set them in

the midst, they asked by what power or by what name have you

done this? Good question, isn't it?

By what power or by what name have you done this?

Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit.

And that's important to underline in your Bible.

Peter this and get up there and start giving him a rebuttal of

his position and giving him a bunch of doctrines and defenses.

It says and, and for his for our benefit, to know that the only

way he could deal with this group of people that were

persecuting them would be to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And, and you and me. That's we have to remember, like

when we're in positions of real difficulty, challenges with

people in situations, whether it's work or home or family or

neighbors or just life itself. I mean, we got to stop that.

God, I can't, I can't maneuver this.

I need a fresh empowerment and filling of your Holy Spirit.

I don't know how to move forward with this.

Well, Peter understood the need to be filled with the Holy

Spirit, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Numerous teachings throughout the book of the Acts, you'll see

continual fresh infillings of God's Spirit.

He said rulers of the people and elders of Israel.

If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless

man, by what means he has been made, well, let it be known to

you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of

Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised

from the dead by him, this man stands here before you whole.

So it's only through the power of God in the name of Jesus

Christ that this blame man who was lame since birth, he was

about 40 when he got this healing is standing there before

them whole. This is the stone in verse 11

which was rejected by you. This is from Psalm 118 by you

builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

So they got all this religion, religious activity going on.

They got all this stuff they're working with as a as a nation,

and they are missing the key ingredient to the effectiveness

of their faith and their theology because they used

everything that God had provided through the Old Testament, the

symbolism, the sacrifices, everything that was in place

except the key to making all this work at the time.

And that is Jesus Christ. He's the chief cornerstone.

Without him, none of this stuff can work.

And then he says something very, very specific here in verse 12.

And now today we're living in a day that you and I tell people

this stuff and they'll they'll call us bigots, close minded.

They'll say there's other, there's got to be other ways.

That's not fair. You know what?

Why do we need to have? Why do we need Jesus?

Can't we do it some other way? They don't understand this whole

truth of the Bible and understanding that Christ is the

only one that could shed his blood for the remission of sin.

The Bible tells us without the shedding of blood, there is no

forgiveness of sin. Not your blood, not my blood,

not Buddha's blood, not Muhammad's blood, not Krishna's

blood. Only the blood of Jesus could

cleanse us from sin. So that's why he specifically

says, and this is a key verse in the Bible, that you know you

should memorize and know when you have conversations with

people. Nor is there salvation in any

other, for there is no other name under heaven given among

men by which we must be saved. Amen.

Period, exclamation point, dot it.

I mean, that's it. There is no other way of

salvation. And Jesus talked about this.

He said I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.

No man cometh to the Father but through me, right?

There's no other way. And so all of us here today, the

majority of us have come to faith in Christ.

Thank God by His grace that he saved us, for by grace we've

been saved through faith. Amen.

And this certainly was not of ourselves.

It's a gift of God, not of works.

And no one can boast, for we are His workmanship, creating Christ

Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained, that we

should walk in them. And so this whole focus of

ministry that's happening in this world today is rooted and

based upon this foundation, this chief cornerstone that Jesus is

the Christ, the Son of the living God, and there's

salvation and no other name. Now, when they saw the boldness

of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and

untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been

with Jesus. Well, not only had they been

with Jesus, they're still with Jesus.

And you and me are with Jesus right now, right?

He's here with us, present with us.

And so this is not a past tense thing here.

Would they think it's a past tense thing?

And seeing the man who had been healed standing with him, they

could say nothing against it, because if they started

challenging the reality of this man's miracle, the people would

have flipped out. But when they had commanded them

to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,

saying, and what shall we do to these men?

For if indeed that a notable miracle has been done through

them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, we cannot deny it.

But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us

severely threaten them that from now on they speak to no man in

this name. Can you imagine that?

I mean, like, there's no way Peter and John are going to say,

oh, OK, we won't talk about this anymore.

Like you and me. We're we're, there's no way

we're not going to tell someone what Jesus has done for us.

I mean, it's like ludicrous. So in verse 18 they called them

and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of

Jesus. But Peter and John answered and

said to them, Whether it is right and the sight of God to

listen to you more than to God you judge.

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and

heard. So when they had further

threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing

them. So God's favor, grace,

protection, he told them in the Gospels, don't worry what you're

going to say or how you're going to respond when you're brought

before the authorities, you'll be given what it is you need to

know to say by the Spirit when that time comes.

And obviously this is obviously happening here occurring and so

it says they leave and because of the people since they all

glorify God for what had been done for the man was over 40

years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

So you know what, what's the challenge for us today.

I just felt let read first Corinthians 13.

This is a many devotion because if I don't have God's love in me

and you don't have God's love in you.

All we are is a clanging gong and a noisy cymbal.

We can give information, but we can't see transformation apart

from the work of the Spirit of God through the love of God.

This is the biggest need in the world today.

The love of God, it says, in the last days the love of many will

wax cold. In other words, people's hearts

will become cold and cold and indifferent.

And we don't want that to happen to us.

And this is a good chapter to read once in a while to just

think about where you are. And you can put your name in the

different descriptions of what love is and see how you think

you might be doing. And if it's you're, you're

struggling you, you got to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you so

that this love can come through. Though I speak with the tongues

of men and of angels, but have not love, I've become the

sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I've had the gift of prophecy and understanding all

mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that

I could remove mountains, but have not love, I'm nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I

give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me

nothing. Love suffers long and is kind.

Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is

not puffed up, does not behave rudely.

Love does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil,

does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears

all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all

things. Love never fails.

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail.

Whether there are tongues, they will cease.

Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophecy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in

part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a

child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mere dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am

known. And now abide Faith, hope, and

love, these three. But the greatest of these is

love. Father, we come before you,

Lord, humbled by your scriptures.

Today as we study the book of the Acts and we see how merciful

you were and how powerful you work through human lives, how

you want to work through each of our lives.

And use us, Father, with this wonderful message that can

change lives and give people the hope and the promise of eternal

life, Lord. There's a need in this world

today for the gospel more than I think any time I've ever lived.

I just see the the insanity that's happening in this world,

Lord. And you're the only answer,

Christ. You are the answer.

And your word can change people, it can change lives, it can

change cultures and civilizations.

It can change governments. It can change authorities and

leaders. Lord, we don't have to live

hopeless lives. We can live with this hope of

the gospel and then look for opportunities to share it and

also to pray for others, to be given opportunities to stand

before kings and Princess, to proclaim the need of Christ, the

Prince of peace. And Lord, we ask by your grace,

Lord, that you would favor us and impart to us a greater

manifestation of this love that you have for this world.

Pour it into us so it can be poured out of us, that we would

have patience with people that we would have a desire to love

even when we're not loved, Lord, and to give it all for you,

Lord, as you've given it for us. Lord, we know this is a prayer

that you will answer if our hearts are open to having more

of you and less of us. So Lord, please do that in US

and do it in this church. Lord, we can be a stronger

influence for you in this community and wherever we go,

wherever we work, wherever we live, we thank you, Father.

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's

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, YouTube, or our Calvary Chapel

Westmoreland app. 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.