Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 12.04.25
Transcript
- 0:03This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
- 0:08Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
- 0:12of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37You know, it blows my mind and humbles me, but I get a chance
- 0:41to talk about this Holy Savior Jesus Christ as a sinful man to
- 0:48you as sinful people. God chooses to use broken
- 0:54people, people whose lives have been messed up, people who have
- 1:01done heinous things like Paul proclaimed himself what he had
- 1:04done in the kind of life he lived.
- 1:07Have you ever noticed how different people that God used
- 1:09in the Bible were never the ones you would pick?
- 1:12Moses had a stutter. Jacob was a con man.
- 1:16Rahab was a prostitute. David was an adulterous
- 1:20murderer. Paul persecuted and killed
- 1:24Christians. Do you see what I mean?
- 1:26God used all of those people despite their shortcomings.
- 1:30Today, Pastor Clark wants you to know that God doesn't pick
- 1:33people for their ability or personality, but for their
- 1:36availability. Are you available to be used by
- 1:40God now? Here's Pastor Clark in Acts
- 1:44Chapter 22 with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
- 1:48He says in verse 16, and now why are you waiting and rise and be
- 1:53baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the
- 1:58Lord. And what's interesting here is
- 2:00that Paul is chosen. He's already saved.
- 2:04He's already believed on the Lord.
- 2:06It isn't baptism. It's going to wash away his
- 2:09sins. The translation is a little bit
- 2:11hard to understand and how it came across into the Greek, but
- 2:16basically what it means is that you call upon the name of the
- 2:20Lord, then you're baptized. You don't get baptized until
- 2:24you're a Christian. Baptism doesn't precede the born
- 2:28again experience. A born again experience occurs
- 2:31first. You're washed in the blood of
- 2:34Jesus, of your sin, and the water represents this cleansing,
- 2:38but has no power in itself to cleanse you of your sin.
- 2:41Baptism is an outward sign of what's happened inwardly.
- 2:45And so now Paul is going to be baptized, and that's important.
- 2:49If you've become a believer and you haven't been baptized yet,
- 2:52you need to be baptized because that's obedience to the Lord.
- 2:55So now it happened. When I returned to Jerusalem and
- 3:00was praying in the temple, I was in a trance.
- 3:03So the time between the words of Ananias and this time of being
- 3:07in Jerusalem now in verse 17 was about three years.
- 3:11Paul went into the desert of Arabia and he heard the Lord
- 3:15speak to him and teach him about the Old Testament and all the
- 3:20things that began to be part of what the New Testament would be
- 3:23proclaiming as the message of the gospel that Paul had
- 3:27received from the Lord himself. And so he's, he's explaining now
- 3:33he's coming back after that period of time.
- 3:35And when I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the
- 3:38temple that I was in a trance. This idea of a trance, this is
- 3:43somewhat rare and very unusual. And in regard to biblical
- 3:49teaching, there's only three people in the New Testament that
- 3:52had a trance. That was Apostle Paul, Apostle
- 3:56Peter, and Apostle John in the Book of Revelation.
- 3:59Peter, when he had the vision and the trance, when he was
- 4:02sitting up on the roof praying in the hours of prayer, and he
- 4:05was able to see through the vision of these animals that
- 4:10would be perceived as being not good to eat because they weren't
- 4:14kosher. God saying don't reject
- 4:17anything. All this food is given for good.
- 4:20And so Peter was released from that bondage of Judaism at the
- 4:23time. So here we are, Paul's having
- 4:26this experience and he senses the Lord speaking to him and he
- 4:32hears this direction here. Make haste and get out of
- 4:35Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony
- 4:39concerning me. Now, this is prior to what was
- 4:43happening right now and what we're reading about.
- 4:45It sort of blows my mind that he was warned by God himself not
- 4:49to, you know, get out of Jerusalem.
- 4:51And Paul, I'm sure, man, I just want to be here and tell him
- 4:53what what you did for me and give him my testimony.
- 4:56He's saying they're not going to receive your testimony and
- 4:59they're going to want to kill you.
- 5:00Get out of Jerusalem. Well, guess what?
- 5:03He's here in Jerusalem right now.
- 5:05He's already been told several times by the Holy Spirit not to
- 5:08go there, and he wants to give his testimony and he's given it
- 5:12now. And you're going to see they're
- 5:13not going to receive it here either.
- 5:15So be encouraged, you know, whenever you're telling people
- 5:18about your relationship with the Lord and they don't want to hear
- 5:20it. Paul didn't have a successful
- 5:23day every day of his life when he was preaching.
- 5:25In this instance, it's just really, really difficult.
- 5:29So I said, Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned
- 5:33and beat those who believe in you.
- 5:35And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed and he
- 5:38was the first martyr in the New Testament.
- 5:41You remember reading about that earlier in the book act.
- 5:44I was also standing by consenting to his death and
- 5:47guarding his clothes, the clothes of those who were
- 5:50killing him. Then he said to me, depart, for
- 5:52I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.
- 5:55So Paul's trying to argue with the Lord there a little bit and
- 5:59regard to leaving Jerusalem and said, man, I just want to tell
- 6:03him, you know, like what I was like and how I was responsible
- 6:07for Stevens martyrdom and all this stuff.
- 6:10And the Lord again makes it real clear.
- 6:12Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.
- 6:17Now Paul is interesting because I just wanted to reference
- 6:21something in regard to what this guy had to go through and his
- 6:24life as he served the Lord and also the importance of what it
- 6:29means to be an apostle in First Corinthians chapter 15 verses
- 6:35one through 10. I want to read that briefly.
- 6:37To be an actual apostle, you had to be an eyewitness of Jesus.
- 6:41Personally, I don't know how in the world people call themselves
- 6:44apostles today, but they do, unfortunately.
- 6:48It says. Moreover, brethren, verse 1 of
- 6:50chapter 15 and 1st Corinthians, I declare to you the gospel
- 6:54which I preached you, which also you received, in which you
- 6:57stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that
- 7:01word which I preached you, unless you believed in vain.
- 7:04For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received,
- 7:08that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
- 7:12that He was buried, and that he rose again the third day
- 7:15according to the Scriptures. That's the gospel.
- 7:18And Paul received that from the Lord himself to proclaim to all
- 7:23those people that got saved even before Paul was an apostle
- 7:27through Peter's sermon in the book of the Acts, and that he
- 7:31was buried. He rose again the third day
- 7:33according to the Scriptures. He was seen by Cephas.
- 7:35Of course he was seen by Peter. Then by the 12.
- 7:38After that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom
- 7:41the greater part remained to the present time, But some of fallen
- 7:45asleep passed away. After that he was seen by James,
- 7:48then by all the apostles. Then last of all, he was seen by
- 7:52me also as one born out of due time.
- 7:55So Paul physically saw Christ, experienced him and was in a
- 8:00legitimate an apostle, but his humility says in verse 9 For I
- 8:04am the least of the apostles, who I'm not worthy to be called
- 8:07an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
- 8:11But by the grace of God I am what I am.
- 8:13And his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more
- 8:16abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God
- 8:20which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or
- 8:23they, so we preached and so you believe so Paul always had his
- 8:28feet grounded, no matter what his his title was, his calling,
- 8:32his authority, his gifting. He knew what he was in and of
- 8:37himself apart from the grace of God.
- 8:39And that's something we all need to continually remember what we
- 8:43are apart from the grace of God. We're sinners saved by grace.
- 8:49I'm the least deserving person to be in this church preaching
- 8:53to you the gospel of Christ because my life was stained by
- 8:57so many horrific things. I don't want to bore you with
- 9:00the details, right? But you know, it blows my mind
- 9:04and humbles me that I get a chance to talk about this holy
- 9:09Savior Jesus Christ as a sinful man to you as sinful people.
- 9:16God chooses to use broken people, people whose lives have
- 9:22been messed up, people who have done heinous things, like Paul
- 9:28proclaimed himself what he had done in the kind of life he
- 9:31lived. And perhaps some people might
- 9:34think, well, if they knew everything about me, why would
- 9:37they want to even listen to what I have to say?
- 9:40Well, that's the hope that somehow God knows that whenever
- 9:44we are honest about our lives and we tell people where we've
- 9:47come from and what he's done, then a light goes on in their
- 9:50head and they start thinking, maybe he'd do that for me.
- 9:55I'm not as bad as you, Clark, so he'd accept me faster.
- 10:00But that's the good news, isn't it?
- 10:03Christ died for sinners, and Paul always took the credit for
- 10:07being the worst of all sinners. And so they listened to him
- 10:11until this word, verse 22, and they raised their voices and
- 10:16said away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not
- 10:19fit to live. They were uptight because
- 10:22hanging out with Gentiles was the worst thing that you could
- 10:26do. And so all of a sudden they cut
- 10:28them off. They didn't want to hear
- 10:30anything he had to say anymore about what Christ had done for
- 10:35them. And you think about the
- 10:38persecution and all that stuff that he went through from them
- 10:43because he was telling them about persecuting Christians at
- 10:46this point in time. Like despite everything he said,
- 10:49at least outwardly had no meaning or impact.
- 10:52Now we have no idea what God used in their lives long down
- 10:55the road after this that they might have become believers
- 10:58because of this testimony of Paul.
- 11:01You can't always go by what you see happening outwardly.
- 11:04God's always doing something inwardly, and He promises His
- 11:07word won't return void. It'll accomplish the purposes
- 11:11for which He sends it. They're crying out.
- 11:13They're tearing off their clothes.
- 11:15This big ruckus are throwing dust in the air.
- 11:17The commander orders him to be brought into the barracks and
- 11:21says that he should be examined under scourging so that he might
- 11:24know why they shouted so against them.
- 11:27They want to beat Paul now. They want to take him up into
- 11:31this area. And scourging was a way of
- 11:34getting the truth of confession out of someone.
- 11:38They would whip with this cat of nine tails with glass and
- 11:41leather and pieces of steel and take his shirt off and tie him
- 11:47to post with his back tight, and they would just start lashing.
- 11:51Well, let me tell you, what did you do, Paul?
- 11:53What did you say? He's not going to say anything.
- 11:55Maybe the first one a second all the sudden starts hurting,
- 11:57bleeding agony. I'll tell you the truth.
- 12:00Stop. I'll tell you the truth.
- 12:01And then they lighten up on the lash a little bit because
- 12:04they're getting what they want. Well, there was nothing really
- 12:07for Paul called to to have to defend because he's already told
- 12:11everybody what's going on here. And I think about Jesus, he was
- 12:16lashed and he didn't open his mouth.
- 12:20Why? Because he had nothing to
- 12:21confess, did he? He's perfect.
- 12:23Christ had nothing to to say. And he went through that for you
- 12:28and me. And so Paul is being set up
- 12:35here. And Paul then says to him in
- 12:39verse 25, as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the
- 12:42centurion who stood by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man
- 12:46who is a Roman and uncondem? And they're going to freak out
- 12:49here. He's a citizen of Rome.
- 12:51It's illegal to take someone and scourge him as a Roman citizen.
- 12:56And when the centurion heard that, he went and told the
- 12:58commander, saying, take care of what you do, for this man is a
- 13:02Roman. Then the commander came and said
- 13:04to him, tell me, are you a Roman?
- 13:06He said yes. And the commander answered with
- 13:09a large sum. I obtained the citizenship.
- 13:12So he's bragging he became a citizen of Rome.
- 13:16You can't buy this. But he obviously bribed someone.
- 13:19And Paul said, but I was born a citizen.
- 13:22He's a legitimate citizen of Rome.
- 13:24Then immediately those who were about to excourage him withdrew
- 13:28from him. And the commander was also
- 13:30afraid after he found out that he was a Roman and because he
- 13:35had bound him. Now, when you think about the
- 13:39apostle Paul, I want you to go to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 11.
- 13:43As we begin to conclude here, Second Corinthians Chapter 11,
- 13:47verses 22 to 28, think about this and I and as I read this in
- 13:54Acts 916, Ananias spoke by the Lord's leading, where the Lord
- 14:01said, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for
- 14:06my name's sake. Paul lived a life of sacrifice
- 14:12and suffering beyond what any of us will ever experience in verse
- 14:1822 suffering for Christ disheading.
- 14:22Are they Hebrews? So am I are they Israelites?
- 14:26So am I are they the seed of Abraham?
- 14:29So am I so Paul identified with his own people group that
- 14:36rejected him and rejected Christ and then he begins to talk about
- 14:41what this cost him. Are they ministers of Christ?
- 14:45I speak as a fool. I am more and labor's more
- 14:49abundant and stripes above measure imprisons more
- 14:54frequently and deaths often from the Jews.
- 14:57Five times I received 40 stripes.
- 14:59So he escaped the beating and the lashing that I'm reading
- 15:03about an axe, but he still went through it.
- 15:06It says Five times he received 40 stripes.
- 15:09Can you imagine that? How in the world did that guy
- 15:11survive and live through all that loss of blood and pain?
- 15:16Three times I was beaten with rods.
- 15:18Once I was stoned publicly, they stoned him and threw rocks at
- 15:22him. Three times I was shipwrecked.
- 15:24A night and a day I have been in the deep.
- 15:27He was in the ocean for a long time, floating around in the
- 15:32water, cold, dark, probably thinking about sharks and what's
- 15:36going to happen and a day. I've been in the deep.
- 15:39I mean, if I was like that, I'd be thinking of that, you know,
- 15:44when the sharks coming, I'd be trying to move.
- 15:46Now it's I'd be freaking out. He's been in journeys often, in
- 15:50perils of waters, and perils of robbers, and perils of my own
- 15:53countrymen, and perils of the Gentiles, and perils in the
- 15:56city, and perils in the wilderness, and perils in the
- 15:59sea, and perils among false brethren.
- 16:02And weariness and toil, and sleeplessness often, and hunger
- 16:06and thirst and fastenings often, and cold and nakedness beside
- 16:10the other things. What comes upon me daily?
- 16:13My deep concern for all the churches.
- 16:17What a example of someone who's totally giving over to the Lord.
- 16:23I haven't experienced any of those things, and you haven't
- 16:26either. We might experience someone
- 16:30laughing at us because we're Christians, or scoffing at us
- 16:34because of our faith or thinking we're crazy or whatever, and we
- 16:37got all upset over that, don't we?
- 16:40You read this, you think? Lord, thank you for saving me
- 16:42from going through this stuff. Of course, Paul couldn't have
- 16:47gone through it except for the grace of God and God's strength.
- 16:50So in verse 30, the next day, because he wanted to know for
- 16:54certain why he was accused by the Jews, he released him from
- 16:58his bond and commanded the chief priests and all their counsel to
- 17:02appear and brought Paul down and set him before them.
- 17:06You know, what's the application here today for me, for you is
- 17:11the Lord speaking to you specifically about anything in
- 17:15your life that needs to be taken care of?
- 17:18In other words, He's been giving you some slack, time, patience,
- 17:24but you still want to do what it is you want to do.
- 17:29You think your decision or your way of running your life is the
- 17:34best way to do it. But God has another plan.
- 17:41His plan is perfect. And you're maybe in a situation
- 17:46today that you're not happy about and things aren't going
- 17:50the way you really would like them to go.
- 17:53And there's conflict and there's obstacles and there's difficulty
- 18:00because you're wanting to live life as a Christian even on your
- 18:05own terms or as an unbeliever, maybe someone who hasn't come to
- 18:09faith in Christ. You think that your way of
- 18:12living life is OK and you don't need to make any adjustments.
- 18:18You don't need to save your life's good and no big deal kind
- 18:21of thing. Well, the Bible teaches us, as
- 18:25does the work of the Holy Spirit, that there's a God that
- 18:29all of us have to reckon with on a daily basis.
- 18:34And we're either surrendering to this creator God and yielding to
- 18:41what it is He's requiring of us and what it is He's calling us
- 18:46to respond to, or we're blowing them off.
- 18:52And there's a reason on the Turnpike why they have state
- 18:57troopers. And whether you like them being
- 19:00there or not, there's a reason they're there.
- 19:03There's a reason why there's a medium strip in the middle of
- 19:06the highway to prevent one car from crashing into the other.
- 19:11There's a reason why there's speed limits, and there's
- 19:13reasons why you have brakes in your car.
- 19:16The reason why you have a speedometer.
- 19:18It tells you where you're at and where they should slow down.
- 19:21All these are pictures of God and His Spirit working in our
- 19:25lives because God set up barriers and the Word of God is
- 19:29the safest barrier and boundary to have in your life and around
- 19:34your life. Because if you stay within the
- 19:36confines of what the Bible teaches, you're going to have a
- 19:39life that's going to be a lot better than trying to test the
- 19:43boundaries we have these times in church.
- 19:46We take the Lord's Supper and we need to think about like, well,
- 19:50where am I with the boundaries of God?
- 19:52What is it that I need to surrender to?
- 19:54What is it that I need to yield to?
- 19:56What is it that needs to change in my life and recognize that
- 20:00personally, you and God privately, what it is you want
- 20:03to tell him or talk to him about or surrender to him or give over
- 20:06to him. And you want to do that before
- 20:09you take the supper because you don't want to take the supper
- 20:12when God's telling you that these are the boundaries.
- 20:15And yeah, yeah, yeah, Lord, I understand.
- 20:17But I'm not ready to deal with that right now.
- 20:20Then don't take the supper because that would be taking it
- 20:22unworthily. You want to take it with a clear
- 20:24conscience. Doesn't mean you're perfect,
- 20:26doesn't mean everything's resolved, but you want things to
- 20:29be taken care of. So Lord, I'm going to take this
- 20:31in honor of you remembering why you died, why you came, what you
- 20:35did. And I want to submit and be more
- 20:39surrendered to you as Lord and Savior.
- 20:42And if you do that, you know God's going to work in your
- 20:45life. But every time you're in church
- 20:48or listen to a Bible message somewhere, somewhere on the
- 20:50radio, TV, whatever you do, reading your own devotions, God
- 20:54is wanting to reckon life with you and get us all to the point
- 21:02of being able to reflect and say there's got to be some changes
- 21:07that occur in my life. And I'm talking about myself
- 21:11too. It's never a day or a Sunday or
- 21:14a week that doesn't go by that God's speaking to me about going
- 21:18deeper with him. Even as a pastor, I need to go
- 21:24deeper with God. There's no get out of jail card
- 21:30free. There's consequences to
- 21:33rebellion and sin. So as we take a couple minutes,
- 21:37let's think about blowing through the will of God and
- 21:42passing by it, not considering it.
- 21:46Maybe we can together today. Say, Lord, I don't know
- 21:49everything about your will yet, but I'm willing to submit to it
- 21:52if you reveal it to me through your word and show me what it is
- 21:55you want me to do. I don't want to waste my life
- 21:58anymore. I don't want to waste my time.
- 22:00Waste your time or other people's time, my family's time,
- 22:03my employer's time, I, you know, whatever relationships we have
- 22:06that are needing to be dealt with, we just want to give this
- 22:10to you. So Lord, just speak to us for a
- 22:12couple minutes here. Lord, we need you.
- 22:17Father, we thank you for the example Paul, and how real it is
- 22:21as we watch him in a situation that if he wouldn't have gone to
- 22:25Jerusalem, he wouldn't be in the crisis he's in right now, having
- 22:30to spend the remaining years of his life and thank prisons and
- 22:34and people abusing him. But Lord, we know in spite of
- 22:38his mistakes, in spite of ours, you still use them for your
- 22:41glory. You don't condemn us, and you
- 22:44just teach us from not listening to You.
- 22:49So we want to listen to you. So speak to us now.
- 22:51Father, we pray. We're so thankful, Lord, that
- 22:59you tell us that if we confess our sins, agree with you, You
- 23:06are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us
- 23:11from all unrighteousness. We're thankful, Lord, that
- 23:16you're for us and not against us, that You love us and Your
- 23:21will is perfect and good. Or we desire to be closer to
- 23:31you. We desire to be able to hear
- 23:34Your voice through Your Word by Your Holy Spirit.
- 23:38We desire to walk with You closely.
- 23:42Help us, Lord, in our weakness. Help us, Lord, in our double
- 23:47mindedness, at times hypocrisy, whatever it might be, God, we
- 23:50don't want to be that way. We want to be found faithful to
- 23:54you, Lord. Thanks for joining us on this
- 23:58journey through Acts. On today's edition of Living
- 24:01Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark shares that one of the most
- 24:04remarkable things about the book of Acts is how it shows the
- 24:08disciples transformation. The followers of Jesus we meet
- 24:12here are very different from the often confused and fearful
- 24:17disciples in the Gospels. After Jesus's death and
- 24:21resurrection, and especially through the power of the Holy
- 24:24Spirit, the apostles experienced a profound change in their
- 24:29hearts and boldness. Their faith became unwavering,
- 24:33and they moved forward with courage to spread the gospel
- 24:36despite opposition and hardship. Acts reminds us that the same
- 24:41Spirit who empowered them is at work in US today, shaping our
- 24:46hearts and giving us strength to live boldly for Christ.
- 24:50Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel
- 24:54Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
- 24:56area, we invite you to join us this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
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- 25:45We're so grateful that you joined us today in Axe TuneIn
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