Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace for April 30, 2026
Transcript
- 0:03This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
- 0:08Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
- 0:12County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37Sometimes we read all these poor people, they refuse to repent of
- 0:40their sin, they won't acknowledge the Creator, they
- 0:44blasphemy of the Creator. And many times I look and I look
- 0:47at the image of the Church of Jesus Christ today and I say, do
- 0:51we look any different than those who will have to face that
- 0:55eternity of hell? Are we the kind of people that
- 1:00are refusing to repent of our sins?
- 1:03Are we walking around in self righteousness saying I have no
- 1:07sin? Isn't it better to take a look
- 1:09at ourselves before we point out the fault of others?
- 1:13Have you ever gone to point out to a friend the spinach in his
- 1:15teeth only to have it pointed out that you had some toilet
- 1:17paper on your shoe or something worse?
- 1:20It's pretty embarrassing, right? It is.
- 1:23Message. Today, Pastor Clark expresses to
- 1:26you the importance of examining your own life.
- 1:29Of course the world is going to act like, well, the world.
- 1:34But what is your life like? What do you see when you look
- 1:37into the mirror of God's Word? Now here's Pastor Clark,
- 1:41beginning in the book of Exodus chapter 10.
- 1:44He'll continue into Revelation 16 on this edition of Living
- 1:48Waters of Grace. It reminds us of what happened
- 1:51in Exodus chapter 1021 and 22. The darkness was so thick, it
- 1:56says that God extended that through the hands of Moses so
- 2:00that the darkness would be felt. Sometimes you've been in a
- 2:03situation where you've just felt darkness.
- 2:06Maybe you felt the darkness of the evil 1, the oppression, the
- 2:09attacks of the evil 1 I have. It is so thick, it is so dark.
- 2:12It is so real. You almost feel you can touch
- 2:14it. Or maybe you've been out in the
- 2:17woods some night and the stars are overcast.
- 2:19You can't see the the moon and and you're trying to find your
- 2:22way in a path and it is so dark that you know you better not go
- 2:25anywhere. You'll really get lost.
- 2:26So you just stay in the place that you are.
- 2:29It was such a thick darkness in Exodus.
- 2:31It lasted for three days and it says it was so dark that the
- 2:35people had not the ability to see one another, neither anyone
- 2:40rose from the place that they were in.
- 2:42It also says that they nod their tongues in verse 10 because of
- 2:46the pain of the sores and the heat from the sun.
- 2:50And it reminds us of what it says in Matthew 2530.
- 2:54And he casts the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.
- 2:58And there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- 3:01This is a preview of hell. Hell is a literal place.
- 3:04It is a place designed by God for the devil and his angels.
- 3:08God never intended that man, his creation, would have to be in
- 3:11hell. But because of our own hardness,
- 3:14the own wickedness of our own hearts and our refusal to repent
- 3:17and submit to God, we we'll have to enter into that place.
- 3:22If we don't have Christ, it's not any our Savior, but our
- 3:26Lord. And so he says in verse 11 that
- 3:30they did not repent of their deed.
- 3:33I'd like to read something to you.
- 3:34This is something that's just been on my conscience the last
- 3:37couple weeks. It's from a devotional I've been
- 3:39looking at, and it says my brother and deem it all joy.
- 3:42Whenever you fall into diverse temptations or trials, knowing
- 3:46that the testing of your faith works out patience.
- 3:49God has a purpose for trials and adversity.
- 3:52It's to cause us to be humbled and to be broken and to repent
- 3:56and to turn toward him. With these words from his
- 4:00general epistle, James, the brother of the Lord, reminds us
- 4:03that the various afflictions we encounter in our daily lives can
- 4:07be of great benefit. And we know, as Paul reminds us,
- 4:10that those who love God, all things work together for good in
- 4:14Romans 828. Now listen to this and see if
- 4:17this applies to you. I know it does to me.
- 4:21The demands of today's secular, humanistic, ego worshipping
- 4:25society, where personal comfort and pleasure reign supreme, have
- 4:30often caused many, if not most of us to take our focus off of
- 4:33striving to live the Gospel of Christ.
- 4:36Does that affect any of you guys?
- 4:38However, unlike Peter, who, having taken his eyes off of his
- 4:42Lord and having begun to sink into the sea, immediately cried
- 4:46out to Jesus to save him, we seem to be either unaware of or
- 4:51indifferent to the fact that we are focusing upon and sinking
- 4:56within the toward sea of this temporal life.
- 5:00And thus we become bait for the many demonic passions lurking
- 5:04therein, seeking to devour our souls.
- 5:07This is why God and His limitless love for us will
- 5:10permit us to experience various tribulations so that we will
- 5:14wake up and cry out to him for help, so that we can again fix
- 5:20the eyes of our souls upon Him. I believe we have to wake up in
- 5:26these days. The church is dead everywhere,
- 5:29the Church of Jesus Christ in these last days.
- 5:32The Bible says there's a great falling away.
- 5:35Men will be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God.
- 5:39And we're living in those days and we're fighting against those
- 5:42days, all of us, for our families, for our marriages, for
- 5:45our children. And as I said earlier when we
- 5:48prepared for the Supper, the apostle John who wrote the Book
- 5:53of Revelation also says that if we say we have no sin, we
- 5:57deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
- 6:00So we're studying about all these poor people in the Book of
- 6:02Revelation today. Sometimes we read all these poor
- 6:06people. They refuse to repent of their
- 6:08sin. They won't acknowledge the
- 6:10Creator. They blasphemy the Creator.
- 6:13And many times I look and I look at the image of the Church of
- 6:16Jesus Christ today and I say, do we look any different than those
- 6:20who will have to face that eternity of hell?
- 6:24Are we the kind of people that are refusing to repent of our
- 6:29sins? Are we walking around in self
- 6:32righteousness saying I have no sin, I'm judging other people's
- 6:36sins, but I'm not judging my own sins.
- 6:39It says if we hate, say that we have not sinned, we make him a
- 6:42liar and His word is not in US. The purpose, one of the roles of
- 6:47the Holy Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, is to convict you and me
- 6:50of sin. He does that perfectly well.
- 6:55He makes it very clear to my conscience and yours whenever
- 6:58we're behaving in an inappropriate way, when we're
- 7:02thinking things we shouldn't, when we're doing things we know
- 7:05we shouldn't. He makes it very clear about
- 7:09where we're at in our lives in regard to sin.
- 7:12First, Peter chapter 4 says for the time has come for judgment
- 7:16to begin. Where?
- 7:18At the House of God. Now we're studying about the
- 7:20judgment and revelation, right? Well, revelation hasn't
- 7:24fulfilled yet in the sense of the prophetical vision of John
- 7:28in the days ahead. It's going to come to pass, but
- 7:31I have to live right now. And so I'm thinking about
- 7:34judgment and revelation, but I first of all have to realize
- 7:38that judgment has to 1st begin with me and with this House of
- 7:43God. And if it begins with us first,
- 7:46what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of
- 7:49God? And that's what we read about in
- 7:50Revelation. What will be the end of those in
- 7:54that book who will not obey the gospel of God?
- 7:57It says there will be 9 of teeth.
- 8:01Now if the righteous 1 is scarcely saved, where will the
- 8:05ungodly in the Sinner appear? Peter asked that question.
- 8:09James tells us that we're to draw near to God and he will
- 8:13draw near to you. That's repentance.
- 8:16Repentance is turning away from walking away from God in my own
- 8:21path of destruction and selfish and foolishness and delusion and
- 8:27turning to the Lord, drawing near to Him.
- 8:32And if I turn from my sin and repent and draw near to God, God
- 8:36doesn't run the other way. I'm the one that's running the
- 8:39other way. Am I rebellious sin?
- 8:41Right? I'm the one that's running away
- 8:42from God. And I've been there and you've
- 8:44been there. And we got loved ones that are
- 8:45running from God. But whenever we come to our
- 8:48senses like the prodigal, and we turn and we know we want to go
- 8:52to the House of the Father, we turn towards God and he runs
- 8:56toward us. He comes to us and embraces US.
- 9:01Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
- 9:04And as we're drawing near to God, the responsibility that we
- 9:07have, James says we're to cleanse our hands.
- 9:10He says cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.
- 9:14You double minded. The double minded person is
- 9:17going this way and going this way and going this way and going
- 9:20this way and going this way and going this way and we don't know
- 9:23which way we're going. We get nowhere.
- 9:26God's calling us. We know our conscience is
- 9:28affected, but the sin in us, we love that sometimes more.
- 9:32And we're going this way and, and, and we're like spiritual
- 9:35schizophrenics where we have no rest, we have no peace because
- 9:39we have this constant tension of holiness in our own desire for
- 9:44what we think we want and what's best for us.
- 9:48James also tells us that we're confess our trespasses, our sins
- 9:53to one another, and to pray for one another that you may be
- 9:57healed. The sin causes siritual
- 10:01sickness. It causes death.
- 10:05You know, sometimes we know what it's like to be obviously
- 10:09physically I'll. We get flu shots to protect
- 10:12ourselves from the flu. We get different inoculations.
- 10:15We take vitamins to protect ourselves from disease and
- 10:17illness. We try to eat properly so we
- 10:20have the proper nutrition so that we stay healthy.
- 10:23Not realizing, though, that that's all in vain if we're
- 10:25living a life of habitual sin. Because no matter how many
- 10:28inoculations you get and how many vaccinations you get, how
- 10:31many flu shots you get, how many vitamins you get intake and how
- 10:35so you try to eat and work out, the wages of sin is death.
- 10:38You're going to die. You can't stop that.
- 10:41You can't prevent it. You can't help yourself and you
- 10:44can't help anybody else from the process of physical death.
- 10:47The wages of sin is death. And so he calls the church, he
- 10:52calls Christians together and James that we get together and
- 10:56we pray for one another and confess our sins to one another
- 11:00that we might get the help that we need.
- 11:02There's nothing more tragic than a church that listens to a
- 11:05message and goes home and there's no confession, there's
- 11:08no repentance, there's no praying for one another.
- 11:11It's, it's, it's not even a church.
- 11:14It's an institution, it's a business.
- 11:16It's just, I don't know what you would call it.
- 11:18It's, it's nothing. It's dead.
- 11:20And if we go out without repentance, if we go out without
- 11:23confession, if we go out without praying for one another, we are
- 11:27walking out sick and we are walking out dead.
- 11:30James says sin causes spiritual sickness and death.
- 11:34This past Wednesday we had a wonderful Bible study and I
- 11:37encourage you if you can come on Wednesday's, occasionally come.
- 11:40It's different than Sunday's we, we gather together and there's
- 11:43different men that teach the word here that are gifted to
- 11:46teach the word. And at the end, we, we, we this
- 11:49last Wednesday, everybody came up and we we gathered together
- 11:52and we asked if anybody was afflicted because Steve was
- 11:55teaching us on the purpose of afflictions from Psalm 119 and
- 11:59Job, we shared with our struggles and different people
- 12:03stood up and crying out to God about what would they were they
- 12:06were struggling with, whether it was fears or broken heartedness
- 12:11or whatever. And, and, and as they asked for
- 12:16help, different people prayed for one another.
- 12:20And what was wonderful was is the people prayed for one
- 12:23another. The people were forgiven, the
- 12:26burdens were lifted and they were healed.
- 12:30One person told me today I said, how you doing?
- 12:32Because I knew Wendy was a rough night.
- 12:34She said to me today, I'm doing great.
- 12:37The Lord works through repentance and through humility
- 12:41and through prayer, and we got to get over our egos and our
- 12:44pride, acting like we have it all together and we don't need
- 12:47prayer. We all need prayer.
- 12:49And I need prayer more than anybody because I'm the pastor
- 12:52and I, God help me if I don't ask for prayer, if I don't get
- 12:56prayer, I have nothing to give to you.
- 12:59If I don't humble myself before the Lord and realize my own
- 13:03spiritual sickness and how I need God's grace to continually
- 13:07bring healing to my soul. So the purpose of the supper is
- 13:11a healing move of God's Spirit. We just don't take it as a
- 13:16ritual, the cup and the bread, and OK, we move on to the next
- 13:20thing. If we take an understanding what
- 13:22it is, Jesus said this is my body which is broken for you.
- 13:26The apostle Paul said this is the blood that was shed for you.
- 13:30If we take it examining ourselves and not taking in an
- 13:33unworthy manner, then we're not going to be weak spiritually.
- 13:37We're not going to be sick spiritually.
- 13:40We're going to have the strength of God in US.
- 13:43Repentance transforms us from living in sin to living in
- 13:47purity and holiness. John Morris taught us an immense
- 13:50study this morning the importance of living in a holy
- 13:54way, being holy as he is holy. Repentance changes us from
- 14:00having a propensity to be unholy, to be pure and to be
- 14:05holy. The Bible says without holiness,
- 14:07no man shall see the Lord. And so I'm going to say why pray
- 14:11to prayer? I asked Jesus that came into my
- 14:12heart and be my savior. Well, it it doesn't work that
- 14:17way. If we aren't following Christ,
- 14:20not only his Savior, but his Lord will be terribly
- 14:23disappointed at the judgment when he says to me, depart from
- 14:27you cursed and I never knew you and we'll say, well, why?
- 14:29I prayed a prayer. I asked you to come into my
- 14:31heart and save me. But Jesus said, why do you call
- 14:34me Lord Lord and do not do the things that I say?
- 14:38He says, if you love me, you will keep my word.
- 14:42Repentance is unending until we die.
- 14:44Some people think, well, I just repent when I get saved.
- 14:48Well, that's the beginning of repentance.
- 14:50I mean, once you come to know Christ and he's in your life,
- 14:53you become very aware of your inadequacy spiritually.
- 14:57You become very clearly aware of your weaknesses and you realize
- 15:03your need of God's strength and His help.
- 15:05And so you are sensitive if you've offended someone, if you
- 15:09judge someone, or if you've been critical, if you've been
- 15:11lustful, you've been bitter, you've been angry, you've been
- 15:14greedy. You can't disallow that, that
- 15:16cesspool sin to circulate in your heart without being very,
- 15:20very disturbed and bothered. And you don't have rest and you
- 15:23don't have peace until you repent and say, Lord, that was
- 15:26wrong. Forgive me and cleanse me.
- 15:29And if you have to, you go make the amends with the people that
- 15:31you've hurt and offended. Each time we see our thoughts
- 15:36and our hearts, they convict us many times of some sin.
- 15:42And it's not to condemn us that the Lord does that.
- 15:45It's that we might take the medicine to repentance seriously
- 15:49and be restored to communion and fellowship with God.
- 15:53First, John 19 tells us that we might be cleansed from all
- 15:57unrighteousness if we confess our sins.
- 16:00James 48 says cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify
- 16:04your hearts. That's the purpose of
- 16:06repentance. I'm so grateful for repentance.
- 16:10I don't know what I would do without repentance.
- 16:12I remember there was a time in my life I didn't think I needed
- 16:15to repent. I don't know.
- 16:16I was under some bad teaching and I thought, well, I got saved
- 16:19and, and you know, I'm on my way to heaven and this is good as it
- 16:22gets in. And I never thought about my
- 16:25offenses toward God. And I would live day in and day
- 16:27out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and
- 16:30year out in delusion, living in perpetual sin, thinking I was OK
- 16:37and meanwhile having an unrest in my heart, having a sense of
- 16:41impurity, knowing something was wrong.
- 16:43But I'm with my brothers and sisters and all of us are in the
- 16:46same boat, trying to make each other feel good in our sin,
- 16:50trying to make each other feel OK.
- 16:53That it's a weakness in man's nature to be drawn to
- 16:56pornography. It's a weakness in everyone's
- 17:01heart. Sin is a sickness and it isn't
- 17:06OK for men to be in pornography. And just because two other
- 17:10brothers tell you they struggle with it doesn't mean that that's
- 17:14OK. Someone there has to be a
- 17:16brother saying I used to struggle with pornography, but
- 17:19by the grace of God I don't anymore.
- 17:21And this is what the Lord did for me.
- 17:22This is how he changed my heart and this is how he set me free.
- 17:27Purity of heart. And we look at Psalm 122 two, it
- 17:30says my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
- 17:34The Lord is our helper. But we all are affected by this
- 17:38law of sin. It exists within all of us.
- 17:42If you're a Christian here today, you are not sinless.
- 17:46You still battle with sin in your life.
- 17:48And it's a law, it's a principle, and it affects every
- 17:51one of us. And apart from the blood of
- 17:54Jesus Christ, every one of us are doomed.
- 17:56Amen. If it wasn't for the blood of
- 17:59Christ, there would be no remission of sins.
- 18:04And the word of God is what our weapon is against the sin.
- 18:07It's still within our hearts. That's why the psalmist said thy
- 18:11word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee?
- 18:16We don't memorize scripture to impress people of our great
- 18:20knowledge of the Scripture. If you memorize Scripture for
- 18:24no, no other reason, I pray This is why you memorize it, so that
- 18:27you are protected from sin. And that's a good enough reason
- 18:32to memorize it. Without the word of God, the
- 18:36enemy will Vanquish and capture you as a spiritual struggler.
- 18:41And some of you today, I'm sure, are being vanquished by the
- 18:44enemy. You're being beat down.
- 18:46You're struggling in your sin. You don't have the ability to
- 18:49overcome it because you don't. It's been so long since you've
- 18:52drawn near to God. You've been running from God.
- 18:55And it's been so long since you've drawn near to God, you've
- 18:57forgotten that if you draw near to him, he'll draw near to you.
- 19:03And without the word of God, the enemy will mess you up.
- 19:06He'll strip you of the divine weapons that God's given you.
- 19:09He'll drag your life into a horrible pit of sin, of sorrow,
- 19:14of heartache, of bondage and destruction.
- 19:16And as a pastor, that's what breaks my heart because I see
- 19:19people that come and go here that refuse to repent and they
- 19:22want to have life their own way and they don't realize that.
- 19:25They think they can get away with it, but eventually their
- 19:28life will tragically be destroyed by sorrow and
- 19:32heartache. The heartache that they'll
- 19:33receive themselves and the heartache that they're going to
- 19:36cause other people because of their bondage to sin and the
- 19:40destruction it has occurred in their life.
- 19:44I think sometimes Cindy and I, we pray for loved ones and
- 19:47people we care about, brothers and sisters and, and I and I'm
- 19:51learning to be patient and gone upon God.
- 19:55It might not be today that someone gets busted.
- 19:58It might not be next week, next month, next year, but they'll
- 20:01come a time when someone's going to call you up and say I need
- 20:04help. I got a bad medical report.
- 20:09My wife left me, my kids on drugs, I lost my job.
- 20:15I'm in the pits of despair and despondency.
- 20:18I don't know which way to turn. There'll come a time of crushing
- 20:22and breaking by the mercy of God that that person will then begin
- 20:27to say I'm waking up. There's got to be more to life.
- 20:31I want to get my house in order because the consequences of my
- 20:35life to this point, if I die today, I'm not real sure I would
- 20:38be with the Lord because of the way I've lived my life.
- 20:43All the distressing events and consequences that are occurring
- 20:47in this world today, in this human life, are the result of
- 20:51one purpose, one reason, and that's sin.
- 20:54When tragedy happens and adversity happens in people's
- 20:57lives, what's the first thing they do?
- 21:00They complain. God, why?
- 21:03They blasphemed, just like the people in Revelation.
- 21:05The sun's too hot, the sores are too painful.
- 21:09Why are you doing this? I hate you.
- 21:11Why don't you just get out of my life?
- 21:13Why don't you leave me alone? Why don't you leave all of us
- 21:15alone? Not understanding that the God
- 21:18of creation created us to be in communion, to have a life of
- 21:21peace and love and grace and joy with the Lord.
- 21:25Yet in the midst of these adversities of life, God will
- 21:28work everything out for good for those who love God and are
- 21:33called according to His purpose. I don't care what adversity you
- 21:36have today, what trial, what tribulation, what you're facing.
- 21:40God promises everything will work for good to those who love
- 21:45Him and are called according to His purpose in Romans 828.
- 21:50I think today as I look at this message and I say to myself,
- 21:54does God find repentance in US today as He looks over this
- 21:58congregation? Does he find repentance here
- 22:01today? Have you said or do you say or
- 22:05even as you're listening to this message, are you saying I have
- 22:08sinned against heaven and against you, Lord?
- 22:13Do you hate the sin that's working to destroy your own
- 22:16life? Are you getting to the point
- 22:18that you hate sin? Because when you start hating
- 22:21sin, you'll start to flee sin. When you start to hate sin as
- 22:24God hates it, you'll begin to draw near to Him and draw away
- 22:28from the sin. Are you willing to turn deeper
- 22:33into the ways of God, forsaking the path that you might be on
- 22:36now? There has to come a time in all
- 22:38of our lives that we say enough's enough.
- 22:41I've wasted too many days, too many hours, too much money, too
- 22:46much heartache because I wanted it my way.
- 22:49And now I want to turn to the Lord and forsake the foolish
- 22:53path I'm on and go deeper in His ways.
- 22:57I've been a pastor now for 14 years, and it's been 14 years
- 23:02that I've decided by the grace of God, to walk in a path that
- 23:06is deeper. But there was a time of my life
- 23:09that I was asleep. I was not awake.
- 23:12I thought I was OK. The nominal Christian life is
- 23:15hey, show up for church once in a while, put a few bucks on your
- 23:18offering plate, say a few prayers, and then live your life
- 23:21the way you want. That's not what Christ came to
- 23:23give us. He came to give us a vital,
- 23:26intimate, deep relationship with the living God, so that once you
- 23:30get a taste of that relationship, everything else is
- 23:34secondary, that you begin to lay your head down the pillow at
- 23:37night and you say, Lord, I want life, your life more than my
- 23:41life. I want you, Lord, more than life
- 23:44itself. That's what his desire is for
- 23:46all of us. In the Book of Revelation,
- 23:50Pastor Clark is taking us through all kinds of events and
- 23:53happenings that are predicted for the future, but for those
- 23:57who believe and follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to
- 24:01in heaven with Jesus. However, for those who are here
- 24:05on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that
- 24:09will unfold. The Bible talks about an
- 24:12Antichrist, a false prophet, and of course that evil enemy Satan.
- 24:18Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to
- 24:21disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?
- 24:25The true Savior of the world is God and how He comes to rescue
- 24:29through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and
- 24:34God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take
- 24:39over for God in heaven and was cast out, Satan will try to
- 24:43convince people on earth that he is the triune God to be
- 24:47worshipped instead of the legitimate God in heaven.
- 24:50It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his
- 24:54schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and
- 24:59Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.
- 25:03Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness
- 25:07that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait
- 25:11indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.
- 25:15We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want
- 25:18to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head
- 25:22over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with
- 25:28us today. And if you'd like to connect
- 25:30further with this ministry, find us on Facebook or YouTube.
- 25:34You can also download our mobile app at calvarychapelonline.com.
- 25:39Be sure to join us for weekly services at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
- 25:44Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601. This has been living waters of
- 25:53grace.