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Living Waters of Grace March 10, 2026 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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Our faith at times is weak and we pray for God to strengthen
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our faith. But when the Lord looks at our
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heart and He sees what little is there, he can do much with it.
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And He encourages them regarding the little strength that they
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have and He tells them to remain faithful.
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Verse 8 He says you've kept my word and you have not denied my
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name. And that's what I pray you're
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doing every day in your life. You're keeping the word of God
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and you're not denying the name of Jesus Christ.
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When it comes to puppy litters, often there seems to be a runt
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of the litter, one that's smaller, maybe even a bit weaker
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than the rest. And sometimes that runt is
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fighting for his life. Other times he ends up being
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rejected by the mother or the siblings.
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But in today's teaching, Pastor Clark gives you a different
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message. Maybe you feel like your faith
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is like the runt of the spiritual winner.
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You're bringing the little bit of faith you have, and you're
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asking God to do greater things with it.
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Keep fighting for that spiritual life.
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Now. Here's Pastor Clark in
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Revelation Chapter 3 with today's edition of Living Waters
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of Grace. And to the Angel of the church
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in Philadelphia, right these things, says He who is holy, he
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who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no
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one shuts and shuts and no one opens.
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I know your works. See, I have set before you an
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open door, and no one can shut it.
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For you have a little strength, have kept my word, and have not
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denied my name. Indeed I will make those of the
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synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but lie.
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Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet,
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and to know that I have loved you because you have kept my
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command to persevere. I also will keep you from the
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hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world to test
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those who dwell in the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly.
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Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
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He who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my
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God, and he shall go out no more.
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I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city
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of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven
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from my God, and I will write on him my new name.
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He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
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churches. It's about four hours from here,
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right? That's what I used to think when
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I didn't know much about the Bible.
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I thought, well, I didn't know Philadelphia, PA, was recognized
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in the Scriptures. But the Philadelphia, it's about
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25 miles southeast of Sardis, and it's one of two churches.
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It wasn't exhorted to repent, nor was it rebuked.
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So that encourages you as we study this Book of Revelation
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together, especially these seven churches.
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I think as we study them, sometimes we get a little
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disheartened because we say, boy, look at the church.
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It's such a mess. The body of Christ seems to be
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so fragmented and confused. And yet as we've studied, we've
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seen that Smyrna and Philadelphia had remained
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faithful. So my prayers we study about
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these churches of the past days would encourage us today that we
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can be strong and be faithful. We don't have to be dead, we
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don't have to be antiquated, but we can still be relevant and on
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fire to, to be a light to the loss in this world that we live
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in. The city had a small population
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one time. It was a beautiful, beautiful
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city, but it had a lot of problem with earthquakes.
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And so people really didn't like living here.
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After 8017, when the city was destroyed, it was then rebuilt
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again, but it never really took upon its splendor that it once
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had. So people lived sort of out in
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the suburbs away from the city itself.
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But this church is encouraged in the midst of the current
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tribulation that they're dealing with like Smyrna, to be
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encouraged and to stay strong and to persevere.
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The warning is that in the midst of what they're going through
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presently as we study this book, that there's something even
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worse that's going to happen in the days ahead.
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A great calamity was coming upon the whole earth.
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So in verse 7, Jesus is speaking and he says to them, write these
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things, says he who is holy and he who is true.
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Jesus Christ is the only one you can depend upon in this life.
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He's the only one that will never lie to you.
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He's the only one that is 100% true all the time.
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Other voices, other people, we're all but dust, we're all
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but flesh. The Bible says the flesh of man
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the is like the glory of the grass.
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It appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
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Our life's like a vapor. It's just here for a little
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while and vantageeth away. All the great men of the past,
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all the great Bible leaders, and in the Old Testament, in the New
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Testament, are all gone now and with the Lord.
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All those who live throughout the course of modern history,
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who were great spokespeople for God in the midst of the days
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that they lived, are no longer here.
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But there's one voice that remains clear and strong and
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true day in and day out. It's not dependent upon
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physicality. Yet He was here as a man, God in
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the flesh, who dwelt on the earth.
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Now He's at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you
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and me night and day before the throne of God.
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And he promises in the midst of all the struggles and the trials
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of life, he will build his church, and the gates of hell
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will not prevail against it. And so Jesus is speaking to them
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to listen to him, for he is faithful, He's holy, perfect,
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pure, sinless, and always true. It gives to us in this section
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also this relation to David, the King of Israel, who was the
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forerunner in the sense of the picture of the Messianic throne
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that would one day come and be established by Christ himself.
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And so we remember David, King David, and David had the key to
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the heart of Israel, as Christ has a key to the heart of the
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church, the bride of Jesus Christ.
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And in verse 8 it says that this church has set before them an
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open door and no one can shut it.
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The open door is the doorway of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
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doorway of salvation. The church down through the
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years has been persecuted by many, many forces and factors to
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try to keep the church from being alive to proclaim the good
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news of the gospel to the lost. The church today in our culture
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has been given an open door in Westmoreland County, here in
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Greensburg, in our country, in the US of A.
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We still have the privilege, don't we, to proclaim freely the
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gospel of Jesus Christ. There's an open door.
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We're not being put in jail yet. We're not being threatened that
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our lives would be taken away from us if we preach the gospel,
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unlike other countries that are going through very, very
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difficult, tragic times. I got an e-mail the other day of
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one of the countries in Africa, one of the States and the nation
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of Africa who are being martyred as we speak because of their
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faith in Jesus Christ. We, we don't realize at times,
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do we, the privilege we have to share our faith.
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We can share our faith in our jobs.
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We can share our faith in our neighborhood.
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We can share our faith wherever we go if we're so inclined.
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But I'm afraid that somehow we have been deceived into thinking
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that somehow the doors aren't open, that people don't want to
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listen and aren't, they're not interested in what's the use?
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And boy, I'll tell you, we really got to get over that.
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We need to pray as a church that the Lord would inspire every one
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of us to proclaim freely the gospel wherever we have an
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opportunity, wherever we have a chance.
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And the Lord, he's the one that opens the doors.
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And sometimes those doors shut, don't they?
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We think of the trouble that the nation Russia has had, the
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country, and how at one time in the early 1900s, they were a
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very, very powerful spiritual nation.
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They were able to worship. There was many worship
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communities all over the country of Russia.
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And then the movement of Stalin and Lenin came on the scene and
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they said the religion of Christianity is the opium of the
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masses. It deadens people and deludes
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them. And So what we need to do is get
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rid of anybody that believes this message of Jesus Christ.
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And so they began to take the pastor's out of their homes and
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take them to the gulag and put them in persecution and chains,
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robbing them from their families and their loved ones.
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And they thought if they got rid of all The Proclaimers of the
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Gospel, Jesus Christ, that they could shut the church down.
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The church began to be an institution of the KGB.
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And so whenever people would go worship, they had to be very
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careful because they would be turned in if they were too into
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their belief in Jesus Christ. And so the church then became
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religious institution, not a spiritual Organism.
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But what's exciting was, and what eventually happened, that
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wall of communism fell down and the door was once again open
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right with missionaries there who are proclaiming the gospel.
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Many Calvary Chapel churches have been planted throughout
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Russia. But again, slowly, things seem
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to be heading the other way. Again.
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We have friends in Kiev who are being hassled to find a place
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where they can gather freely and worship in a building.
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They're being told by the government that they're a cult
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and they're not welcomed in the in the country.
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And so they're trying to dismantle any kind of a vestige
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of true Christianity again. And, and these things come and
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go in cycles. And Billy Graham said after that
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wall fell down that now the door is open.
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We can't hesitate. We need to get into that country
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and proclaim the gospel while we have a chance because there's no
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guarantee that that door is going to be left open forever.
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And so the church has been faithful to get into Russia and
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many, many things have occurred there within the the church
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itself, many people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
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And the religion of Russia, which was based upon the ancient
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tradition of Orthodoxy, has also come alive where many of the
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Orthodox pastors are on fire for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And they're saying it's not about religion, it's about
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relationship. It's about truly knowing Christ.
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It's about studying His Word and it's about going out into the
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community and fighting people to come and to see the difference
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that Christ can make in a life. So the Lord is working in these
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days all around the world, but there's some countries like
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Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran that are closed to the gospel.
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And if you get into these places and you try to preach and share
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the gospel, you will risk your life.
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You will be in prison, you will be taken to the jails, and many
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times you'll be martyred for your faith.
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So we can't take this open door lightly.
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And I'm afraid in our culture in America, we have taken it
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lightly, haven't we? We have not taken the
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opportunities that we have been given by God to share our faith.
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And that's a serious indictment upon all of us.
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At the back of the bulletin there is a call to repentance,
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and it says the faithfulness of the evangelical church in the
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past contrasts sharply with its unfaithfulness in the present.
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Earlier in this century, evangelical churches sustained A
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remarkable missionary endeavor and built many religious
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institutions to serve the cause of biblical truth in Christ's
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Kingdom. That was a time when Christian
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behavior and expectations were markedly different from those in
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the culture today. They often are not.
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The evangelical world today is losing its biblical fidelity,
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moral compass, and missionary zeal.
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We repent of our worldliness. We have been influenced by the
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gospels of our secular culture, which are no gospels.
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We have weakened the church by our own lack of serious
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repentance, our blindness to the sin in ourselves which we see so
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clearly in others, and our excusable failure to adequately
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tell others about God's saving work in Jesus Christ.
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That's an indictment against all of us, isn't it?
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Is that speaking to your heart? Raise your hand speaking to
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mine. When the church has an open
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door, no one can shut it. That's the good news.
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When Christ, His sovereignty, allows the body of Christ to be
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able to mobilize and to do His work in His way, no one can shut
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it. We have all these rumors that
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are going around in our culture now about the change of freedom
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of speech and freedom of religion, How the Airways are
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going to be changed and you're not going to be able to have
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conservative values proclaimed through the media.
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All these warning signs are out there, and there's people
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posturing to prevent you and I from having a free voice in the
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country that has been founded based upon religious freedom.
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So we need to pray and we need to vote, and we also need to
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talk to our legislators, our congressmen, our senators do our
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part in regard to seeing this door staying open by the grace
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of God. Now, there's always obstacles
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whenever the doors open. There's always adversaries that
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would try to keep you from proclaiming your faith.
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Could be your family, could be your friends, could be Co
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workers that would keep you from talking about the need that
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these people have to have a savior.
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Many times it's fear what blocks us from sharing our faith.
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Sometimes it's humiliation. We don't want people to think
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we're weird or we're different. Sometimes we're afraid that we
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might offend someone and they won't want to be around us
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anymore to be our friend. They won't like us.
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Sometimes it's in this case of the Church of Philadelphia, it
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was the Jews who were really making it difficult for these
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people to be able to share their faith.
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In Matthew 2313, Jesus speaks about this group of people that
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were harassing the early church and he says, but woe to you
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scribes and Pharisees. This is the religious leaders of
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the time. Hypocrites for you.
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Shut up. The Kingdom of heaven against
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men, for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow
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those who are entering to go in. They made the faith so difficult
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that no one would want to be interested in even attempting to
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follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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There was so many rules and regulations and obstacles for
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the people to have to go through to be accepted.
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Gentiles for sure, were seen as being unclean and unholy.
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And boy, you don't mess around with the Gentiles because if you
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do and you allow them to come into your synagogue, you're
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going to have nothing but the impurity.
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And so they made the synagogue not a spiritual dwelling place
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for God, but they made it a ritualistic institution that
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judged people based upon their outward nationality or their
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appearance or their background. But Jesus says in John 14-6,
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Jesus says I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.
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No man comes to the Father but through me.
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Jesus didn't say that religion is the way.
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He didn't say ethnicity is a way.
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He didn't say denominations of the way or specific leaders of
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the way. He said I am the way, I am the
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truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
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through me. And so many organizations and
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institutions and unfortunately churches will proclaim that you
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cannot come to the Father unless you come through them, unless
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you come through the hands of a man.
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And Jesus never taught that, did he?
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Jesus said the traditions of men make the word of God of no
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effect, and so whenever we have to jump through hoops in order
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to get somewhere spiritually, we end up forgetting it and falling
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away. And Jesus said if you tie a
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millstone around the neck of one of his children, he said the
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judgment that awaits you is something you don't want to have
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to deal with or endure. The church is persecuted.
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Philadelphia. And Jesus says that this church
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has a little strength. And that encourages me.
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We don't need a lot of strength to be effective, do we?
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All we need is a little. And we have a little strength
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here, don't we? We do.
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And what can God do with a little?
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He said, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall
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say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into
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the sea, and you shall have what you prayed for it it shall come
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to pass the mustard seed, the smallest seed, and what Christ
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says can be done with that seed. Our faith at times is weak, and
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we pray for God to strengthen our faith.
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But when the Lord looks at our heart and He sees what little is
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there, He can do much with it. And He encourages them regarding
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the little strength that they have, and He tells them to
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remain faithful. Verse 8, He says you've kept my
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word and you have not denied my name.
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And that's what I pray you're doing every day in your life.
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You're keeping the word of God and you're not denying the name
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of Jesus Christ in any situation.
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Opportunity. You have a chance to lift Him up
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and to proclaim Him. Now Smyrna in Philadelphia were
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given the same admonition here in the sense of Jesus giving him
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a heads up as to what is the real problem here in regard to
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the persecution. And he says I'm going to make
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those in verse 9 that those are the synagogue of Satan who say
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they're Jews and are not but lie.
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Jesus says in John 839 the Jews are saying, hey, Abraham's our
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father. There's a lot of pride in the
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Jewish nation even to this day. Aren't, isn't there?
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I mean, they're the proudest nation on the face of the earth.
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That's why everybody hates them. But there's a reason for some of
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that that isn't so much in rooted in sinful pride.
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It's an anointing of God and his hand upon his chosen people.
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Yet there is this tendency because of the pride, that
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because I am a descendant of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
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Jacob, I'm special. I'm better than everybody else.
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And just as Jesus remark when they're having this discussion
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with Jesus, well, Abraham's our father.
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Hey, give us a break. Hey, we're, we're in, we know
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what we're doing. We're connected.
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Jesus says to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do
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the work of Abraham. Now in James it tells us faith
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without works is dead, and that James used Abraham's faith as an
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illustration of real faith. It was manifest in the obedience
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of Abraham, wasn't it? Abraham believed God, the Bible
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says, and it was accounted him, accounted to him for
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righteousness. But in James it also makes it
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very clear that Abraham's belief or his faith was based upon what
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he did. There was evidence that he had
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real faith because he obeyed what God told him to do.
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That's one thing to be a physical descendant of Abraham,
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it's another to be a spiritual descendant by faith.
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If you turn to Romans chapter 2 for a moment, Romans chapter 2
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verse 28 and 29, it says for he is not a Jew who is 1 outwardly,
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nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he
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is a Jew who is 1 inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
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heart in the Spirit, not in the letter whose praise is not from
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men, but from God. That's why Jesus said you must
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be born again to enter into the Kingdom of heaven, right?
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You can't bring your kids to church and have them worship and
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open the Bible and do all this stuff.
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If they haven't met Jesus personally, it doesn't make
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sense to them. They just become religious
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Pharisees. They think, well, I'm a
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Christian. Why?
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Because I go to church? Or I'm a Christian because I was
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baptized, or I'm a Christian because whatever.
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You have to be born again to enter into the Kingdom of
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heaven. So your kid, just because the
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mom and dad's a Christian, they've been born again.
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Your kids aren't automatically born again because the mom and
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dad are born again, right? Everybody has to come to a point
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of recognizing their need of Jesus Christ and be born from
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the Spirit. Only the Spirit gives life.
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The flesh profits. Nothing.
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If you flip over to Romans 9, now Romans Chapter 9 verse 6,
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but it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for
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they are not all Israel who are of Israel.
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So these people in Philadelphia are acting very religious and
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spiritual and they're the biggest pain to the church
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because they're seen in the culture as the religious
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experts. And meanwhile they're totally
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clueless about what real Christianity is about.
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And this, because they're born in Israel and they're
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descendants of Abraham, doesn't make them truly the remnant or
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the seed of Abraham, it says in verse 7.
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Nor are they all children because they are the seed of
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Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be
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called that is those who are the children of the flesh.
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These are not the children of God.
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So just because you're born a Jew and you're a descendant of
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Abraham, Isaac and Jacob doesn't make you a child of God, but the
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children that the promise are counted as a seed for.
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This is the word of promise at this time.
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I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.
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And not only this, when Rebecca also had conceived by one man,
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even by our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born,
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nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God
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according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him
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who calls it was said to her, The older shall serve the
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younger, as it is written. Jacob I've loved, but he saw,
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I've hated. And so in the mystery of God's
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plan, he always had a remnant, didn't He?
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You had this whole nation going through the wilderness, being
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delivered from the bondage of Pharaoh.
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Not all of them were believers. Many of them obviously lost
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their lives out in the wilderness and God's judgment
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came upon them. But there was always a seed that
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God had four ordained. The Bible uses the word
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election. God's choice is choosing, always
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balancing that out with that God is not willing that any should
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perish, but all should come to repentance.
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But God has a special feeling for his elect or his bride
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today, if you're a Christian here and you believe in Jesus
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Christ and you've been born of the Spirit.
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Thanks for being with us today here on Living Waters of Grace.
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We're in the Book of Revelation, and we find it fascinating how
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influential and involved the angels are in this book.
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They bring about whatever it is that God has instructed them to
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do, but it's through their actions that much of the
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judgments come on the earth. The angels are in submission to
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God as their authority, but He utilizes them in unique ways
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throughout this book. Like angels have a specific
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purpose from God, you have a unique purpose and plan too.
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God wants to use you in your life as a testimony to others
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and to bring others who are currently lost into the fold of
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God. God would love more than
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anything for all who are willing to come to Him for salvation,
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but he wants it to be their choice, not a forced situation.
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This is the way God works, not forcing himself on anyone, but
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giving each person free will. If you're interested in learning
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about this choice that's free and that it's a gift, go to
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calvarychapelonline.com and click on the About Us tab and
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then find the link for what we believe.
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We'd love to be a help and a resource for you as you walk
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through what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
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If you find the contact tab on our website, you can get in
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touch with us or submit a prayer request.
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We'd love to hear from you. That's all for today's edition
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and Revelation, but there's much more that Pastor Clark plans to
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share with us from this culminating book of the Bible.
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Stay tuned for that. And make sure to mention this
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radio program to others. Invite them to tune in to Grace
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FM 91.7 FM and they can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.
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This has been living waters of grace.