Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace, March 20th, 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.
- 0:37All those scoffers, all those who are arrogant, all those who
- 0:40don't believe what you and I believe will one day give an
- 0:43account and be on their face before God that they cursed and
- 0:48refused to believe in. And they'll have to give an
- 0:51account, and they'll have to confess when it's too late that
- 0:55truly you are the Christ. They won't want to, but they'll
- 0:58be forced to do that out of the authority and the sovereignty of
- 1:02a holy God. Watching the news or opening up
- 1:05any social media app is one of the single most discouraging
- 1:09things you can do these days. The headlines are littered with
- 1:12anti God sentiment. It hurts.
- 1:16It hurts to see the Holy name of Jesus dragged through the mud.
- 1:21Pastor Clark said a few moments ago that there's coming a time
- 1:24when that won't be the case. All the anti God talk will stop
- 1:29in an instant. Every knee will bow and every
- 1:33tongue will declare that Jesus is God.
- 1:37The goal is for as many people as possible to make that
- 1:41declaration before they're forced to do so.
- 1:45Now here's Pastor Clark in the Book of Revelation Chapter 7
- 1:49with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
- 1:53OK, I'm going to continue a little bit right near the end of
- 1:56Chapter 6 before we go into Chapter 7.
- 1:59In chapter 6, we will finish up there on verse 12 it says I look
- 2:04when he opened the 6th seal. And behold, there was a great
- 2:08earthquake. And the sun became black as
- 2:10sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
- 2:13And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops
- 2:16its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
- 2:20Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up.
- 2:23And every mountain an island was moved out of its place.
- 2:27And the kings of the earth are great men, the rich men, the
- 2:30commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every freeman hid
- 2:34themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and
- 2:37said to the mountains. And the rocks fall on us, and
- 2:40hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the
- 2:44wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath
- 2:47has come, and who is able to stand as you live your life, and
- 2:52I live mine every day. We are confronted, all of us
- 2:55with our own lives and the people that we come in contact
- 2:59with. And it says in the last days
- 3:00there will be No Fear of God in the land.
- 3:03And it isn't only the world that we live in that lacks the fear
- 3:06of God. It is the very Church of Jesus
- 3:09Christ. It seems to has lost its bearing
- 3:12in regard to understanding of what it means to fear the Lord.
- 3:16The Bible says the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord,
- 3:19and they depart from evil. God's wrath is about to be
- 3:23poured out upon this world, and those of us who know Christ will
- 3:26be taken on in the rapture prior to this cataclysmic event that
- 3:30we're reading about in chapter 6.
- 3:33What would be the strongest influence in this world today in
- 3:38regard to people understanding that we are moving to God's
- 3:43judgment? And I was thinking that as I was
- 3:46sitting there, that it's our very lives, isn't it?
- 3:49As we walk with the Lord, as we fear the Lord, as we are living
- 3:53in repentance, as we're living as though we could meet the Lord
- 3:58any moment. People sense that spirit in us,
- 4:03a spirit of sobriety and a spirit of joy at the same time
- 4:09that they see your character and they see your walk, and they
- 4:11know without you saying a word, there's something different
- 4:14about your presence, your countenance when you're in the
- 4:17midst of other people. They just know you're different
- 4:20and they begin to find out that you fear God, that you walk with
- 4:26him. As we said in Corinthians last
- 4:29week, that the fragrance of God in your life and mine.
- 4:33When we're walking with the Lord, there's a fragrance of
- 4:36life unto life unto those who are being saved, and there's a
- 4:39fragrance of death and judgment unto those who are lost.
- 4:44And so this, your very life, as you walk with the Lord, your
- 4:47life is having a spiritual influence on people.
- 4:51And many times you don't have the opportunity to give them the
- 4:54Full disclosure of everything that we're studying about in
- 4:57Revelation. But it's enough just to
- 4:59encourage you today as you walk with the Lord and seek Him with
- 5:03all your heart and love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind.
- 5:07Love your neighbors, yourself. That has a very, very powerful
- 5:11influence on people and it draws them to the one who lives within
- 5:17you. Remember, it's the goodness of
- 5:19God that leads us to repentance. Sometimes people think we go out
- 5:22with signs and you talk about God's wrath and his anger and
- 5:25Hellfire. That's all true, obviously.
- 5:28But you know, for me, and I'm sure if you think about your own
- 5:30life, what drew me to Christ was His love and His mercy and His
- 5:34goodness. It was clear the way I lived for
- 5:37a period of time. I was on my way to hell, but I
- 5:39wasn't focusing on hell, that I needed to get saved, to leave
- 5:43hell. I needed someone who loved me,
- 5:45someone who could forgive me and be merciful to me, and that's
- 5:49what brought me to Christ personally.
- 5:51So as we read about this situation at the end of chapter
- 5:546, it's a very, very difficult time.
- 5:57And God's wrath will come upon all these great people, the
- 6:01kings of the earth, the great men.
- 6:03I think of all the famous people in sports, in Hollywood that
- 6:06live arrogantly, independent of God and don't acknowledge him
- 6:10for their gifts and talents. The rich men, the commanders,
- 6:13the mighty men, every slave, every freeman, will at that
- 6:17point in time hide themselves and ask for protection, not for
- 6:22mercy, but for protection from the wrath of God.
- 6:25And it reminds me of what it says in Philippians regarding
- 6:28our Savior. It says, Therefore God also hath
- 6:32highly exalted Him, and given them the name which is above
- 6:35every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of
- 6:41those in heaven, and those on earth, and to those under the
- 6:44earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
- 6:49is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- 6:52Amen. Every knee, every tongue will
- 6:56confess the truth. So all the scoffers, all those
- 6:59who are arrogant, all those who don't believe what you and I
- 7:02believe, will one day give an account and be on their face
- 7:06before God that they cursed and refused to believe in.
- 7:10And they'll have to give an account and they'll have to
- 7:13confess when it's too late that truly you are the Christ.
- 7:17They won't want to, but they'll be forced to do that out of the
- 7:20authority and the sovereignty of a holy God.
- 7:24So don't get too enamored by those who've become successful
- 7:27in this world apart from Christ. Don't be idol worshippers of
- 7:32people with fame and fortune and sports and celebrity.
- 7:35You can enjoy them and appreciate their skills, but
- 7:38realize what they're facing. What should a profit a person if
- 7:41they gain the whole world right and lose their own soul?
- 7:44What would a profit a person if they win the Grammy or the
- 7:46Academy Award or the Super Bowl team or to win the the Pennant,
- 7:52you know, or the Stanley Cup? All those great athletes will
- 7:56have to face this holy God. It's a sobering thing to think
- 8:01about. South John's having this
- 8:02revelation and he's got this impression on his heart of the
- 8:07things that the Holy Spirit has given him the right.
- 8:09In Chapter 7, he says after these things, now we're going to
- 8:12have a little window here between the bowls of of God's
- 8:16trumpet judgments being poured out and the last seal, the 7th
- 8:20seal, which will be the prelude to the trumpet judgments.
- 8:24We'll pick that up in Chapter 8 next week.
- 8:26So this is sort of a interim situation here we're going to be
- 8:28discussing today. And he says, after these things,
- 8:31I saw 4 angels standing at the four corners of the earth,
- 8:35holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not
- 8:38blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.
- 8:42This is his next vision. After you read chapter 6, you
- 8:46wonder how in the world can anybody have even survived what
- 8:48we just read about in chapter 6. Yet there'll be many, many
- 8:51people still alive in the face of the earth.
- 8:54And yet, as we study this chapter, there's two multitudes
- 8:57during the tribulation that are going to have an opportunity to
- 9:00be saved. It'll be the elect 144,000 Jews
- 9:05that will come to know Christ during this tribulation period.
- 9:08And then nine through 17, it refers to those out of all the
- 9:11nations, that's the Gentiles, people from every tongue, tribe,
- 9:15kindred, a nation will have an opportunity to be saved.
- 9:18And how will they be saved? How will this occur as we think
- 9:22about the time that Christ will eventually gather everyone at
- 9:25the end of this tribulation period, at the second coming
- 9:29prior before His millennial Kingdom, this is how this will
- 9:33occur. This is how people will come to
- 9:35know Christ during this time. Flip over to Matthew chapter 25,
- 9:40Matthew 25 and 31 and 32. The Son of Man comes in glory,
- 9:49and all the holy angels with him.
- 9:52Then He will sit on the throne of His glory, and all the
- 9:55nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them
- 9:59one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the
- 10:02goats, so that the time of the tribulation period is an
- 10:07opportunity for many people to still come to Christ.
- 10:10It will be a very difficult time because of those who decide to
- 10:14stand for the truth during that time and refuse to take the mark
- 10:17of the beast, which is the mark that those who are unbelievers
- 10:21will receive in order to do commerce, to buy and sell, and
- 10:25to be able to do business and live like everybody lives right
- 10:28now. It'll be a special code that
- 10:30they'll have to have, and if they don't have it, it means
- 10:33they're injecting the Antichrist and there will be many, many
- 10:37people that would be martyred during that time.
- 10:38We'll pick that up in a minute. But what's interesting, in verse
- 10:41one of Revelation Chapter 7, it talks about this issue of wind.
- 10:46And you know, as I study these things, it's easy just to pass
- 10:49through this stuff and say, OK, well, that's interesting.
- 10:51What does that mean? But when you look at wind, can
- 10:54anybody actually see wind itself?
- 10:57We see the results of wind when there's a storm.
- 11:00You see the trees blowing or we had that microburst a couple
- 11:03weeks ago. There's a bunch of branches and
- 11:04debris laying everywhere. It was obvious that there was a
- 11:07powerful windstorm that came through this particular part of
- 11:10the country at the time. But you you can't personally see
- 11:14the wind in itself. And it's a independent entity of
- 11:19the the manifestation of what it causes after it blows.
- 11:22Jesus says to Nicodemus, Nicodemus in John chapter 3, can
- 11:26anybody tell which direction the wind's coming from?
- 11:31He says so is the work of God's Spirit.
- 11:34That which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of
- 11:37spirit is spirit. And he says you must be born
- 11:40again to enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
- 11:42I was talking to my boss this week about an individual that
- 11:46has come to work in our company as a sales manager.
- 11:49I'm just thanking God. I'm not under the authority of
- 11:51this person because they are totally, totally lost.
- 11:55They have no love for people. It's all bottom line.
- 11:59It's all focused on results. It's all focused on adding
- 12:03value, perceived value, but not having any value for the
- 12:08individual that works in the company.
- 12:10And the several people who are under the authority of this
- 12:12person, their lives are really, really in, in difficult turmoil
- 12:16right now. And I pray for them every day.
- 12:17So I was confronting my boss. He's a Christian about, you
- 12:21know, are we just going to do what the corporate world says or
- 12:25are we going to stand up for what's right?
- 12:27Are we going to quench a spirit in our company?
- 12:29And as soon as I say quench a spirit, I got his attention.
- 12:32Just So what do you, what do you mean by that man?
- 12:34You know, I said, well, that's what I sense we're doing right
- 12:36now. Light and darkness can't walk
- 12:38together. And that's a real tough
- 12:39situation when you're in the business world, isn't it?
- 12:41Because many of us have to do commerce and business and many
- 12:45times trying to be pushed to do things that we know aren't
- 12:48ethical or aren't Christ like. And we have to decide whether
- 12:51we're going to stand on the truth or we're going to stand on
- 12:55our potential promotion and looking good in the eyes of of
- 12:59man. But this person was saying,
- 13:03well, she's a she's a good Catholic woman.
- 13:07I said, well, she's not born again.
- 13:10You got to be born again to enter into the Kingdom of
- 13:12heaven. It's not about being a good
- 13:14Protestant or a good Catholic person.
- 13:16It's about are you in Christ and do you have a spirit in you?
- 13:20And if you have the spirit of Christ in you, how you treat
- 13:22people in your business is going to be completely different than
- 13:25someone who's in the world that knows nothing about Christ.
- 13:29It's like the picture of a David and Goliath.
- 13:33You know, you look and say, how in the world can anything be
- 13:35done? But David was a man of faith and
- 13:39he was able to see by the Spirit of God the mighty power of this
- 13:45great giant fall to the ground, be humbled.
- 13:49But when we look at this wind and no one can actually see the
- 13:52wind, but we see its effects, it's interesting.
- 13:55Some science here for you guys, and I'm just going to read this.
- 13:58I wouldn't attempt to try to impress you thinking I
- 14:00understand all this stuff. But the sun has very, very
- 14:04intense heat. We're all aware of that.
- 14:06The laws of heat transfer and the shape and the rotation of
- 14:11the Earth are the chief cause of the winds.
- 14:13I never knew that. I looked out the window during
- 14:17science, you know, thinking when I could play baseball later or
- 14:20something if I were to listen. Maybe maybe some of the younger
- 14:23people say, oh, Clark, that's that's obvious and what's wrong
- 14:25with you. But but the wind is caused by
- 14:28the uneven heating of the atmosphere, meaning the air
- 14:30around the Earth by the sun. Now science has unchangeable
- 14:34laws and scientists understand this that I'm talking about
- 14:37here. But we see it as miracle of God
- 14:40and how he's orchestrated the universe and how every little
- 14:42thing happens, how everything flows is from His creative hand.
- 14:47Now when you get near the equator, the heat or the air
- 14:51rises to about 60,000 feet straight up.
- 14:56Yet there's no prevailing winds near the equator and up to about
- 14:59700 miles on either side of the equator.
- 15:02What happens is there because the air rises vertically, there
- 15:07is instead of moving horizontally across the Earth,
- 15:11there's this calming effect which is called the doldrums.
- 15:15So we look here, this this miracle in in the verse 1 of
- 15:20Chapter 7 as a this is prior to God's judgment.
- 15:23There's going to be an awesome silence, a deadly calm before
- 15:28this huge storm that's going to be poured out when the trumpet
- 15:32judgments begin to occur. Isn't that fascinating?
- 15:36I mean, we just take it for granted.
- 15:38You know, the wind comes and God knows how to cool the earth and
- 15:41how to make the wind happen at the right time to keep
- 15:44everything in balance. But with his hand and his
- 15:46authority, he will stop the wind.
- 15:50The angels will be holding the four corners of the earth, and
- 15:53there won't be any wind blowing any earth on the sea or on any
- 15:56tree. Everything will be dead silent.
- 16:00The calm before the storm. I guess that's sort of what it's
- 16:02like in the midst. I've never been in a tornado,
- 16:06the eye of the tornado. But they say that's what it's
- 16:08like prior to the what happens in the beginning.
- 16:11And at the end of that, everything is just an eerie
- 16:14calmness. And so he says, I see another
- 16:18Angel in verse 2 ascending from the east, having the seal the
- 16:21living God. And he cry with a loud voice to
- 16:24the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and
- 16:27the sea, saying, do not harm the earth, the sea or the trees till
- 16:31we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.
- 16:35So again, God's authority in control, this judgment, it's
- 16:40going to come out. It's not out of control, it's
- 16:42just not occurring as it wants to.
- 16:45But God has complete control when the time of these things
- 16:48will come to pass. But there's something that has
- 16:50to occur prior to this going on. And he's talking about sealing
- 16:56these 144,000 believers with the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 17:01Now whenever we come to Christ and we have faith in Christ, we
- 17:05are born by God into the body of Christ.
- 17:09The Bible says in Romans 8-9. For any man have not the spirit
- 17:14of Christ, he is none of his. So you can't be a believer
- 17:17without the Holy Spirit. Some people teach that you
- 17:19receive the Holy Spirit after you get saved.
- 17:22What's impossible to get saved without the Holy Spirit?
- 17:25The Holy Spirit comes in dwell us at the moment of our
- 17:28conversion or our faith in Christ.
- 17:30OK, now there's different manifestations of the Spirit
- 17:32that can occur and will occur and many of our lives
- 17:36subsequently to our conversion. But what happens when we
- 17:40believe? You can see this in Ephesians
- 17:43chapter 1 if you flip over there for a minute, Ephesians chapter
- 17:461 verse 13 and 14 it says in him you also trusted.
- 17:53This is regarding him, Jesus Christ and him you also trusted
- 17:57after you heard the word of truth, the gospel, your
- 17:59salvation, whom also having believed says you were sealed
- 18:03with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a guarantee of our
- 18:07inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to
- 18:09the praise of his glory. So the Holy Spirit comes to
- 18:12dwell in us. We're sealed by the power of God
- 18:17through the person of the Holy Spirit, and it's the evidence
- 18:20that we belong to God without the Holy Spirit.
- 18:23You aren't a Christian, and you should know if you have the Holy
- 18:27Spirit because whenever you have the Holy Spirit, your life has
- 18:30changed, your desires have changed, your interests, your
- 18:33motivation. You have conviction now about
- 18:36sin in a way that you didn't have it whenever you didn't have
- 18:39the Holy Spirit and it says in first Corinthians 12/13 for by 1
- 18:44Spirit are we all baptized into the body of Christ.
- 18:48The baptism of the Holy Spirit placing us from one place
- 18:52outside of the Kingdom of God and then doing a work by his
- 18:56Spirit and placing us into a new family by his Spirit and Spirit
- 19:02baptism. And if you study the ancient
- 19:09foundational documents like the Nicene Creed or some of these
- 19:13things that fought out the truths of historic Christianity
- 19:16in the beginning, because of all the heresies, says there's one
- 19:20Lord. And Ephesians says there's one
- 19:21Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who's
- 19:25above all and in all and through us all.
- 19:28And so we're sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.
- 19:30And it tells us in chapter 4, verse 30 of Ephesians, it says,
- 19:34and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were
- 19:38sealed for the day of redemption.
- 19:40How do you grieve the Holy Spirit?
- 19:41It says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
- 19:45evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind
- 19:49to one one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another,
- 19:52even as God and grace forgave you.
- 19:54If we hold bitterness and anger and any kind of attitude in our
- 19:57heart toward anybody, toward God, toward any kind of
- 20:00situation, it says we grieve the Holy Spirit, we hurt the Holy
- 20:05Spirit, we wound the Holy Spirit.
- 20:07And the Holy Spirit can't just say I'm out of here.
- 20:09I don't like dealing with Clark right now.
- 20:11He's just like making me miser, you know, He just makes me feel
- 20:14like I don't want to be in him anymore.
- 20:15With the beauty of the Holy Spirit is he doesn't depart in
- 20:19the new covenant. He dwells in US forever.
- 20:22We're in the Old Testament, remember, David prayed in Psalm
- 20:2551. Take not your Holy Spirit from
- 20:26me. That was his biggest fear
- 20:27because the indwelling, the permanent of the indwelling of
- 20:30the Holy Spirit didn't occur until Pentecost.
- 20:33And so these things are important.
- 20:34But in Revelation 7, this is what he's going to do for these
- 20:39144,000. He's going to mark them with the
- 20:44seal, the Holy Spirit and the ceiling is something it's done
- 20:49and seen by God. I don't see a physical mark on
- 20:52you or you don't see one on me. But it's evident by how we live
- 20:57and how we treat each other if we are in Christ.
- 21:01But Jesus says by this shall people know you're my disciples
- 21:04by the love you have for one another.
- 21:07And so in this sense of what God is doing in verse 2, he is
- 21:13making this mark visible though to the spirit world and all the
- 21:17demons of hell and the person, the Antichrist.
- 21:21They're going to know for sure that these people have been set
- 21:25apart by God and there will be a certain protection given to them
- 21:29in the midst of all these cataclysmic events during this
- 21:31time in order for them to do what it is God's called them to
- 21:35do during this tribulation. All those from the ends of the
- 21:38earth, the other nations, the other people groups will be
- 21:41directly impacted by the evangelistic methodology of
- 21:45these 144,000 during this time of tribulation.
- 21:50And so in in verse 3, it says do not harm the earth and the sea
- 21:54or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on our
- 21:58forehead. So this command is given to the
- 22:00angels and these angels are the very ones that will sound the
- 22:03trumpet judgments as we get into chapter 8 next week.
- 22:07This won't start again until these servants of God are sealed
- 22:12and protected by the Lord God. So how are people going to get
- 22:17saved during this time? When you think about it, I mean,
- 22:20with the Antichrist ruling and hassling people and persecuting
- 22:24Christians, how are people going to be saved?
- 22:27Well, we'll study later on about the two witnesses that were
- 22:31eventually martyred that God will raise up.
- 22:34But there's going to be such powerful testimony during this
- 22:36time of tribulation, in the midst of the chaos, in the midst
- 22:40of the trials and the tribulations that are going to
- 22:42come upon the world. It's going to cause people to do
- 22:45one of two things. They're going to move away
- 22:47farther and farther from God and curse him, or they're going to
- 22:51move closer to him and say, there's got to be an answer to
- 22:53this. I don't want to have to deal
- 22:55with this. I need mercy.
- 22:56I need grace. And many of those people will
- 22:58remember the things that you and I had told them while we were
- 23:01alive, prior to us being caught up in the air.
- 23:04I don't know about you, but as a unbeliever prior to coming to
- 23:08Christ, what drew me to Christ was trials and tribulation.
- 23:13It was the lifestyle I was living.
- 23:16It was the condemnation and the guilt and the darkness.
- 23:19It was all about me from my drug induced hippie stage.
- 23:24And I, I just, I cried out to God I didn't know existed and I
- 23:29asked for His help and I asked him if he was real that he would
- 23:33reveal himself to me and show me who He was.
- 23:36And he did. And it put me on the beginning
- 23:38path of my salvation. I look at people in life and I
- 23:44know that God uses trials for both groups.
- 23:47He uses trials and believers lives to cause us to get on our
- 23:51face and say Lord I want to move towards you, not away from you.
- 23:57Thanks for being with us today here on Living Waters of Grace.
- 24:01We're in the Book of Revelation, and we find it fascinating how
- 24:04influential and involved the angels are in this book.
- 24:09They bring about whatever it is that God has instructed them to
- 24:13do, but it's through their actions that much of the
- 24:17judgments come on the earth. The angels are in submission to
- 24:20God as their authority, but He utilizes them in unique ways
- 24:25throughout this book. Like angels have a specific
- 24:28purpose from God, you have a unique purpose and plan too.
- 24:32God wants to use you in your life as a testimony to others
- 24:36and to bring others who are currently lost into the fold of
- 24:39God. God would love more than
- 24:42anything for all who are willing to come to Him for salvation,
- 24:46but He wants it to be their choice, not a forced situation.
- 24:51This is the way God works, not forcing himself on anyone, but
- 24:55giving each person free will. If you're interested in learning
- 24:59about this choice that's free and that it's a gift, go to
- 25:03calvarychapelonline.com and click on the About Us tab and
- 25:08then find the link for what we believe.
- 25:11We'd love to be a help and a resource for you as you walk
- 25:14through what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
- 25:18If you find the contact tab on our website, you can get in
- 25:22touch with us or submit a prayer request.
- 25:25We'd love to hear from you. That's all for today's edition
- 25:28in Revelation, but there's much more that Pastor Clark plans to
- 25:32share with us from this culminating book of the Bible.
- 25:36Stay tuned for that. And make sure to mention this
- 25:38radio program to others. Invite them to tune into Grace
- 25:42FM 91.7 FM. They can stream worldwide at
- 25:47Grace Radio dot FM. This has been Living Waters of
- 25:52Grace.