Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 09.19.25
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.
- 0:37So anybody that tells you doctrine isn't important or
- 0:39doctrine's boring, or doctrine divides, Yeah, it divides truth
- 0:43from error. It says it's profitable doctrine
- 0:47for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.
- 0:50So reproof, when I'm in the Word and I'm in a church or I'm in a
- 0:54congregation where the pastor's teaching the Word faithfully,
- 0:58I'm going to be convicted about some things that need to be
- 1:00adjusted in my life. Not condemned.
- 1:03But just like, hey, Clark, this is something you need, you need
- 1:06to change or consider or whatever, right?
- 1:09The sound doctrine is like a compass guiding you through a
- 1:12world of confusion. In today's message, Pastor Clark
- 1:16reveals how doctrine divides truth from error as Scripture
- 1:20teaches it's instruction for righteousness.
- 1:24When you're in a church that faithfully teaches the Word,
- 1:27you'll likely feel convicted with just parts of your life as
- 1:31God speaks to you. Doctrine shapes your faith,
- 1:35keeping you on the right path. Are you embracing sound doctrine
- 1:39to guide and correct your walk with God now?
- 1:42Here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 2 with today's edition
- 1:46of Living Waters of Grace. So this study is founded in the
- 1:54inception of what is called the New Testament Church.
- 1:59The church didn't exist until Pentecost.
- 2:03And so the way the Lord God organized people, he organized
- 2:07them as nationality groups, if you may like the nation of
- 2:11Israel. And God first worked with Israel
- 2:15as a nation to be his chosen people.
- 2:19And so you remember studying in the Old Testament about Abraham
- 2:22and Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs, the leaders of the
- 2:26that particular nation at the time.
- 2:27And their responsibility was to carry on the truth of the Word
- 2:32of God to the people of God throughout the earth, the known
- 2:35world at that time. God chose to gather people and
- 2:40community, just like we are here today together as a group of
- 2:43people. God never chose to work with
- 2:48people in isolation. He knew that we needed one
- 2:52another, we needed companionship, we needed
- 2:56encouragement, we needed to be around other human beings to
- 3:00know how to help each other get through the good times and bad
- 3:05times of life. So he established a Tabernacle
- 3:10in the Old Testament, and it was a physical structure that was
- 3:13built by God's direction through the leadership of Moses and
- 3:17others. And so wherever that Tabernacle
- 3:21moved, the people of God moved. They, they didn't say, well, I'm
- 3:24not going to follow that anymore, I'm just going to stay
- 3:26here. They realized that God's
- 3:28blessing was always based upon the habitation of God where he
- 3:34was geographically at that time with the people.
- 3:36Now God's omnipresent, and so He's everywhere present at the
- 3:40same time, but he chose to manifest himself personally
- 3:45within the confines of the Tabernacle, by the pillar of
- 3:49fire by night and the cloud by day.
- 3:52And so whenever the Tabernacle moved, the people of God moved
- 3:55with it. Whenever the people were not
- 3:59around the Tabernacle before the Tabernacle was built, they felt
- 4:03isolated, they felt alone, and they felt void and empty of this
- 4:09presence of God. The presence of God is very
- 4:14important for each of us to sense and experience.
- 4:18That's what the book of the Acts is all about.
- 4:20It's about the work of the Holy Spirit within the church and
- 4:24within the lives of the people that belong to the church.
- 4:29The presence of God manifests himself in the heart of the
- 4:34believer, but He also manifests himself whenever the believers
- 4:38gather together to worship Him in any given locale in local
- 4:42church. God never intended people to not
- 4:47have a place to meet with other people to worship him.
- 4:51So the church is God's idea. It wasn't man's idea.
- 4:56God was the one that knew that we needed to have assembly.
- 5:01As a matter of fact, he told us in the book of Hebrews, we're
- 5:03not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, meaning not
- 5:08coming together like we are today.
- 5:10We're together. We're, we're, we're, we're
- 5:12making every effort to be physically present in the place
- 5:16that God has established for believers to come together to
- 5:21be, to worship him, to hear his word, to study the Bible
- 5:25together, and to be taught the word of God.
- 5:28Whenever you don't have a church and some of you know what that's
- 5:31like, it's sort of a lonely trek and journey because you're
- 5:36trying to do your faith by yourself.
- 5:39Maybe you watch online, that's probably better than nothing or
- 5:43listening on the radio, but there's nothing like being with
- 5:47people physically in a confine building or outside or whatever.
- 5:52People gather to hear from God and God works not only through
- 5:59the pastor, but he works through the people in the church.
- 6:02When you come and you see each other physically, it, it, it
- 6:05encourages you, it, it reminds you that you're not alone in
- 6:08your journey toward the Kingdom. One day there's others with you.
- 6:12You're you're never alone. If you're going through a
- 6:15difficult time or a challenge, you're not going through it
- 6:18alone. When you're part of a church, we
- 6:19go through it together. We do what we can to help each
- 6:22other through the challenges and difficulties of life.
- 6:26And we grieve with people who grieve and we rejoice with
- 6:29people who rejoice and we hurt with people who hurt.
- 6:32And we, we, we're just there for one another.
- 6:35And it's, it's such a, a wonderful infrastructure that
- 6:37God has built. They're called the New Testament
- 6:40church. So the church was birthed at
- 6:43Pentecost. Up until this point, people were
- 6:47pretty nomadic. If you were Jewish, you would go
- 6:49to the Temple on Saturday. Then Christ rose again from the
- 6:54dead on Sunday, which is the first day of the week.
- 6:57And in the New Testament, the Gentiles began to meet on
- 7:01Sunday, the 1st day of the week. There's nothing special about
- 7:06any personal day of the week. You worship God every day.
- 7:09I hope it's not on Sunday or through Jewish.
- 7:11And you, you, you, you, you want to follow the rituals of the Old
- 7:16Testament. And you, you gather on a
- 7:18Saturday to follow your customs as a Jewish person there.
- 7:22There's nothing wrong with that. But we are called to gather
- 7:26together in the church. So what is the church and what
- 7:30does the church look like? And how does the church act?
- 7:33And how does the church work? In Greensburg?
- 7:36There's a church on every corner of the city and you could choose
- 7:40to go wherever you want to go. But what what happened with the
- 7:45church in the beginning stages? It was pure in the sense it was
- 7:49not touched with traditions of, of men, if you may, and, and the
- 7:54book of the Acts. It, it just started out on fire.
- 7:58It started out alive. There was no one running the
- 8:02church other than Jesus Christ and those he placed in charge at
- 8:06the time. The apostles and even the
- 8:08apostles weren't really running anything.
- 8:10They were just gathering believers together like we are
- 8:13today to meet, to be in the Word together.
- 8:17And so God knows, and we probably know too, that if we
- 8:22aren't somewhere like we are today to hear the Word of God
- 8:26and to worship God, we're going to drift spiritually, right?
- 8:30I don't care who it is. It could be me or you or any of
- 8:33us, that if I'm not under the word of God and I'm not in an
- 8:36environment like this where there's people of God that love
- 8:39God, that worship God, and I'm not with those kind of people,
- 8:43then I'm going to be weak spiritually.
- 8:45I'm not going to be following the Lord closely.
- 8:50I'll begin to drift, I'll begin to backslide.
- 8:53I'll begin to take things for granted.
- 8:55I'll begin to compromise. And it's just the nature of the
- 8:59human heart. So the the church in in God's
- 9:03Providence and his plan was to gather us together, keep us on
- 9:07track together, to keep us moving toward the Kingdom, to
- 9:11keep us in a place of humility and and need of the Lord, a
- 9:14place of repentance where we're corrected.
- 9:17If anything in my life wasn't right this week, I guarantee
- 9:20when I'm in church and I hear the word of God, the Lord will
- 9:23correct it. He'll convict me.
- 9:25I take the Lord's Supper and I'm reminded of what Jesus has done
- 9:28for me every week when I'm in this church.
- 9:30My life is continually learning to walk with the Lord.
- 9:35So the church has been set up so that you and I would know how to
- 9:38follow God, how to obey God, how to hear God, and how to live in
- 9:44the ways of God. Court without the church.
- 9:47None of us do that. Well, if you're on the golf
- 9:51course, you might look at the creation and praise God a little
- 9:53bit when you get a good shot, but most of the time you're
- 9:57complaint not hitting it in the direction you want to hear
- 9:59something, you know, and maybe you have a few choice words
- 10:02while you're not hitting it in the direction you want to hit
- 10:04it. Or you're on the beach and you
- 10:06think, well, I can worship God on the beach and, and you can,
- 10:09you know, hopefully you do, but there's distractions on the
- 10:13beach, you know, And so you gotta be in an environment at
- 10:17least a couple hours a week sometime in your life to be
- 10:21under the anointing of, of God's word in your life as it's
- 10:26taught. And also as a Holy Spirit moves
- 10:30in your life with the person beside you, behind you, in front
- 10:33of you, the people you talk to, the people you see, the people
- 10:36you listen to, you hear their stories, you catch up with one
- 10:39another. Hopefully you don't run out too
- 10:41quick. You get to know people and that
- 10:42kind of stuff. You begin to develop this
- 10:44community relationship. And so the heading of the text
- 10:50in my Bible in Acts chapter 2, verse 40, it says a vital church
- 10:55grows. So this is the beginning stages
- 10:58of the of the New Testament church.
- 11:00There was no Catholic Church. There was no Orthodox Church in
- 11:05the sense of how we see it today.
- 11:06There was no Protestant church. There was this people like us
- 11:10that were Pagan, that weren't trying to become bad people,
- 11:15becoming good people. It was God making dead people
- 11:19alive, right? That's what he did for us.
- 11:23He made us dead in trespasses and sin.
- 11:26He saved us and he made us alive together in Jesus Christ.
- 11:30It's miraculous. And we're born again.
- 11:32We're new creations in Christ. We're heading toward the the
- 11:35heavenly city. And so it was so wonderful in
- 11:38the beginning because there was really only one church and it
- 11:41started here at Pentecost. Peter preached that sermon that
- 11:45day after the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the 120 in the
- 11:49upper room. All these people in the
- 11:51community heard their heard the word of God, people worshipping
- 11:54God in their own language. It was miraculous.
- 11:57These people were given supernatural ability to talk
- 12:00actual languages that they had never studied or learned.
- 12:03So all these people that were there at Pentecost were hearing
- 12:07the the word of God and and many of them then began to become
- 12:11convicted as Peter preached that sermon.
- 12:14And over 3000 people got saved in that one day.
- 12:18So the church went from 120 people in an upper room to 3120
- 12:23people in an instant. So there they have this church.
- 12:27What do we do? What do we do with all these
- 12:30people? There was no, you know, a five
- 12:33year plan or one year plan. There was no, you know, agenda
- 12:38that anybody had established. They this met together just like
- 12:42we are now. And it says in verse 40 and with
- 12:45many other words, he testified this is Peter and exhorted them,
- 12:50encouraged them saying be saved from this perverse generation.
- 12:55They're living in a world like we are today, people that don't
- 12:58know God, people who are doing evil things, immoral things,
- 13:01ungodly things, governments that aren't under the authority of
- 13:05God at the time. All these people heard the word
- 13:08of God and they were saved from this world system that
- 13:12everyone's born into. We're all born as sinners into
- 13:16this world. We need a Savior.
- 13:18And it says, and those who gladly received His Word, and I
- 13:23trust today that we're here to receive gladly His word.
- 13:27They were baptized and that day about 3000 souls were added to
- 13:32them. A miracle of God's power, Holy
- 13:37Spirit power in convicting people's hearts to need a
- 13:42Savior. And that's our prayer throughout
- 13:44the earth today. When the church gathers and the
- 13:46Word of God is being preached, people are in these churches and
- 13:50maybe they've been invited or they just show up and they don't
- 13:53even know why they're there. And all of a sudden they start
- 13:56hearing stuff that makes sense. And all of a sudden they realize
- 13:59by the grace and the power of God and the Holy Spirit that
- 14:02they need a savior. And Jesus is the only one that
- 14:05can be their savior. For Jesus is the way.
- 14:08He's the only way, the only truth and the only life.
- 14:12Jesus said that about himself, when no man comes to the Father,
- 14:15but through him. And so this is what they began
- 14:20to do all these people. Verse 42 and they continued
- 14:26steadfastly in the apostles doctrine.
- 14:31Now, when we go to church, we shouldn't be interested in
- 14:35anybody's opinion other than God's.
- 14:40If whoever is responsible for teaching the, the, the sermon,
- 14:45if they're not in the apostles doctrine, get up and leave.
- 14:48There's no reason to be there. There's no truth apart from this
- 14:53truth in regard to Christianity and the and the and the way to
- 14:56follow Jesus. It comes only from the word of
- 14:59God. So if we're not in the word of
- 15:02God, there's no purpose and reason to gather.
- 15:04It's just a social club, right? That's an organization of man.
- 15:09And so they were meeting together in the apostles.
- 15:14Doctrine. Now people say many times, well,
- 15:19doctrine isn't important, but doctrine's critical because this
- 15:25is what happens with doctrine. And Second Timothy, the apostle
- 15:29Paul wrote this chapter 3, verse 16, he says all Scripture.
- 15:34That means everything from Genesis through Revelation, OK,
- 15:40All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
- 15:45Man doesn't have the right to choose what he wants to teach
- 15:48and what he doesn't want to teach.
- 15:50Paul told the elders in Ephesus on the shore before he was
- 15:57heading toward his martyrdom, and he wasn't going to see him
- 16:00again. He told them very clearly.
- 16:03I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole council of
- 16:08God. He didn't skip anything.
- 16:12He didn't gloss over anything. He didn't say, well, I don't
- 16:15think this is that important. So I'm not going to tell him
- 16:17about that. No, he wanted to be clean from
- 16:22the the blood of of any kinds of God, an ungodly approach toward
- 16:27anything that had to do with the things of God.
- 16:31He wanted to to be just before the Lord and be faithful to give
- 16:35the people exactly what the Lord told him to give him.
- 16:39But sometimes people make fun of churches that teach the Bible.
- 16:44They say, well, there should be other things you should talk
- 16:46about other than the Bible. Well, I like to talk about other
- 16:49things in the Bible. I like to talk about golf, and I
- 16:52like to talk about my grandkids, and I like to talk about sports
- 16:56and I like to talk about business or whatever, but not in
- 16:59the pulpit. Those are conversations for
- 17:02other times for people to listen to, right?
- 17:05We all have other interests, you know, other than just the Bible.
- 17:08And that's a good thing. There's nothing wrong with
- 17:09literature and reading and music or whatever sports.
- 17:13But when it comes to the church gathering, there's a reason all
- 17:17Scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for
- 17:21doctrine. So anybody that tells you
- 17:23doctrine isn't important or doctrine's boring, or doctrine
- 17:26divides, Yeah, it divides truth from error.
- 17:29It says it's profitable doctrine for reproof, for correction, for
- 17:34instruction and righteousness. So reproof, when I'm in the word
- 17:38and I'm in a church or I'm in a congregation where the pastor's
- 17:41teaching the word faithfully, I'm going to be convicted about
- 17:44some things that need to be adjusted in my life, not
- 17:47condemned, but just like, hey, Clark, this is something you
- 17:50need to change or consider or whatever, right?
- 17:54It's it's the Lord speaking to me through the word of God and
- 17:59also for correction that I hear something and I better apply it
- 18:05to my life. I better just not ignore it or
- 18:07blow it off because God's warning me through the word that
- 18:12this is the pathway of a blessed life.
- 18:14If I follow and obey his word, if I choose not to obey the
- 18:18word, my life isn't going to be blessed.
- 18:20It's going to be a mess. And all of us have come from
- 18:24places of messed up lies because A, we didn't know the word or B,
- 18:28we weren't living the word or obeying the word.
- 18:32You don't mess with the truth. The truth is the truth and we
- 18:35need to live it and we need to apply it to our lives and then
- 18:39for instruction and righteousness.
- 18:42So how do you do the Christian life?
- 18:43How do you live it? What do you?
- 18:45Well, this is this is what this is for, right?
- 18:47This teaches all of us how to do the Christian life so wonderful
- 18:53that we have this and it says that the man of God and when it
- 18:56says man, it's it's male, female, that the person of God
- 19:00may be completely, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
- 19:04So how can I live a life that's pleasing to God?
- 19:07How can I be a good husband or a Good Wife or a good dad or mom
- 19:11or grandson or grandfather or whatever the roles we have?
- 19:14How can I be a good employer? How can I be a good employee?
- 19:18How can I be a good neighbor? All these kind of things teaches
- 19:22us from doctrine how to be equipped for every good thing in
- 19:27this life. So if you go to a church that
- 19:33doesn't teach the Bible and never talks about doctrine, what
- 19:39are you going to learn how to live life?
- 19:42You're just not going to know. The Bible tells us in the last
- 19:47days there's going to be a famine for the Word of God,
- 19:49meaning that there will be churches, but there'll be few
- 19:52churches that are teaching the Word of God anymore.
- 19:55The only reason we felt compelled to plant this church
- 19:5825 years ago is that when we moved from Philadelphia, from
- 20:01Calvary Chapel Philadelphia, we were used to what you guys get
- 20:04here. We got back here, we went to
- 20:07churches and it wasn't happening.
- 20:09There was like a sermon, but it maybe had one or two verses and
- 20:13it was all over the place. And then most of the time we had
- 20:15no idea what was trying to be emphasized.
- 20:20And eventually we just didn't go anywhere, which wasn't a good
- 20:23thing. And then finally the Lord
- 20:25supernaturally began to move on my life about planning a Bible
- 20:29church at Calvary Chapel here in Greensburg.
- 20:32Now, I'm not saying other churches are bad and we're
- 20:35better. That's not what I'm saying.
- 20:37I'm saying that if the church is the church, it teaches the whole
- 20:42council of God. If it doesn't teach the whole
- 20:46council of God, it's not a, it's not a New Testament church.
- 20:50So they've, they meet as a group of people, a lot of people at
- 20:58the temple grounds there. They also met in houses.
- 21:02We'll get to that in a minute. These people when they met, they
- 21:05continued steadfast in the apostles doctrine.
- 21:08What's it mean to be steadfast? It means to be consistent
- 21:14steadfast. Attendance to church isn't once
- 21:17a month, it's as often as you can get there, right?
- 21:21No one's taken attendance here, so don't worry about that.
- 21:25But you know, you want to be there.
- 21:27You want, you want to be steadfast in the apostles word
- 21:32so that you can be steadfast in your Christian life.
- 21:35Steadfastness is this consistency.
- 21:38Right now I like to sleep in like everybody else does, you
- 21:41know, but I can't. I'm the pastor, so I got to be
- 21:44here every Sunday. They were faithful.
- 21:47They they enjoyed being in the word and they liked being with
- 21:50one another as believers. OK.
- 21:53They were steadfast and they also had fellowship.
- 21:58The fellowship is this community gathering of you see people and
- 22:03you're glad to see each other. You hug each other or you shake
- 22:07each other's hands or you fist pump each other, whatever,
- 22:11whatever you're comfortable with, you know, you wave at each
- 22:13other. We're family.
- 22:15You know, it's not a religious institution.
- 22:18It's a community of like minded brothers and sisters, right?
- 22:22You do life together. You pray for each other.
- 22:26You you're there for each other. You help each other.
- 22:29And and so someone this week called me.
- 22:33She's got a diagnosis of some kind of cervical cancer.
- 22:39I don't know what I would do without my church family when I
- 22:41got bad news if I didn't have people to pray for me and help
- 22:44help me and encourage me, get me off the ledge when I was
- 22:48freaking out, right? This particular woman, she said
- 22:53she's new to the church and she said that she's never been at a
- 22:58church like this, that there appears to be people that care
- 23:03for each other, that actually love each other.
- 23:08What an example because of you, Jesus said by this people will
- 23:14know you're my disciples by the love you have for one another.
- 23:19Nope, your criticism or judgmentalism or holier and thou
- 23:22thank God we're not going down those paths here.
- 23:26None of us are better than each other.
- 23:30Well, the purpose of the church, the fellowship, is that, right?
- 23:35Helping one another. And sometimes you might not want
- 23:38to be helped because you think you can do it yourself.
- 23:39Well, you need help. That's what it is.
- 23:43It's a blessing to serve people. It's not an inconvenience, is
- 23:46it? That's what we do as Christians.
- 23:48We care for one another. We love one another.
- 23:50We want to help each other. We want to be there for one
- 23:52another. That's the fellowship.
- 23:57Thank you for listening to this edition of Living Waters of
- 24:00Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching us
- 24:02about the book of Acts in this series.
- 24:05Acts is a powerful and unique part of Scripture, not just
- 24:08because it records the spread of the gospel geographically from
- 24:12Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, but also culturally.
- 24:15Acts shows us how the message of Jesus moved beyond its Jewish
- 24:20roots and began to reach the Gentile world.
- 24:23What started with Peter leading a small group in the Upper Room
- 24:26became a global movement with Paul taking the gospel to
- 24:30cities, synagogues and marketplaces across the Roman
- 24:34Empire. Acts captures this vital
- 24:37transition and reminds us that the good news of Jesus is for
- 24:41all people in every place. May we be inspired to carry that
- 24:46same gospel boldly into our world today.
- 24:50Living Waters of Grace comes to you from Calvary Chapel,
- 24:53Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
- 24:56area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
- 25:01Pray about helping support the new station that will reach
- 25:05thousands more listeners. Send gifts to Grace FMPO, Box
- 25:10716, Greensburg, PA 15601 also invite you to join us in person
- 25:18this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
- 25:23Unit 6B. To stay up to date, visit
- 25:26calvarychapelonline.com where you can find our teaching
- 25:30archive, submit prayer requests, join our e-mail list, or give
- 25:34online. If you're outside the area,
- 25:37don't worry, you can still worship with us through the
- 25:40Calvary Chapel Westmoreland YouTube channel.
- 25:43Be sure to subscribe so you won't miss new content.
- 25:46We're so thankful that you joined us today.
- 25:49Be sure to tune into the next edition of Living Waters of
- 25:52Grace.