Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace for April 29, 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.
- 0:37And verse 3 And then the second Angel poured out his bowl on the
- 0:40sea and it became blood as of a dead man.
- 0:43And every living creature in the sea died.
- 0:47Now we read about this in Revelation chapter 8.
- 0:50There was a partial destruction of the waters.
- 0:53They were partially destroyed and the sense of becoming
- 0:56contaminated with blood. But now we see the complete
- 1:00contamination. Everything in the waters, every
- 1:04living creature in the sea, it says in verse three, died.
- 1:07Water is essential to all life on Earth. 2/3 of the Earth's
- 1:11surface is covered with water. The human body is made-up of
- 1:15half to 3/4 water. Without food, a human body can
- 1:19survive for up to three months, but without food, that number is
- 1:22drastically reduced to three to seven days.
- 1:26In Pastor Clark's teaching today, he warned you of a time
- 1:29when God will judge the earth by turning the sea into the
- 1:33likeness of blood. But today you can be sure that
- 1:36if you turn to God, He will show you mercy.
- 1:39Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation Chapter 16 with
- 1:42today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
- 1:46Revelation chapter 16. We're going to go through the
- 1:481st 11 verses this morning, so let's read the first verse here.
- 1:55Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven
- 1:58angels, go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the
- 2:02earth. Last week we studied about this
- 2:05great voice out of the temple that we're in the time now where
- 2:09there is no more opportunity for intercession.
- 2:12There is no time to ask God to hold back his judgment.
- 2:16As we pray right now, as brothers and sisters, we pray
- 2:19for our families and our loved ones and the people we care
- 2:22about that there would still be time for them to come to, to
- 2:25know the Lord and be saved. But there will come a time when
- 2:29God's temp temple will be closed in the sense that there will be
- 2:33no more opportunity to ask Him to wait.
- 2:36His time has come to pour out His judgment and disgrace.
- 2:40A great voice of God comes out of the temple and he's speaking
- 2:44very clearly now to the angels, the seven angels.
- 2:48This is the third woe that we read about in Revelation 11/14,
- 2:51that the wrath of God is about to be poured out upon the earth
- 2:55right at the end of the tribulation period.
- 2:58This wrath will be poured out to punish sin because God's
- 3:02righteous judgment is now about to come into focus, and also the
- 3:07opportunity still for chastisement upon people on the
- 3:11earth that they still might think about repenting.
- 3:14But we'll find out as we go through this particular text
- 3:17today that regardless of what happens, men still refuse to
- 3:21repent of their deeds. And as we study these different
- 3:25bowls of judgment, it reminds us of what happened in the nation
- 3:27of Israel and the book of Exodus, when God plagued Egypt
- 3:31with the boils and the water that turned to blood, and the
- 3:34extreme darkness that occurred on the face of the earth for
- 3:37three days. And Exodus Chapter 7, nine and
- 3:4010, verse 2, we see that, we see the first Angel, He goes forth,
- 3:47it goes out and pours out his bowl upon the earth.
- 3:49And a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the
- 3:52mark of the beast and on those who worship the image.
- 3:57The people prior to this horrible event coming out
- 4:00thought they had it made for a while.
- 4:02They were looking at all the people that were on the earth
- 4:04that were recognizing that all the things that they heard about
- 4:08prior to their lost their loved ones who had already gone to the
- 4:12Kingdom of heaven. There are the people who are
- 4:14still in the face of the earth at this time of the tribulation
- 4:16were warned by people like us that when the Antichrist comes
- 4:20on the scene, if you're still on the earth and you haven't
- 4:23received Christ, you still have an opportunity.
- 4:26But whatever you do, do not take the mark of the beast.
- 4:28Because if you take the mark of the Antichrist, you sold your
- 4:32soul to the devil. There is no opportunity for
- 4:34repentance. You've been deceived and your
- 4:37judgment is sealed. But the people at that time that
- 4:41didn't know or could care less about what we're talking about
- 4:44today, I thought they had it made.
- 4:48Economy is going well. There's peace on the earth.
- 4:51Everything is flowing in a prosperous way.
- 4:54Anybody that didn't accept the mark of the beast at that time
- 4:57would be considered a fool because life is so good.
- 5:01The Antichrist promises peace on earth and wonders and and
- 5:04there's going to be a season of peace on the earth during that
- 5:07time. So the people that receive the
- 5:09market of beasts are going to think that they got it made, and
- 5:13the people that haven't are the fools.
- 5:15But the real fools now will be seen as those who did receive
- 5:18the mark of the beast. Because not only do they have
- 5:21this mark on their bodies that give them the opportunity to buy
- 5:24and do commerce, but they're going to receive a horrendous
- 5:27mark, a sore from the throne of God that's going to be very
- 5:30painful and very hideous. And every time they look at
- 5:33themselves in the mirror, they'll no longer recognize the
- 5:36solace that they had temporarily from the mark of the beast.
- 5:39They will only see this horrendous sore that will point
- 5:44them out as those who are followers of the Antichrist in
- 5:48verse 3. And then the second Angel poured
- 5:50out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man,
- 5:54and every living creature in the sea died.
- 5:58Now we read about this in Revelation chapter 8.
- 6:01There was a partial destruction of the waters.
- 6:04They were partially destroyed and the sense of becoming
- 6:07contaminated with blood. But now we see the complete
- 6:10contamination everything in the waters, every living creature in
- 6:15the sea it says in verse three died.
- 6:18I love the ocean. I don't know about you, but at
- 6:20this makes your heart sick to look and think about the
- 6:24vastness of God's beautiful creation.
- 6:26That one day, that beautiful sea that we enjoy riding the waves
- 6:29in and surfing and all that kind of fun stuff, playing in the
- 6:32water with our kids will one day be destroyed.
- 6:35And no one will even consider walking in it, let alone getting
- 6:40any salt water in their mouth anymore.
- 6:42Because now they will have to experience the horror of all the
- 6:46waters being destroyed. And you think about this
- 6:50horrible event where every creature dies.
- 6:53Our water system, our water supplies will be completely
- 6:56contaminated. It will be very clear that the
- 6:58earth will not be able to continue as it is without this
- 7:02wonder of drinking water. And verse 4 it says, And the
- 7:06third Angel poured out his bowl in the rivers springs of water,
- 7:09and they became blood again. We read about this partially
- 7:13occurring in Revelation 8. Now the waters are completely
- 7:16contaminated and the time will be short for Christ's return as
- 7:21the earth cannot survive very long with this kind of chaos.
- 7:25And verse 5 it says And I heard the Angel of the waters saying,
- 7:29You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who
- 7:33is to be, because you have judged these things, for they
- 7:36have shed the blood of the Saints and prophets, and you
- 7:40have given them blood to drink, for it is their just due.
- 7:45So now after all this time, the horror of all these people on
- 7:50the face of the earth that hated people who were Saints, who were
- 7:53Christians, forced them to die martyr's death, laughed and
- 7:58ridiculed over the blood that was shed by the horrible people
- 8:04on the face of the earth that persecuted the Christians.
- 8:06Now God's righteous judgment is coming and it's pure and it's
- 8:11appropriate. And we see the horror of this
- 8:15situation because not only is this blood everywhere, it says
- 8:20he's given them blood to drink for it as their just do.
- 8:23The ones that scoffed and ridiculed the blood of the
- 8:26martyrs will now have to drink the blood of the waters of
- 8:30death. And God is faithful and he's
- 8:33righteous, and his judgment is surely to come one day, even
- 8:37though the world innocently thinks every day that life will
- 8:41go on the way it always does, but one day it will be too late.
- 8:44And as we study this book, one of the things I'm concerned
- 8:47about, Everybody's interested in end time prophecies, and it's
- 8:50thrilling and it's fascinating. But if it doesn't have any
- 8:54impact on changing my life as I teach it and yours as you listen
- 8:58to it, what's the point? If I'm not concerned about my
- 9:02own life in repenting? If I'm not concerned about lost
- 9:06people needing to hear the gospel?
- 9:08You know, it's like what the Scriptures say, ever learning
- 9:10and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, what's
- 9:13the point? The Bible tells us knowledge
- 9:16puffs up, but love that edifies. And I know some people who are
- 9:20marvelous students of prophecy, but they don't live as
- 9:24Christians. I can't understand the
- 9:25connection. You would think if you were in
- 9:28the prophecy and understood the gravity of what's going to come
- 9:31out in the world, that it would cause you to have some burdens
- 9:34and some concerns for anybody that doesn't know Jesus Christ.
- 9:39I pray that's what occurs as we study this book.
- 9:41I want it to be practical. And that's not something that
- 9:45feeds our minds, our intellect, intellects.
- 9:48Verse 8 it says then the 4th Angel poured out his bowl on the
- 9:52sun and power was given him to scorch men with fire.
- 9:57And men were scorched with great heat.
- 9:59And they blasphemy the name of God who has power over these
- 10:02plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.
- 10:06Have you ever been in the sun where you got in a real bad
- 10:08sunburn? It's not pleasant, is it?
- 10:10You put that solar cane on and rub that Noxzema on to try to
- 10:13get rid of rid of the heat. I mean, there's nothing worse
- 10:16than getting a bad sunburn. I remember as a kid, you know,
- 10:19as before we knew about skin cancer and that kind of stuff.
- 10:21And my mom abused my brother and I should send us out in the sun
- 10:25without suntan lotion, you know, And at night we would be we
- 10:28would be our backs would be almost beat red and I forget
- 10:32what she rubbed on us. She rubbed some kind of stuff
- 10:34on. And you'll be OK.
- 10:36I didn't mean she abused us. She didn't know any better, you
- 10:38know, but you know, we'd be laying in bed at at night and
- 10:41our backs would all night. You couldn't sleep.
- 10:44Remember that when you were kids, It hurts so bad everywhere
- 10:46you turn. You couldn't get comfortable.
- 10:48You know, you tried to sleep on your stomach and you were red.
- 10:50Sleep on your back, you're red. And but at this time, this kind
- 10:54of sun condition will be like unlike any other sunburn that
- 10:58anybody could ever experience. Some people in our congregation
- 11:01have gone through the process of chemotherapy.
- 11:04And that is bad enough in a sense of how it burns the skin.
- 11:07This kind of heat that's going to come off the sun will be
- 11:11cataclysmic. It'll it'll burn the very flesh
- 11:14off of people's bodies and they'll have to flee from it.
- 11:17They'll hide somewhere to get out of the get out of the rays
- 11:20of the sun. The sun's usually a blessing to
- 11:23man. And now the sun has become a
- 11:25curse. And what's shocking here, as it
- 11:29says these people, they blasphemy God because of this,
- 11:33instead of saying God, we, we sense your anger.
- 11:36We know we're sinful. We know we need to turn away
- 11:39from our sin and our pride. They, they curse God, they shake
- 11:42their fist at him and, and, and just say horrible things about
- 11:46the Creator. And because of their pains and
- 11:48their sores, it says they did not repent of their deeds.
- 11:53It shows you the hardness of man's heart.
- 11:56Back in Exodus when God was dealing with Moses and Moses was
- 12:00dealing with the afflictions on the nation of Egypt through the
- 12:04various plagues. The purpose of those plagues
- 12:07were intended by God to 'cause that nation to realize the evil
- 12:11that they had done towards God's chosen people, the nation of
- 12:14Israel. And every time Pharaoh sort of
- 12:17got it a little bit and started reconsidering his, his evilness
- 12:21and his hatred and his vindictiveness and, and
- 12:25deceptions toward God's chosen people, as soon as he began to
- 12:30start to turn a little bit, he turned right back again to being
- 12:33the hard hearted evil man and leader he was.
- 12:37And even in the midst of this going on in the Book of
- 12:40Revelation, it says they, they refused to repent.
- 12:44It says they did not repent of their deeds.
- 12:47They refused to give him glory. So it shows you the hardness of
- 12:51men's hearts. We all have hearts that at times
- 12:55can be hard, even as Christians. It, it's, it, it's never ceases.
- 13:01It never ceases to amaze me as a pastor, knowing my own heart and
- 13:06knowing the hearts of those I, I serve, that at times we can be
- 13:09very, very difficult in regard to being pliable in the hands of
- 13:14God. The Lord in the midst of his
- 13:18love is bringing judgment. Of course, He has to destroy the
- 13:22world one day. It's obvious because men won't
- 13:25repent, repent. Their deeds are evil.
- 13:27They refuse to repent. But God's heart throughout the
- 13:29beginning of time, in the midst of adversity and trial and
- 13:32tribulation, is to turn the people's hearts toward him.
- 13:37That we would cry out for mercy and say, Lord, forgive me.
- 13:40And God is a merciful God because if He hears us cry out
- 13:43for mercy and forgiveness, He will never once turn his back
- 13:47away. His mercy endures forever, the
- 13:50Bible says. But there's something in the
- 13:53heart of man that the pride is so thick and so strong that we
- 13:57will refuse to acknowledge our wrongdoings and our sin and not
- 14:01repent. And so God begins to pour these
- 14:03plagues out of darkness. It reminds us of what happened
- 14:08in Exodus chapter 1021 and 22. The darkness was so thick.
- 14:12It says that God extended that through the hands of Moses so
- 14:16that the darkness would be felt. Sometimes you've been in a
- 14:20situation where you've just felt darkness.
- 14:22Maybe you felt the darkness of the evil 1, the oppression, the
- 14:25attacks of the evil 1. I have.
- 14:27It is so thick, it is so dark. It is so real.
- 14:29You almost feel you can touch it.
- 14:31Or maybe you've been out in the woods some night and the stars
- 14:34are overcast. You can't see the the moon and
- 14:37and you're trying to find your way in a path and it is so dark
- 14:40that you know you better not go anywhere.
- 14:42You'll really get lost. So you just stay in the place
- 14:44that you are. It was such a thick darkness in
- 14:47Exodus. It lasted for three days and it
- 14:50says it was so dark that the people had not the ability to
- 14:53see one another, neither anyone rose from the place that they
- 14:57were in. It also says that they nod their
- 15:00tongues in verse 10 because of the pain of the sores and the
- 15:04heat from the sun. And it reminds us of what it
- 15:07says in Matthew 2530. And he casts the unprofitable
- 15:11servant into outer darkness. And there shall be weeping and
- 15:16gnashing of teeth. This is a preview of hell.
- 15:19Hell is a literal place. It is a place designed by God
- 15:23for the devil and his angels. God never intended that man, his
- 15:26creation, would have to be in hell.
- 15:28But because of our own hardness, the own wickedness of our own
- 15:31hearts, and our refusal to repent and submit to God, we
- 15:36we'll have to enter into that place if we don't have Christ as
- 15:40not any our Savior, but our Lord.
- 15:44And so he says in verse 11 that they did not repent of their
- 15:48deed. I'd like to read something to
- 15:50you. This is something that's just
- 15:52been on my conscience the last couple weeks.
- 15:54It's from a devotional I've been looking at, and it says, my
- 15:57brethren deem it all joy Whenever you fall into diverse
- 16:00temptations or trials, knowing that the testing of your faith
- 16:03works out patience. God has a purpose for trials and
- 16:07adversity. It's to cause us to be humbled
- 16:10and to be broken and to repent and to turn toward him.
- 16:15With these words from his general epistle, James, a
- 16:18brother of the Lord, reminds us that the various afflictions we
- 16:21encounter in our daily lives can be of great benefit.
- 16:25And we know, as Paul reminds us, that those who love God, all
- 16:28things work together for good in Romans 828.
- 16:32Now listen to this and see if this applies to you.
- 16:35I know it does to me. The demands of today's secular,
- 16:39humanistic, ego worshipping society, where personal comfort
- 16:43and pleasure reign supreme, have often caused many, if not most
- 16:48of us to take our focus off of striving to live the Gospel of
- 16:51Christ. Does that affect any of you
- 16:53guys? However, unlike Peter, who,
- 16:57having taken his eyes off of his Lord and having begun to sink
- 17:00into the sea, immediately cried out to Jesus to save him, we
- 17:05seem to be either unaware of or indifferent to the fact that we
- 17:09are focusing upon and sinking within the toward sea of this
- 17:14temporal life. And thus we become bait for the
- 17:18many demonic passions lurking therein, seeking to devour our
- 17:22souls. This is why God and His
- 17:24limitless love for us will permit us to experience various
- 17:28tribulations so that we will wake up and cry out to him for
- 17:34help, so that we can again fix the eyes of our souls upon Him.
- 17:40I believe we have to wake up in these days.
- 17:43The church is dead everywhere, the Church of Jesus Christ in
- 17:47these last days. The Bible says there's a great
- 17:50falling away. Men will be lovers of themselves
- 17:53rather than lovers of God. And we're living in those days
- 17:57and we're fighting against those days, all of us, for our
- 17:59families, for our marriages, for our children.
- 18:03And as I said earlier when we prepared for the Supper, the
- 18:07apostle John who wrote the Book of Revelation also says that if
- 18:11we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
- 18:15is not in us. So we're studying about all
- 18:17these poor people in the Book of Revelation today.
- 18:20Sometimes we read all these poor people.
- 18:22They refuse to repent of their sin.
- 18:25They won't acknowledge the Creator.
- 18:27They blast him to the Creator. And many times I look and I look
- 18:31at the image of the Church of Jesus Christ today and I say, do
- 18:34we look any different than those who will have to face that
- 18:38eternity of hell? Are we the kind of people that
- 18:43are refusing to repent of our sins?
- 18:46Are we walking around in self righteousness saying I have no
- 18:49sin, I'm judging other people's sins, but I'm not judging my own
- 18:54sins. It says if we hate, say that we
- 18:57have not sinned, we make him a liar and His word is not in US.
- 19:01The purpose, one of the roles of the Holy Spirit, God, the Holy
- 19:04Spirit, is to convict you and me of sin.
- 19:08He does that perfectly well. He makes it very clear to my
- 19:13conscience and yours whenever we're behaving in an
- 19:16inappropriate way, when we're thinking things we shouldn't,
- 19:19when we're doing things we know we shouldn't.
- 19:21He makes it very clear about where we're at in our lives in
- 19:27regard to sin. First, Peter chapter 4 says for
- 19:30the time has come for judgment to begin.
- 19:33Where? At the House of God.
- 19:36Now we're studying about the judgment and revelation, right?
- 19:39Well, revelation hasn't fulfilled yet in the sense of
- 19:42the prophetical vision of John in the days ahead.
- 19:45It's going to come to pass, but I have to live right now.
- 19:49And so I'm thinking about judgment and revelation, but I
- 19:52first of all have to realize that judgment has to 1st begin
- 19:56with me and with this House of God.
- 20:00And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those
- 20:04who do not obey the gospel of God?
- 20:06And that's what we read about in Revelation.
- 20:08What will be the end of those in that book who will not obey the
- 20:12gospel of God? It says there will be 9 of
- 20:15teeth. Now if the righteous 1 is
- 20:19scarcely saved, where will the ungodly in the Sinner appear?
- 20:24Peter asked that question. James tells us that we're to
- 20:27draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
- 20:31That's repentance. Repentance is turning away from
- 20:35walking away from God in my own path of destruction and selfish
- 20:40and foolishness and delusion and turning to the Lord, drawing
- 20:47near to him. And if I turn from my sin and
- 20:50repent and draw near to God, God doesn't run the other way.
- 20:54I'm the one that's running the other way in my rebellious sin,
- 20:57right? I'm the one that's running away
- 20:59from God. And I've been there and you've
- 21:00been there. And we got loved ones that are
- 21:01running from God. But whenever we come to our
- 21:04senses like the prodigal and we turn and we know we want to go
- 21:08to the House of the Father, we turn towards God and he runs
- 21:12toward us. He comes to us and embraces US.
- 21:17Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
- 21:20And as we're drawing near to God, the responsibility that we
- 21:23have, James says we're to cleanse our hands.
- 21:27He says cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your heart.
- 21:31You double minded. The double minded person is
- 21:34going this way and going this way and going this way and going
- 21:37this way and going this way and going this way and we don't know
- 21:40which way we're going. We get nowhere.
- 21:42God's calling us. We know our conscience is
- 21:44affected, but the sin in us, we love that sometimes more.
- 21:48And we're going this way and, and, and we're we're like
- 21:51spiritual schizophrenics where we have no rest, we have no
- 21:54peace because we have this constant tension of holiness in
- 21:59our own desire for what we think we want and what's best for us.
- 22:04James also tells us that we're confess our trespasses, our sins
- 22:09to one another, to pray for one another, that you may be healed.
- 22:15The sin causes spiritual sickness.
- 22:19It causes death. You know, sometimes we know what
- 22:24it's like to be obviously physically I'll.
- 22:27We get flu shots to protect ourselves from the flu.
- 22:30We get different inoculations. We take vitamins to protect
- 22:32ourselves from disease and illness.
- 22:34We try to eat properly so we have the proper nutrition so
- 22:38that we stay healthy. Not realizing, though, that
- 22:40that's all in vain if we're living a life of habitual sin.
- 22:43Because no matter how many inoculations you get and how
- 22:46many vaccinations you get, how many flu shots you get, how many
- 22:49vitamins you get intake, and how well you try to eat, eat and
- 22:52work out, the wages of sin is death.
- 22:55You're going to die. You can't stop that.
- 22:57You can't prevent it. You can't help yourself and you
- 23:00can't help anybody else from the process of physical death.
- 23:03The wages of sin is death. And so he calls the church, he
- 23:08calls Christians together and James that we get together and
- 23:12we pray for one another and confess our sins to one another
- 23:17that we might get the help that we need.
- 23:19There's nothing more tragic than a church that listens to a
- 23:21message and goes home and there's no confession, there's
- 23:24no repentance, there's no praying for one another.
- 23:27It's, it's, it's not even a church.
- 23:30It's an institution, it's a business.
- 23:32It's just, I don't know what you would call it.
- 23:34It's, it's nothing. It's dead.
- 23:36And if we go out without repentance, if we go out without
- 23:39confession, if we go out without praying for one another, we are
- 23:43walking out sick and we are walking out dead, James says.
- 23:49We are digging into the Book of Revelation here on Living Waters
- 23:52of Grace. Pastor Clark is tackling this
- 23:55challenging book as we try to discern the messages that are
- 23:59within its pages. There's so much imagery and at
- 24:03times you're not always sure what's literal and what's
- 24:06metaphorical. At one point there's a reference
- 24:09to an adulterous woman riding on a beast.
- 24:13And as someone else mentioned, at one point it almost sounds
- 24:16like a rodeo from hell. And in actuality it kind of is.
- 24:21You learn about the downfall and demise of a sinful and
- 24:25rebellious world, falling down in worship to someone who is the
- 24:29anti hero, the enemy, Satan working his insidious ways into
- 24:36the minds of fallen people. It's sad and it's heartbreaking,
- 24:40but it's a classic story of good versus evil.
- 24:45Thankfully, we know how this story ends.
- 24:48Jesus wins, Jesus reigns, and evil is conquered once and for
- 24:55all. We pray and trust you've
- 24:57received Jesus as your Savior. But if you haven't, don't wait
- 25:02until the events in Revelation become what's happening on the
- 25:06streets. None of us wants you to be there
- 25:09at that time. Instead, we'd love for you to be
- 25:12with us in heaven as we celebrate the marriage supper
- 25:17with Jesus as his bridegroom. To get a better understanding of
- 25:23where we are in the Book of Revelation, to listen to any
- 25:26messages before or after this one, you can find them at our
- 25:31website, calvarychapelonline.com.
- 25:35That's it for today's edition, but we hope you'll want to hear
- 25:38Pastor Clark teach more from the Book of Revelation.
- 25:42It can be exciting to think about the future for believers,
- 25:46but it can feel a bit harrowing for those who don't believe.
- 25:49Come hear more next time on Living Waters of Grace.