Line Upon Line

Isaiah pronounces a burden against the Valley of Vision (Jerusalem), prophesying judgment at the hands of the Assyrians because God's people, though religiously formal, had departed from Him in their hearts. The teaching shows how God removed His protective hedge, how Jerusalem trusted in their walls, weapons, and water instead of repenting, and how this serves as a warning to nations today, including our own.

Teaching through 1 Thessalonians 5:1, Pastor Miles argues that the "day of the Lord" coming as a thief in the night refers not to the rapture but to a day of judgment and wrath that falls upon the unwatchful world, while the church—appointed not to wrath but to salvation through Christ—is called to wait, watch, and work until His return.

Pastor Miles teaches Isaiah 21, the burden against Babylon (the "desert of the sea"), connecting its literal fulfillment in the 539/586 B.C. Medo-Persian conquest to the coming judgment on Babylon the Great in Revelation. He emphasizes that the day of the Lord comes suddenly upon those at false ease, and calls believers to be faithful, watchful witnesses who urge the world to flee for refuge in Christ.

Paul corrects the Thessalonians' grief over believers who had died, assuring them that the dead in Christ have not missed the Lord's return but will rise first and be caught up with the living to meet Christ in the air. The teaching surveys the doctrine of the rapture, the four major views of its timing, and calls believers to live watchful, working, and ready for Christ's imminent return.

Studying Isaiah 18-20, Pastor Miles examines God's refusal to let Judah make an unholy alliance with Ethiopia and Egypt against the coming Assyrian army, teaching that God's people must trust Him alone. He then traces the "indicators of God's judgment" upon Egypt and applies them as warnings to modern nations whose idols God shakes when He removes His hand of protection.

A verse-by-verse study of Isaiah 15–17, tracing God's burden of judgment upon Moab, Syria (Damascus), and the northern ten tribes of Ephraim. Pastor Miles examines Moab's origin, the reasons for their judgment (pride, idleness, idolatry), the completeness and speed of God's judgment, and the prophetic foreshadowing of the day of the Lord and the coming Messiah.

Pastor Miles teaches from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-10 that God's revealed will for every believer is sanctification—worked out as purification, consecration, and concretely as sexual purity. He argues that living in sexual immorality contradicts our calling and that God will judge such practice, while urging believers to please God and abound more and more in holiness.

Opening Isaiah's series of judgments against the nations, this teaching examines the burden of Babylon as both a literal judgment fulfilled by the Medo-Persians in 539 BC and a foreshadowing of the global day of the Lord and the judgment of Lucifer. It stresses that God is unchanging and just, judging His own people first before turning to the nations, while always providing refuge in Christ.

Paul, unable to bear his concern for the persecuted Thessalonian church, sent Timothy to establish and comfort them in their faith—teaching that God appoints believers not only to salvation but to suffering, which He uses as a refining fire to sanctify us until the coming of Christ.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20, Paul defends his character against the slander of the enemies of the gospel in Thessalonica, demonstrating that he ministered with pure motives, boldness, and self-sacrifice. Pastor Miles shows how the same enemy slanders Christian messengers today, and how believers, entrusted with the gospel, are called to validate it by living worthy of God's calling.