Refuge Audio Podcast

In the past, God spoke through the prophets many times and in various ways. He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah using vocal preaching. He spoke through the prophet Ezekiel using visual preaching. He spoke through the prophet Jonah using a human experience. He spoke through the prophet Hosea using a human relationship.

But in these last days, God has spoken to us! Our God—the same God that spoke to the prophet Jeremiah, to Ezekiel, to Jonah, to Hosea, and to many more—has chosen to speak to us, not through just a prophet, but through His Son Jesus.

This same Jesus wants to speak to you. This same Jesus wants to be with you. He not only wants to give you rest, He wants you to enter into that rest—that deep and abiding rest that settles your very soul. This Jesus wants to go on holiday—a holy day—with you.

David vs. Goliath. A fight for the ages. The heavy favorite: a blasphemous Philistine giant. The unlikely underdog: a faith-filled Israeli shepherd boy. But in this battle, weaponry had little to do with the outcome. There was something more behind the stone in the sling of that shepherd boy that day. “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel…” (1 Samuel 17:45).

The secret to David’s victory is no secret. It wasn’t in the stones he picked or the sling he swung. David fought in faith. He faced Goliath in faith. He didn’t measure the giant by himself or his ability. David was able to stand strong and fight in faith because He measured Goliath by God.

This kind faith is far too underutilized. And so, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the author of Hebrews picked up his quill to encourage believers to stand, and to walk, and to fight in faith.

So many times, we fight in our own strength and measure our Goliaths against our ability. But faith looks at our Goliaths and measures them against God. It gives us the grit and determination to run forward to fight, knowing and proclaiming that the battle belongs to the Lord.

So how do you increase in faith so you can fight by faith? It’s what we considered as we began our study of the book of Hebrews and learned to lift our eyes off of the obstacles before us and look to the Lord.

In our previous study, we talked about the new heaven and the new earth. We imagined what our resurrected bodies would be like as we walked through gates made of single pearls and walked on streets made of pure gold.


As awesome as all of that will be, what will we be doing for all of eternity? This Sunday, we continued the description that the Bible provides of what our resurrected lives will look like.

There’s a lie that’s been circulating for quite some time. It’s a lie that hinders the gospel and makes God appear unjust. It’s a lie that seems innocent and many believe, but when held against the truth of God’s word, it quickly unravels.

This lie says that humankind is basically good.

But in His word, God makes it clear: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

We all like to think that if we were Adam or Eve, we would make the right decision. But we have enough proof in our past that we really wouldn’t. And so, something has to be done with our sin, for God is a righteous judge. One day we will all stand alone before Him and give an account for every sinful thought, word, and deed—without any excuses.

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

–Matthew 6:10

These were some of the things Jesus told His disciples to pray for when they asked Him how to pray. We experience a portion of that prayer on a daily basis, but there will come a day when that promise is fully realized. The kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, and deliverance from evil.

As we continued our study of Revelation this past Sunday, we see that God will one day answer this prayer. In Revelation 20, we read about the future reign of Christ on earth and the imprisonment of the devil during the same time.

Our study of prophecy should always lead to a deeper walk with Jesus and help us grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus—for prophecy is all about Him! Since the goal of prophecy is to worship God, we must beware of turning prophecy into a search for special knowledge that no one else has or to find a demon behind every bush. If anything else becomes the focus of our study of prophecy, something’s wrong.

So as we continue our study this book of prophecy, our understanding of Jesus deepens as we receive the full counsel of God’s word concerning Christ’s character. Remember—Jesus is not only the Suffering Servant; He will return as the Avenger of Blood. His first coming was the Lamb slain; His second coming will be the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Think of the few times in the Gospels when Jesus was truly angry. You know, those times when He flipped over tables and swung a whip around.

Jesus never got angry in response to a personal insult. No, His righteous anger was aroused when He saw corrupt religious leadership profiting from religious roadblocks that prevented people from worshipping God. Roadblocks that were never commanded by God, but enforced by the religious rulers to extort loyalty and money from people who just wanted to worship.

And Jesus hated this! He got angry—angry enough to call out the religious leadership of the day (see Matthew 23:15 and Luke 11:46). Angry enough to do something about it (see Mark 11:15-17).

It still angers Jesus when religious corruption takes advantage of people and keeps them from worshipping God. And, as we read in Revelation 18, it will continue to anger Jesus in the future. He will someday flip over more than tables—He’ll flip over Mystery Babylon and put an end to this wicked religious system once and for all.

We often think of the compassionate kindness, gracious gentleness, and everlasting love of God as our Heavenly Father. But like any good Father, He gets extremely upset when His kids or those He loves are harmed or harassed.

Just consider what you might do if someone attempted to harm the people you love. Or how you’d respond if someone was deliberately deceiving your loved ones—tricking them in to believing you didn’t love them, or making them think they were in right relationship with you when they really weren’t.

Because of your great love for them, you would feel strong feelings and take righteous action against those bent on destruction and deception. Just like our Heavenly Father. In these (hopefully) hypothetical scenarios, we identify just a bit with what God experiences.

People can be stubborn. Perhaps you have noticed. Sometimes stubborn people need incentive to turn away from their sin, to repent, and to turn towards the Lord. And sometimes, the Lord (in His grace and His mercy) gives people this incentive.

One day, God will give humanity all the incentive we could ever ask for. He will pull out all the stops and pour out all of His wrath for the purpose of producing repentance so that humanity might receive the greatest gift of all: eternal salvation.

This time is described in great detail in Revelation 16. It is the final opportunity God gives people to repent from sin and to receive salvation. And we shouldn’t be surprised to read how intense this time will be when it happens. God, in His great mercy, endeavors to produce repentance because He loves those who will be left at the end of the tribulation. He doesn’t want any of them to perish, but all of them to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

“Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.”

– Revelation 15:1

In the Scriptures, we often see an overview of an event followed by a supplemental account to fill in specific details. As we start in Revelation 15, we take a step back to better understand what was just written in Revelation 14—which ended with a high overview of the Battle of Armageddon.

So far in the book of Revelation, we’ve seen the destruction that will occur with the Trumpet Judgments. We’ve witnessed the devastation of the Seal Judgements. And now, we will preview the deadly Bowl Judgements—seven plagues poured out on the earth.