The sufficiency of scripture is an absolutely essential doctrine for the health of the church and the believer. There is a direct correlation between the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture and the Christian's spiritual well-being. When Scripture is no longer viewed as sufficient then spiritual decline is bound to follow.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Bill Einwechter with the message, Scripture is sufficient for times of spiritual decline. Of spiritual decline. We are gathered here in Cincinnati to study, to affirm, and to apply the historic doctrine of the church concerning the absolute sufficiency of scripture in all aspects of faith and practice. The doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture is foundational to the life of the church. Without it the church departs from using scripture as its norm and seeks light for its witness and ministry in the prevailing traditions philosophies and practices of the surrounding culture turning to these other standards then scripture compromises the church's witness and drains the power out of her so that she ceases to be a light to the world and the salt of the earth.

And eventually if this decline is not reversed, she becomes good for nothing and is only fit to be cast out and trodden under foot by men. We live in a day when the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture has fallen on hard times in the church. And we speak not only of those who claim to be Christians, who claim to be the church, but have departed from the fundamentals of the faith. We are also speaking of those individuals in churches that claim to be evangelicals and say that they believe that the Bible is the Word of God. The results of this apostasy regarding the authority and sufficiency of Scripture are proving to be catastrophic in the church, in the Christian family, and in American society.

I hope this conference has enlightened you in your understanding of the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, but more than just enlightened you, But it has fired you with a desire to live out the implications of this doctrine in your churches, families, and your personal lives. And I would like now to add to the biblical witness of the doctrine of sufficiency of Scripture by considering one of the premier texts in the Old Testament on this subject. Isaiah chapter 8 verses 19 and 20. And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep and mutter, should not a people seek under their God for the living, to the dead, to the law and to the testimony? If they speak not according to this word, It is because there is no light in them.

But I don't want to just consider this text in isolation. Divorce it from its immediate context. Because these verses are part of a larger passage, chapter 8 verses 11 to 22, that speak with tremendous relevance and power to our situation today. And it adds to the significance of the emphatic declaration that the law and the testimony of God is the only infallible and the only all-sufficient source of light in the world. I'd like to read the full text for you now.

Isaiah chapter 8 verses 11 through 20. For the Lord spake thus to me, says Isaiah the prophet, with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy? Neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be for a sanctuary. But for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken.

Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples and I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion and when they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar spirits and under the wizards that peep and that mutter. Should not a people seek under their God for the living to the dead, to the law and the testimony? They speak not according to this word. It's because there is no light in them. Now considering this passage, we need to begin by looking at the biblical and historical context of it.

Isaiah lived and ministered in a very difficult time in Israel's history. The hearts of the people of Judah had turned from God and they were not interested in the word of the Lord nor in obedience to his law. Oh yes, they still retain the outward forms of prescribed worship, but their worship and service was nothing more than empty formalism. Personally, they pursued lives of self-indulgence. Socially, the condition of Judah was one of moral chaos.

Politically, they were led by inept and corrupt leaders who were more interested in political intrigue than obedience to the Word of God. And they had more faith in foreign political alliances than they did in Jehovah Yahweh. Judah, which constituted the visible church in that day, was given over to all forms of sin and the ethicists and the moral pundits of the day called evil good and good evil. Judah's apostasy from God was summed up in the words of Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 24, quote, they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel, end quote. It was at such a time as this, to a people such as this that Isaiah was called of God to teach and declare the word of God.

And the people rejected his ministry. But not everyone. The rejection of his ministry was not total. In this time of spiritual darkness, God had preserved for himself a remnant. And this remnant believed the word preached by Isaiah.

This remnant is specifically referred to in our text in verse 16. When God calls this remnant in the midst of this apostasy, my disciples, I still have them and Isaiah you minister to them. The remnant. This concept of a remnant of true believers in the midst of unbelief and apostasy is found throughout the Old Testament. 1 Kings chapter 19 in verse 18.

In the dark days of Ahab, Jezebel, The Lord said to his prophet, yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed and to bale, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. God had reserved for himself in his sovereignty, in his Providence, and in his will, a remnant in the midst of this horrible apostasy. Romans 11 2 through 5 speaking of this and dealing with the subject of the remnant, Paul says, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. What ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? How he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars and I am left alone and they seek my life.

But what sayeth the answer of God to him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men which have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. The presence and importance of a remnant of men and women who have remained faithful to God and his covenant in the midst of rebellious Judah is one of the themes of the book of Isaiah. The believing and faithful remnant is of great importance in the plan of God.

The remnant when it is Given the task of carrying on the faith in the time of apostasy should not bemoan their situation, but should feel a great sense of responsibility before God that he has reserved him or her to himself to be the bridge between apostasy and revival. The remnant provides the foundation for the future and the rebuilding of the foundations. G. Hinton Davies In his article on Remnant in the Theological Word Book of the Bible says this, the remnant survives not only that its members may live, but that through them and indeed in them, the life of the people to whom they belong may go on. In that sense, the remnant is a depository of that life.

Les Lefres, in his article on the remnant, in a companion to the Bible, says that the remnant is closely bound to the people of the past and to the people of the future. Now quoting him, he says, it forms in some sort a bridge between two moments in history of the people of God. The moment of promise and foundation and that of fulfillment. The remnant exists for the sake of the community that is to come." The life and the faith of the church that is transmitted to the remnant in the providence of God is the seed of the future. Lelafrey goes on and he says, in addition to this conception of the remnant as of the rallying point for the future, other texts emphasize a very important function which the remnant is called on to fulfill.

It is the instrument of the grace of God toward others, the narrow channel through which God will mediate his grace." End quote. It is to this believing remnant that our text is addressed today. The text gives specific instructions to Isaiah on how he and the remnant should live in the midst of apostasy. That they might be the bridge from the past and the faith of the fathers to the future and the revival and the reformation and the work that will come because God is sovereign and history is not determined by apostates. History is determined by the sovereign living all powerful God.

And the remnant is at the center of his plan. He allows apostasy for his purposes. And to be part of the remnant in Judah was was not a burden to be complained about, but a mission to be seized. You know the circumstances that we face as the servants of God today called to minister his word, beginning of the 21st century are quite similar to the circumstances that faced Isaiah. Nations that were once predominantly Christian in their worldview and ethics, such as these United States, are now like under the nation of Jude in the 7th century BC.

But even more importantly, or should I say sadly, The visible church of Christ, like the church in Isaiah's day, is riddled with apostasy, false doctrine, worldliness, moral confusion. Instead of being a light in a dark place, the church is contributing to that darkness through its rejection of sound doctrine and biblical law and through its embrace of the norms of a man-centered culture and a man-centered theology. Worship in our churches is more geared toward entertainment and an emotional religious experience. Preaching, if we can call it that, caters to the perceived needs of the audience and offers little more than self-help strategies for attaining personal peace and success. When God is mentioned, he's presented more as a being whose main purpose is to build up the ego of men and affirm their lifestyles.

Evangelism, again if you can call it that, is defined in terms of seeker sensitive services and outreaches that take sin and repentance out of the message of the gospel. And seeks to make men comfortable with the church and with God. Christian ethics, which we mean by that is the biblical standards for right and wrong, are defined by the world rather than the word. The cultural norms around us are setting the standard for Christian living. Now given the many similarities between Isaiah's day and our own, Isaiah 8 11 to 20 and the instructions that it contains speaks with power and great relevance to those who would seek to serve God in this day of spiritual, doctrinal, and ethical decline.

In a certain sense, the doctrine of the remnant can be applied to those today in the church who though in a minority seek to live by the doctrines of the absolute authority and sufficiency of Scripture. To those who would live godly in Christ Jesus and desire to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Granted the parallels between the situation of Isaiah's day and ours are not complete. And the circumstances of the New Testament church and that of the Old Testament church are different in some significant ways. Yet in spite of this, I believe that the theology that informs the text, the theology and the instructions for the remnant in Isaiah's day can be transferred to our circumstance today.

They speak to the remnant in any generation on how to live and serve God in the midst of their calling so that they might be the bridge to the future. You know, I believe that I'm speaking to part of the remnant today And I urge you to lay these instructions to your heart. Time would preclude an in-depth exposition of the passage. We won't be able to even comment on all parts of the text. We're going to have to survey this in some respect.

The immediate context, I mean the verses leading right up to verse 11 in chapter 8. What we saw in chapter 7 and the events that were taking place, the actual immediate context of Isaiah 8 through 11 through 20 is the Syro-Ephraimite war in the days of Ahaz, king of Judah. Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel had rebelled against Assyria. So we're in the middle of international politics here. They'd rebelled against Assyria and wanted Judah to join in their confederacy against Assyria.

But Judah refused. And so Syria and Israel went to war to force Judah into their alliance. In this political crisis, Isaiah was sent from God with a message to Ahaz, chapter 7. Trust the Lord and ask any sign in heaven or earth and God will give it to you. And Ahaz said he wouldn't tempt the Lord.

And so Isaiah said, well the Lord God himself will give you a sign, a virgin shall conceive. And you know that text, that's pretty familiar to us. But this is the context of our chapter here. Ahaz was called upon not to fear this threat, but to have faith in Yahweh who had promised to deliver Judah. But Ahaz would not listen and he and the leaders of Judah decided to put their trust in Assyria.

And so they brought themselves into an alliance with Syria, really under their domination, in exchange for their protection against Israel and Syria. It was this definitive rejection of the word of the Lord by the leadership of the nation coupled with the great general sin and spiritual apostasy of Judah that forms the immediate context of God's instructions to Isaiah. And I've called this the instructions for the remnant. And there are five in number. They provide us with a definitive word from God on how to live and minister in the troubled times and conditions of today.

Number one, do not walk in the ways of those about you. Do not conform your life to the culture, its standards, its norms, its ways of thinking and living. Number two, do not fear anything or anyone but God. Do not fear anything or anyone but God. Number three, bind and seal the word of God in the hearts of God's true disciples.

Bind, seal the word of the living God in the hearts of God's true disciples. Number three, Wait on the Lord and fulfill your calling. And number five, hold to the word of God as the absolute standard of truth, doctrine, and ethics. Note with me in the text here how these instructions are introduced by Isaiah. He says, for the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me.

These are unusual words and they speak of a particular power by which the message in these verses was delivered to his prophet, to God's prophet Isaiah. The Lord did not simply lay his hand upon Isaiah's shoulder. See Isaiah got a few things to tell you. Rather the image that's given here by Isaiah is he took his prophet with a strong hand and grabbed him, as it were, looked him in the eye, and he said, pay very close attention to what I have to say to you. Your ministry and your effectiveness in this critical point in history depends on it.

God took hold of him with a strong hand. I believe that our service to God and the effectiveness of our work is equally dependent, brothers and sisters, on our close attention and adherence to the instructions for life and ministry in this text. I pray that God will lay a strong hand on you right now. He'll turn you around and face you and say, listen to this, my word, your effectiveness as my servant, your role as part of the remnant is dependent upon it. Hebrew word here for instruct in verse 11 means to teach, but it also carries with it, because it's not the common word for teach, it carries with it the idea of admonition and warning.

The fact that this particular word is used may indicate that in the midst of the opposition and hardship of his ministry, Isaiah's resolve and courage were weakening. He was a man like you and I. The opposition that Ahaz had expressed toward the policies that he had advocated in the name of the Lord. Also his condemnation of Judah's sin and their breach of covenant with God made him the object of ridicule and scorn in Judah. He was only a man like us.

The pressure would have been on Isaiah like any of us. Maybe we should just soften the message a little bit. Maybe we ought to conform our life and our ways of thinking and acting to the culture around us. Just take a little bit of the heat off, a little bit of the pressure off. And so to deliver Isaiah from any thoughts of compromise, of any thoughts in that regard, and to refocus his prophet, God lays a strong hand on him and warns him and admonishes him and instructs him.

We very much need this kind of admonishment. The biblical message committed to us runs counter to the culture in which we live. The exclusive claims of Jesus Christ in regard to truth and salvation are rejected and ridiculed and condemned in our pluralistic and polytheistic society. The ethics of the Word of God are hated by sinful men. And we are called those who are hate mongers who would dare to speak it.

The courage and the resolve of the Christian man and woman to stand for God's truth in times such as these will be sorely tested. That's why we need these instructions. That's why we need these admonitions from the word of the living God. And the first instruction In verse 11 is this, summarized, do not walk in the ways of those around you. Do not conform to your world.

Do not conform your conduct to those people. This is a definitive call to Isaiah to godly separation from the prevailing thought and conduct of the people of Judah. At whatever point their thought and conduct apart from God's truth and from God's law, Isaiah must separate. Remember the people of Isaiah's day had largely turned their backs on God. They were described in this way by the Lord in Isaiah 1 4.

Ah, sinful nation. A people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children of corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. They are gone away backward.

No wonder God says to his prophet, don't walk in their ways. This call to separation from the sinful thoughts and practices of the world and to walk in holy obedience to the word of God confronts the servants of God in every age, but more so in times of apostasy and moral chaos. The pressure, the pressure from the world and from worldly Christians on the remnant is always to conform, always. Conform to the prevailing philosophies and lifestyles that we have accepted. They tell us, compromise, though they would never use the word.

But God's warning is this to us. Don't do this. Don't do so. If you do, the very power and witness of your ministry will be lost. If we are to be the effective servants of God, we must separate from the world.

Come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and then I will receive you. Now this separation is not a monastic separation. It is an epistemological and moral separation from the world. We are to be in the world. We're to be ministering.

We're to be seeking to bring men and women to Jesus Christ. We are to be seeking to transform everything our hand finds to do according to the principles of Jesus Christ. We are to be in the world, active ministering, but we are not to be conformed to the world. This is the separation I speak of. We must live distinctly and separately.

And the remnant must pay very close attention to that because if the remnant doesn't soon they will be swallowed up and will cease to be the remnant. And that can happen to individual members in the remnant. God will always keep his remnant, but there's no guarantee you will be, if you're in it, that you'll remain in it. And this is why he took him with a strong hand. Number two, do not fear anything or anyone but God.

Verse 12, sanctify the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear, let him be your dread, says the word of God to Isaiah. Now at the time that these instructions were given to Isaiah, the people and the politicians of Judah were in the grip of fear, the fear of men. That's why I told you about the immediate context. They were fearing the Syrian and the Ephraimite alliance and the purpose of that alliance which was to subject or subjugate Judah to its will by military force. They were afraid.

They were fearing the consequences of that alliance. It was in the midst of this political crisis that Isaiah had challenged Ahaz the king not to fear and he warned him don't turn to Assyria for help. He said instead to Ahaz fear God. Don't fear men. Turn to him alone for help.

But that call was rejected. And not only was it rejected, apparently from our passage here Isaiah was accused of treason for opposing Ahaz's plan to seek Assyrian assistance. So here's the Prophet declaring the word of God and he's standing against this political alliance and he's being called a traitor. What they do to traitors? And he says, don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid. And don't fear their fear. Don't fear the Syrians. Don't fear the Ephraimites. Isaiah, remember, fear only me.

Do not fear men. Do not get caught up in their fears. Instead of that, The word of God says here, sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, verse 13, and let him be your fear and let him be your dread. To sanctify the Lord is to recognize his absolute holiness, transcendent sovereignty and power. In a sense, God is saying to his prophet, Isaiah, go back in your mind to your prophetic call, which was recorded in Isaiah chapter six.

When you saw the Lord high and lifted up with his train filling the temple, with the seraphims flying about him crying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Remember Isaiah how the posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried and how the temple was filled with smoke of his Shekinah glory. This is the one you must fear, don't fear Syria and Ephraim. These mere ants, dust on the balance.

Fear God. Fear me and fear me alone. Commenting on this text from Isaiah 8 through 12, Brevard Child says this, that is sanctify the Lord of hosts, let him be your fear. He says, quote, in a word, the true issue at stake is again between two visions of reality. Does the future lie in the throes of power politics and human machination?

Or does the future lie with God, The Holy One of Israel, who is the real power to be reckoned with." End of quote. Every servant of God must come to terms with the antithesis between the fear of God and the fear of man. He must ask himself, she must ask herself, will I fear God or man and must come to a definitive position on that. There's no neutrality on this question. Let us remember too that the one that we fear is the one we will seek ultimately to please.

Paul said, do I seek to please men? For if I get pleased men, I should not or could not be the servant of Christ. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is also the beginning of faithful, effective, God honoring work in an age of apostasy. There's going to be a lot of things to fear out there.

A lot of enemies, a lot of rejection, a lot of ridicule, persecution. We're made of flesh. We shun such things. That's why God has to take us with a strong hand. He says, don't fear them.

There are two visions of reality. My child have the right one. Fear not him who can kill the body, but fear him who can not only kill the body, but the soul also in hell. Number three, bind and seal the word of God in the hearts of the Lord's true disciples. The third aspect of this instruction, what should the remnant be doing?

This speaks in a special way here to pastors and elders and teachers Because it's spoken to Isaiah the prophet. But however, it also speaks with power to fathers and to mothers. In their ministry, training up for the Lord true disciples and their children. But notice what it says here, bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples. So here's the development.

After he admonishes Isaiah not to walk in the ways of the people around him. Don't be conformed to the age, spirit of the age in the world. Do not fear men, fear God only. After those admonition, he now commands Isaiah to fulfill the role of a teacher among the believing remnant in Judah. As a prophet, Isaiah preached a word of judgment to the apostates as God's prophet.

He also had a special ministry of instruction and teaching and discipleship among the remnant. That's what he's talking about here. To the believers, to my disciples. Here's what you're to be doing. Because that group of disciples is the bridge from the past to the future.

And that bridge must not be broken. When the text says here, bind up the testimony to see the law among my disciples. Remember the my there is not Isaiah that's talking. The Lord is talking. They're not, these are not Isaiah's disciples.

They're the Lord's disciples. Let's always remember that, men who teach. None of the people who sit under your ministry are your disciples. If anyone had a claim to their audience to be their disciples, they would be a great man like Isaiah. But the Lord reminds them, they're my disciples.

Therefore you give them my word, not your own. Let's also consider the word testimony and law in our text. The word testimony refers to God's verbal testimony to the truth. When it speaks in this kind of a context, when God speaks of his testimony, it is his verbal word. It is his testimony to the truth to men, his witness in his revealed God-breathed word.

The word law is the Hebrew term for Torah, which means teaching, instruction, and direction for living. Hence these two words testimony and law refer to God's law word. His special revelation given to men through his holy living infallible word. That's what you're to bind and to seal in the hearts of my disciples. The words bind and seal refer, would refer I should say if they were used in a literal sense about the means of preserving important writings in the ancient world.

To protect a written text and to ensure that it was the original document, the writing would actually be bound up in some fashion and then sealed with the author or the owner's own seal, either in wax or in clay. And this would preserve that original author's words, that original document against any tampering or destruction. Now apply that concept to this passage and what God is saying to Isaiah. He's commanded to bind and seal the word of God in the midst or in the hearts of the Lord's true disciples. This is not a literal, obviously.

It's a figurative binding and sealing of the Word of God into the hearts of God's disciples by teaching those words. As J.A. Alexander explains it, the act described is not that of literal binding and sealing a material record, but that of spiritually closing and depositing the revelation of God's will in the hearts of those who are able and willing to receive it." The great need of the hour in the church of Jesus Christ is for pastors and teachers who will labor to bind and seal the law and the testimony. God's own verbal revelation into the hearts and minds of his true people. Don't preach in your churches to please the crowd.

Preach to the remnant. Preach to the disciples. Give them the word of God and bind and seal it in their heart. That's what you're called to do. You're not called to entertain.

You're not called to tickle the ears. You're not called to tell jokes. You're not called to spend half your sermon telling stories and illustrations. You are to bind the words of the living God into the hearts of people. You can't do that unless you have also had it bound into your heart and sealed into your mind first by a diligent, laborious wrestling with the text on your knees before God praying at your desk with all the resources you can bring of Godly teachers from the past and you labor in that word and you go into the pulpit with this and this alone in your mind.

God help me to bind and seal your word today into the hearts of your people. And that's the gathering the church gathers not for evangelism. It doesn't mean a timely word of the gospel should not be spoken within each proclamation of the word because Christ is the center of our preaching and we always have people who need to hear that gospel. But that's not the purpose of the meeting of the church. The purpose of the meeting of the church on the Lord's day, for example, is to bind and seal the word into the hearts of God's people.

So that then they go out into the world and live Christ as a witness and testimony in a dark world. And as God opens doors, they give the gospel to people. Problem today is our pulpits are filled with compromised men who are afraid to speak the truth, lest they offend someone. They might lose their position. They might lose members.

We need teachers of courage and conviction who will bind and seal the word of the living God in the hearts of the men and women of the true disciples of Jesus Christ. Number four Wait on the Lord and fulfill your calling. Notice the text verse 17. Isaiah speaking now, I will wait upon the Lord that hides his face from Jacob and I will look for him. What Isaiah is saying here after he received that admonition, after he received those instructions to bind and seal the word of God in the hearts of his people when he's been refocused again to his mission as a prophet and a mission as a teacher to the remnant.

He says, I will wait upon the Lord as I labor to fulfill these commands that God has given to me. You know, the word wait is one of the key words of faith in the Old Testament. It comes from a term that means to tie something fast, to bind something or to stretch it. I think it's the latter sense that's referring to here. And waiting on the Lord refers in a figurative way to the tension of enduring or waiting for something.

You get stretched. There's a tension there As you long or wait for something and it's not being fulfilled. In this context, the word wait means to endure the tension of waiting in the expectation of faith in the belief that God will fulfill his word and his covenant promises will be realized in time. Now Isaiah seeing things go south in the community of the believers. Apostasy, rebellion, rejection, drunkenness, immorality, idolatry.

What's happening to the kingdom of God and the promises of the prophets. I will wait. I will endure the tension that this brings to my faith in belief that God will ultimately triumph. That's what it means to wait on the Lord. We're constantly faced with those tensions in our faith, aren't we?

Where we see the promise here, but the circumstances don't line up and they haven't lined up for 10 years. Can you wait on the Lord? Will your circumstances sink you? Or will you endure the tension of faith because you believe in the Word of God? Isaiah says, I am going to endure that tension that comes to faith in times of apostasy, decline and apparent Maybe even hopelessness.

Because look what he says. God has hid his face from Jacob. And yet in this time I will wait upon the Lord and I will look for him. He's now moving beyond the tension of enduring to looking to the future. And he knows God will fulfill his word.

And I'm sure he's probably come the terms that will never be in his lifetime. Isaiah ended his life no doubt martyred by the most wicked king of Judah, Manasseh. We have the remnant must be future oriented. And it might be generations till we recover. It might be a year.

It might be 10 years. That's not in our purview. The remnant must be ready to wait on the Lord and believe his promises in spite of all that they see going on around them. The way to faith is when the believer perseveres in the interim between promise and fulfillment. And he perseveres because he believes that God will perform his word.

Isaiah did not despair Because his faith was in a God who cannot lie, who is faithful to his covenant, and had revealed to him the outcome of history would be the triumph of the servant of the Lord and the knowledge of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. So what? Isaiah says, if I don't see that, it's all I need to know is to know it and to wait on the Lord in my time in history that I'm called to minister and fulfill my calling. To fulfill his calling. What was his calling?

We just saw what it was. To bind up the testimony. He knew that this remnant committed to him played a crucial role in preserving the truth and preparing a way for the resurgence of the faith that will come. He did not need to see the revival in his day. He was content to be faithful to his calling and to be that bridge of the faith from the past to the future.

But you notice here in this text in verse 18 there's another aspect of his calling. Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are suffer signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion." That is an interesting phrase. The children that are being referred to here seem to be a different reference than God's disciples. And here's why I think that the children that he's talking here actually are talking about his biological children. Perhaps they refer to the disciples, but that is not what I see.

We know from the text of Isaiah that he was a married man, and he had two sons at least, which are identified in the text. And what we see with Isaiah is that he and his family had a unique and distinct calling to witness for the truth of the God's word in Judah. And one of the ways in which the Lord did that was the names he gave them. See their names are for signs and wonders. Isaiah's name himself was assigned to Israel.

It means Yahweh is salvation. He is the source of salvation. He is the means of salvation. So every time someone spoke his name, oh Isaiah, they're saying God and the Lord is salvation. But the sons also, the two sons name received names.

Sha'ar Yahshuah mentioned in chapter 7 in verse 3. Sha'ar Yahshuah means a remnant shall return. The very name of one of his sons was about the remnant that would return after the devastation of the Babylonian captivity when the people of God were were were thrust out of the land by God. But a remnant will return. Part of that remnant, for example, men like Ezra, believers, who would lay the foundations again for the kingdom of God.

And so the very name She'er Yeshavu, Men of remnants shall return. Now the next one's a real long name. Isaiah 8 verse 1 and verse 3. Maher shalah hash-baaz. It's actually four words in the Hebrew.

It means something like this, haste, spoil, speed, booty. Quite a name. It senses probably this, hasting to the spoil and speeding to the booty. Now what does that mean, these names? He says they're for signs and wonders.

In other words, they're pledges and tokens of God's presence with Judah and his plan for his people. Their very names were a witness. Three central themes of Isaiah's prophecy are represented by these names. As I said, the word Isaiah itself speaks of God's saving power. That power will be exercised in the return from exile, but a much greater way through the servant of the Lord in the very salvation of the souls of men.

Sh'er Yashuv speaks of God's preservation of a remnant of faithful believers in Judah who will be the instruments through whom he works to restore the faith in Israel and advance the kingdom of God and Maher shalom hashbaz Speaks of the judgment of God upon apostate Judah to the instruments of Assyria and then later on Babylon in other words God is inviting Assyria to come in and lay waste to Judah. Haste Assyria to the spoil. Speed to the booty. They're yours. They're a corrupt people.

So it speaks of judgment. And so Isaiah's family would be a sign and a wonder in their very names. But they would also be a sign and a wonder through living out the implications of those names by lies of obedience to the word of God. And so Isaiah here is told not to lose heart but to give himself an obedience to God and I think the emphasis here is not so much his role as a prophet but his role as a father. His family had been called to a unique witness in Judah.

I think we have an important application here for the remnant today. Men must discern their calling from God and fulfill it. That calling has various dimensions, But a central part of that calling is fatherhood. Women must also accept their role from God to be a helper fit for their husbands and to mothers and to be mothers who keep the home. I happen to believe it's not too hard for a woman to understand her calling.

She has it easier than men. God's already made the way plain. Keep her at home. Bear and nurture and raise children. The remnant needs to understand that.

Husbands and wives need to work together. Their goal should be to raise up sons and daughters who are faithful believers, who love God and keep His covenant. In an age of apostasy, I want to tell you a godly marriage and a godly home is truly a sign and a wonder. It's a sign and a wonder of the presence of God with his people and the pledge of the future. You see the future is with the remnant and the future of the remnant is their children.

Some of them certainly will be spiritual children, converts. But many of them, perhaps only God knows the majority of them, will be the very children God has given to you. He has placed within your womb. You've brought into the world and you're there and you're going to bind and seal the word of God into their hearts and you're going to be a sign and wonder in Israel in your home. So the home is an important place in the remnants calling.

We need to hear these words. We must follow the example of the father of all who believe, Abraham. Think Abraham knows anything about being in the remnant? In one way you might say he was pretty much it, as far as we know, his family. But listen to what it says in Genesis 18, 18 to 19, what God says about Abraham.

Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and we as the people of God spiritually speaking will become a great and mighty nation in the world. Not a literal nation, a spiritual nation, a holy people, but a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him, which as we know from the New Testament is a clear promise and reference to the gospel and to the church taking that gospel world. Now seeing that this is what Abraham's calling is, he goes on to say, for I know him, I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. I know Abraham and he'll do his duty. He'll command his children and his household after him.

And that family will keep the law of the Lord. And I will bring upon him all that I've promised. God tells us is a New Testament manifestation of the people of God. That we need to walk in the light of the Lord's plan for history, revealed in his word. And I want to read to you that plan for history.

One of the most important passages in all of the Word of God that describes what the Lord intends to do. These are the words of God. And it shall come to pass in the last days. Pause. Look at your New Testament and Read when the last days began.

Pentecost. The coming of Christ. Hebrews 1 Acts 2. It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house, his kingdom, shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach of us his ways.

We will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he, God the king, shall judge among the nations. He shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. And then the text says this, O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. What light?

The light of that prophecy. Number five, In conclusion, in terms of the instruction to the remnant, hold to the Word of God as the absolute standard of truth, doctrine, and ethics. The text says, to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it's because there's no light in them. We define, because verse 16 defined what the law and testimony is referring to.

It's the word of God, the word of God. As God's testimony to the truth and his law revealing his standards and his will. In this passage, The law and the testimony, the word of God is set forth as the only, the only, the only infallible source of truth. Now this exhortation to Isaiah and to the remnant to reject all of the sources of knowledge that the culture is pursuing and stand alone on the law and the testimony was necessary because of the circumstances in which they lived. The text is, and when they shall say unto you, they're coming after you.

They don't like the way you live and think. They're going to come after you and say, come with us to seek familiar spirits. There's where the action is. There's where the knowledge is. There's where the future is revealed.

Come on with us to the wizards that peep, mutter, mutter as they give across their glorious revelations. But the response is, wait a minute, shouldn't the people seek their God? Not the dead? Should the Living go to the dead? Shouldn't the living and the people of God go to God?

You see, in the midst of the day in which Isaiah lived, and there's other texts that speak of this, in the book of Isaiah and in the historical reference to those times in the Kings, the apostate Judeans were turning to the occult, to necromancy, to divination, to know the future. They were afraid of the political structure of the day and so they were, wanted answers. They wanted to know the solution, so they went to the occult. You know, it is axiomatic that a church or a culture in rebellion to God will not look to the scriptures as their standard of truth. They will deliberately set up other standards, other means for knowing the truth.

And in these kind of days and circumstances, great pressure will be put on the people of God to join them, to accommodate their epistemology. You've heard that word a lot. That means your theory of knowledge, how you know that what you know is right. It's the justification of knowledge within your mind. That's your epistemology.

How do you justify your claim to know what is true? How do you justify your claim to know what is morally right? Your epistemology tells you that. If it's cultural trends, your epistemology is based on that. That's your standard.

If it's the occult, Whatever. The people of the world are constantly trying to shape us into their mold, Paul says, and they want to change our epistemology. How do we know that what we claim to know is true. How do you justify it? Biblical epistemology is that God created all things, everything.

Everything in the physical world, everything in history is the creation of his providence. Everything was created by God. That means every fact that exists in science, history, or whatever discipline you bring to me, every fact exists because of God. He's the creator. And as the creator of those facts, he's the only one that can interpret them properly.

Where does he interpret them for us? In the Word of God, the revealed scriptures. Sometimes our work with interpreting the Word of God and applying and interpreting the fact that we see in front of us can be difficult. Sometimes it's pretty plain, other times it's more difficult. But the Bible contains all we need to know in precept or principle to justify our claim to knowledge in every area of life.

How do you know something's just because the law of God commends it? That's a Christian epistemology and ethics. In this situation, they were saying, join us. Come with us. We have the insight on the truth.

In our day, we don't have too many people promoting the occult to us, but some are, but it's not the prevailing thing anyway. What's coming to us is people promoting false religions, advocating autonomous science, philosophy, popular opinion, custom, political correctness, natural law, whatever. They come to us promoting epistemology of empiricism, which means we learn by experience. Rationalism, which means we know something by pure reason. Irrationalism, we really can't know anything.

Idealism, positivism, skepticism, naturalism, ismismism. But we reject it all because God says go to the law and to the testimony. And if someone comes to you and is not speaking according to that word, there is no light in them. They're in the darkness. Epistemology, they know nothing.

The justification for all knowledge is based upon the law and the testimony. And if someone comes to you and says so and so and so, you say, well show that to me in the law or the testimony. That's what the remnant has to think like. I don't care if it's a preacher preaching it, the most popular Christian author, radio talk show, Christian, whatever, whoever they are, you must always be asking this question, is this coming from the law and the testimony, which is in this context refers to the entire revealed will of God and Word of God. People are calling us to another standard.

Don't you understand that? Another standard is being lifted. Many standards are being lifted. But we are called in this text to rest in one. To rest in one.

Calvin's comments on Isaiah 8-20 are outstanding and I want to read them to you as we come to a conclusion here. Calvin says this on this verse, in short we ought to take the word testimony as describing equality in order to inform us what advantage we may derive from the law, namely that God reveals himself to us in the law and declares what is that relation to us which he chooses to hold and lays down what he demands from us and in short everything necessary to be known. Continue with Calvin. It is therefore a very high commendation of the law, that it contains the doctrine of salvation and the rule of a good and happy life. For this reason, he also justly forbids us to turn aside from it in the smallest degree.

Hence we learn that everything which is added to the word must be condemned and rejected. It is the will of the Lord that we shall depend wholly upon his word and that our knowledge shall be confined within its limits. And therefore, if we lend our ears to others, we take a liberty which he has forbidden and offer him a gross insult. Everything that's introduced by men on their own authority will be nothing else than a corruption of the word and consequently, if we wish to obey God, we must reject all other instructors. The prophet therefore enjoins us to ascribe to the word such high authority that we should venture boldly to despise the whole world if the world be opposed to them.

That is God's word. He brings an accusation of blindness against every man who does not instantly, that's what he says, Not instantly and without dispute adopt this sentiment. That we ought not to be wise beyond the law of God. End of quote from Calvin. E.J.

Young, excellent commentary on Isaiah and the Reform writer says this on Isaiah 8.20, light is found in the law of God. The written revelation, the Scriptures, those who speak contrary to Scripture have no dawn. They remain yet in the darkness of deep night upon them the morning light has not broken, nor will it break until they turn as little children to the law and submit all their thinking and their opinions to it. Then will the early rays of morning light shine And the full light of sun break in their hearts. More than anything else today, there was a need that all our thinking be based upon and in conformity with the Holy Scriptures.

End of quote. The holy scriptures." Sola Scriptura. That is the cry of the remnant and reformers in every age. Sola Scriptura. I defy popes, I defy councils, I defy the opinions of the most learned writers, says Luther.

Here I stand on the word of God. I can do no other. Here's the instructions to the remnant. You're going to be pressured to conform to the world and its ways of thinking. The Lord says, do not walk in their ways.

You'll ruin your testimony. You will not be part of my remnant. We will be filled with the fear of men as we seek to be different and stand in a world that is hostile to the gospel and to Christ and his truth. But the answer is that we fear not anything or anyone but God. We will be enticed as teachers to succumb to the call of men to preach smooth things.

And so the answer to men who have been entrusted with the word of God is to bind and seal the word into the hearts of God's true people. We'll be discouraged often by the lack of results in our ministry, by the increase of apostasy. Things are not getting better, they're getting worse. What do we do? We wait on the Lord and that tension of faith and we fulfill our calling.

We do our duty. That's the great saying says duty is ours. Consequences are God's. And one of the consequences of the remnant revealed in scriptures, you're the bridge. God's going to do a great thing in the future.

His kingdom will triumph. And you, my friends, have been called to transmit the faith in this day to the next generation that that work will not perish. Furthermore, we will be enticed to concede the doctrine of sola scriptura. Great pressure will come upon us to entertain the idea that there are alternative sources of truth and doctrine, other standards of ethics. And so the answer to the remnant is to hold the Word of God as the absolute standard of truth in all things.

As he did with Isaiah nine centuries ago. May God take hold of us today with a strong hand and bind and seal this text and its teaching into our hearts. Amen. You