Isaiah Lesson 14b

John, would you open us in a word of prayer?

Father, we come back to our time of fellowship and we rejoice this season, especially as we know the good news of the gospel message. And as we continue in looking into your book of Isaiah, we ask that you would prepare Jeff with your words and prepare our hearts to hear in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Epistemology, Postmodernism, and the Search for Truth

So last week we were answering the question, how do you know? How do you know stuff? The study of this field is called epistemology. Epistemology is the study of knowledge or how a person comes to knowledge.

So in the day in which we live, the whole idea of knowledge is under attack. And that attack is coming from the field of postmodernism. Postmodernism does not have an adequate epistemology because it has no starting point.

The starting point of our epistemology is God himself. Because you have a fixed and absolute and true standard, it's possible for knowledge to be certain because there's something that is certain that gives us a reference point to that knowledge.

Now in the world in which we live, postmodern, because there's no absolute God, there could really be no absolute truth. People come to all kinds of ideas and where do they form their ideas from? Well, I said last week, feelings and standpoint, feelings.

Whatever feels right to me is my own personal truth. That's the concept of postmodernism. It defines the world in which we live, doesn't it? I mean, think about all the ideologies that you see espoused on TV and in TV shows and just in the friends that you have, beliefs that people have which are true to them and they think that makes them actually true because the definition of truth has been perverted.

Yeah, Rich.

I just wanted to say, reason can treacherously deceive a man, but emotion is sure and will never leave him.

Rich, an Adolf Hitler quote. Come on. Opening the morning with Hitler. I did a lot of study on Nazi history.

So is this absolute truth? That's what he said. It's quoted in documentaries.

So you're saying there's a bunch of little Hitlers running around that believe that feelings are dominant.

Nowadays. Like you said, they're being moved by their emotions. It is so true. Definitely not by this.

Right. Okay. Okay. So last week we began in the eighth chapter of Isaiah and the question on our mind is how do we know things? So I have a question for you. In the second verse, why would Isaiah call for Uriah the priest and Zechariah, the son of Jebarekiah?

Uriah and Zechariah. This is Isaiah 8 -2. It's not the same Zechariah. No, this is not. Yeah. Zechariah was a post-exilic prophet. What's that? Witnesses. Witnesses. Why would you need witnesses? What does that matter?

Two or three witnesses are required to establish a matter. And what was the particular test to know if a prophet was true? There's actually two of them. Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 18. Yes. Right. Yeah.

And that's especially relevant here. And then the first one from Deuteronomy 13, is it consistent with what's already been revealed by God? So if they say, go and run after this other God, and they do some sign or wonder, some prophecy or some miracle, you still reject that prophet because it's contradicting what God has already said.

The Deuteronomy 18 test, does it come to pass? Well, how do you know if Isaiah, 20 years down the line, says, I prophesied that this would happen? Is that any kind of sign? No. So this is really an issue of epistemology.

He's wanting reliable witnesses to attest for him when he writes down on this tablet, I picture him having like a whiteboard, I don't know what kind of tablet this is, but he writes on it in common language.

So understandable. Does anybody remember what he writes? Kimberly, did you hear? Maher Shalal Hashbaz, which means they're both quick. Quick to the spoil, quick to the plunder, kind of is the idea. And what's going to happen so quickly?

Well, there's a threat. The threat is that Syria and the Northern Kingdom are in league together, and they're intending to come South and crush Judah. There's a conspiracy against Judah. The Northern Kingdom, of all things, their own brothers have allied with Syria, and they're going to come down and crush.

But before Maher Shalal Hashbaz can say what, Abba, Abba, my father or my mother, before he's saying mommy, the plunder will be the Northern conspiracy. So who is God going to send to crush Syria? This is all review, by the way.

We're just getting back up to where we left off last week. Say it again? Assyria. Assyria. Okay. So make sure you keep these different. Assyria is that world empire, which is based off the Euphrates River, this Persia, basically modern day Persia, which is rising as the dominant power of the world.

Syria is more local, just north of, it's Damascus, it's just north of the Northern Kingdom. So Assyria is going to come and crush them before Maher Shalal Hashbaz is even two years old, let's say. So who is Maher?

Whose son is this? Isaiah. Isaiah's son. Right. Okay. Very interesting. So you see that he goes to the prophetess, that's his wife. Now many people think that she herself was a prophetess. Would there be any precedent in the Bible for a female prophet?

Deborah. Yeah. Some kind of judge, prophet, yeah, giving rulings of some sort. Any others? Anna. Yes. And I was going to say, I would see Anna, surprisingly, as an Old Testament prophet. Why would I say that?

Because isn't she in the New Testament? Isn't she Luke chapter two? But she was looking for the Messiah, which was the Old Testament. Yes.

She's looking before the Messiah comes, and she prophesies when he comes, but before his death and the new covenant in his blood. So she's still giving these kind of revelations before the new covenant is initiated.

So just a small point there, but Anna would sort of be Old Testament, just kind of like John the Baptist, who I'm going to talk about on Sunday in my sermon for Christmas, spend a little bit of time with John the Baptist.

He's an Old Testament prophet, even though he's recorded in the New Testament, because he dies before the new covenant in Christ's blood. The last Old Testament prophet. Correct. All right, so he's going to bring the waters of the Euphrates, essentially, because they did not rest in the waters of Shiloah.

Then we get to verse 11, and that again is Assyria is going to come because they're not resting in God. Verse 11 to 13, I found to be really interesting, especially in this postmodern era in which we live, where conspiracy theories are everywhere.

Have you ever noticed this? That the right confuses the left of fake news. They accuse the right of what they're doing. And the left accuses the right of fake news. Now, the truth is often on the right.

John makes jokes about how when I started here, I used to sit on the right before coming up to preach, and now I sit over there, and I'm like, no, John, I'm not drifting to the left. I promise you. I'm not drifting left.

Never going to happen. And I said, in fact, I'm moving right because it's based on how the people are oriented. I'm looking forward, so I'm actually moving to the right. So I'm on the left. So you've moved left.

No, but the question that we're asking, in any given statement that somebody makes, any kind of allegation, any kind of idea, how do we know what's true? Witnesses would be an example of epistemology.

One of the ways we know if an event happened is eyewitnesses to the event. That would be a good biblical epistemology. Someone who saw it with their own eyes, not hearsay. Somebody who heard somebody say that somebody said, you know, the telephone game.

Biblically, what you want is eyewitnesses to establish an event. So let's read it again, and then we'll finish the eighth chapter. Barb, would you mind reading verses 11, 12, and 13? Okay. Oh, sorry. Did I cut you off early?

No, you can stop there. That's good. Yeah. Because the next part, I'm going to make some separate points. So in these three verses, 11, 12, and 13, what are the people calling conspiracy? Is there a conspiracy going on?

There is a conspiracy, right. And who is God going to send to crush that conspiracy? The Assyrian, right? So the Assyrians then would have designs, not only to crush the North, but to come crush the South.

In all of these things that are happening, is the issue the horizontal nations or is there something vertical going wrong? Here's the answer. The people are so oriented to what's happening all around them that they're failing to understand that God is involved in all of this.

Because look at verse 13. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear. Let him be your dread. One form of dread, one form of fear is replaced by another. The first form of fear was Syria and the Northern Kingdom, this conspiracy against them.

But the very moment that that fear was put to rest, because Assyria wiped them out, and Assyria kept coming, now wanting to dominate Judah, now they have another fear. A second fear is now this even bigger empire, even more dreadful.

But they're forgetting to fear God. And this is the essence of the rebuke here, that they're only seeing the horizontal. They're not looking to God. If you look at the current political climate in which we live, there is very little concern for God.

But there's great concern for what's happening horizontally. People's eyes have been turned off of God, and therefore, someone who's espousing what really becomes a religion on the left, let's say. On the left, people are so interested in establishing their vision of justice, that they've forgotten God and it's all horizontal.

Now, is it possible for the same thing to happen on the right? Absolutely. Yes. Where your hope becomes Trump. Your hope becomes the conservative movement, politics. Right. In this world, we are called to live and be involved in the politics of this world.

In fact, the Bible very often, we read this in Isaiah, that you're to cry out for justice. Right? In the first chapter, there's that appeal that God's people are to cry for justice, and to try to establish justice on earth.

There is the call for us to love one another. When I think about love, this is very important. So many people believe that love can only exist on the micro level. Love is only what you do for your next door neighbor, for your parent, for someone who's nearby you.

But love also exists on the macro level. This is a little bit of a side trail here, but I think it's very important. Macro love is to be involved in things that affect the nation. Meaning this, when the pulpits of Germany, you brought up Hitler, when the pulpits of Germany were silent at the advance of Nazism, that was a lack of love.

There was no prophetic call to the country for repentance and to turn away and to denounce evil, demonic ideas, which was this ethnic nationalism that was based on race, which was a superiority of the Germanic people and a degrading of Jewish people.

That should have been the fire of pulpits for many Sundays. And if the whole of German society were crying out against such things, then it's very likely that the Holocaust could have been averted. So that's what I would call macro love.

There is an aspect of love to be involved. For example, William Wilberforce, that was macro love for him to be involved in politics and to be crying out against chattel slavery and man stealing, which the Bible completely condemns, right?

To fight against those things is love on the macro level. So I don't think what Isaiah is doing here is saying, look, don't worry about what's happening politically. Don't worry about Rezin and Pekka and the king of Assyria.

And don't worry about anything that's happening on the national level. But here's where the correction comes. Your fear, your dread must not be in the things of this earth. And this is, I think, important for us kind of who tend to be on the right, which there's no right and left polarized, just like as if truth is somewhere in the middle.

The Bible establishes the fixed point of truth. So it's not a matter of political spectrum. It's whatever the Bible says is true. But for us who stand here in the truth and we see what's going on in the culture, it's very easy for us to let that become our fear, to put our hope in politics, to put our fear of what could likely happen in this country.

How many of you, you don't have to raise your hand, are very afraid of what could happen in coming years? Some people are saying, I'm not, you know. Listen, just looking at the outward, things do not look good in this country.

The foundation of this country seems to be crumbling. The biblical, the rock solid biblical foundation of how this country was built seems to be eroding in favor of something that just can't stand. Even just if you look at the economics of this country, right?

Economically, how can a country stand where we're talking about forgiving student debts? Because biblically, if you take a loan, you have to repay it. And if you just abandon that and the government prints basically stolen money, right?

The government has $25 trillion worth of debt. If they just say, we're going to borrow from the next generation to print money to pay for someone who took a loan to go to school to study women's studies or something, and the country pours even more money, burying the future generations in debt, how does that work out over the long term, right?

So, here's all I'm trying to say is, when you look at the earthly, and these are the kind of proposals, and the sexual revolution now just going to the next level, to the point where it's destructive of family, and it's destructive of just the human flourishing in every way, shape, and form, it doesn't look good.

So, if that's all you see, if you just have eyes that see the political reality, you will despair. But there is actually a rebuke here against Judah. This isn't against Israel. This isn't against Assyria.

This is against the people who are hearing Isaiah preach, and he's rebuking them. Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. I have taken a little bit of criticism in a jestful kind of way for my attitude about 2020.

I have said, and I repeat, I have enjoyed 2020. I felt like God has been blessing in new ways. When crazy things happen in the culture, it's not that I just don't care about the future of my children, right, and the country that they'll have, but I just believe that God still has this in control.

I believe that he's going to bring something good, and why not a revival before the apocalypse? What if we're going to live through that? What if we are the terminal generation, and we are going to see a mighty revival, and the culture still will be worse and worse, and then Christ is going to rapture us out of here, and the tribulation comes, and we're in heaven and glory, but we've rescued through the preaching of the gospel more people in these last days than we ever did before.

That's how I want to look at, I'm excited about 2021. I think it's going to be an amazing year, maybe a year of revival coming out of this craziness of 2020. That's what I see in the text here. You have to keep the God word vertical understanding, even when, I mean, if you think it's bad in America right now, put yourself in Judah.

You've been oppressed by these powers that are conspiring against you, ready to destroy you, and when you finally get relief, it's only the most wicked empire in the history of the world that conquered them.

Read about what Assyria would do to its victims. It's awful, yeah. They would display human bodies hanging on their wall, and skin people, and do all kinds of things just to deter any kind of resistance.

This is a wicked people. We left off there last week, and the big idea is keep God as your fear, even in the midst of conspiracy. Now, earlier on, there was this concept of epistemology. How do you know what's true?

Somebody's saying conspiracy, somebody is making a claim, you have a biblical way of knowing it, and now we're going to see that the Bible itself is the starting point of our epistemology. All right, so let's read 14 and 15.

Let's call on Sandy. One God, he's different to two groups of people. The one God, the Lord who shall be your fear, is to you a sanctuary, but to both houses of Israel who are rejecting him, he becomes a stone of stumbling.

Dave, would you mind finding for me Romans 9 .33? And Luis, could you find 1 Peter 2 .8? And Ralph, could you get Matthew 21 .44? I'm giving you a head start while I talk about John 5. God himself, this is the Lord who should be our fear, right?

The Lord is our fear. It says, the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread. Verse 14, he, this is the Lord of hosts, God himself, he will become a sanctuary, a refuge, a meeting place where you can run into him and be safe, a strong tower, and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken. They shall be snared and taken. When Jesus Christ appeared on earth, he went to Jerusalem, to the sanctuary, and presented himself there and taught there.

But the Jewish leaders, the house of the north and of the south, the revived second temple Jewish people, by and large were rejecting him. And in John chapter 5, they're criticizing him for doing things on the Sabbath.

But they're rejecting biblical epistemology. You guys, you can hold your finger there, but I want everybody to go to John chapter 5. I want you to see how Jesus makes use of biblical epistemology. Again, epistemology is how do you know things?

Even Jesus himself doesn't appeal to his own human word in the flesh, but he makes an appeal to evidence. That's important. We are to know things by reasoning, by evidence. Look what Jesus does in verse 31.

John 5, 31. I'm just going to read a few of these verses here. Let's try to capture it. You guys tell me, what are some of the evidences to which Jesus appeals? John 5, 31. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

Verse 32. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony he bears about me is true. Verse 33. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Okay? There's more discussion there of John.

Look at verse 36. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

Verse 37. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

Now look at verse 39. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Okay. From this section of Scripture, to what evidence does Jesus appeal?

John the Baptist? The Father? Himself? His own testimony. Which elsewhere he does, my testimony is true, even if no one else said it. But right now he's giving the point that there are more than one witness.

And preeminently now. This is important. He's building up. Do you see that there's an intensity building from John the Baptist, who we're going to talk about on Sunday, just an amazing, amazing witness, who himself was prophesied in Isaiah 40 and in Malachi 3 and 4.

From John the Baptist to the works, what are the works that he's referring to? Miracles. Signs and wonders. These are things that are supernatural, just there is no natural explanation for that dead man who's been dead for days to walk out of that tomb, for Lazarus to rise.

These works, these kinds of things, are signs that it's true. It's true. And then he's building the argument, but where does the argument culminate? What's the high point of the argument? Scripture. That's where the Father testifies.

That's where he speaks. So, you search the scriptures, verse 39, because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

Oh, the Antichrist? Yeah. Or just anybody who comes with their own idea. People who just say stuff, and they're affirmed. People believe other people because those people are convicted. Meaning, when you see somebody has conviction in their heart, like, oh, they really believe it, they're credible.

You can tell. And so, this charismatic leader comes on the scene. This guy, you can tell he believes what he's saying. He's passionate about it. He's all in. People will believe that. Joseph Smith or any false prophet.

Or any political leader. So, people in this world are apt to believe a charismatic leader, an emotional leader. Great storyteller. Somebody who just is passionate, and you can just see the fire in their eye.

That's what he's saying. But they're not grounding their beliefs on Scripture. So, it says here, verse 44. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you. And this would hurt. If you're a Jew who thinks that you're the great followers of... No, he says, yeah, if you're a Pharisee.

Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me. Where did Moses write about Jesus? Deuteronomy 18, 15 and following. And the tests of the prophet.

This is a greater prophet. Very good. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? So, Jesus comes with credible evidence. With the witnesses required in Scripture. The witness of his own word.

But the Father testifying. Miracles testifying. John the Baptist as an independent line of witness. And then, the highest, most important thing, which will become the basis of their condemnation. Which is the Scripture.

All of these prophecies that were written of him, that he fulfills. So, this is how you should know. Now, most people reject, despite all that evidence. Most people will reject. Okay? He will become a stone of stumbling.

We just saw that in Isaiah 8. Now, I've called on, I think, Dave and then Luis and then Ralph, right? Dave, would you mind reading for us Romans 9, 33? You guys don't have to turn there. We're just going to quick fire through a couple of these examples.

I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Who is the stone of stumbling? Who is the rock of offense? Jesus the Christ. Okay, Luis.

This is 1 Peter 2 .8. And he is the stone that makes people stumble. The rock that makes people fall. In the context of 1 Peter 2, who is the stone of stumbling, the rock of offense? Jesus. Now, remember, in that same passage, we are living stones.

And he's the chief cornerstone. And there's a spiritual house that God is building. The metaphor there is that Christ is the rock on which the house is built. But he's also, same thing as Isaiah 8, a stone of stumbling.

In Isaiah 8, he's a sanctuary to some. He's a stone of offense to others. Okay, Ralph, give me Matthew 21 .44. Jesus, now, in Matthew 21, just before going to the cross, makes this point. Those who trip over him, who fall over him, will be crushed.

That's a harsh warning. So, yeah. Hmm. Okay, I've never thought of it that way. Let me think more on that, if that's the analogy there. It could be the case. Yeah, I've never thought of it that way. But what I do know, from Isaiah 8, verse 15.

Many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken. They shall be snared and taken. So, this is prophetic of Jesus. He is a sanctuary to some, but he's a stone of stumbling to others. In the world today, the great dividing line is Jesus.

Who do you say that I am? Some say the Christ, some say Elijah. Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. That confession is the rock on which the church is built. And every other religion that rejects the full deity of Christ, who he is, is a stumbling block.

They're tripping over him. So, when the Quran says, say not Trinity, cease and desist, it will be better for you. And it is supposed that Jesus was crucified, but really they crucified him not. They are tripping over the stone of offense.

He is the Christ. He is the son of God. And he was crucified. And so, more than a billion people who follow the teachings of Muhammad are tripping over that stumbling stone. It's a rock of offense. In the culture, this is the dividing line.

Those who build their lives on the rock. Christ is the rock, the stone of stumbling. Now, keep following along. We have verses 16 to 22, a big chunk. I'm going to ask John to read this one, if you don't mind.

Because that way the microphone will pick it up and it's a large section. So, Isaiah 8, 16 through 22.

The Remnant, the Testimony, and Rejecting Occult Guidance

Find up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

And when they say to you, inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter. Should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony, if they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God and turn their faces upward.

And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

Okay, verse 16. Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. There is a remnant, the disciples. Those who will still believe even in the midst of an apostate generation. Okay, those who continue to hold to the teaching, the word of God.

What Isaiah is prophesying here is new revelation. It's from God. It will be sealed and bound up and understood and believed by disciples. It will be held on to. Look at verse 17. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Isaiah will continue to believe the word of God, even while the whole culture is departing. Now, look at verse 18. And tell me if you recognize where this is quoted in the New Testament. You should be paying attention on Sunday mornings.

You'll recognize it maybe. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. Anybody know? Hebrews, chapter 3. Yeah, but it's where, I'm sorry, chapter 2.

It's where Jesus is identifying with his brothers. And he says, my brothers. And he quotes from Isaiah 8. I and the children God has given me. These are, he's identifying in humanity as the father and the brother of us.

We talked about this weeks ago in Hebrews chapter 2. The point is, there's a double meaning here. Jesus is drawing that more particularly to him and his church. But who does it refer to here in the near context?

Remember the context. Isaiah and his sons. So here you have Isaiah preaching. He's met the king. Remember how he went out and met him at the aqueduct and God told him, bring your son with you, Shear Jashub.

What does Shear Jashub mean? The remnant shall return. Now he has this other little guy, Maher. Quick to the spoil, to the plunder. So he has these two boys. And he's crying out to Israel. They don't want to hear it.

They're tripping over everything Isaiah says. They're in an apostate kind of state. But there's always a remnant like Shear Jashub. So in the near term, here you have Isaiah crying out. I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents.

There's still a remnant people. That God is preserving. That's the case today. We are a remnant people in this earth. Even in the great apostasy that's coming. That Paul writes to the Thessalonians about.

When there's going to be a great falling away. Let's say that's happening now. Or maybe this is just a minor apostasy. But if this is the great apostasy. We're still a remnant. God still has his people.

So what are we to do? Bind up the testimony. It means hold on to it. And when they say to you. When the culture has psychics. Which right around the corner from here there's a couple of them. When they go and contact the dead.

Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter. Should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on the behalf of the living? A pagan culture now. Contacting the dead.

But we have the testimony. So what do we say? This is one of the reasons I love Isaiah chapter 8. Look at verse 20. To the teaching and to the testimony. How do we know things? How do we know what God says?

We have the testimony. We cling to this. We always say to the teaching and to the testimony. This is our epistemology. So this is circling back around. What Isaiah speaks are the very words of God. It's confirmed by signs that what he has foretold has come to pass.

He's a genuine prophet. He passes all the Deuteronomy tests of a prophet. He speaks for God. And incidentally, there's more prophecies about Christ in Isaiah than any other book. Except maybe the Psalms.

But of any individual prophet. All of the things he writes. The virgin shall give birth to a son. Jesus. And we're seeing next time, chapter 9, verse 6 and following. The almighty God. Prince of Peace.

What's that? That's a good chapter. Yeah, and there's tons of them. Isaiah 53. Isaiah 49. It's just all through the book of Isaiah. Prophetic utterances. This is what we cling to. Yes. Yes. And I like the way the ESV translates this.