If you would turn with me in your copies of God's word to the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah and the eighth chapter. The eighth of Isaiah and we'll commence our reading there at verse nine. Hear once again the inerrant, infallible word of the living God. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces. And give ear, all ye far countries, gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught. Speak the word, and it shall not stand. for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me 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 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 for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. find 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. The word of our God. May He bless us richly under it this evening. There are three crises in our text. We've encountered them already, and certainly they loom over the text we take up this evening. The first crisis you remember is for the house of David. You remember there was a conspiracy between Syria and Israel. A conspiracy to dethrone Ahaz and by implication, of course, to exterminate the house of David and establish their own king. That was the first crisis. The second crisis we saw last time we were together and that was Judean autonomy. The Assyrian empire to the far north and east was growing exponentially. and there was concern in Judah that Judah would simply become something of a province to the Assyrian Empire. She would lose her political autonomy. But then there was that third crisis, and the prophet reminds us that this third crisis was really the principal crisis. It was the crisis we've encountered really from the first chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, and that crisis was the national apostasy. When the visible church underage had forsaken her God, and so had forsaken her refuge, there are three crises, and it was that final crisis that was the cause of all. Our text this evening deals with these selfsame themes. As you look at verse 11, you notice that The prophet tells us of his own experience, the Lord has taken hold of him. In verse eight, he addresses Emmanuel, he addresses Jehovah. And now the Lord replies and he replies as it were by taking the prophet in hand, by powerfully impelling the prophet to hear him. And what follows are really two principal commands. In this moment, the Lord tells him first of all to shun, to shun the confederacies that the people of Israel, that is the people of Judah, have craved. Shun these sinful associations. Say ye not, says our text, a confederacy to all of these to whom the people say a confederacy. That's the first command given to the prophet. The second command is far more positive. Bind up. the testimony, bind up the testimony. Instead, continue a faithful witness in your generation, bind and protect it. And then he says at the end of this text that we're taking up this evening, that there are children who have been given for signs and for wonders. And it's important, I'll say this just now, but we'll return to it in our time together, that it is the children themselves, not what they do, that are the signs and the wonders given to this generation, given as testimony bearers for the Lord. Here, you and I, we find a text that deals once again with all of the reigning crises in Judah at the time. But friend, the way in which our text deals with them is it highlights It highlights the sinful responses of God's people and sets forth the only response that the godly are permitted to make. You see, there were three crises and so there were three corresponding alliances. The crisis that the house of David faced, well friend, it induced Ahaz to seek an alliance with the Assyrian empire. The crisis that the populace in Judah felt most, that is the loss of Judean autonomy, it drove them to seek or at least crave an alliance with Syria and Israel. What our text teaches us is that there was only really one response that was adequate. The only Confederacy, if you like, that should have been sought was taking refuge in Jehovah. This is what is given to the prophet. The godly to be faithful witnesses are to seek Jehovah as their only refuge. And so to shun every sinful alliance. That really is our theme this evening, that God's witnesses reject sinful associations. God's witnesses reject sinful associations. And I want us to see that first of all this evening by just seeing what it is that they reject. A text begins again with the words about a confederacy and the words could be translated variously. You could translate them treason or conspiracy, but you remember that the context really does define for us what the prophet is talking about. We have dealt with, from the seventh chapter, a people who have craved alliances with other nations with their particular felt needs, their particular afflictions. Ahaz sought out an alliance with Assyria, the people of Judah wanted one with Israel and with Syria. And friend, they sought in both cases, a military conjunction. a military confederacy to protect themselves from what they thought was their greater enemy. And what the prophet is told here powerfully by the Lord is reject them all. Do not confederate with any of them. Hold yourself aloof from all of those associations. A friend, the reason for that in scripture is really straightforward. The reason why Judah ought to have shunned all of those associations was given to them in the law. This kind of association, this kind of close conjunction with infidels was roundly forbidden. The law read very pointedly, you shall not make a covenant with the Gentiles. And friend throughout Israel's history and throughout Judah's history, the Lord reminded them of the sinfulness of such conjunctions. And so these confederacies were sinful, and the prophet is told roundly, reject them. Refuse these associations outright. And friend, the associations that were sinful in these cases, the scriptures lay out for us in various ways. A military conjunction of the stripe was sinful. Political conjunctions of this kind were sinful. Even, friend, a marital alliance, of course, with the infidel, it too was included among those sinful associations that the godly were to refuse. A friend, what our text teaches us then is that voluntary associations of this kind with the wicked are to be refused. that we are not to say a confederacy, not to strive after this kind of association with the ungodly. Now, our text I know recognizes, of course, the sinfulness, particularly of these formal alliances. But friend, it also certainly speaks to us, it says something to us of those informal associations that are also forbidden to the godly. And so just briefly, I want us to see how the scriptures do so. And friend, I suppose before we begin, we need to define what we mean by sinful voluntary associations, sinful confederacies with the wicked. We need to recognize, friend, that the scriptures do hold out that there are some associations with the ungodly that are necessary. And so in that sense, legitimate. Friend, in that sense, there is a close connection between a believing parent and an unbelieving child. The association is necessary and so it stands. In the scriptures, we have, of course, even a permission that we would engage in a certain degree of trade and so make business associations with the ungodly. Marital associations with the ungodly. When that marriage was contracted before, there was, of course, a believing spouse. The marriage is to be upheld, says the apostle. It becomes necessary. and so a lawful association. But what we're talking about this evening is a voluntary association with the wicked. What is that? Friend, it is a willful, it is a willful association with the ungodly, whereby the godly join themselves, bind themselves voluntarily to those who are haters of God. I think an example, friend, perhaps is useful here. You remember Jehoshaphat, one of Judah's great and godly kings. You remember, friend, like all of Judah's godly kings, there was something in their sinfulness. And in Jehoshaphat's case, it was his association with Ahaziah, king of Israel, a wicked king, of course. And so the Lord sends Jehu, the seer to him, and he says to Jehoshaphat, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord, therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord. My friend, in that case, what do you notice? You notice here that, Jehoshaphat is abraded because he has made a voluntary association. He has bound himself by confederacy to the wicked, most wicked king in Israel at the time. He has bound himself to him such that they are bearing one another's burdens as it were. They are engaged mutually to uphold one another. And the Lord God says pointedly, it is sinful. My friend, you might say to me that such associations are sinful only in their Old Testament context. Or you might even say that only formal associations of that stripe are sinful. But friend, I want you to notice the New Testament really doesn't allow us to say either. I want you just to look back at the text that we read in 2 Corinthians 6. The prophet doesn't narrow. Sorry, the apostle does not narrow. He expands, as it were, what associations are sinful. When he says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, he's not only talking about marriages that are mixed between the godly and the ungodly. Friend, disabuse yourself of that interpretation of the text, if that is how you've read the text before. It includes those kinds of marriages. But friend, it's far more expansive. The idea, the imagery that's invoked there is the idea of yoking oneself to the ungodly, like ox. You see, the idea there is that you are then bearing one another's burdens, that wherever the one goes, you go with them. Beloved, note what the apostle says. He says, those are to be refused outright with the ungodly. Friend, it may not be in a formal contract. It need not always be something written on paper. The apostle says pointedly, any yoking, intimate yoking of this stripe with the ungodly is to be disallowed. A friend, you and I were commanded to love our neighbors. or even commanded to love our enemies. And the apostle will say later on that again, the believing spouse is not to look to be loosed from the unbelieving spouse. But friend, what the text holds forth is the same truth in our text. That is that you and I, we are not to draw ourselves into such close connection with the ungodly. that we are, as it were, going where they go, or as it were, bearing each other's burdens intimately. Beloved, it's not to be. It's not to be. Whether, friend, that association is signed in paper, or it's simply one that resides in the heart, it is refused. Say not, says the scriptures of confederacy. indeed with those who are the enemies of God. Beloved, you and I, we ought to be good neighbors, we ought to witness to our unbelieving friends, but we are not to be yoked to the ungodly, formally or informally. The Scriptures hold out a reason why, many reasons why, but let me give you just one why the believer shouldn't even want to seek such alliances. Why Judah ought not to have been craving an alliance with Syria and Israel. Why Ahaz ought not to have been seeking out an alliance with Assyria. And the reason is simple. The godly have the psalmist experience. Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. Friend, if that's your disposition, if the ungodly in their wickedness are a grief to you, then friend, you won't seek out these kinds of associations. They will not be desirable to you. They ought not to have been desirable to the church under age in Isaiah's day. And certainly they shouldn't be in ours. And so that is what they are to reject. voluntary associations with the wicked, in which they bind themselves intimately in unlawful ways with the enemies of God. But friend, what is the reason given in the text why they should refuse such? I want you to notice in verse 14, the Lord gives an answer to that question quite directly. He says in verse 14, that the Lord will become a stone of stumbling to those who seek these sinful alliances. In other words, friend, for all of their contriving, for all of their working to gain security, either through Assyria or through Syria and Israel, it will come to naught, it will be futile. The alliances will fail. These sinful associations will procure Judah nothing, nothing good. And so they should be shunned as they're futile. I also want you to notice that the text goes on and gives us another reason why they should be refused. And that is that, friend, the godly are commanded to sanctify the Lord of hosts and to make him their fear. Now I want you to notice what the prophet has been told here. He's saying that, friend, the fear of God is opposite these voluntary associations with the wicked. And so if the godly indeed are such from the heart, that is they do indeed fear the Lord, that fear of God is opposite those sinful confederacies. Friend, you can even see there a third reason why the godly would shun these confederacies. Because the Lord God himself is the refuge of his people. There is no need for these associations. Judah ought to have known that. The house of David ought to have remembered that. And here the prophet is reminded. These alliances are futile. They're opposite the fear of God. And ultimately, friend, they arise because men have forgotten that God is their refuge. Well, we could say so much here, but friend, I just want to reiterate that the text of Scripture shows us why the godly should shun these associations. It's a command. But even in the text, we're told there are reasons why the godly should want to refuse these things. If I can take you back just to what I read to you from the experience of Jehoshaphat, you remember when Jehu the sheer seer goes to Jehoshaphat, he says, why? Why should you love those who hate the Lord? Friend, if you became best friends with someone who hated viscerally your spouse, would it not call into question the love of your husband or your wife? That's exactly the argument that is used against Jehoshaphat. He says, if you're drawing yourself into close confederation with someone who hates God, Surely, friend, surely your love for God stands utterly in contrast to such an association. Friend, you find in the psalmist so many examples of this kind of connection. He says, I have hated the congregation of evildoers. He says again, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I mean, even the Apostle Paul will come to a point where he says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha, forever accursed. Friend, the idea is that the godly will shun this close confederation with the world. This intimate relation where one draws the enemies of God deeply into their hearts and lives because of their love for God. because of their fear of God and ultimately because from these associations are unnecessary if God is indeed our refuge. And that is the point that the prophet really is drawn to at the end of these verses. The associations were altogether superfluous, unnecessary because God was sanctuary for his people. A friend, I need to be clear this evening that this is not teaching at all a kind of Christian isolationism. You and I, again, we're called to love our neighbors. We're called to be faithful witness bearers, and that requires us to actually know and engage with the wicked. Beloved, even as the scriptures call us to those ends, it never allows us to draw the wicked into close friendship with the godly. Friend, I think it's important for us to be clear this evening on the necessity to shun such associations. Beloved, I know when you go into the workplace, when you go into the school, that there is, friend, a tendency, I think, to draw the wicked in intimately into the lives of believers, simply to make peace. Now friend, we are to live peaceably with all men. But friend, if you're making associations right now with the wicked, if you're drawing those who are haters of Christ deep, deep into your lives, such that where they go, you go, You bind yourselves to them, at least in your affections in such a way. Friend, the text reminds us that we do so because ultimately, friend, we've forgotten. We have forgotten that Jehovah is our refuge. We've forgotten that they are enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll come back to this in a moment, but I want you to notice just as we close this evening that the prophet is also told why again, reiterated to the prophet why again he's to refuse these confederacies. In verse 17, we're told that the Lord himself will be a sanctuary to his people. And so God is expected to be a sanctuary to the church, to the godly, but the question I suppose you and I might have is, well, what does that look like? If they need not these associations with the ungodly, well then what does it look like for the Lord to be their security and their refuge? As you look at verse 18, something of an answer is given. I and the children the Lord hath given me are for signs and wonders in Israel. Now to understand the text trend, I want you to notice that there is no marked change of speaker between verse 16 and verse 19. In verse 16, the prophet is commanded by Jehovah. In verse 19 again, Jehovah is speaking. And so you and I, we are to take verse, for good reason, we're to take this 18th verse as the Lord himself speaking. Not only is there no formal reason to deny that, but even in the substance, here is peculiar, it would not at all be unreasonable to apply it to the Lord himself. And in fact, later in Isaiah's prophecy, we'll see that it is. It's the Lord who's speaking in verse 18. And so the entailment friend is this, that God has children that are given by God. Why is that important? Well, we're told that Jehovah, who is speaking in verse 18, is a witness together with these children that are described. They are together. The Lord is a witness, himself with the children that are given him by the Lord. The Lord is with his people in this witness bearing. A friend, As you look into the New Testament, you find in Hebrews 2, and then verse 13, that the apostle takes these very words to show us the close connection between the believer and his Christ. The apostle says that it is Christ who is speaking in verse 18, that it is the Lord God incarnate, who says that he is witnessed together with the children that have been given to him. Friend, that clearly defines for us how, how the Lord is a sanctuary and a refuge for his people. It is as they are united to the Lord Jesus Christ, as they enjoy this close union one with another, that's the apostle's point in Hebrews 2, They are inseparably united. A friend, as you look throughout the New Testament, you'll notice that these verses have been quoted elsewhere as well. In Romans 9 and in 1 Peter 2, the rock of offense and of stumbling is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is also in our text the refuge of his people. That's how the apostles under inspiration of God's spirit read Isaiah 8. And they had good reason to do so. Some of our older forebears remind us that in the eighth verse of this eighth chapter, Emmanuel is invoked by the prophet. And so one could arguably see that this is indeed Emmanuel speaking to the prophet in this text in reply. Friend, what does that mean for us? Well, it means this, that the Lord Jesus Christ, that He has become His people's refuge, and that refuge is such that they are bound together, says the writer to the Hebrews, such that He calls them brethren, and such that He calls them His children, and together they are, friend, bound, and inseparably so. And so beloved, there is no cause to seek aid elsewhere. If Jesus has become his people's refuge, then he will nourish and he will cherish his own. If they are so united as the text here teaches us that they are called his children, then friend, he who touches them touches the eye, the apple of Christ's eye. No, these sinful associations are altogether unnecessary. as Christ is indeed the refuge of his own. As we close and we apply this text, friend, I want you to notice that this text reminds us that worldliness is not only an expression or a symptom of love to the world, it's also an expression of fear of man. Friend, what will induce us to make these sinful associations with the wicked More often than not, we'll be seeking a kind of worldly peace with the enemies of God. More often than not, friend, you will be enticed to draw the wicked closer and closer to yourself, to yoke yourselves to them in an unlawful way, simply to fit in. Simply, as it were, to make some kind of truce between yourself and the world. And friends, so often, so often then our worldliness is simply an expression of a fear of man. In fact, a fear of man that is greater than our fear of God. The text reminds us of that very clearly. And so there is an exhortation here. Beloved, biblical separation begins here. that we would make God our only refuge. Begin there, friend. When you go into the workplace, when you go into the school, you need to begin by saying the Lord Jehovah in his son has become my sanctuary. And beloved, as you do so, you'll find less and less a temptation to make peace with the world. It's also, friend, required of us that we would increase in the fear of God. This text reminds us, friend, that we must make Him our dread, make Him our fear. And as we do so, beloved, we will fear sin more than we will fear suffering. Ahaz, of course, did not learn that lesson. The people in Judah had not learned that lesson. but the witnesses of God are called to it. A friend, it would be remiss of us not to mention that that which will drive the godly more and more to biblical separation, not to extremes one way or the other, but to a biblical form of separation is a due consideration of their unbreakable bond with the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, you will find no need to make peace with the world. He calls you brethren and his own children. He calls you his own body and so has undertaken to be your refuge, your sanctuary. And beloved, how safe are you if God says to you, I am thy sanctuary. How safe are you if he says, I am your refuge? Let the world ostracize you. Let the nations persecute you. Let your neighbors think of you strange and let friend of the world do its worst. If God has said, I am your sanctuary. And friend, why would you even consider? How would you even be tempted? to be drawn into these confederations with those who are haters of God. At the end of the day, beloved, our calling is, again, to see our interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest in Him as our sanctuary, and to seek then to be faithful testimony bearers to Him in our generation. May the Lord lead us in that work for His own name's sake. Oh, no.