Dennis Tuuri

And I’m going to begin reading in verse 9. Isaiah chapter 8, beginning at verse 9. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Isaiah 8, beginning at verse 9. Associate yourselves, oh ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces. And give ear, all ye of 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 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 for a rock of a fence to both the house 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. 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 unto wizards that peep, and that mutter, should not a people seek unto 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, and they shall pass through it, hardly be hungry.

And it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, They shall fret themselves and curse rather their king and their God and look upward and they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish and they shall be driven to darkness. Let us pray. Father, we pray that your spirit might do its work now and open our understanding, Father, to this text. Shine light upon us, Lord God, light of conviction and light of hope. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Acronym for this series of three talks on Christian political action that is ACT, calling for distinctively Christian activism. A is activism, C is candidates, and T is truths or ideas. So what we’ve been talking about by way of review is first of all we said two weeks ago that Christians are to be and have a requirement to be to some degree involved in the political process from a distinctively Christian position.

We said this for several reasons. First of all, we all have a guarding responsibility in general for our families, for ourselves, for our property, for those things that God gives us stewardship over. And specifically today when the state is largely one of the greatest threats to property and children and to the safety of our families, there is a particular need because of our guarding responsibility to be involved in political action.

Secondly, we said we have a responsibility to be involved because the requirement we have to nurture, to seek the peace of the place that God has in his providence taken us to. It’s not simply a defensive position. We get into the political arena and discuss things from a distinctively Christian position. There’s a nurturing capability we have as well. Politics is, to many in many ways, a particular Mars Hill today when the ideas of the day, when the philosophies and religious worldviews of people are discussed and made bare, so to speak, and revealed in terms of their discussion of political actions.

We have a nurturing capability. So third, we said we have a requirement to be involved in distinctively Christian political action, that we might fulfill the obligations of the third commandment, to not take God’s name in vain or vainly upon ourselves. We have a witnessing requirement to witness to the Lord Jesus Christ in every area of life, and that includes the political arena as well. And so we are brought to the kingdom for just such a time as this to exercise distinctively Christian political action.

And we said that distinctively Christian political action is based upon and equipped by our understanding of the great reformational truths that we celebrated the other evening. Only people who really understand the sovereignty of God in salvation and in all things have really the basis for taking the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ into that process. And we can begin to assert then the crown rights of King Jesus over every area of life and thought.

We have the proper motivation as Christians as reformed Christians, that is, that we seek the glory of God, not the well-being of men. Critical point of departure for most people involved in political action today. We seek the glory of God in our political action, not the well-being of men. We apply the proper standard as Christians. Father is the motivation. The Son is the standard, his word. And we say that to that word we must go.

And we’ll talk more about that today. We apply a distinctively Christian standard. And we achieve then a distinctively Christian environment or peace produced by the spirit as God’s word is taken into the area self-consciously by Christians who seek to glorify him.

So we said that there is a requirement for Christian political action. And last week we talked about that requirement in reference to candidates or men. And we said first of all that men are important in terms of reformation, in terms of the governance of the nation, an individual, a church, etc. Men are important. If you want to take down the references: 2 Samuel 23, John 19:11, 2 Chronicles 9:8, 2 Samuel 21:14, 1 Kings 10:9—all those verses we talked about the importance of men in terms of the reformation of the land.

2 Samuel 23 speaks of David’s mighty men. John 19:11 is where Jesus told Pilate that you don’t have any power apart from the God who gives you authority here in the context of my particular situation. So men are important in the context of God. They’re used by God. They are, as the Puritans called it, the lieutenants of God. Civil magistrates—the terms magistrate, king, ruler—these are terms that are properly applied to God alone. And yet he sees fit for men to have these titles placed upon them because they’re important.

Samuel Miller, we quoted from him saying, “You can have bad laws and yet have good men, honest Christian men of good character and still have a degree of proper governance because of the importance of men in expecting pleasant outcomes for political structures and people.” Proverbs 29:2 says that when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked bear rule, the people mourn.

And in our country today is characterized by more and more mourning by the people because wicked men are ruling over us. Proverbs 29:4: “The king by judgment establishes the land, but he that receives gifts overthrows it.” What a verse for our day and age. And for all the discussion the last few weeks about campaign finance reform and the seeking of money from foreign countries, etc.—the scriptures assert in these proverbs, as well as others, that while kings are important for the political process, they’re important for the land. And when a king rules by proper judgment, he establishes the land. But he that receives gifts overthrows it.

We quoted last week on the importance of candidates for office from the marginal notes of the Geneva Bible—in other words, notes in the margin, not marginal in the sense of importance. I wanted to mention today that article was by Dell G. Johnson. Dell Johnson, in “The Reformation in the Arts and Media,” the Journal of Christian Reconstruction, volume 11, number one from 1985. And he has an article there on the Puritan political views as expressed in the Geneva Bible marginalia.

One quote from Dell Johnson’s article is this, speaking again of the importance of man and the character they are to manifest: “Participation in government was to be predicated upon firm moral character. One’s private life was to be the foundation of one’s public life. What was done privately either qualified or disqualified for civil service.”

Now, that’s completely unlike today, isn’t it? If you talk about a man’s private life today, well, then you’re engaging in smear tactics or it’s not important. It’s irrelevant to his public duty. And yet, the Puritans saw exactly the reverse. The scriptures teach exactly the reverse. Saul, when appointed king, said, “Whose ox have I taken or whose ass have I taken? Or, whom have I hurt?” then they said, “Thou hast done us no wrong, nor hast hurt us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand.” 1 Samuel 12:3 and 4.

The Puritans favorably asserted that God would that this confession should be a pattern for all them that have any charge of office. The notation of 1 Samuel 10:9 also declared the desire that national leaders be clothed with moral character. “He gave him, that is Samuel, such virtues as were meet, rather, for a king. Increased power called for increased virtue.”

We saw then that the primary characteristic of officers according to the scriptures of proper candidates is Christian character, godly character. Men who, in the words of Micah 6:8, do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God—particularly humility, because the civil magistrate is prone and tempted to exert too much importance to himself.

We saw from the officer selection passages in Deuteronomy 1, Acts chapter 6, and Exodus 18 that the fear of God was the common characteristic of men who were seen as fit for office. We looked at 2 Samuel 23 where David said that those who rule over men must do so with justice. They must rule in the fear of God. The fear of God leads to a proper sense of justice as well as a proper sense of compassion for one’s citizens that the king is supposed to have and civil rulers are to have.

So those officer selection passages as well as the passage from 2 Samuel as well as the passage from Micah stress over and over again: Men are to have known character qualities to be considered for public office in the church or in the state. Those men are to affirm to the biblical standard for justice, not their own sense. The biblical standard for compassion, not their own sense—what the scriptures say about what their particular office should do. These are the men who hate covetousness.

One of the ways the scriptures tell us to discern proper character on the part of civil rulers is to examine their counselors. And as you go to vote on Tuesday, if you haven’t voted yet, how much do you know of the counselors of the particular people that are seeking out local office here in your particular city or county or state or in this country? Counselors are one of the great biblical tools to evaluate proper civil magistrates, and counselors, good counselors can do much to establish kings and bad counselors can do much to hurt them. As we saw at the example of Rehoboam following Solomon.

How well does a particular candidate establish true religion in the context of the age? How does a particular candidate for civil office manifest divine justice, not justice defined by his attributes? How do they provide for elective procedures? Another model that the Puritans talked about was the need for elective procedures in government.

So we talked about the criteria for candidates and we then talked about the importance of the church that must teach men in these character qualities. Teach men what God’s word says relative to justice and teach men about what Christian compassion is all about. The church has a vital role to play in civil polity.

And then finally, we said that you have a vital role to play as lay people as well. Because at the end of the day, representatives really are representational. They represent the mass of the people, good or bad. They’re there because the country wants them there for the most part. They put up with all these things the country does. So essentially, the men of this particular church, for instance, are the pool of men from which officers in this church will be taken. The men that form the greater Portland area are the pool of men from which the representative governors that God has ordained in his scriptures will be taken.

And so unless there’s reformation in the heart of each individual believer, we won’t have a reformation in our communities, our church, and then our state.

We move on then today to talk about the last of the T. We’ve talked about activism, candidates, and today we’re going to talk about truth—biblical principles. I like the word truth because truth comes from a truthgiver. Principle sounds abstract, and they—we have a—we must be diligent in the day and age in which we live to continue to repent of our sins relative to the failure to apprehend the person of God and all that we do and say.

What am I trying to say? There have been times—most of the time in men’s history—when a knowledge of God, sometimes imperfect, sometimes a wrong knowledge of that God, but a knowledge of a transcendent power over man was made manifest. And we live in the context of a culture today that has ripped out all of those external manifestations of God. So it leaves us in a weakened position and we’ve got to really attend diligently to ourselves, for our family, to remember that God is with us, that God sees.

I didn’t think of this till now, but I wore my little video camera tie tack, and not for this purpose. I just thought it’d be good. My son, one of my sons, gave it to me. But that’s what we need to do is have an understanding of the presence of God.

So principles sound abstract, and I want us to remember to bring—it’s a good word. Principle means first things, but to use the term truth here is to bring into our existence the presence of the truthgiver, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the spirit and the Father who sees and observes the affairs of men.

We want to concentrate ourselves today with basic foundational truths that must affect how we vote on issues and also on the evaluation of men and what define the ability of civil magistrates—their qualifications. That is, who we’re going to vote for in this particular election season, and more importantly, what truths we bring to our discussion as I said before, to our Mars Hill, the political discourse and process in our country.

We’ve been praying some of us for evangelistic opportunities. Well, you have a great one in a particular political season—evangelistic opportunities. But you must have basic biblical truths under your belt to get into those conversations in a distinctively Christian fashion. And so I want us to talk today about some basic truths from this particular scripture and other scriptures as well that I have gleaned from various places. Nothing new here, standard stuff.

And the first point is the most important point, and it is very basic, and yet it is the point at which all too often we diverge from in consideration of things public or civil in our country today. The first point is that God’s authoritative light-giving word is to be our standard, not man’s magic darkness-producing word.

So the first fundamental principle is we must cleave then to God’s authoritative light-giving word, not to man’s magic darkness-producing word.

We have in the context of Isaiah chapter 8—I need to do a little bit of background here—what’s going on. The passage says that the kingdom is divided. Of course, you’ve got Israel and Jerusalem, or Israel and Judah. It’s the way that when you read in the prophets, Israel refers to those ten tribes in the north. Judah or Jerusalem refers to the two tribes in the south. Okay? And the tribes are divided.

And at this particular time in history, the northern tribes, the Israelites, have made a confederation or an alliance with Syria, an ungodly power. And those two people are plotting against the southern tribes down in Judah. Okay? So that’s what’s going on. And Isaiah tells them that a guy’s coming on the scene, Assyria, who’s going to wipe you out. Okay? So it’s a warning of judgment that Assyria will produce tremendous judgment upon the northern tribes, preparing them for captivity and also will frighten the southern tribes.

The southern tribes won’t fall ultimately at this particular point in time. It’ll take the Babylonians later on to affect that full judgment. So that’s what’s going on. And that’s why in the beginning verses where he says, “Assemble yourselves, you people. You shall be broken in pieces. Make your confederation, Israel with Syria. But it isn’t going to work because God’s going to bring in a greater enemy, Assyria, to judge you and to throw you out and also even to frighten Judah in the south.”

So that’s the context of the statement. Isaiah 8:20, which I really wanted to key off of, is that we must cleave to the law and to the testimony. If people don’t speak according to these things, then they have no light in them. We got to cleave to God’s authoritative word. So this text is about that. And this text really focuses in upon the fact that, as Matthew Henry said, if they keep up the fear of God and keep down the fear of men, they will find God their refuge.

He says in verse 12: “Say 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.”

So in the middle of this, it’s the fear of God that drives us to his word. A proper sense again of the presence of God in our lives and a fearfulness relative to our particular sins of omission or commission. And that fear drives us then to the word of God. And what God does is he brings about other fears in the world.

The word translated here in the King James—”say not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy”—another word could be used: conspiracy. The northern tribe of Israel with the Syrians had secret agents down there in Judah spying things out for their campaign against Judah. There really were conspiracies amidst in the land, and lots of them. And ultimately we have Assyria conspiring to go in and massively wipe out everybody there.

And God says that in a time of judgment, in a time when plots are being hatched, in a time when even the nation that once owned God as their God and the Lord Jesus Christ as king, such as in our time, when that nation goes into conspiratorial dealings in terms of world power, a new world order, but election money flowing in from Indonesia, whatever it is—when all these conspiracies are adrift, he’s not saying they’re not real. But what he’s saying is ultimately don’t be afraid of those things. Don’t focus your attention upon those things, but rather sanctify God in your hearts.

So that’s the background for this particular passage: there’s real problems, real time of judgment, bad things going on. They’ve all but forgotten God totally. And the prophet tells them, “Yeah, there’s going to be tough times and you’re not going to be able to stand by your own power. But ultimately, if you fear God in your heart, you’ll make it through this, okay? God will hear. God will rescue. Keep the fear of God up. Keep the fear of man down. And God will be your sanctuary and your security.”

And in the context of that, then he stresses here the tremendous privilege, first of all, that they have in being able to seal up to themselves the law of God. Verse 16: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.”

Isaiah is told, first of all, the tremendous—as Matthew Henry calls it, the unspeakable privilege—which the people of God enjoy in having the oracles of God consigned over to them and being entrusted with the sacred writings, that they may sanctify the Lord of hosts, may make him their fear, and find him their sanctuary. To bind up the testimony—it is a great instance of God’s care of his church and love to it that he has lodged in it the invaluable treasure of divine revelation.

It is a testimony and it is a law. Not only the prophecy is so, which must therefore be preserved safely, it’s a testimony of the law for the comfort of God’s people in the approaching times of trouble and distress, but the whole word of God is also. God has attested it, and he has enjoined it as a testimony. It directs our faith. It’s a testimony of God’s sovereign works, and so it directs our faith. And as a law it directs our practice.

And we ought both to subscribe to the truths of it and to submit to the precepts of it. This testimony and this law are bound up and sealed. For we are not to add to them or diminish from them. Now, in the prophetic language, there’s a sense in which the Old Testament prophecies are bound up and sealed for the time of Christ to come. But Matthew Henry—by implication at least—draws out a correct inference that the law of God is not to be added to or subtracted from.

And so we’ll bind up the testimony and the law, the statement of our standard of our faith and then the standard of our practice—testimony and law. So yet that testimony and law is to be treasured in the hearts of God’s people. And it is to be the thing that they cleave to as they seek to discern properly what their responsibilities are in the time of tremendous judgment or oppression.

And again, I quote here from Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry says, “Observe what use we must make of the law and the testimony. We must speak according to that word. That is, we must make this our standard. We must conform to it, take advice from it, make our appeals to it, and in everything be overruled and determined by it. We must consent to those wholesome healing words and speak of the things of God in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches. It is not enough to say nothing against it, but rather we must speak according unto it.

“Why we must make the use of this law and the testimony is also stated: because we shall be convicted of the greatest folly imaginable if we do not. Those that concur not with the word of God do thereby know that there is no light—the word means morning light, dawning light—upon them. In them they have no right sense of things. They do not understand themselves nor the difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood. If we deviate from the standard of God’s word in the political arena, the business arena, whatever it is, we lose the light of God’s dawning light upon our understanding of things.

“We can no longer properly make evaluations of anything apart from the word of God. Henry goes on to say, ‘No, those that reject divine revelation have not so much as human understanding. They don’t even lose their ability to think logically.’ We’ve talked of this before in the heresies in the early church. They lose their ability to make logical deductions, propositions. Nor do those rightly admit the oracles of reason who will not admit the oracles of God.

“Some read it as a threatening: If they speak not according to this word, there shall be no light to them, no good, no comfort or relief. But they shall be driven to darkness and despair, as it follows here in verses 21 and 22. What light had Saul when he consulted with the witch? Or what light can those expect that turn away from the Father of lights in his revealed word?”

He reads the doom of those that seek to familiar spirits and regard not God’s law and testimony. There shall not only be no light to them—no comfort or prosperity—but they may expect all horror and misery. As the text goes on to say, it isn’t just an absence of light. God positively gives them over to increasing judgments.

Verse 21 of the text from Isaiah 8: “They shall pass through it and be hardly stabbed and hungry. And it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves and curse their king and their God and look upward. And they shall look into the earth and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven into darkness—a downward devolution into the void, as Van Til calls it—for men who reject the source of knowledge and interpretation and evaluation.”

Matthew Henry says that the trouble they feared shall come upon them. They shall pass through the land, or pass to and fro in the land, unfixed, unsettled, and driven from place to place by the threatening power of an invading enemy. They shall be hardly blessed, or hardly be—rather, whether to go for the necessary supports of life. Either because the country would be so impoverished that there would be nothing to be had, or at least themselves and their friends so impoverished that there would be nothing to be had for them. They’re not going to be able to eat.

In other words, as this marauding army comes in, so that those who used to be fed to the full shall be hungry. Note, Matthew Henry says, “Those that go away from God out of the way of all good—they shall be very uneasy to themselves by their discontent and impatience under their trouble. A good man may be in want, but then he quiets himself and strives to make himself easy. But these people, when they shall be hungry, shall fret themselves, and when they have nothing to feed on, their vexation shall prey upon their own spirits.

“For fretfulness is a sin that is its own punishment. They shall be very provoking to all about them—nay, to all above them. When they find all their measures broken, and themselves at their wit’s end, they will forget all the rules of duty and decency and will treason and curse their king and blasphemously curse their god. And this more than in their thought and in their bed chamber. They begin with cursing their king for managing the public affairs no better, as if the fault were his.

“When the best and worst kings cannot secure success when they have broken the bonds of their allegiance, no marvel if those of their religion do not hold long. Next, they curse their god. They curse him and die. They quarrel with his providence and reproach that, as if he had done them wrong. The foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord. See what need we have to keep our mouth as with a bridle when our heart is not within us. For the language of fretfulness is commonly very offensive.

“They shall abandon themselves to despair, and which waysoever they look shall see no possibility of relief. They shall look upward, but heaven shall frown upon them and look gloomy. And how can it be otherwise when they curse their God? They shall look to the earth. But what comfort can that yield to those with whom God is at war? There is nothing there but trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish—everything threatening and not one pleasant gleam, not one hopeful prospect. But they shall be driven to darkness by the violence of their own fears, which represent everything about them black and frightful.

“This explains what he had said in verse 20 that there shall be no light to them. Those that shut their eyes against the light of God’s word will justly be abandoned to darkness and left to wander endlessly. The sparks of their own kindling will do them no kindness.”

As Paul interprets the actions of Abraham in the New Testament, what does Paul say? What do the scriptures say? Paul says to the law and to the testimony. Paul turns for doctrine as he considers the implications of Abraham. Luke 10:20—a lawyer comes to Christ and Christ says he wants to know, how do you get eternal life? and Jesus says, “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” Jesus himself turns and directs the man to a study of the law of God, the word of God, as to the basis for understanding eternal life.

In Luke chapter 16, the story of Lazarus and Dives, he asks for one to come back from the dead and the answer given by Jesus our Savior—he says unto them—he says that if they don’t listen to the law and to the testimony they won’t listen to one raised from the dead. The scriptures, the word of God—if men reject it they’re going to reject the Christ who is represented in that word and revealed to men.

We quoted this last week, but Matthew 6:29—Jesus answered to those who didn’t believe in the resurrection. He said, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God.” If we do not take the word of God as our standard for evaluating every ballot measure, every candidate, every political discussion we enter into, what standard shall we use? Do we search those scriptures and as a result avoid error in our thoughts? Jesus says, “Ye err in not knowing the scriptures.”

The word of God is the basis for everything that we do, including our political action. That is the great truth that I want you to leave with today: the standard of God’s word. And you’ve heard it over and over and over. Hopefully, it’s one of the first things you heard as a new Christian. But I’m not reticent to remind you of the basic matters of the faith because it’s there that we hear most often. And it’s there that we’re pulled at so hard by our culture around about us, including many in the church who say the scriptures don’t really relate to these things.

The scriptures are about faith. The scriptures are about salvation in Jesus and going to heaven and going to church. It’s not about our economy. It’s not about our politics. But these scriptures assert that it is in them that we find light from God to evaluate and discern our day and age. And remember, that’s written to men in the midst of political oppression.

Mark 7—Jesus said, “In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, behold the tradition of men.” Talking to the Pharisees. What were they? They weren’t great Bible scholars. No, they were great tradition scholars. They asserted the Judeo-Christian ethic. They asserted traditional family values, so to speak, in what they wanted to do.

That’s not to be our standard—some kind of blend of the scriptures with those who don’t believe, some kind of view of conservatism or the tradition of our culture. No. Jesus said, “That’s the very thing, the very point at which the Pharisees erred: is in taking the traditions of man and as a result ignoring the commandments or word of God.”

The word of God is what brings light to traditions of men. Traditions lead to that downward cycle of men who first no longer have temporal blessings around them as they move away from God’s word and his judgment comes. For a while they’re full, then the enemy comes in. Now they’re hungry. They wander along the land. They don’t know where to stay. They can’t find food. Pretty soon they start getting fretful and nervous and angry, and eventually that anger becomes anger against God, and then a complete despair—downward cycle.

And the beginning of that cycle is not listening, not heeding to the word of God, to the law and to the testimony, to the standard of orthodoxy and the standard of our practice, orthopraxy as well—the scriptures.

Paul wrote to Timothy that from a child he was he knew the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Those scriptures are the means by which the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. What good work will you do this week in political action if you don’t hold to those scriptures? They’re what equip you. Do you interpret these measures, these issues on the basis of God’s word? Do we err by rejecting God’s word? And do we find ourselves equipped to do those good works by heeding God’s word as our standard, as what brings light to our path in terms of political action?

Psalm 19 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” There again, the word of God brings light to the eyes, that we might know how to discern what we’re to do. Psalm 119: “The entrance of thy words gives light. It giveth understanding unto the simple.”

I’ve listed lots of scripture references there. Jeremiah 8:9 speaks of those men who rejected the word of God—and what wisdom is in them? May we not be such men as we consider political action. The noble Bereans are those who search the scriptures daily to decide whether these things were so. Do we go to that word and the truth of that word as we analyze how we’re to vote, how we’re to engage in political dialogue?

I could go on and on. I already have. The point should be clear. These scriptures say that God’s word is sure. God’s word is authoritative. God’s word brings light and understanding to men’s paths. But it also says that man’s word is a magic word. What people were trying to do—they’re trying to discern what’s going to happen. When are these guys coming in? And they didn’t have the light of God’s word to direct them. So now they turned to magicians, enchanters, mumblers, people that would do weird things to get in touch with the dead to find out what was going to happen in the future.

Which is kind of, you know, it’s kind of ironic, of course, that you’re going to look to the dead what’s going to happen. And he points out that irony: “Well, the living go to the dead for counsel.” So he uses an extreme here in the context of Isaiah and its contemporary reality of what was going on. But, you know, there’s a sense in which when man asserts his word as authoritative, when it’s actually a word of flux, he asserts magic.

I was thinking, you know, if you look at those camera shots where you’ve got like a picture of the globe, you’ve got some couple standing outside or something and the camera pans back and pretty soon you’re way back in space. And you see the globe there. Now think of that. Think of that image of you here and panning back to the moon and how insignificant you seem.

And yet each of those individual people who reject the word of God assert their word over this whole created order thinking that it can bring sense to this order. Well, we’re less than ants. We’re like amoebae in the terms of the size of the universe and what God has made. For good reason. He wants to remind us of our inability on our own part, in our own heart, to think through how we affect this. These little tiny dots on this globe think they can save this globe now. I think they can save the environment somehow. Why? Well, there’s no intellect to it. There’s no rationality to it. It’s magic.

It’s like saying the right incantation. You know, magic is an attempt to control powerful forces, godlike forces, in the context of our environment or our who we are by man’s actions. You know, you do the right incantations, you make the right spells, and boom, great things happen. Well, you see, when we go to our word and assert our intellect, our word, our authority over the word of God, we’re really doing that same thing. We’re trying to make the right statements, come up with the right positions to make God do certain things.

R.J. Rushdoony—he got into trouble years ago for writing that Arminianism is really magic. Now, you know, it’s not a popular thing to say. If you understand the significance: the Arminian thinks that by praying the prayer or saying the right words, then God is moved into action in saving him. You see, he controls the forces of God by his decision. Now, most Armenians don’t do that. They’re not self-conscious about it, but Rushdoony’s going to point out that really when you get down to it, it’s the same thing.

You know, the case law says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Why? Because in its essence, it’s the same thing: to assert man’s word of flux or change and hoping that it can bring in light and order. It really is magic—trying to make the right incantation that God would respond the right way, produce peace in our land. That’s what conspiracies are all about ultimately. It’s an attempt to control forces of nature, so to speak, with men’s actions and men’s words.

The scriptures say the end result of that is death, darkness, despair. God tells us have nothing to do with that. Cleave to the word. What does that word say?

Secondly, then, the second fundamental principle that word asserts is that God is sovereign. The state, while having a delegated authority defined by God’s word, is not sovereign. That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? But it needs to be said over and over and over.

He says, “Don’t be afraid of those that say confederacy or conspiracy. Be fearful of God. God is sovereign, not the men that God is using in his means as his secondary means to bring judgment to the land. God is sovereign, not the civil state.”

This is a very important principle in the context of political action. I Friday I had a couple of not pleasant experiences. I had sent some boxes of voters guides off in my mailbox on Monday or Tuesday. They came back to me on Friday with a little sticker saying, you know, because of the new anti-terrorism stuff, you cannot mail packages over one pound. You got to bring them to a person.

Now I know that in actuality I’ve done the right thing. You can put packages over a pound with stamps on them in your own mailbox, but the carrier then has to remember that he’s got to stamp them right away, saying he knows who you are. What relevance? The relevance is this: a plane crashes months ago. Man does not believe in the providence or sovereignty of God. Only man can make planes not crash. The answer to planes crashing is more and more control over the population.

Maybe it was a bomb, maybe it wasn’t, maybe it was mechanical. We don’t know what it was, but it was within days. There was an executive order given to make sure you couldn’t mail packages at dropboxes for the post office anymore ’cause they might have explosives and blow up. They might get on a plane going from Portland to Tigard apparently, on a plane and blow up.

You know, the problem is that man really thinks he’s got control. When you get rid of the idea that God’s in control, it’s scary. You know, there’s nothing undergirding everything. Now, the civil state has to step in. Second thing I had to do is pay my rent. And they wanted me to—they were upset ’cause I hadn’t brought back the form. There’s a new law. They sent me five pages of notification about lead-based paint and the dangers of lead-based paint. And you know, you have to initial these things to make sure that you know that they’ve told you about the dangers of—I’ve had several of these things in the last year.

Why does that happen? Because the legislature doesn’t believe in the providence of God. There’s no God who loves the elect and Jesus Christ superintending the events of earth. So somebody’s got to fill that void. So the state steps in as the voice of collective man to exert its sovereignty. See? So they got to make sure you know about lead-based paint. You know about every possible danger in your home. You got to make sure of that now because man believes that he is sovereign, now that he needs to be sovereign because God is not sovereign.

Now, we assert the sovereignty and providence of God. And when we do that, we assert that really, you know, frequently what we want to say is we can do the job better. You’re not sovereign, state. So let us in our charitable efforts, for instance, take care of the poor because you’re not going to be able to take care of them perfectly. But when we assert the claims of God’s providence, we assert that things do happen that are bad for people and that they’re not going to be solved ultimately by the sovereign state.

The sovereignty and providence of God means that he discriminates in his events, and it means that all people are not going to be blessed. Along with the doctrine of state sovereignty is the doctrine of universal salvation. Okay. Now you may hold that eventually the gospel will penetrate the earth and all men will become Christians eventually. I think that might be taught in scripture. But the perversion of that on the part of the civil state who rejects God’s word is that man is going to be saved by the efforts of the civil state.

You don’t have a job? We’ll take care of you. You are getting sick? We’ll take care of you. You don’t have education? We’ll take care of you. We’ll take care of you, we’ll take care of you, we’ll take care of you. And we’re going to take care of everybody. Don’t talk about deserving poor because everybody is deserving. We’re all creatures. We’re all in this together. So the civil state and its assertion of sovereignty to itself asserts to itself universalistic salvation.

And we say, “No, the scriptures plainly teach that God is sovereign and the civil state is not sovereign.” And so the civil state has to back out, increasingly, of areas that it sees itself in.

Isaiah didn’t see the hand of man—ultimately saw the hand of God superintending all events. I wanted to mention here again—I will not read these quotes but again—Groen van Prinsterer, who lived in the first half of the 19th century, saw all this coming. And let me just say this very briefly: Van Prinsterer said that the basis for socialism and state sovereignty—the theological basis of it—will be the rights of man. That’s what Groen van Prinsterer said. When you assert that men have rights to things, then men are going to achieve those rights through the assertion of the collective power of the state. And that’s what’s been happening for 150 years. Van Prinsterer was right. He saw it coming.

If we’re going to put the axe to the tree of God’s word against the roots of state sovereignty, it must have one of those main roots is the idea of the rights of men. The Scriptures don’t assert the rights of man. The scriptures assert the right of God. And God can do what he wants to with his creation, with his creatures. And in God’s providence, some go to hell and some go to heaven. Van Prinsterer understood those things.

So they’re not to have fear of these conspiracies, but they’re to sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. They’re to assert the sovereignty of God and ultimately base their fear upon the fear of God.

Let me just read a quote here from Matthew Henry. He advises them to a gracious righteous fear. “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself because God is sovereign. The believing fear of God is a special preservative against the disquieting fear of man.”

Well, this is quoted or—excuse me—we must look upon God as the Lord of hosts that has all power in his hand and all creatures at his command. We must sanctify him accordingly, give him the glory due to that name, and behave toward him as those that believe him to be a holy God. We must make him our fear, the object of our fear, and make him our dread. We must keep up a reverence of his providence and stand in awe of his sovereignty, be afraid of his displeasure, and silently acquiesce in all his disposals.

Were we but duly affected with the greatness and glory of God, we should see the pomp of our enemies eclipsed and clouded, and all their power restrained and under check. Those that are afraid to the reproach of men, forget the Lord their maker. He assures those who are afraid of a holy security and serenity of mind. In so doing, he shall be for a sanctuary—that is, to those that have this fear of God. Make him your fear, and you shall find him your hope, your help, your defense, and your mighty deliverer. He will sanctify and preserve you. He will be for a sanctuary to make you holy. He will be your sanctification.

So the state is not sovereign. God is.

Third truth: the scripture asserts, God’s command word asserts, that the state’s task is to punish evildoers and reward the righteous. Plain and simple. You commit to memorization at least the text Romans 12:19 through the first few verses of chapter 13. Remember that text, and remember the text from 1 Peter, and you will do well in conversations with people about political action because the state has a definite responsibility by God.

In Romans 12:19: “Avenge not yourselves but give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” And then he goes on in verse 13 to say, chapter 13: “Be subject to the civil governors. Why? Because he is the minister of God to thee for good. For he is the minister of God. Now in verse four of chapter 13: a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

So he tells them in the concluding verses of chapter 12, don’t take wrath yourself. I’ve established a authority—the civil government—to execute my vengeance upon the evil. And he says the same thing in 1 Peter. He says, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be a king or a supreme or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well.”

Civil government has a specific task. That task is the punishment of evildoers and the praise of the righteous. And when they go beyond that task, they demonstrate that there’s no light in them. They’re no longer governed by the word of God. And when we vote in civil programs that go beyond those qualifications, those lines of demarcation of the state’s authority, we’ve left the light of God’s word and we begin down that path of darkness that leads to the sorts of curses that we read about in Isaiah chapter 8.

Fourth: the word asserts that the state is best ordered when it is overtly representational. And I won’t go into the quotes here, but if you remember what we talked about last week, Deuteronomy 1, Acts 6, Exodus 18—yes, there’s provision for a civil monarchy in Deuteronomy 17. But the form of government that is pictured by scripture, the normative one, is representational government where the rulers in church and state are elected by the people, represent those people in their actions.

Tremendous amount of political theology developed in the time of the Reformation and in the ensuing century or two along this particular idea—that this country was formed in the basis of such men who understood the whole word of God as it relates to overtly covenantal representation in the civil government.