All right, the title of the message
this morning is No Other Way But Christ. No other way, and
we know that's so. There's no other way to salvation,
no other way to God, no other way to glory, but Jesus Christ
and Him crucified and risen from the dead. All other ways are
ways of death. Christ is the narrow way that
leads to eternal life. All other ways are the broad
roads that lead to destruction. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And this is illustrated in this
historical account of a man named Uzziah, King Uzziah. And if you'll notice at the top
of your lesson there, you've got not only 2 Chronicles 26,
which is our main text, beginning at verse 16, I'll deal with the
first 15 verses just in summary, but the lesson actually starts
in verse 16. But also you see Isaiah, and
it's a very familiar passage. I'm sure that most of you recognize
that, Isaiah 6. And remember how that starts
out in verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died. And we'll
look at that in a minute. Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up in the temple. He had a vision of the temple
and the Lord's train, His robe filling the temple. And the Lord
revealed some things to Isaiah. That was in Isaiah's youth. If
you look at 2 Chronicles 26, Verse one, it says, then all
the people of Judah took Uzziah who was 16 years old and made
him king in the room of his father Amaziah. And verse four, look
at this. It says, Uzziah did that which
was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his
father Amaziah did. He sought God in the days of
Zechariah. Now that's Zechariah the prophet.
We have a book, Zechariah. That's Zechariah the prophet.
Zechariah was a prophet who had understanding in the visions
of God. And when you talk about the visions
of God, you're talking about the word of God. That's what
the prophets, they had visions. It's not like those today who
claim to have visions, which are false. But these were visions
that that supported, that had the authority of God's Word and
mainly concerning God's promise to send Christ into the world,
the Messiah. And you can see that in the book
of Zechariah, but Zechariah who had understanding in the visions
of God and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper,
that's Uzziah. As long as Uzziah sought the
Lord, God made him to prosper. And so these first 15 verses
of this chapter describe the reign of King Uzziah, where he
began as a young man. Think about that, King 60. Well,
we read about Josiah early, who began to reign when he was eight
years old, or later on. And Uzziah reigned for 52 years. And as I said, Zechariah was
a prophet during those days. And then, A younger man named
Isaiah was a prophet. And it says, like in Isaiah chapter
one, I'll just read this to you. Isaiah 1.1, it shows you all
the kings that Isaiah prophesied. Isaiah was a prophet to the southern
kingdom, Judah, and he mainly prophesied in Jerusalem. And
Isaiah 1.1 says, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which
he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah. That's
the one we're looking at now. Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings
of Judas. So Isaiah prophesied through
the reign of four kings before his prophecy ended. And one of
them was Uzziah. And this was around 700, 750
years before Christ. It gives you an idea. about 150 to 200 years before
the Babylonian captivity, which took place around 500 or 586
BC. Gives you an idea about the history
of it. But Uzziah was a successful king. He was a prosperous king. God
blessed him. And it says here, as long as
he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. He was helped
by God, the scripture said. And if you'll look at verse 15,
2 Chronicles verse 15, it says, Uzziah made, and he made in Jerusalem,
he built up their armies, he built buildings, he brought in
prosperity. And it says, and Uzziah made
in Jerusalem engines, that's machines, whatever machines they
had back then. Well, I don't know exactly what
all they are. He invented by cunning men to
be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, probably, and it says
to shoot arrows, war machines is what he's talking about, and
great stones were withal, and his name spread. It went forth
far abroad, his fame, for he was marvelously helped. Now,
who was his helper? God, you know. He was marvelously
helped by God. The Lord is my helper. We read
all the time in the Psalms from David and other Psalms. And of
course, we see that in our lives. You know, Christ is our helper.
And it's not like, as false religion says, God helps those who help
themselves. That's false religion. That's
not biblical. You do know that, don't you?
You've heard that. I think it came from John Wesley.
but it's false religion. God helps those who help themselves.
If that's the truth, we're all helpless and we have no, but
he is our helper and he was Uzziah's helper. Now you have to understand
that the position that Uzziah had as king was under the terms
of the old covenant, which was a conditional covenant. So as
long as Isaiah, Uzziah rather, did that, sought the Lord and
led the people in the old covenant, the kingdom prospered. Now, The
words here, the four words here that are significant, look at
verse 15. He was marvelously helped till
he was strong. What do you mean? Look at verse
16. It says, but when he was strong,
when he was at his height, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. That's the problem. And for he
transgressed against the Lord, his God, and went into the temple
of the Lord." This is King Uzziah, a descendant of David, the tribe
of Judah now, the one who was so prosperous, the one who led
the people. And understand now, a king who
did that which is right in the sight of the Lord, those who
recognize that they were types of the king of kings, And so
Uzziah was to be aware of that, but he was lifted up to his destruction
for he transgressed against the Lord, his God, and went into
the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense.
Now, you know that altar of incense, that was in the most, that was
in what they call the holy place. You remember in the tabernacle,
And it was the same in the temple. You had the open court where
the brazen altar was. That's where they sacrificed
the lambs and the rams and the bullocks and all that. Then you
had an inner chamber there. The first place you went into
was called the holy place, where you had the table of showbread.
You had the golden candlestick, the golden laver, and the altar
of incense. And then they had the curtain,
the veil. that went from the ceiling to
the floor and behind that veil was the Holy of Holies. Now all
the priests could attend the services of the holy place where
all that furniture was, but only the high priests could go into
the holiest of all where the mercy seat was and with the blood. And he did that one day a year
on the day of atonement for the people. But here's Uzziah. What was his sin? Well, his sin
obviously was pride and self-righteousness and leaning upon his own strength.
And I put in here at the last sentence of the first paragraph,
he failed to realize that the reason for his success was God's
power and God's help, not his own. He failed to continue to
listen to the words of his ancestors, King David. And I've got Psalm
121. There's several places where David cried out, the Lord is
my help. It's not me, it's not my strength,
it's not my goodness, it's God. And boy, that's the way our salvation
is. We're never to be lifted up in our pride and self-righteousness
to think that any part of salvation at any stage to any degree in
any way is conditioned on us. But it's all on Christ who fulfilled
all conditions by the price of His blood and His righteousness
imputed to us so that we stand firm and immovable and unchangeable
in the sight of God. But it has nothing to do with
our works. It really has nothing to do with
our decision. We do works and we do make decisions,
but that's not the conditions that we meet in order to attain
or maintain our salvation. And that's what Uzziah was to
realize about his prosperity in the kingdom as the king. This
is the work of God. And I wanna point people to God.
I've been writing an article that's turned into a message
about the glory of God. We wanna glorify God. Well, you
can't glorify God unless you tell the truth on God. Did you
know that? Preachers today, will tell you
everywhere. They say, well, we're here to
glorify God. And then they don't tell the truth on God. You can't
glorify God and tell lies on God, misrepresent him, it's impossible. And when Uzziah did this as the
King of Judah, he's misrepresenting God. That's what he's doing. And it's because of his own pride.
And then I've got Proverbs three verses five through six. You
know what that says? Trust the Lord and lean not to
your own understanding. Well, that was Uzziah's sin.
And his sin was the same as with all of us, especially when in
our sinful nature, we think about eternal salvation and the blessings
and the benefits of salvation. Because man naturally, when he
thinks about those things, he thinks, he or she thinks, in
some way, in some form, to some degree, that we can do something
to earn those things. We can do something to empower
those things. That's where that old adage comes,
God helps those who help themselves. We can do something to put it
in effect. It's like the old, the false
gospel of universalism. It says that God's trying to
save you, all right? Now think about it. If I say
that, what am I doing? I'm telling a lie on God. There's
nothing in this book that says God's trying to save everybody.
and that if you'll do your part, Christ died for everybody, and
if you'll do your part, then all of those blessings of salvation
and goodness will kick into gear and be applied to you. Now is
that what the Bible says about God? And the answer's no. Well,
we think that by nature, don't we? And that's what we're taught
growing up. I'm gonna talk about that in
the message today. But when Uzziah was strong, his heart was lifted
up to his destruction. That's what it tells us here.
Lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed the Lord.
Now, what did he do? You know, what he did here might
seem so innocent. And people, what happened, you
know, as he ignored, what he's doing here, he's ignoring and
violating God's law, the law of the priesthood, the law of
true worship. God said that only the priests of Levi were to go
into that most holy place, that holy place, and burn incense
and take care of the table. The king had no right to do that. I don't care how good of a king
he was. He had no right to do that. That was the job of the
priest. That's the terms of the old covenant. And Uzziah ignored
it and violated it. And one writer wrote this, he
also violated what had become a general principle in God's
dealing with Israel, that no king should also be a priest. That the offices of prophet,
priest, and king, that's the mediatorial offices, isn't it?
Prophet, priest, and king, they were never combined into one
person. except Christ. Christ is our
prophet, he's our priest, he's our king. But in the types of
the Old Testament, you never had one person where all three
of those offices were combined. Only Christ could fulfill all
three. So look at verse 17. It says, now when Uzziah did
this, Azariah the priest went in after him and with him four
score, 80 priests of the Lord that were valiant men. They were
bold is what that means. They were true to the Lord. And they withstood Uzziah the
king. You see, that's the thing about,
you know, this wouldn't have happened in any other culture
back then. You think about the kings of
heathen nations. They had advisors, but no one
could go withstand the king to his face. And the king's word
was always law, but not in Israel, not in Judah. The king was to
follow, God was the ultimate king, is the ultimate king. And
they're to follow his word. And their word, the king's word
was not law in Israel. God's word was law. And the king
was to lead as the under shepherd of God. These priests, they had
the authority to withstand the king to his face, to say, no,
what you're doing is wrong and you're not to do it. And it says
here, they said unto him, verse 18, they withstood Uzziah the
king and said unto him, it appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn
incense unto the Lord, but to the priest of the sons of Aaron.
That's the only ones that God, Command that are consecrated
to burn incense. The king wasn't consecrated.
He wasn't set apart. He wasn't appointed by God to
do this. He was forbidden to do it. And
go out of the sanctuary. They say, get out of here. That's
what they're saying. Get out of here. For thou has trespassed,
neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. This
is not honorable at all. This is pride. That's what they're
saying. And so they said such an act
could not honor him before God. And of course, what we see here
is a type that no sinner can approach God except through the
proper ways. And of course, that's through
Christ. But look at verse 19, it says, then Uzziah was wroth,
he was angry. He had and had a censer in his
hand to burn incense. the coals off the altar and put
him in a censer to do that. And while he was wroth, while
he was angry with the priest, the leprosy even rose up in his
forehead before the priest in the house of the Lord from beside
the incense altar. God struck him with leprosy.
Right then and there. Look at verse 20. And Azariah
the chief priest and all the priests looked upon him and behold,
he was leprous in his forehead. And they thrust him out from
thence. Yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had
smitten him. He got the message now. And he hasted out. He got out
as quick as he could. And it says, and Uzziah the king
was a leper unto the day of his death. He dwelt in a several
house, probably means a separate house. They put him away is what
happened. being a leopard, they had to go, had to get away, had
to be isolated. For he was cut off from the house
of the Lord, and Jotham his son was over the king's house judging
the people, judging the people of the land. Now the rest of
the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet,
the son of Amoz, write. Isaiah, recorded this history. So Uzziah slept with his fathers
and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial
which belonged to the kings. For they said, now here's his
epitaph, he's a leper. They didn't talk about everything
that he built and all those machines and all the prosperity, he's
a leper. And Jotham his son reigned in
his stead. When I was reading this, you
know, and you think about how great of a man, how powerful
of a man that Uzziah was, and this come to my mind as I was
studying this. First of all, what was he doing? Well, it's like a sinner coming
before God seeking favor of God, seeking blessing from God, approaching
God in our own merits. Pleading our own works. Look
at what I've done. That kind of thing. And for any
sinner to take it upon himself to approach God in that sinner's
own merits is death. That's the lesson here. And I
thought about what Peter said back over in Acts chapter 10.
And let me just read it to you. This is when Peter was given
a vision by God and told to go to a Gentile soldier named Cornelius. And of course, Peter had a hard
time with the understanding in the gospel dispensation of time
that there was no barriers or boundaries between Jew and Gentile. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, and God is no respecter of persons. Whatever God does to a person,
it has nothing to do with any merit or worthiness or power
or goodness or decision in that person. It is totally a work
of sovereign grace. without any consideration of
anything other than the glory of God, and it seems good in
his sight. You might ask the question, why
in this world, out of all the millions of people that we see,
did God choose me? Does that ever blow your mind?
It does mind. Why does he reveal himself to
us? I was reading article this morning
by Pastor Gary Shepard, our brother, and he was talking about how
many millions of people are going to its service today, and they
won't hear the gospel. Now, that's just facted, and
it's sad. Gary put it, it's sad. And I
wrote a little comment. I said, it's very sad, but it's
amazing that God was merciful to some of us. And that may sound
like to the world that I'm bragging, but I'm not. You say, well, why,
you know, you're the chosen few. Well, the Bible speaks of the
chosen few. Many are called, but few are
chosen. I mean, what does the Bible say?
And who are those chosen few? They are those whom God brings
to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of dead works.
But here Peter stood over there in Acts 10, listen to this, he
said, he says, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons,
but listen to what Peter said here. He said, but in every nation,
he that feareth him, feareth God. Now what is it to fear God? It's to respect God. It's to
honor God. He's not talking about a legal
fear that stirs people up to establishing their own righteousness.
Talking about that fear that says, let God be true and let
every man be a liar. That kind of fear. God is to
be glorified and honored and worshiped. We're not here to
brag on each other. We're not here to blow each other's
egos up. We're here to honor God. And he says, he that feareth
him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. Do you
work righteousness? Do I work righteousness? Well,
I know this, if he's talking about our works, I can't put
myself in that category, how about you? Working righteousness is not,
has a negative, not approaching God based on our works, which
are far from the perfection of righteousness that can only be
found in Christ. But the positive is this, working
righteousness is approaching God as a sinner seeking mercy
and grace in the righteousness of Christ, freely imputed to
us and received by God-given faith. Coming to God and saying,
I have no righteousness of my own. I have no recommendation
for myself. That's what Uzziah ignored and
forgot. He disregarded God's commands.
He ignored the priest. And he took upon himself to burn
incense before the Lord. And Isaiah, now turn over to
Isaiah chapter six. And I love this chapter, and
I know you all, I preach from it, some of y'all preach from
it. And I'm not going into, you know,
about Isaiah personally here, I'm just gonna show you what
the vision is. God gave Isaiah a vision in the year that King
Uzziah died. And he learned much from the
death of King Uzziah. Now, was this when Isaiah was
initially called to faith in Christ and repentance? Some say
it was. Or was this just Isaiah's call
to be a prophet where God gave him the specific message of the
gospel? Either way. We're not given that
information. I sort of lean to say that this
was Isaiah's conversion. But we're not gonna be dogmatic
about that, but listen to what it says. Look at Isaiah six. He says, in the year, verse one,
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
The train there represents God's sovereignty, God's omniscience,
God's omnipresence, God's revealing himself to Isaiah in the glory
of his sovereignty and his holiness. This is the majesty of the king
of kings. That's what it is. Filled the
temple, that whole temple. Think about that, you know, what
did it come in the form of smoke or whatever? I don't know. But
the thing about it is that whole temple was about the glory of
the Lord in Christ. It wasn't about the King's glory.
Wasn't about Uzziah or the priest, except the high priest, because
he was the type of Christ. But here's what God says in that
tabernacle, in that temple, from that holiest of all. The only
way that any sinner can approach God, a holy and just and righteous
God, and be accepted, be blessed, be received, be heard, is through
the Lord Jesus Christ and based upon his blood and righteousness
alone. That's why I entitled this lesson, No Other Way But
Christ. That's what Uzziah forgot. He
wanted to come his own way. And it says in verse two, above
it stood the seraphims. The seraphims, they represent
messengers of God. With one, each one had six wings. With two, he covered his face. That's reverence. With two, he
covered his feet. That has to do, I believe, with
just admitting our imperfections, that our walk is a sinful walk.
And with two, he did fly. That's moving at the commission
of God. These were messengers. And one,
verse three, and one cried unto another and said, holy, holy,
holy, the thrice holy God. Is this a verse that proves the
existence of the Trinity? Probably. God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And understand now, the word
holy means separate. That's what it means. So what's
God testifying of Himself here? There's no other God like Him.
There's none to compare Him with. His revelation of Himself, He's
the Lord of hosts. That's the Lord of a great army.
And the idea behind that title for God is He cannot be defeated. Whatever whatsoever He wills
to do, it's done. He's invincible. And the whole
earth is full of His glory. And that's true, even though
all people don't glorify him, the whole earth is still full
of his glory, his majesty, even in creation, but especially in
salvation. And mainly in the temple, which
our temple, the church, and our tabernacle, which is Christ.
And in verse four it says, the post of the door moved, and the
voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
There's the smoke. When God speaks, when God reveals
himself, there's movement, shaking of the earth. And of course,
when God speaks to a sinner in the new birth, there's movement
in there. We come forth from the dead,
regeneration and conversion. We're turned from our own dead
works to Christ and His righteousness alone. Read it in Philippians
3 and passages like that. And then here's Isaiah's response. Here's the movement. Look at
verse five. Then said I, woe is me for I am undone. And that
word undone means cut off. Cut off. I'm a man of unclean
lips. And the lips, the unclean lips,
reveals the state of the heart. Out of the heart proceedeth.
sin and when we speak in terms of a relationship with God before
we're born again, it's unclean and he says, and I dwell in the
midst of a people of unclean lips This does, you know, somebody
says, well, that might be how it applies to you, but it's not
how it applies to me. No, this is, there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that do of good, no, not one. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There's not one person in
Israel who has a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice based upon their works. My friend, that's the
same way with our world today. We're a people of unclean lips
by nature, and we dwell amidst a people of unclean lips by nature.
Well, how did you come to that conclusion, Isaiah? Look at it.
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I've seen
God. Now, this vision is wrapped up in the person and work of
Christ. How did the Apostle Paul come to the conclusion that everything
in his early life was dead works and dumb that he could not depend
on? What he was so proud of when
he saw the truth of Christ crucified and risen from the dead, the
glory of God in Christ, the righteousness of God in Christ, When God shows
Himself to us as a just God and a Savior, then we realize the
reality. Verse six says, then flew one
of the seraphims unto me, having a live cow in his hand. Now that
live cow comes off the altar, the brazen altar, and represents
the death of a substitute. And that coal he took in his
hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar,
and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, lo, this hath touched
thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, thy sin is purged. Now how was it taken away and
purged? By the sacrifice of a lamb or a ram or a bullock on the
brazen altar, typifies Christ. How's our iniquity taken away?
How are our sins purged? By the blood of the Lamb of God. Isn't that right? And he laid
it on his mouth. Now that still represents a change
of heart. It goes out of the, what the
mouth speak comes out of the heart. And so it's indicating
a change of heart and the change of message too. and the gospel
of God's grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when
King Uzziah tried to take over and usurp the authority of the
priest and burn incense to God in the holy place, he ignored
all of that. He ignored God's promise of forgiveness,
of righteousness and eternal life by the promised Messiah
who was to come. And so, what's the lesson? There's only one way to come
to God and be accepted. And any other way, I don't care
who you are, whether you're the king or whether you're the poorest
man in the kingdom, whether you're a prosperous king, a successful
king, there's only one way to come to God, and that is through
Christ, the only way to God. All right.