Alright brethren, we're there
in 2 Chronicles 26. That's going to be our passage
for tonight. Our subject is lessons from King
Uzziah. Let's begin reading here in verse
1. It says, All the people of Judah
took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king
in the room of his father Amaziah. And he built Eloth, that was
an important seaport, and he restored it to Judah. And after
that, the king slept with his fathers after his father was
dead. Sixteen years old was Uzziah
when he began to reign. And he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jecholiah
of Jerusalem. Now watch this. And he did that
which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all
that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days
of Zechariah. who had understanding in the
visions of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made
him to prosper. There were two periods in Uzziah's
life, and these two periods will make up our divisions. There
was the first part of Uzziah's life where he sought the Lord
and God made him to prosper. And then there was the latter
half of his life where Uzziah transgressed against God and
his prosperity ended. Our chief lesson in Uzziah is
the necessity of preservation, of perseverance in faith in Christ. That is, continuing from the
beginning to the end, believing Christ. It's not salvation to
make a one-time profession of faith in Christ. That's not salvation. Neither is it salvation to profess
to believe Christ and to go for a while and then turn away from
Christ, turn away from His gospel. That's not salvation either. When a sinner is truly made a
partaker of Christ by the power of God's grace, then that sinner
holds fast to Christ. Christ is his confidence and
he believes Christ and he continues to believe in Christ until the
end of his life. He stays upon Christ beginning
to end. Hebrews 3.14 says, We are made
partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end. The proof that we have been made
partakers of Christ is we will hold fast our confidence steadfast
into the end. Hebrews 10.39 says, But we are
not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. Now the first half of Uzziah's
life we have an example of a man who believes the Lord. It says
here in verse 5, He sought God in the days of Zechariah who
had understanding in the visions of God. When it says he sought
God, it means that Uzziah worshipped God in the way that God commanded
that God would be approached. He sought God, he worshipped
God in the way that God commanded that God would be approached.
For example, While he sought God, Uzziah offered incense offerings
through the priest to God. Now pay attention to this because
in our text we'll see later that in his life, later in his life,
this is where Uzziah transgressed. This is what he transgressed
in. But while he sought God, this is what he did. The incense
offering symbolized prayer and worship of God through Christ. through faith in Christ. That's
what it pictured. Psalm 141-2 says, Let my prayer
be set before thee as incense. Let my prayer be set before thee
as incense. That's what it pictured. And
the priest who presented the incense offering to God typified
Christ, the intercessor of his people. Now get this picture.
You have the temple, and you have the outer court, and you
have the middle court, and you have the holiest of holies. Well,
the sinner would come to the outer court. He couldn't go into
the inner court. He couldn't go into the holiest
of holies. He came to the outer court, and there he worshipped
God. There he prayed to God. And as
he did, the only way that his prayers went up to God was by
a priest who went in with incense in a burner, the special incense
that God made, that God gave, that God said was holy. He went
in with that incense, the priest did, and it pictured the prayer
of the believer going up to God through a mediator. And that
incense that that priest burned was typical of the merits and
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who makes the worship
of the believer and the prayer of the believer and the service
of the believer to be acceptable to God. It perfumes. Christ's
person and his merits perfume our prayer and our worship and
our service to God. And that's how God accepts it.
That's why God accepts it. And then the priest returned from coming from God and went
back out to the believer that was there praying. with a blessing
from God for that sinner. Now, the reality of it is, we
have access, the believer has access to God through faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Only through faith in Christ.
We have to come in Christ. And as we worship God, as we
pray to God, as we serve God, whatever it is we're doing toward
God in faith, Christ takes our prayer and our worship and our
service and he presents it to God as our intercessor, as our
mediator. And just like that incense perfumed
it, Christ, person and work perfumes the whole of our service and
our offering and our prayer and our worship so that God accepts
it. And then God, the Father, sends the blessing through Christ.
And Christ comes to us and blesses us in our hearts with the blessing
from God. A blessing such as, your sins
are forgiven you. Go forth in peace. So that Christ
stands before us as the mediator. He's the intercessor between
us and holy God. And this is the only way a sinner
can come to God. It's the only way. Only through
Christ our mediator. Only through Christ as our intercessor
will God receive us. That's the only way we can approach.
and God only accept us in the person and work of Christ. Now,
for a while Uzziah sought God this way, at least in the ceremony
and the tithe set forth in the temple. It says here, Uzziah
was faithful to seek God, verse 5, in the days of Zechariah,
who had understanding in the visions of God. This is not the
prophet Zechariah. This was a man that God gave
an eye to see these shadows and types in the Law and the Prophets.
The margin says, It says he in the visions of God, it says in
the seeing of God. Just like how I'm preaching to
you and I tell you, I say here's types and shadows of Christ and
I show you that in the Law and I show you in the Prophets. This
man was given the ability to see types and pictures in the
Law and the Prophets. And so he was a preacher of sorts. He was a teacher who taught Uzziah
these shadows and these types in the Law and the Prophets.
And as long as Uzziah sat under his preaching and his teaching,
he sought God as God commanded that he be sought. Now this right
here tells us, brethren, the necessity of continually hearing
the gospel preached. What we're doing when we come
here is we're continually being reminded that the only way to
come to God is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what we're hearing every time we come here. And as long as
Uzziah heard that message, Uzziah came to God that way. And you
would think, well, do we need to be continually reminded? You
know, this thing of me reminding you about upcoming events that
we're having, that shows me, brethren, never to be grieved
with preaching the same message over and over again to you. And
that you should never be grieved with me preaching the same message
over and over to you. Paul said in Philippians 3, to
repeat the same things unto you is not grievous for me, but indeed
it's safe, it's needful for you. Martin Luther said we need to
hear the gospel every day because we forget the gospel every day. And I think that's by design.
I think God made it that way so that we have to hear the gospel
preached. It's how he keeps his people
together. And then we're told this in verse 5. And as long
as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. As long
as Uzziah, the picture here is of a man persevering in faith.
As long as Uzziah persevered in faith, worshiping God, as
he was taught through God's messenger, that is, worshiping God through
a mediator, through an intercessor, then God made him to prosper.
It was God who made Uzziah to prosper. That's what it says.
And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
Now, King Uzziah prospered in a material way in the earth. God made him to prosper that
way. And Christ is certainly able to make His people prosper
in a material way in this earth. But the spiritual blessings that
Christ gives us, that God gives us through Christ, are much more
valuable than any temporal blessing He could possibly give us. So
as we look at these temporal blessings that God gave to Uzziah,
I want to remind you of some of the spiritual blessings that
God has given to us. First of all, God made Uzziah
to be a good, benevolent king. That's what God did for him.
Now, when he started out, he was 16 years old. And Jerusalem was at one of the
lowest states it had ever been in. It had been plundered, it
had been conquered by the prior kings, during the reign of the
prior kings. And it was in a terrible state.
But this man, everything he did prospered that kingdom and grew
that kingdom. So that God made it manifest
that it was God doing the prospering. Now brethren, spiritually God
has Christ Jesus the Lord by his blood has made every believer
a king unto God. Revelation 1.5 says, Jesus Christ
who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead
and the prince of the kings of the earth. He's the king of kings
and lord of lords. Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. The glory is His and the
dominion is His. The glory is His. The dominion
is His. He did the work. He did the work. And then it says here in our
text, as long as Uzziah sought God, God gave him victory over
his enemies. Verse 6. It says there that he
went forth and he warred against the Philistines, and he broke
down the walls of these enemy cities. He was victorious. And
then it says, and he built cities among the enemies. And then verse
7 says, and God helped him. It's translated from a word that
means, the word of the Lord helped him. That pre-incarnate word,
Christ, He helped him. And it says, helped him against
three enemies. Helped him against the Philistines,
against the Arabians that dwelt in Gabal, and the Mahunas. He helped him. Now listen, these
three enemies had previously, under the reign of the former
kings, these three enemies are the ones that had broken down
the wall in Jerusalem and had come in and had really conquered
Jerusalem. You know, in our first representative,
there were three enemies that conquered us. Satan conquered
us. Ephesians 2 says, we walked according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
works in the children to disobedience. Sin conquered us. Romans 6, 26,
you were the servants of sin. And death conquered us. Hebrews
2 says, we through fear of death were all our lifetime subject
to bondage. But just like this new king comes in and conquers
his enemies, Christ comes in, the last Adam, the Word of the
Lord and He helped us by His obedience. He conquered Satan,
sin and death by fulfilling the law for us and He did it by one
offering on the cross. Look at Romans 5 with me. Romans 5 and look at verse 19. This is the only way that any
sinner is going to be accepted of God. Right here. Look at this.
Romans 5 and verse 19. As by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. Did you know you weren't made
a sinner by your disobedience? You were made a sinner by another
man's disobedience, by Adam. As by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. If you're ever made righteous,
it's going to be by another. It's not going to be by your
obedience. You see, we're represented by Adam or we're represented
by Christ. That second man here is Christ.
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. It
didn't enter for you to try to come to God by the law. The law
entered that you might see your offense. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death. Satan was the cause of that.
And he begot Eve and Eve When Adam saw Eve sin, he sinned with
his eyes wide open, and sin entered in, and sin reigned unto death.
There you got Satan, sin, and death. It reigned, brethren.
But even so, my grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Not your obedience to the law,
grace reigns. That takes the place of my obedience
to the law. And it's not through righteousness
I've done, it's through the righteousness of another by the obedience of
Christ. And it's not unto death, it's
unto eternal life. It's all by Jesus Christ our
Lord. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We're more than
conquerors through Him that loved us. And then it says here that
while Uzziah sought God, back in 2 Chronicles 26, while Uzziah
sought God, God gave him ability to build cities amongst his enemies. Look at verse 6. He built cities
about Ashdod and among the Philistines. Christ uses his faithful servants
that he's made faithful to come to God in Christ. God uses his
faithful servants through his gospel and he establishes heavenly
cities. He establishes gospel churches
throughout the earth right in the midst of his enemies. That's
what God does. Thanks be unto God. This is 2
Corinthians 2.14. Listen to this. Paul said, Thanks
be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. and maketh manifest the savour
of his knowledge by us in every place. You mean even amongst
those that hate us? We are unto God a sweet savour
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. We are
a sweet savour unto God in Christ in them that are saved and in
them that perish. To the one we are the savour
of death unto death To the other, the saver of life unto life.
Who's sufficient for these things? Not that we're sufficient of
ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. You see, this is what faith is.
We're wholly depending upon Christ who is our strength. We're wholly
depending upon Him to give us the victory over our enemies,
to establish His name, His church, His power in the midst of our
enemies. We don't have strength, we don't have sufficiency for
anything. And then look here, God even uses our enemies to
provide gifts for us as he spreads his kingdom in this world and
makes his name to go abroad. Look at verse 8. And the Ammonites... These were enemies of Jerusalem. And the Ammonites gave gifts
to Uzziah. It means they gave tribute. It
means they gave taxes. to Uzziah. And his name spread
abroad even to the entering in of Egypt, for he, the Lord, the
Word, strengthened Uzziah exceedingly." You see, this is God conquering
our enemies. This is God establishing His
church in the midst of our enemies. This is God using our enemies
to provide for us, brethren. Now that's spiritually what God
does for us in this earth. This is typically what he did
for King Uzziah, but this is spiritually what God does for
those that come to God in Christ. And then look, as long as he
sought God, God gave Uzziah defenses to protect him. Verse 9, he built
towers in Jerusalem. Verse 10 says he built towers
in the desert. It wasn't that Uzziah was able
to do this just on his own. It said God prospered him. God
prospered him. God made it so he could build
these towers. God made it so he could build
these towers in Jerusalem and in the desert. No king had been
able to do it before because any time they tried to do it,
here come the enemy and tore everything down. But God made
it so the enemy didn't come any further and he gave Uzziah the
wisdom and the ability and the resources to build these towers.
God's given us something even better than that, brethren. He's
given us Christ Himself to be our defense. Look here, the psalmist
said, Thou hast been a shelter for me. He's our city of refuge. He's our fortified city, Christ
is. And a strong tower from the enemy. Proverbs 18, 10 says, The name
of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous runneth into
it and is safe. That's who Christ is. And then
he says here, as long as Uzziah saw God, God gave him wells in
the desert. Look at verse 10. And he digged
many wells, he cut out many cisterns, for he had much cattle. He digged many wells. Well, God
has given Christ to be our well of salvation. Whether He gives
us some temporal wells and provides some temporal water for us, that's
fine. But He's given us something better,
believer. He's given us Christ who's the well of salvation.
Jeremiah 2.13, He said, My people have committed two evils. They
have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters. You ever think
about, you see those stories or read those old stories about
somebody finding a well of life, finding a fountain of youth?
Christ is that fountain. He's the fountain of living waters. And he said, that's the first
thing, my people, that they've forsaken me, the fountain of
living waters. And here's the second thing,
they've hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns, broken wells that can
hold no water. But I will read that to you to
show you Christ is the fountain of living waters. Remember the
woman at the well? He came to that woman at the
well and he said, do you have anything to drink? Where you
can give me something to drink, you know? And he sat there and
talked to her a while and he said, if you knew who it was
talking to you, you would have asked of him and he would have
given you living water. And she looked at him and she
said, you don't have anything to even draw water out of this
well with. He said, I'm not talking about this well. He said, the
water I give unto you is life. And whoever drinks of this water,
he said, he'll never thirst again. But it'll be a well of life springing
up within him. That's what he is to his people.
When Christ is formed in us, it's like having a new heartbeat
in a dead body. It's like having life breathe
in to a dead man. Christ is the life, brethren.
He's the fountain of living waters. He's the life of the believer.
And then, it says here, as long as he worshipped God in Christ,
Uzziah was given much cattle. Verse 10 says there, he had much
cattle, both in the low country and in the plains. Well, God
may give us some livestock. You know, you think today, I
don't care about having cattle. Well, you think about having
all these temporal things you need to live, though. And that's
the same as having cattle in that day. That was like having
money to have cattle. That was like having food on
your table to have cattle. Well, but this is something God's
made His people to know. For every believer that comes
to God in Christ, He's made us to know we are God's cattle.
We're His cattle. We're the sheep and Christ is
our shepherd. And this is what He says of His
sheep. He says this from Psalm 23. It
says, The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. You realize if Christ loses one
of us, brethren, He suffers more from the loss than we do. Because
He's attached His namesake to our salvation. He's attached
His glory to our salvation. And so if He loses one for whom
Christ died, His name's at stake. His glory's at stake. That would
mean He would lose more than we lost. Brethren, I'm telling
you, God won't lose one of His people. We're the sheep of Christ's
pasture. He said, no man will pluck them
from My hand. They won't pluck them from My
hand, Christ said, and they won't pluck them from My Father's hand.
And then look at this, as long as Uzziah saw God, God gave Uzziah,
it says verse 10, He gave him husbandmen, also, and vine dressers
in the mountains, and in caramel, for he loved husbandry." This
was a mark of a wise king. He loved husbandry. He loved
agriculture. If everything else failed, this
man could put food on your table. This king could make sure you
had food on your table. This was wisdom given to him
from God. But brethren, God has given us
something even better. God has told us God is our husbandman. Christ is our vine. And we're
the branches. We're united to Him. Look here
at John 15. John 15. Verse 1. He says, I'm the true
vine and my Father is the husbandman. That's the farmer. That's the
one who plants everything. It's his farm. He says, Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit, he takes away. And every
branch that beareth fruit, he purges it that it may bring forth
more fruit. So if we bring forth fruit, where
is it coming from? It's coming from God. Isn't it? That's what he said. Verse 3,
Now you're clean through the word which I've spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine. Christ said he's the vine, and
he said, now you abide in me. You can't bring forth fruit unless
you abide in me, no more than a branch can unless it stays
in the vine. He says, No more can you except
you abide in me, verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Now that's the
spiritual blessing that every believer has through Christ Jesus,
by Christ Jesus, from God. Alright, look here, back in our
text, 2 Chronicles 26. And as long as he sought God,
Uzziah was blessed of the Lord with a great army. Verse 12,
they're called mighty men of valor, and there was 2,600 of
them. Those were the commanding officers.
And then it says, verse 13, and under their hand was an army
307,500 men. that made war with mighty power
to help the king against the enemy. And Uzziah prepared for
them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets,
and harbigans, that's a coat of mail, a steel coat, and bows
and slings to cast stones. But you know what we have, believer?
We are Christ's army. We've been made Christ's army.
Your fellow brethren are His mighty army who make war with
mighty power. And the mighty power of this
army is Christ our captain. He has a whole army, a whole
host of heaven, angels to look over His saints. He has all of
providences at His disposal. All the wind and the waves and
all of the natural things around us, they're all at God's disposal. At the disposal of Christ our
Captain. And He protects us. He provides
for us. And He's around us continually.
And He says to us, He tells me to tell you who believe on Him
that the victory of this war, the victory of our redemption
is already accomplished. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Say unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. And as far as this
warfare that we have between the flesh and the spirit, God,
just like God provided for King Uzziah so that he could provide
all this equipment for his army, and spears, and all the shields,
and all the protection. God's provided all that for us,
brethren. Ephesians 6.13 says, Take unto
you the whole armor of God. That's Christ Himself. The whole
armor of God. That you may be able to withstand
in the evil day and having done all to stand. He says, He's given
us the truth to gird about our loins. Like that harbinger was. He's given us the breastplate
of righteousness. He's given us, He's shot our
feet with the gospel of peace. He's given us the shield of faith
wherewith we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. He's
given us the helmet of salvation which is the sword of the Spirit,
and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. And He tells
us to pray always with supplication for all saints. He's telling
us to be constantly, continually casting all our care upon Christ. Because Christ is the one who
makes all of these defenses to be effectual. He's the strength
of the believer. Brethren, for Christ's sake,
for what He's done, God has marvelously blessed us spiritually. He's
marvelously, and He's made us strong in Him. Look at verse
15. It says there, Uzziah's name spread far abroad, for he was
marvelously helped until he was strong. We want only Christ's
name to spread far and abroad. We don't want our name to go
forth. We're not preaching in our name.
We're not, we're preaching Christ's name. We want His name to go
far and wide. And He alone has made us strong.
And He alone is our strength. This is our song. Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy
and for Thy truth's sake. Now these are the spiritual blessings
that Uzziah was given as long as he sought the Lord, or the
temporal blessings. But in these we see the spiritual
blessings we've been given us who seek the Lord. But now, proof
that we have been made partakers of Christ, truly been united
with Christ by the grace of God is we continue in Christ. We don't look away from Christ.
We don't turn away from Christ. We see how we need Christ. Matthew 24, 13, He that shall
endure to the end, the same shall be said. He that endures to the
end. Cast not away therefore your
confidence which hath great recompense of reward. Now we come to the
second half of Uzziah's life. Now here is an example of those
who prove that they never were in Christ by grace. They prove
it by not persevering in faith in Christ. Verse 16 says, But
when he was strong, his heart 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
first notice the cause that he turned away from God. What was
the cause of it? Verse 16 says, When he was strong.
When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.
When he was strong, when God had given him all of these temporal
blessings, Uzziah started looking at those temporal blessings.
He started looking at them and he forgot God who gave them. He forgot God who gave the blessings. And looking to the strength that
God had given him, looking to that strength that God had given
him, made him forget God who was his strength. Brethren, whatever
temporal thing God gives you in this life, whatever temporal
thing God gives you in this life, whatever spiritual blessing God
gives us, don't look at the temporal blessing.
Don't look at the spiritual blessing. Use those blessings to look away
from yourself and out of ourselves and away from this world to God
who gave the blessing. Look to Christ in whom the blessings
are given. Use every blessing to lead you
to Christ and never cease looking to Christ. Temporal blessings
and spiritual blessings are good. They're good. But the God who
gave them is greater than all. They're given to us to look to
Him, not to look to the blessings. Now notice, this was in his heart. We're going to see what his action
was. But it started in his heart.
That's where this was, in his heart. Out of the heart proceeds
every kind of evil. The heart is evil, brethren.
It's desperately wicked. No man can know his own heart.
These are the things that defile a man. God has to give us a new
heart. Here in Uzziah we got a picture
of a man who was not given a new heart. Whether he was, literally,
I don't know. But right here we got a picture
of a man who was not given a new heart. Now, because of the blessings
given him from another, think about that. Because of blessings
given to him from another, he was filled with pride. Scripture says, These six things
doth the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination
unto God. God hates these things, they're
an abomination to Him. You know what the number one
thing is? A proud look. Stand in the mirror. Yeah, this
looks pretty good. God said, I hate it. I hate it. It's an abomination to me. Have
you ever seen that picture of that woman sitting in front of
that vanity? It's aptly named a vanity. She's
sitting in front of a vanity mirror, you know, and she's looking
at herself, but the whole thing is a skull. The whole thing is
a skull. That's what you're looking at
in a vanity mirror is death. And God says to look at that
death and wrap your arms around it and say, boy, this looks good.
God says, I hate that. It's an abomination to me. King
Solomon gave glory to God. Let's look at 1 Chronicles 29.
Listen to this. 1 Chronicles 29 verse 12. He says, both riches and honor
come of thee. Speaking to God, he's praying
to God. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest
over all. And in thy hand is power and
might, and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength
unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank
thee. and we praise thy glorious name. But who am I and what is my people
that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee and
of thine own have we given thee. Do you think it's any great thing
to God that we give anything from ourselves? Every bit of
it came from God. Every bit of it. Brethren, what
do you and I have to be proud of? Nothing. Scripture says, for who maketh
thee to differ from another? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do you have that you didn't receive from that
who? From God. Wherefore then if we received
everything from Him, why do we act like we didn't receive it
from Him? We have nothing. God the Father chose whom He
would by grace. By grace Christ came and laid
down His life and made His people the righteousness of God in Him.
By grace the Holy Spirit came and gave us life and faith and
brought us to Christ to cast our care upon Him. It's by grace
that God keeps us and preserves us and keeps us trusting Him.
And what He shows us here in Uzziah is if He takes His hand
off us, we won't persevere in faith. So we need God to preserve
us. We need God to hold us. We need
God to keep us. So brethren, if a man wants to
glory, let him glory in the Lord. There's only one to glory in.
Now here was Uzziah's transgression. He attempted to worship God without
Christ. I don't know if Zechariah died
or if Uzziah just got so big for his britches that he decided
he didn't need to assemble and hear God's preacher anymore.
I don't know what it was. But one way or another, he forgot
he was supposed to come to God and a mediator. Look at verse
16. 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 that priest burning incense
for the people typified Christ our intercessor presenting the
believer to the Father. That's what we saw, what I told
you at the beginning. But here's Uzziah and he gets
to looking at all his strength and what he has and he thinks
somebody as strong as me, I don't need a priest to represent me
to God. I don't need a mediator to represent me to God. But he
was wrong. He was wrong. No sinner. It doesn't matter how low he
is. It doesn't matter if he's the king of the mightiest nation
on the earth, blessed of God immensely in his kingdom. He
can't come to God without a mediator. No sinner can. You can't worship
God without a mediator. You can't pray. You can't sing. You can't do anything whatsoever. You can't meet God in judgment
and be accepted of God unless you come in Christ Jesus the
Lord. And notice Isaiah did not cease being religious though. He came to be religious while
he did this. He was being religious while
he did this. There's many who have a form
of religion and they have a form of doctrine. But they have not
been given a new heart and given faith to come to God in Christ. Many go for a time and then after
a while they cease gathering together to hear the gospel preach.
But they'll be quick to tell you, oh, I know God and I believe
God. And they'll tell you what they
believe. And it might have a ring of sound doctrine to it. But
I tell you this, they're no longer coming to God in the way God
commands. Now they're coming by their wisdom
and by their will and by their works. And it is idolatry is
what it is. And God won't have a man that
comes that way. There's one God and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. And there's no other name given
under heaven whereby we must be saved. The Lord said, I am
the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. Will God accept a sinner that
comes outside of Christ? He was a mighty good man. He'd
done a mighty lot of good things for folks. Will God receive anybody
that comes outside of Christ? No, He won't. And I'll tell you
this, it'll be Christ Himself that judges the man and casts
him out. Let me show you that. Azariah
here, the priest, is a type of Christ. And notice, he's the
one that casts him out. Look here, verse 17. And Azariah,
the priest, went in after him, and with him fourscore priests
of the Lord that were valiant men. That's the picture of Christ.
And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth
not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to
the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn
incense. It applies to Christ, it doesn't appertain to you.
Go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed, neither
shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. Christ himself
shall be the judge. And Christ himself, the high
priest, the priest of God, shall be the one that casts sinners
out that try to come to God outside of Him. He said that. He said,
not everybody that says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father. And the
will of God the Father is, believe on Christ and come to God in
Christ. Come to God robed in His righteousness,
repenting of your sins, of your self-righteousness, of your vain
way and your vain wisdom of trying to come to God. Come to God in
Christ only. That's God's will. And he said,
But many in that day will say, Lord, didn't we do many wonderful
works? Lord, didn't we prophesy in your
name? Lord, didn't we cast out devils in your name? And he said,
And then I will say unto them, Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you. That's what we see here with
Azariah. He's the one that cast out Uzziah. Why did he cast him
out? Verse 18 says, Because it appertains
not unto you. It pertains to Christ the mediator. He's the only one that can present
you to God. But I'm sincere. So was Uzziah. But look at what
it says in verse 18. Thou hast trespassed. That was
his sincerity. That's what it was. All so-called
worship outside of Christ is sin. It's idolatry. Neither shall
it be for thine honor from the Lord God. That means neither
is it worship. He's saying, this won't be from
honor from God, it's going to be your disgrace and your destruction.
That's what he told him. Well, that makes me angry, a
man will say. It made Uzziah mad too. Look
at verse 19. Then Uzziah was wroth, and he
had a censer in his hand to burn incense. He went from going to
worship God with that incense, burn it to where he was fixing
to slay the priests with it. That's what he was fixing to
do. Look here, and while he was wroth with the priest, that priest
represents God, that priest represents Christ. Your anger, whoever is
angry, your anger is against God. That's what we have pictured
here. And look, and that leprosy, while
he was there, leprosy, picture in sin, rose up in his forehead
before the priest in the house of the Lord from beside the incense
altar. You know what anger is? Anger
is sin rising up in your forehead. Why is it rising up in your forehead?
Because God counts your very best wisdom to be nothing but
sin. And that angers a man. That fills
a man with indignation against God. Look here. And every sinner
who attempts to come to God right now without Christ, or in the
day of judgment, this will be the word of Christ to judge himself
to you. Verse 18 says, Go out of the
sanctuary for thou has trespassed. And in that day, you'll agree
with God. You might not agree with Him right now. You think
it's just me talking to you. But in that day, you'll agree
with God. And you will go out, because it'll be God that smokes
you. Look at verse 20. Yea, himself hasted also to go
out, because the Lord had smitten him. He agreed with God. and he left. So every sinner,
every sinner who comes to God outside of Christ shall be cut
off from the presence of God. Look at verse 21. And Uzziah
the king was a leper until the day of his death and he dwelt
in a several house being a leper. That means a separate free house. That means a part cut off from
everybody. Look at the next thing. For he was cut off from the house
of the Lord. That's what it means. Verse 23.
So Uzziah slept with his fathers, he died, and they buried him
with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged
to the kings. This field belonged to the kings,
but it was not the field in which the kings were buried in. It
was a field where they buried lepers. That's where he was buried. For they said, He is a leper.
And Jotham his son reigned in his stead." Now I want you to
go home thinking on this. I want you to go home thinking
on this great contrast between all the blessings that Uzziah
was given by God when he came to God through a mediator. And think on the contrast between
those great blessings that the believer has, spiritual blessings,
eternal, everlasting, unchangeable, never-ending blessings we have
in Christ Jesus. Contrast those with how Uzziah
was cut off and cast out and died in his sin, died in leprosy,
a picture of dying in sin. Can you say this? Listen. I know
whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. That's
faith, believer. If you can say that and you believe
God, this is what Paul said to Timothy. Then hold fast the form
of sound words which thou hast heard of me. in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. Listen to this. Colossians 1,
22 and 23 says this, Christ shall present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight if you continue in the faith
grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven. Here's the point of my message.
Here's the point of my message. Watch you. Watch you. Stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men. That means be strong like men. and be strong. How am I going to do that, preacher?
Cast everything you have, all you are and all your being and
all your hope and all you hope to be into the hand of the Lord
Jesus Christ and leave it there. Don't ever leave His feet. Believe
Him. Persevere in faith. You can't
come to God without Him. You can't come to God without
Him. Some of you sitting here and you think, I don't buy it.
You're going to. One of these days you're going
to. You're going to get it. But then it's going to be too
late. Because then you're going to be bowing down before Christ
and confessing it so. And then Christ is going to cast
you out. He sent the Gospel to you now. Believe Him. Believe
Him. I pray He'll make you. I pray
He'll make you, force you to willingly Bow down and say, Lord,
I believe. I believe. Amen. Brethren, we