Situation ethics teach that the situation determines what's right and wrong, rather than the authoritative standard of God's Word. We are constantly finding that those who believe in situation ethics are arguing against and trying to contradict the Scripture. They're forever trying to dream up situations that they think nullify the morality of Scripture. For instance, one of the examples they give is if you are on your sidewalk out in front of your house and there came someone running by, obviously in a panic, and they ran up your walkway and into your house. And then just a few seconds after that, around the corner comes another person with an axe in their hand. And they're obviously agitated and they come to you on the sidewalk and they're demanding, where is so and so? What are you to do? Those who teach situation ethics say, well, in this situation, it'd be permissible to lie and to tell them something that is not true. The Sadducees of old came to our Lord and they brought to him a situation, one that they felt nullified their resurrection from the dead. They felt that you couldn't answer this situation. Therefore, the resurrection from the dead could not be valid. And our Lord told the Sadducees, you don't understand the scripture nor the power of God. It is not always in Scripture God's will for God's people to prosper. Sometimes it's his will for them to suffer. If we went back to our illustration that the situation ethics people bring to us, you could speak to the person with the axe and tell them the truth. You might suffer because of it. And sometimes it is God's will that we suffer for righteousness sake. But one thing that the situation ethics people always overlook. is they always create a situation where God's power cannot intervene. They make a box, as it were, and outside of that box is God. And God can't come into their box. We had the three Hebrew young men spoken of this morning in Sunday school who said to Nebuchadnezzar and those in his day that they weren't going to bow down to the idols. God can deliver us or He may let us die, but we're not bowing down. They threw them into the furnace. But what happened? God intervened. They weren't burned. God came down, as it were, into the box, and He, as it were, spared them. When you turn on your television today, most of us are being bombarded by different shows that are trying to, as it were, create a box where God does not exist. And then in that box, situations develop that somehow are supposed to nullify the Word of God. I would suggest to you that we live in a land where people do not understand the Scriptures, nor do they understand the power of God. In the passage of Scripture that we read this morning, we were noting that the king came into the temple. This king was the most powerful king in the region, and he was going to do something in that temple that was wicked, something that was evil. Now the priest had a decision to make. He could stand against the king and lose his life, or he could let the king do what he wanted to do. The situation ethics people would come to Azariah the priest and say, well, now's a good time just to overlook what the king is doing. Turn your head the other way and let him go his way. But Azariah didn't do that. Azariah and 80 priests didn't know what their lot was going to be in the end, but they withstood the king. And as they withstood the king, God answered from heaven. God came down into that situation and turned the situation on behalf of the priest and those with him. Today, I want us to consider this king and his sin. Uzziah is his name. Actually, his name is also Azariah, just as the priest's name is Azariah. You'll find that in the account of kings, as this king is referred to in Second Kings. Azariah was a very popular name. There are 28 people in the Old Testament named Azariah. Actually, Azariah and Ezra come from the same root, meaning help, help. And when you put on the end of it the name of Jehovah, the abbreviated name, it literally means Jehovah helps. So a very popular name then to name someone, to name a child, Jehovah helps. Well, here you have Azariah the king fighting against, as it were, Azariah the priest. We will refer to the king as Uzziah. That means Jehovah is strong and we're going to look at his life this morning and then we'll get to the sin of Uzziah. Look with me, first of all, to verse five. It says, And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. Uzziah knew what it was to triumph because he sought the Lord. He knew what it was to have God's blessing upon him. Now, in his seeking the Lord, he sought the Lord according to God's revelation. It says here, he sought him in the days of Zachariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. He was seeking God according to the instruction given him by Zachariah. Zachariah was a prophet to the king. He was giving him, as it were, God's word. Now, the word vision here literally means in the Hebrew, in the seeing of God. And that has caused commentators some consternation as to what that means. Was he indeed instructing him that if you're going to see God, you must have a pure heart in the sense that our Lord spoke of it in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Is he saying if you're ever going to see God, if you're ever going to make it to heaven, you have to have a pure heart. And the only way you can obtain a pure heart is through repentance and faith in the coming Messiah. You must have a lively faith in the blood of this Messiah in order for your sins to be washed. Is that what he's speaking of? Is he telling him concerning the way of salvation, that if you want to see God, you must be, as it were, clean in his sight. You must have your sins removed. Well, the text would allow that. Others would say, no, he's speaking not so much concerning the future seeing of God, but the visions of God, the times when God made himself known in the past. That is, he's interpreting the old revelation in the Old Testament. That's what it which had already been written. And he's giving perhaps new visions. He is seeing God in a vision. He is describing God's will. He's telling them what God wants. It was said of Daniel that Daniel had understanding in all the visions and dreams. Daniel chapter 1 and verse 17. In either case, we have this prophet telling the king what God's will is. And as long as that prophet, as it were, was before the king, the king responded. But then he stopped seeking the Lord. Before we get to the stopping of his seeking, look at how God made him to prosper. You'll note that that prosperity was both in the nation and outside the nation. He reigned 52 years at this point in the history of Israel. That's the longest reigning king in the South. 52-year reign is a long reign. You add 52 years to the 16 years of his life when he began reigning, you see that he reigned until he was a fairly old man in comparison to some of the other kings. In that 52 year reign, God prospered. We see that in verse five. In verse seven, it says God helped him. We see at the end of verse 15, he was marvelously helped. God was working with the king. God was blessing the king. On what way did God make him to prosper? Well, we have some examples given here, but I don't think that every way in which he prospered is mentioned here. The same work to prosper is found in Psalm one and verse three. The man who meditates on the Word of God day and night, it says that he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. We find the same statement in Joshua chapter 1 in verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. If you obey the book, you believe what the book tells you to believe, you do what the book tells you to do, you're going to prosper. That's the promise in Psalm 1. That's the promise in Joshua 1. This king sought the Lord according to the revelation of God, and he prospered. We have some of the examples of his prosperity given to us, but I don't believe the totality is written here. He prospered in his relationship with Israel. We find him here as a king who protected the people and provided for the people. Look at verse 9 and 10. You see there that he's building towers for protection, towers in Jerusalem, tower at the corner gate. We have a tower at the turning of the wall. He built towers even in the desert, in the wilderness. Verse 10. These towers were obviously to have sight so you could see the enemy coming. They are also to put you at advantage because of your height. He built towers for protection. He also invented implements of war we found in verse 15. He made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows and great stones with all. We're not sure exactly what these engines of war look like. Probably a catapult by our own descriptions today of similar types of warfare. But he put these upon the walls to shoot at those who are coming at him. Again, he was protecting the people as a shepherd would protect his flock. Here is the shepherd of God's people protecting them, building walls as it were, inventing new strategies for battle. We also have him arming the people in verse 14, as I have prepared for them throughout all the host shields and spears, helmets, haberguns, bows, slings. His people were going to be well armed if ever a battle should occur. He had towers to help them in that battle. He invented, as it were, machinery to help them in the battle. And then he equipped the army with implements of war. He not only protected, but we find him very active in providing for the needs of his people. He provides nourishment for his people. You see this being described in here. Here was a man who was given to what the scripture calls husbandry. Look at verse 10. He built these powers and then he dug wells. There would be there would be, as it were, water for the cattle. And then he says he had husbandmen and vine dressers in the mountains and in Carmel for a love husbandry. Here is a man with much cattle, there was much food. Here is a man who has something for his people to drink. In other words, there was nourishment, there was sustenance. He built the walls to protect from invasion, but he also nourished his people. As families this day, we are to protect our families. We are to keep the world out of our families, but doing that alone will not As it were, raise your children to be strong in the Lord. You must also teach your children the ways of the Lord. They must be nourished on the Word of God. They must be fed the things concerning Christ. As a church, we are a separatist church. We don't believe in compromising with that which is apostasy. We have the walls of separation. We have put up the towers. We have instructed the people, as it were, as to what their armor is against the enemy that would encroach. But still, the people have to be fed. The people must be nourished. There must be, as it were, a feeding upon Christ. The cattle here obviously could have been that which fed the people. Also, it could have been that which was used in atonement, that which was used in the sacrificial system. The king had, as it were, his own reservoir of animals to use in the place of worship. How many churches there are today where there are no walls and the enemy comes and goes as it wishes into the church? But the people are fed. They'll hear some Scripture. They'll hear some exposition of Scripture. They'll hear some statements about Christ. But the enemy comes and goes as he will. That's the ecumenical movement. Men who will study the Word, men who will exegete the Hebrew and the Greek, but they have no walls. And they'll bring into the pulpit the next week someone who maybe denies the deity of Christ, someone who denies the salvations of grace. There are no walls of separation. And then, on the other hand, you have people today who are building walls. They're separate from everything. They're known for their separation. But you go into their congregation and the people are starving for food, lack of food. There's no preaching of Christ. There's no teaching as to what we are in Christ. There's no instruction as to the ways of Christ. And the people are starving. A number of years ago, a brother in Christ came to me and he says, I go down the road here and I can hear the preaching of Christ. But in that church, My young people, my children will be introduced to all kinds of immoral and wicked practices in that church. My children will be introduced to apostasy. What do we do? He says, I go to this other church and at that church, we're separated from all this apostasy, but there's no teaching of Christ. It's just a humanism. You do this and you don't do that. There's no exalting in the Lord and what the Lord has done. What do I do? I said, well, if I were you and those were the only two choices I had, I would go to the city that had the walls and protection and then I would instruct my children at home. I said, there's a better way. Let's pray. And so we prayed and asked God to raise up a church. And within six months, there was a church that was established where there would be walls of separation and where Christ would be preached. And this man is now an elder in that church. Brethren, we shouldn't have to decide as to which kind of a church we're going to have to choose, one that has no walls of separation or one that has no feeding. We ought to have both. Both walls of separation and the exposition, the teaching, the feeding upon Christ. Well, we have a king here who did both for his people. He put the defenses up, but he also provided for their needs. God prospered him. God was moving in their midst. We find as well. dealing with the enemy that the Lord was moving on behalf of this king. You'll note early on in verse 2, the first thing it says he did is he built Eloth. Eloth is sometimes spelled Elath in other places in the Old Testament. It's down by Ezean-Geber, by the Red Sea, way down in the south. It was under the control at this time by the Edomites. Now, Jehoshaphat and before him Solomon had a fleet down in that area on the Red Sea. It was a very important economic strategic port, as it were, on the Red Sea. But when Jehoshaphat died and his son Jehoram came to the throne in that wicked rain, the Lord, as it were, took away some of the great boundaries of rain. And one of the things he took away was Enoch. Enoch then was able to be ruled over by the Edomites in that area. Amaziah. the father here of Uzziah. He warred against the Edomites, and he conquered them, but he didn't conquer everything, and so we have here, as it were, his son coming to the throne and, as it were, cleaning up that which is left from his father's reign. He goes down and he takes Elah and he rebuilds it. It would be a strategic place for him in the south. Not only did he, as it were, continue the battle against the Edomites and conquer, We find him also going against the Philistines. You note in verse six, it says that he warred with the Philistines. That's where it says God helped him. What did he do? He break down the wall of Gath, down the wall in Jabneth, the wall in Ashdod. He was breaking down their defenses. A city without walls was easily to be attacked and conquered. He was breaking down their defenses. And then what did he do? He built up cities About Ashdod, among the Philistines, he not only destroyed their defenses, he built cities to bolster his own defense. He was conquering. Philistines weren't going to rise up in his day and smite his people. We find again in the relationship with the other nations that he received gifts from the Ammonites in verse 8. The Ammonites, who were those who would attack Israel, now see the strength of this king, and they feel it's to their advantage to send gifts to him. To try to win his favor. Not only so, we find the fame of this king mentioned on two occasions in this passage of Scripture. He is famous. His name is spreading abroad. Look at verse 8. His name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt, for he strengthened himself exceedingly. And then again in verse 15, and his name spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong. The author wants you to know this king was famous. If you were a foreign king, you didn't mess with this king. He had a reputation. He had an army. He had implements of war. He conquered everywhere he went. God was with him. God was with him. God was causing him to prosper as he sought the Lord, according to the book. But then we have his transgression. The first part of his sin is mentioned to us in verse 15, says when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. It's a temptation that comes to all of us when God prospers us, is that we begin to have our confidence in our strength or in our prosperity rather than the Lord. It's very clear that the Scripture says he was marvelously helped till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up. His heart was lifted up. Now, Jehoshaphat's heart was said to be lifted up. But do you remember what it says after that? It wasn't just that it was lifted up. It was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. That is, Jehoshaphat exalted and gloried in the ways of God. But not so with Uzziah. At this point, Uzziah's heart is lifted up. This is pride. The Scripture says in Proverbs 18, verse 12, Before destruction, the heart of a man is haughty. and before honor is humility. Uzziah had his heart lifted up. Solomon said, You do that, you're headed for destruction. That was the problem with Lucifer in Isaiah chapter 14. In Isaiah chapter 14 we read, For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. And God brought Lucifer down. Our sin then of pride brings us, as it were, into league with the evil one. We are no longer seeking the Lord. We are no longer walking after the Lord. Our pride has brought us in the league with the evil one. Believers in the Old and New Testaments have been tempted in this area of pride, especially when they are strong. In Hosea, we have these words concerning the nation of Israel. Hosea chapter 13 and verse 6. According to their pastor, so were they filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted. Therefore, they forgotten me. God says, I gave them a wonderful pasture and they fed in that pasture. They were filled to the full. And then when they were filled to the full, they forgot me because their heart was lifted up. Their heart was lifted up. For that reason, God oftentimes brings trials into our lives in order to keep us humble. He afflicts us to keep us humble. It's not that he doesn't love us. It's because he does love us, that he brings trials and afflictions to humble us, to make it difficult for us, that we might constantly have to seek after him and trust in him. Remember the Apostle Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. He was given this thorn in the flesh. Why were you given it, Paul? He says, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. He was the great apostle. You say, if anybody wouldn't have difficulty in this area, it would be the Apostle Paul. And Paul says, God gave me this thorn. He gave me this affliction, lest my heart be lifted up, lest I become proud. And it destroys me. God allowed it in his mercy me to have this affliction. In the affliction, Paul found that there was grace sufficient for him. He found greater grace than the affliction. He found grace that would bring all the praise and glory and honor to God. But God allows us to be afflicted. I'm afflicted and you're afflicted. And sometimes the affliction is a chastisement because of sin. But in this case with Paul, it wasn't because of sin. It was to prevent sin. God doesn't always give us everything we want. Because our hearts become lifted up and in doing so, it destroys us. Well, this king's heart was lifted up rather than the prosperity, humbling his heart and making him full of gratitude to the Lord. The prosperity was something that he began to have confidence in and trusted in. And in doing so, that pride brought him down. We also find not only is the sin described as a lifting up of the heart, it's described as the burning of incense, the burning of incense. Now, the burning of incense was only allowed for the sons of Aaron to perform. They alone were allowed to do this. This burning of incense is similar to sins that are found throughout the Old Testament that have to do with incense. Remember, it was Nadab and Abihu who were burning incense when God's fire smote them and killed them. Why did the fire smite them and kill them? It was a false incense. It was a strange fire they were offering to the Lord. God hadn't ordered it, and they were burning this incense in a way not pleasing to Him. Remember, as well, when the sons of Korah and those from the tribe of Reuben were rebelling against the prophet Moses and against the priest Aaron, that one of the things they did at the trial before God was that they had their altars of incense. They had their incense before God. And again, fire came down from heaven and smote them. In Numbers chapter 16, verse 35, it says there came out fire from the Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense. It's not unusual for God to be angry, even though men are offering incense. Was not Uzziah's father guilty of sin and offering incense? He was. He offered incense to his idol, and we noted last week that God was angry with him for it. It was similar to other sins. But here was Uzziah. He was not offering to an idol. He was not in the high places offering incense. He was not in the backwoods somewhere doing something that no one could see. Here was a king who was in the temple at the altar of incense, offering incense. Certainly that ought to be all right. No, he was not doing it according to God's revelation. God had said the way that the incense was to be offered, and this king was rejecting God's word. In Numbers chapter 4, we find there the statement concerning Eleazar's office in verse 16. And to the office of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest pertaineth, the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that is therein, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof." It belongs to Eleazar, the priest. No mention here of kings. In Numbers chapter 16 in verse 40, after the trial of the sons of Korah, when they have been smitten, as well as those of the tribe of Reuben that have been smitten, we have these words. This is to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the Lord, that he be not as Korah and as his company as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moses. Word of God was very clear. You could not come in to the Tampernacle. You could not come into the temple and offer incense if you are not a descendant of Aaron. It was forbidden. More than that, we have the priests themselves standing against the king at this point, and they're pointing out to him, in case he had forgotten, in case the word of God hadn't had an effect. Now we have the priest standing, and in chapter 26 and verse 18 of 2 Chronicles, they withstood the king. It wasn't just the high priest Azariah, it was all the priests, all 80 plus the high priest, 81, were withstanding the king Uzziah. And they said unto him, It appertaineth not unto the Uzziah to burn incense to the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense. Not your work. So here we have a king who in burning incense would give indication that he was seeking the Lord, but he's not seeking the Lord, according to the word. We have many people in our land who tell us they're seeking the Lord. And the question we have to ask them, are you seeking according to the word? God has made revelation of himself. He has told us what he is like. He has told us how we're to seek him. Are we seeking according to the word? God doesn't want you to come with your own imagination. He wants you to come according to the word. If He has spoken, that settles it. We come according to His way. And here was a king, and he's neglecting the Word. He's setting the Word aside. Well, you say, I don't know much about the Word. Then study it. You say, but I don't have a lot of time. You've got time. Your Creator tells you to study it, to meditate upon it, to learn it. You have a copy of the Bible. We're to spend time day after day, week after week, month after month. You've got one day in seven that the Lord has said that it's his day and we're to think thoughts of him, the thoughts that he wants us to think. That's a perfect day to study the word. If you honored the Lord on his day in the way that he dictates, then one year out of seven, you would have spent studying the word and meditating on his great truths. By the time you were 14 years old, two years of your life would have been devoted to the study of the word. By the time you're 21, three years of your life. By the time you're 24 years of your life would have been spent studying the word. You wouldn't be ignorant if you just did on the Sabbath day what God demands. God says we're to study the book that we might know how to approach him. We cannot say that because, well, I'm so busy. Therefore, I don't have time to study the word that that's going to be something that is important to God. Here was the king. God said, you don't come into this temple and burn incense. He came into the temple and God was against him. God was against him. He was not responsive to the revelation that God gave. He was not responsive to the priest's rebuke. But even more than that, what you have the king doing is twisting the type. He's perverting the picture. God was in the altar of incense, teaching the nation something about the gospel. He was teaching them something concerning the work of the Messiah that was to come. And in the king coming in and, as it were, offering the incense, he was bypassing that picture. He was destroying that picture. But what is the picture of? Well, we have to know what the altar of incense was all about. The high priest was to come into the holy place. And in the morning and in the evening, he would come to this altar that was placed before the Ark. There was a veil between the Ark and this altar, but the altar was right before the Ark. On the Ark of the Covenant, God had said to the people that he would meet with the people there. They were to sprinkle the blood of atonement there and that he would come upon the Ark, as it were, and manifest himself to the nation there. And on the other side of this veil was this altar of incense. When a sin offering was offered up, the high priest or the priest who was anointed would come in and he would put the blood of that sacrifice upon the horns of the altar, indicating that the altar had something to do with atonement. On the Day of Atonement, the incense from off the altar and the coals were brought into the Holy of Holies and was put before the Ark of the Covenant. It was the only light, as it were, in that Ark. And the incense from those coals and the incense that was put on those coals would spread over like a cloud the Ark of the Covenant, where God said He would meet with His people. And then the high priest came in on the Day of Atonement with blood, and he would put blood there. God was going to meet with His people. as it were, the blood, and through the incense. But what was the incense? Both the Old and New Testaments clearly express that the incense was a type of prayer. Psalm 141, verse 2, David said, Let my prayer be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. They understood that the incense was a sign, a type, a picture, as it were, of prayer. That's why offering incense to an idol was so wrong. They were placating that idol. They were trying to appease that idol. They were praying to that idol. In Luke chapter 1, where Zacharias has gone into the holy place to burn incense, we find in verse 10, it says, the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. The people understood it was a time of prayer. That what the high priest was doing there at the altar was offering up typically, as it were, prayer to God. And they, at that point, prayed outside. In the book of the Revelation, there are several occurrences where the altar of incense and prayer are joined together. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 8, join the two together. Revelation chapter 8 and verse 3. Let me read you from Revelation 8 verse 3. And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer. And it was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. Scripture is clear. The offering of incense is prayer. The one to offer that incense is who? It's the high priest. What was happening then when when this king came into the holy place, he was, as it were, bypassing the high priest prayers. Or you could say he was, as it were, replacing the intercession of Christ. With his own intercession. His heart was lifted up. Didn't need the high priest intercession, he could do it himself. Brethren, when you and I come to the point in our spiritual life that we think we're strong, that we don't need the gospel, we don't need the atoning work of Christ, we don't need his intercession anymore. We're on the way down. There's not a one of us this day who can stand before God were it not for the intercession of Christ. There's not a one of us who today can come into the presence of God were it not for the intercession of Christ. Here is a king putting the intercession of Christ aside and saying, I'm going to intercede. I'm going to do it. It's not enough that you have a sacrifice in Scripture, you must have a high priest as well. That's why in the book of Hebrews, there's so much devoted to proving that Christ is a high priest. He's after the order of Melchizedek, but he is a high priest. Even his order, he's not after the Levitical order, he's after the Melchizedek order. And that's a greater order. So he's a greater high priest. But a great deal of time is spent dealing with this high priest. Not just a sacrifice, but we need a high priest. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, it says that he gave himself a ransom, but it also says he's the mediator. Both are necessary. The sacrifice, the ransom, as well as the high priest or the mediator. In 1 John chapter 2, it says that he is the propitiation. He's the sacrifice. He's the ransom. But it also says he's the advocate. He's the high priest. He's the mediator. We have to have both. And what you have here is Uzziah coming into the temple and doing away with the mediator, doing away with the high priest, doing away with the advocate. It doesn't matter what's going on outside with the sacrifice. You have to have both. Brethren, the sacrifice of Christ is needed for atonement, but someone has to present that sacrifice. And if the one who presents the sacrifice does it in a wrong way, the sacrifice is made invalid. You need a high priest who does everything perfect before God and you have one. He is the one who offers the prayers to God and the prayers are heard because he also offers himself as the sacrifice. And so what this king was doing was approaching God apart from Christ. And when you see that the distortion of the gospel, you can understand the anger of God. There was a man who was taking the gospel, he was setting the gospel aside, and then he was going to approach God. And what did God do? He smote him with leprosy. And I would suggest to you that if we would seek to come to God today, apart from the blood of Christ and his intercession, it'll mean our destruction. It'll mean our judgment. It'll mean that we, too, will be marked by God because we cannot set aside the gospel at any time of our life. We cannot set aside this continual intercession. We must have it. We must make much of it. And every time we come to God in prayer, we are coming through his blood atonement. We are coming through his intercession. That's the way that we come. We cannot bypass our high priest. We cannot say, oh, I don't need that anymore. I can do that work. You can't do that work. He alone. is the high priest. Now, we can be on the outside of the temple, as it were, praying while he's offering prayers in heaven. We can be praying, and our prayers will be heard because his prayer is heard, but we can't bypass his praying. We can't do away with it as this king was trying to do. Thirdly, you see in his sin that he, rather than respond to the high priest and the priest's rebuke, he got angry. He got angry. We find here it says that his heart was wroth. Isaiah, verse 19, was wrong and he had the center in his hand. And while he was wrought with the priest, the leprosy, it broke out upon him. This word for wrath is the word that's used in Jonah, chapter one, verse 15, for the raging of the sea. Remember that raging of the sea that the people thought they were going to lose their life and they cast overboard the word raging there is from the same root as this verb here. The king was raging. His heart was a tempest. He had yet expressed it, but he was getting ready to. When your heart's like that, normally it's shown in your lips what you say. Sometimes it's shown in your actions. Here's a king and his heart is boiling over. It's raging, as it were, against this priest. You know, the same word is used to describe another king. It's used to describe Esau. The Second Chronicles, Chapter 60, in verse 10, you have Hanani, the priest, coming in against Asa. And it says, Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in prison house, for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. It's hard to receive rebuke, isn't it? Your heart's proud, but you don't see your need for the blood or the intercession of Christ. Someone comes and they give rebuke, what happens? The heart bubbles over in anger. Who are you to speak to me? To rebuke me? This is the king's language. He was angry. He was the king. While his heart was bubbling over in rage, God dealt with him. That brings me to my third point this morning, the tragedy of Uzziah. Not just his transgression, his tragedy. The Lord smote him. That tells us the Lord was no longer favoring the king. The Lord's smile upon the king was, as it were, turned to a frown. He smote him. Both Kings and Chronicles tells us that we have this chastening going on. God chastened the king. God came, as it were, and out of love dealt with the king. He stopped the king from going further. He stopped the king from harming the priest, the high priest. He stopped the king in his tracks. That was an act of grace and mercy to the king. Smiting him, he lost his health. He also lost his honor. His loss of health would be such a way that he would no longer be able to go into the temple courtyard. King could go there rightfully, but he couldn't do that anymore. He lost his health in such a way that it was a stigma upon him, and he had to live in what's called a several house. The Hebrew letter means a free house. One is probably free from all the entanglements of the affairs of court and state. He was apart from that. He was apart from that. He lost authority. He no longer ruled over his own house. His son now ruled over his house. Joplin did. And Joplin also judged among the people. He had no power, no authority in the nation. This was the most powerful king in that region. And now he's the weakest person in the nation. God has brought him down. God brought him down. And his taste of bringing down was the chastening of the Lord. He was removed from the nation. He was removed from worship. He was removed from his place of authority. He went from the most powerful king in the region to the least powerful person in the nation. God still resists the proud. And he gives to us the warning that he resists the proud. In Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 34, we read, Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace to the lowly. The scorner is the one who is proud of heart, and it was revealed on his lips in the way that he speaks. He's a mocker. He's a scorner. God says, I scorn the scorner. The New Testament refers back to this verse on two occasions. In James, chapter four, verse six, it says, But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. And then, in 1 Peter 5, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." God wants us to know it's the humble who are welcome into His presence. He won't fight against and resist the proud. This great king became proud. He decided he could rule apart from God's revelation. He decided he could live apart from the gospel, and God brought him down. It was an act of mercy for him. I don't believe he was cast off forever from the sense in the sense of the fact that he was lost and went to hell. I believe that he, like the other kings, among whom the scripture says it did right in the eyes of the Lord, that indeed they were saved and went to heaven. But God left him as an example to the fact that he will chase this people. And if in pride we lift ourselves up against the Word of God, if in pride we twist the gospel or change the gospel or do away with the gospel, He will chasten us. He will chasten us. Last week, we saw that the chastening of Amaziah ended up in the losing of his life. And here we find the chastening of Uzziah ended up in his illness that brought him out of power and prestige among the people. Truly, if we would seek God, seek the Lord, He will prosper us, but we must seek him according to this book. We must seek him according to the gospel, according to the person and work of Christ. We've got to come that way. That is the message in the Old Testament. That is the message in the New Testament. We come through the gospel. Have you come? Say, I'm seeking the Lord. That's not enough. Are you seeking according to the book? You say, I am seeking the Lord, but are you seeking according to the gospel? Have you come according to the way that God dictates? We see another king in the Old Testament who is smitten. He's spoken of in Isaiah 53. It is our Lord Jesus Christ. He was smitten of God and afflicted, but he was smitten because of our sin. The plague that was put upon him, the stroke that was put upon him, the wounding that was put upon him was our sin. That great king, greater than than this king, was smitten in order that you and I might have access to the unto the Lord. We must come through that smiting. We must come through the king that was smitten in Isaiah 53, the servant of the Lord who bore our sins. Isaiah 55, it says, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. How are you to come? You come through this high priest. How are you to come? You are to come through this servant, this king who was smitten by God. You are to come through Christ. And if you come through him, you will be accepted. If you come through him, your way truly will be prospered in a spiritual sense in that your sins will be removed. You'll have a perfect righteousness given to you, an inheritance that will not fade, that will not be corrupted. May the Lord give us all grace this morning to seek the Lord if we've never sought him, to begin seeking him, if we are seeking him, to fight with that pride that would well up within us and to walk humbly with our God according to his revelation. May the Lord give us grace today. to be seeking him. Let's pray. Gracious Father in heaven, we ask that thou would give grace to each of those who are gathered here that they might seek thee with their whole heart. Lord, we confess we need the cleansing of the blood. We need that blood for the sins of this past week, the imperfections of life, the falling short of thy standard. Lord, we pray then that the blood would cleanse us this day. Lord, we need the intercession of our Savior. We glory in it. We are thankful that he will never cease to intercede for his people. Help us in this day to seek him according to this glorious gospel. And for those who have never sought him, Lord, may they seek and find thee this day. May you be found of them. May you glorify yourself in their salvation. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's turn in our hymn books for a closing hymn. 160. There is a fountain filled with blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. We're going to sing the first two stanzas, and then stanza four. One and two, and four, and we'll close with that. Let's stand to sing. 160. There is a fountain filled with blood. We'll sing stanzas one and two, and then stanza four. Let's stand to sing. It is a fountain filled with blood from a providential spring. And there's one tree, that's what, to call their new king. day. The nightingale rejoices, singing, and counting his days. And there in Isle of the Sea, while all life spins away, in the way, wash all my sins away. And there may I go by the sea, wash all my sins away. E'er since thy reign I saw the stream, thy flowing And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Our Father in heaven, we ask that this day, redeeming love, will be our theme. That it will consume us this day, that we will rejoice in all that Christ has done and is doing for His people. Help us to make much of Him on this His day. May this indeed be a Sabbath rest to us where we rest in Christ. For we ask this in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen.