If you have your Bibles, I would like for you to join me in 2 Chronicles chapter 26. And since we are a church that believes in the inerrancy of Scripture and we love Scripture, I want to read the entire chapter of Uzziah, 2 Chronicles chapter 26 of the life of King Uzziah. Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father, Amaziah. He built Eloth and restored it to Judah, after the king rested with his fathers. Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother, her name was Jacheliah of Jerusalem. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. According to all that his father, Amaziah, had done, 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 prosper. Now, he went out and made war against the Philistines, broke down the walls of Gath, the walls of Jadneth, and the walls of Azdod. He built cities around Azdod and among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who lived in Gerbil, and against the Mennonites, also the Ammonites, brought tribute to Uzziah. His fame spread as far as entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong. And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at the corner butchers of the wall. Then he fortified them. Also, he built towers in the desert. He dug many wells, for he had much livestock, both in the lowlands and the plains. He also had farmers, vine dressers of the mountain, and the caramel, for he loved the soil. Moreover, you saw I had an army of fighting men who went out to war by companies, according to the number on their roll, as prepared by J.L., the scribe, Amiasa, the officer, under Hananiah, one of the king's captains. The total number of chief officers of the mighty men of Valor was 2,600. And under their authority was an army of 307,500 that made war with the mighty powers to help the king against the enemy. Then Uzziah prepared for them, for the entire army, army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slings to cast stones. He made the vices of Jerusalem invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners, to shoot the arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. So Azariah, the priest, went in after him, and with him were 80 priests of the Lord, violent men. And there was still King Uzziah, and said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. You shall have no honor from the Lord, God. Then Uzziah became furious, and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord beside the incense altar. And as arrived the chief priests, and all the priests looked at him, and there on his forehead, he was a leprous. So they thrust him out of that place, indeed. Out of that place. Indeed, he also hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him. King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. Then Jotham, his son, was over the king's house, judging the people of the land. Now the rest of the Acts of Uzziah, from first to last, the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, wrote. So Uzziah rested with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers. And the field of burial was blown to the king, for they said he is a leper. Then Jotham his son reigned in his place. And let us pray again, if you've got some time. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for another Lord's Day. Lord, we ask you to be with us as we walk through this text. Let your spirit empower your servant to preach faithfully your text. Let me hide behind the cross. Allow your servants, Lord, to be fed through the preaching of your word. Let our hearts and minds rest on your truth. Amen. Last year, my wife and I, we traveled up to One Socket, Rhode Island, due to the passing of her grandmother. We wanted to share the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, with her family during this time of sadness. Since our family is all Buddhist, we stepped away from the Lord's Day, being with the family, and we went south about 25 minutes to a place called Providence, Rhode Island, for a day of worship. Providence has an interesting history. It gets its name from Roger Williams, for his thankfulness of God's merciful providence. Roger Williams was a particular Baptist, Williams, Roger Williams, also was an exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to religious persecution. So in this area of Providence, you have a rich history of particular Baptists. And so we traveled up, like I say, 25 minutes, and we found a church to worship that's Lord's Day. And as we sat in the back of this church, we was able to examine a couple of things. We noticed the pews were solid wood. And at the end of each pew, they had a door on the pew. And so you have to get a latch and pull the latch up to get in and out of the pews. And so for a few minutes, I just sat there and just was able to just embrace, wow, this is the church that my brothers and sisters sat in and worshiped God. And they held firm to the doctrines that we embrace today. And I was just so at awe at this moment But shortly, as I was just reminiscing back and thinking about these things, I was awakened by a lady voice. And I came to find out she was the associate pastor of this church. And she went on and led the worship all the way up to the preaching. Then a gentleman got up and gave the message. And the message was really enriched in pragmatism. So I started to think, how did a church solid foundation end up embracing egalitarianism and pragmatism. How can a church with a rich history forget about the hope that came and the great hope that is coming again at the second coming of our Lord? And I know some of you right now are asking, you know, how does this all tie into King Uzziah, and how does it all work together? And after seeing king after king after king rose up in Judah, and all the kings sinned against the Lord, some of the faithful Israelites can start to get weary of that great king to come. So as we look at the life of King Uzziah, I pray that we have a longing for that king that is reigning on the throne forever. So during my time here, I want to separate this message, if I can, into three points. The first point is going to be a thriving king. Then we're going to go with a depraved king. And lastly, we're going to finish up with a perfect king to come. How did we get to this point in verse one with the people taking Uzziah as the king? We know that Christ was promised before the foundation of the world to come and to offer sinners. The lineage that Christ was predestined to come through was David's. David was a faithful king after God on heart. He was able to defeat the Philistines, bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, He did great things until he failed to the wife of Uriah. He proved that he wasn't the perfect king prophesied in scripture. Solomon, David's son, came up next. He built the amazing temple of the Lord. We know the greatness of David just through the preaching in our evening service on the Ecclesiastes, his wisdom. Queen Sheba of Egypt, Solomon because of his wisdom. Solomon once said early in 2 Chronicles 6, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain you. He's later on in chapter 7, he goes on to say, his mercy endures forever. In that same chapter seven, he was reminded, and his people was reminded, if you forsake my statues and my commandment which I set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from my land which I have given them. David also reminded Solomon to keep dear of his law, keep dear of the law of the Lord. But Solomon's heart turned away from the Lord to foreign women, and went after their gods. So what do we have here now? We have a thriving, once thriving kingdom now seen as a kingdom of disgrace. Even in 2 Kings, we find Solomon doing everything the Lord told him not to do. The sin of Solomon caused God's wrath and judgment towards the United Kingdom. And God divided the kingdom in two at the death of Solomon. And that's what we have in the South. We have Judah in the South. In the North, we have Israel. And Judah was reigned by Solomon's son, Rehoboam. In the North, which was Israel, the land, Jeroboam, the Solomon's servant, went on to be the king. Then Jeroboam, I mean then Rehoboam, the king of Judah, he comes to the throne. Then Rehoboam sinned against the Lord. Then Rehoboam's son sinned against the Lord. Then his son sinned against the Lord. We see his consistent sinning against the Lord. But God never forgets his promise to David. His seed would always be on the throne. At times when it seemed like the promise would be forgotten, God would show his mercy and raise up a king that did right in his sight. And that's what brings us to Uzziah. Uzziah was one of these kings that did right in the sight of the Lord at the age of 16. He built Eloth. He restored it to Judah. And Eloth was, earlier in 2 Chronicles, was taken by the Edomites. And Eloth, to give you a visualization of it, Eloth is, it's the northern tip of the Red Sea. And so it was taken by the Edomites, so Uzziah was one of the king, was able to grab this land and rebuild this land. And it ran over 52 years. We see that Uzziah sought the sovereign lord. We know this by the adjective right in verse four. This is not a casual courtesy towards one neighbor, like helping your neighbor across the street, or helping your neighbor pump the gas, which these are all good things. But this right right here, in the Hebrew we get the word hayashar, which mean that he was upright. Yisrael's father, Amazel, was also seen as upright. And not just him, but his grandfather, Joash, was also seen as upright. Even when Asa, the king of Judah, was surrounded by the Ethiopian kingdom, he had nowhere to turn, but he sought the Lord for his mercy, and the Lord defeated thousands and thousands of enemies. So all these kings right here that stand against the Lord, all of them were seen at the beginning of their reign as upright. So we see that Josiah also sought the Lord for his mercy and his great throne. This reminds me of Matthew 5 when our Lord, when he mentions the Beatitudes. In verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. He worshiped the true living God above. We all that have drink from the fountains of the mercies of God can testify of being righteous because of the blood of the lamb. Our faith is rested on the lamb that was offered for the sins of his children. God now sees Christ's work instead of ours. Yes, I sought the holiness of God just like many of us. So how do we get to this? How do we, I mean, how do we know this? We see in verse five, The prophet of Uzziah was Zechariah. This was not the Zechariah that was seen as the last prophet that lived 300 years after this. Nor this was the Zechariah that Joash slew. But some say, or perhaps, that it might be the Zechariah that we see in Isaiah 8. But we know Zechariah had an understanding of the visions. And the Greek Septuagint rendered this test is, he instructed the Lord, he instructed to fear the Lord. So what type of fearing would Zechariah teach the king? He would remind the king of the law of God and the stipulation of obeying and breaking the law of our Lord. He would communicate the blessings and judgment of our God to the king. Uzziah was to obey God's law because of the covenant that he had with God. One guy, J.P. Boyce, defined the covenant as an agreement between two or more parties by which any warrant or more thing are to be done under the sanction of rewards and penalties. Now how does this covenant thing work? So the prophet would give the stipulations, the prophet would give the law, remind the king of the law of the Lord, And the king would have to obey the law. And if the king would obey the law, the king would be blessed. If the king would disobey the law, the king would be cursed. And so if the seed is more indefinitely, we look at Deuteronomy 28. When Moses gives out this law, these stipulations here, and it's saying in verse one, now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the country. And so he goes all the way down to 14 verses, just giving all these blessings if they obey the Lord of God, our God. Then right there at verse 15, they start to give all the curses. But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Curse shall you be in the city. Curse shall you be in the country. And so it goes all the way to the end of the chapter, defining all these curses, if you disobey our Lord. So as long as Uzziah obeyed the Lord, he would be blessed like David and Solomon. The Lord would preciously care for Uzziah. The many things he done, Uzziah done, because his obedience, it shook the entire world. With this heart of Uzziah, the rest that the Lord promised, it seems near. Let's look at Uzziah in 2 Chronicles, back in 2 Chronicles 28, verses 6 through 15, all the things the Lord done in his life, all the blessing that came from him and his obedience. Uzziah Dominus came from the right hand of the Lord towards all his oppressors. He was able to make war with the Philistines. He was able to take the strongholds of the Philistines. He destroyed the walls of Gath, Jabneth, Ashdod, and built the cities around Ashdod. He caused war with countries that dominated the kingdom of Judah. Uzziah's notoriety spread all the way to Egypt. He had over 2,600 chief officers of mighty men of valor. So as we see Josiah just thriving as this king, we even see right here at the end of the verse 15, his fame spread far and wide. Does that sound familiar? That remind us of what? In Joshua, Jericho, when Joshua sits, when they won and defeated, the people of Jericho, and they sought the Lord because of their obedience, and they was able to conquer Jericho. Then right after chapter six in Joshua, you guys remember what happened a chapter over, they follow the Ai for their disobedience. So as long as the Lord is obeyed, Uzziah could defeat anyone because the Lord was on his side. So some of you and myself might ask, is Uzziah the perfect king to reign forever? I mean, that's a good question right now. I mean, he's doing everything. He's defeating all the foes, he's obedient. I mean, is this the king to reign forever? So if Uzziah's life stopped right now here, we might think part of prophecy is fulfilled. But before we jump to this conclusion, let's continue to a depraved king. In verse 15, we ends up with, he became strong. And this strength is not a 60-pound dumbbell doing curls. But from this right here, we get a form of pride. Pride rolls up. As he conquered all his enemy, pride was rising up in his heart, rose up in his heart. The once thriving King Uzziah, heart is at a place he never thought it would be. He was seen as a blessing even at the early age of 16. But now we see the fall of Genesis again. Uzziah proved that he wasn't the new Adam. He proved that he wasn't the king of kings. Uzziah's sin disqualified him from being that promised perfect king forever to reign. This reminds us earlier of the king of Hazel. You guys remember King Hazel, the king of Syria, who never thought his heart would grow so wicked and so dangerous to slaughter the people of Israel. Never underestimate your heart. Uzziah did not shepherd his heart and allow pride to be exalted. The humble and obedient Uzziah that started his reign as a faithful king neglected to nourish his own heart. He conquered all his foes that rose up against Judah, but was defeated by his own heart. How did this happen? There's no way that this can happen to me. We all would say that. We would say that here today, this could not happen to me. Uzziah's accomplishments were coming so fast that he neglected the hands and the strength of God. And Uzziah even gets his name. His name is translated as Lord of Strength. The Lord is strong. But now his name represents what? Uzziah is strong. We that have been born again to an everlasting birth through the miraculous work of our Lord have seen the strength of God even in our salvation. We are present Lord's day after Lord's day after Lord's day praising the goodness of our Lord. But we still can take the honor due to our Lord by not having our heart prepared for worship every Lord's Day. Just as high pretension is known as a silent killer, pride is just as deadly. Pride is hard to see at times, but what it shows, it shows that we want to be gods, just as the law was told in the garden. God deserves all the worship. He deserves all the credit. We just are partakers in his wonderful gift. Listen what our brother J.C. Ryle mentions about pride. Pride is the oldest sin in the world. Indeed, it was before the world. Satan and his angels failed by pride. They were not satisfied with their first situation and status. Thus pride stopped hell with its first inhabitants. Pride threw Adam out of paradise. He was not content with the place that God assigned him. He tried to raise himself and failed. The sin, sorrow, and death entered him by pride. Then he goes on to say, pride sits in all of our hearts by nature. We are born proud. Pride makes us rest content with ourselves, think we are good enough as we are. It keep us from taking advice. It refused the gospel of Christ, turn everyone to his own way. Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction. and it haunts his spirit before it fall. Pride is dangerous. Jezebel's heart was so elevated that he felt his own strength was enough to regulate the temple ordinances. For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Pride led to this heinous transgression. We know that all transgressors deserves the wrath of God. He didn't obey the Lord when we see in Matthew 22, 37. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Gizad downfall started internally when his heart was lifted up. Then it led to him boastfully neglecting the regulative style of temple worship and following his own pride. God said don't do. Yisrael Hart said to do. God told Adam and Eve not to do, but guess what? They did anyway. This is the most devastating thing ever to do when we disobey our Lord. Pride rose up so high that he burned incense that only the priest of Aaron was commanded to do. It gets worse. It gets worse for Uzziah. Not only Azariah, but 80 mighty priests of the Lord had to stop Uzziah. And Azariah, and some of you may know that Azariah is Uzziah's name in 2 Kings 15. And Azariah was a common name, but this Azariah right here is one of the priests. And not just this priest, but 80 mighty priests of the Lord had to stop Uzziah. He approached a holy place which was enriched with gold and performed a duty that only the consecrated priests could touch. Yuzan saw himself as the supreme leader, similar to the Egyptian pharaoh, who can do as he please. This brought about God's judgment. He broke the covenant that Zechariah reminded him and taught him. He was given the curse that we just read in Deuteronomy 28. The priest went on to tell Uzziah that, you shall have no honor from the Lord God. And he became a leper to his death. Pride has to be checked at the door. It's the opposite of humility of God. In Proverbs 11.2, when pride comes, then comes shame. But with the humble is wisdom. And James 4, James quote back to Proverbs in Proverbs 3.34, God resists the proud, but give grace to the humble. And we know the famous passage in 1 John 2.16, the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world. So as we looked at a thriving king, now we just evaluated a depraved king. Now we're left devastated. Brings us to our last and final point, the perfect king to come. The death of Uzziah, the hope of a promised Messiah. It seemed like the woman that is prophesied in Genesis 3.15 is defeated. That's what it seems like right here. Uzziah's final days as being a leper separated from the people of God. The once thriving King David was looked forward to the great humble Messiah. The promise that he looked forward to seemed defeated. But like I said earlier, but God never forgets his promise. In the same year, we get one of the most exalting texts and scriptures. In Isaiah six, in the same year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. In his train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, and each one had six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. With two, he flew, and once cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Matthew Henry sums up this Isaiah, he says, in this figurative vision, the temple is thrown open to view. Even to the most holy place, the prophet standing outside the temple sees divine presence seating on the throne of mercy. Raised over the Ark of the Covenant, between the cherubims and seraphims, and the divine glory filled the whole temple, this vision explained, John 12, 41, that Isaiah now saw Christ's glory and spake of Him, which is a full proof that our Savior is God. In Christ Jesus, God is seated on the throne of grace. And through Him, the way into the holiest is laid open. Uzziah had to look for past his life to the greatest king of his lineage that we see in Matthew 1, which is Christ Jesus. Christ came and died for the ones that are disobedient and prideful. His life of humility showed he was the king of humility, the king of kings. David and Uzziah proved they couldn't be the perfect king prophesied. But Jesus was the sinless and he was able to conquer the hearts of mankind. All saints can hold their heads up because Jesus Christ meets all the qualification of the perfect king. So don't put aside the glory of God for your own glory. And some of us here, we might say that, vocally, we might not say vocally that we're stealing the glory of God. I mean, we wouldn't say that. We wouldn't say that we steal the glory of God. But we do every day. Every day. After that promotion at work, after that 4.0 GPA, the 5K run in record time, the success of our children, The eloquence of preaching? Our wealth? How are we handling our hearts as the Lord steady bless us with these things? Are we steady nourishing our hearts with the humility of Christ? Why is this important? Our flesh is weak. It's fighting against the spirit daily. That old flesh steady wanting us to boast in our own works. But we know that we don't have anything to boast but in Christ Jesus. You know the famous text in Ephesians 2, eight through nine, we say it, we memorize it, for by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Our boasting is in the work of our Lord. Boasting is the opposite of humility. We just read Proverbs 11 and Proverbs 11.2 and Proverbs 3.34. Pride shows it's the opposite of humility. And the chapter goes on to end with Joptim, Uzziah's son, coming to the throne. But surely as we read Isaiah, I mean, in 2 Chronicles 27, the next chapter, we hear what? Jotham, he wasn't the perfect leader. So we see the same thing happen over and over. So our hope has to be in the perfect king, Christ Jesus. If our hope is not in Christ Jesus, It would be as the church I mentioned earlier, as this church that I mentioned that my wife and I visited in Rhode Island that was grounded on sinking sand. So I plead today that we rest in the hope of the rock of ages. And for those that are here that are trusting in your own works and success, the Lord's wrath is upon you. The only hope is to trust Christ's work. He has completed the life of perfection. For all have sinned and fell short of the glory of God. But if you trust Christ's perfect life, his life can be imputed to you. And your sinful life can be imputed to Christ. First Peter 3.18, I hear our Pastor Grievous mention this passage, for Christ has suffered once for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. Saints, let's hold firm through hard times. Let's hold to that hope to come. Our Lord Jesus is on the throne, so keep your hope in our Lord. The many reformers that were burned at the stake, millions to the hands of potpourri, through all the persecution that they experienced, they looked forward to that blessed hope of our Lord. Not only the reformers, we have an African slave named Akeano. He saw the slaughtering of his brothers and Christian brothers and sisters over and over. But guess what? forgot about the promised hope to come. He was looking forward to that freedom in Christ Jesus, to see Christ in heaven. And just, what, a couple weeks ago, we heard our brother Austin Walker preach the message in Hebrews on Abraham, how Abraham looked forward to the heavenly place. Let us keep our hope in Christ Jesus. Let us look forward to that hope to come. That's the only hope we have. That's the only hope we have. Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for being that perfect king, the perfect prophet, the perfect priest. Even on our best day, we can be tempted to take our eyes off that beautiful day to come. Lord, let us hold fast to that great glorious day. Let us fight our flesh to that great day to come. Give us the strength to persevere. And Jesus, let me pray. Amen.