2 Chronicles 26:16

Amen, what a wonderful reminder of a wonderful Savior and we need to be reminded of that. Our scripture, again, is taken from 2 Chronicles chapter 26 and we'll be looking at verse 16. But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction, for he was unfaithful to the Lord and his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Again, may God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Now, the who, or the he, I should say, that is alluded to in this passage, is King Uzziah, or Uzziah, or Uzziah, depending on what part of the country you're from. But to complicate matters, he's also called Azeraya in certain portions of second Kings. But anyways, he is the one who is being addressed here and most casual Bible readers will recognize his name usually from one place, and it's usually not in either the books of the Chronicles or the books of the Kings. The place that we are most familiar with the name of Uzziah, or Uzziah, or Uzziah. But the place we are most familiar with him is from the sixth chapter of Isaiah, where we have the dramatic call of Isaiah to the prophetic office. And Isaiah says that it was in the year that King Uzziah died, that he was called to that office or that he experienced the theophany, where he says he saw the Lord high and lifted up. In any event, outside of that, most casual Bible readers really don't know a whole lot about Isaiah. We are not familiar with things about him in the same way that we are for Saul, who was the first King of Israel. We know more about, or are for more familiar with, people like Solomon, David, Hezekiah, Josiah, all of these kings with their righteous reigns. And certainly we are told that, as we'll see, that Isaiah was considered a godly King. He did that, which was right in the eyes of the Lord. But we know more anecdotes, more incidents in the lives of these other great kings than we do in about Isaiah. So what I want to do first is just kind of backtrack a little bit and look at the basic summary that we get of his life and of his reign, because he actually reign for 52 years. So he didn't, he wasn't just a fly by night King. He was a King that reign for an extended period of time. And in verses three through five, we see a summary of his reign. And I'll just mention three things concerning the summary of his reign there. Number one, we are told that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. And it's interesting that in the records of the kings, usually before and, or before we are introduced to specifics about their reign, we are given a summary or a synopsis that they were either evil, did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, did not walk in the ways of David, or that they were, they did that which was good or pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. And then usually the writer will give you more details concerning that King and his reign. So here in the very beginning, we are told of Isaiah that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. A second thing that we are told about him in verses three through five is that he set himself to seek God. He set himself to seek God. Now, it's an interesting phrase that's linked there because it says he set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah. Zechariah not to be confused with Zechariah the prophet. Zechariah, nor is he to be confused with Zechariah the priest that we read of in the book of Isaiah. But Zechariah is obviously a court counselor, a sage, a wise man, an advisor. And when it says in the days of Zechariah, the implication is that Zechariah at the time died sometime during Isaiah's reign. That's why it says in the days of Zechariah. So here's what we see, that Isaiah set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, which is in the implication is that Zechariah was a good counselor, a good advisor. And one of the characteristics that we see of Isaiah is that he listened to the godly counsel that was provided for him through Zechariah. And so therefore we are told that having received this godly counsel, that he received it and as having received it, everything that he did, he experienced prosperity. In other words, he availed himself to godly counsel. And so therefore the third thing that we see in verses three through five about King Isaiah is that as long as he sought godly counsel, the Lord made him prosper. Now the scope and the nature of his prosperity is really addressed in verses six through fifteen. And in those verses we are told that he was victorious in war. We are told that he built towers, that he improved the water supply by building cisterns. Cisterns were big vats that held water and when water was scarce, he would have a reservoir. So he built more cisterns and in other words, he preserved more water. He improved farm production. In fact, we are told that he loved the soil. So he was a good king. He was victorious in battle. He was at least industrious in many of his endeavors and he probably left a great economic state for the people at the time of his death. And so everything from farm production to water supply was improved under this man. And it just fleshes out what we read in verses three through five, that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, that he sought the will of God or he sought the counsel of God and as long as he sought it, he was prosperous. He listened to Godly men and because of that the Lord blessed him in many ways. And so again, when we hear that in the year Azziah died, that's a landmark statement in Isaiah six. In fact, R.C. Sproul has pointed out the fact that the year of Azziah's death is singled out as a point of remembrance for Isaiah. For his call into prophetic ministry is a testimony to the greatness of Azziah as a king. In other words, it seems as there's sort of a national mourning. And R.C. likens it to the year when President Kennedy was assassinated. Everyone remembers where they were and what was taking place who was alive during that period because he was a beloved president. And likewise, Azziah was a beloved king. And the reason he was beloved are for all of the reasons that we see in verses six through 15, that he brought a period of peace and prosperity to the people. And so the fact that Isaiah cites the year of Azziah's death as really the point of reference to identify his call into prophetic ministry, again, as a testimony to the fact that he was well beloved by the people that he served. But that being the case, we have this godly king. But yet with all that we have said, we read in our text, when he was strong, he became proud. I've often maintained that the most vulnerable points in our lives are when we are either at our lowest point or when we are at our highest point. We're vulnerable all in between. But there's something about us when we are at our lowest point, that we are vulnerable, vulnerable in a lot of ways, vulnerable to a lot of things. And likewise, when we are at our peak, when we are at our highest point, we are also at a very vulnerable point. This is why I like that prayer in the Old Testament. Lord, don't let me be poor, lest I steal. And don't let me be rich lest I forsake you. You see, there's something in that because on the low end when we are at our lowest point, we are subject to anything that will make us feel better. We are subject to become complainers about things that we otherwise wouldn't complain about. This is the issue that Job was having with his wife when his life hit a downturn and a downtrend. And she says, you know what? This is it. We should just curse God and die. And Job says, no, no, we're not going to curse him now. You sound foolish. And basically what he's saying, we are at our low point. This is not the time to abandon God just because things are going wrong. But that's what happens when we are at life's lowest point, whether it's because of finances or health, whether it's because of deteriorating family relationships, whether it's because we are experiencing death or have experience, the death of loved ones, we are most vulnerable when we are low because no one likes being low. And anyone or most people are looking for something to bring us out of the doldrums, something to bring some sunshine in what appears to be a very dreary situation. And it's in those moments that we are prone to turn away from God. This is what we see in the history of Israel. In the history of Israel, as they travel through the wilderness, as they are already away from home, they are in between destinations, in between Egypt and not yet in Canaan. And what is it that causes them to cry out? It's when there's no water. It's when there's no bread. It's when they are desperate and destitute that they, or they think they are desperate and destitute. And that's one of the things, by the way, when we are down, things look bigger. Problems look bigger. I remember writing once that that things sound louder in the dark. The stuff is louder in the dark. The clock ticks louder in the dark. You know, the stuff, the wind blows louder in the dark. The break of a heart is louder in the dark. All of the things that take place in regular times when it's dark, it seems like it just gets louder. At noon time, you don't really pay attention to it. But if that's true in a physical sense, how about when we go through those dark seasons of the soul? In the dark nights of the soul, everything seems louder. And we have a tendency to respond to those things. So when life is at its low points, people, even people of God, are prone to reach a point where we no longer trust and the things that we are, we were confident in, in smoother times, we began to lose confidence, we began to feel sorry for ourselves and we're vulnerable. And there are a host of sins that we will justify because we are down. But brothers and sisters, not only in our low points, also in our high points, there are a plethora of new temptations that reach us in our high points. When we think that things are well, it's amazing. When we think we are in trouble and we realize we need stuff, we can be very clients and if we're not seduced by the trouble, we will recognize, and especially if things start turning around, you can almost see light at the end of the tunnel. We'll start trusting, we'll go through all of the rigour marue, we'll go through all of those things that we think we should do and say all of the things we think we should say until we arrive. And just as we are prone to turn in many different directions for help, when we're down, when we get up, here's the problem. You see, when we're down, we're vulnerable to cast away the things that we ought and embrace things that we shouldn't. But when we get up, we have a tendency to become puffed up and proud and think that we are in need of nothing. That seems to be the case here with Isaiah. Isaiah, this good, this godly king, reaches a point that when he reaches this pinnacle of his strength, at some point we are told that Isaiah became proud. And when it was in his strength that he became proud, and so what I want to do before we look specifically at verse 16 of our text, is I want to make a few, just three observations about pride in general, because that's what happened with Isaiah, he became proud. And you know, I'll say this about creatures, number one, or this is not number one, but first, just as an overview, creatures have no reason to be proud. Creatures, and I'm saying it intentionally broad, creatures by creatures, I mean anything that's not the creator. So whether it be a man, an angel, or a beast, even before the fall, the creature has no reason to be proud. And when pride sets in, it sets in in a way that it poisons the whole soul of the creature. So pride is, listen, creatures, even unfallen creatures, have no reason to be proud. Fallen creatures have even less reasons. You see, in other words, if angels or Adam, before he sin, had no reason to be proud. And that's perhaps one of the reasons that before he goes to work, remember the Lord told him to exercise dominion, the Lord created Adam on the sixth day, guess what the seventh day was, off day, rest day, so that he could see even before he goes to work. Adam, you see that field, you're going to be taken care of, it was here when you got here. You didn't make it, it ain't yours. You see all of those trees out there, that bear fruit, they were bearing fruit when you got here. Fruit was already on the tree, so they are not dependent upon you for their existence. See that before you go to work, because here's what's going to happen. And especially this is a potential with Adam, but it certainly becomes a reality in our fall and state. The potential is the longer you work, something, the more you think it's yours. You see, the longer you do something, the more you think it's because of you. And so Adam, before you go to work, I want you to see the beauty of it. Look at what God said, after he finished it before Adam touched it, everything God made was good. And so pride has no place in the hearts or minds of any creature, and it is certainly becoming, it is not becoming of any fall and creature. We have nothing to be proud of, but let me just give three general observations about pride, and then I want to make five observations from the text. First off, pride is a perpetual problem for fallen creatures. Pride is a perpetual problem for fallen creatures. In fact, it was really the driving force. Pride itself was the driving force behind the rebellion of Satan. He became proud and he wanted a share in the divine glory. So pride is a perpetual problem. If it's a problem, before, if it's a potential problem, before the fall, it is certainly a problem after the fall. Pride is a perpetual problem for all fallen creatures. Secondly, the world has made pride of virtue. The world has made pride of virtue. We masqueraded. We call it by different names. We say, well, no, I'm just good, and it's not bragging if you can back it up. We have made pride and boastfulness of virtue. We have we've celebrated and it manifests itself in so many different ways. There are different forms of pride from the subtle to the to the overt and very blatant. But in either way, we have made pride of virtue. We hide it under nationalism. We hide it under just having fun. We hide it in by in the name of team spirit. And we hide it in a lot of ways. But pride is a perpetual problem for fallen humanity. And the world itself makes it a virtue. You try running for president and say that America is not the greatest. And what will people say? They'll say, oh, he's anti-American. No, no, that's, that's, you know, America. You let somebody, you let someone run for president. And since we are used to people trying to quote the Bible for president and they want to quote the Bible and they read from the book of Revelation and you talk about the horror of Babylon, you let that be, let someone say, do you know that America is also the heart of the Babylon? Oh, no, that's Russia. Oh, no, that's, you know, we, we are pride. We have, we have nationalized pride. And we have made it seem wrong if you are not proud. Pride manifests itself in so many different ways. And it has been deemed a national or regional or personal or ethnic or racial virtue. Pride. Here's the third observation on pride. Pride is a sin that Christians will have to contend with in different sometimes subtle but always shifting forms. We will have to deal with this sin until we are glorified. It's something that we're going to, that nobody will ever be flushed from pride. It will always stick to you and, and you should be reminded of it. We will be, we will seek to take pride of possession of the things that we own. We will take pride in the neighborhoods that we live that we live in. We will take an alternate pride in the schools that we attend it. In fact, you'll hear people that will turn their nose up. They say, oh, where'd you go to school? I went to, you know, what, oh, oh, that's, that's nice. Well, I went to Harvard, you know, that sort of thing. We take pride in the professions that we have. We take pride in, in the, the money that we have saved. We take pride in our physical appearance. We are, we, we are proud to, to have more than, or look better than someone else. We take pride in these things. We take pride in the things that we have because we measure ourselves against fleeting, flawed standards. We take pride. We take pride in the cars that we drive. Some even take pride in the churches that they are a member of. We take pride in our knowledge. We take pride in being in this theological camp and not in that theological camp. We take inordinate pride in way too many things. We are proud that we're not a part of those, those Jesus, those holy rollers over there. We take pride in the fact that we know the doctrine of justification. We take pride. We are proud of things that we should not be proud of. Pride in, and I like the avid brothers, the alternate, alternate to rock band. They, they say, you know, I want to have pride. He says like my mother had, not the kind that the people had in the Bible that made them bad. And so there is a sense in which we can have a boast in the right thing for the right reasons, but brothers and sisters here is a problem that we will deal with until we go home. And one of the reasons for this particular message is not so that we can focus on the pride of Isaiah, but rather so that we could see how pride can creep up, not can, does creep up in all of us. So three general observations about pride. Pride is a perpetual problem for fallen creatures. The world has made a virtue out of it and Christians will struggle with the problem of pride in various forms until we are glorified. Well, that brings me to the five things that I want to note specifically for, specifically from the text. And the fifth one is an overview that goes back to the actual summary or introductory verses and verses three through five. Here's five things. First off, we are told interesting points about Isaiah when he became proud. And notice that, that's a warning for us. When did he become proud when he was strong? That's that's something we need to hear that when when he was strong. And again, our focus here is not all of the details because ultimately what happens with Isaiah is that he goes into the temple. He invades the office of the priests and thank God for these godly priests who wouldn't let him do it. And as a result, he goes in and he wants to offer incense, which was supposed to only be done by the consecrated priesthood. And as a result, the priests res, they, they resist him. And then the Lord strikes him with leprosy to the point that he is no longer to live in his own house and he is, he isn't even buried in the graveyard with his family. But here's the interesting thing. When he becomes proud, we are told it was when he was strong. Brothers and sisters, as we mentioned earlier, our points of vulnerability are when we are at our lowest and when we are at our apex, apex, when we are high and when we are low, when things go wrong, we are vulnerable to anything that will fix it. But when things go right, here is the vulnerability. Here is our point of weakness. Here is where pride can step in. We will start to think number one that I am better than someone else who hasn't achieved what I've achieved. We see it with individuals, we even see it with churches. We see churches that, that grew from small numbers to great numbers. And then they look down, they'll talk about all that little storefront, that little and forgetting that you started in the living room. And we forget when we get strong, we have a tendency to take too much credit for what we have accomplished. So when he was strong, the same thing we do it in our careers, we see it in the world of business, started with nothing and now look at what I have. And we are all, when we are on top of it, we are very much like the farmer that Jesus says that when he worked his fields and he had a bumper crop and he had so many crops that he had to tear down his old barns and build new ones. And then what does he say? Oh, so look, sit back, eat, drink, and be married because look at what you've done as if he made a single grain, grain grow. See, again, when he was strong, that's when, and Jesus says, thou fool, this night your soul is required of you. And so it is with, with organizations, it's true with businesses, it's true with churches, it's true with individuals when you have nothing and then you discover something, it's at that point of accomplishment, it's that point of possession that we begin to become proud. And so it's at his strength when he was strong, he became proud. The second thing to note is that the scripture says he grew. He grew proud. That's an interesting choice of words. It wasn't doesn't just say that he became that way, but he grew. So in other words, this is not an automatic result of being successful. God has nothing against successful kings, but something in his growth, something in that whole list of accomplishments from verses 6 through 15 that caused him to think that he was more than he was. And he grew in that. In fact, we are told in one place that his fame grew. And as fame grows, egos tend to grow. And so what we see with, with Isaiah is that as he became strong or when he was strong, he grew proud. And this tells me brothers and sisters that he did have an opportunity to recognize this shift, and he did have an opportunity to stop the growth. I was reading a story earlier this year about one of the biggest corruptions in the naval forces, where there was a business man that was making corrupt deals and really just kind of padding the books with navy contracts or military contracts and whatever service that he was providing. But the way he did it was he he corrupt it or manipulated lead officers. You know, head people that were in positions of influence and he was whining and dining them. And so one of the chief navy petty officers, naval petty officers that was caught up in it and was actually convicted for the corruption, he made this observation. He says that he says my ego and my pride got the best of me and I ended up betraying my the navy and my country. And what is it? He says my ego. As the business man came and wine denied, he says my ego and my pride got the best of me. Brothers and sisters, it's when we are strong that we can see certain things growing. Now we may pay attention to it when we're not strong, but we pay less attention to it when we are. And the statement here is that this pride thing with Isaiah grew. There was something that was not checked. There was something that he let in that he shouldn't have let in or something that nurtured within him that he continued to let go. Isaiah, when he was strong, he grew proud. The third thing we are told is that this pride was to his destruction. It was to his destruction. We know that God hates the proud. In fact, we are told in the New Testament that God receives the humble, but he resists the proud. We know that God hates pride. So therefore there are consequences for being proud, being proud because basically what pride is, it's claiming an independence for something that's not. In other words, it's taking credit for things that you are as if you are responsible for it, and it causes the individual to think more of themselves than they should. That's why I like what Paul tells the Corinthians. What is it that you have that you have not received? And so we are told that this pride led to his destruction. Now in his case, the destruction that it led to was physical leprosy. In fact, he died a leper. He died because he was resisted by those who trusted him. He was resisted and the Lord struck him with leprosy and he lived the rest of his days as a leper and was buried, as we mentioned earlier, away from the graves of his fathers because he was a leper. But here's the fourth thing. We are told that not only was their destruction, but we are told that the fruit of his pride is that he ultimately became unfaithful to God. Now when you connect that to what we saw earlier, that he sought the counsel of God. In other words, and remember what we read that as long as he sought the counsel of God, he prospered. Well now the implication is that he no longer, now we know that Zechariah is probably dead at this point, but he no longer seeks Godly counsel. Or even if it's offered, he doesn't receive it. So he follows a different course and now instead of the prospering of God, God allowing him to prosper and all things. And by the way, for all intents and purposes, everything that he did, even if he became proud of it, the Lord allowed it to remain. So the sys turns are not broken because he's proud. The improved agriculture is not reverse because he's proud. He just becomes leperous. And so what we see is that he became unfaithful to God. So rather than seeking the word of God, what he now does is he inserts himself in a position that God had consecrated the priest for. It seems like a small thing. In fact, when we read these things in the Old Testament, whether it's the sons of Aaron offering unauthorized fire, or we see it as a who touches the ark and is struck. When we see these things, he's like, wow, isn't that kind of an overreaction? No, it's not an overreaction because what drives this is a pride that denies the parameters that have been set by God. And here's what what he's azaya does. It's that he takes it upon himself and he invades the office of the priests and attempts to offer incense on the altar of incense when the Lord clearly establishes who's to a stab, who is to offer the incense. And so in that regard, he becomes unfaithful. But here's the fifth and final thing. And now we want to take it all the way back to verse three. You look at this. This king, this king who started off good, this king who was favorably remembered by all of his loyal subjects, this king who was prosperous in so many ways, and yet he in his strength be grew proud. And it led to his destruction to the point that the Lord, he became unfaithful to the Lord and the Lord turned him into a leper. But here's the thing. Let's go back to verse three. How does God remember this king that became a leper? In verse three, it says, and yeah, verse three, and, or I'll begin with verse, yeah, verse three, azaya was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reign 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jackalaya of Jerusalem, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father, Amiraya, had done. What I want to leave you with is this prideful king that the Lord strikes with leprosy, the final word that we have from the mouth of God himself is that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. How can that be? We just read that he was proud, he grew proud, we just read that he was unfaithful to the Lord. So how can this be? Does this verse nullify everything that we just read? No brothers and sisters, the reason he did right what was in the eyes of the, or all that he did was right in the eyes of the Lord is because the Lord credits him with the righteousness of another. The point is, God's people are covered by a greater righteousness. It does not make our sin any less egregious, and it's for this reason that we are to take heed when you are weak and take heed when you are strong. We are to take heed that when you see the weeds of pride growing, ask the Lord to magnify it so that you can do with it what it deserves. I love what Paul says in Colossians. He doesn't say, well try, try harder to get rid of your sin. He says, no, modify, put to death the deeds of the flesh that are in you, but at the end of the day understand this, that if you are in Christ by faith here is the testimony that covers you and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Now that's enough to humble us, isn't it? Therefore don't let pride grow. Amen. Let's pray. Gracious God our Father. We do thank you for another opportunity and privilege of praise and worship. We do thank you for your word. We thank you for the reminders of what you have given us in Christ. We thank you for the reminder of what we are prone to and what we are without him. We pray that we would see from the passage that has been considered not the pride of one man, but the pride that is still that that still travels our own veins. We pray that by your spirit and through your word you would allow us to that which grows to extinguish by your grace. Thank you for the reminder that our sins, though they be great, your grace is greater so that we are forever covered by the righteousness of another and never stand on our own merits. We do thank you for that grace. We thank you for that gift, and it is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. As we...