This is the story of Uzziah. A king, a ruler, a wealthy and powerful man.
He inherited the kingdom of Judah after his father's death.
And God was with him. "Adapted from II Chronicles 26"
And all the people of Judah took Uzziah and
made him king. And he did what was right in the eyes of the
Lord. According to all that his father, Amaziah
had done.
He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah who instructed him in the fear of God
And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.
And he went out and made war against the
Philistines and God helped him. The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah.
Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate.
And at the valley gate and at the angle, and fortified them.
And he built towers in the wilderness and cut
out many cisterns. For he had large herds both in Shefelah
and in the plain. And he had farmers and vine dressers in the
hills and in the fertile lands. For he loved the soil.
And his fame spread even to the border of Egypt for he became very strong.
Moreover , Uzziah had an army of soldiers fit
for war. Who could make war with mighty power to help
the king against the enemy. And his fame spread far for he was marvelously
helped, until he was strong. But when he was strong he grew proud to his
destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God.
But Azariah, the priest, went in after him with
eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor and they withstood king Uzziah.
Then Uzziah was angry and Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him
and behold he was leprous in his forehead.
And they rushed him out quickly and he himself hurried to go out because the Lord had struck him.
And king Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death
And being a leper, he lived in a separate house
for he was excluded from the house of the Lord.
And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land.
And Uzziah slept with his fathers and they buried
him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings.
Powerful wasn't it?
Uzziah still lives among us today. I'd like to ask all of our actors and actresses,
could you just stand so we can see what you really look like in real life?
Come on stand up, let's give these guys a hand.
Amen. You guys all did an amazing job. In this story, the story of king Uzziah, it
started out with this man as a wonderful ruler.
The scripture says that he was greatly blessed by the Lord because of his heart toward the
Lord. And the Bible says that God calls Uzziah to
prosper to the point that even his enemies were
bringing gifts to him. The Bible says his fame spread around the
world. He built, towers, he built fortified cities.
He was rich in cattle and in servants and possessions.
He built technologically advanced weapons of
warfare, and he assembled huge standing armies the Bible says.
And then in verse fifteen it says: That his name spread far abroad; and he was
marvelously helped, until he was strong. Everything seemed to be perfect in Uzziah's
life and kingdom. Until verse sixteen.
It says but when he was strong, his heart was
lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God,
he went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon
the altar of incense. The following verse goes on to describe this
event. The Bible says Uzziah, this great and mighty
warrior king, became so full of himself and so
full of his own pride that he could see no bounds
to his own authority. And against the expressed command of the Lord
he went into the holy place that was reserved only for the priests and he attempted to burn
incense on the sacred altar. And verse nineteen tells us when when he held
the sensor in his hand, the leprosy even rose up
in his forehead before the priests in the house of
the Lord, from beside the incense altar. I want you to see this.
I believe the Biblical author is painting for us
some striking imagery. He's showing us that this hideous disease
that killed Uzziah, was only the outward manifestation of the inward disease of pride that had already
begun to infect his heart. The outward was a reflection of the inward.
My friend listen, pride may be the most damning of all sins.
It was pride that turned an angel named Lucifer into the devil we now know as Satan.
It's pride that's cost the lives of millions of
innocent people throughout history. It's caused so much pain, so much sorrow,
so much unnecessary loss.
Think of all the war, the bloodshed, the slavery, the genocides.
Every atrocity known to man first had its roots
in pride. Pride is the original sin, and I want you
to know something tonight, God hates it with a vengeance.
In the book of Proverbs chapter six, verses sixteen and nineteen the Bible says that the
Lord hates six things and the top thing on that
list is a proud look. You've got to realize this, that pride is
absolutely disgusting to God.
It's a repulsive, revolting and repugnant bile.
It's a putrefying infection of the heart. It's a loathsome leprous rot that absolutely
nauseates the holy heart of God. In fact Proverbs 16:5 says that everyone who
is proud in their heart is an abomination to
the Lord; And the Bible says, assuredly they will not
go unpunished.
Look what the Bible says in James 4:6, it says
that God opposes the proud. Listen, not only does God have a profuse hatred
for pride, He actually resists and opposes the proud man.
He makes himself the enemy of the proud man. My friend if you want to ensure that God's
favor will not be on your life and that he will
not bless you, and that his plan for your life will
not be accomplished.
Then just allow pride to permeate your heart because
it will abort God's will in your life every time.