Episode Transcript
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Let's give our attention to second chronicles
now, second chronicles, Chapter Twenty Six.
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The grass withers and flowers fade,
but the word of the Lord stands
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forever. So let's give our attention, our attention to it and all the
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people of Judah. Of Judah took
Uzaiah, who was sixteen years old,
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and made him king instead of his
father Amasaiah. He built Elath and restored
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it to Judah after the king slept
with his father's Uzaiah was sixteen years old
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when he began to reign, and
he reigned fifty two years in Jerusalem.
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His mother's name was Jekliah of Jerusalem, and he did what was upright in
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the eyes of the Lord, according
to all that his father Amaziah had done.
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He set himself to seek God in
the days of Zachariah, who instructed
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him in the fear of God.
And as long as he sought the Lord,
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God made him prosper. He went
out and made war against the Philistines
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and broke through the wall of GAF
and the wall of Jebna and the wall
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of Ashdod, and he built cities
in the territory of Ashdod and elsewhere among
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the Philistines. God helped him against
the Philistines and against the Arabians who lived
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in Gurbaiale, and against the mayunites. The ammonites paid tribute to Uzaiah,
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and his fame spread even to the
border of Egypt, for he became very
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strong. Moreover, Huzaia built towers
in Jerusalem, at the Corner Gate and
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at the Valley Gate and at the
angle, and fortified them. And he
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built towers in the Wilderness and cut
out many cisterns, for he had large
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herds, both in the Chapela and
in the plane, and he had farmers
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and vinedressers in the hills and in
the fertile lands, for he loved the
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soil. Moreover us, I had
an army of soldiers fit for war in
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divisions. According to the numbers in
the muster made by jet El, the
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secretary, and Maassia, the officer, under the direction of Hannaniah, one
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of the king's commanders, the whole
number of the heads of the father's houses,
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of mighty men of Valor was two
thousand six hundred. Under their command
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was an army of three hundred and
seven thousand five hundred who could make war
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with mighty power to help the king
against the enemy. And huzaiah prepared for
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all the army shields, spears,
helmets, coats of mail, bows and
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stones for slinging in Jerusalem. He
made machines invented by skillful men, to
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be on the towner towers and the
corners to shoot arrows and great stones.
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And his fame spread far, for
he was marvelously helped till he was strong.
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But when he was strong he grew
proud to his destruction, for he
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was unfaithful to the Lord, his
God, and entered the Temple of the
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Lord to Burn Incense on the Altar
of Incense. But azariah, the priest,
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went in after him with eighty priests
of the Lord, who were men
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of Valor, and they withstood King
Uzaiah and said to him it is not
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for you, Uzaiah, to burn
incense to the Lord, but for the
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priests, the sons of Erin,
who are consecrated to burn incense. Go
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out of the sanctuary, for you
have done wrong and it will bring you
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no honor from the Lord God.
Then Uzai was angry. Now he had
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a censer in his hand to burn
incense and when he became angry with the
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priests, leprosy broke out on his
forehead in the presence of the priest in
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the House of the Lord, by
the Altar of Incense, and Azariah,
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the Chief Priest, and all the
priests looked at him and behold, he
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was leprous in his forehead. They
rushed him out quickly, and he himself
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hurried to go out because the Lord
had struck him. And King Uzaiah was
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a leper to the day of his
death and, being a leper, lived
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in a separate house, for he
was excluded from the House of the Lord,
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and Jotham, his son, was
over the king's household, governing the
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people of the land. Now the
rest of the acts of Uzia, from
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first to last. Isaiah, the
Prophet, the son of them a mas
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rope and Hus IA, slept with
his father's and they buried him and his
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and buried him with his father's in
the burial field that belonged to the Kings,
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for they said he is a leper, and Jotham, his son,
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reigned in his place. Well,
now we have yet a third story of
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in a row, of a king
who did so well, a started well
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and then failed. I'm so miserably. It's an important point to notice this
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pattern. Most of our stories go
differently, especially stories of three right.
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Think about goldilocks in the three bears. Not Right, not right, right,
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right. So there's the movies.
You'll really see this all the time.
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They're sort of the initial failure,
the second attempt and then the final
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attempt where the hero wins. But
when you start to see this pattern where
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it's failure, failure, failure,
and as we continue in second chronicles,
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things will get worse and worse and
worse, it should teach us something,
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and in indeed it does teach us
several things. But let's consider the story
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and see what God what it is
exactly God puts before us. The first
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thing we see is that USAIAH did
well in the eyes of the Lord.
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This is one of those phrases that
has a way of shaping or framing our
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lives as Christians. It's a metaphor
that God gives to us. Is a
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way to help us know how we
ought to live. To do well in
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the eyes of the Lord is a
way of describing what it means to walk
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in a right way, to do
well before the eyes of the Lord is
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are reminder that the Lord sees all
things. It's a reminder that his perspective,
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the way he sees things, is
the way that matters. And that's
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what I Zaiah did. He he
did well in front of the Lord,
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who is watching. He did things
according to the Lord's perspective. And what
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was the result? The result is
that he prospered, and he prospered greatly.
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There are many details here that connect
USAIAH with former people, various words
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of various things that happened great people
like David Even. What are some of
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the ways USAIAH prospered? First,
there's victory in war versus six and seven.
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We see that their he goes out
to war. We don't read why,
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but the Lord is with him.
He went out to war or made
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war with the Philistines. And then
we have these, the succession of victories.
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He broke through the wall at Gaff
and through the wall of Jebna and
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through the wall of Ashta, this
sort of piling up of a victories.
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But not only is he having victories
in war, he's able to expand his
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kingdom through this work. He builts, he builds cities in the territory of
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another. We read this in verse
six, in Ashdod and elsewhere among the
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Philistines. He's not just pushing them
back, but he's pushing himself out.
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He's expanding the land, even as
Adam was called to keep the garden and
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expand it, to broaden it,
to rule the world. Victory in war,
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expansion another sort of prospering. We
see as his conquering, not just
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winning over these people, but obtaining
certain loyalties. Verse Eight, the AMMONITES
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paid tribute to Usaiah in the ancient
world, as there are still parallels today
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to this. But in the ancient
world you had these great kings and then
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you had lesser kings, susarin kings
they call them, and vassal kings,
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and the vassal king, the lesser
king, it's was his job to go
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to the greater king and give him
tributes, to be loyal. He had
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a certain amount of independence and was
allowed to rule in a certain to a
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certain degree on his own, but
nevertheless he was ultimately under the authority of
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someone greater, and that's what's going
on here. He's not only conquering these
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things, but we see this kind
of allegiance and submission of these people they
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ammonites paying tribute to Zaiah. In
the next phrase we have his fame spreading.
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This is a connection to David and
his fame. His fame spreads even
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to the border of Egypt, for
he had become very strong. All of
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this outward victory are sort of victories
outside of his land, is coupled with
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a strengthening of the interior of the
country as well, WHOSIA's prospering big time
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and kind of every way that the
king or authority over a country would hope
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to to have he's having it.
So, for example, and versus nine
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and following, we read that within
the borders, he builds towers in Jerusalem,
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at the Corner Gate, at the
valley, Gate, at the angle,
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and fortifies them. He's strengthening the
capital city. But it's not just
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in the cities, you see,
it's there's all these sort of this no
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one other more thing with Josiah,
one more pross way he's prospering. It
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says in verse ten that He Built
Towers in the Wilderness and he cut out
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many sisterns, for he had large
herds. You See, he is going
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out into the wild places and cultivating
them. He's making them established in terms
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of military power, but also in
terms of agriculture. He cultivates the land,
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he provides water for his animals.
And there's and it says to it
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speaks of farmers. There we are
farm in at the end of verse ten,
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farmers and Vinedressers in the hills and
in the fertile lands, for he
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loved the soil. So he has
success on the borders, he has success
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beyond his borders, he has success
in his cities, he has success in
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the country. And then one more
thing. In verses eleven through fifteen,
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we read of his great military strength, how that was only growing and getting
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stronger and and stronger. We read
about a large number of people. We
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read about preparations for war. For
example, in verse fourteen, they're preparing
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army shields, spears, helmets,
coats of male bows and stones for slinging.
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All of this preparation. Indeed,
even he's inventing things in Jerusalem.
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There's fifteen. He made machines invented
by skillful men. This is all really,
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again, spectacular. He is prospering, and this is, of course,
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the point of the passage. The
very beginning of it begins this way.
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It says he did what was ought
right in the eyes of the Lord
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and he prospered as a result.
God made him Prosper Verse Five. So
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all seems to be going really well. And then you start your eyes sort
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of scan down through the rest.
You say, why is there still so
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much story here? And you read
the subtitle and about his pride and punishment.
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Osiah turns away. All of this
strength, all of this blessing,
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all this goodness that God has given
him, and USAIAH turns away. Now
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I suppose it's tempting for us to
sort of stand here and look at his
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eye and wag our fingers and say, shame on you, Oziah. You
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knew you had it so good and
yet you fell so so far. But
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of course his eye is not the
first to do this. He's not the
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first to do this and we aren't
the last. Consider the foolishness and what
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USIAH does in turning away from the
Lord. Think about this for a moment.
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What are you supposed to do when
you have a great benefactor who's constantly
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pouring gifts on you? Do you
take those gifts and sort of say do
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away with you benefactor and leave now? Of course not. The more you
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get, the more than thankful you
should be, the more appreciative to you
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should be, the more you realize
how dependent you are. Well, if
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this is true, again in a
human sense and in a human relationships,
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what about God? If God is
the source of your strength, it makes
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sense to depend on that, and
that's exactly what it was I was doing.
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It says that God made him prosper, that God helped him, that
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God gave him victories. Let me
composed for you little parable borrowed from scripture.
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Imagine you have your going to build
a house and you have two options.
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To build a house on the rock
to build a house on the sand.
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Obviously the right answer is build a
house on the Rock, right.
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That's where the sure foundation is.
Now here I'm going to extend it a
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little bit in another direction. If
you're going to build a house on the
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sand, let's say, are you
going to use quality materials? Well know,
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because you know it's all going to
wash away. You know, just
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throw a beach towel down and that's
as far as it goes. You've that's
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if you're going to do something,
that's what you do. But if you
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know you're going to build a house
on a rock. Well, sure,
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you can use quality materials, you
can establish something really good, and that's
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what use I had. He was
building as Kingdom on the Rock, on
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God, and because of that,
God was adding on all of these blessings
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and he was building this great kingdom, military power, a political power of
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fame and and all the rest.
So if that's true, would then make
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any sense to take that kingdom or
this House that you've built and sort of
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lifted up off the Rock and put
it over on the sand? Well,
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no, of course it wouldn't,
because all the way that you built it,
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the whole structure was built on the
principle and foundation, using that,
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in both senses of the word,
on the rock. It doesn't make sense
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to take it off the Rock and
put it on the sand. Because now
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what happens? And all false apart, and that's exactly what these kings are
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doing. When they forsake the Lord
who made them prosper, they begin trusting
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in their stones and weapons and men
and political power and fame and all of
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these things that are good and strong. But they're only that in so far
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as they are built on God.
They are only strong and so far as
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they are built on the rock.
And so what happens when they take their
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kingdoms and they shift them over to
something else, like, for example,
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themselves? They don't prosper. Everything
falls apart. Well, what about you
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again? For us not to be
we can't be a too high minded about
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this. Where has God made you
prosper? Is a good question to aren't
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asking, and you might think yourself, while I'm no king, right,
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I have no warehouses or armies or
people bringing me tributes. Well, perhaps
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not. Few people ever really arrived
at this sort of level of wealth and
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power, but that's hardly any indication
that God has given you little or nothing.
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Perhaps you have a safe place to
live, perhaps you have a friend
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who loves you. Perhaps you live
in a town that has the best burritos
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in the world. There are lots
of blessings, and I mean that in
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kind of a jokey way, but
not entirely. I love to point these
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things out because to that we might
notice that God not only provides the basics
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for us, he's constantly giving to
us things far above what we deserve.
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He brings pleasures into our lives.
That's how good he is. It's worthy
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to remember and praise him for it. Consider, for example, Psalm one
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hundred and three one. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, all that
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is within me, bless his holy
name. Bless the Lord, all my
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soul, and forget not all his
benefits, who forgives all your iniquity,
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who heals all your diseases, who
redeems your life from the pit, who
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crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Forget, Oh my soul, forget
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not all his benefits. Or again, in Psalm one hundred and three,
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Psalm one hundred and three, verse
eight, the Lord is Murder, a
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full and gracious slow to anger and
abounding insteadfast love. He will not always
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chide, nor will he keep his
anger forever. He does not deal with
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US according to our sins, nor
repay us according to our iniquities. God
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is pouring out not what we deserve, but he's pouring out all of these
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blessings and all of these wonderful things. The psalmist says this, and we
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ought to be able to see this
as well. Take a Fuesians twenty.
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Paul tells us to sing, giving
thanks always and for everything to God the
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father, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, gift, thanks always
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and for everything. What is James
says, every good James say says,
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every good and perfect gift comes down
from the father. Another Psalm, Psalm
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Sixty eight nineteen. Blessed be the
lawyer Lord who daily bears US up.
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God is our salvation. Our God
is a god of salvation, and to
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God, the Lord, belongs deliverance
from death. So you see, we
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can't sort of compare ourselves to those
I and says I and say, well,
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what do I have to be thankful
for? What am I dependent on?
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I don't have these things. You
do have these things. Sure,
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you don't have armies, but you
have life, your forgiveness of sins,
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you have pleasurable things in this world, you have homes and people around you
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and, more than that, you
have God's grace. If you're a Christian,
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you're one who has been delivered from
death, the final death, who's
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been promised resurrection. These are the
blessings, just a few of the blessings
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that we might count and our right
to count as we think what has God
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given us? So now, what
are we to do with all of these
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things? Do we lift them up
off the foundation which is Christ and set
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them over on ourselves, our pride
or anything else. No, no,
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we fasten them down even stronger to
the rock. Because what happens is to
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us, when we whatever the when
we take the things that God has given
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to us in kindness and grace and
forbearance and patience, and we seem and
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we try to walk off with them
and separate ourselves from him and go our
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own way, we find ourselves away
from him. Him, who is life,
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Him who is blessing and joy and
happiness. So what did Osaiah do?
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What did it is I do too, to walk away from the Lord?
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Well, we read that he was
prideful ver sixteen, when he but
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when he was strong, he grew
proud to his destruction, for he was
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unfaithful to the Lord, his God. This is this verse, these yes,
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sorry, this verse is important because
it reminds us that the Zaia central
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problem was not an external thing that
he did against the law of God.
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It was a problem, and we'll
get to that in a moment, but
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that thing was rooted more deeply and
in a different place, internally in his
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heart. He will grew proud.
He grew proud in our lives. We
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have authorities, we make decisions based
on what is and what isn't and and
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what we trust and what we don't. Pride, the essence of pride is
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turning away from God and turning to
ourselves, saying I make the decisions,
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I do what I want, when
I want, in my own time,
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and that's what Josiah does. Let's
look at the example then see what it
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is he does here. Well,
we read that he enters the Temple of
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the Lord to Burn Incense on the
Altar of Incense. Now this is clearly
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prohibited in the Old Testament and Exodus
thirty verses one through ten, God tells
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them, tells Israel that this was
a job for Aaron and his sons,
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those for the priests, not for
anyone else. He shouldn't have gone into
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the temple in this way in the
first place, but then to go even
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further and do the work of the
priests was a further transgression of the law.
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Now he should have known that this
was not right. In numbers are,
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I'm sorry. In leviticus we read
of Nadab and a by WHO Aaron
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Sons, priests, yes, but
offering what says. The Bible says unauthorized
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fire to the Lord. Now they
were priests, they had a right to
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be there, but they were doing
something the Lord had not authorized, and
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the Lord consumed them the fire.
There's another example, of famous example in
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the Old Testament as it relates to
priests, and that's of Cora. Sometimes
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you hear about Cora's rebellion, and
this was when Cora and and others rose
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up against Moses and Aaron and said
we want to establish our own priests,
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we want to do it our own
way. God Says No, these are
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the ones I've chosen, this is
the way I've said, and a plague
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breaks out over them, just like
leprosy does. With whose I on?
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There's another example closer to home,
and Asia's on the history with Jeribalm,
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the first up in in Israel.
You can read about this in first kings
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twelve and thirteen, beginning of just
the very beginning of thirteen. They're jerebalm
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offers on authorize things in an unauthorized
way. All of these things means that
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Asia should have known, and I
want to pause here for just a moment
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and say maybe this is one reason
why the God gives us the Bible,
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and in such a small way.
I mean sometimes we wish there were lots
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more books, lots more more material
that we might study and know. But
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I wonder if one reason God has
given a book that is of this size
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is it's one that we can manage, it's one that we can actually learn
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and remember. And here we find
that when we go and we learn these
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histories, when we read through chronicles
and we hear these stories, they're supposed
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to be teaching us. Even if
we take out these examples that I've given,
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what about the kings just before him
and the one before him? God's
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Providence in the world, and particularly
his providences, it's recorded for us in
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scripture, is meant to teach us, to train US and shape us.
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Josiah should have known, but he
goes. Maybe he did, maybe he
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didn't, but in some ways it
doesn't really matter, because the Lord is
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gracious to him and, as we
see, he sends in these priests,
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as a Riah went in after him. Eighty other priests, courageous men,
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men of Val, are going and
they say hey, King Ziah, stop,
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it's not for you, it's not
for you to burn incense to the
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Lord, but for the priests,
the sons of Aaron, these ones are
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the ones who are consecrated to burn
incense. Go outside, you're not supposed
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to be in here again. This
is what God always does, isn't it?
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He tells us, he records us, and then he gives us these
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reminders. He he brings to our
minds through people, of the teaching of
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his word. I think it's interesting
that whose eye has not yet been struck
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by leprosy at this point? He
could have been right. There's a number
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of things he's done wrong. He
was proud, he entered the temple,
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he he offered this incense, he's
now hearing the priests, but it's not
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until a verse nineteen when it says
Uziah was angry. He had the censer
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in his hand and he became angry
with the priest, and it was when
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that happened that leprosy broke out,
the skin disease on his forehead. In
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his pride, he wanted to move
outside the boundaries that God had said.
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That's what we do whenever we fall
into the sin of pride. We decide
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to take what is not ours.
We decide to work on the basis of
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our own authority. We look at
God and we say I'm going to do
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what is right in my eyes,
not in yours. And then when God
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responds, what is Usia's response?
His response is angry, but it's still
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a responsive pride, isn't it?
It's still a prideful heart that says no,
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I want this, I want to
do what I want to do,
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I'm going to do it in my
way. Instead of submitting to the Lord
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and saying I'm sorry, I repent, I was wrong and leaving, he
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doubles down, he gets angry and
God judges him. Leprosy breaks out across
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his forehead in the presence of the
priests. And finally, at this moment,
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he seems to finally realize, Oh
no, what have I done?
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Because we read that not only are
these eighty per this would be quite a
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scene, I think, eighty priests
rushing him out of the temple. He's
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going to Oh, I don't know
if I can find the verse this quick
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but anyway, they rushed him out. All right, okay, so verse
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twenty and they rushed him out quickly
and he himself hurried to go out.
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Right, he gets it now.
He says, I realize what I've done,
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and he's running. They're all running
they've got to get out of there.
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To be in the holy presence of
the Lord is not something to play
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around with. When you go back
and you read the Old Testament and you
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read about the priests going into the
temple to offer sacrifices and things, there
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were all kinds of rituals and clothes
and and ceremonies and all these things.
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Because of this fact, God was
pointing out that you don't just go before
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him and do what you want.
His Holiness matters, the priests matter.
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There needed to be mediators to stand
between God and his people because of sin.
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But instead of recognizing that fact,
Ousia goes in his sin and with
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sin, into the presence of God. And what happens? He's separated from
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the presence of God. Literally he
leaves the temple, he goes out of
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the presence of the Lord and because
of this leprosy, now he would not
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be able to enter again. He
would now be marked and and would be
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unclean, unable to come even into
the general area. It would be the
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priest's job to bar him and and
keep him out, where others righteously,
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we're able to offer sacrifices outside of
the temple, like Solomon did not.
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So for USIA, he's separated from
the presence of God, and this is,
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of course, the perfect and natural
consequences for his actions, because,
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in his pride, that's exactly what
he wanted, it's exactly what he was
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doing. And so, as I
said at the beginning, we have another
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tragic story. We see this,
as one commentator I read put it,
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the fatal flaw, the tragic character, not overcoming, not overcoming the the
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thing, the challenge, this fatal
flaw, which is sin itself. It's
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a way of God reminding us of
the great problem that we face as his
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people, our own personal sin,
but also the sins of our leaders,
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of those who oversee us and rule
us, of the kings that were in
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charge of Israel. They would seem
to be able to establish to a certain
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degree, prosperity for in the name
of God and for his people, but
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it always been tanked, something always
went wrong, something always failed, and
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even in the greatest successes, even
in the kings that were truly great,
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it's still goes down with the set
next son or the whatever comes next in
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the story. All of this should
be creating us, in us, a
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sense and a need for something greater, a King that God had promised to
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establish, a king that God would
send that would not thank the Kingdom of
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Israel, that would not fall into
his own sins, that would not decide
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to exert, over and against God, his own authority, but the king
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who would humbly submit himself over and
over and over again to the will of
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God. And of course God does
send this king. Of course his name
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is Jesus. He sends this king
who does exactly what Asia has failed to
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do. He never grew proud,
he was always humble and everything that he
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did submitting himself to the will of
the father. Paul brings this out in
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many places in his various letters.
One particularly important one is in Philippians,
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where he says that Jesus humbled himself
becoming obedient as a servant, taking on
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the form of man. It's fairly
humbling you're the son of God. But
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he humbled himself in obedience, even
to the point of death, even death
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on a cross. Jesus didn't go
to the cross because he was forced to.
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Jesus went to the cross because God
told him to, his father had
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told him to. He was being
obedient and as he did so he prospered.
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But Jesus was not just a King
for himself, a little kingdom of
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one, just as USIA wasn't.
Jesus was king for us all. And
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when Jesus went to the cross to
offer himself, they're obediently and humbly.
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The prospering, the resurrection, the
glory and everything that God gave to him
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as a result of his obedience,
his perfect obedience becomes ours. God gives
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to us a kingdom that is not
of this world, a kingdom that is
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much more prosperous. And why it
spread and famous and powerful. God doesn't
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need to invent machines for his towers
to take down his enemies. He's got
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millions of angels at his right hand, ready to execute his perfect will,
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with flaming swords and all other kinds
of terrifying things we read about in the
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Bible, all for him, all
to do his holy will. Jesus says
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the word and it will be done. And one day it will be done.
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God promises that one day he will
send his angels when Jesus comes,
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and they will go through the world. They'll gather up the elect they'll take
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the unrighteous and throw them into hell
and he will win, and it's a
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winning that isn't a temporary win to
just be undone by the next generation.
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It's not a temporary win that will
fall apart when he sees some lady on
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a balcony or decides to make a
treaty with some foreign power, whatnot.
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It's an e turnal kingdom, an
unshakable kingdom that is established on an unshakable,
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immutable God, and this is what
he gives to us. I need
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to close, but let me just
add for food for thought, not just
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as a king, but also as
a priest, a perfect priest, a
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holy priest who rightfully goes before God
and offers himself in this way, also
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as a prophet, when who speaks
the word of God, knows the word
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of God and is always true to
it. In all of this, we
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see Jesus is the one who is
sent, the one who comes to fulfill
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this great covenant that God made with
David, and in that, brothers and
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sisters, we can have great security
in peace, and we also have someone
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to turn when we ourselves sin,
like USAIAH did, when our pride gets
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in the way and when we fall
apart and know ourselves not to be earning
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blessings and honor and riches for ourselves, but the wages of sin, which
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are death, when we know that
this is what we deserve. It's because
405
00:35:38.019 --> 00:35:43.059
God is establishing not only a kingdom
of power, but a kingdom of grace
406
00:35:44.300 --> 00:35:50.010
that we can come to him and
belong to him and belong to him forever.
407
00:35:50.050 --> 00:35:52.090
Let's pray
