Uzziah Must Die

I'm gonna read this morning from the book of Isaiah chapter number six, a lengthy reading but I'll read the first eight verses of Scripture. Isaiah six, beginning at verse one. The Bible says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims each one had six wings with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto the other and said holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a

people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts then flew one of the seraphims unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off of the altar. He laid it upon my mouth and said, lo this hath touched my lips. None iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged in verse eight. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us. Then said I here am I send me. I'm going to implore you this morning with the scripture. The Bible admonishes us in James chapter one that we are to receive the word with meekness. And I have deliberated and wrestled with the Lord because I know my audience today. I know it's Sunday morning but I'm only the mailman. And so I I entreat you to yield to the admonition of scripture and with whatever thought or disposition

you may have walked into this house with today. I'm asking you to receive the word with meekness. And I preach you Ziya must die. Father we love you. I thank you for the people of God that have made it a priority on this first day of the week to gather in your house and to lift up your most holy name. I pray as we turn to the word of the Lord that you will help us here and I'm asking Father that you will help me speak with clarity and with anointing and let your spirit work wonders in our midst today. We thank you. And we give you the praise and the glory that you alone deserve in Jesus' name. In the church said amen. Amen. God bless you. You can be seated. Uzziah must die. He being Uzziah becomes king at the young ripe age of sixteen.

He reigned the Bible tells us for 52 years. He is the longest serving one of the longest serving kings of Judah. It was a prosperous time for the people of God. God granted them under his pronounced leadership great military success. You could read it in your scripture. Economic growth was unmatched under the leadership of Uzziah. It was a time of agricultural development and advancement. They grew in every way that you would want to grow. The army grew in skill and in size. These were quite literally the golden years of Judah. In 2 Chronicles 26 verse 4 speaking of Uzziah the scripture would say he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah did. He sought God in the days of Zachariah who had understanding in the visions of God and as long as he sought the Lord God made him to prosper.

This ought to be the desire of all of our lives and our church collectively. I pray that it could be said of us that we did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and that we sought the Lord and as we sought him he made us to prosper. The Bible tells us of his origin. It was honorable, even desirable. He possessed the fear of God and he walked in the ways of the Lord yet tucked within these verses we have read. Is this idea that his spiritual priority, the disciplines and the disposition of his life was actually with restriction. For he sought God it said in the days of Zachariah. Meaning he sought God so long as the prophet and the preacher was present. But that time was limited and that influence would end. So the question must be asked of us this morning how do we live when the preacher isn't present.

What is the construct of our lives when it seems like God's authority does not see. I challenge us on this Sunday morning our lives must be more than performance. Who we are in private is who we really are. And the sad story of Uzziah was he had a great start but a terrible ending. In verse 2016 of 2 Chronicles 26 the Bible says but when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. We've already read it now as long as he sought the Lord God made him to prosper. But in a matter of a few verses how quickly the reality of his life has changed. When it says when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction.

When he sought God he prospered and now he lives in the blessing that he once prayed for. He lives in the fruit of all that he has worked for but his blessing has become his burden. His action in this moment was a blatant overstep of his authority. It was done in neglect of God's word and in defiance of God's order. Uzziah entered the temple to burn incense. That was a duty reserved only for the priests of God. And the Bible tells us that 81 priests called and anointed of God come to confront Uzziah in this most reckless moment. And he something rises up within him becomes indignant and angry and God strikes him with leprosy. How quickly the story changed and it be a warning to us all today that pride can work very subtly and very quickly to corrupt the success that we have sought.

Uzziah did not forsake the temple. He did not deny the existence or even the necessity of worship. He merely defied God's order. In our context we might say it like this. He didn't stop coming to church. He just determined how he would live while he came to church. And in his failure I submit Uzziah becomes a symbol of humanism. By definition humanism is simply any system or way of thought that human interest and values dominate. By way of your dictionary it is the denial of any power or moral value superior to that of humanity. It is the rejection of religion in favor of a belief in the advancement of humanity by its own efforts. At the heart of that humanism that humanistic philosophy is the notion that anthropology meaning the study of man must replace theology which is the study of God. It may well be though the word perhaps did not exist as we define it today.

This vein of thought may well have been one of the many vain philosophies that Paul warned us of that can ever so quickly dilute the purity and the power of the church. The result is nothing more than another layer to see a church that is ruled by the people and not by the Lord. These are those who go about their religious journey in search of what feels right and not what is actually right. And in those contexts ministry becomes more about psychoanalysis than simple obedience to the word of God. And people want to talk much of their personal authenticity and self-expression but there is little talk of repentance and transformation because nobody wants to surrender in the philosophy of humanism. The result I know we are part of a great church but even we the elect of God are not free from the pressures of this modern day.

And the result if we were to survey the Christian landscape of this nation today are buildings that call themselves churches, seats and pews and chairs that are full of people. Yes there are crowds but so often they are absent of any measure of conviction and burden cannot be found. And it seems in so many places churches more about the performance and the personality than the doctrine and the transformation and the truth of God. Yes they have religious symbols but there is no substance, there is no power, there is no transformation. So it is that we must consider when the work of the church gives more concern to man than to God. We are drifting into humanism. When ministry becomes primarily about social action and not spiritual work, humanism is here. I do not want you to misunderstand me today. We are involved in social and compassionate efforts and we will not stop.

They are going to keep getting bigger and they are going to keep getting better. I have not risen to the pulpit today to deny the compassionate efforts of the church but I will tell us these must flow from spirituality and not happen in place of it. We gave out turkeys and we are going to give out turkeys again. But serving in the food pantry is not an excuse to dismiss yourself from the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting and attendance in the house of God. Finding an outlet of compassionate service in the kingdom is not justification to minimize the spiritual disciplines of prayer, the word and fasting. I rise on this Sunday morning to tell you what I am concerned of as I travel this great nation. The church is under attack and it is the onslaught of a humanistic philosophy that makes all this stuff more about us than it is about him.

But the Bible said in our text in the year that King Uzziah died. It was after the death of Uzziah that God turns his attention to this young prophet in the making and God shows him the antidote to Uzziah's error. He saw the Lord high and lifted up in his rightful place and do not misunderstand the text. God did not change position. Isaiah's perspective has merely been realigned to the reality that has always existed because the death of Uzziah. Because when Uzziah dies, it stops being about me and it starts being about him. It's not about what I think and what I like and what I want and how I feel, but it's about aligning my thoughts and my values and my decisions with his word and the value system of his kingdom. Right into that heavenly place and he sees these seraphims, these burning angelic figures

with six wings. It's profound because Uzziah has just been struck down because he bought into the age-old system of Lucifer to live and act out of pride and now God brings them into this most heavenly dimension where these angelic beings are and what do they do? They cover their feet and they cover their face and it is the contrast that must be considered today because in the world in which we live, they're going to say decorate your face, parade yourself about, take yourself and make yourself known. But when we come into the presence of God, it is not about the showing of ourselves. It is not about who we are or how great we may be and now God is showing the prophet if you want access to these dimensions if you want to be used in the spirit, if you want to be the prophet

I'm calling you to be learned from the disposition of the seraphim and he hears the voice of one to the other. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with this glory and one responds back, Holy, Holy, Holy and one responds back, Holy, Holy, Holy. See it's not about us, it's always been about him. Holiness, holiness. I know when I say that word some of you get a thought in your mind you want to close off that's why I implored you just receive the word with meekness. Trust me here today. Walk with me through the word a little bit. Perhaps your struggle is that your thinking has not been aligned to the truth of God. Holiness is that most emphasized attribute of God. Scripture says many things of our Lord. God is one, God is light, God is love. While not a direct quote, God is faithful, God is merciful, God is judged.

There are many things but to the Jew and both in our Scripture that statement God is holy functions so differently than any other God is statement. It's not simply one attribute among many. It is the central reality that orders all other things. The Hebrew word for holy kadosh means to be set apart as in to be distinct from something else or even incomparable. And Hebrew thought, now this is where we differ. This is perhaps where we have done wrong because in Hebrew thought holiness is not first about morality. It is about God's utter uniqueness. It is the only attribute of God spoken in three-fold repetition, a means of emphasis in that ancient culture. And so when they would write that God is holy, what they are saying is he is absolutely incomparable. He is so categorically different than absolutely anything and anyone. He is in a class all by himself.

So when the Bible says God is love, well, you may have been loved by others. God is faithful, perhaps you have experienced the faithfulness of a friend or a spouse. God is merciful, you have been forgiven, not subject to the consequence you should have deserved. But all of these things merely speak to what God does or how God relates to the world around him. But holiness is the very essence of God. It is who he is, and it is the qualifier of every other attribute of God. So yes, God is love, but God's love is a holy love. Yes, God is faithful, but God's faithfulness is a holy faithfulness. Yes, God is merciful, but it's a holy mercy, which means it is so utterly incomparable to anything you could have ever experienced from any man or any woman or any boy or any world. God is alone all by himself.

That's why Moses wrote in Exodus 15, who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? The statement comes from the rabbinic commentary on the book of Exodus. It says God's holiness is his absolute incomparability. This does not mean he's just more powerful or more faithful or loves me more. It means God is so categorically different, and that's what makes him God. And so this is what the prophet said in Isaiah 45. God spoke and said, I am the Lord, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee. Thou hast not known me. That they may know from the rising of the sun, from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. What's he talking about? He's talking about God's holiness.

His absolute incomparability, that there's nobody, nothing, no place, no trip, no possession, no stuff that can even come close to being like God. Or Hannah, who was barren till an act of God opened her womb through which the prophet Samuel would be born, said in 1 Samuel 2, there is none holy as the Lord. For there is none beside thee. Neither is there any rock like our God. You realize that's what Brother Grant Doherty was just up here leading us in a moment ago. You realize what you were feeling? You were feeling the holiness of God, the absolute and utter incomparability of what makes God God. It's who he is. Listen, I know you can get in all kinds of environments that are charged with emotion and filled with technical elements but what we're feeling in this place today is the holiness of God and that is the antidote for Uzziah's earth.

Holiness is the difference between God and everything else. If you take away that, you got nothing. It's not only his transcendence though which means he's categorically different. It's his moral perfection. God by himself is complete in and of himself. He needs nothing and no one to be who he is and he is without fault. He's perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect. He is his word. And here, Isaiah stands in this most holy of encounters. Holy! And Sarah from response, holy! And all of a sudden, he starts to see himself as he is because you can't see yourself as you are until you see him as he is. Whoa! It's me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. It is the antithesis of the system that destroyed Uzziah. I rise on this Sunday morning to preach. I know it's somewhat of an unpopular thing

but the revelation of his holiness must impact us. But I fear Christians and churches all around us have succumbed to the pressure of humanism. That vile philosophy that fuels self-indulgence it deceives people into forms and functions that resemble spirituality but deny its reality. Emotion is not an indication of godliness and at the risk of being misunderstood neither does your outfit. God's antidote for humanism was his holiness and so at the death of Uzziah he called Isaiah into this most transformative encounter with his holiness. And do you know what it incited? Humility! This is what I've come to preach to you about today because humility was the virtue that Uzziah needed but he did not have. And its presence in his life could have saved his soul but his absence cost him and so I rise on this Sunday morning to preach to you the response to the holiness of God

is always without question the humbling of ourselves. We have no accomplishment, no merit, no value, no career, no degree, no possession or amount of money. That means anything when you come into the house of the holy one. Whoa! Is me! Whoa! Is me! I got to feel it pretty good about myself because my tie looked nice and my suit was all fixed up and I was feeling pretty good but then they started singing and I started feeling his presence and I realized I am nothing without you. It doesn't matter what we have or how much success we have tasted of it does not matter how great or how beautiful our blessings may be. Hear me today. If we don't have humility we have nothing. How often we may come into his presence thinking I don't have what I need when really all you needed was humility.

Or you may think, I got everything I need and you don't have the one thing you do need. I'm preaching to you today about humility. It is the response to the encounter of his holiness. You cannot encounter the holiness of God and not be impacted. He told Moses, you shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy. And Peter was moved on by the Spirit to echo that sentiment to the New Testament church. God said be ye holy for I am holy. And I know it's not a popular subject in 2026. I know it's not talked about much and I know there's great misconception but I must declare to you today what is the word of the Lord be ye holy for I am holy. Come out from among them and touch off the unclean thing. The Lord said I will receive you.

We share in the call of his nature to separate ourselves from this wicked and vile world that operates on a prideful system that I fear is infiltrating far too many churches. So I say, whoa! I have seen you as you are and now I know how I am. See, I... Uzziah failed in the absence of the preacher. At the passing of the prophet so too did that spiritual influence diminish and now rather than being grateful for what the Lord had blessed him with his heart was lifted up in pride. It's a danger to us all. I'm preaching a lot of churches around this country and generally when a pastor is out of town and I'm flying into minister somewhere in the conversation if he doesn't tell you preemptively one of the people in the church is going to tell you when you get there. Well, you know, people know

pastors away this weekend and so, you know, they may not be a priority for them to be here if they come, they're just not going to come with as much expectation. You're not the first one to struggle with that. Uzziah did and so too did the New Testament church. That's why Paul wrote in Philippians 2 wherefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence. I'm glad you did it when I was watching but the influence of spiritual things in your life cannot be relegated to performance. You don't just do this when the preacher's got his eyes on you so Paul says please now much more in my absence will you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It is God that is working in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.

He's not telling the church in Philippi develop your own gospel make your own plan of salvation. What he is saying is you have to begin to work out the implication of salvation in your life because when you get filled with the Holy Spirit Holy things start happening in your life. You think different and you feel different and you talk different and you treat people different and all of a sudden you don't think I don't feel so angry anymore and I can't live bitter anymore and I can't live angry anymore why it's the Holy Ghost start working in you and I know you told that joke a thousand times but that time after you got the Holy Ghost something kind of rose up inside of you what was it? It was God saying I'm trying to work out salvation in your life. Paul knew the tendency of the church

was to struggle in his absence so he says I'm asking you this much more in my absence work it out give attention to it don't be passive towards it consider it search the scriptures take it to prayer wrestle with God because he warned us of these last days he said people will be lovers of self lovers of pleasure proud and of that group of people he said they have a form of godliness but they deny the power thereof just enough function just enough form to identify as a believer but not enough spiritual substance in their life to actually connect with the power so I rise this morning to tell you holiness is not something to fear we are a holiness people now I know that statement right there your mind's already going in a different direction you're already working through a list that you've been struggling with for a long time

and that's not even what I've come to preach about and perhaps it is so that our struggle is simply that we haven't started at the right place but I will tell you in a lot of places I've seen a few things without holiness we are reduced to a church that draws crowds based on personality and pleasure games and gimmicks but there's no glory and so this morning I'm preaching Uzziah must die because as long as Uzziah lives I'll never see the Lord in his right perspective as long as I want to try to reduce the utterly incomparable and sovereign God to somebody I can direct and control and make sense of Uzziah must die Roman if you can help me out and there in that spiritual state a seraphim comes with a coal from the altar touches the lips of that prophet purges his sin and his iniquity

he has cleansed is forgiven thank God for his mercy and then comes the question that must be answered Whom shall I sin and who will go for us this kind of words sitting in my spirit for a little while now but after pastor preached last Sunday night I felt prompted to preach it to us this morning who I sin and who will go for us and here is a prophet who's been touched by the holiness of God who just a moment ago is overcome with his complete and utter failure his inability because there's no response to his holiness except humility and that posture of humility he hears the voice of the Lord and he rises up not proud and arrogant not confident in himself he is now self aware but he is not yet self confident I will and I preach today that the motivation

for mission is the holiness of God I know we could tell a thousand stories and show pictures and videos but all of that is meaningless compared to an encounter with his holiness oh God I'm talking about a mission holiness of God because if it's not it becomes arrogance and becomes built on personality it becomes built on the systems of man we will err as you tie it but can I tell you today what happens when the holiness of God touches our efforts his power shows up fact I was reading it this morning I didn't feel like I really developed it enough to preach but here we are Paul says in Romans chapter 4 that Jesus was resurrected by the spirit of holiness it stands in contrast to every other writing in the New Testament where he uses the terminology holy spirit but speaking of that resurrection power

in contrast to the lineage of David in Romans 1 he said the resurrection happened by the spirit of holiness he was conveying to us the essence of that encounter that brings dead things back to life and so the Lord says who's gonna go and he who has been touched by the holiness of God says I will because that is the response of anybody who's encountered his holiness I know I can feel it in the room some of you arrest them with things in your mind you're still on the list that you thought of 20 minutes ago with the list of requirements to give you I came here to provoke you to an encounter that would incite humility whereby which you would rise up and say God whatever you would ask of me whatever you would have need of I will is the answer of any man or any

woman who has been touched by the holiness of God that is the answer of any young man young lady any boy or any girl that has been touched by the holiness of God God I will I will I know we say I want to live for you but will you end that relationship God I want to go across the world I know but will you stop listening to the music that incites carnality you're wondering what's happening that's a work of restoration that God's been doing in this house list of requirements have come today to tell you if we are not careful then pride will slither into our life through the avenue of success and we will rob ourselves of the holiness of what you've been taught or who lied to you but holiness is not a list of do nots it is the heart that says I will

for the surrender to Jesus Christ let's pray there's a work of God happening in these altars right now it's easy in a moment like this to think well you know that was okay preaching the presence of God is powerful and to walk out of this room without allowing the Lord to put his finger on an area of your life and giving him the opportunity to ask you a question and you say I will I stand here today because as an 18 year old boy sitting in a church service just like this on a Sunday morning in St. John New Brunswick I made a decision before the preacher was even done and I thought I will I will get up out of my seat and I will walk to that altar I didn't know that decision in May of 2007 would mean I'd be preaching in

Terahoe in February of 2026 God's asked me to do a lot of things that I was really uncomfortable with but when I got in this presence and I felt what we feel in this place today I couldn't help a thing what was me and write you a list of a thousand things I wish I could have done different but the one thing I'll never take back is my choice to say God I will I said this before but I'm going to say it again before I put this mic down I will do Brother Todd absolutely anything God asked me to do if I wake up tomorrow morning and God says to hand me clouds time to sell everything you own for the third time in seven years you're going to start getting the text messages because all I know is this is how I live

but I want you to hear me there's a danger in our success that we start getting comfortable and if we're not careful we might end up like Uzziah and start living in a way that God doesn't sanction but I'm telling somebody today in the Holy Ghost if you will let Uzziah die God will show you himself as he is and in that place it's real easy to say I will it's hard it's hard when you're caught up with stuff and possession it's hard when you're buried in the treasures of Babylon but if you get into that holy place and you see the Lord high and lift it up come on pastor says where's my Bible study teachers pastor says we're going to reach a loss pastor says we're going to send a missionary do you know how that happens you have to encounter the holiness of God

come on one more time would you lift up your hands and surrender we reject right now comfort the idolatry of comfort we reject the values of Babylon luxury and commercialism I pray oh God for a baptism of the spirit of holiness of humility of resurrection power come on they're going to begin to sing and you're free to go but I think there's a few people in this altar this morning that God is bringing you to a place of definitive surrender where he is asking you a question he wants to know