The Fall of a Hero

To know for sure that your safety is a growing process with most Christians as they exercise three things. First of all a greater trust in the promises of God. That's your bedrock of assurance. The second thing is by the inward evidences of grace are the marks of fruits of grace in your life and the third is a direct testimony of the Holy Spirit that he speaks directly to your soul through the word. I am thy salvation or bring some of the promise to play into your life in such a way that you can't deny that he is assuring you that you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to you.

Take those three things the promises of God, evidences of grace, testimony, the Holy Spirit and then put over them all.

God's faithful track record over the years, God's people can have full and infallible assurance of faith. Assurance of faith by Joel B visit Lincoln here.org/teaching series to learn more coming up today on Renewing Your Mind a few kings there were in Israel, of which it could be said they sought God, but it is said of use I and because he sought God and for as long as he sought after God. God poured out his blessing upon you, so I upon his house and upon the whole nation. Unfortunately, no desire was to focus on the goodness of God and the results were Frederick today.

We returned to Dr. RC scroll series. The holiness of God.

One Old Testament prophet tells us amazing things about God's throne and the glory of this temple, but his prophecy begins with a tinge of sadness because it was in the year that King Uzziah died, his doctor scroll. I was sitting in the table, the library of Pittsburgh theological seminary in the early sixth working on a term paper if you've ever been to seminary library or university library any kind of library you know that there is one absolute rule for behavioral protocol in the library and that rule is silence.

Well, here I was working on this paper. Everyone was in there, being quiet, the only sounds that you could hear would be that of pages turning when somebody walked into the middle of the room and spoke out loud with words that completely disrupted all of the study that was going on. In fact, instantly all of the work that was going on among the students in the library at that moment ceased because of the announcement, the person who walked in that day in November said out loud.

The president has been shot and we sat there in stunned disbelief, but only for a second until we moved out of our chairs rushed out of the library. Went over to the Dean's office where there was a radio on the counter and we were listening intently and heard the bulletin over the air that Pres. Kennedy had died, been pronounced dead at the hospital in Dallas.

I think every person out there who was old enough to understand what was transpiring in that moment can remember this moment where they were and what they were doing when they heard that announcement I can remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news cast that announce the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt think I was only five years old, but the impression of the trauma of that moment that I witnessed with all of the adults around me as they responded to the newscast left that as an inviting memory and sensation in my head. People die every day. But presidents are not assassinated every day and kings do not perish every day when the leader of a nation die. This that experience is an experience of trauma for the entire nation in the sixth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah gives to us a record of the circumstances of his sacred call to the office of prophet I mentioned in our first message that each of us experiences moments of crisis in our lives that define the rest of our future. They change the pathway of our steps.

They divert us from our old course and set us on a new course from which we must never turn aside in the Old Testament. Perhaps nothing would be more traumatic for a man than to be called directly and immediately by God to be summoned to a holy office, and vocation to be anointed by the Holy Spirit and set apart for the role and the office of prophet from the moment Jeremiah or Amos or Ezekiel was called of God and endowed by his spirit for that vocation. Their lives were never the same because to be a prophet, was one of the most demanding and difficult vocations any human being could ever embarked upon. In the Old Testament because to speak for God demanded time after time that they spoke against their fellow man to stand with God has always meant the inevitability of cruel moments where we must stand against our friends, even against our families is Jesus.

Once Mark and so a prophet in the Old Testament would never forget the crisis of being called to that office. Moses sought to reject the Jeremiah protested against this vocation is so uniform testimony of those who were selected for this thankless task in the Old Testament to seek to avoid it, but once the call and the summons was made. The die was cast and there really was no option when God anointed a person in Israel to be a prophet. There was no negotiation.

That summons had to be obeyed, but was customary for the prophets in the Old Testament to recount to the nation terms, the circumstances time of their consecration, their chief credential to speak with God was the circumstances of their call in the New Testament we see for example that one of the most debated points among the early Christian community was the authority of the apostle Paul.

Why because Paul was not one of the original 12 disciples and it was only from that select group that Jesus initially consecrated them as apostles, only one person who was not among that group was ultimately selected to be included in the ranks of the apostle not understand an apostle is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament and Paul was selected as the apostle to the Gentiles and people challenge that they said this is the man who breathed out far who went around to the Christian community dragging people from their beds, casting them in the prison persecuting Christ and his church. How can we trust in, and so on several occasions in the book of acts, and in Paul's own testimony in his epistles, the circumstances of his call our repeat. The credentials of the so we have this tradition throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament that a person who was placed in that position and given that awesome responsibility to speak the veritable word of God that they have the credential of a sacred call and the sixth chapter of Isaiah is Isaiah's record of his call to the office of prophet and he tells us of a trauma that he experienced with that call that would sustain him for the rest of his life and he says at the beginning of that chapter that it was in the year that King Uzziah died, so the setting for Isaiah's consecration in Israel and some have said that Isaiah if we can major in such terms was the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. He was the one who consorted with kings who was sought out as a counselor in diplomatic questions. He was a statesman as well as a prophet and it's significant that his call took place not only in a moment of his own personal crisis, but it took place at a time when the whole nation was experiencing tremendous crisis. It was the year that King Uzziah died.

Think of it, the announcement that came to Israel.

The king is dead will of the Ranger Old Testament history, you know that that's not an unusual announcement. Some things only lasted a couple of weeks. They turned over so rapidly in the northern kingdom, particularly so often the list of things that children are sometimes forced to memorize in Sunday school of both the North and the South reads like a rogues gallery of villain. So many of the kings of Israel were corrupt and ungodly and led the whole nation into compromising terms of their covenant agreement with God. But in the scope of Jewish history there stands out for 45 kings that were different, just a handful of kings that were blessed of God and whose rains were marked by a certain righteousness and godliness. The greatest of all.

Of course, was David.

He was the greatest warrior, the greatest administrator the greatest poet the greatest king. The king who became the model for the Messiah, who was to come. We think about Hezekiah who also was noteworthy in his righteousness, and godly.

We think of other kings in the Old Testament that were good king. But even though very little space is given to you desire has to be included. Certainly in the top five kings of Israel now and that King died, it left a vacuum. It left avoid it left a sense of uncertainty and fear among the people of Israel who will lead us then just glibly say the king is dead, long live the king why well when John Kennedy died the suddenness of it. The disappointment of the loss of Camelot cast a pall of gloom across the United States.

When Roosevelt died we experience the death of a leader who had reigned so to speak for longer than any other president before or since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to four terms as the president of the United States.

He was the president who let us through the depression and through most of the conflict of World War II. Beloved by many in America. Hated by many in number, but still, his reign was for less than 15 years use I came to the throne in Jerusalem when he was 16 years old and he reigned over the nation beloved 450 who he imagined 52 years with the same monarch with the same ruler child would be born in Israel and use. I was king, the child would go through bar mitzvah at age 13 Uzziah King, the child would go and get married. And the king was use. I the married person would now have children.

And while their children were growing up. The cane was use. I there were people who were born had families had children had grandchildren and died. And then during that whole. The same person was king in the nation to realize the stability that that gave to the people. Let's see what the Scriptures tell us about the nature of the reign of King Uzziah and second Chronicles we read this but you desire was 16 years old. This is chapter 26 the second Chronicles when he became king, he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jack Alai of Jerusalem, and he did what was right in the side of the Lord, according to all his father and Uzziah had done. He sought God in the days of Zechariah good understanding in the visions of God and as long as he sought the Lord God made him prosper. How few kings there were in Israel, of which it could be said they sought God, but it is said abuse I and because he sought God and for as long as he sought after God.

God poured out his blessing upon you sigh upon his house and upon the whole nation will quickly health summarize what else the second Chronicles says about him that he went and made war against the Philistines broke down the walls of Gath. The walls of Ashdod. The walls in the cities around the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines. His fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt.

He built powers in Jerusalem. He built fortresses in Jerusalem.

He dug wells for the nation. He had much livestock both in the low lands and in the planes he had farmers and vine dressers in the mountains in Carmel, for he loved the soil and moreover use I had an army of fighting men who went out to war by companies according to the number on the role and so on, and what he was strong.

The Scriptures, his heart was lifted up to his own destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense like a Shakespearean tragedy or the great heroes single blemish causes his downfall and darkens the luster of his career with abiding shame, 52 years is king and for almost every one of those years he righteously and diligently pursued God's policies reflected righteousness, but he became intoxicated with his own power with his own status to such a point that he made a decision to his own and to the nation's everlasting destruction. He wasn't satisfied with being the king he wanted to be a priestess well and so he walked in to that sacred place where even the king was not allowed to tread and he took it upon himself to offer the incense prayers known the priest saw this, they rebuked him and we read again that Azariah the priest went in after him with him 80 priest valiant men and they withstood king. You sigh and said it is not for you you desire to burn incest of the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense get out of the sanctuary and imagine the ministers of the sanctuary, walk up to the king and they sicking you are not allowed here, you are violating the law of God. Only those who are of the tribe of Levi. Only the sons of Aaron, who been set apart and anointed by God for this task are allowed to perform at you get out of here. You shall have no honor from the Lord God, and then you desire became serious and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense and while he was angry with the priest leprosy broke out on his four head before the priest in the house, the Lord, and beside the incense altar, so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed, he hurried to get out because the Lord had struck him, and king use. I was a leper until the day of his death and he dwelt in an isolated house, the tragic end to a glorious monarchy, but as tragic and is shameful and is disgraceful as the king's behavior was at the end of his life when he died. There was still this massive sense of morning throughout the lay in the sense that if this king could fall semester who can we trust. Who can we rely upon who will be our king that we can trust absolutely and totally and is in that context with that question that I say see God on the throne, the earthly king was dead, but the king's was alive was well and was now calling Isaac is that's helpful perspective visits since of security should never come from her circumstances. We always need to look to God the one who will never fail us or leave us. We just heard a message from Dr. RC Sproul series the holiness of God that you're listening to Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb and that, thank you for joining us today.

Everything RC did have the aim of equipping growing Christian send this teaching on the holiness of God is at the foundation when you contact us today with a donation of any amount to look at your ministries like to send you a beautiful 25th anniversary edition of Dr. scroll's book the holiness of God is a beautiful silver hardback edition and you can go online to requested@renewingyourmind.org or you can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343. Throughout history, God's people have faced difficult circumstances today. It's so easy to become discouraged in all that we see around us. It's easy to despair is evil seems to prosper and we can become overwhelmed this week, relearning that God's sovereignty is holy. We can trust them in spite of our circumstances so as we come to understand God's holiness. We realize that he alone is worthy of our trust again limited in this book to you.

It's Dr. scroll's classic the holiness of God. It's the special 25th anniversary edition and when you contact us today with your gift will be glad to send it your way. I never get his 800-435-4343 our web address Renewing Your Mind.org as we think of the practical implications for what we've learned today in our segment of Coram, day out, I want to ask this question. How much of your confidence.

How much of your security.

How much of your stability is invested in your earthly leaders and heroes. What happens when your hero's fall. What happens when your leaders sin is there anyone we can trust absolutely. This was the question the people of Israel wrestled with one good king use.

I fell there was a huge vacuum of leadership in the nice and it was in that crisis that Isaiah met the God and the king of Israel who was altogether holy who had no shadow of turning in him no possibility of falling no possibility of disappointing is still on his throne. Today we heard about the circumstances leading up to Isaiah's call to be a prophet of God tomorrow. Dr. scroll shows the terrifying and awesome vision.

Isaiah described in chapter 6 of Isaiah. What will protect us from the blinding glory. We hope you'll join us Wednesday for Renewing Your Mind