Times of Distress Notes

The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, 2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law,4 but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.  5I n those times there was no peaceto him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.7 But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.” II Chron 15

 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORDand served the Baals. 

Judges 2:11

 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD;they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. Judges 3:7

 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD,and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. Judges 3:12

 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD,and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Judges 6:1

 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, 7 he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, 8who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all of Israel. Judges 10:6

 For this reason God allowed their lusts to control them. As a result, they dishonor their bodies by sexual perversion with each other. Romans 1:24

 For this reason God allowed their shameful passions to control them.Their women have exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 Likewise, their men have given up natural sexual relations with women and burn with lust for each other. Romans 1:26-27

 And because they thought it was worthless to acknowledge God, God allowed their own immoral minds to control them.So they do these indecent things. 29 Their lives are filled with all kinds of sexual sins, wickedness, and greed. They are mean. They are filled with envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, haughty, arrogant, and boastful. They think up new ways to be cruel. They don't obey their parents, 31 don't have any sense, don't keep promises, and don't show love to their own families or mercy to others. Romans 1:28-31

THE CAUSE

I. Without the true God.

 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2

They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought. II Kings 17:33

II. Without a teaching Priest.

 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

 It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is “the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4

 I do not want you to be participants with demons.  21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. I Cor 10

 III. Without the Law.

 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan with Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

 While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord that had been given through Moses. 15 Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan. 16 Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 19 When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes.

Great is the Lord’s anger that is poured out on us because those who have gone before us have not kept the word of the Lord; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.”II Chronicles 34

THE CURE

I. In their distress they turned to the LORD,

 "Return to me," says the Lord, "and I will return to you."  Malachi 3:7

 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. II Cor 5:20-21