 And the passage of Scripture we want to look at is in 2 Chronicles chapter 15 verses 1 through 7. It was May 23rd, 1939. A diesel electric submarine called the USS Squalus set out on its voyage from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. As they went out into the Atlantic Ocean suddenly, unexpectedly and without warning, there was a catastrophic system-wide power failure in that submarine and it began to sink. Down, down, down, down it went until it rested 240 feet below the surface of the ocean. Trapey inside were 33 men. They were in utter darkness. Their oxygen supply was running out. As you might imagine, they had issued a Mayday and so naval vessel was, rescue vessel was sent to the site where the Squalus went down and a diver putting on special gear went down, down, down until he got up next to the USS Squalus. And inside those 33 men they could hear the metal boots of the diver hitting up the side of the submarine. They knew someone was out there. And so they grabbed a wrench and they began to tap a message on the side of the submarine in Morse code. You know that unique system of dots and dashes whereby you can communicate. And so when the diver went down and he's beside the submarine, he could hear this tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. He could hear this message and knowing Morse code, he immediately began to decode the message. And over and over those 33 trapped men in utter darkness were tapping out this message. Is there any hope? Is there any hope? Is there any hope? And I believe the message they were tapping out that day is the message so many people are asking about our country right now. When you look at all of the chaos and all of the confusion and all of the division and all of the uprising and all of the immorality and all that's going on in our country, people are asking the question is there any hope? In the Bible 2,800 years ago, there were a group of people in the nation of Judah who were asking that question. Is there any hope? They were asking it in the days of a king named Asa. And the word of the Lord came to a prophet at that time. His name was Azabriah that answered the question of the people that analyzed the situation in the society and gave a solution to the problems they were facing. Now, Asa was the fourth king of the southern kingdom of Judah. You remember King Solomon ruled over the United Kingdom, but then the kingdom divided. Jeroboam took ten tribes up in the north and Rioboam took two tribes in the south. Rioboam had a son, that son's name was Abijah and Abijah had a son and his name was Asa. Asa that means was the great grandson of King Solomon. And Asa in the beginning of his reign, he was a good king who sought the Lord and because of that God blessed him and God blessed the nation because the nation was seeking the face of God. So much so that later you can read in the previous chapter, chapter 14 of Second Chronicles on one occasion they were facing an enemy from the Ethiopians of one million soldiers. They only had 300,000 soldiers, but because the Lord was on their side, he brought them a great victory. But the time between chapter 14 and 15, something had happened. Time had gone by and like so often happens, nations turn away from the Lord. They turn their back on God. They move away from their roots and trouble and difficulty comes to their nation. And in their time of trouble as people were asking the question, is there any hope? The word of the Lord came to a prophet named Azariah. His name means the Lord is our help. And he began to give the word of the Lord. He began to give a message of hope that would show people what to do when their nation is in trouble. Look then at Second Chronicles chapter 15 verse 1 through 7. Here's what it says, now the spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Obed. And he went out to meet Asa. And he said to me, hear Asa and old 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. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest and without law. But when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him, he was found by them. And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in. But great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. But you, but you be strong and do not let your hands be weak for your work will be rewarded. When the nation was in trouble, when Judah had turned away from the Lord, Azariah gives a message from heaven that gives an answer to people who see their nation in trouble. And I believe this passage, as you look at what was going on in Judah, so directly parallels what we see happening in our country and gives us instruction and insight for what we as the people of God ought to be doing right now. Now in these important verses I see three things and if you happen to have a piece of paper and a pen I would encourage you to jot these three things down because I think they'll be a blessing to you and you can share them with others. So they might know what to do when a nation is in trouble. Three things we see in this passage, number one the crisis, number two the cause and number three the cure. The first thing I'd like to point out in this passage is the crisis that was going on. You see this in verse five and verse six and in those times and in those days there was no peace to the one who went out nor to the one who came in. So it was a time when there was no peace, there was no safety, especially for those who were traveling from one place to another. And there was great turmoil on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation and city by city a crisis, no peace in the land. Traveling became difficult and there was great distress. The old King James says there was great vexation, there was trouble, there was anxiety, there was terrorism, there was fear, there was concern. Where was there trouble who was in trouble? Well interesting it says there was individual trouble, there was national trouble, there was international trouble. Notice again in verse five this great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the land. Every single person was worried, every single person was wondering what's going to happen to our country. Every single person was living in fear but not only that city was against city. There was national trouble and not only that there was nation against nation. There was international trouble. Do we live in such a time where there is no peace? Do we live in such a time where there is fear in traveling from one place to another? Do we live in such a time where individual people have no peace? Do we live in such a time when city is against city, when there is rioting in cities, where there is confusion in cities, where there is uprising in cities? Do we live in a time where there is nation against nation? What was going on in Judah so long ago I believe is going on in our country right now. But notice listen the crisis, notice the crisis in verse six. So nation was destroyed by nation and city by city but notice this phrase. For God troubled them with every adversity. Now at first reading you think wait a minute here. There's no peace, there's individual trouble, there's national trouble, there's international trouble. But it says the Lord had troubled them with every adversity. Back in verse two you remember the Lord is with you while you were with him. But if you forsake him he will forsake you. You see there is what theologians call a difference between the active wrath of God and the passive wrath of God. The active judgment of God and the passive judgment of God. There is the active judgment of God you see that in the great flood when there was such wickedness that God brought this great catastrophe upon them. You see the active wrath of God in Sodom and Gomorrah when there was such wickedness and sin that God rained fire and brimstone down from heaven. But there is another kind of wrath of God and that's the passive wrath of God and that is where the protective and blessing hand of God where at some point when people say we don't want you, we don't want you, we don't want you. God pulls away his hand of protection. God pulls away his hand of blessing and he allows trouble and adversity to come. This dear ones is exactly what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter 1 verse 18 and following. You remember what he says. He says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all on godliness. Not the active wrath of God but the passive wrath of God. Because as you keep reading the passage three times it says God gave them up. God gave them up. God gave them up. See blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. But if the nation starts to wander away from God, if the nation starts to reject God at some point God will remove his protective and his blessing hand and he will say if you don't want my help if you don't want my blessing then I'll let you be on your own and you will experience what it is like when my protective hand is not there. This is what happened to the nation of Judah. God said if you forsake me then I will forsake you. And I believe as we look at our country that is exactly what we see happening because as you read chapter 1 of Romans you see it's a description of the United States. Three times he gave them up. Number one he gave them up to lust. And because they continued to reject him. Number two he gave them up to perversion, to homosexuality and to lesbianism and things that are unnatural. And because they continued to reject God. The third time he gave them up to what Paul says is a debased mind. A mind that doesn't think right. A mind that doesn't function right. Is it possible for a nation to come to a place where a person would say well I'm a man today but tomorrow I'm a woman. I'm a boy today but this afternoon I'm a girl. I want to use the boys restroom today but then I want to use the girls restroom tomorrow. What we call gender dysphoria but not only that. What they're not a new disorder. What they're now calling species dysphoria. I'm a dog today. I'm a cat tomorrow. I'm not going to just use the boys room. I'm going to use the dog house. This is a mind that doesn't function right. It doesn't think right. It's a sign that God has withdrawn. His hand of blessing and protection. You say why would God do that? Does God do that because he doesn't like a nation? No, he doesn't because he loves the nation. He wants the nation to turn to him. He removes his hand of protection and blessing. So things get so difficult and so hard that people will drop to their knees and they will cry out and they will say mercy on us Lord. Please have mercy on us Lord. We're in trouble. We're in such trouble. We need you like never before. The crisis that was going on in the nation of Judah. I believe so directly parallels. The crisis that's going on in our nation right now. But a second thing we see in this helpful passage is the cause. Why was there such a crisis? We see the cause in verse 3. Look there again. So important. For a long time Israel has been without the true God. Without a teaching priest. And without law there's the cause. You know sometimes people they know there's a crisis. They know there's trouble but they don't know the cause. They think the cause is something else. And here in our nation we're trying to fix this problem, that problem, the other problem but we don't know what the root cause is. It reminds me of a story perhaps you've heard it before of what happened many years ago in the sanitariums over in Europe. In those mental hospitals they would take people in who were not functioning right in their mind and they would work with them and work with them to the place that hopefully they had regained their sanity and then they could release them back out into society. And one of the simple but crude tests they would use to see if a person had regained their sanity, if their mind was functioning right they would take them into this closet like this big janitor's closet that had a sink there. They would put a stopper in the sink and they would turn the sink on full blast so the sink would fill up and then start to overflow all over the ground and then they would give to the person a mop and they would say clean up the mess. And then the supervisor would go away for a few minutes and he would come back and he would see what they were doing. If they were still just mopping the floor while the sink was stopped up and the water kept going over and over and over they knew that person wasn't quite ready to be released out into society because they couldn't understand the cause of the problem. They were cleaning up the mess but they didn't know the mess would keep going because they were never really dealing with the cause of the problem. And as I look at what is happening in our country right now there's a lot of mopping going on. In fact we are going into debt, buying mops and hiring moppers. We're trying to fix the problem but we're not getting to the cause of the problem. What was the cause of the problem in Judah? Was it there wasn't enough funds for the people? There was an economic problem? There wasn't enough education for the people? There wasn't enough opportunity for the people? No. Verse 3. For a long time Israel has been without the true God. They've been without a teaching priest and without the law. Notice that little phrase for a long time. For a long time. They were in the trouble they were in not just because something happened for a moment. It had been a long time. Three things they had been without for a long time. Without the true God, without a teaching priest and without the law. Number one, they had been without the true God. Now don't mistake it to mean that they had no gods. They had all kinds of gods. They had set up all these idols as God. But they were without the true God. They had turned away. The cause is that they had turned away from the true and living God. To God's of their own making. It's like what Jeremiah said. My people have committed to evil says the Lord. They have turned to me the fountain, turned away from me the fountain of living water. And they have hewn for themselves cisterns that hold no water. For a long time Judah had been without the true God. And why had they been without the true God? Because number two they had been without teaching priests. Now again make no mistake. That doesn't mean they didn't have any priests. They had all kinds of priests. But the priests weren't teaching the people. The priests in Israel were not only to offer the sacrifices. They were to teach God's people the word of God. And these priests they were not teaching people the word of God. So they were without God the true God. They were without priests that were teaching them. And because of that they were without law. They began to turn aside and to do what was right in their own eyes. Do we live in such a time? Is their crisis our crisis? I think so. And why are we in such a crisis in the United States of America right now? I believe the same cause for Judas crisis is the same cause for our crisis. For a long time. We've been without the true God. America has turned aside from the Lord to its own gods. An idol isn't a little statue. It's anyone or anything that will take the place of God. We even have a television show called American Idol. Because we have movie stars that are idols. We have sports stars that are idols. And people make their possessions their idols and materialism their idols. America listen has turned away from the true God to idols. And why listen why in part in large part has America turned away from the true God? Because it's been without teaching priests. It's pastors. It's leaders have been so consumed with getting people into the pew. Getting numbers of people into their church that they're not really teaching the Bible anymore. They're teaching men's ideas. And Jesus said listen you take the traditions of men and you nullify the word of God with the traditions of men. It's possible for people to go to a church and hear some sort of message. But what they're hearing really nullifies what the word of God says. There's an old saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. That is true sometimes. We had a friend and she decided she was going to start a candy apple business. And she used to bring me sometimes this candy apple she made called the kitchen sink. And you know this this apple she started to put on this apple white chocolate and dark chocolate and milk chocolate. And coconut and peanut and almonds and walnuts and cashews and snicker bar and everything. You know what she was done it was about the size of a grapefruit you know. Now I want to suggest you that apple a day will not keep the doctor away. Why you've added so much to it. And all the good that an apple could be is nullified by everything else that you add to it. That is why listen you ought to be so grateful here at Calvary Chapel Geno Valley that you have a pastor who teaches you the word of God. How many love pastor David Rizalas. I'm so thankful for him. Without the true God. Without teaching priests. And so the nation of Judah had come to the place they were without law. It was the days of judges where everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes. And Jesus said in the last days those kind of days would come. He said in Matthew chapter 24 verse 12 he says in the last days lawlessness will abound and the love of many will grow cold. Do we live in days of lawlessness. Yes we do. Or cities are in chaos and confusion. Or kids are just getting up out of the chair and walking out of their high school classroom and wandering down the street protesting because they they're so spoiled they just don't like this they don't like that they don't like the other thing. We live in such days. We're in the crisis like they were in the crisis and the same cause for their crisis is the same cause. For our crisis. God gave them up. If you forsake God. He will forsake you why he wants it to get so difficult that you will turn to him. That you will cry out to him that you will beg and plead for his mercy. Perhaps the greatest president this country has ever had was Abraham Lincoln. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln wrote these immortal words. He wrote I've been driven to my knees many times under the conviction that I had nowhere else to go. It is the duty of all nations as well as of all men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God. To confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope the genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime truth announced in the holy scriptures and proven by all history that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by his divine law nations like individuals are subjected to chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamities which desolate our land may be God's chastening hand upon us for our presumptuous sins. To the needful end that we may turn to him in prayer he wrote that 150 years ago. He said we have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. We have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom or virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace too proud to pray to the God that made us. But if we turn to God in prayer he will hear. He will forgive. He will heal. And I agree. That brings us to the third thing we see in this passage and that is the cure. As Araya pointed out the crisis. He pointed out the cause. But what is the cure? What was the cure for Judah? Verse 2 again. The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him. If you seek him. He will be found by you. And verse 4. But when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him. He was found by them. Oh I like that. What is the cure? Turn back to God. Cry out to God. Go to the Lord in prayer. Begin to plead to him on behalf of your nation and your people. This is always the cure for the crisis when a nation is in trouble. You remember the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 4 verse 29. Moses said if you seek the Lord with all of your heart and with all of your soul then you will find him. In Jeremiah 29 verse 13 God says and you will seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. In Isaiah 55 verse 6 the Bible says seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon the Lord while he is near. What is the cure? God told Asa's great-grandfather Solomon. He told him in 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 14. Those famous words, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Asariah said to Asa and the people, listen, if you just turn to the Lord, if you just seek the Lord, he's going to answer your cry. Verse 7, but you be strong do not let your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded. In other words, if you turn to the Lord, if you do what's right then God will have mercy because he is a merciful God. And you can read later what happened. Asa and the people, they got the message. They removed the idols. They restored the altar of God. And they made a covenant with each other. We're going to begin to seek the Lord with all of our hearts. In verse 12, then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their father with all of their heart and with all of their soul. Verse 15 and all Judah rejoiced at the oath for they had sworn with all of their heart and they sought him with all of their soul. And he was found by them and the Lord gave them rest all around. If my people will pray. Asariah said, Asa, Judah, if you just seek the Lord, if you'll just turn back to God, that's the answer. That's the cure. That's the solution. And they did that very thing. And at that critical time in history, God had mercy on them and their nation. And I believe what happened to them can happen to us. Their crisis is our crisis. Their cause is our cause. And their cure is our cure. Is there any hope? Is there any hope? Is there any hope? May 23rd, 1939, a diesel electric submarine, the USS Squallis, set out on a voyage out into the Atlantic from Postmouth, New Hampshire. Suddenly, unexpectedly, without warning, a system of wide power failure. It begins to sink down, down, down, down, down, 240 feet below sea level. The diver goes down. He hears this message. Is there any hope? Is there any hope? Is there any hope? Knowing Morris Code, he tapped back a message. He tapped back one word. One word. Yes. Yes. Dear ones, hear from heaven when your heart is troubled and you look at the news and all that is happening in our country. And you wonder, is there any hope? Hear the message from heaven tonight. Yes. Yes, there is hope. Hope, if we will pray, if we will cry out to God like we have never cried out to God before. And he will hear us. He's giving America another chance, I believe. One last chance, I believe, if we'll call out to him in prayer. Franklin Graham recently wrote these important words. He wrote, I believe our nation is in trouble today. More trouble than I've ever seen in my entire lifetime. We are contending with issues that are causing the very foundation of our country to crumble. Our moral and spiritual roots are eroding. The economy is misleading. Family life is disintegrating. And political forces are at unprecedented odds. There seem to be very few leaders who will take a stand for God and His Word. It can be tempting to believe that America has reached a point of no return. While these factors cause despair, we are reminded in Scripture that with God nothing is impossible. No problem is too great for him. And if God's people will call out to him in prayer like never before, he will hear their cry and he will answer their prayer. I wholeheartedly agree. Is there hope? Yes, there is. Yes, there is. We are the hope of America. Calvary Chapel Chino Valley is the hope of America. Our prayer tonight is the hope of America. The effective fervent prayer of the righteous is powerful.