In this sermon, the speaker discusses three principles that lead to a nation's downfall and destruction. The first principle is the absence of spiritual leadership in the church, which causes the people of God to backslide and depart from Him. The second principle is the absence of godly leadership in a nation, leading to a rise in immorality. The third and most alarming principle is the absence of prophets in the land, which signifies that God is preparing to bring judgment upon the nation. The speaker emphasizes the need for spiritual awakening and the return to God in order to avoid impending judgment.

In 1960, the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, visited the United Nations. He outraged the country by banging his shoe on the table, but I recall his comments in an interview from that time. He was asked by a journalist how he viewed the threat of America as a military power. Khrushchev replied that he was not concerned so much about America as a great superpower, because eventually, America would implode on the inside and self-destruct. I look back on his words because, in a sense, they were prophetic. America is imploding today. No national threat overtakes us. It doesn't have to. We are our biggest enemy. The Book of Proverbs states, where there is no vision, the people perish. How true this is, especially for our generation. There are three principles I would like to share with you today that describe a nation's downfall and ultimate destruction. These principles are described by the word absence. For in actuality, there are three great absences that bring a nation down and make it fall. These three are as follows. Number one, when there is an absence of spiritual leadership in the church, the people of God backslide and depart from God. Number two, when there is an absence of godly leadership in a nation, the nation falls into gross immorality. Number three, when there is an absence of prophets in the land, God is clearing the land for great judgment. All three of these great absences contribute to a nation's ruin and ultimate destruction. My message today, friends, is entitled, The Implosion of America. For this is what has taken place in this once great land of ours. A land that God once favored is now a land that God has forsaken. A land which God once favored with mighty movements of his presence in revival and spiritual awakenings is now a land desolate, desolate by the withdrawn presence of God. There is no fear of God in the land today, and God has vacated the premises, leaving us to our own fleshly devices. Let us examine point number one. When there is an absence of spiritual leadership in the church, the people of God backslide and depart from God. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 32 and verse 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what is become of him. Notice two striking statements from this passage. The comment that it was Moses that brought them up out of Egypt rather than God who delivered them from Egypt. Already the people of God refused to acknowledge the great deliverances and blessings that God had bestowed upon them. Instead they say, this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, and they deride him. Next notice the comment, we know not what has become of him. Moses is absent. There is no spiritual leadership in the camp of Israel. Aaron is an appointed leader by God, yet he is a poor spiritual guide as he heeds to the people's sinful demands and makes an idol of gold to worship. So the principle here stated is this, when there is an absence of spiritual leadership in the church, the people of God backslide and depart from God. Look at their great departure found in verses 3 through 6. And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast of the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Here is a sad and tragic picture of the people of God who have so departed from the heart of God that they turn from God to idols and worship them. Their hearts are so hardened through this departure from God that they quickly descend into debauchery. And the sad thing is that they find it perfectly natural to have an orgy at this feast, that it's all right in their eyes. It's all pleasing to the sight of God. But listen to how God views this horrid thing. Listen to verses 7 through 10. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. In the churches of America and Great Britain, there is an absence, a dearth of spiritual leadership. So the countries deteriorate and depart from the living God. The church in America and Great Britain is in spiritual decay and decline. Deadness is all around. The church is powerless to impact a sinful society because of her own sinfulness in departing from God and the Word of God. Rather than repent and do the first works, the church entertains herself and rises up to play. This impacts the nation as a whole. As unbelievers view the church as hypocritical and judgmental, rather than being salt which preserves a nation from sin, the people of God add to the sinful departure of a nation from God through their own departure of God. Yet, in her eyes, she sees nothing wrong in her idolatries. The church in America and Great Britain has done two terrible things. They have thrown open the front doors of their church and let the world in. Secondly, they have opened up the back door of the church and escorted God out, saying, we don't need you anymore. We are fine without you. And the people that fill our churches cry out for more entertainment rather than cry out in anguish over the things that break the heart of God. They serve and worship themselves rather than serve the true, the living God of the Bible, the priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so. I remember in America in the 1950s where the Methodist Church wielded such authority that they kept the TV commercial off the air because they felt it was crude. The church back in those days influenced society rather than today where society influences the church. The very absence of voices of authority in places of spiritual leadership who cry out against the sins of the land show how America is imploding and soon will be a desolation. Principle number two and its great absence. When there is an absence of godly leadership in a nation, the nation falls into gross immorality. Look at America and Great Britain today, friends, how the gold has dimmed. Two nations once mighty in mission outreach and the printing and distribution of Christian literature now produce multiplied sins against the holy and offended God. The government of both these nations stand in bold defiance to God and his word. They mock God's authority, they mock the people of God and the church of God and they institute laws which profane the very direct commands of God. And what is the result of all of this? Pick up a newspaper, turn on the national news and see the gross immorality that permeates and saturates the very foundation of America and Great Britain. Two nations that once did great things for God, that God did great things for them lie spiritually impotent and have become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world. Look at the absence of godly rulers in both these nations and how God has brought judgment upon both these nations in the form of gross immorality and increasing judgments from the hands of God. Now look at the principle found in scripture describing the rule and reign of wicked King Manasseh as found in 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 9. And Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. And look at God's response to such a wicked king and to such a disobedient people. Look at verse 12. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever heareth of it both his ears shall tingle. A nation will surely deteriorate and eventually implode under ungodly rulers. Look at ancient Rome and the Caesars, how corrupt that society became until it too eventually imploded. Rome, that once ruled the world with an iron fist, even today is a joke as a superpower. And Great Britain, which once ruled the seas with her mighty Royal Navy, now can hardly rule herself. And America, to which once all other nations looked up to in admiration, now look at her with ridicule and derision. Third world countries used to tremble at America's feet, now hold up an angry and defiant fist and shake it in her face, and she isn't potent to do anything about it because of her leadership. Yes, Nikita Khrushchev was right in his summation of America over 50 years ago. The last five decades of America have been a time of national departure from God and a time of growing decadence in America. Let us examine this third and last principle of yet another great absence, and I fear it is the most alarming of all three. When there is an absence of prophets in the land, God is clearing the land for great judgment. I vividly remember the comments of Dr. Adrian Rogers to me at the funeral of Stephen Olford. I was standing in front of Adrian Rogers, and he had his arms folded across his chest, and he looked very disturbed as he asked me a question. He said, Do you know what concerns me? I answered him, No, Dr. Rogers, what concerns you? He replied, I see God calling up men like J. Sidlow Baxter and Stephen Olford, and I look around, and I don't see any comeuppers, and that concerns me. I told him it concerned me too, and I look around today in America and Great Britain, and I see a void, an absence of prophets in the land. I see God calling up men like Leonard Ravenhill, Vance Havner, and David Wilkerson, and I see no replacements for them, men who were not afraid to call a nation to repentance with the words, Thus saith the Lord. To me, dear friends, this is the most alarming aspect of the three absences which I have mentioned, for it means that God is clearing the land for a final judgment. That alone should drive us to our knees in desperation to sit in sackcloth and ashes in our sanctuaries and cry out to God for forgiveness for the great sins in our land. We should all be on our knees right now, right now in repentance and humility before an offended God, begging God to have mercy upon us. Instead, we are so spiritually blinded and so far away from the heart of God in a backslidden condition that we simply rise up to play. We sacrifice to our idols while an impending judgment faces the land. Listen to the vivid imagery found in Jeremiah about a seething pot ready to spill out its contents upon the land in judgment. Listen to Jeremiah chapter 1 and verses 13 and 14. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. Listen, friends, in America and Great Britain today, there has not been a time more critical than this hour when God's hand of judgment is ready to spill out across our land because of our gross national sins and a departure from a holy God. During the first part of the last century, both Great Britain and America were still considered Christian nations and doing good for the Lord. But now, their combined sad departure from God and spiritual decay in the people of God is a stark contrast to what they both once stood for and did for a holy God. I see a seething pot, and the face is toward the north, the prophet answered. But where, O where, are the prophets today to warn our once great nations of our sad departure from a holy God and lead us into great national repentance back to God to avoid a sudden and final judgment from the hand of God? Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. Unless we, as nations, heed the signs all around us and repent of our sins and turn back to God with our whole heart, the ears of our nations will tingle at the coming judgment upon us. The coming judgment will be so widespread in its severity that it will ring out in history as a tragic reminder of what befalls a nation when it departs from the living God. The unraveling of society is tied directly to the implosion of our country. Will we turn back to God before it's too late? I pray that we will.