Beginning of the End

I want to read you, friends, a news article from this week, and I quote, a report said recent satellite images of North Korea's nuclear research center showed rail and vehicle movement, indicating a plan to produce plutonium for bomb fuel. It is believed by experts and government officials that North Korea is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that could reach the U.S. Listen, friends, what that news story is stating is, North Korea almost has the capability to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach western part of our country with a nuclear attack. And if successful, this could destroy millions of lives in Southern California and contaminate all the crops in our western hemisphere, producing both chaos and famine.

And if you rest your safety on NORAD to shoot those missiles down, then you don't know much about computers going down and the hacking of computers. Those nuclear warheads could easily slip through our system and bring an end to this nation as we know it. This could be the beginning of the end for America, and that's the title of my message today, friends, The Beginning of the End.

My text can be found in 2 Peter and chapter 3. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 9 through 12. And let me read us this terrifying passage of scripture to us at this time.

Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His holy word. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved.

What manner of persons ought ye to be on all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Listen, friends, does that not alarm you as it does me? It says a great noise, and the elements being burned up with a fervent heat. That reminds me of the devastation that occurred back when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, and the lives lost that day. Does this text not speak of a nuclear holocaust? Should we not obey God's word and turn to Him in repentance and humility right now, while we have time, and before it's too late? Why do we foolishly and pridefully believe this nation is too big and too powerful to come to an end? Ancient Rome ruled the world with an iron fist, and all feared her.

Do you fear an Italian army today? Does a Greek army send terror to your souls? America can join the ash heap of history, just like ancient Rome and ancient Greece. This is a call for this nation to humble herself and to turn from her wicked ways, and to return to the God of the Bible before it's too late. Should not the church be leading the way to repentance and calling our congregations to humble themselves and return to the Lord? Why is the church so sound asleep on pillows of compromise and conformity? Why won't she turn? It's because she is so far away from the heart of God that she cannot see her nakedness and spiritual bankruptcy.

Heaven help us all. Let us pray.