And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear, your hands are full of blood, I will wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow, come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land, but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, How is the faithful city become a harlot, it is full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers, thy silvers become dross, thy wine mixed with water, I will stop there friends, notice several aspects of the degeneracy of both church and nation, number one, they have forsaken the Lord, number two, their country is desolate, number three, there is a call to repentance, let's look at this first aspect of the spiritual departure of the people of God from God, they have forsaken the Lord, there was corruption both in the land and in the church, they are compared to putrefying sores all over the body, where the corruption goes from the sole of the foot up to the head, great wickedness was practiced among them, the people as a land had revolted from God and refused to obey Him, is this not what has occurred in America friends, has not America forsaken the God of the Bible, has not America legislated God out of the White House, out of the Courthouse and out of the schoolhouse, evil spreads over this land like a putrefying sore that contaminates and rots and the church is powerless to do anything about it because the church has sinned and refuses to repent before God, so we have a crisis in the land and an unrepentant church, we are a nation ripe for destruction, notice the second aspect from our passage this evening, their country is desolate, there were judgments in the land upon the Jews, their kingdom was almost ruined, America was once greatly favored with seasons of revival and national awakenings like the great awakening of 1740 and the second great awakening of the 19th century, there was a time in this land friends, when the people feared God and there was a God consciousness in the land, wickedness was in check, holiness was sought as a way of life and many homes had family altars, there was a reverence for the Bible even if you were not a Christian, but now the entire nation it seems has been given over to evil, evil is called good and good evil and where is the church in all of this, sound asleep, listen friends, in 1740 when God moved through New England it was called the great awakening, revival has often been referred to as an awakening, at Gethsemane Jesus faced the crisis point of his earthly ministry and his disciples slept right through it, today the church is in a crisis point and we are sleeping right through it, this nation is experiencing the withdrawn presence of God and our country is desolate, it used to be when you went to church years ago you could experience a God consciousness there, but now all you experience is loud music so loud it hurts your ears or there's just dead formality like a tomb, the greatest judgment the unrepentant church in America is experiencing today is the withdrawn presence of the Almighty, now lastly observe this third aspect from our passage today and that is a call to repentance, God tells the Jews to cease to do evil in essence he tells them that if they would have their sacrifices accepted and their prayers answered they need to put away the evil of your doings, God even reasons with them in beckoning tones, come now and let us reason together saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool, God is calling his people to return to him but their spiritual and moral degeneracy is so bad they are like silver that's just dross and wine mixed with water, this speaks of their diluted religious services mixed with their idols and customs of their pagan neighbors, oh friends has not the church in America done this very thing, has not the church in the last 50 years diluted the gospel message to make it more palatable to sinful man, has not the church introduced strange fire into its worship services by bringing the world into the church, what a sad picture this is of backslidden Israel back away from God and unwilling to recognize her condition and repent and what a tragic picture this is of America and the American church both unwilling to turn from their wicked ways and seek the God of the Bible through brokenness and repentance but the God of the Bible declares return to me and I will return to you, like I said there is a crisis in the land and an unrepentant church, I fear it may be too late for a wicked nation for she has filled up the cup of her iniquity before a holy God, I fear the church is too fast asleep on pillows of conformity to be roused to her duty of repentance, all that remains is swift destruction, for the last decade I've been calling the church in America to repentance before the Lord but I fear my voice is too small to be heard, still it is necessary to cry in the wilderness, repent when the land lies in wickedness and the church lies fast asleep, if a sovereign God doesn't intervene and send us revival we will surely self -destruct, heaven help us.