RIGHTEOUSNESS > RITUALS
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For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
We should be thankful for the gift of scripture that God has given us for our benefit!
Person bible object lesson: Hold your Bibles in your hand and pray with me. The scriptures you hold in your hand are given to you by for you to learn from, be encouraged by and gain hope from. To be able to live your life the way that God has stated as right. We cannot be righteous outside of what God tells us is right. We cannot know what is right without the Word of God!
Romans
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Prayer of thanksgiving for God’s word that we have easy/free access to…(are you thankful for?)
Appreciation should equal attention: The thankfulness that we have towards God’s word should lead us to pay close attention to what God has to instruct us through it. So I am encouraging you to gain a new passion for God’s word as you come to grasp how powerful it can be in your life.
Do not neglect the Old Testament: while we are under the New Covenant which is found in the New Testament please do not neglect the Old Testament as is referring to.
This morning we are going to look at a few verses from . While we will learn some things about Israel we will also learn some things about our time and what God desires from us today.
The amazing thing that God does through giving us the scriptures about His people of old way back then (such as the Israelites) is that He teaches us how to live for Him today. This is true whether we learn what to do to have faith or courage or hope in God or what not to do as His people were often unfaithful.
Something that has always been amazing to me is how history often repeats itself and as I read through the prophets such as Isaiah (that we are going to study this morning) you find the some of the same problems/sins/misunderstanding that they had we have as well. (or our culture)
God’s people today can learn much from God’s people in scripture such as Israel during Isaiah.
God’s people of Isaiah’s time teach a lesson that many people today need to learn.
The lesson has to do with what is more important
Righteousness is more about the right heart than repeating the right rituals.
Righteousness is more about the right heart than repeating the right rituals.
- Why did God not want Israel’s sacrifices, rituals and offerings even though the law required them?
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
Isaiah 1:11-
God did not care about their keeping sacrifices, offerings, keeping of festivals and assemblies to worship. Not only did He not want them He hated them. Why?
Why would God hate the very things He commanded them to do?
- “to obey is better than sacrifice.”
How does this statement make sense if sacrificing is being obedient.
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
- “I desire mercy not sacrifice”
Hosea 6:6
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
God did not and does not desire empty actions or rituals along without the right heart behind it. When the heart is right then the sacrifices, service and commitment will come.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Israel in Isaiah’s day was living in Idolatry and completing the rituals of the law thinking that because they had completed religious rituals they would be acceptable to God.
This of course was a mockery of God’s holiness and Lordship over them. He said that He would not even hear their prayers no matter how many they prayed.
- God would not even hear their prayers even though they were many
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
Isaiah
The religious leaders and many Jews of Jesus’ day did the same thing. They kept laws very strictly but did not do it out of the right heart.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
We cannot live in sin and live in fellowship with God having Him accept our worship and be pleased with us.
This is not some kind of theological debate over whether or not rituals or worship or obedience are important. Our hearts towards God and in what we do matter most as Jesus said “they are the weightier things” but when our hearts are all in with God then our lives and worship with be as well.
So what does this have to do with God’s people today?
However we cannot flip that and think that as long as we
Rituals without righteousness are worthless but true righteousness can only come from the heart and produces proper actions and obedience.
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
What does this have to do with God’s people today?
We cannot live in sin as Israel did and live in fellowship with God having Him accept our worship no matter how perfectly we think we are going about it.
This is not some kind of theological debate over whether or not rituals or worship or obedience are important. Our hearts towards God and in what we do matter most as Jesus said “they are the weightier things” but when our hearts are all in with God then our lives and worship with be as well.
We cannot flip this and think ritual actions alone equal righteousness. This is the mistake that many in scripture have made and many make today. That is not righteousness it is self-righteousness which is not real righteousness at all.
Righteousness is greater than rituals because true righteousness comes from the heart and ritual alone is nothing. Actions not matter how pious looking or often repeated are meaningless (as says if our hearts are not right and we refuse to live for Christ.
However we cannot flip that and think that as long as we
God’s people today can make the same mistake of serving Idols of sin while still thinking they are acceptable because they are dedicated to religious ritual.
We can make the mistake that I saw many people in the church when I was growing up of placing the most emphasis regarding faithfulness upon doing the right rituals in worship (or what things were not done.) And being so focused on having the right beliefs about every detail or worship and the church that those were the only gauges of righteousness regardless of how you lived your life.
One example to illustrate that is what members of the church of Christ were known for. I’ve heard it many times that before I was born (in the “golden age” or “perfect” in the church) they were known as walking bibles. Now you might think “that is awesome” and it is and it should be but what is sad is what it was not known for. It was not known for its good works towards those in needs in the community and in the world. It was not known for its concern for justice and mercy towards others.
But Today: We are at a place in where many are guilty of making going through the rituals of worship synonymous with faithful to God. (A few examples: going to worship, giving on Sunday, taking the Lord’s supper, (after which some used to leave) praying, reading your bible regularly) We say things like “They are church goers, they go to worship every Sunday,” even though going through the act itself has merit.
It is tempting to attach merit to repeated rituals and righteousness with actions that seems godly. It is so tempting to feel accomplished for things that we do. When we allow this attitude in before long we can make in our minds doing the actions alone as righteousness (instead of a part of righteousness). Doing religious ritual does not make us righteous they are simply a part of righteousness.
In my lifetime I have seen it more times than I can count…people come to the Sunday morning worship service and have little to nothing to do with the church or what it is doing any other time. Or they are their every time the doors are open but they are known in the community not for the good they do but for how course they talk or some other lifestyle choice they refuse to live without.
Or one that we rarely say is for not being known for anything in the community that is good.
It is tempting to attach merit to repeated rituals and righteousness with actions that seems godly. It is so tempting to feel accomplished for things that we do. When we allow this attitude in before long we can make in our minds doing the actions alone as righteousness (instead of a part of righteousness). Doing religious ritual does not make us righteous they are simply a part of righteousness.
Rituals without righteousness are worthless but true righteousness can only come from the heart and produces proper actions and obedience.
Notice the connection in
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Psalm 51:
Notice how in verse 16 it says God is not pleased with burnt offerings but then God wants the sacrifices of a broken Spirit and contrite heart.
Then In verse 19 “then you will delight in right sacrifices…then bulls will be offered...
So we need to understand what righteousness is...
Righteousness is possible because of what repentance convicts you to stop doing.
Righteousness is possible because of what repentance convicts you to stop doing.
- Israel needed to repent of the evil that they were involved in. They needed to stop immediately!
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
Isaiah
- Righteousness comes through repentance because it leads us to stop any sin that is in our lives.
Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
Righteousness does not simply involve striving to not sin or do wrong.
Notice what verse 17 of our text says...
Righteousness is possible because of what love compels you to start doing.
Righteousness is possible because of what love compels you to start doing.
Living right is not just about what you do not do that is wrong. It is about what you do that is right!
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Isaiah
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
- Right living happens when there is love in our hearts that produces good deeds toward others.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James
Righteousness produces good deeds done out of love.
Righteousness is love for God and others demonstrated through actions in your life.
Righteousness is possible first not by what we can do but because of what Christ has already done.
Righteousness is possible first not by what we can do but because of what Christ has already done.
Israel rebelled against God but God was willing to wash all their sins away if they would return to Him.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
Isaiah 1:
- Just like Israel, no matter what we have done God can cleanse us of our sins and make us white as snow.
- our sins can be washed away through the blood of the lamb.
Are you living your life fully for the Lord?