To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice. Sermons
I. ITS HISTORY IN HEBREW THOUGHT. We find: 1. Samuel holding this view, and declaring it in firm and powerful language (1 Samuel 15:22). 2. David filled with a deep sense of it as he humbled his soul before God (Psalm 51:10, 15-19). 3. Asaph powerfully affected by it as he wrote his sacred song (Psalm 50:8-15). 4. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah insisting upon this truth in strong and fervent words (Isaiah 1:11-17; Jeremiah 7:22, 23; Micah 6:6-8). 5. John the Baptist making nothing of ceremonial religion, and making everything of a true and genuine repentance. 6. Our Lord himself; by his teaching and his attitude, preferring the penitent publican and harlot to the much-sacrificing but hard-hearted Pharisee; while by his own sacrificial death he removed forever the need of any further offering on any altar whatsoever. 7. His inspired apostles declaring the needlessness of any sacrifice except those which are of a spiritual order (Romans 12:1; Hebrews 9:28; Hebrews 10:12; Hebrews 13:15, 16). II. ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO OURSELVES. We naturally ask - What is the relation of devotion to duty or righteousness? and we answer: 1. No measure of devotion can make up for moral laxity. We might be worshipping in the house of the Lord day and night; but if we were false, or cruel, or dishonest, or impure in our daily practice, we should certainly incur his righteous anger. 2. Moral probity by itself will not take the place of the direct approach of our hearts to God. It is much that a man should be just in all his dealings, kind in his various relationships, blameless in his bearing and behaviour - very much. But it is not everything; it, leaves out one essential thing. God desires and demands of us that we ourselves come into close and living union and communion with himself, that we look to him and address him, and trust and love him as our Divine Father and Redeemer. And no propriety of behaviour, no excellency of life, will take the place of this. 3. Devotion and duty must coexist, and will sustain one another. (1) We should so worship God that we shall be stronger to obey his commandments in the home and in the school and in the shop - everywhere. We may safely conclude that our sacrifice on the sabbath is altogether imperfect and unsatisfactory if it does not lead to a worthier life in the week. (2) And we should so act in all the various paths of life that" with clean hands and a pure heart" we can go up to the house of the Lord, and render acceptable service of prayer and praise as we bow before him in the sanctuary. They are complementary one to the other; and no wise man will disregard or disparage either. - C.
To do Justice and Judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. This text is a complete and independent sentence. Confirm the proposition deduced from the text —I. FROM OTHER PLACES OF SCRIPTURE. We find God rejecting and abhorring sacrifices if they were not accompanied with a real repentance and inward sincerity of mind, and the outward works of mercy and justice (ver. 27; Micah 6:6, 7; Isaiah 1:11). II. FROM THE DIFFERENT NATURE OF THESE TWO DUTIES, AND THE DIFFERENT GROUNDS FROM WHENCE ARISETH OUR OBLIGATION TO THEM. Sacrifice was grounded upon a positive precept and institution, but justice has its foundation in the nature of God. If we consult merely natural light, we shall discover no necessary foundations in that for sacrifices. As the notion of God includes in it all possible and conceivable perfection, we discern justice to be one of His most essential attributes. III. FROM THE DIFFERENT ENDS OF THESE TWO DUTIES. Sacrifice was not enjoined for its own sake, but justice always was, and is, and ever will be. Sacrifices were ordained to be types of Christ, who was to be offered up in the fulness of time upon the Cross. Sacrifices were enjoined to be as a guard and security for other duties, to be as a hedge and a fence for the moral precepts, and especially to defend the Jews against idolatry. Evidently the goodness of this duty of sacrifice was not natural and intrinsical, but relative and external. But justice was, and is, and ever will be, enjoined for its own sake. It has a natural goodness and beauty in it which, at all times, and in all ages, recommends it to the practice of mankind. Justice is a duty that ariseth from the moral frame and constitution of our souls, and we must offer violence to ourselves, if we be not just to others. IV. FROM THE DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF THESE TWO DUTIES. The effect of sacrifices was the expiation of legal guilt. For deeper guilt no sacrifices were appointed. It is otherwise in the distribution of justice. An impartial execution of that in magistrates and judges does not only put a stop to the growth and increase of sin, but it also appeaseth the wrath and disarms the severity of God. (William Stainforth, M. A.) People SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Acceptable, Chosen, Desired, Exercise, Judgment, Justice, Offering, Pleasing, Rather, Righteousness, SacrificeOutline 1. The king's heart in the hand of the LordDictionary of Bible Themes Proverbs 21:3 1075 God, justice of Library Definition of Actual Grace1. GENERAL NOTION OF GRACE.--The best way to arrive at a correct definition of actual grace is by the synthetic method. We therefore begin with the general notion of grace. Like "nature,"(3) grace (gratia, {GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI}{GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA}) is a word of wide reach, used in a great variety of senses. Habert(4) enumerates no less than fourteen; which, however, may be reduced to four. a) Subjectively, … Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual Epistle xxi. To Constantina Augusta . Epistle Cvi. To Syagrius, Ætherius, virgilius, and Desiderius, Bishops . How the Slothful and the Hasty are to be Admonished. How those are to be Admonished who Desire not the Things of Others, but Keep their Own; and those who Give of their Own, yet Seize The Heavenly Footman; Or, a Description of the Man that Gets to Heaven: "And the Life. " How Christ is the Life. How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. " An Analysis of Augustin's Writings against the Donatists. Paul's Departure and Crown; Proverbs Links Proverbs 21:3 NIVProverbs 21:3 NLT Proverbs 21:3 ESV Proverbs 21:3 NASB Proverbs 21:3 KJV Proverbs 21:3 Bible Apps Proverbs 21:3 Parallel Proverbs 21:3 Biblia Paralela Proverbs 21:3 Chinese Bible Proverbs 21:3 French Bible Proverbs 21:3 German Bible Proverbs 21:3 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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