Under the old covenant God established a sacrificial system that was to help prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah, who would atone for the sins of all mankind. In the first five verses of the chapter Isaiah begins to discuss the reasons why God has decided to reject the people of Israel and the sacrifices they were making to Him. Only showing outward signs of obedience to God, but not loving Him inside, makes a believer in God no different than the pagan nations.Finally, as God promises the people of Israel in the book of Isaiah, God will restore His creation through the coming of Christ and He promises to bring about a day when all suffering will end and He will rule the earth in righteousness. As we will also see, God desires a repentant heart who wants to please Him by repenting of sin and making the choice to follow His ways because we know that He only wants the best for us. God wants a changed heart where those who honor Him do so not because they want to earn His favor by their deeds, the desire to please God comes from a heart that wants to please God out of a love and devotion to Him in thankfulness of what He has done for us. As we will see in this passage, God desires more of us than just following His commands in our actions. Many times as Christians we feel that we can make ourselves look holy and righteous in the eyes of God if we only do the things that He commands. In our lesson today from the first chapter of Isaiah we are going to learn that being obedient to God requires much more than just an outer showing of that obedience through the carrying out of the commandments of God. Hope you are all doing well! Have a great day! Pastor Jared (PJ) I wanted to share some thoughts with you regarding the above-mentioned passage. In my studies I came across this passage in the class I took regarding the Old Testament Prophetic book of Isaiah. About two years ago I was working through my studies to earn my degree with Liberty University towards my Divinity Degree. Good afternoon church family and friends. OBEDIENCE RATHER THAN SACRIFICE (Isaiah 1:10-20)

How to be righteous