Better Than Sacrifices
According to John Bunyan in The Acceptable Sacrifice: The Excellency of a Broken Heart (p.2-3), there "are four things that are very acceptable to God. The
First is, The sacrifice of the body of Christ for our sins; of this you read, Hebrews 10; For there you have it preferred to all burnt offerings and sacrifices; it is this that pleaseth God; it is this that sanctifieth and so setteth the people acceptable in the sight of God.
Secondly, Unfeigned love to God is counted better than all sacrifices, or external parts of worship: ‘And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark 12:33And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
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Thirdly, To walk holily and humbly and obediently towards and before God, is another: Micah 6:6-8 [6] Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
[7] Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
[8] He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
See All.... "Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams.
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Fourthly, And this in our test is the fourth, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" [Psalm 51:17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
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