Isaiah 1:16-17

Isaiah 1:16-17. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well;

Repentance, practical change of life, renewal of heart, the giving up of evil, the following of right, this is what the Lord approves. Otherwise, all your fripperies and trickeries of worship are loathsome to him. Think you that your finest music is sweet to the ear of him who listens to the angels everlasting song? Do you imagine that you can build temples worthy of him who made the heavens and the earth? What careth he for temples made with hands? He despises all material things where the heart goes not with them, but purity, holiness, true spiritual worship, - these are the things in which he delighteth.