"I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (vs21-24)
It doesn't matter how religious we appear or how zealous we are in church activity: there must be righteousness and justice in our religion, or it isn't of God.
Righteousness is how God saves sinners by the blood of His Son, whereby He paid for sins, so that God may righteously and justly FORGIVE them. Righteousness is Jesus Christ, by the blood, earning all of the grace that you'll ever need or receive. Hebrews 9:15 says, “And for this reason, He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance”! Righteousness is God favoring us for Christ's sake; it is the truth of the word, as it is, lived out in the life of believers. Righteousness is walking uprightly by the power of the Spirit, doing God's will from the heart. Righteousness is God's gift, both in our standing, indwelling new nature, and in our deeds. And, without righteousness by faith and faith that makes us do righteous deeds, we don't please God, nor have we the Spirit, and our worship is in vain!
People think that saying God's name and giving Him some time and lip service secures us eternal life, that if I speak well of Him and attend religious meetings, then it doesn't matter if I don't believe what He says and practice it. But it isn't so. He says, “They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly. Therefore, because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from him, though you have built houses of hewn stone, yet you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them”, and again, “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him!” Most people think salvation by grace means that I don't have to be righteous. Instead, we must believe that grace makes us righteous in behavior, as well as our standing. We must have a whole religion, or God isn't pleased, we are not saved, and we must repent quickly or die.
Righteousness is hated by men, for they hate those who reprove in the gate, but it is pleasurable unto all who enjoy God's fellowship. It is rewarded with peace, power, and love. To be righteous, though men and your own flesh abhors you, is to be loved by God and to experience the sweetness of peace. Jesus, that Man of sorrows acquainted with grief, was a righteous and thereby peaceable Man. He walked with God and had His pleasure, even though He walked among men and fought Satan repeatedly. Righteousness is surely rewarded in the next life, even if this life has its grief. Righteousness is the only heavenly passport there is, the only proof of favor from God, and the mark given that we are genuinely His.
Don't fall into the trap of “any religion is good, so long as it is sincere”. Don't think, “It doesn't matter what I do, so long as I ask forgiveness in Jesus' name” (John 8:11). Walk with God in the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness that's imputed to faith. Paul said, “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith of Christ [the gospel], the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil 3:9). Walk with God by this righteous standing trusting Him to give you righteous character. Walk loving righteousness and justice, and you walk wisely with God, rather than against. You will be hated by men, loved by God, and you'll be rewarded eventually, even though you suffer to be holy now.
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