All right, what time is it? Preach the word, that's right. We've been learning about the knowledge of God. The most important thing about us, all of us, adults and kids alike, is what we think about when we think about God, knowing God. And so I've tried to emphasize, remember from the catechism, which is the map of the Bible, I've been teaching you guys again, is who is God? God is a spirit and He doesn't have a body like men. And that's what the Bible teaches. No one, John says, no one has ever seen God. And so because we can't see God, that makes it harder to know Him, doesn't it? Okay? And that's what I've been trying to emphasize is, and since He's so much greater than us, we can't see Him. Guys, if He doesn't stoop down to our level, We're not going to understand or know who God is. So has God stooped down to our level so we can understand Him and know Him? Has He condescended? Do you guys remember what it is? Anthropomorphisms. That's a big long word. Some of you guys already can say it. I'm impressed. But the idea is, guys, for those of you who can't say it, for all of us, is sometimes God speaks of Himself with human characteristics. Now again, I bring this up every time because this is important. If I make God out to be like me, what's that called? It's called idolatry. Very good, Tyler. That's wrong. That would be sin, okay? For me, just to make God out like he's a man upstairs, he's a big person just like me, guys, that's wrong. But if God uses human characteristics to communicate who he is to us, because do we understand what it's like to be a person? Well, you're learning though, Rowan. I appreciate it. But yeah, you know what it's like to be a boy, right? You can run around. You know what it's like to have eyes? To see? So again, does God have eyes? No. He doesn't have a body. And so that's what we've been emphasizing. So last time, the last couple of times, we've been looking at the nose. I've got a better picture this time. Again, does God have a nose? No. He doesn't. But last time, what do you do with your nose? You smell things. And last week we saw that the incense in the tabernacle in the Old Testament, that golden altar of incense, let up smoke. And what did that symbolize? That fragrant, good-smelling smoke. It symbolized our prayers going up to God. And is God pleased with us? Yeah, and that's what we learned about. Now, this time I want us to think about something else, because we can't talk about smelling without talking about what we're going to talk about today. So this is, what is this, Jeremy? Friction modifier. So I want you guys just to take a whiff, don't touch it. Just tell me, you like that smell? I don't like it. Yeah, you don't like it. You like that smell? You didn't smell it. How did you not smell that? Yeah, that smells good. OK, we'll take a vote here. You want to smell it there, Elodie, or not? Huh? Emmy says it's gross. What do you think, Luke? Rowan, you like it? Rowan likes it, too. All right, a couple of them boys. Future mechanics, maybe. Smells like fish? OK. You might want to be careful where you're fishing, OK? All right, now most of you guys, is that a good smell or a bad smell? Good. You said you didn't like it, Cyrus. No, I mean, I don't. You don't? That's a bad smell. Now, think about this now, OK? Actually, I'll just take this one. Let me see. This one I thought was good. Tell me, you like this one better? Yeah. What is that? You like that better? That smells like blueberry. Blueberry, very good. You like that better, Shallon? Yeah. Is that better? It's a candle I mean, but it smells better does it smell better I Now, here's my point, guys. Here's my point. Hold up, Cyrus. Here's my point. This is what I want you guys to understand. There are good smells and there are bad smells, right? We all understand that, don't we? And I thought this was the most appropriate bad smell I could think of to bring. But what I want you guys to understand is good smells, smells that we might say are pleasing to us. And the Bible talks about a pleasing aroma. That's a pleasing smell. And I want us to look at some of these passages. Because right off the bat, you see this in Genesis 8, right after the flood. Noah, after he'd been in a boat for a year, he gets out, and you know the first thing he did? It's right here. It says, Noah built an altar to the Lord, took some of every clean animal. Think about it, guys. He's been living with animals in a boat with them for over a year. He gets out, he offers every clean animal, which there was more than two, but anyway, and some of every clean bird, and offered bird offerings on the altar. But we'll talk about what that is in a minute. And look what it says. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, you see that guys that it pleased God, some translations call it a soothing aroma. God smelled it. Now again, does God have a nose? He's condescending to us to understand this is something that pleased Him. And it's very interesting, the next verse says, when He smelled this pleasing smell, this pleasing aroma, He said, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I've done. Here's the point guys Do you know why God's destroyed the world of the flood? Because because the intention of man's heart is always evil and so here afterwards Noah offers this sacrifice and it's pleasing aroma to God and See, here's the point guys. Was it a pleasing aroma for God to destroy the world? I It wasn't. I mean, he's just, guys. It was right for him to do it. But guys, that wasn't the pleasing aroma. And so here he's saying the judgment of the world. This is for us to learn, guys. The judgment of the world wasn't the pleasing aroma to God. It was this burnt offering. that remedies man's sin. It doesn't remedy our sin, guys, to destroy the world. That's what we deserve, but it doesn't fix things. But this burnt offering does. That's what we see right off the bat in Genesis. Now, go 1,200 years later, 1,200 years later, and Israel is learning how they can live with God. And so they have a tabernacle. And this is what, in the book of Leviticus, God tells you, if you're going to live in my presence, this is what you need to do. We're just going to look at the burnt offering. It says, if his offering, if you as one of God's people, in the Old Testament, if his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. So not a girl, a boy, a male without lungs. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting. That was the tabernacle and there was a big bronze altar out there. So you bring your animal to the priest there. Why? That he may be accepted before the Lord. Up here, Sirens. Okay? Up here. And now, this is what I want you guys to see, okay? Listen. So he would bring this animal. Now what kind of animal did they bring? Do you guys know? It's one of five different kinds. It could be a bull, if you had a lot of money. It could be a sheep. It could be a goat. If you didn't have much money, it could be a dove or a pigeon. So you would take this animal and you would take it to the priest. And then, the Bible says, the priest would lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering. The idea was, if Joshie took it and you laid a hand on the head of the sheep, The idea was that this sheep now is representing Joshi before God. That was the idea. And so what? It says, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement. Hey guys, up here. You guys come over here. And so the point is, guys, is that that sheep now is representing Joshi before God. And what would happen to it? Then he shall kill the bull. Kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron. I don't want any pictures of this guys. Don't worry Okay, and Aaron sons the priest shall bring the blood throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting and he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces So he takes this thing cuts it into pieces after he kills him puts the blood on the altar puts the pieces on the altar and And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. So he puts it all on this altar. What's he going to do with it, guys? He's going to burn it. And the priests shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. So here this offering goes up to God, and it's a pleasing aroma to God. That's what I want you guys to see, that it makes atonement. It remedies man's sin, okay? Hey, Wesson, okay? You gotta stop, okay, Wesson? You guys gotta be quiet. All right, now listen. Hebrews 10, here's my point, guys. This is what I want us to understand. The Old Testament, were they forgiven because an animal died for them? Very good, Romans. No, that's not why they were forgiven. So why did God have them do this? because that animal pointed to something else. Hebrews 10 says this, that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. It's impossible, guys. They couldn't. People who think the Old Testament saints got saved by obeying the law, Guys, that's a foolish way to read your Bible. Nobody got saved by obeying the law. If that's how anybody got saved, then nobody got saved. They got saved because the sacrifices pointed to Jesus. Look at what we learned in the Catechism. What did these sacrifices represent? Remember? They were symbolic of Christ, the Lamb of God, who was to die for sinners. So the point is this, guys. Hey, up here, guys. I've got to split you up. Huh? Because I will. You want me to split you up? Okay, be quiet. Listen. So what did the sacrifices stand... What were they symbolic of? Pay attention. They were symbolic of Jesus, guys. So they pointed to Jesus. And as the Old Testament saints trusted in the sacrifice, they were trusting in God's provision of Jesus. Okay? And so what I want you guys to understand is, when you get to the New Testament, that's what the Bible teaches. Let us be imitators of God as beloved children. Walk in love. Who walked in this way? Like Christ, who loved us. And how does Christ love us? He gave himself up as a fragrant offering, a pleasing aroma. So the only way to be a pleasing aroma to God, guys, is to be connected to Jesus. Jesus is the pleasing aroma to God. It's not by us obeying, it's by Jesus providing the sacrifice for our sins. Does that make sense? And His sacrifice makes us right, it remedies our sin before God. Now, you guys ready for something crazy? I want you guys to see this last verse, because this is an amazing connection. If we're connected to Jesus, then Jesus is this sweet-smelling, pleasing smell to God. Now look what it says in 2 Corinthians 2. It says, Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us, listen over here Cyrus, through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. So through us, the fragrance of Jesus can go to everyone. You see that? That we, Jesus is the sweet smelling, aroma to God, but if we trust in Christ and point other people to Jesus, we can be that sweet smelling aroma to God. You see that? Look what the next verse says. For we are an aroma of Christ to God. You guys want to smell good to God? We need to be connected to Jesus. It's not about what our actual odors are, but now look at this. If you smell good to God, are you going to smell good to everybody? Just like Weston likes the smell of the mechanics. Listen guys, some people smell the aroma of Christ and guess what it smells like to them? Death. Do dead bodies smell good? No. Not at all. But some people smell Christ in other people and it smells like life. And that's what the Bible says, guys. It's among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. When we live out the gospel, proclaim the gospel, it says, to one, we're a fragrance of death to death. You'll smell bad to people who are hardened in their sin and don't want to repent. But to the other, to those who are being saved, guys, if you point people to Jesus, you're a fragrance from life to life. And so let's pray and ask God, that's why the Bible says, who is sufficient for these things? That our lives can help extend the sweet smell of Christ throughout the world and make a difference for eternity in other people's lives. Who is sufficient for these things? So let's pray and ask God to give us grace that we would seek to be a pleasing aroma to God. And by the way we do that is what? Trust in Jesus. So let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that Jesus came, that although our sin deserves judgment, indeed even the judgment of the world, like the flood happened, we thank you that you remedied our sin. by Jesus taking our sin for us. Help us to trust in Jesus. Help us to point other people to Jesus by our lives and by our words. And we pray, Lord, that you would just be at work saving many people. And we thank you for what he's done. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, guys.