Well, hello everyone and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for Wednesday, September the 25th, 2024, and I am delighted to be back with you and to have this time together. It's Wednesday, at least maybe it's Wednesday when you find this. If it is Wednesday when you find this, let me cordially invite you to join us tonight at Old Providence. We're continuing along in our Bible study on the book of Hebrews. Let me say we're doing things differently. We're making up a lot of time, right? We're rolling with things quickly because it is the plan to get finished, to finish up with Hebrews by the time we get to Christmas break. And then in the new year, I'm looking to start a book study on a pilgrim's progress, but I'll say more on that in the future. But we're rolling right through with Hebrews. It's very similar to what we're doing here, a little bit more in depth. That's a Bible study in the truest sense of the word. This is a devotional, not a sermon. I know, terminology, right? Somebody said to me recently, it's like you're preaching five different sermons a week, and then you have Wednesday night and Sunday. And that's okay, because I love doing this sort of thing, and it's my honor to be with you. But it's not a sermon, it's not a Bible study, it's a devotional, different purpose, different reasons and rationale behind it, nevertheless. you are invited to come. And it's going to be at 645 tonight. We always have stuff for children that's going on at the same time, so you don't have to worry about them. But it's 645 to 730, and then we're done, or very, very close to 730. A lot of times we'll take prayer requests at 730, so 735, 740. were usually done by then, but you are invited to be there for that. I'm excited to be back with you today as we continue along and kind of bring the flood narrative to a close. We're not done with Noah. No, there's more going on. And in fact, we're not done with his sons either, as we're going to see, but Today, we come to something very, very important. We're in Genesis chapter eight, so you can go ahead and turn there with me. We're gonna be picking up in verse 15, and I'm gonna pray first, and then we'll dig in. But before I even do that, realize where we're coming today, in many ways, we've seen the flood narrative as, okay, God's starting over. Well, today, we get the real substance of that, and we find something fascinating. Okay, let me pray and then we'll dig in and see what we're talking about here. Our Father, please be with us now. Help us to understand your word, to see what you would have us to see out of this, and also to understand your calling for us as your people. Certainly, you're calling for humankind created in your image. We're not gonna do this without you. We might gather some knowledge, it might be academic in nature, but what we need is the application and we need your Holy Spirit to turn the lights on for us to see. So, please do that now. And we pray it all in Christ's name, amen. All right, so where we left off yesterday was with the flood narrative continuing. Remember Moses, or Moses, Noah sent out the raven, didn't come back, sent out the dove, came back, sent it out again seven days later, came back with the olive branch. We talked about how that isn't a gotcha moment or anything like that, that instead it's showing God's miraculous hand at work. But kind of what we ended with was this calling that Noah had to stay on the ark. And we talked about some of the rationale behind it. Maybe he was frightened given the storm Maybe it was this maybe it was that but I think that the reason Noah stayed on the ark Until he actually got off was verse 15. That's where we're picking up today Then God said to Noah come out of the ark you and your wife and your sons and their wives I think Noah waited that long because everything Noah's been doing is because the Lord told him to do it and This does not mean that he's perfect, as we're gonna see. Noah's got problems, too, but still, we've read about it several times. Originally, when we were introduced to Noah, Genesis 6, verse 9, he walked with God. Same language used for Enoch, right, who was taken to heaven, who was no more. Same language used to describe Adam and Eve's relationship with God, walking with God in the cool of the evening, though this kind of walking is undoubtedly different, but nevertheless, he walked with God. Chapter six, verse 22, Noah did everything just as God had commanded him. Chapter seven, verse five, and Noah did all that God commanded him. Later on, it says that Noah did, you get the point here. Noah stays on the ark despite the stink, and we talked about that yesterday too, that metaphor, right? He stayed on the ark despite the stink, despite everything that was going on, I think because he was waiting on God to tell him when it was time to disembark the ark, if I can be so bold as to use that little turn of phrase. That's what he was waiting on. And as we just read in verse 15 there, where we're picking up today, or excuse me, No, yeah, verse 15 and 16. Then God said to Noah, come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. But what we find next is interesting. Verse 17, bring out every kind of living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground, so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it. All right, this is interesting because God is revealing the plan there. It should be obvious, but he's saying this is why you brought the animals so that they can repopulate the earth. Where it gets interesting though is what is commanded of Noah and his family. We'll get there. Verse 18, so Noah came out together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, all the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds, Everything that moves on the earth came out of the ark, one kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and taking some of the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord said, or excuse me, the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease. Now, y'all, there is so much packed into just this little section that we read, okay? So many principles. I've been saying this. Remember, I've been saying this about people trying to turn this into fantasy folklore, all that kind of stuff. Because if they can do that, then they can say it's not really true. Just find the moral of the story, and the moral of the story for you may be different than the moral of the story for me. They want to bring this down to relativism. They want to take away all of its teeth and say that it's not really binding. But think about what we just read. There's some really important stuff here. Not just the animals leaving the ark showing God's plan to repopulate the earth with animals, but think about what happened after. What is the first thing that Noah did after he got off the ark? What is the first recorded thing? You see, after God had shown such kindness to Noah, we get a principle here, and what is that principle? It's principle of gratitude, not of payment, of gratitude. Again, verse 20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and then said in his heart the things that we'll talk about in a second. Y'all, we don't get any indication that this is a sin sacrifice, propitiation for sin, anything like that. This is a free will offering of gratitude on Noah's Park. And it's kind of bold, isn't it? I mean, God has told Noah what the animals are there for, that yeah, these animals, the ones that you've taken care of, they're going to be the ones that repopulate the earth, okay? And then immediately Noah starts killing them. Well, the reason he does is because he trusts God and because his motive is on something else. Now, I'm not saying that preservation is a bad thing. I mean, it is, right? We should protect endangered species, all that sort of stuff. I don't have any issue with that. But we see what Noah's primary concern here, and that is that his primary concern is pleasing God, acting out of gratitude. And there's a very simple application for you and me today in light of this. When God brings you through the storms of your life, what's your first response? and realize if you feel like I'm stepping on your toes, mine are bloodied, okay? I'm 10 time over toe amputee at this point because I do the same thing. Y'all remember what the Proverbs tell us, there's a warning issue there against the dangers of having so little that you're a thief, but having so much that you're tempted to forget God. When we come through the storms of our lives, the first inclination of our hearts really ought to be to turn to God in gratitude. Very valuable lesson that we learned there. But also to trust God as we give to Him. Noah could have very easily said, oh, I need to be careful with this stuff. No. He trusts the Lord as he has trusted the Lord all along. And that is a little bit of a lesson for us. Gratitude on a person's part, not always, but most of the time, the way a person praises God, the gratitude that a person has for God is a direct reflection of the faith that has been exercised in God all the way along. Because you see, at the core of gratitude is remembering and recognizing. And if you forget God, and if you don't have faith in Him, don't be surprised when you're gonna forget to thank Him, too. That's just how we work, y'all. But Noah gives us a better example to follow. And something else is learned here, too. Verse 21 tells us something about God. It says, the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, never again will I curse the ground. And we're gonna keep going. but realize what this has done. You know, this imagery of God, and the technical term is anthropomorphic language. God is a spirit, he doesn't look like you and me, he's not some wizard that's up in heaven, he doesn't have a long beard, all that kind of stuff. He is a spirit, infinite and eternal, and all the different things that the catechism says about him. But from time to time, anthropomorphic language is used. We know that he is he, because he is our father, but this anthropomorphic, language, this human-like, human bodily-like language, is that of when we act in gratitude toward God, when we sacrifice to God, and we don't sacrifice with animals, but instead when we offer free will offerings of our time, of our talents, of our treasure, those rise to God's nostrils as a pleasing aroma. But more importantly, even than that, when Jesus died on the cross, he was the perfect sacrifice, given once and for all, the pleasing aroma of Christ. Just as it changed God here when the pleasing aroma of the sacrifices rose into His holy nostrils, to use that anthropomorphic language, y'all, as it is with us when we serve the Lord, it is pleasing to Him, and we should want to do this. But again, the beauty of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice is that He is pleasing to God, and so therefore, when God views us, we are pleasing to God, because we're viewed not in light of our righteousness or our actions, but instead because of Jesus Christ. And in the same way, with this anthropomorphic language, it's not only here that we hear this kind of language. If you were to fast forward to the book of Jonah, you remember what we found there early on in Jonah when God goes to Jonah and says, you're the man, you're gonna take this message. He talks about the stench of Nineveh, their wickedness having risen before him. Y'all, it's not only our sacrifices, our dedication, our love for God that is a pleasing aroma to Him, it's also our wickedness that is a detestable aroma. So kinda, the question is, you remember the shower-to-shower commercials back in the day, back in the 80s? Shower-to-shower each day helps keep odor away. I don't know why that just came to mind. It's the power of music, I guess. you know, commercials while watching the Wheel of Fortune or whatever it was. But, guys, a question that is valid for you and me, along the same lines, what do you do when God brings you through the storms of life? What aroma are you giving off? Is it one that is pleasing to the Lord? First off, are you saved by Jesus? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you spotless? Are you white as snow because you're washed in the blood of the Lamb forgiven? If not, you need to turn to Jesus today. Get in touch with me and we will talk about that. But if you've done that, still, what's your aroma like to God? Are you doing those things which cause a stench? Or are you doing those things which are genuinely pleasing to Him? Or are you a middle school boy that doesn't wear deodorant but puts on perfume every once in a while, or excuse me, cologne? That's the equivalent when we put on the show, I'm convinced. Used to be a middle school teacher, right? Cologne is no substitute for deodorant. But sometimes we try to mask our stench through doing some things that are very visible and very pronounced. Axe body spray should be in the Geneva Treaty because it's an affront to humankind when a middle school boy gets hold of it instead of a bar of soap and a stick of deodorant. But nevertheless, sometimes we try to cover our stench through outward signs. Don't do that. examine what aroma you are giving off. But then there's one final thing to say, and tomorrow we will get to the cultural mandate that kind of matches what God said about the animals, but there is one more thing that we need to recognize here. Continuing in reading, I'll start with verse 21 again. Side note, we've talked about this ad nauseum. The human nature is one of evil. The Ark didn't fix that. We still have a tilt toward evil. But then God makes this promise. He says, as long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease. Y'all, most of the time, the aspect that we focus on for that is that God's never gonna send a flood again to destroy the earth, and it's true. But another promise is made there, and it's an interesting promise that... I mean, this time 10 years ago? Well, more than that. I mean, we had politician doomsday clocks ticking quite some time ago. Let's rewind 25, 30 years. We heard about Save the Whales, we heard about acid rain and that kind of stuff. But now, the ante has been up significantly. What I'm about to say is going to sound political. It's really not. But y'all, I'm trying to think of the angle to work on this. I wrote some things down, but I need to be genuine on this, but I also need to be careful. I don't remember before 20 years ago, and I knew there was conservation efforts. I knew people wanted to save the whales, Greenpeace, all that kind of stuff. But the ante has been up so significantly. about the earth falling apart, about how we've only got a few years left. I remember one politician that ran for president had said, we've got 10 years left. Well, that clock expired. I don't even know how long ago. Every time there's a late hurricane, every time there's this, it's this continued message of The whole world is about to fall apart, right? That's why we need to... Politicians and celebrities fly all over the world in their private jets, and in one outing, use more energy and gasoline than you and I will ever use in our lives. They do that to talk about how evil my weed eater is because it's a two-cycle gasoline weed eater. Okay? As I've said before, politics is the biggest religion in the United States, and we're living in the time of the Crusades in a lot of ways. this whole idea that the world is about to fall apart. It is its own religion. You have heaven. which is an eco-friendly world with zero carbon footprint. You have Armageddon, the apocalypse, which is the polar ice caps melting, the desalinization of the ocean. Global warming is the limbo or the purgatory that we are in. You have hell, which is the ultimate meltdown. You've definitely got high priests and priestesses out there preaching a gospel of conservation. You've even got indulgences. Right? You can buy carbon credits to make you feel better about how much energy you use. And this indoctrination is so present. And the thing that is threatened is the whole world is going to collapse. The world's going to stop. You talk to scientists. Oh, yes. The universe is... What does the Bible say? God promised, Genesis 8, 22, as long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. It will never cease as long as the world endures. And that thing that will cause the world to not endure any longer is when Jesus Christ returns and says, behold, I make all things new and we'll have a new heaven and we'll have a new earth. Until then, things might happen. Climate change is a real thing. They don't call it global warming anymore for obvious reasons. Climate change is a real thing. You ever wonder why you get on the news and it's like, it's the hottest day since, and then people stop. They're like, oh, see, global warming, everything's falling apart. And then they say, it's the hottest day since 1924. Well, what was it like in 1924? We haven't even been keeping records of temperatures that long, and the science they use is not precise. So y'all, take it easy. I'm not saying start burning tires to keep warm. I'm not saying we should be needlessly wasteful. But at the same time, God makes a promise here. The world is going to end, but it's going to end when Jesus comes back and not before. So take heart. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time that you have given to us. Let us see your word for what it is, and let us take your promises to heart. Let us trust, and let us examine ourselves. And I pray it all in Christ's name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time, Lord willing. I'll see some of you tonight at 6.45 if you watch this in the morning, and Lord willing, we'll be back together tomorrow at six. Until then, take care.