An Epic Sacrifice

So a lot of good news here, but let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 8. Genesis chapter 8 for our time of study. In God's word this morning, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of, Genesis, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Genesis chapter 8, verse 15, and my goal this morning is to cover verses 15 through the end of the chapter and if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be an epic sacrifice, an epic sacrifice.

it is easy to read the story of the great flood and to see the flood for the world altering history altering event that it was, and then come to our passage today.

After the flood is over and see the passage today as something of an afterthought. The flood is over, the earth is dry, Noah and the animals come out of the ark and Noah's so grateful, he builds an altar and worships God. What else would we have thought would have happened there? But actually, in our passage today, We see something just as world altering.

And history altering as a global flood. And this morning, we will get to see what that thing is and what it was that brought that about. Perhaps as we've been studying the story of the great flood. destroying all of life, the judgment of God unleashed upon sinners and destroying all of life on earth.

Maybe as we've been studying this, you have found yourself asking or you've anticipated somebody asking you the question, how could a good God do something like this? Actually, what we should be asking is, how is it that there has only been one global flood? In human history. Why haven't there been 20 global floods since the flood of Noah's day?

If God sent the flood in Noah's day in response to man's sinfulness to his core, how is it that there has only been one global flood in human history? If that is your question, then this passage today We'll provide you with an answer. It turns out that in our passage today, a world altering, history altering sacrifice was made and that we're gonna see made all the difference. We have seen just by way of quick review how the waters of the flood have subsided from the earth to the point where the land is now dry and ready for habitation once again.

It is now the 27th day of the 2nd month, which is exactly 1 year and 10 days after the flood began. 57 days prior to this day, NOAA had looked out of the ark and removed a covering, looked out upon the ground, and observed. To his own site that the ground seemed pretty dry, and yet, interestingly, Noah did not take the liberty of leaving the ark based on his own observations. Instead, he waited for a command from the Lord.

I am sure that Noah's thinking was, God is the one who told me to enter the ark, and I am not leaving this ark until God Himself tells me to leave the ark. Well, that day arrives, which brings us to the precise point where our passage begins today. Moses' purpose in these verses is to tell us about Noah and the animals' departure from the ark and also to give us an explanation as to why it is that we do not have to worry about another such flood happening again. Let me read the passage to you.

This morning, beginning in verse 15, then God spoke to Noah, saying, go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons, and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So Noah went out and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth went out by their families from the ark.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest and cold and heat. And summer and winter and day and night shall not cease.

This is the word of God and may God help us to understand his words this morning. The way we're gonna break this passage down is we're gonna observe 7 developments. that are associated with NOAA's epic sacrifice, his world altering, history altering sacrifice that he brings to the Lord on this occasion. The first development is if Noah's gonna offer the sacrifice, we got to get him out of the ark, right?

And so the first development is that God instructs Noah to leave the ark or to go out from the ark. The text says, then God spoke to Noah saying, go out of the ark. You and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. I invited you in, I wanted you here for all this time.

It's time to leave. You are not welcome in this ark anymore. Go out from this ark, God is saying. God commands Noah to leave the ark together with his family, and he also tells Noah to look at verse 17, bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

He's saying, when you go out, Noah, I want you to bring the animals out with you. The picture is that of orderliness. Noah was not just to throw open the door and let the animals just run wildly out of the ark. He was to bring them out of the ark.

There's the feeling of orderliness here. Perhaps some of the animals were reluctant after all this time to leave the ark and they needed to be ushered out and brought out of the ark. I remember years ago when our family. I was at the wild animal park and we were.

looking at the white rhinos that, that are there and the tour guide was telling us that when The rhinos were brought in from Africa. They were brought, in these cages, these containers, and they set the containers down on the, on the grass and, and then they lifted up the doors and as soon as the doors were open, all the white rhinos charged out of their cages. But then they said something interesting happened. They charged out, they sniffed the air, looked around, and then every one of them ran back into those containers.

It freaked them out. so I don't know if that would have happened, but Noah, these animals have been in the ark for over a year. So they perhaps in some cases needed to be brought out by Noah. In verse 17, God tells Noah why he wants him to bring the animals off of the ark.

Look at the purpose, he says that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. It's interesting, the word that is translated breed abundantly is the same word that is translated as swarm. In Genesis chapter 1, verses 20 and 21, God is saying, I want you, Noah, to bring these animals out of the ark so that they can swarm the earth with their offspring. And multiply, he says.

In the last chapter, it was the waters that were abundant and multiplying. We saw the word multiply twice last week with regard to the waters. On the earth, but here God is now wanting living things to multiply upon the earth. God is essentially saying, Noah, I want another flood to happen.

The flood of waters that I sent has destroyed all of life on Earth. Now I want the earth to be flooded and filled with living things. So bring these animals out of the ark with you. So this is the command of God to Noah.

Go out of the ark, bring the animals with you. How does Noah respond? This brings us to the next development, and that is that Noah obeys God, and he leaves the ark, and he brings his family and the animals with him. The text says, so Noah went out.

And his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him, and every beast, every creeping thing and every bird, everything that moves on the earth went out by their families from the ark. So Noah goes out just as God had commanded. Here we see another example of the consistent obedience of Noah. God told Noah, build the ark.

Noah builds the ark. God told Noah before the flood came, 7 days prior, enter the ark, and Noah obeyed God and entered the ark. And now God says, get out of the ark. And Noah obeys God and does exactly what God says.

He comes out of the ark and in obedience to the command of God, he brings his family and he brings the animals with him. We're also told that all the animals came out and it's interesting, there's a phrase that is used here. They came out by their families from the ark and you might want to underline the word families. this is, this is not the Hebrew word that is translated kind.

So far in the book of Genesis. This is the word that is used in the Old Testament to even speak of a human family with a mom and a dad and children and relatives. In Genesis 7:14, you might want to write that reference down. We're told 4 times that each category of animal entered the ark after its kind.

And now we're told that they're coming out by their families. What does that tell you? The difference in wording and the use of the word families here probably provides indication that the creatures did breed on the ark and had their families of young ones as they came. Out of the ark.

So now Noah and all the families are off of the ark. Noah's feet are finally on solid ground after all of these months. Noah and everyone who was on board the ark are now officially saved. And what, what an experience this must have been.

For Noah and the animals to be outdoors and on the dry ground for the first time. In a year and 10 days after all of the mayhem that they have just experienced through the great global flood. So what does NOAA do now? Hey Noah, you've just been saved from the greatest environmental disaster that the world has ever known.

What are you going to do next? Noah's response. I'm going to worship the Lord. I'm going to offer burnt offerings to the Lord.

I've got some business I need to do with God. And that leads us to the third development and that is that Noah offers burnt offerings to the Lord. It says that Noah built an altar to the Lord and he took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Clearly, the writer of Genesis is wanting us to know that this is the first thing that Noah does after he gets off the ark.

His first order of business is to worship the Lord and to offer up burnt offerings to the Lord. Matthew Henry says one would have thought that his first care would have been to build a house for himself. But behold, he begins with an altar for God. Clearly, Noah is a driven man at this point, and he makes a beeline to first thing, building an altar to the Lord.

And once he builds the altar, Noah offered up burnt offerings on That altar to the Lord. Moses is using the expression burnt offering here, because he wants his Jewish readers to know that the offering that Noah is presenting to the Lord is equivalent to the burnt offerings prescribed. In the Old Testament law that the Jews are now familiar with, at the time where they're reading the Book of Genesis. According to the law, the burnt offering was an offering for sin.

And it was also a means by which a person could obtain atonement. It was also a means by which a person could express gratitude to God and worship to God. As far as sacrifices go, the burnt offering was one of those sacrifices. That was entirely consumed by the fire.

No part of a burnt offering was to be removed or left over for the priest or for the person who was offering that sacrifice. Everything was consumed, indicating an attitude of full surrender. This was a great thing to offer to the Lord if you wanted to consecrate yourself and display full surrender and devotion to God. The burnt offering was also a free will offering.

So it was a fitting sacrifice to express joy. It was also the type of offering that one would present to the Lord in conjunction with an important request. or requests that he wanted to bring to God. As one writer says, the burnt offering is all encompassing.

It answers to all the emotional needs. Of the worshiper And that's the way we should think about Noah's offering. Up of burnt offerings at this point. Noah is offering burnt offerings on this occasion for all of these reasons.

But even though we would say it's for all of these reasons, you can bet that there were two things that predominated in Noah's heart as he is offering up these burnt offerings. You might want to write this down. Commentators talk about this. Number 1, gratitude.

That was no doubt the predominating emotion that is on Noah's heart, but there also would have been a deep concern for the future of the human race. As one writer says, after Noah stepped out of the ark and stood on the renewed earth, Noah was so filled with gratitude that his first act was to lead his family in worship. And I agree with that completely. Noah is probably insane with gratitude at this point for all that God has done in seeing them through the storm.

But while Noah is no doubt very grateful at this point, he would also have a heavy concern. On his heart. There's little doubt that Noah is probably thinking something like this. Why set up life for ourselves again if God is simply going to destroy everything again.

We were born with the infection of sin inside of us, and I know that I still have that sin inside of me and my sons and their wives have that sin inside of them. And I know that my sons when they have children, will pass this infection down to their descendants. And if God has just destroyed the world because of human sinfulness, then it seems inevitable that there are more global catastrophes to come. Unless somebody intercedes.

So there's little doubt that Noah brings both his gratitude and this burden. To the Lord on this occasion of this sacrifice and we'll see evidence for this as the passage unfolds. By the way, notice in the text that the word offerings is plural. Noah did not just offer up one animal as a sacrifice.

Notice also that the text tells us that Noah took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings. On the altar that he had built. In the Old Testament law, God says that he only wants clean animals that are presented to him for sacrifice and so we can presume that the same is true here and Noah is careful to offer up only clean animals to God that God will find acceptable. Noah really wants God to accept this offering.

Notice also the word every in this passage, twice, Noah took of every clean animal and of every clean bird. This means that Noah took at least one of each clean animal and he offered each of them up as a sacrifice to the Lord. Remember that Noah took at least 7 of the clean animals according to their kind onto the ark. That either means 7.

In number or 7 pairs. And so you can figure out which of those two. We just presented both of those options to you, but just know that at the very least, there are 7 of each clean animal that was brought onto the ark and Noah is taking at least 1 representative of each of these kinds and is offering them in this burnt offering to the Lord. Think of all the animals.

That this would entail. If Noah's understanding of clean animals corresponded with that of the law which came later, which is almost certainly the case, then Noah would have offered at least one of each of the following animals for sacrifice. Let me just read these off so you can get a visual. An antelope, bison, caribou, deer, elk.

Gazelle, giraffe, goat, hart, ibex, moose, ox, reindeer, sheep, chicken, dove, duck, goose, partridge, pheasant, pigeon, quail, sparrow, swan. Turkey Just a name. A few. This is some of the animals.

The list was undoubtedly longer than this, and Noah builds one altar and he offers up. One of each these animals on that altar. Given the fact that there's one altar and one of each kind that is being presented at the very least, we can infer that this expression of Noah's worship likely took many hours and probably days. As one writer says, if the definition of what was clean or unclean corresponded roughly to what the mosaic law defined later, this must have been a generous sacrifice, the most liberal sacrifice ever offered.

Massive sacrifice. Slaying the animal, putting it on the altar, burning the animal. In fact, notice the word that is translated offered is the Hebrew word that means to cause to ascend. That's what the word offer means, clearly referring to the smoke of the sacrifice as it was being burned.

And the word burnt offerings is also the Hebrew word that means to ascend. So literally the Hebrew reads, he caused to ascend, ascendings. Clearly the focus is on the smoke from the burning sacrifice that ascends up to heaven. Noah's focus is vertical here as he worships and presents these offerings to the Lord.

It is worth noting here that at this point of the narrative, there is death. There is massive death that is taking place. In this moment of great jubilation, innocent animals are being killed and being burned. There had to have been a certain sadness in Noah's heart and a heaviness.

As he is engaging in this act of worship. These are animals who made it the full year and 10 days with Noah aboard the ark. Noah no doubt felt some connection to many of these animals, yet once these animals come out of the ark into a renewed earth full of possibilities, They are killed. There is death here at the beginning of this new chapter of human history.

Just as there was death, the death of an animal at the launch of Adam and Eve's life after their fall into sin. Noah is teaching his sons that if you want a relationship with God, you relate to him through blood sacrifice. If you want to obtain something from the Lord, you obtain that thing through blood. Sacrifice.

This points us hugely to Christ, who is the ultimate blood sacrifice, who came from heaven into this world and in the prime of his life he was killed as a sacrifice for our sins. Noah is offering up this massive sacrifice. These burnt offerings to the Lord. How does God respond?

That brings us to the 4th development, and that is God accepts Noah's sacrifice. He accepts Noah's burnt offerings, and he is soothed. By them. He accepts Noah's burnt offerings and is soothed.

By them. It says, and the Lord smelled the soothing aroma. The mere fact that God smells Noah's offerings tells us that God is accepting Noah's offerings. In the Old Testament, when God rejects a sacrifice, he refuses to even smell it.

In Amos 5:21, God says to the rebellious Israelites, I reject your festivals, nor do I smell your solemn assemblies. In Leviticus 26:31, God tells the Israelites that if they rebel against him, he says, I will not smell your soothing aromas. I won't even smell them. Nowadays, we smell things in order to determine whether it's acceptable or not, right?

Sometimes I will smell food to see if it's something. Acceptable or not for me to eat. I remember the first time I was handed a bottle of ranch dressing. I smelled it and I knew from the smell that this was not fit for human consumption.

Can I get an amen? OK. But at other times, I will smell something and I will know from the smell that, oh, this is desirable, this is acceptable for me to eat. But that's not how it works with God smelling sacrifices in the Old Testament.

The way it works is that if God does not like what's going on in the life of the person who's offering the sacrifice, if he does not like what's going on in the heart of the person who is offering the sacrifice, God will not even smell the aroma. Of that person's sacrifice at all. If he likes the heart of the person who is sacrificing, he will smell the sacrifice they offer, and the smelling of the sacrifice is in and of itself an expression of his acceptance. Of the offering.

So the fact that God is smelling Noah's sacrifice is in and of itself an indication that he is accepting Noah's offering to him. And he's accepting Noah's offering because he sees the righteous life and the sincere heart of the man who is bringing this massive sacrifice to the Lord. But God does more than smell the aroma of Noah's offerings as the smoke ascends up to heaven. The text tells us that God smelled the soothing.

Aroma. This tells us that the aroma of the sacrifices had a soothing effect upon God. If I said I'm listening to soothing music, that would tell you I'm listening to music that's having a certain effect upon me. What's interesting is we, we lose this in the English, but the word that is translated as soothing.

is tied to the same Hebrew word that Noah gets his name from. Remember that the name Noah means rest. Literally, the passage reads, God smelled the Noaic. Aroma.

Which means that the sacrifice is giving off what amounts to a rest-inducing aroma. An aroma that induces rest in the heart of God. What this language tells us is that the sacrifices that Noah is offering is having a powerful effect on God Himself. As one writer says, soothing sacrifices have a restful, soothing, pacifying effect on God.

That God's anger at sin is appeased by sacrifice is the clear implication of this phrase. Now what happens next? As the passage unfolds, indicates that Noah is not just offering burnt offerings as an individual who just wants to worship the Lord. Noah is right now, and he feels this.

He's the head of humanity from this point forward. He's the second Adam, as it were. No one will ever live throughout the rest of human history who does not descend. From him.

What a crushing weight this must be for Noah to realize this. He's the head of humanity at this point going forward. So here Noah is worshiping. As the representative head of the human race, and he's offering these sacrifices to the Lord on behalf of not only himself, but everyone who would ever be born from this point on.

Literally, guys, Noah, in part, is offering these sacrifices on your behalf and on my behalf, in the hope of eliciting a response from God that redounds to the benefit. Of everyone who will live from this point forward. We know that this was a part of Noah's motive because his sacrifice elicits from God a response that applies to all of us. It affects all of us.

Look at the response that this soothing sacrifice provokes from God, and that brings us to the fifth development. God promises to never curse the ground again. God promises to never curse. The ground again.

It says, and the Lord said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. Now guys, notice the connection. Noah presents offerings to the Lord. And the Lord smelled, and the Lord said, The Lord smelled, he accepted the sacrifice, and he said, clearly indicating the connection between the sacrifice that Noah offered and the promises that God is now making.

I agree with a number of writers on this, one of whom says this, it can hardly be denied. That it was God's appreciation of the sacrifices, soothing aroma that prompted the promises that followed. Interestingly, the New American Standard Bible says the Lord said to Himself, but the Hebrew literally says, and the Lord said to his heart, what we have here is God speaking to his own heart that has now been put at rest. Through this massive sacrifice that Noah has brought to him.

In Genesis 6:6, you can write down that reference. The text tells us that before the flood, God looked upon the wickedness of mankind, and he was literally grieved unto his heart. But here, God's heart is being soothed. And put at rest.

And now God speaks to his heart. As one writer says, God's heart at the time of the flood. is full of pain because of people's sin. Now that pain and indignation is assuaged by the atoning sacrifice.

What does God say to his pacified heart, his rested heart? Verse 21, and the Lord said literally to his heart, I will never again curse the ground on account of man. The word that is translated curse is a different word from the word that we see in Genesis 3:17 when God cursed the ground with thorns and thistles and so forth on account of Adam's sin. The word that God is using here, it just means to treat something with contempt.

What God did in sending the global flood was essentially in relation to the ground was to treat the ground contemptibly by causing it to be broken open and covered with miles of water to the point where it was in a state of devastation so long as it was under. The water If the ground could talk and you said to the ground, what's the worst thing that has ever happened to you in human history, the ground would say, the great flood. And here God is saying, I will never treat the ground.

In this way, ever again.

And notice the reason God had brought this cursed event upon the ground. He says that he will not do this on account of man. Here's the reason he brought the flood in the first place, on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. If, if your translation has the word for, you can put the word because there.

God is saying, I brought this cursed event of the flood upon the earth on account of man, because the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. That was my reason for sending the flood. And God is now saying here in verse 21, I will never again allow myself to be moved by man's sinfulness to send such a devastating event upon the ground again, even though the continued sinfulness in man deserves. Such a response from me.

Does that make sense? God says, I sent the flood because of man's inherent sinfulness from his youth forward. And I will never let myself be provoked to do such a thing again, even though man's heart is evil. From his youth, even on this side of the flood.

Here's the stunning thing guys, in saying that on this side of the flood, that the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth, God is acknowledging that nothing in mankind's fallen nature has changed as a result of the flood. This means that even A global catastrophic event like the flood is not sufficient to purge evil out of men's hearts. Even after the flood, it is still true that the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. Many of us probably think, man, if I could just witness the global flood and live through that, I don't think I would ever sin again.

That would really help me with my sin problem. But what, even if you could witness and experience the flood as Noah did, and his family did, you on the other side of that would be blown away by the degree to which you would still see sin in yourself and in your children, and in the generations that follow. And the same is true in Genesis, Noah, on the other side of the flood, will be getting himself drunk, and his son Ham will be shaming his father. In his nakedness.

And in a relatively short time, the world will be uniting to build a tower in rebellion against God. And beyond that, the world will descend to the depths of evil that's chronicled in the rest of scripture. You might say, man, I struggle with the sin of lust, I struggle with the sin of anger. If I could just witness the global flood and all of its fury and witness God's righteous anger against sin, that would cure me of my lust problem and of my anger problem.

No, it wouldn't. Your sin problem is so deep and it is so profound that it requires something more powerful than a global flood to root it out of you and me. Our problem is that the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. The word youth is plural, actually, literally, the idea is the intent of man's heart is evil from his youthful stages.

Whatever stage of one's youth, from infancy onward, there is evil in the heart of man. Matthew Henry describes man's problem and our problem in this way. He says sin is bred in the bone. He brought it into the world with him.

He was shapen and conceived in it. This is man's fundamental problem in the flood. Did not change that at all. Yet God is speaking to Himself here, and he's promising that He will never again respond.

In this global catastrophic way to man's sinfulness. What causes God to say, I will never let myself ever again. be provoked by man's inherent sinfulness to send such a global catastrophic event again? Remember the text, Noah offered burnt offerings.

The Lord smelled, and the Lord said, It was Noah's sacrifice that elicited from God this promise not to treat the ground. From which we sustain and derive our living and our life that he would not treat the ground with such contempt again. But that's not all. God restates his resolve with a different emphasis.

God has just described the flood in terms of what it did to the ground. Now he refers to the flood in terms of what it did to every living thing, and he promises to never send such an event again. And this brings us to the sixth development. God promises never to destroy every living thing again.

God says, and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. God is saying, I will never again destroy every living thing in one fell swoop. As I have done in this global flood. I will never again sin.

A worldwide cataclysm that kills every living thing on the land. What God is promising here is something that he will make even clearer in chapter 9, and that is that he will never destroy the earth with another global flood again. Notice that God is speaking negatively here in this passage, he's only expressing what he will not do again. What is not stated is what he will in fact do.

But that's what the rest of the book of Genesis is about. We will see in the coming chapters how that God calls out Abraham and tells Abraham in you all the families of the earth are going to be blessed. Here in chapter 8, God is promising not to destroy the earth again, but the rest of the Bible tells the story about how God goes on the offensive and establishes a people from whom the Messiah will come, and this Messiah will change the inclinations of men's hearts. God's laws will be written in their hearts, and they will want to do good and want to please God.

This is what the gospel is all about. God sends his Son Jesus Christ into the world to deliver man from his inborn sinfulness, a task that even the great global flood could not achieve. This means that the gospel possesses more power to change the human heart than the global flood does. You could witness.

The great global flood unleashed upon the world in judgment against sin, and it will not change your heart like the gospel can. And that is why Paul in Romans 1, amongst other places, says the gospel is the power of God, not the flood. The gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus is the power of God into salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel packs more punch and wields more power against sin in our hearts than 1000 global floods could ever achieve.

But here in this verse, God is promising to Himself that he will not treat the ground contemptuously or destroy every living thing in one fell swoop ever again. And what was it that elicited these promises from God? It was the burnt offerings that Noah offered to the Lord. Noah offered burnt offerings, and then God smelled.

And then God said, The reason the world has not experienced 20 global floods since Noah's day or even a daily flood, as John Calvin describes it. Since Noah's day is because God promised to never do such a thing again, and God made that promise in response to Noah's soothing sacrifices. This means that even today, you and I, And every human being are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices that Noah offered up to the Lord. On this occasion.

As one writer says, Noah's sacrifice was an appeasement. On behalf of all of post-diluvian humanity. Post-diluvian, what that means? Post flood, OK.

If you want to impress someone, just say I'm a post-diluvian. all of post flood humanity. Noah was a priest for the post-diluvian world. From the narrative, it was Noah's offering for atonement that prompted God to declare his new intentions toward the sinful earth despite human propensity toward sin.

What a momentous occasion. is in our passage today of Noah offering this massive sacrifice to the Lord in eliciting from God this response. God's promises continue. He's promised what he will not do again, but he makes one final promise about what he will never allow to cease again.

And this brings us to the last development of the passage, and that is God promises that Earth's cycles will never cease while the earth remains. God says while the earth remains, seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter, and day and night. shall not cease. In this verse, God states 8 things that will never cease on a global scale again.

This verse contains 8 subjects and 1 verb, and the verb that unites all of these subjects is the word cease, which interestingly is the word Sabbath. Sabbath, God mentions 8 things packaged in the form of 4 couplets, and he says these things shall never take a Sabbath again. Notice that he starts off saying while the earth remains, that's a qualifier on his promise. God is not promising here that the earth will remain forever.

It won't, but he is promising that as long as the earth remains, these cycles and the seasons and these rhythms will continue. God says seed time and harvest shall not cease. God hereby is guaranteeing that the earth will produce sufficient food for mankind. There will no longer be a global interruption in this pattern of seed time and harvest like what happened when the flood came.

God says cold and heat shall not cease. The fluctuations of temperatures caused by the turn of day. In the night and night in today and the changing seasons and the varying altitudes that will not cease, God says, on a global scale. Summer and winter shall not cease.

The earth will revolve around the sun at its 23% tilt on its axis, creating the seasons with all of their differences, allowing much of the earth to experience the refreshing coolness of fall. The dormancy of winter, the vitality of spring, and the heat of summer. He says day and night shall not cease. The earth will turn on its axis in 24 hour intervals moving from day to night and night to day within that time frame.

And all in all, God is promising here that all such rhythms and cycles of nature shall, as long as the earth remains, shall never take a Sabbath. That's comforting for Noah to here, right? we read this story, it's like, yeah, the global flood, it never happens again, but Noah's not coming out of the ark saying, yeah, this is the one-time event, the global flood, it will never happen again. These words are going deep into him as God is responding to his worship and to his sacrifice and making these promises.

And he says these rhythms, beneficial rhythms of the earth will not cease on a global scale again, as long as the earth remains. Guys, imagine what would happen to all of us if the forces of nature decided to take a Sabbath. For even 1 2nd. Noah and his family would have known better than anybody else that there are hugely powerful forces in nature that could destroy human life in a split second of time if the forces holding these powers at bay were allowed to take a Sabbath for even 1 2nd.

At any given moment, there are millions of things in nature. If God would allow the balance of physics to alter ever so slightly, would destroy all of human life immediately. But God here is promising that these powers would be held at bay and that the powers of nature would be brought into alignment for man's blessing rather than man's wholesale global destruction. This promise from God is such a grace, as one writer says, however irregular the human heart may be, there will be regularity in God's world and its cycles on a global scale.

God recognizes and even states that mankind is still as sinful as he was before the flood, but because he smelled the soothing aroma of Noah's offering, he utters this gracious promise. To himself and to Noah and to all of us. And this promise came from God in response to a massive series of burnt offerings that Noah offered to the Lord after he came out of the ark. As Henry Morris says, generations yet unborn, including our own, have benefited from Noah's sacrifice and intercession and God's response to it.

So let's not ask how could a good God send a global flood killing everybody. Let's ask the question, with God being so righteous and man being so sinful, how is it that in all of human history, there's only been one global flood? Why haven't there been 50 of such events? It's because of God's grace.

That he pronounces in our passage today in response to Noah's sacrifice. Let's also realize that there is one reason that Noah's sacrifice was effective in soothing God's heart. And eliciting from God the promises that he makes in this passage, and that is because Noah's sacrifices point to the ultimate sacrifice, which is Jesus Christ on the cross. God could not look upon Noah's sacrifice without in doing that, thinking of His son's sacrifice on the cross.

It is Christ's sacrifice on the cross that made Noah's sacrifice effectual. In Ephesians 5:2, Paul speaks of Christ, who loved you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a sweet smelling aroma. Noah offered up animals, Christ offered himself up on the altar. And because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, all of us who believed in Christ are saved from our sins, we're forgiven of our sins, and we're brought into relationship with God.

We can be thankful for what Noah does in our passage today, but we can be even more thankful that there is one greater than Noah, who 2000 years ago offered himself up. As an offering to God, a soothing aroma that pacified and appeased the heart of God in His wrath against sin. In the lives of those who believe in Jesus. Christ offered himself, God smells the aroma of Christ's sacrifice, and God, he smelled Christ's sacrifice, and he said, And read your New Testament and read everything God says and the great and exceeding precious promises that God has spoken in response to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

He's promised that he will never treat us with contempt or curse us for all of eternity. If we believe in his son, he's promised that he will never respond to our sin by unleashing his eternal wrath upon us, causing us to die eternally if we believe in Jesus, and he's promised that the cycles and the rhythms of his grace will never take a Sabbath. And God's gospel promises to us are not prefaced by the words while the earth remains. Hey, you believed in my son, by virtue of a sacrifice.

I'm gonna make you some promises, as long as the earth remains, here's my promises. God doesn't preface his gospel promises with the words, while the earth remains. He prefaces them. With things like, as long as I live.

Which is eternally. Long after the heavens and the earth have passed away as we know them, God will still be loving those of us who have put our trust in Jesus and cried out to him and made him our Lord and Savior. And the reason God's love will be upon us forever is because 2000 years ago, somebody offered themselves up as a sacrifice to God and was a soothing aroma to God. And that sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross altered not just the course of history, but the course of eternity.

And we get to live in the good of that if we look to Him by faith and believe in him. If you're here today and you've never called upon Jesus as your Lord and Savior, And put your trust in him. Please do that today. And in believing in him and calling upon his name, God will usher you into these promises, and you will live in the good of His grace that will never ever take a Sabbath for all of eternity.

Let's pray together Lord, we thank you for your word and what you have shown to us today that is a help to us. It makes us so grateful. The cycles of nature, the rhythms of nature are not just automatic. They are what they are because you made promises on this occasion and you made those promises in response to a soothing aroma coming from a sacrifice that was offered to you by Noah.

May we look everywhere around us in nature. And be grateful when day turns to night and night to day and the summer turns to fall and the fall to winter and we experience the cold and, and the heat and we get to eat food that comes from the seed times and the harvest of this earth. May we see your grace and all of that and then even go beyond that and see the amazing grace that you have given to us in Jesus Christ. The forgiveness of sins, the transformation.

And though we now have power over sin and we can say no to sin, we're still not free of the presence of sin. But we look forward to the day when we stand before you complete and perfectly whole, Lord, and completely rid of sin. And we will say in that day, the gospel is the power of God, just as we say it today. You're a good God, and we thank you for your grace in our lives, Lord.

We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds, do much with everything that we give. To you of the resources you've blessed us with and use these resources to spread your fame and the good news of the gospel around the world. We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said.