601 YEARS — Genesis

GENESIS 8 The Wind. Gen.8:1. “God remembered Noah and caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.”

We are shut up, lifted up, and passing through the waters, but we are safe in Christ.
The Holy Spirit in the believer breathes peace to our souls in times of fear, and He keeps us from fear. He speaks peace to our souls. He refreshes our souls from His word which He has “breathed,” so we can breathe heavenly air even though we are here in this ungodly world that is going fast toward judgment.
The breath of God this time did not destroy, but brought about deliverance.
The tossing and turning of just judgment on sin has passed, and its effects decrease because quiet peace is coming and is near at the present time.

The Ark Rests.

Even though the world is not seen and the waters of judgment are still there, the rest of assurance in the future becomes a present reality to us. “We shall not be moved.”
The work of Christ on the cross has brought us to the solid ground of safety by faith in Him. We are not always able to see the results of the cross-work, but the settled fact of God’s satisfaction gives us rest. We rest where God rests; on the finished work of Christ.

It may be a while before we enter into the fullness of what God has provided for us. Suffering may be our portion for a season, but joy comes in the morning. That joy settles, strengthens, secures, and establishes us in our faith.

The Open Window.

New light entered the ark and hidden things were revealed. New light has entered through the open window to our souls and we are amazed at all that is revealed of this new day and new life in which we live. Those things that seemed isolated and unconnected, are now open to let us see the hill-tops of future joys.
The little we know about the future, brings us joy in the present. “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.”
The old is gone, destroyed, and dead. The new life is real, vital, alive, and flourishing with the new life of the new creation. The dove of peace with its gentle sounds, promises better things ahead.
Resurrection-rest has been given to us and we can enjoy that fullness and the fullness of the new life we have, every single day.

Full Liberty.

Purity has taken the place of impurity in thoughts, words, and actions. Sin become abhorrent to our new nature.
Gentleness and peace become real to us and we can make them our own instead of restlessness and uncertainty.
Our spirits become quiet and controlled rather than corrupt and boisterous, noisy and offensive.
New life is larger, freer, and better, and our dwelling place is peaceful as we live in Christ and with Him beyond and above the wickedness of earth. That has passed and is gone as far as we are concerned. We live on new, cleansed, and higher ground.

601 YEARS. Gen.8:20. “Noah built an altar unto the Lord.” For over five-hundred years, Noah had lived in the ungodly world that was increasing in wickedness and the corruption of sin was everywhere. In every area of human life, sin was abounding. However, through this awful mudslide of moral and spiritual evil, “Noah walked with God.” That man of faith knew personally the sanctifying power of grace. “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

A godly person of faith can avoid being moved by the morass of human evil that is motivated by all the powers of darkness that are arrayed against God. Such a person can please God! A true child of God is ready to obey his or her heavenly Father and finds it a delight to do so. A person of faith will trust God’s word. One who loves God will submit to His guidance. In faith, a person who knows the Lord Jesus Christ will find prayer and praise to be natural to them. These are normal responses by those who have faith in God and seek to walk with Him on a consecrated road. Even though others all around us walk on the downward, broad road, the narrow upward road on which we go against the tide of human opinion and experience, is the one on which we want to travel through life.

When God said to Noah, “Make thee an ark,” he didn’t hesitate but started right away knowing that was the only way to save his family. When the Lord said, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark,” he immediately went in. When Noah was six-hundred years, two months, and seventeen days old, he went into the ark. When he was six-hundred-one years, two months, and twenty-seven days old, he went out of the ark at the call of God, to begin a new life. Stepping out of that ark into total silence, in contrast to the noise and tumult of evil when he went in, would have been both an awful and awesome contrast.

There was no sound of animals or birds except those from the animals that came out of the ark after him. There were no sounds of children playing, people talking or business being conducted. There were no sounds of raucous pleasure-seeking people, shouting with laughter, screaming with fear, or crying with sorrow and remorse. There was nothing but a soundless, silent world in which new plant life was growing. It must have been like standing on a grave at the dawning of a new day like Mary Magdalene experienced when the new day of grace began.

I wonder what I would have thought or what I would have done as the first action of response to the first voice I heard on that day of new beginnings. The KJV of the Bible says that God said, “Go forth,” but other versions say God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark.” Whatever the way the voice of God was heard, Noah obeyed God still, even after being shut in for a year and ten days. It is a normal reaction from the heart of a true child of God, to want to thank Him, worship Him and praise Him after passing through an unknown and very traumatic experience such as never happened before.

He had entered the ark when the earth was a riot of evil and noise that accompanies the deeds of sin. He exited the ark to the silence of cleansing and purity. That awe-inspiring scene moved him to worship God before doing another thing. “It is God’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Behind Noah and his wife came his sons and their wives, and behind them came the animals and living creatures to spread out and replenish the earth.

Noah didn’t start building pens for cattle or folds for sheep. “Noah built an altar unto the Lord.” He had walked with God before building and entering the ark. He had waited a full year and more with God while in the ark. Now he came out to a cleansed world, and as a true child of God, worshipped God at the altar he built as his first act after his great deliverance.

It is perfectly normal for a believer to give God thanks, and in doing so, worship Him as the first action of a new life in Christ. He who is First has the first we have to give. He who is the Best shall have the best we can offer on the altar of worship we erect in our souls and live by in our lives. The Altar is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. The offering on the Altar and the shed blood is a foreshadowing of Christ and what He did for us on the cross. The normal first act of a new believer is to bless the One who blessed us and bended knees and uplifted hands and heart is a natural posture that we take in respect and reverence to God as we seek to give honor to the One who saved us.

We must never allow Satan to demand we apply ourselves to our earthly responsibilities before we give God His due. The enemy of God and believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will seek to make us take care of business, building buying, and selling before worshipping, praying, and giving God first place. If a work doesn’t begin with God it won’t end with God. If a relationship doesn’t begin with God in it, it won’t have God as the binding cord in it. If earthly claims are the focus of your attention, the altar of human tools and human rubbish will be all you have. It will all be only rubbish at its best. Anything added to what God has done leaves the whole thing valueless.

The Altar

The Altar represents and proclaims our Lord Jesus Christ as our means of approach to God. By virtue of the fact that He was once offered for sin, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God is what makes the sacrifice on the Altar of value.
The Lord is the True Altar, and the True Priest who offered Himself as the True Lamb of God who bore away the sin of the world.
The Altar that we have [Heb.13:10] is our treasure to which the Holy Spirit first led us, that we might understand “He made peace through the blood of His cross.”
The Altar is where the Priest is and where the blood is that was shed for our sins. “He entered into heaven with His own blood.”
The Altar is where truth is as a flowing well of water from which we draw the water of life that gives us our satisfaction and joy.

On the Altar

The Altar is the dying bed of the victim. By faith we see the Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary, being made a curse for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The Altar is the place where “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” That is where He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
The Altar is where the weight of the sins of an ungodly world, were laid on the innocent perfect Substitute that God Himself provided for us.
Because of what happened at the Altar, God’s justice is satisfied and He blots out our sins for His own sake. In that way, no guilt or iniquity is found in those who have put their faith in Him.

At the Altar

Gifts and first fruits of worshippers are presented to the Lord at the Altar. The sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, and all the other acceptable sacrifices are presented to God at that Altar.
Words and works are offered at the Altar by faith and through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for His sake. All we do for Him is sanctified by His blood and consecrated to His glory.
The scent of what is offered to God and acceptable to God, is as a sweet-smelling savor, a soothing aroma unto our Lord. This is not mere smoke as it would be if it were the works of men. Adoration and praise to God make that which ascends to heaven, a fragrance of God’s grace bestowed to us here on earth

Because of the Altar

Acceptance by God is assured on the basis of the appropriate Altar, the right sacrifice, and the sincerity of worship on the part of those who offer the sacrifice.
Those who worship the Father, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Those who have been to the Altar are safe from the foes who pursue us to bring us down in shame, sin, and failure. Those who are at the Altar do not fear the demands of the law. No sword of justice falls on those who are at the Altar. Justice has already been satisfied because of the sacrifice Christ made there. At the Altar when our hearts are fixed on our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no enemy who can claim us or take away our security. There is no one whose rage against holiness and righteousness can harm us. “Our souls are in God’s mighty hand, we’re precious in His sight.”
Those who have come to the Altar can here lay down every burden of sin, and every burden caused by sin.

At the Altar we can present our bodies, “a living sacrifice” to God that is holy and acceptable to Him, as our reasonable service. Here our lives focus on the One to whom we are devoted, and whom our souls adore.
At the Altar, I die to sin and am alive to God. We live to God and for God when we are continually at the Altar.
Because of the Altar where we received a pardon for our sins, we are motivated to godliness because of our Lord Jesus Christ who is our all, for life, death, and eternity.

“The Lord smelled a sweet savor” The Savor of Justice

Justice, by its claims, strikes terror into the hearts of human beings. It demands a lifetime of total obedience in thought, word, and deed.
Justice demands payment for any and all evil that has been committed.
Justice doesn’t overlook sin of whatever kind it is or size it is however obscure it may be or the degree of effect it may have or not have. Justice calls for just judgment on sin.
Justice holds the scales on which iniquity is weighed. The rich and poor alike have to pay the price and bear the consequences of their own sin.
Justice was satisfied when our Lord Jesus on the cross, took the cup of atonement that was needed and made atonement for our sins. That cup was so full that not a mite was left.
Justice smells a sweet savor.

The Savor of Truth

Truth is unyielding. It is either Yes or No. The word of truth speaks, and what it says is so.
Truth speaks with authority and its words correspond directly with any action involved.
Truth is eternal. It will not pass away even though heaven and earth may pass away.
Truth declares wrath on sin, which cannot be paid for by pain, penance, or prayers.
Truth would be untruth if sin escaped divine recompense and just retribution.
Truth took every threat against it and put it on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Person of Truth. “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
Truth has not failed but has been kept in its entirety by our Lord Jesus Christ for our sake, and Truth smells a sweet savor from the sacrifice He made.

The Savor of Holiness

Holiness is perfection and cannot look on sin but is repelled by sin and uncleanness.
Holiness and unrighteousness cannot coexist in the same place.
Holiness breathes purity, dignity, integrity, honesty, and righteousness.
Holiness was accomplished for us when our Lord Jesus Christ “suffered, the just for the unjust to bring us to God.” “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, would live unto righteousness.”
Holiness smells a sweet savor because of an acceptable sacrifice.

The Savor of Mercy

Mercy weeps over misery; is afflicted by afflictions.
Mercy tastes the bitterness of sin, the anguish of the guilty, the fear of the perishing.
Mercy loudly proclaimed its “Hosanna” when the triumphant word, “Finished!” sounded from the loud voice of the Savior on the cross. He knew all things were now accomplished.
Mercy rejoices and smells the sweet savor of new life being granted without reservation to all those who call on the name of the Lord.

Review of Chapter 8

The Lord’s Action – The Servant’s Attitude (faith still intact)
The Lord’s Command – The Servant’s Obedience
The Servant’s Consecration (the altar) – The Lord’s Revelation (the promise)

Review of the “days of Noah” Luke 17:26. “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” Days of sin.

God’s Way of living was abandoned by mankind
God’s Word was ignored when Noah preached
God’s Will was unheeded; no repentance took place

Days of sorrow.

God’s Message was neglected
God’s Refuge was rejected
God’s Gift was refused

Days of salvation.

God’s grace was working. Noah found grace.
God’s love was planning. Noah followed God’s instructions, responded to His invitation, and lived by His protection.
God’s power was keeping power. The “keeping power of God” was what saved Noah and His family.