The sermon titled 'Much More Jesus In Genesis' by Jason Dohm explores the connection between the Old and New Testaments, focusing on Genesis 8:20-22. It highlights how Old Testament judgments are types pointing forward to the ultimate reality of Jesus Christ and the final judgment. The sermon discusses Noah's offering of clean animals as a burnt sacrifice after the flood, which serves as a type of Christ's ultimate sacrifice. It explains the significance of substitutionary atonement, where Jesus takes the place of sinners, satisfying God's justice and bringing reconciliation. The sermon emphasizes that while fear of judgment can lead one to Christ, only the grace of God can truly save. God's response to Noah's offerings is a promise of stable seasons, highlighting the acceptance of a particular kind of substitute. The sermon concludes by asserting that Jesus is central to Scripture and the plan of salvation.

The title of the message today is Much More Jesus in Genesis. So, we're in the Old Testament, but in a sense we're not in the Old Testament. The Old Testament so often brings us into the New Testament and to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is no exception to that. Thank God.

Last week I said that the judgments of the Old Testament were types. What are types? They are things or events which point forward to, point ahead, and teach about a greater reality. So the judgments of the Old Testament, like the global flood which we've been studying, like Sodom and Gomorrah, the total annihilation of the people who lived there, that city, that wicked city, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Babylonian captivity. Those Old Testament judgments were types of a greater reality.

What is that greater reality? It is the final judgment when Jesus will come in power to judge the living and the dead. They're to shake us out of a sense of comfort that we can have when one day comes and seems to be just like the next. It seems like things will always just continue through eternity that way with no change. But that's not what the Bible teaches.

So we're given these Old Testament judgments to sort of shake us out of that sense of complacency. I believe our first encounter in Genesis was something that pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent in Genesis 3.15. Some would argue and say that it's actually the clothing of Adam and Eve. I'm not too fussed about it.

I think the first occurrence is the promise that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. But in any case, we've already encountered Jesus in the form of a type, something that is pointing forward to Jesus and teaching about Jesus. We have that again just in a tremendous way in this text. That is clean animals being offered as burnt offerings. So as we come to this text, let's thank God and ask Him for help.

God, we do thank You. We come with hearts that are full of gratitude that you haven't kept these great truths to yourself but that you've revealed them, you've had them set in black and white, put in writing. Most of our houses have a dozen Bibles. We have such free access to truth. Thank you for that.

Thank you that the centerpiece of this truth is the person of Jesus Christ. The things before Him so often pointing forward to him and the things that are coming after him, explaining all these great truths. Thank you for Scripture. Thank you for Jesus, this great centerpiece of Scripture. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

We have three verses. We'll take them one at a time, so hopefully your Bibles are still open to Genesis chapter 8. Follow along as I reread verse 20 and then talk about it. Genesis 8 verse 20, 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. So this is right as Noah and his family and all the creatures whose lives were preserved on the ark come off of the ark.

Immediately Noah's doing something. He's building an ark and offering burnt offerings. So in this verse, if you're taking notes on handouts, we have Noah's altar and offerings. Altar and offerings fill in the blanks. You're taking notes that way.

Noah's altar and offerings. The verse begins, Noah built an altar. So he's taking time and effort. The first thing he does coming off the ark is taking time and effort to build an altar. We have no idea what it was like.

We only know that he built one. This is actually the first mention of an altar in the Bible. The Bible is a book full of altars, but we haven't encountered one in the first eight chapters to this point. Now we encounter it. It's the first mention of an altar, although this is not the first offering.

That was chapter 4 verses 3 through 5, and I just want to give us a refresher on the first offering in Genesis, Genesis chapter 4 verses 3 through 5, and in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat, and the Lord respected Abel and his offering but he did not respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. So Genesis chapter 4 first offerings. It's probably implied that there was an altar there, but we don't know for sure.

It's not said. It is said in our text here in Genesis chapter 8, Noah built an altar. Here, Noah worships. So God just saved his life. And he didn't save anybody else's life, but the life of his wife, the life of his three sons, and their wives.

So of all the people on planet Earth, the lives of eight human beings were preserved. So he's coming off the ark and he builds an altar to worship the Lord and His way of worshiping, the method of worshiping, is to make an offering. What animals are offered, we're actually told, it's of the clean animals of every clean animal and of every clean bird. So this is actually a big undertaking, the making of an altar and the offering of every clean animal and every clean bird is a major undertaking. If we go back to chapter 7 verses 2 and 3, the Lord had said to Noah to take into the ark seven pairs of clean animals and seven pairs of clean birds, but only one pair of the unclean animals.

At the time, meaning When we were studying Genesis 7, at that time, we didn't know yet why it would be important to have multiple pairs of clean animals. But now we see that clean animals will be offered as sacrifices. And in chapter 9, when we get there next week, starting next week, animals will be given for food. So back in Genesis chapter 7, when God said bring seven clean pairs of all the animals, seven clean pairs of all the clean birds, but only one pair of the unclean. God was making provision ahead of time for both of these things, for the sacrifices that would be made and for animals for food.

Animals had not been for food for humans before Genesis chapter 9. So God was providing for sacrifices and food and still maintaining mating pairs of animals to reproduce and replenish the populations after the flood. Imagine if there was only one pair of clean animals. If you sacrifice one, you would break up the reproducing pair and there would be no way to replenish the population of that kind of animal. So God was making provision ahead of time.

Here Noah offers burnt offerings on the altar. What's a burnt offering? It's just like it sounds. A burnt offering is the killing of the animal and then burning it on the altar so the body of the slain animal is consumed in the flames. It is the offering of an animal by killing it and burning it on the altar so that that slain animal is consumed in the flames.

Now, I will happily concede that we don't know exactly what Noah knew and how Noah knew it. Wow, I didn't know I was building that tongue twister into my notes. That doesn't come through in the notes when you're typing. You don't get the tongue twisters. We don't know what Noah knew and how Noah knew it, but I think it is well worth looking forward to when burnt offerings were officially defined in Scripture, especially since the author of Genesis is also the author of Leviticus.

So we don't know what Noah knew exactly and how he knew it, but we know that the author of Genesis, Moses, knew because he also wrote Leviticus, where God officially defines in writing burnt offerings. So you can, if you'd like, turn to Leviticus 1. At least listen, or you can turn there if you'd like. I'm going to be reading Leviticus 1 verses 1 through 4, where burnt offerings are officially defined in the law of God. Leviticus chapter 1 verses 1 through 4.

Now the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock, of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a meal without blemish. He shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him." So this is really an official Definition in the law of God of what a burnt sacrifice is, at least when the law was officially given on Mount Sinai. Did Noah know all of that?

We don't know. But eventually that would be the official definition of a burnt offering. Four observations from Leviticus 1 and that official definition of a burnt offering. 1. The animal was to be a clean animal.

I didn't say that specifically there, but it talks about of the herd and of the flock. Just take my word for it. When we get to Leviticus chapter 11, when you actually get a listing of the clean animals, these are clean animals. In Leviticus 1, a burnt offering was to be a male offering, and it was to be without blemish. So it couldn't be diseased or injured.

It had to be one that to the eye was without any defect. So the animal had to be not just any kind of animal but a very certain kind of animal. Of the clean animals but also a male and also without blemish or without visual defect. Two, these are called freewill offerings here. They were brought of your freewill and from all that we can tell from today's text, the offering is initiated by Noah.

You could say that's an argument from silence, maybe God told him to. Well, maybe he did, but we have been seeing our text specifically saying things that God was commanding Noah to do. So he commanded Noah to go onto the ark, he commanded Noah to come off of the ark here. There's no such at least marking of this in the text. From all that we can see from the text, this was a free will offering.

Noah did it because he's worshipping and he wants to bring this offering to the Lord. Three, the hand on the head in Leviticus 1 is symbolic. So this animal that is going to be killed and then consumed in the fire on the altar, before you do any of that you lay your hand on the head and as we work our way through the law of God you find out that this is symbolic for the transfer of sins from the person who actually did the crime from the sinner to a substitute who will accept the sin and the guilt for the sin and the penalty for the sin, an animal without defect, an innocent one will accept the guilt from the guilty one. So this is when we see the hand on the head in Leviticus 1 as the giving of the law unfolds, you see what that means. It's a symbolic transfer of the sin to a substitute.

It's to make atonement. That is specifically said here in Leviticus 1, 1 through 4. It's to make atonement. What is atonement? You might have heard this said before.

If you look at the spelling of atonement, you see at-one-ment. So I don't think that was on purpose. I think that just happens to be a way to help us understand this, but it makes At one in other words it is atonement is an act that settles the score between two parties in conflict. So it's an act that brings together two parties where there are grievances and it settles all the grievances and sets them at one. They were two separate and it brings them together.

It makes them at one. It is at one-ment. So that's a helpful way to think of atonement. It's at least a good memory device to help you to know. It is this act that brings together two where there's grievances that have kept them separate and it settles all the grievances and it brings them together in peace.

Sins have put us at odds with God, at war with God. We have actually, through our rebellion, declared war against God. Would you ever do it if you thought of it in those terms? Actually, because of the human heart, probably we would. But we shrink back from thinking of it in those terms.

Who would declare war on an Almighty God? But we had this act where the sin is transferred to the substitute and the substitute accepts the penalty and dies for the guilty one, having accepted the guilt and paid the penalty. And then the two parties that were in conflict, the scores are settled there. And then four, the sacrifice is accepted and is pleasing. Now that wasn't in verses 1 through 4, but if you look down into Leviticus 1, second part of verse 9, here's what we read, and the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord." So in our text it's going to be called a soothing aroma.

We're getting to that in the next verse. We're coming to it, but it's in our text, a soothing aroma. Here it's called a sweet aroma. Very unhelpful. Shame on you, you translators.

You took the same Hebrew words and translated it differently in different spots. Just take my word for it. It's exactly the same Hebrew words translated. It's a soothing aroma in our text and a sweet aroma. Both are fine translations, but it is the same Hebrew words.

And it means that God has accepted the sacrifice and he's pleased with it. It comes before him as a sweet aroma or as a soothing aroma. Now, we can match up all four of these observations with Jesus, who he is and what he's done. So It can't be just any kind of animal. It has to be a clean animal.

Jesus is the man without sin. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That's 2 Corinthians 521. The animal had to be male. Jesus came as a man to be the head of a new spiritual race accepted in God.

Had to be without blemish. This is Jesus in his sinlessness. Two, these were freewill offerings. Jesus said no man takes my life from me. I lay it down on my own, I take it up again.

Jesus offered Himself up as a freewill offering to God. Three, The hand on the head being symbolic of the transfer of sin. This is exactly what happens in the Gospel transaction. It is my sins passing to Jesus and as he dies on the cross, sheds his blood on the cross, the guilt my sins have passed to him, the guilt for my sins have passed him, the penalty for my sins have passed to him, and it settles the score between me and God, and it takes these two parties in conflict, me a sinner against a perfectly righteous God, and it totally settles that score and makes us at one. This is the work of Jesus.

And then fourth, this sacrifice being acceptable and pleasing to God. In Ephesians 1, Paul says that believers are accepted in the beloved, meaning by union with Jesus Christ, we are accepted by God, acceptable to God, pleasing to God. It's as if I had lived Jesus's life because I've become one with Jesus by faith. So All of this is about Jesus. I just droned on for 10 minutes.

I could have just said all of this is about Jesus and His person and His work. So this is Noah, The man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That was Genesis 6 verse 8. And the man who walked with God. What does it mean to find grace in the eyes of the Lord?

It's to have your sins passed over because your guilt has been taken on by a substitute. What does it mean to walk with God? It means that the score has been settled between two parties that were in conflict, but God initiates to bring the conflict to an end and he takes two parties in conflict and he makes them at one through a sacrifice. The New Testament says that there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. And this is what we're seeing with the burnt sacrifice here.

It's representative of that. Noah was a worshiper. Noah brought God his worship to the altar, but he also understood his own need and his family's need for atonement. This is an implied recognition by Noah that Something needs to happen with his sins and with the sins of his family. There needs to be an atonement.

They need to be made at one with God. Noah isn't getting off the ark in a self-righteous frame. This is really important to acknowledge. God, thank you for wiping all the scumbags off the earth. Now me and my pristine family can get off the ark.

This is the sign that that was the furthest thing from his mind. No one knew that if it wasn't for the grace of God, if he hadn't found grace in the eyes of the Lord, that the flood waters would have swept him away just like they swept away all of the other inhabitants of the earth. So Noah isn't getting off the ark in a self-righteous frame. He knows that he needs a mediating sacrifice to make him at one with God too. So this is Noah's altar and Noah's offerings.

Now verse 21. Genesis chapter 8 verse 21. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done." Here in verse 21, we get Noah's response and determination. He responds to these burnt offerings, and He makes a determination based on these burnt offerings.

What was the Lord's response? How did Jehovah, so I'm picking up on the name of God used here, Lord in all caps, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that means Jehovah or the self-existing one, the great I Am. How did the great I Am respond? He smelled a soothing aroma. These burnt offerings came before the Lord as a soothing aroma.

Now a couple of things. First, This is known as an anthropomorphism. Oh boy. Maybe in college you took an anthropology class. Anthropology is the study of human culture, really the study of humanity.

So anthro is just this name for humanity. So, an anthropomorphism is attributing a human characteristic, something that is characteristically human, something that describes a human and attributing it to God so that we have a framework for understanding it, meaning God's not like us. So sometimes we need things that are like us, that are part of our common experience, that help us understand something about God that we wouldn't have a way to understand if we didn't attribute something that's Characteristically human so this is that meaning God smelling the burnt offering as a soothing aroma second the Hebrew words translated soothing in the lexicon literally means soothing, got it? That's what it was translated as in our translation, quieting, tranquilizing, or causing to be tranquil. So don't think of the nature show where the bear is shot with a tranquilizer and it goes to sleep, meaning tranquilizing as in causing to be tranquil.

Soothing, quieting, causing to be tranquil. So, this is not actually about the smell of the sacrifice at all. This is about the effect of the sacrifice on the self-existing one, God. It soothed God. It soothed God.

It quieted God. It caused God to be tranquil. Why? What disquietes God? Sin disquietes God.

Sin crashes into God's perfect goodness and activates God's perfect justice. Is that a fair way to say that? Sin crashes in to God's perfect goodness. It's so contrary to everything that He's like and it activates His perfect justice. He can't do nothing about it.

He can't ignore it as if it didn't happen because he's perfectly good and perfectly just and so it activates this perfect justice in God. Now how does a burnt offering quiet that? A burnt offering is the bringing of a substitute which is acceptable to God in order to satisfy his justice. It quiets his justice because it satisfies his justice. My sin crashes into his perfect goodness and activates his perfect justice.

But Jesus, as a substitute, taking on himself God's anger against my sin and taking on himself the guilt and penalty for my sin satisfies God's justice. And so he is soothed and quieted and caused to be tranquil. That's why it's only the clean animals would have been so inappropriate for Noah to offer one of the unclean animals to God because this is a picture of Jesus Christ and only the clean, the undefiled, the offering without a blemish can be acceptable to God. He's not taking the defiled as a substitute for the defiled. That's not going to work.

Not a perfectly good God whose justice has been activated by sin. That's why the animal must die and be consumed in the flames because the substitute is receiving the wages of sin. God's justice is activated by sin and he is paying the wages for that sin and the substitute is receiving the wages of sin which is death. Paul says that so clearly. The wages of sin is death.

Through this anthropomorphism attributing to God something that characterizes us, and we're familiar with so that we understand this thing about God, we learn that God will accept a certain kind of substitute in the place of sinners. That's what we're being taught here. God will accept a certain kind of substitute, not just any old substitute, but a particular kind of substitute in the place of sinners, And that will cause him to be tranquil because his perfect justice has been satisfied by the death of that very particular substitute. That was God's response. He smelled a soothing aroma.

What was the Lord's determination? What did God determine on the basis of this soothing aroma? The Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for a man's sake although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done." That was what he determined on the basis of this soothing aroma. This will be developed further in chapter 9, which in terms of a timeline, is very likely to be the same time as today's text. So, we're going to split this up actually into three weeks, maybe four.

But in terms of the actual timing, this is probably unbroken. The things that God is saying here at the end of chapter 8, He'll in an unbroken way continue to speak the things in chapter 9. It reads like it's unbroken. So we're going to break it up into maybe a month, but God probably said it all consecutively in a short period of time. What this means that he would never curse the ground for man's sake or destroy every living thing as he had done, it means that God will not destroy the earth again through a global flood.

This is how it will be further developed in chapter 9. Now, what was God's assessment of mankind before the flood and the ark with its eight inhabitants." Hasn't even started raining yet. God assesses mankind. What was his assessment? Genesis chapter 6 verse 5.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." That was his assessment that caused him to judge the earth. The heart of man is like this. Every intent of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually. And now what is God's assessment of mankind after the flood and the ark with its eight human inhabitants? The imagination of man's heart is evil from its youth.

That's just a summary saying the exact same thing. It's just a summary saying exactly the same thing. The human heart is like that from early life, from youth, for the people who are outside the ark, for the people who are inside the ark. I would say it's like that from the earliest of life before nurture kicks in. That's the age-old question.

Is it nature or nurture? The Bible answers that question. It's nature. It's nature. And then nurture throws gas on the flames.

That's true. I don't deny it. Nurture, your environment, your circumstances can throw all sorts of gas on the flame. Just don't think that's the flame. It's nature, not nurture.

You can make it worse through circumstances and temptations and and and circumstances of life, but the real problem is embedded in the human heart. The imagination of man's heart is evil from our earliest days. So the flood waters washed away the corrupt. All those corrupt people died in the floodwaters, but the floodwaters could not wash away the corruption. So the corrupt swept away, separate, the corruption still embedded in the human heart, still part of the nature of the sons of Adam.

There were still eight people, so there were still eight hearts beating with this inseparable corruption. This warped nature passed down and received from Adam. These eight people on the ark were still sons and daughters of Adam and they received this corrupt nature and they would have children and pass on this corrupt nature. Listen to Matthew Poole. Matthew Poole says, for the imagination of man's heart is evil.

The reason contained in these words is this, since all men's hearts are naturally corrupt and from that filthy spring wicked actions will be continually flowing forth into the world and Consequently if I God should be severe to punishment To punish men according to their sins, I should do nothing but sin one deluge after another." And so the sense is plain. I, God, will not again destroy the earth, although I have just cause to do so. That's what this text is saying. If God was going to treat mankind after the flood, after he got rid of all the scumbags, if God were to treat only the eight left, the man who was blameless in his generation, the man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, the man who walked with God and his closest family members. If God should treat them and their children and their children as they deserve, he would just have to keep sending one flood after the other.

We need another flood. We need another flood because we keep sweeping away the corrupt in the flood waters, but never the corruption. As long as we have one person left, the corruption is passed on. God to this day has just caused to send another flood. He's promised that he wouldn't, so We don't have to freak out that it's raining, but only because he's promised that he wouldn't.

He has just cause today like he had just cause in the time that we're studying. Now wait, is this really a fair and accurate assessment of the human race? Is that how you think of yourself? The imagination of your heart. Only evil.

That's the exact words. The imagination of your heart. Evil from your earliest days, from your youth, the imagination of your heart. Didn't have to be taught these things. They were buried there just looking for a chance to sneak out.

And circumstances gives you the opportunity and you seize the opportunity and prove that it's true. Seven people, seven billion people on earth and all of them are going to prove that this is true, everyone without exception. Is this really a fair and accurate assessment of the human race? Are the purposes of our hearts really evil from our earliest days? When you see the imagination of man's heart, that word could be translated the purposes or the intents of the heart, or evil from our earliest days.

So that we don't need harmful circumstances to corrupt us, we're already corrupt from the start. Here's what John Calvin says, and here's the reason why I'm spending time on this. The human mind recoils at the thought that this is really our condition because we know kind and generous unbelievers. So we say, that can't be true. Because there are kind unbelievers and generous unbelievers, that can't really be the state.

So John Calvin anticipates that objection, and I've had that objection, and you've probably had that objection too. Here's what John Calvin does with that very common and natural objection. I think it's really helpful. He says, God does not merely say that men sometimes think evil, But the language is unlimited, comprising the tree with its fruits. So here Calvin is saying, don't just isolate this to the fruits and say, well you did a bad thing, Okay, because it's so much more fundamental than that.

The fruit is bad because the tree is bad. Okay, the problem with the fruit, you can trace it down to the root." He continues, "...nor is it any proof to the contrary that kernel and profane men often excel in generosity of disposition, undertake designs apparently honorable, and put forth certain evidences of virtue." So do you know unbelievers that this could be said of? Do you know unbelievers who often excel in generosity of disposition? Yes, I do. I know unbelievers who often excel in generosity of disposition.

Do you know unbelievers who undertake designs apparently honorable, meaning from all that you can see they are undertaking things that are honorable. Yes, I know unbelievers who do that. Who put forth certain evidences of virtue. They have good marriages. They're nice to people.

They, when there's a need, they fill the need. I know unbelievers who do all of those things. So John Calvin isn't closing his eyes to any of those things. He's conceding them all. He's saying people say that's true and I acknowledge that all of those things are true.

Here's what he says now. For since their mind is corrupted with contempt of God, with pride, self-love, ambition, hypocrisy, and fraud, It cannot be but that all their thoughts are contaminated with the same vices." Again, they cannot tend towards a right end once it happens that they are judged to be what they really are, crooked and perverse. So he started by saying all these things, nice things about them, they're generous, they do honorable things, they put forth evidences of virtue, but then he says when you start to peel back the layers what you find is contempt of God. Well they don't hate God. What do you think unbelief is?

Excuse me, I'm spitting. No. What do you think unbelief is? It is contempt of God. What do you think pride is?

What do you think self-love is? What do you think hypocrisy is? What do you think saying one thing but doing something else is? What do you think doing good things for the wrong end is? So here is a summary of our confession on good works.

So it's a really interesting, It's not long, but it's really interesting and helpful. The Confession summarizes a good work in this way. The right thing for the right reason. You have to have these two things join together, or the confession says, in the eyes of God it's not a good work, it doesn't count. It can't be one or the other, it has to be both simultaneously.

So, the right thing, the Word of God defines right and wrong. So you can easily go wrong fast by saying, my sense of right and wrong is the definition. No, no, no. Let the Word of God define right and wrong. So we start there.

The right thing defined by the Word of God for the right reason, and the Word of God reveals that the right reason is bringing honor to God. Bringing honor to God. The purpose honor to God. The purpose must be to honor God. That is what scripture says is a good word.

Now, measure the kind and generous unbeliever against that standard. The right thing according to scripture for the purpose of honoring God. How does he or she do against that standard? Calvin says, don't be fooled. These things, they look good and they can go a long ways towards alleviating a tremendous amount of suffering on the human plane.

And actually we can be happy about that and glad that human suffering is alleviated. Just don't confuse that with a good work in the eyes of God, because these things are not done to honor Him. Done to honor him. That's how it can be true that the Bible rightly says that the imagination of man's heart is evil from our earliest days, and you can find examples of kind and generous unbelievers. And both of those things be true.

Now two things before we move on. One, was the acceptance of these offerings automatic? No, of course not. Noah offered them by faith. Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter, Hebrews 11 verse 7, points us to Noah's faith in building the ark.

I'm happy to extend it to this too. Noah was a man of faith and this too was an exercise of his faith. We've already seen an offering made not by faith not be respected by God in Cain's offering. He brought an offering, God didn't respect it. Abel brought an offering.

Abel also offering by faith, Hebrews 11. So do not get caught here that anyone who brings a burnt offering and goes through the mechanics of this, that that offering is a soothing aroma to God. That's not what this text is teaching. That's not what the Bible teaches. It is faith.

The offerings offered by faith and only the offerings offered by faith are a soothing aroma to God. Two, what was it about those offerings that caused God to be soothed, to be quieted, that caused God to be tranquil. Here's my answer to my own question. That they tied Noah's faith to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. They tied together Noah's faith and the Lamb of God, actually Jesus and his work.

So listen to Hebrews 10 or turn there if you're fast. You've got seven verses, you can make it. Hebrews 10 verses 1 through 7. This is so helpful in us understanding it rightly and not misunderstanding what the sacrifices of the Old Testament do and do not teach. Hebrews 10 verses 1 through 7.

Hebrews 10 verses 1 through 7. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come could have said type. We've been talking about types, things that point forward to and teach about greater realities to come. For the law having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make those who approach perfect For then would they not have ceased to be offered, for the worshippers once purified would have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. So it is not possible that The burnt offerings offered by Noah here took away those sins, actually made the atonement. The author of Hebrews declares that to be impossible. Continuing, therefore when he, Jesus, came into the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure.

Then I said, Behold I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God." All of those sacrifices of all of those bulls, of all of those goats, of all of those lambs, of all of those doves, pointed forward to Jesus and then Jesus said, Behold! I have come. In the volume of the book, it is written of me. All of these things were written about me. To do your will, O God, the great atoning sacrifice.

Or maybe even better still, Ephesians 5 verse 2. Here's what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. Walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma." So Paul just connected the dots for us. Christ loved us and gave himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. It was the self-sacrifice of Jesus, offering himself up as a freewill offering to God in the place of sinners that was the sweet smelling aroma to God.

The burnt offerings are a type pointing forward to and teaching about the greater reality. The greater reality is the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is what God accepted. Jesus, the person of Jesus, the work of Jesus, that's what God accepted. That is what pleased God.

So that is God's response and God's determination. God's response was to accept the substitutes. His justice was satisfied and he was pleased with the burnt offerings. And based on that, he determined that he would never destroy all of his creatures with a global flood. Finally, verse 22, Gotta go fast.

As conference speakers often say, listen faster. Verse 22, Genesis chapter 8, verse 22. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. Long as the earth remains. Here we have a dependable system of days and seasons.

If you're taking notes on the handout, days and seasons fill in the two blanks. A dependable system of days and seasons. First I want to say that this is because of that. The promise of certainty in the workings of the days and seasons is because of that the accepted pleasing offering of the substitute. So why does God promise to give us a reliable system of days and seasons?

It's because he accepted this sacrifice and was pleased with it. Am I saying that this promise rests on the person and work of Jesus, who won't even be born, live, and do his saving work for another 2, 000 years? Yes, that's what I'm saying to you. I'm saying that Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's what he's called in Revelation 13 verse 8.

As God founded the earth, began to form and shape the earth. Jesus was the Lamb who was slain. How does that work? I don't know. It at the very least means that the promises of God are so sure that his commitment to send Jesus in time was as good as done from the very first movements of God on the earth.

I suspect it means something more profound than that about God being outside of time, but I'm moving on. Listen to the Reformation Heritage study notes. The Lord promises the continuity of predictable annual seasons and the rhythm of day and night. I think that's a good way of describing what this verse is teaching. The Lord promises the continuity of predictable annual seasons and the rhythm of day and night.

Seed time is spring. You put down the seed. You sow the seed in the spring. Harvest is fall. After the seeds have grown and the crops have ripened.

Then you harvest them in the fall. Cold is winter. Hot is summer. The seasons keep rolling in their predictable sequence. Spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall, winter.

Guess what is going to be next year? Spring, summer, fall, winter. If the Lord tarries, guess what it'll be when he comes back, spring, summer, fall, winter. Farmers count on that. The human race counts on this, by the way.

It's very important. The sun keeps rising and setting in its predictable sequence. Have you ever had a moment's anxiety about if the sun would come up? Why is that? Because it always comes up.

It keeps rising and setting in its predictable sequence. God is faithfully sustaining them all. He will until He sends His Son back to bring human history to an end, at least on the earth as we know it. As long as the earth remains, but the earth is not going to remain as we know it. The elements are going to melt when Jesus comes back.

One very precious scripture and then we'll close with a few applications. Listen to Jeremiah 33 verses 19 through 21. Jeremiah 33 verses 19 through 21. Jeremiah 33 verses 19 through 21. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, Thus says the Lord, If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then my covenant may also be broken with David my servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne." What is God saying through Jeremiah?

That Jesus, the son of David, will reign forever is as sure and predictable as the sun coming up. You'd have an easier job breaking God's covenant with the day and the night than you would breaking His covenant that Jesus will sit on the throne and reign forever. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. That is so comforting to me because I don't have a way to know about all that stuff, but I have a way to know about day and night.

The sun keeps coming up, the sun keeps setting. That covenant seems pretty unbreakable to me in all of my experience. I don't know of anything more unbreakable than that. The sun's coming up tomorrow morning at whatever time my smartwatch says. Applications three, Number one.

This is something I haven't even touched on yet, but I think it's very important, especially for us parents with children. Fear of judgment can be an instrument that God uses to save a sinner, but fear of judgment is not sufficient to save any sinner. Listen to Matthew Henry. Outward judgments, though they may terrify and restrain men, oh they're good for that, flood stories, Sodom and Gomorrah stories, destruction of Jerusalem, and Babylonian captivity stories are helpful to terrify and restrain men. Matthew Henry says, Yet cannot of themselves sanctify and renew them.

The grace of God must work with those judgments. It's powerful to think of Sodom and Gomorrah and immediate annihilation in judgment for sin. So you can thunder that story, but the condition of the human heart will not be overthrown by judgment stories. The grace of God is going to have to come. So God can use judgment stories in the saving of the sinner, but Those judgment stories are not sufficient in and of themselves to save the sinners.

It's the grace of God through Jesus that saves sinners. So, they help us to flee to Jesus for mercy, yes, but only if the Spirit awakens you to these things. Here's a corollary to that theorem. Cornering a five-year-old and saying, do you want to go to hell or do you want to go to heaven with mommy and daddy? There's no way to make legitimate converts.

Cornering eight-year-olds or whatever-year-olds saying, do you want to go to hell or do you want to go to heaven with mommy and daddy? It's a way, it's a great way to get a kid to say, I want to go to heaven with mommy and daddy. It's a lousy way to make an actual convert. People are not born again by saying that. Not necessarily.

So use fear of judgments in the proclamation of the gospel, but no the Spirit of God has to raise the spiritually dead or people don't get saved. It's the Spirit of God raising the spiritually dead. That's what it means to be born again. Number two, substitutionary atonement is at the center of scripture. It's in Genesis.

It's all throughout the Old Testament. That's what Jesus came to do. Substitutionary atonement is at the center of Scripture and Jesus is at the center of substitutionary atonement. There's another way to say Jesus is the center of Scripture. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

I want to speak to children who have thought that they should turn over a new leaf and saying, while that may be true, no one's ever been saved by turning over a new leaf and trying harder and working more. Obeying God is important, but the actual obedience to God flows out of a new heart. And a new heart comes through generation of the Spirit of God. The basis for that is the mediation of Jesus offering Himself up to bring together these two parties in conflict. Atonement.

At one-ment. If you are to be made at one with God, where the war is over, and every matter is settled that was between you and God, there is only one who can mediate that, who can come between to make at one, to make the peace. That's Jesus. God, thank you for these New Testament truths in the Old Testament. Thank you for Paul connecting the dots, calling Jesus the sacrifice and sweet smelling aroma.

Pray that these things would make us happy. Pray in Jesus name, Amen.