What a wonderful thing it is to be in God's loving care in our lives. And what we're going to be looking at this morning, we see God's loving care for Noah and his family and the animals that were on the ark. As the Lord fulfilled what he said he was going to do, and he gave Noah and his family a new beginning. Look at Look at Genesis chapter number eight this morning, Genesis chapter number eight, and we're gonna be reading verses 13 through 22 here in just a moment. We have been seeing some consistent things in Noah's walk with the Lord, and Noah did walk with the Lord, scripture tells us that. But we know at God's command, Noah had built the ark according to God's specifications to the saving of him, his wife, his sons, and their wives, as well as animal life. And the ark was God's vehicle designed by him to provide their physical salvation and deliverance through God's judgment of the world by way of a worldwide flood. We know also that at God's command, Noah had gathered together the necessary provisions for the duration of the time they would be in the ark. I'm sure that he did that in conjunction with his walk with the Lord. Lord, do you think we've got enough? Do we need to get some more on here? But the Lord is the one that commanded him to carry it on there. He gave him the wisdom to be able to know how much it would take. And at God's command, Noah, his family, and all the animals that God had summoned. Now see, Noah didn't have to go out and round up the animals. God brought them to the ark. And God caused them to go up into the ark. And when they entered the ark, seven days before the flood came, and during that time, the door remained open until God shut the door. And when God shut the door, then the rain began to fall, and the fountains of the deep began to be busted up. And of course, the Bible records this flood, this terrible, catastrophic flood that took place. In our scripture today, we will see that it was at God's command that Noah and his family and all the animals also exited the ark. They got on the ark according to God's command. They exited according to God's command. The defining characteristic of Noah's life up to this point in his life was that he walked with God in such a way that he was obedient to what God told him to do. He was obedient to the commands of God. Heeding what the Lord commanded him to do, and we can say that his walk was in lockstep, was in lockstep with the Lord. In other words, he walked with God, not contrary to God, but he walked with God. And there's a great lesson for each of us in that as well. If we truly walk with God, it will be evidenced by us heeding what the Lord commands us to do in his word. Our obedience to him is what shows that we love him and are walking with him. Now, no one was a man who waited for God and his commands. Not many of us that I know are good at waiting. But Noah was. He didn't run ahead of God and His will. There were certain things that he knew required the go-ahead or the command from God before he would act. Noah knew that the timing of the leaving of the ark was for God to determine. Let's read our passage of Scripture beginning verse number 13, Genesis 8. and verse number 13, and it came to pass in the 600th and first year, and the first month and first day of the month, talking when it says 601st year, that's Noah's 601st year, okay? Remember, he got on the ark there earlier, it mentioned how old he was. So this is talking about in conjunction with Noah's time. And he there says, the waters were dried up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seventh and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark. Thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee, bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of cattle, and of creeping things that creepeth upon the earth. that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his son's wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. And here's where we want to focus. And Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor, And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite anymore everything living as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. So here we see Noah and his family with a new beginning. We see, first of all, that Noah waited on God because God's timing is best. Noah waited on God because God's timing is best. The psalmist David wrote these words in Psalm 27 and verse 14. He said, Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now we also know that the prophet Isaiah, recorded in Isaiah 40 verse 31, he said, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. So it's a good thing to wait on the Lord. And after 377 days, think about it, A little over a year, 377 days of being inside the ark with each other. We're not told, but do you think that maybe Noah and everybody that was in that ark was maybe a little bit stir crazy? Maybe they were getting a little antsy about getting off the ark. Now, scripture doesn't say that. But just knowing human nature being as it is, it does make us wonder. I personally believe that the Lord gave Noah and his family members and even the animals special grace to deal with being enclosed together for over a year. You can't do that without God's help. But they were able to do that. And we see that Noah did not determine for himself that it was time to leave the ark. If Noah had acted according to his own feelings rather than God's timing, it probably wouldn't have gone well for either him or those that were in the ark. But God's timing, listen, is something that we may struggle with ourselves at times. Our nature, by the way, our human nature is to kind of do things according to our own, being our own guide in things. Sometimes we can get ahead of God rather than wait on God's clear direction in our life. Now something I've noticed in my own life is that when I get ahead of God and act on my own, I often pay a heavy price for that. So I try not to do that. Can I get a witness or am I alone in that? Do you ever do that? When we patiently wait on God, rather than forcing things ourselves, things tend to go a lot better for us and those around us. Amen? Here's a truth that we can count on, and I hope you grab this out of what I've just said. God's will And God's timing will always result in God's best for us. God's will and God's timing will always result in God's best for us. Now, second thing I want us to see found there in verse number 20, we see that Noah's first act was to worship God. His first act was to worship God. If you had been in the Ark for a year, what would have been the first thing you did when you got out of the Ark? Maybe kiss the ground? Or do some handstands or cartwheels? I don't know. But we see that Noah worshipped is what he did. I don't know, maybe I'd have wanted to hop on one of those horses that was on there and go check out how things had changed. Because we're talking about major change that happened in the world. This new beginning was a world unlike they knew before. Well, we know that Noah didn't do any of those things that we might have go through our head. But after coming out of the ark, the first thing scripture mentions that Noah did was build an altar. and offer sacrifices of some of the ritually clean animals to God. Now remember there were seven of each of the clean animals, only two of the others. And the reason for the seven is so you'd have something to sacrifice back to God. And so understand that this is the first mention of the word altar in scripture. And of course, we know an altar signifies a raised place where a sacrifice was made, when we're talking about an Old Testament altar. Now, while we might surmise that there was probably an altar associated with Abel's offering, to the Lord back in Genesis chapter four, it's not specifically mentioned. This is the first mention of an altar. It just speaks of his offering being of the firstlings of his flock and the Lord having respect unto Abel and to his offering, but not to Cain or his offering. So, don't really tell us what he did, but we, in our minds, what we know of offerings, what we know of altars, he probably did use an altar. But this is the first place that an altar's actually mentioned. Also, consider that the book of Job, I don't know if you realize, is believed to be the oldest book of Scripture. Older than the first five books of Scripture. And while it doesn't specifically mention an altar, it does imply one by stating that Job continually offered burnt offerings on behalf of his children in case they had sinned or cursed God in their heart. Job chapter 1 verse number 5. So we see early on Mankind, I believe, got this from God Himself. If you study the Old Testament, you'll find the altar was a means by which man approached God. Going to the altar with a sacrifice or offering was a physical way of drawing near to God. It was at an altar that one would call upon God and meet with Him. So I want us to think here for just a minute. about the altar that Noah built. Now this was long before the Jerusalem temple was built and even before the Lord ever instructed Moses in the law regarding the altar and sacrifices. So even before tabernacle worship and details about the acceptable sacrifices to the Lord in the law, We find that men built altars as they approached God by way of sacrifices. Now, a man would approach God that way for several different reasons. Number one, he may come and offer a sacrifice to God for thanksgiving. and praise. Now, I got to think that Noah and his family were very thankful that they survived through what happened on the earth, just as God told them. They were obedient to God. God brought them through the storm. God brought them through the flood. God said he was going to use them to keep life on the earth, and this is where they're at. So there was a need, I think, in their lives to give thanksgiving and praise to God. Might have been for worship. Might have been for consecration, to show commitment to God and His ways. When you're talking about a new beginning here, surely they wanted to consecrate themselves. Maybe for forgiveness of sins committed. Or maybe just for fellowship with God. So why did Noah build an altar and offer sacrifice as a God first thing? We're not told specifically, but I want you to consider, you've been on the ark for an entire year. You can't exactly sacrifice a burnt offering on the ark, can you? You just can't. They've been over a year. Having been one who walked with God and who was used to offering sacrifice, He probably felt the need to do it again. Man, I'm finally able to restore the sacrifice, and he felt like he probably needed to do that. Consider that the Lord had been true to what he promised Noah, and like I said, thanksgiving and praise to God were definitely in order on that. Consider that after God judged the world, Noah saw the need to continue to walk with God. Amen? He did. I mean, he needed to continue to walk with God and please God and have fellowship with God as before. He wanted this new beginning to start out right. Maybe he considered that he wanted it to start out right and figured this is the best way. Noah and his family were about to start the world anew. What better way to do that than a show of his commitment to God and desire to continue to walk with God by way of the sacrifice. Having said all that, this is something that's really foreign to us, not something that we practice. Aren't you glad that we don't have to build an altar and sacrifice to God? We don't have to do that. We don't have to approach God that way. The book of Hebrews reveals that all the previous sacrifices pointed to that one final sacrifice that was needed, and that was that was given, that God himself sent his son into the world for that one final sacrifice, and today we approach God by the way of a much better sacrifice than these animal sacrifices. We approach God by way of his son, Jesus Christ, that was offered on our behalf by God himself. No other sacrifice is acceptable now. No other sacrifice is needed now. Jesus made that one sacrifice. Now, there's several passages that came to my mind as I was studying this. I'd like for you to turn to a couple of them. Look at Romans chapter number five. Romans chapter number five. Romans five speaks of that sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf. Romans five, verse number one. And it says here, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's through Christ's sacrifice that we have that peace. By whom, still speaking of Christ there, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace Wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What a wonderful thing. We have access to God by what Jesus did for us. I can go to prayer. I have gone to prayer today. I can go to prayer anytime I want to in Jesus' name because of what He did. Look at verse three. Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Four, when we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We were ungodly and Christ died for us. So it goes on to show how special this was, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. He had peradventure for a good man. Some would even dare to die. But God commended this love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than, don't you like more? I like that, much more than being now justified by his blood. In other words, Christ's blood has set things aright between us and God. Says we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, there's another much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement, that atonement When God was satisfied, that blooded atonement was put on the altar, and God would be satisfied with that sacrifice that was made. Now, Ephesians 2, 18 says, for through him, speaking of Christ, we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Listen to... Let's turn to Romans first, and then we'll go to Hebrews. It means you're right here in Romans. Look at Romans 12 and verses 1 and 2. Here's the kind of sacrifice that we make today. So those sacrifices were killed, they were offered. But we are to be a living sacrifice. Look at verse number one and two, Romans 12. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Let's pause there for just a minute. He said, by the mercies of God. Think about what God did for us on the cross of Calvary. Think about the mercies that God has had in our life. That is the basis of our giving ourselves as a living sacrifice to live for God. Amen. Look at verse two. And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God desires for us to be a living sacrifice for him. Look at Hebrews chapter number 13. Hebrews 13 and just two verses here, verse number 15 and 16. Hebrews 13 verse number 15. And it begins by saying, by Him. We're talking about by Jesus. When you look at the context here, Jesus is spoken of there in verse number 12, and the Him is Him, okay? By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise. There's something we can sacrifice to the Lord, amen? Offer praise, praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. We have so much to be thankful for, don't we? Man, we've been blessed beyond measure. We're continually blessed by our Heavenly Father, blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. Everything that comes our way that is blessing came because of him. Look at verse 16. Said, but to do good and to communicate, forget not. Notice this. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. So our sacrifices are what we do for God. What we give of ourself to God. And what a wonderful thing there. We see a third thing here in our scripture. If you go back to Genesis chapter number 8. If you haven't lost your place there, like I have. I got it marked. It's just sometimes a little harder to get there than others. The third thing we see, we see the heart of God affected by Noah's sacrifice. I don't know if you picked up on that. Look at verse number 21. He's offered these offerings on the altar. It says, And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. We see here this sacrifice. that he made. See, the heart of God was affected by Noah's sacrifice, that the sacrifice offered by this righteous man in faith was a sweet-smelling savor to God. Now that wording, sweet-smelling savor, is used frequently in the Old Testament to suggest an offering that the Lord finds acceptable. And we like for the Lord to find what we do for Him acceptable, don't we? Oh, how different things were here. Those who had previously corrupted God's way on the earth were no more. You think about the what Noah had to put up with prior to the flood. He was trying to live for God. Everybody around him was not. Living contrary to God, and no doubt he took a lot of grief. And we know that they turned a deaf ear to his preaching. And I want you to note how that God's heart being affected here appears to be tied to his smelling a sweet savor from Noah's sacrifice. Because it says there, the Lord smelled a sweet savor and the Lord said in his heart. That changed in the Lord's heart. The Lord God determined to not add any additional curses to mankind. Doesn't mean he's removed the curses that were put in the Garden of Eden, but the Lord wasn't gonna add any more curses to mankind. That's a blessing. I imagine Noah was probably ready to pull out another sacrifice and say, thank you for that. But the Lord God also acknowledged the sinfulness of mankind's heart here. God knew that even this worldwide flood would not reverse the corruption of the human will and mind that is in mankind's heart. People are going to be evil because of the sin nature that we're born with. Now, he said, what is the solution then to the evil of mankind's heart? Well, we know That it's a transformation effected through the blood of Jesus Christ supplied to the soul by grace through faith. That's the only thing that can change a man's direction in life. The Lord God determined also, and we will see when we get into chapter nine, Lord willing, next week, but the Lord God determined not to destroy the world by way of a flood ever again. I know the flood's not mentioned there, but he said, neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. How he did it was with a flood. And he gets specific about that in chapter number nine. And then the Lord God stated the perpetuity of some of earth's cycles. It says there in verse 22, while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. So, this was going to be a new beginning for Noah and his family, as well as for the animals. Think about it, a new beginning that came from the Lord's provision and safety provided by the ark. The ark is a type of Christ. Just as Noah and his family were delivered from God's judgment by being in the ark, listen, we are delivered from God's judgment by being in Christ. Our relationship of being in Christ, Christ is our ark. I'm glad for the new beginning that was made possible in my own life because of God's provision and safety and the Lord Jesus Christ who bore my judgment, the judgment of my sins in His own body. I'm coming up on a on my spiritual birthday here in two weeks. Two weeks from today, actually, February 17, 1971, is when I got saved. I became a new creature in Christ Jesus. I didn't do that on my own because I could not do that on my own. It came my way by grace, through faith, in the provision of what Christ did for me. I believed that He did that for me, and that He arose from the grave, and I was born again. Praise God. 2 Corinthians 5.17 tells us that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Let me ask in closing here. Have you had a new beginning in your life? A new beginning? It's only available by being in Christ. That's how we get it today. Come and experience a new beginning today if you haven't already. And we can show you how you can do that. And if you have experienced a new beginning, and most of us have, are you worshiping Christ regularly because of that new beginning that He has given you? What should our response be back to God for all that He does for us? It ought to be a continual worship and giving of ourselves, making ourselves a living sacrifice that becomes a continual sweet-smelling savor to God. I don't know about you, but that's what I want to be. I don't want my life to stink in God's nostrils. I want it to be a sweet-smelling savor. And I hope that you do too. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for