Gen 8:21, 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. Amen.
	In this passage, recorded after Noah and his family left the ark, we have the Holy Spirit’s account of God’s thoughts concerning the future decimation of the earth. As God received the aroma of the sacrifices offered by Noah, He received it as a soothing fragrance. He looked into the heart of man that He had created, and found something worth saving. Let us spend a few moments this morning with the reality of God’s sense of smell, so to speak. He makes mention of it many times in scripture with regard to His people and their place in His heart.
	In the great love letter of the Song of Solomon, we have a particularly apt description of how God takes into account the delightful fragrance of His Beloved. Chapter 4, verses 10-16a, "How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, And the fragrance of your oils Than all kinds of spices! "Your lips, my bride, drip honey; Honey and milk are under your tongue, And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. "A garden locked is my sister, my bride, A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up. "Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates With choice fruits, henna with nard plants, Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, With all the trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, along with all the finest spices. "You are a garden spring, A well of fresh water, And streams flowing from Lebanon." "Awake, O north wind, And come, wind of the south; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, Let its spices be wafted abroad. 
	Consider the sensory language concerning God’s Beloved Bride. The descriptors flow forth with perfumed intensity. How much better is your love than wine, And the fragrance of your oils Than all kinds of spices! One can surely recount the sweet bouquet of wine. Our sense of smell is refreshed with the thought of aromatic spices. It harkens back to such fond and stimulating memories of beloved times. Spices, honey, milk and sweet smelling garments, all serve to draw forth an essence of perfumed loveliness and beauty. Then sense the aroma of the garden and the orchard with all the scents of the fruit producing trees and plants. The scent-filled garden with the finest of spices … Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, With all the trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes. All the pastoral senses are awakened with the lushness and the refreshing smells of a watered garden, breathing in the pleasing aromas of exquisiteness and splendor. This is the vibrant means of God’s description of us, His people, married to Jesus Christ, His Beloved.
	We are further regarded as a satisfying fragrance to God in Ezek 20:41, "As a soothing aroma I shall accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I shall prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. He tells us that we are accepted as a soothing aroma which He will acknowledge with His salvation. Because He so loves us, and considers us as His Beloved, He will prove Himself holy in us. He will make us the fragrant offering of life to all the nations. They, too, will become the witnesses of the life of Jesus Christ by virtue of the work that God does in us. They will see the difference of what it means to be made partakers of the life of God’s Savior, and that instilled essence will become an aromatic allurement to all the nations of the earth. 
	The Apostle Paul relates this for us in 2 Cor 2:14-16. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 
	One of the key aspects of this reality is the fact that in Jesus Christ, God …manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. We become those perfumery vessels, so to speak, of the omnipotent fragrance of the life of Jesus Christ. As we deal with those whom God brings into our lives, they will either receive the scent of life, as in the watered garden of spice and fruit trees, or the reek of death, as in the foul stench of the compost heaps. They will perceive us in terms of the value placed upon the person of Jesus Christ.
	This is of grave concern for us in relation to our testimony of Christ. If they are called of God, they will sense the life of our Redeemer, wafting from the witness that we present. They will be drawn and attracted to the delightful fragrance of the knowledge of the only hope of salvation. There will be a true sense of His beauty and the necessity of calling out to Him, thus leading to the magnificence of everlasting life.  
	On the other hand, those in whom there is no attraction to Christ will find our tang to be repulsive and off-putting. They will flee from us, as if we were broadcasting the odor of rotting flesh. It will be because they are not endowed, by God, with the means to discern life from death. In their foulness of being, they will perceive only a similar pollution of what they think and hear and do. They will desire to rather destroy and poison and contaminate the scent that we have in their presence.
	This is not something with which we are unfamiliar. Even Christ tells us that we will face the animosity and the harassments of those who are lost in their sin and shame. John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." We must not be discouraged and disappointed when those of this age do not appreciate the wonderful bouquet of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It takes a trained and appointed perception to fully recognize and appreciate the inestimable value of the Only Begotten Son of God. 
	This brings us to the encouragement and the counsel of Eph 5:1-4. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 
	As the Lord works in us, training us to appreciate Him more and more each day, we develop a greater capacity to enjoy His life in us. We become enabled to ascertain, more and more fully, that which is pleasing to God and that which should no longer have a place in our lives. We become those living sacrifices, which are soothing to God as was Noah’s sacrifice on the mountains of Ararat. 
	Our lives begin to increase in the manner of presenting God with a testimony which is not consumed with self-righteousness and arrogance and desires after the lies of this age. In thanksgiving, we celebrate the truth of what it means to be completely surrendered to Jesus Christ to God’s glory Alone. 
	We echo the voice of the Apostle Paul in Phil 4:18-20, But I have received everything in full, and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 
	There is no greater means of showing God the attitude of our hearts than to be content with what He has done. This is the manifestation of the perfect work of Christ in us, knowing that He will provide all our needs. This is also one of the most difficult attributes of the life that we live on this earth. So often, we look for those means and methods of gaining more and more things with which to surround ourselves. We do so in a futile attempt to insulate ourselves from the trials and the pressures and the affairs of this realm. 
	When we are muddled in discontentment, we are actually presenting to God an awful attitude of self-determination. Rather than counting on Him to provide all our needs, we are emphatically showing Him a complete lack of trust in His divine providence. Our faithlessness is a stench that will require extreme methodology to cleanse it from our beings. As we will surely find, God is always faithful to supply all that is needed to accomplish His excellent work in our lives. 
	As the Apostle writes in Phil 4:11-13, Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. No matter what our circumstances, no matter how devastating and perilous our earthly walk, we can find complete contentment in the every provision of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the heart of the matter before us in our being a living sacrifice that is soothingly fragrant to the heart of God. 
	As we read in Isa 54:7-10, God is compassionate in His overwhelming love for us. "For a brief moment I forsook you, But with great compassion I will gather you. "In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you," Says the Lord your Redeemer. "For this is like the days of Noah to Me; When I swore that the waters of Noah Should not flood the earth again, So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, Nor will I rebuke you. "For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken," Says the Lord who has compassion on you. 
	The compassion of God brings us right back to our passage in Genesis 8 as the sacrifice of Noah soothed the heart of God. As that sacrifice stirred the promise of God to never again destroy every living thing on the earth with water, so does His great lovingkindness cover us spiritually for eternity by the soothing sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son. God’s compassionate gift of the redeeming work of His Son has now brought us out of the very depths of the prison of the curse of death. In His Son, God has given us the absolute freedom to offer our all as living sacrifices of the indwelling perfect person of Christ. 
	In every facet of our lives, we are brought into the arena of God’s compassion in His dealing with us. We are nurtured and fed by His very Holy Spirit in the living Word that God has given us in Christ. We are led forth in the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent covering of God’s own hand upon our lives. In every avenue of our walk, He is with us, keeping and ruling and overruling with all the Love of His Grace and Mercy and Holiness and Righteousness. We are soothingly bathed in the very peace of God as we continually experience His faithful dealings in our lives. God’s compassion utterly overwhelms us, now and evermore, drawing from us the comforting and restful aroma of cleanliness and holiness. We are washed clean from every stain of sin, and our hearts are made soft and pliable with the tender toil of God’s elegant handiwork.     
	The entire focus and motivation of our efforts on this earth are transformed from the cares of this realm to the complete consideration of the glory of God. We no longer find that we are seeking after self-indulgence. Nor are we, any longer, desirous after those things that elevate us to the forefront of every conscious thought and craving. Rather, we recognize that there is something very much more significant and earnest at work in us. 
As we face every day, we do so with the heart that is expressed in 2 Cor 10:3-6. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. 
	There is recognition that our place in the plan and purpose of God far exceeds what we want and get. It is the value of the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is the truth of Who God is and what He has done that enamors our every effort and conscious thought. We place ourselves at His feet for whatever task that He appoints without regard to any recognition or fame or credit. Every momentum of our endeavor is to do only that which pleases God in lifting up the name of Jesus Christ! In Him, by Him, for Him, and unto Him, Alone, we focus our strength, our attention, our endurance, and our understanding! We draw all our source of being from absolute obedience to the Holy Spirit. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing! In Him, our lives become those willing vessels for the fragrant beauty of Christ to emanate and fill the whole of creation, the soothing aroma of live everlasting. So be it!
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. Amen.

	
This morning’s benediction is 1 Chron 16:23-28. Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Amen.