I'll be in the book of Ephesians if you'd like to turn to Ephesians chapter five this morning. This hour we have most blessed subject of how our Lord saved his people from their sin with the sacrifice of himself. How he accomplished that.

Let's read our text together here in Ephesians chapter five. Look at verse one. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. That's the title of our message, Sweet-Smelling Savor.

I was going to stop and make that the text, but I realized because what he is, the sweet smelling savor here, there's a conjunction literally in verse three that says, but. And this is the opposite of being in Christ. This is the opposite of what pleases the Lord.

But fornication and uncleanness and covetousness, let it not once be named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know that no whoremonger, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

The second hour, we're looking at the contrast between light and darkness. And I titled that message, Children of Light. And this is the light and the darkness right here already we're seeing is the Lord himself being the light, being good, pleasing to the father. And then we have what we would be left to ourself. That's everybody left to themselves. From verse three, on down to five.

Sweet smelling savor is what it describes our Lord as unto God, This indicated that God was pleased in every way. He was pleased in every sense of the way. He was satisfied. He was satiated. He was whatever other words you want to use, it's finished. It's finished. That's what our Lord said on the cross. It's finished. We have evidence of that because the Lord said it went up before him, a sweet smelling savor.

Why was the savor significant? Well, it's first described in Genesis chapter eight. I'd like for us to turn to Genesis chapter eight. This is Noah coming off of the ark after it had settled on Mount Ariat, after the flood had dissipated, it was time for them to get off the ark.

First thing Noah does, verse 20 of chapter eight of Genesis, and Noah builded 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's evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. While the earth remaineth, there will be seed time, and harvest, and cold, and heat, and summer, and winter, and day, and night, shall not cease.

Now God said that. So on a side note, for those who are really worried about global warming, that puts an end to that right there. There's gonna be, as long as the earth remains, there's gonna be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. That's what our Lord said. Just a side note. Thought I would just say that.

He builds an altar. And he offers of every clean fowl, it says. Every clean beast, every clean fowl he offered unto the Lord. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. Why? Why is that significant? Because of what it points to. It's not that he looked at Noah and Noah's faithfulness and Noah's works and said, I'm really pleased with you, Noah, and this is a sweet smelling savor. No, he was looking at the faith he had given Noah that looks to Christ. He was seeing that Noah was worshiping Jesus Christ right there after the ark. He was giving the Lord all the glory for keeping him in the ark, which is a picture of Christ.

Whenever the wrath of God fell upon our Lord, we were in him on the cross of Calvary, and yet the waves could not touch us because of the atonement, the pitch that was on the outside, the blood, the covering, couldn't touch the Lord's people. We were saved from the rain, we were saved from the wrath as it beat upon the roof of the ark, and as the wave after wave hit the ark, we were perfectly safe inside the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what this offering of thanksgiving unto God represents is blood. It's saying, I need the blood. It's being pleased with what the Lord's pleased with. And that's why we're here this morning, isn't it? We're gonna have the Lord's table and we're gonna confess the body and the blood of Christ. That's what we do.

And so we see that this, the saver, it wasn't God was pleased with Noah's obedience. It's what the sacrifice pointed to. It pointed to Christ. It pointed to the time to come when Christ would be offered up on the cross of Calvary to his father, a sweet smelling savor for his people.

If you remember Noah, the scripture tells us, just a couple chapters back in six, it says, and every imagination of the heart of man was on evil, not continually. Every single imagination. What about Noah? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." It doesn't say his heart wasn't on evil continually it just says, but he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So God saved him. That's exactly what happened. Gave him faith to believe. But if God had left him to himself he would have been like everybody else.

That's the same as what we are dealing with in Ephesians here when we see all the individuals that fit the description of being left to themselves and what we are capable of that are not in Christ the ark. That are not in Christ who was the sweet smelling savor to the Father that satisfied the Father.

God is pleased with one. God is pleased with one, his prepared lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. He prepared from the foundation of the world, the scripture says. From the foundation of the world.

Do you remember Abraham and Isaac in Genesis chapter 22? Lord came unto Isaac and it says, take thy son, thine only son Isaac, and go offer him up on Mount Moriah. Go offer him up. And I don't know how me and you would have done. I would like to think the Lord would have given us faith and we would have done the same thing, but he took him. It doesn't say that he questioned the Lord. It doesn't say that he argued with the Lord. Can you imagine that? Lord had promised Abraham a family. He had promised Abraham a seed as much as the stars in the heavens, the sands of the sea from his only son, Isaac. And now the Lord is saying, sacrifice him unto me.

And it's fascinating. You know the story, how long they had to wait to have him to begin with, but he doesn't hesitate, does he? Abraham believed God, why? Because it was accounted unto him for righteousness. Faith was reckoned unto Abraham because he was made the righteousness of God in Christ. Therefore, he believed the Lord. God had given him faith. He takes him to Mount Moriah, tells the men, stay here with the donkeys. Me and the lad are gonna go yonder to worship. and they start climbing the mountain. And Isaac says, Father, here is the fire, and here is the wood for the burnt offering, but where's the sacrifice? Abraham says, God will provide himself, himself a sacrifice.

Now, he provided himself a sacrifice that he was pleased with, but he provided himself as the sacrifice. He was the sacrifice. He's the only one that pleased God, the only one God's pleased with, the only one God accepts, the one who is the sweet-smelling savor. In the Old Testament, the word savor, sweet-smelling savor, means pleasing aroma. It's what God desired to smell. It's what God desired to in order for him to be satisfied. It was his son and with whom he is well pleased.

Think about what we smell like. Think about the putridness of our stench in the nostrils of God as sinners, but not the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a sweet smelling savor. And if I'm going to please God, I've got to smell just like him. Somebody says what? I've never heard that before. We have to smell just like him. We have to look just like him. We have to be him, and that's what Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary for his people.

You know the rest of the story. Abraham goes to slay his son, and the Lord stays his hand. The angel of the Lord stops him and says, don't harm him. I've seen that you believe me. And at that moment, they turned and there was a ram caught in a thicket, prepared sacrifice. A ram has horns, as you well know, and horns represent strength or power. Thorns represent a curse that's on the world. The Lord told Adam, thorns and thistles, it's going to bear now because of your sin. What does that mean? That means Christ, is what it says, In the New Testament, Christ was made a curse for the Lord's people.

The sweet smelling savor unto God did everything necessary, and I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but he did everything necessary for you and I to be saved. Everything necessary. The pleasing aroma from a sacrifice indicated that God accepted the offering because of him whom it pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ. It pointed to him. To be pleased with what God is pleased with is to be pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

God demands perfection, and you and I don't have the capability of being perfect. We never had a perfect thought. We've never done a perfect work. I told you this before, all the projects I start, I do about 98% complete, and I call it done. I never get hardly, there's always something, need to finish, nail in it, or need to caulk it or something. I don't know why I do that, I just always have. Even if I finished it, it wouldn't be perfect though, would it? Why? Because I did it.

Everything we touch, we ruin. Not him. No, everything he touched, he makes whole, he makes perfect. He makes righteous. That's amazing, isn't it? How could he touch a sinner and not be defiled? That's a mystery, isn't it? But scripture's clear. Scripture's clear. He wasn't defiled. He wasn't defiled. God demands perfection and Christ sacrifices the ultimate fulfillment of this because God was well pleased.

This heavenly odor went up into heaven and the Lord said, I'm well pleased with my son. Well pleased with this sacrifice, with this offering. This is the ultimate indicator because it signifies that God is fully satisfied with Christ's work for the atonement of his people's sin. God said, I'm satisfied, I'm satisfied.

Make no mistake about the glorious fact, Jesus Christ himself said, first of all, Jesus Christ is God. We established that a long time ago. God said on the cross of Calvary, it is finished. And God cannot lie. God cannot lie. What a hope we have this morning in our Lord's finished work. What a hope we have in his accomplished salvation. Not having to wonder and worry, have I done enough? Have I done the right thing? Have I done the wrong thing? Have I worked enough works? Have I earned enough points? Have I prayed enough prayers? No, it's look to the Lamb. Look to the Lamb and live.

Moses was told, Moses, take a lamb of the first year and kill it and put the blood on the doorpost and the lintel. And when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. He didn't look inside. He didn't open the door and look inside to see if they were obeying everything else God said about eating the bitter herbs and unleavened bread. No, he was looking for the blood. And their obedience to what God had said after that, they were eating leavened bread and bitter herbs, their obedience was because God gave them faith to believe. You find yourself obeying God, it's God that did it. It's God that keeps us. We don't keep ourself, we're kept by the power of God.

We find ourself looking to the Lamb, desiring this sweet-smelling savor that God was satisfied with, it's because He did it. He gave us faith to believe Him. Christ completed the work given to him. He successfully accomplished the work of salvation for his elect, but yet there are those that say, salvation's your choice. But Christ never made an offer to a man. You'll never see where Christ made an offer to anyone. He did say to the man at the Pool of Bethesda, he said, wilt thou be made whole? Yes, that's a question, I understand that. But he was drawing a confession out of that man. That man said, sir, I have no man. I have no man. No man here that can help me. No man around that can help me. When the pool is troubled, nobody helps me get in the pool before somebody jumps in front of me. I have no man. Wilt thou be made whole?

See, if it's gonna be that we're gonna be made whole, we're not gonna be able to have any part of it. We're not gonna be able to do anything to be made whole. It's going to be all of him that makes us whole. and we find ourself whole, and then we say, this one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. He did it all, and he gets all the glory for it. Scripture doesn't teach salvation is up to you and me. Scripture teaches that salvation was accomplished once and for all on the cross of Calvary. Once and for all, period, done, over. Nothing left to be done.

Scripture says this, Hebrews chapter one, three, I'll quote this often, Christ being the brightness of his glory and express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Understand the significance there. The priests of old did not have a chair in the temple for them to sit in. The tabernacle didn't have one either. The work was never finished. Day after day, sacrifice after sacrifice, offering after offering after offering, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, never having any rest. But when this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he made one sacrifice for sin, the sin of his people forever, he sat down. He sat down. Matter of fact, it was God the Father that said to him, sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. What he was saying is, is your work's done. You've successfully redeemed them. It's finished.

Under the Old Testament covenant, priests offered bloods of goats and calves, never putting away sin. Never putting it away. But they worshiped by faith, looking to Christ in those sacrifices. But those sacrifices could not put away sin. Christ offered his own perfect, priceless, pure, holy blood to the Father, and the Father was well pleased. Well pleased.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter nine. Look at verse 19. This is dealing with the sacrifice of the law, how far inferior they are to the sacrifice of our Lord. Verse 19, for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law and he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying, this is the blood of the Testament, which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled the blood, both the tabernacle and all the vessels in the ministry and almost all things are by the law purged with blood without shedding of blood is no remission.

It was therefore necessary that the pattern of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these, for Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are figures of the true, it's a type, it's a picture, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others. For then must he have often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and into them that look for him shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Our lamb, and I could have went this way with this whole message, but our lamb is also our high priest. He is our prophet, he's our priest, he's our king, he's our sacrifice. He's well-pleasing to the father and his people are well-pleased with him. It was a one-time offering for the sin of his people and God was satisfied. He is the fulfillment of the old covenant and the establisher of the everlasting covenant of grace. You and I had no hope in that old covenant whatsoever. Everything we did just add more to the condemnation that we already had coming to us. Everything we tried to do to fix it, we made it worse.

His Levitical priests had to offer sacrifices daily and annually, but you know what they also had to do? They had to offer sacrifices for themselves. Christ didn't have to offer a sacrifice for himself. He was perfect. He was perfect. And he offered himself up once to his father, and his father was pleased. That means no further sacrifice for sin is ever needed. Christ being God, being sinless and perfect, offered Himself solely for the sin of His elect. He was the prepared Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, the Scripture tells us. In Revelation, that part that I just quoted, that came whenever John the angel said, Is there any worthy to loose the seals and open the book thereof? And heaven was searched, the earth was searched, and no man was found worthy. And John began to weep. And the elder touched him and said, weep not John for behold, the line of the tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse hath prevailed and is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof. And John looked and what did he see? A lamb, a lamb as if it had been slain, as if it was slain from the foundation of the world, this was his purpose.

Aren't you glad that our God has purpose and it can't be changed, it can't be thwarted, it can't be altered? No matter what you do, you can't change it. Meaning you can't make it better, you can't make it worse. It is what it is and we love it the way it is.

I love that our salvation we preach, not ours, the Lord's salvation he gives to us, it's a hands-off salvation. We don't touch it. We just believe by faith. He does it all. He does it all. We are satisfied with the same thing God is satisfied with. We're satisfied with the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We believe that it saved his people from their sin. We believe he was successful. And he didn't make an attempt, that he wasn't trying to do something. He's God, he can't fail. He's not a puny God like men make him out to be. He was the sovereign creator of everything hanging on the cross of Calvary. That's what John chapter one tells us. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. All things were made by him, and without him there was not anything made that was made.

He is the sovereign creator hanging on the cross of Calvary, offering himself up, his soul being made an offering for sin for the Lord's people. And God smelt that sacrifice and was well pleased with it, well pleased once and for all.

Something very important. We'll turn to another passage here in a second. Something very important is, is he had to be a willing sacrifice. And what does Isaiah 53 say? As a lamb is dumb before his shearers, so the Lord opened not his mouth. He was a willing and obedient sacrifice. Uh, that's, that's a contrast to those other old Testament sacrifices. Cause if they knew what were coming, I bet you, they would have kicked and bucked and carried on, but they didn't know. Um, and certainly you and I, we would fight back. I'm sure, but no, he humbled himself to death. Even the death of the cross wasn't just that he died was how he died. He was. It was grotesque on the physical part of it, but the spiritual, the soul, was in agony. Isaiah 53 tells us that. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, thou shalt be satisfied.

What's amazing to me is the love that our God has for his people. whenever he said it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Why? Because that was the only way you and I could be made the righteousness of God in him, the only way. And he was well pleased. He said to his father, let this cup pass for me nevertheless. Not my will, but thy will be done. Thy will be done.

I hope the Lord causes us more and more to say that, because so often that's not our initial response whenever things happen, whether it's trouble, trial, sickness, whatever it may be. Typically, we don't immediately say, not my will, thy will be done. But Lord, cause that to be so. Cause me not to look at my circumstance, cause me to look at the God of the circumstance, the one who sent it, the one who allowed it, the one who purposed it. Cause me to rest in you alone. We're not gonna find any hope in this, not this corpse that we're carrying around. I'm not saying don't try to fix your problems, I'm saying look to Christ. I hope the Lord causes us to do that.

Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thy will be done. The obedience of Christ smelled sweet to God. It smelled sweet to God. Compared to the stench of human sin and disobedience, compared to the, it's the smell of life and death. You've smelt death before, every one of us has probably. You'd be driving down the road and something on the side of the road's dead, especially in summertime, you smell that, you wanna roll up the windows real quick. That's what we smell like by nature, everybody, everybody.

And yet because of the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we smell sweet now. The Lord is well pleased with his son and he's well pleased with his people because they are in his son.

Turn with me to Philippians chapter two. Look at verse five through 11. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.

I want to stop there just for a moment because We know that Christ was a servant, but whenever you actually see that and enter into God, condescending to the point of being a servant, washing the disciples, God's washing their feet. That's love, isn't it? Furthermore, he goes to the cross and drinks the cup of damnation for every one of his people. That's love, isn't it? No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Look at verse eight, being found in fashion of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So not only was he a servant, but he humbled himself to death. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

He was well pleasing to the Father in every way, insomuch the Lord has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name. There's no name greater than that. There's no name higher than that. God exalted him. He was offered as the sweet-smelling savor that satisfied God.

Now, sweet-smelling refers to its perfect acceptability and the pleasure, the pleasure it brought to God. The Lord already said this, but the Lord, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. As the wrath fell upon Christ and sin was being dealt with on the cross, we were made the righteousness of God in him when it was finished.

Now I can't understand the depths of that, my puny brain can't wrap my mind around it, but what it means is is that as righteous as he is, that's how righteous we are in him in this world. Not in this flesh, no in the inward man, the new man, created in righteousness. As holy as he is, that's how holy his people are. Not flesh, flesh is still sinful, but the new man, the new man.

As perfect and pure, we're here the second hour, we're children of light. He's light, we're darkness. But as bright as he is, we're in him. We're in him. There's no darkness anymore in us. Can you believe that? Do you ever see darkness in yourself? All the time. If we don't, there's a serious problem, isn't there? That's all I see in myself is darkness. But you know what I see in him? Light, light, and God's well pleased with the light. Oh, if you've been made a sinner, God's given you faith to believe him. It's almost as if we can see our darkness. It's almost as if we can smell ourselves. Does that make sense to anybody? You smell yourself. You know how you don't take a bath for a while? I try to use little analogies to make sense of what I'm trying to say, but if you don't take a bath for a bit or a shower, you're going to start stinking. It's just how it works.

we come to service and the scripture talks about he might sanctify and cleanse it talking about the church with the washing of water by the word and I've mentioned before this is our oasis where we come to get away from the desert we're all dusty and dirty and everything else the Lord it's like he washes it all over again cleans us up washes our feet that's what we're talking about earlier wasn't it We are washed in the blood of Christ, never to be soiled again. And yet we see this flesh and it's almost as if we can smell ourself and we loathe ourself. That which I would do, I do not, but that which I would never do, that's exactly what I do. Paul said that. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of what? Death. Death stinks. Death stinks. Oh, I've got to smell like him. And that's exactly what was accomplished on the cross of Calvary.

As he went up a sweet smelling savor under the father and ascended back to glory, took every one of his people with him, presented them as perfectly righteous, presented them as holy, justified, sanctified, glorified. We just haven't got to experience the last one yet. I smell the stench of my unbelief, the putrid smell of my sin, the rancid corruption of my depraved heart. I smell it. I smell it. But oh, the goodness and grace of God who sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those that were under the law that were guilty. They were dirty that were dead. Dead dead. It was a valley of dry bones. Ezekiel saw they were very dry. We were very dead. And the Lord said, I'm gonna make you mine. I'm gonna choose you. You're the apple of my eye. I have set my affection upon you. I've loved you with an everlasting love. Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you. Before you were named, I loved you.

Christ became a man and died our death that we should have died on the cross that we should have hung from. He took our place. And in doing so, scripture says, the Lord laid our iniquity upon him. Every, all the sin that we are, our trespasses, our transgression was made the light on our wonderful savior. And what did he do? He put them away by the sacrifice of himself and that wrath fail. We were in the ark safe. And that smell went up before God and God said, I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased. And their sin and their iniquity, I'll remember no more. Cast them as far as the east is from the west. Christ came forth in the likeness of this sinful flesh. He didn't stink. He didn't sin. and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh. He lived the perfect life, we could not. He offered the perfect offering, we could not. He prayed perfect prayers. We've never prayed a perfect prayer, did you know that? I wish I could, but I can't. Everything we do is tainted with sin. Not him, not him. He who knew no sin went to the cross, was made a curse for us, yet without sin was made to be sin for us, owning our sin as our substitute, yet undefiled. He opened not his mouth, but he went as a lamb, dumb for the shearers. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because he was bearing the punishment, the guilt of our sin, that's why the Lord forsook him.

You know, he had the power to call 12 legions of angels. He had the power to call 12 legions of angels. I meant to look up that number, forgive me. I'm not even going to guess. It's a lot. It's a lot. He could have sent those angels to destroy the entire planet, wipe out the universe, be done with it. It ended the suffering, but it wouldn't have pleased the father. And then we would have had no hope. We'd have been condemned forever.

Was it possible for him to do that? No. No, because he's God and he can't lie. He's almost saved my people. I'm just saying he had that, he had that kind of power. He had that kind of power hanging on the tree. None of his power was diminished when he was on the cross of Calvary. He just humbled himself as God in the flesh to the form of a servant and then unto death. That's mind boggling to me. He could have destroyed the mockers. He could have made a, He could have showed Pilate what kind of power he had. Pilate said, I have all power. He said, you'd have no power at all if it wasn't given to my father. He said, no, actually, I have all the power, is what he was saying. He gave the Lord the glory.

But you know what he did? He just sat and opened his mouth every time they scoffed and mocked. He had his eyes set to the salvation of his people. He would not go fail. I'm going to redeem them back to God. A ransom has been found. The debt has been paid. We've been made the righteousness of God in him. This is the sweet smelling savor that our Lord smelt. He believed God by perfect faith. He believed God would resurrect him and not leave him to himself. He believed God would make every one of those whom he's dying for the very righteousness of God in him. He believed God. Oversight, he had faith in his father on the cross, perfect faith. He said, Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit. I present you with the finished work. It is finished. My father said, satisfied, well pleased. God smelt that offering and said, well done.

Now his people are justified, sanctified, righteous, holy in the new man, born of his spirit. You know what this means. This is the last thing I wrote down. Last night, as I was studying this, it hit me. You ever have something, you're working on something, all of a sudden it hits you, something just wonderful. I hope we can enter into this. I'm not trying to be dramatic about it, it's just kind of exciting. When children are born, they have a distinct smell, but as the children get older, they inherit their parents' smell. Did you know that? Did you know that? Kids smell like us. Kids smell like us.

You know who we smell like because of our father? The Lord Jesus Christ. When he sees his people, he sees the blood. We smell as pleasing to him as his son. We're light now, not darkness. We're alive, not dead. We're sweet, not horrid. And one day, very soon, we'll be conformed to his image. What a glorious day that'll be.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name, amen.

Let's take a break.