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“Then Noah Built An Altar”
October 23, 2016 Ainsworth Assembly of God
AM Church
SCRIPTURE TEXT: Genesis 8:13-9:7 Hebrews 13:10
13And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the firstmonth, the firstday of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.14And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
15Then God spoke to Noah, saying,16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.17Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh thatis with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”18So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.19Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird,and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.
20Then Noah built an altar to theLord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.21And theLord smelled a soothing aroma. Then theLord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heartis evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”
1So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.£2And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that moveon the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.4But you shall not eat flesh with its life,that is, its blood.5Surely for your lifeblood I will demanda reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6“Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God
He made man.
7And as for you, be fruitful and multiply;
Bring forth abundantly in the earth
And multiply in it.”
OPEN:
Last Sunday we spoke from Matthew 24 and we talked about the days of Noah. We related them to today and talked about the fact that Jesus is coming again soon!
Today I want to look at Noah once again as we seek heavenly bread to feed our soul. May the Lord bless us today with the manna that only He can give as we live in the days just prior to the coming of the Lord.
May I remind you that Jesus gave us a warning concerning the days just prior to His return? Here is what Jesus said, “And because lawlessness (iniquity) will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:12
Jesus said that many of His people would grow cold in their hearts because of the sin and lawlessness around them. Friends, it can happen to any of us! The fire of love for God can grow cold over time. The devotion we once had can wane as the days drag on. The desire we had for the word of God can be engulfed by other things. Its easy to grow cold! Its easy to lose your spiritual fervency! The day by day by day business of just living in this sin infested world can dim the flame!
Where does this coldness first begin to show up? It shows up by our neglect of the personal and family altar! Its no coincidence that the first thing Noah is recorded as doing when he came out of the ark was to build an altar to the LORD! The altar was a place to meet with God! It was a place where God manifested His presence. It was a place of sacrifice and communion. At the altar revelation took place. God revealed Himself in new and powerful ways. And at the altar man expressed his gratitude to God!
When we start getting cold in our love for God, we will neglect the altar every time. Oh, we may go through the motions. We may mouth some prayer, but our heart is far from God! Friend, that’s a sign that you have grown cold! I’m here to tell you the answer is REESTABLISH THE ALTAR!
Noah is the first person recorded in the Bible to build an altar to the LORD. This morning lets look at the first recorded instance of an altar being built and used for sacrifice and see what we can learn.
1. The Most Important Thing Following Salvation Is Establish An Altar! Genesis 8:18-20
It is well established in scripture that Noah’s ark is a type of salvation
In Christ. Peter refers to the ark Noah was building in which 8 people were
Saved from the waters of judgment. I Peter 3:19-21
The writer to the Hebrews mentions Noah as one of the heroes of the faith. In Hebrews 11:7 he records:
7By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his house. God had warned Him that judgment was coming. Noah took God at His word and started building his boat. And because he believed God, he saved his family!
So when Noah walked off that boat that day, what’s the first thing he does? He builds an altar. He’s been in communication with the LORD. That’s obvious! But the altar has another added purpose.
The altar is an established place where he now offers sacrifices of thanksgiving and worships God. There is something powerful in the fact that this is the very first thing that Noah is recorded as doing.
And could I say that the very first thing we need to do after salvation is establish a prayer life? Noah obviously didn’t establish the altar as a place to ask God for things, but a place to offer up sacrifices that represented a grateful heart. I suppose Noah had a lot to be grateful for didn’t he?
Of all the people on earth, he and his family were saved. Everyone else perished! If he is like us he probably felt unworthy. Why was he saved and not the others?
His family was saved. How grateful he must have been that day. I’m sure he was grateful just to get out of the ark finally! That had to be quite an experience!
I know many of you here in Ainsworth are very grateful when the wind shifts and the feedlot smell goes away! What a relief!
So with a grateful heart, Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings to God. This was the natural response of a grateful heart. He desired to offer up his heart felt devotion to heaven! Isn’t that what every Christian should be doing every day?
Hebrews 13:15 exhorts God’s people today:
“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
But when your heart is cold and you neglect your altar, you won’t be doing that. Remember when you were first saved? You couldn’t thank God enough.
-You were thankful because God was talking to you, -thankful that your sins were forgiven, -thankful your heart was clean -thankful you hadn’t died and gone to the hell you deserved -thankful for your next breath!
But when you neglect the altar, you will forget to be thankful! When you get cold in your heart, its hard to say ‘thank you’ to God and to others. Why? Your pride and sin are standing in the way!
People who come out of the ark want to get on their faces and praise, honor and worship the living God who has saved them!
But time and sin can blunt that gratefulness!
Do you need to reestablish the altar of communion with God? Every believer needs a time and place where we meet with God. Where is your altar?
In the garden of Eden the devil attacked Adam to destroy his relationship with God. We know from the record that Adam’s fellowship with God was interrupted by the fall. Adam was used to meeting with God in the garden. They fellowshipped in the garden in the cool of the day. They had communion. They shared their heart with each other.
But the serpent was able to destroy that fellowship with God. After the fall, Adam was afraid and hid from God when he heard God coming the next time.
What do you do when you feel God speaking to you? What do you do when you sense God calling to you?
Do you run and hide or do you run to Him? The Psalmist (Psalm 27:8) ran to God. “When You said LORD, “seek My face.” My heart said…” When the Pastor says its time to come to the altar do you run out the door of the church or run to the altar?
So first of all Noah got first things first. He established an altar for sacrifice and to express his grateful heart to God.
2. The Altar is A Way to Bless God. Genesis 8:21
Verse 21 tells us: “And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma.”
It’s obvious that what Noah did pleased God. You don’t often see something like this in scripture. It tells us that God was very pleased with Noah.
Keil and Delitzsch,commentators, explain:
“He graciously accepted the feelings of the offerer which rose to Him in the odour of the sacrificial flame. In the sacrificial flame the essence of the animal was resolved into vapour, so that when the man presented a sacrifice in his own stead, his inmost being, his spirit, and his heart ascended to God in the vapour, and the sacrifices brought the feeling of his heart before God. This feeling of gratitude for gracious protection, and of desire for further communications of grace, was well-pleasing to God.” (Commentary on the Old Testament, Keil & Delitzsch, Vol 1, p. 151.)
This was worship from the heart. Jesus rebuked the religious people of his day for the same thing Isaiah spoke about. “These people draw near with their mouth and lips but their heart is far from Me.” (Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15;8)
In the establishment of that altar and the offering of the clean animals following God’s gracious deliverance we find that God smelled a soothing aroma! Why? Noah was offering heart felt thanks! His gratitude came from deep in his heart. Is that what you offered to God today?
But listen to God’s reaction to sacrifices offered in worship another time in another place. Malachi 1:7 Malachi spoke of:
7 “You offer defiled food on My altar,... 8 …you offer the blind as a sacrifice… 13 …you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; 14 …But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and takes a vow, But sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished…”
“Try offering that to your governor! Malachi 1:8
Establishing the altar means bringing a clean sacrifice, it means worshipping from a true heart by faith. We come with heartfelt gratefulness to God for His blessings and graces!
But when we get hard in our hearts we forget all He has done for us. Our offerings are simply mouthing meaningless words!
David fell into a grievous sin with Bathsheba. Later he wrote about what God truly wants. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit…” Psalm51:17
But this wasn’t Noah! My God, can you imagine what he must have felt when he walked out of that ark that day? The entire world was destroyed in the flood waters of judgment, but he and his family were saved! Talk about wanting to get on your knees and kiss the ground! Can you imagine the things he and his family went through all those years?
Can you imagine the ridicule they took? Can you imagine the mocking as year after year went by and no sign of a flood? Can you imagine the struggle it was for them to complete this huge ark? Don’t you think there were some days when Noah’s sons asked, “Why are we doing this again?”
When they knelt before that altar that day, they were offering up gratefulness for the years of God’s grace and faithfulness! They were remembering the times they wanted to give up but didn’t. They were remembering how faithful God was to keep them focused and help them get the job done.
All of that ascended in their sacrifices that day! I love what Paul says in II Corinthians 2:14-15 NLT
“Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.”
That’s what happens when you spend time at the altar! That’s what happens when you keep a grateful heart. That’s what happens when you take time to remember that your next breath comes from God. That’s what happens when you remember that “every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17
Is God blessed by your time at the altar? Do you worship from the heart?
3. Noah Put God First, And God Blessed Him Abundantly!
Genesis 9:1-7
Folks, God has the ability to bless us beyond our wildest imaginations. When our motives are right and our life is right God can and will bless us!
Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…”
Jesus put it this way: But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33
Here is a great example of this. Noah’s first thought coming out of the ark is to give God thanks. His first action recorded is to build an altar. He established a place of communion and sacrifice! He offered up his heart to God in grateful thanks!