Many people today use products like perfumes, eau de toilette and a wide range of other products that produce a good-smelling fragrance. Whenever you sense the smell of something it causes certain associations of thought in your mind. Something might smell good and you enjoy to breathe in that smell. Other things produce such a foul stench that you want to get away from it as fast as you can. Perfumes are intended to produce a comfortable smell that causes your mind to have a positive association of thought about the person who uses it. A good smelling fragrance leaves a positive impression on your mind whenever you get a whiff of it. You might enjoy the smell of good food in your house that makes you look forward to a good meal.
Today, however, I would like to call your attention to an unusual kind of "perfume" and I wish everyone would become familiar with the wonderful sweet smelling savour of it. Every Christian needs to use this special kind of "perfume" of which I am speaking. Every Christian has the responsibility to spread this sweet savour wherever he goes. So don't forget to put on your "perfume" before you turn off the computer today. The recipe for that special "perfume" is found in a book that has one division devoted completely to the expression of beauty and human emotions through fragrances. Yes, it is in the Bible, in the book of the Song of Solomon. In verse 1:3 of that book you find the saying: "Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee." This describes how the fragrance that surrounds a person causes him to find admiration and favour. The Song of Solomon signifies the love between the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. The name of Jesus is poured forth as an ointments upon the wounds of mankind - to heal the sick and to forgive the sins and to restore us into a loving relationship with God. "Therefore do the virgins love thee", it says in the world. Those believers who do not allow themselves to be spotted by the filth of the world, those who keep themselves pure before the Lord will love Him and will be anointed with the ointment of God. By the way, Christ means "the anointed". This leads us to our key Bible verse about what I call "God's perfume":
"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
For we are unto God a sweet smelling savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?"
II.Corinthians 2:14-16
What is the Apostle Paul saying here? The spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is like the diffusion of a certain fragrance. The agent that actually carries the fragrance is the Christian believer! It says that God makes manifest (reveals) the savour of his knowledge BY US - Holy Ghost-anointed believers in Christ - in EVERY place. The only thing we need to make sure is that we truly have the savour of His knowledge upon us! And then wherever we go, we will spread a rich fragrance of the love of Jesus! Isn't that wonderful? It says that WE - those of us who are born again - are a sweet smelling savour of Christ. Paul compares the knowledge of Christ to a certain smell. This is not some knowledge that is securely locked in the back corner of our mind in some private niche. The knowledge of God is like a strong, rich smell that needs to encompass you and any person that you meet needs to be able to draw in that wonderful sweet fragrance, so that this person also wants to have that wonderful fragrance. That is real soul-winning! We do not need to shove the gospel down other people's throat. No, they need to be drawn by the sweet savour of Christ - a fragrance that will draw their attention like a good perfume or the smell of good food. The Word of God gives us a very good allegory for the spreading of the knowledge of God.
There is another Bible verse that addresses the sweet savour of Christ. This verse is found in Ephesians 5:2, "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 sweetsmelling savour." So Jesus walked in love and out of that love he gave himself as a sin offering. That produces a good savour that pleases God and turns His wrath from us. The sweet savour actually appeases God, just like a rich smell that you like can change your mood from wrath to joy, from depression to fervor. In the Old Testament a sacrifice was burnt unto God and the savour that arose from it was supposed to appease God. In Genesis 8:21 we read of Noah bringing burnt sacrifices on the altar after the great flood and "the Lord smelled a sweet savour; 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 every thing living, as I have done." God 's favor was effected by the sweet savour of sacrifice. In the same pattern Jesus sacrificed himself to turn away God's wrath for the sin that comes from our evil heart.
The Bible says in our key verse that this sweet smelling savour of Christ is to some the savour of life, to others the savour of death. For those who have received Christ and belong to Him it will be the savour of life. That reminds them of life eternal in Heaven with Christ, of total forgiveness of sin, and peace and assurance in our heart. This sweet savour is a comfort everytime they breathe it in their nose. Those who are familiar with the savour of the knowledge of God will turn up their nose at the foul stench of sin and they will detest an odorless atmosphere where the knowledge of God is outlawed by human laws or customs, unwelcome by unbelievers, or hindered in any other way.
For those who have rejected God and do not care about what He has to say, the sweet smelling savour of Christ will be the savour of death. So it says in our key verses. When they hear the name of Jesus in public, they will make a strange face and shut their ears and eyes and brains and hearts. And their nose! Because they don't like the savour that comes from God. It reminds them of their own corruption, the condemnation that is upon them, and that they will one day have to answer God in judgment. They do not know who Jesus is. All they know is the stench of sin and they seem to have become so familiar to that stench that it does not even disturb them.
For each believer it is now of utmost important that he comes to God and allows Him to work through him, so that God can make manifest the savour of His knowledge by him. It needs to be our prayer that God will use us to make manifest that wonderful savour. We need to be fully surrendered to Christ and washed from the dirty smell of the old man of sin. Let us put all that off. And let us put on Christ, just as some put on their perfume. In Ephesians 4 we are admonished to put on Christ. Read it in God's Word! Every Christian is an agent that spreads out this sweet savour, the knowledge of God, the Gospel of Christ, so that people in our surroundings will know about Jesus and get saved. Many people have never heard about the Gospel and about Jesus Christ. They might die without hope and be lost eternally. They have never read the Bible or heard the preaching. The only Bible they might ever read is YOU! If you are a true believer, God takes His abode in you through the Holy Spirit. Allow God's Spirit to work within you. Let your light shine out, so the world may know that Jesus is in you and that Jesus is alive today! Let those people who have never heard about God draw in the rich savour of the knowledge of God! They need to be overwhelmed by the sweetness of His savour. By us the Lord wants to make it manifest that Jesus saves and that only in Him we can find peace, comfort and eternal life. And the Lord wants that savour of His knowledge to be manifest in EVERY PLACE. Whether it is China, Cuba, Afghanistan or France, Argentina, Germany or wherever you can think of! The knowledge of God is as a sweet savour that unfolds itself everywhere. It is not to be hid in private. It is a savour that goes out and spreads itself abroad in public. Christianity is neither neutral nor odorless! It is permeated by the presence of a living God, all-powerful, all-knowing!
