2 Chronicles 28:25
“And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.”
When I was a teenager, we often had a pile of compost brought to the church to spread in the flowerbed and yard. The purpose of the compost was to fertilize the flowers and yard to help them grow better. Every time I spread the compost, when I got home my mother would tell me to immediately take a shower because the stink of the compost was on me. The only reason I had that stink on me was because I was around it.
In the verse above, it says that Ahaz burnt incense to other gods. That incense left a stink on Ahaz that he could not get off. The incense left a different smell to God than the incense that was burnt in the temple. Instead of leaving a sweet-smelling savor, it left a stinking savor in God’s nostrils.
I’m afraid that too many Christians have a different stink on them than they should. I remember listening to a sermon by Dr. Tom Malone. He was preaching at a preacher’s conference when he made the statement, “I like the stink this conference leaves on me.” He was saying that spending time in that conference would cause him to be different, and he didn’t mind being identified with the smell that conference left on him.
Friend, I wonder what stink you have on you. Do you have the stink of the world on your life? Have you been spending so much time in the world that you smell more like the world than you do a Christian? You can’t run in the world and not get the stink of the world on you. Every time you watch their wicked programs, you get that stink on you. Every time you go to a wrong place, you get that stink on you. You can’t hide the stink of the world when it is on you.
Let me ask you another question. Do you have the stink of compromisers on you? You can’t watch their religious programs and read their books without getting their stink on you. Many preachers think they can hide the stink of the liberal books that they read, but it comes out in their stand and preaching. You can say you’re just trying to get ideas, but the ideas you’re getting are leaving a stink in the nostrils of God.
The interesting thing about the stink of compromise and worldliness is that most people don’t realize they have that stink on them. When you’re around it for any length of time, you get used to the smell, and you can’t discern when it’s on you. You may think you’re the same person, but you’re not.
There is only one smell I want on me, and that is the smell of God. You should spend so much time with God that people know you smell like Him. Yes, to the world the smell of God will stink, but I’d rather have the smell of God on me than the stink of the world.
Always remember, whomever you spend the most time with is whose stink you have on you. I challenge you to get the stink of God on you. When it’s on you, don’t be ashamed of it. That is the smell that will bring God’s blessings, and that is the smell that will keep you from sin.