A Clean Slate

Message by Pastor Pete Cropsey @ First Love Church

Genesis 22

Message by Garrett Young @ First Love Church

Genesis 22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” 6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The–LORD–Will–Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 15 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 20 Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, “Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Huz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 And Bethuel begot Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah.

To start off this chapter paints a very horrific picture, in the beginning of what God seems to expect of His servant Abraham, something disgusting and even outlawed by God in the book of Leviticus, “Thou Shall Not Murder”. We get taken through this pain staking story with Abraham. I do not knowing what its like to be a Father but I could only imagine what it would be like to be asked to do something like this, and the sorrow and thoughts that would go through my head and what goes through Abraham’s head.. Abraham didn’t know that he was getting put through a test, we know this and Moses writing this knew this but Abraham didn’t, so remember that as we go through this.

“After these things” always means a significant amount of time has passed. And here Abraham is probably about 120-130 yrs. old, which makes Isaac somewhere around 25 yrs. old, maybe a little older or maybe a little younger. This short chapter describes Abraham’s greatest test which turns into his greatest achievement. This chapter is the main reason why he is called the “Father of the Faith.”

Also notice the repeated use of the word “and” in the actions of this chapter. It is called a polysyodon which shows continuous action, there is no stopping. This shows on another level the faithfullness of Abraham.

It is God the Father, we see from the hebrew that the more common name for God is used which is Elohim and the one who forbids the extreme act is YAWEH. This is interesting because it is Yeshua the Messiah, the “Angel of the Lord,” YAWEH, which will be the one to sacrifice Himself.

There are 2 symbols of Christ here I want you guys to keep in mind. 1. he is the only son who is loved by his father and is doing his father’s will (just like Isaac). 2. the ram is the innocent victim that died as a substitute.

The testing here shows what someone is really like, and it generally involves difficulty or hardship… ex….personal…. Biblical – We see throughout the Bible Men of God are tested (Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah [shadrach, meshach, abednego] were tested by being put on a simple diet. God tested the Jewish people throughout the wilderness journey, this testing makes our faith real, it makes it stronger.

v.2 We know that this is the same place that Solomon built his temple from 2 Chronicles 3:1 “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mt. Moriah,…” God explains what He wants, He wants the burnt offering. And when you read Leviticus and they go into detail about the offerings they involve cutting up and burning the whole animal on the altar. So this was a pretty gruesome act, so I have know idea what Abraham is thinking at this point, but it probably isn’t a pleasant thought. But this also expresses at least two ideas, 1. that the offerer is giving himself entirely to God (because the animal represents the offerer) and 2. that the animal’s death atones for the worshiper’s sin. When we look at Biblical law we see that the firstborn was to be dedicated to God but that he be redeemed by a animal sacrifice. But later we see that the Levites were wholly consecrated to God instead of the firstborn. And also in Exodus 34:20 human sacrifice is said to be illegal.

When it mentions “your only son” Abraham already had Ishmael from Hagar the servant, but God does not recognize this act of the flesh, because it was through Sarah and the birth of Isaac that was God’s will. So it is also important to note that God does not look at the sin, at our sin, but He looks at Abraham’s faith and our faith.

Mt. Moriah is about 45 miles from Beersheba to Jerusalem, 3 day journey.

v. 3 – A Mt. is used not just in the Bible as a place to meet God, such as here and with Moses, David, Solomon, etc… but even in Greek and Roman mythology it is the main place where the gods were.

v.4 – This verse seems to show us that the distance and the height of the Mt. will be difficult both physically and emotionally. He has to think about this for 3 days and 3 days is a typical period for preparation for something important in the Bible. This also is the first time that it shows that the Messiah will be die and raise on the 3rd day, because Abraham was looking at Isaac as dead for the 3 day journey. But imagine the thought process and the silence. Sometimes silence says more than words.

John Calvin says that the delay made Abraham’s ordeal even more painful with his quote, “God does not require him to put his son immediately to death, but compels him to revolve this execution in his mind during three whole days, that in preparing to sacrifice his son, he may still more severely torture all his own senses.”

v. 5 – We see Abraham calling him the “lad”, not my son or isaac, but lad. It almost seems like he is trying to emotionally detach himself from Isaac, to make it easier. And also with his words there have been 3 main thoughts on it, 1. He lied 2. He is implying that he is not going to sacrifice Isaac or 3. Or it is an affirmation of faith.

v. 6,7 – Imagine this climb up the Mt. with your son, silence the whole way up until Isaac breaks it and calls for his father.

v. 8 – And Abraham gives an expression of hope, he knows somehow, someway that God will save him from this or even raise Isaac from the dead, or something else. Calvin again comments on this, “This example is proposed for our imitation. Whenever the Lord gives a command, many things are perpetually occurring to enfeeble our purpose: means fail, we are destitute of counsel, all avenues seem closed. In such straits, the only remedy against despondency is to leave the event to God, in order that he may open a way for us when there is none. For as we act unjustly towards God, when we hope for nothing from him but what our senses can perceive, so we pay Him the highest honor, when, in affairs of perplexity, we nevertheless entirely accept in his providence.” This may seem like, Child Abuse, as the atheist Richard Dawkins suggests; but the problem that Dawkins and others like him run into is that they don’t believe in the Supernatural. God’s promises to Abraham in chapters 12 and 17 that were going to be fulfilled through the birth of Isaac were going to come true because God said they would and Hebrews 6:18 and Titus 1:2 and following tell us that God cannot lie. So Abraham had faith that even if he had to sacrifice his son God would be able to bring him back from the dead. So it is not murder if you know the person will not die.

v. 9, 10 – It is interesting that he binds his son and Isaac lets him do it as well, because there was no binding in the traditional sacrifices, maybe just in case Isaac finally decided not to go through with it and overpowered his father.

v. 11, 12 – Again, YAWEH stops him and says he fears God, which also means he is blameless and in Job 1:1 we see that God also calls Job blameless when He is talking to Satan. Mt. Moriah means – In the Mt. of the LORD he may be seen and or provided.

v. 13 – Notice how the ram is caught by its horns. Because the sacrifice had to be perfect, without blemish, and because it was caught by the horns it had no affect on the flesh of the animal. Just like Jesus himself was perfect, without sin, and he was offered up on our part.

v. 16 – He swears by Himself because there is no greater. Just showing again His power. The phrase “Declares the Lord” occurs 364 times in the OT, mostly in the prophets, but it shows the power of His word.

The suffering servant of Isa. 53 seems to combine in his person images drawn from Gen. 22 with those of Job. Like Job, the physical sickness and sores, and other bad stuff that happened to him along with some of the contemporaries saying he is a sinner. Like Abraham the servant makes an offering and sees his offspring 53:10. But like Isaac who went along with this, so is the Messiah in Isa. 53, And like Isaac he offered himself, rather than anyone else. But this servant actually died.

Romans 8:31-32; John 3:16; Ps. 2:7; 1 Peter 1:19-20; These verses among many others show God giving his Beloved Son for sacrifice.

This seemingly tragic story turns into the most beautiful acts of faith and points to 2000 years later on the same Mountain, Mt. Moriah, on Calvary (Golgatha),(2 Chronicles 3:1) where the Father offers His only Son to die for the sins of the world. The perfect Son, without blemish, without sin did what nobody else could do and substituted Himself to make atonement for us.

Lessons about true worship: 1. Faith obeys completely the Word of God. 2 Faith surrenders the best to God, holding nothing back. 3. Faith waits on the Lord to provide all one’s needs. But God does not provide until personal sacrifice has been made. True worship is costly.

I will end with this from the book Night by Jewish writer Elie Wiesel where he tells of his account of his time in Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp: “The SS hanged two Jewish men and a youth in front of the whole camp. The men died quickly, but the death throes of the youth lasted for half an hour. “Where is God? Where is he?” someone asked behind me. As the youth still hung in torment in the noose after a long time, I heard the man call again, “Where is God now?” And I heard a voice inside myself answer: “Where is he? He is here. He is hanging there on the gallows.”

Any other answer here would have been blasphemous. Christians take strength and comfort in the fact that God suffers with us and even enters into our suffering; and we see this in the person of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, while he suffered, was humiliated, and hung on the cross for us.

Tear Down The Walls & Let The River Flow

Message by Pastor Pete Cropsey @ First Love Church

Colossians 1:19-23 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Going back to verse 19 and 20 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, Here we have a continuation of the thought we explored last week with the significance of the birth order in the Hebrew culture.

Colossians 1:15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

As we disclosed last Sunday this is not to be taken to mean that because Paul refers to Him as the firstborn that He in any way had a beginning or was created. Jesus is eternal and preeminent. Preeminent means that He is above and before all others; He is superior, He is without equal, He is the greatest in importance He is peerless, He is supreme.

Revelation 1:7-8Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

In the culture of that day the firstborn son was the one who took on all the authority of the father, he was the one to whom the entire inheritance fell and he was the one who stood in the father’s place in all matters of family government in the stead of the father. When Paul says He is the firstborn over all creation he is saying that Jesus is equal to and exactly like the Father in position and character. He is saying that they are identical in essence and nature. He is also saying that there is no one else who shares in this position. So when Paul expresses the thought that it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, It means that God the Father has given Jesus all the authority and that all the inheritance has fallen to Him and that He stands in the Father’s place in all matters of family government. Or in this case all matters pertaining to the administration of the affairs of heaven and of men and of this earth. My wife likes to say He is the CEO of the universe.

Paul said in Colossians 1: 19-20For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

“Reconciliation” means reestablishing a relationship, causing the relationship to become friendly and peaceable when it had not been so. There can be no peace between sinful humans and a holy God. Because people are born into sin, they cannot become good enough to be acceptable to God. In Old Testament times, God accepted symbolic offerings. Jesus had not yet been sacrificed, so God accepted the life of an animal in place of the life of the sinner. When Jesus came, he substituted His perfect life for our sinful lives, taking the penalty for sin that we deserve. The penalty for sin is death. We are guilty and culpable, but Jesus took the punishment. He redeemed us from the power of sin and reconciled us to God. But Paul said He would reconcile all things to Himself. But what did Paul mean by “all”? Does this reconciliation of “all things” mean that everyone will be saved? From other passages, we know that Paul understood salvation to be something accepted or rejected by humans, who are given the choice

2 Thessalonians 7-12He will give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. 11 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The scope of God’s reconciliation is universal — it is offered to all people. But reconciliation is accomplished only for those who accept Christ as Savior. Blessing or cursing, judgment or merciful forgiveness, punishment or reward, eternity in heaven or eternity in hell it has fallen to Jesus Christ to determine it all. He has made peace through the blood of His cross for those who have put themselves, their lives, their very existence under the shadow of the cross.

Acts 17:30-31Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

When Luke says, “Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked.” He is speaking of the times prior to the incarnation of Christ in the flesh and the three years He spent proving beyond all; shadow of doubt and when Jesus said in,

John 14:6-7“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

When He made this statement He had already established unequivocally the truth of it and all of its ramifications. God commands us to repent. What is our natural response to a command? Our pride flares up and we resist.

Proverbs 16:18-19Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

It is so important that we understand that times of judgment are coming and the consequences for choosing to live apart from Christ are eternal, irrevocable, and horrifying in the extreme. We must be equipped with all of the information. Those who would dismiss the scriptures and their warnings because of a rebellious spirit born out of pride will all one day desperately regret having closed their minds and their hearts to the offer of God in Christ for eternal salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

But what of those of us who are being saved? People… there is nothing but glorious promises to those of us who have become children of the Most High God!

Colossians 1:21-23And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

I want to touch for a moment on something Paul says in verse 21. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.

You see it is our own mind that makes us enemies of God. It is our own stinkin thinkin that is brought about by our sin that makes us live in thoughts and behaviors that create hostility toward God. We were strangers to God’s way of thinking. Wrong thinking leads to sin, which further perverts and destroys thoughts about Him. When people are out of harmony with God, their natural condition is to be totally hostile to his standards.

But check it out verse 21 and 22 also tell us. Yet now He has reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death, to present us holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight!

Shortly before the crucifixion when Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover He was answering the Pharisees who were arguing with Him trying to get Him to make what in their opinion were blasphemous claims to being God. This is a really great moment.

John 7:37-39On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;

You see the reason this is such a great moment is that Jesus statement which He cried out, like, “People just get with the program. It’s not about what you conceive in your minds or speculate on, reasoning with your education. You can question and doubt and manipulate all day long but the truth will always be the truth and that is, “If you are thirsty, if you are parched and dry, brittle and broken come to Me and find relief! Get wet! If you do Gushing torrents of refreshing will then pour out of you!!” Verse 39 wraps it up.

39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;

This is the reconciliation that Paul is talking about, being Holy and blameless and above reproach. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. But so often we let our fears and our woundedness act like a big giant dam blocking the gushing torrents of living water. Somehow we don’t feel we are worthy of being a river for the love of God.

We need to TEAR DOWN THE DAM AND LET THE RIVER FLOW. Paul’s prayer from Ephesians 3 is so powerful.

Ephesians 3:14-16 I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,

Strengthened with the power and authority, the might, of the One who’s name is stamped on every aspect of creation. Strengthened with might. Might means force, of a great or supreme kind, it is the power or ability to do or accomplish with all the energy at one’s command. So when Paul prays that we would be strengthened with might through His Spirit it is the might of the Spirit He is talking about. This strengthening will take place in our inner man. It is like an infusion of the power of the Spirit of God into our bone marrow. But again we have to ask, we have to believe and we have to yield. You can listen to me preach all day long and this strengthening will never take place until you come before God and ask Him for it. Are you tired of falling into the same stinky pit of self and sin? Come and ask the Lord for this strengthening of the inner man. Jesus said,

John 16:23-24Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Are you going to get up and walk out of here still carrying the burdens that weigh you down or are you going to take courage and ask God for healing. You might be thinking, ‘I’ve been a Christian a long time and every one knows it. How can I get up and go forward, I am supposed to have it together.” I have a word for you, “Balogny.” What are we going to ask for?

Ephesians 3:17-19that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Come Holy Spirit we need you so……

Ephesians 3:20-21Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Holy Spirit speak to Your people now, stir them up to stand for a filling.