[0:00] Turning back to the chapter that we read, chapter 3 in Genesis, and we'll look this evening, especially at verse 15, in our chapter.
[0:15] I will have the denimity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
[0:28] And we'll take in most of the chapter, the Son of God, but first we'll have a look at deceit brings division, and secondly, deceit brings judgment, and thirdly, righteousness brings life.
[0:50] Righteousness brings life, and firstly, coming to deceit brings division. And as we see Adam standing at the beginning of human history, we ought also to see Jesus Christ as God's unique Son.
[1:16] As Adam was created in God's image, so the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Christ was the express image of God's passion as well as being the brightness of the Father's glory.
[1:34] And at the very beginning of his ministry, he overcomes temptation, he overcomes temptation, proving this through sonship, through his obedience to God's Word, through his obedience to God's Word.
[1:57] He exposes Satan's life. But as we were reading in the chapter, this was the serpent's promise to Adam and Eve, that if they were deities of the fruit of this tree, they would be like God, as we have it in verse 5 of the chapter.
[2:22] Both Adam and Eve believed the lie with the penalty being that they would return to the dust from which they were formed.
[2:36] And instead of tasting of the glory that was promised, they experienced guilt and shame for the first time.
[2:52] In Jesus, however, the promise of humanity being created in God's image realises its potential, where we find guilt and shame being replaced by heavenly glory.
[3:12] And you see, it should be clear to us the movement that we find here. Adam was created in God's image.
[3:23] Adam failed. Where Christ succeeded. Where Christ succeeded, Adam was to be the representative of humanity.
[3:38] But he failed, and where he failed, Christ triumphed. Christ triumphed, and Christ is, and has been revealed, has been God's through representative of humanity.
[3:58] It was God's purpose from the very beginning that humanity would be created in his image, not rebelling against him, not rebelling against him, but being in fellowship with him, revealing their love for God through the obedience of sonship.
[4:27] Through the obedience of sonship. However, through the rebellion of her first parents, through the rebellion of her first parents, we forfeited all claims to the life for which we were created.
[4:47] What was the result? The result was that division took the place of unity, death took the place of fellowship with our Creator.
[5:01] Satan gained a foothold within God's world through the very humans that God had formed in his own image.
[5:14] That God had formed in his own image. Everything that God declared was very good, was now marked, was now marked, and God's world was turned into a battlefield.
[5:34] Why was that? When we say that division took the place of unity, what do we mean? Heaven and earth was divided through the sin of her first parents.
[5:55] And instead of fellowship with God for which we were created, we find ourselves adorns with our Creator.
[6:07] That's the great division. Satan had gained a foothold within God's world, and God's world was marked, turned into a battlefield.
[6:20] So we find some saying, oh, what a wonderful creation. It's beautiful. You see God's hand behind everything.
[6:31] We do not see any longer the world in its pristine condition in the way in which it kept forth from God's hand.
[6:46] It's been marked. It's been marked. And you will find that marrying all over the world today, much of that marrying has been done by the hands of humanity itself.
[7:04] It is not any longer in the pristine condition in which it kept forth from God's hand. God's world has been turned into a battlefield because heaven and earth was now divided.
[7:21] And every war that you see taking place within our world all flows from this division that exists between heaven and earth.
[7:36] What we do know, however, and scripture makes clear, is that human sin did not frustrate God's plan.
[7:47] The wonder, the wonder of God's victory over sin in Christ was manifested immediately after the fall, and we have it here in the slush that we are looking at.
[8:04] God's victory over sin in Christ was manifested immediately after a fall into sin, and we have it in this verse that we are looking at. That amaneem. We're now experiencing shame before guilt and shame, before God and one another.
[8:22] And the first thing they try to do is to cover this guilt and shame, to cover it with three leaves, trying to hide it from God and from one another.
[8:43] But what we find is that the work of human hands cannot restore unity, neither can it hide or wrongdoing from God.
[8:59] The work of human hands cannot shield me and you, me or you from the judgment of God.
[9:11] And yet what we see Adam and Eve doing, we all still do it. We all still do it, because we are sinners like them.
[9:23] And we all try and hide the wrongdoing by our own good works. I remember myself before I was converted.
[9:33] And if one thing ever followed me from the time I was in Sunday school it was this, the first catechism, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
[9:51] And every time I was aware of doing anything wrong, I would question myself, was that glorifying God?
[10:02] But then I would come up with this answer. Well, fine, I have done something wrong. But the good works I do cancels out the wrong that I have done.
[10:17] So I have still got this place in the presence of God. So I thought, so I thought, until finally my sin was revealed to me and I knew I had no standing whatsoever in the presence of God.
[10:36] I had no standing whatsoever. But that's the way I kept on going, pretending to myself that my good work would cancel out the wrong that I was doing.
[10:49] Not realising that every good work I was doing was mixed with my sin. Mixed with, and this is what Adam and Eve were trying here.
[10:59] They were trying to cover over. Their own sin, the shame that they now experienced. You see, their conscience had never accused them of them to this point.
[11:12] And suddenly they find their conscience accusing them and the result is shame and guilt. And they try to cover it up with the work of their own hands, which was impossible, which was impossible and is impossible to this day.
[11:30] And then God's voice was heard calling out to them in the garden, calling them to give an account.
[11:41] And they cannot but respond to the summons. And God makes enquiring into the wrongdoing.
[11:53] And then this try and use another cover to hide the wrongdoing from God. What was that cover? Their excuses.
[12:05] They shift the blame to one another. They shift the blame to one another. And Adam blames Eve, becoming her accuser instead of her advocate.
[12:21] No, if they had still been in the situation in which God had created them, Adam would have stood up for Eve but no.
[12:34] He accuses her, blames her, becoming her accuser instead of being her advocate.
[12:45] It is the woman that you put here with me who took of the fruit and I ate. Who gave me the fruit and I ate, as we hollered in verse 12.
[12:58] And not only was Adam blaming Eve, he was also blaming God. If you hadn't given me that woman, I would still be stank in your pride.
[13:12] I would still be in a pride passion, but it was not to be. And so is not only blaming Eve, he's blaming God which brings us to deceit, brings judgment.
[13:25] In turn blames the serpent. The serpent deceived me and I ate as we find in verse 13.
[13:37] Fear and deceit clothed the response of the sinner in Eve. There is no sign whatsoever of repentance, absolutely none.
[13:52] And the judge of all the earth inquires into the wrongdoing and pronounces his sentence. Pronounces his sentence.
[14:04] He begins with the serpent who was accused by Eve and then he judges Eve and he ends up with Adam.
[14:17] But the amazing thing about God's judgment here is that it is full of compassion and mercy.
[14:32] Adam and Eve do not receive at all what they deserve.
[14:43] The penalty of disobedience was death and yet we do not find Adam and Eve dead at the foot of the three.
[14:56] Death would eventually be that potion, dust you are and unto dust you will return. But before that fearful outcome would take place God speaks words of hope into the situation.
[15:20] It was God's, you see the serpent, the serpent was judged before Adam and Eve.
[15:32] And the judgment of the serpent changes everything. The serpent as we know was just a servant of Satan.
[15:46] And the judgment on the serpent changed everything. God was going to turn the tables. But Eve through giving in to the temptation had made herself a friend of Satan and an enemy of God.
[16:06] God was going to reverse the situation completely. Enmity would exist not between humanity and God but between humanity and Satan.
[16:28] The mercy of God shines forth in the promise that is given to us in verse 15.
[16:40] For the God that is speaking here is the God that gives life to the dead and that calls the things that are not as if they were, as if they were.
[16:57] As we have it in Romans chapter 4 and verse 17. Now when I said humanity, that the enmity would not exist between humanity and God but between humanity and Satan.
[17:13] This verse makes it very specific for us. It does not mean the whole of humanity at all. Specifically it was the woman and her offspring, the woman and her offspring that would be enemies of Satan and friends with God.
[17:45] It was the woman and her offspring who were made the enemies of Satan. And that would continue down to the generations in the struggle that would follow.
[18:01] It was the seed of the woman that would be found to be a enmity, not the whole of humanity. The seed of the woman that would be a phone would be found that enmity would sit down and that peace would guard down through the generations in the struggle that would follow.
[18:25] God does not make clear to a seer whether that seed that he is talking about that was going to come from the woman would be at first born or whether he would come from a long line of descendants and as we know he comes from a long line of descendants. He is Jesus Christ.
[18:48] This is the seed of the woman that would crush the serpent.
[18:58] And Adam grasped, Adam grasped the fact that this promise was actually fulfilling the command that had been given to him to populate the world and so he names his wife Eve which means the mother of all the living ones. The mother of all the living ones.
[19:29] And this stands in stark contrast to God's pronouncement of the death penalty.
[19:40] But Adam wasn't speaking words of defiance here. He was speaking words of faith when he named his wife Eve.
[19:52] When he gave his wife the name Eve the mother of all the living ones. It wasn't. He was speaking words of faith because he was laying claim to the promise of God in this flesh. You see once Adam and Eve fell into sin everything was dark. Everything was hopeless.
[20:14] And they were fearing the washed. They were fearing the washed. God was through in all of his judgments. Where was hope to be found?
[20:27] But then God's judgment on the serpent brings hope into what was a hopeless situation.
[20:39] I will condemn the deep between you and the seat of the woman. He will crush your head and you will bruise the seal or wound the seal. Certainly there was hope.
[20:56] Suddenly there was hope. It was probably the darkest moment in the history of creation. And yet Adam lay sold of the hope that is given to him through this judgment on the serpent.
[21:15] We find Eve as well speaking words of hope. Speaking words of faith when she brings her firstborn into the world. And Genesis chapter 4 and verse 1 can be interpreted in this way.
[21:30] I have brought forth a man. The Lord. The Lord. She as far as she was concerned this was the promise seat from God. This was the one who was going to crush the serpent. Going to crush Satan. I have brought forth a man.
[21:58] The Lord. I have brought forth a man. The Lord. Now God's promise goes much further. Goes much further.
[22:12] Than enmity between the woman's offspring on the seat of Satan. That goes far much further than that.
[22:26] There would be a decisive result. There would be a decisive result. Satan would be crushed.
[22:38] And the heel of the man would be wounded. And that is pointing us forwards to the great conflict. Where the seat of the woman would suffer.
[22:54] Jesus Christ would suffer. But the serpent Satan would be crushed. The serpent Satan would be crushed. Which brings us to the third and final thing that we have here. Right Jesus. And Paul quotes this verse.
[23:20] What we have in this verse when he's writing to the Roman Christians. They were needing encouragement under the persecution because of the persecution they were under. And Paul writes in Romans chapter 16 and verse 20. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. What does that reveal to me and to you?
[23:48] Well it reveals this. That the victory of Jesus Christ over Satan guarantees the victory of his people. Leading the purposes of Satan to be brought completely to nothing. And Jesus himself on the eve of his crucifixion said, no, this is the time of judgment on this world.
[24:25] No, will the prince of this world be driven out. John chapter 12 and verse 31.
[24:35] No, will the prince of this world be driven out. And Paul rejoices in God's victory at the cross. Overall, overall rule-ish and authorities which were nothing but the demonic pushes of Satan's kingdom. Here's what Paul says in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 15. He desarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by trying to get over them in him.
[25:10] In Christ. By trying to get over them in Christ. Now the overriding irony here. The overriding irony here is that Satan's apparent victory was his defeat. If we go to the book of revelations.
[25:32] If we go to the book of revelations Satan is not pictured for us there as a serpent but as a great red dragon who was standing before the woman who was about to give birth. And why is he standing before him?
[25:48] So that he might devour her child once that child is born. Once that child is born. And Satan's purposes were thwarted when Jesus escaped Herod's slaughter of the children of Bethlehem.
[26:07] If you remember, Gwaius men came to Israel. Herod heard about them. So he calls them to him and he asks them about the purpose that took them to Israel and they explain to him that they were following a star and this star was going to lead them to a child who was going to become great.
[26:30] And so Herod tells them, well when you discover where that child is come back to me and tell me. So that I may go and worship him. He had no intentions whatsoever of going to worship him.
[26:46] And the wise men were warned by God not to go back to Herod but to go out of Israel another way which they did.
[26:58] And when the wise men didn't come, Herod commanded that every child in Bethlehem two years another were to be killed.
[27:10] Herod was one of the rulers and authorities that was being inspired by the spirit of Satan at that particular time.
[27:22] And although Satan's purposes were thought at that particular time he seems to achieve his purpose at Calvary.
[27:32] In the midst of the mocking crowd and that mocking crowd was inspired by the spirit of Satan. We find Jesus hanging helplessly on our cross and he dies there.
[27:51] But what happens then? He is raised from the dead and he ascends to God's right hand. He ascends to God's right hand.
[28:06] Jesus is victorious in death. As I said before Satan's apparent victory was whose defeat. Peter and the sermon on the day of Pentecost when people were asking if the disciples were drunk. They were one. They were thinking that they were drunk because they found they discovered them speaking in their own.
[28:37] There were many languages had assembled. Many people with many languages had assembled in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and these people were hearing the disciples speaking in their own languages and they thought they were drunk. Peter says no.
[28:58] But that Jesus the Son of God had been raised from the dead of which they were all witnesses. They were all witnesses. And what was happening here was not that the disciples were drunk but that Jesus had received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father which he was now pouring forth from his disciples and this is what is taking place. This is what is happening here he says.
[29:27] Jesus was triumphant in his death, victorious in his death. It was his death that had tooned for our sins. That met with the claims of the law that brought salvation to sinners such as me and you.
[29:47] And through craft's death God desirened the rulers and the authorities triumphing over them by the cross as we have already read in Colossians 2 and verse 15. And in the midst of the daftness of the cross Jesus Christ could say, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out? Why was that reported? Was Satan really cast out at that very moment? Well yes, he was. Because when you take in the world and the situation that was in the world at that time, all we have to look at is Israel, the three main nations at that time in the world, Israel, Greece and Rome.
[30:51] Israel was twisting God's world around to suit themselves. They had made an idol out of the law. Greece and Rome were steeped in idolatry.
[31:05] And if you could go out and if you went to the other nations that inhabited the world at that particular time, we would find every nation steeped in idolatry.
[31:17] The world was a place of darkness ruled by the Prince of this world, Satan. But through Christ's death the gospel would now be preached and the gospel would have a tremendous impact upon the world.
[31:40] It would have an impact upon the world that nobody could ever have deceived. But what we find in the West, where we are today in the West, is that we are returning. We are returning to that paganism and that idolatry that the gospel had completely abolished.
[32:12] And we see the gospel prospering in other parts of the world. We see the gospel prospering in other parts of the world. We are almost returning. We are almost embracing the darkness that the gospel had delivered us from in the West today.
[32:34] And we are giving place once again to the Prince of this world, to have dominion. To have dominion. What Jesus said was true.
[32:47] The Prince of this world, through the preaching of the gospel, would be cast out. And Jesus fulfills the command that was given to Adam to fill the earth. Paul uses the term Fully on the term dominion to describe Jesus Christ's present sovereignty. We find that in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 10, he who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.
[33:29] Jesus does not simply come to rescue sinners from the slavery of sin, but he has also come to accomplish for us the purpose of our humanity, to accomplish for us the calling of our humanity.
[33:51] This is the perfect and final rule of man or of humanity over the universe. Just listen to what the writer to the Hebrew says in chapter 2 and verses 8 to 9.
[34:07] Now he's putting everything in subjection to him. And putting everything in subjection to him, and that is talking about humanity. He left nothing outside of his control. At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to man and woman.
[34:29] But we see him. But we see him. Before a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and with honor.
[34:44] Because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. He might taste death for everyone.
[34:56] We'll see it to 9 in chapter 2 of Hebrews. We see Jesus accomplishing for us the calling of our humanity. Human nature sitting at the right hand of God on God's throne. And then we come further on in chapter 2 in Hebrews and we find Jesus saying, here am I, and the children whom God has given to me. Here am I, verse 13 in chapter 2 of Hebrews.
[35:34] He's speaking there as the second Adam. Here am I, and the children God has given to me. A great multitude that no man can number out of every tribe and people are gathered together by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is the power of God unto salvation.
[36:03] And they are being gathered in at this very present moment. And we hope in our own midst as well. A great multitude that cannot be numbered are gathered from every tribe and people through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is the power of God unto salvation.
[36:24] And he who fills all things with his power will gather to himself the fullness of Israel and the fullness of the Gentiles or the fullness of the nations in the day of his glory.
[36:43] In the day of his glory as chapter 7 and verse 9 in where the nations reveal to us, reveals to us. And what this reveals to me and you is that Jesus's fulfillment of Adam's calling means that our service to the Lord is not in vain.
[37:12] It's not in vain. Whose victory, God's victory in Christ is my hope and your hope if you are the Lord's today.
[37:32] Christ's accomplishing of all that Adam was meant to do and fail to do means that my service and your service in God or to God is not in vain.
[37:53] So where do you stand on this evening? Are you an enemy of God and a friend of Satan?
[38:08] Or has God reversed that situation in your experience and has made you a friend of God and an enemy of Satan?
[38:21] May it bless to us these few thoughts of his word. Let us pray. O Lord that we would be thankful before you for the wonder of your grace and mesh towards sinners.
[38:37] That you would ever reach out even to your first parents in the way that you did and Lord that we would be thankful for the promise that was given even in that moment when our first parents fell into sin is still relevant to this very day and may we each one of us gathered here and be found truly in fellowship with yourself.
[39:10] If not today then in the weeks and the months that are ahead of us that we would seek God diligently knowing that he is a rewarder of all who diligently seek him. Forgive us for our many sins accept of us graciously in Christ that the glory would be thine in him forever more in him.