God's Radical Remedy for Mankind's Ruin

[0:00] Well, let's turn together to Genesis chapter 3, my dear friends. Genesis chapter 3, my dear friends.

[0:37] And I want to just make a statement right off the bat before I forget or neglect to do it. I've been thinking about it all week long. In the sermons that I've brought to this point from Genesis chapter 3, I would never want to give you the impression that the bad news of our death from sin does not bring glory to God.

[1:01] I don't want to make it the good news of Jesus and his resurrection and the bad news of the fact that we're in sin and in death. Look, the wrath of God on sin brings glory to God.

[1:14] And we need to remember that. That God is glorified in his wrath against wrongdoing. And so even though it's terrible and bad news for us, God still gets glory in the fact that he must punish sin.

[1:32] All right? We don't want to forget that. Now we move over to the other side of the cross and we see this wonderful righteousness that Jesus ministers to us.

[1:42] The righteousness of his perfect life lived on our behalf and imputed or credited to us by faith, our faith in Christ himself.

[1:53] Now as we think about this topic, God's radical remedy for mankind's ruin, I want you to remember that we refer to Adam and Eve's sinful rebellion and disobedience in the Garden of Eden as the fall.

[2:10] The fall. Their fall from what? From perfect communion or relationship with God and into separation from God and personal spiritual ruin.

[2:26] So that now all of the human race has to deal with the fact that we are born into sin. That is, we are born with a nature that is bent in sin.

[2:39] And we need God to do something about that for us. In four sermons from chapter 3, I've attempted to explain God's account, God's perspective, the truth of how evil totally corrupts human nature.

[2:59] The human nature of all human beings going back to the sins of Adam and Eve. That's what I've tried to do. You with me? We've tried to cover that in the four sermons that I've done so far.

[3:11] We've had to talk about that kind of reality for us. I want to say this to you before I pull this next slide up. Folks, the world does not know how to think about, explain, much less cure human evil.

[3:27] They don't know what to do with it. In our world, the world thinks that we can science our way out of evil. We just need enough technology.

[3:39] We're just not quite there. Give us another millennia of science and we'll get there kind of thing. The world thinks that we can politic our way out of evil.

[3:53] Just vote for the right person and get them in office and we'll be there. That's what they think. They think we can govern our way out of evil through wars, oppression, whether it's communism or capitalism.

[4:10] They put their faith in governing authorities. In all of these different ways, another one would be psychology. Give us a little bit longer and we can psychologize our way out of evil.

[4:24] We can socialize our way out of evil. Don't we see the world doing this? We could even add one like this, which is really mind-boggling to me.

[4:34] We can medicate our way out of evil. But we cannot do it, can we? Now, the Bible explains in Genesis 3 why that's true. So Christians do have a corner on the market when it comes to understanding the problem with humanity.

[4:50] The problem is us. It's within us, not without, not from the outside. It's inside. And only God has the answer for what remedies that inside issue in every single one of us.

[5:06] We have to turn to Jesus Christ. Now, you understand as well as I do how much the world and many people and the quotations now, the church, hate the idea or the preaching on sin.

[5:18] They can't stand it. I think I've told some of you before. Before some of you are new and you've never heard this before. Suzanne and I were doing some missionary work in Scotland years and years and years ago.

[5:30] And while we were at this little bitty church that was dying trying to minister to these precious souls, they told us that the previous, they'd been looking for a pastor for two years all over the UK.

[5:42] They started reaching out to people in the U.S. to come over and be the pastor of that church. The previous pastor had told them that they would not sing songs about the blood of Christ because that's so gross and such a turnoff.

[5:57] And they would never, ever talk about sin in that church because who wants to come to a church and hear about sin? Now, there's a problem with that if you're preaching through the Bible.

[6:08] You're going to come to that S word and what are you going to do? Just leave it blank? You're never going to talk about sin? We have to talk about sin in order to get to the radical remedy that God has made for us in our ruination from sin.

[6:24] Amen. That's what we're doing. We're not trying to be morbid. We're not death mongers. We're trying to get to the reality that we are dead people, spiritually dead people, in need of a great God to make us spiritually alive.

[6:39] And we will never be able to do that within ourselves or for ourselves. We have to turn outside of us for what has produced as a remedy for what has produced death inside of us.

[6:50] That's what this is all about. Now, the purpose then of Genesis chapter 3 is to tell us the truth about the origins and consequences of human evil, to lay the foundation of what the remainder of the Bible, the entire Bible, will tell us about God's promise in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.

[7:15] Friends, embedded in the curse that we're going to look at in just a moment, embedded in that curse, God gives humanity hope by promising us a sin conqueror.

[7:29] A sin conqueror. Now, if you'll join with me, let's pick it up in verse 8, and we'll read down to the end of the chapter. Then they, that is, Adam and Eve, after they had taken the forbidden fruit, they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

[7:50] And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden. Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?

[8:04] And then Adam responded, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. Then God asked him, Who told you you were naked?

[8:15] Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? Now, that's a good question. Who did tell Adam that he was naked? Nobody. His conscience told him, didn't it?

[8:28] That's who told him. His conscience bore witness against him in that moment that he was shamefully guilty before the Lord. And so he knew from his conscience that what he'd done was wrong and sinful against God.

[8:43] The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate. Then Yahweh God said to the woman, What is this you've done?

[8:54] And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. And Yahweh God said then to the serpent, Because you've done this, cursed are you more than any of the cattle, more than every beast of the field.

[9:09] On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

[9:22] He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and conception.

[9:35] In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. Then to Adam, he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it.

[9:51] Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

[10:03] By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

[10:21] Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them. Then Yahweh God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil.

[10:35] And now, lest he send forth his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever. Therefore Yahweh God sent him out of the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.

[10:50] So he drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.

[11:04] Notice that God did not remove the tree or destroy it, did he? And he didn't destroy the garden. He posted a guard over the garden, and drove Adam and Eve out.

[11:15] The outline that I'm following, and as we'll pick up on it today, from the first sermon we dealt with the nature of sin, its constitution in those verses.

[11:27] The consummation of sin, that is how Adam and Eve actually moved then to partake of the forbidden fruit, and consummate the sin act, and that was really bad for us.

[11:40] We dealt with sin's consequences. We didn't talk about all of them, but some from the text, and its ruinous impact on humanity. And then last Sunday we dealt with sin's curses, that is God's divine judgment on criminality.

[11:56] And then finally this morning, we finish out the chapter with sin's conqueror, and that is God's radical remedy for our ruin and sin.

[12:07] Now the first matter at hand concerns the curses that the Lord God levied in verses 13 through 19. Now we dealt with each of these verses except verse 15 from last Sunday.

[12:23] Now I saved that verse out for this morning's message. In verse 15 again, God says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman.

[12:36] Now notice, And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Most of my message this morning is going to be spent in that verse alone.

[12:49] Now what are we dealing with here? Who is God talking to? Well, he's no longer addressing the serpent or the snake. He is speaking directly to Satan.

[13:02] You can see this as he was starting his judgments against the serpent in verse 14. He's comparing an animal with other animals. You're going to crawl on your belly now, and that's going to be a sign of your humiliating defeat in this thing.

[13:20] You thought you had won, but you are going to show the signs of being trampled on. And so for most people today, snakes are loathsome critters. I don't know if I admire herpetologists or if they just freak me out.

[13:35] People who love snakes, I don't get that at all. Mitch Foose sent me a picture of a snake last Sunday after I finished preaching. I don't know why he did that, but he did it because he loves me.

[13:48] I can pick on him because he's not here. And he said, look at this picture and see if you can find the snake. And it was a close-up picture, you know. It was, you know, deep. And I'm looking and I'm looking and I'm saying, all right, I know there's a snake in here.

[14:01] He must be a little bitty joker. And so I did the thing and brought it up and then I saw the middle of the snake and I went back and then I saw it. You couldn't even see its head over, even though it was completely exposed in the leaves.

[14:14] That snake had looked so much like that forest floor, I didn't see it at first. I couldn't even distinguish it. These critters are camouflaged to be deceptive.

[14:28] They want to lure you in and then strike. And that's the whole idea behind what Satan did with Adam and Eve. He deceived Eve and then he struck. Adam, on the other hand, sinned in rebellion cold-heartedly, high-handedly.

[14:43] And so now we see that whenever Scripture compares the human dilemma of our sin nature with anyone, he compares it not with Eve, but with whom? Adam.

[14:55] Adam. And that's what we're dealing with here. I will put enmity between you and the woman. He is speaking now not to the animal.

[15:08] He is now cursing Satan himself. He is speaking directly to the devil who had been possessing the snake. I don't know how that happens. I think that is a weird thing to think about.

[15:20] I tried to spend some time thinking, what is it like for an entity to take possession of another entity and live? That is.

[15:30] But then I thought, well, Jeff, you got the Holy Spirit living in you. So, you know, that's apparently in the spirit world. That's a thing. But it's a miracle thing, isn't it? It's crazy. But that's the truth.

[15:42] So that's now who he's talking to. Notice what he says. And I will put. I will put. God is establishing this reality that he's talking about in verse 15.

[15:57] Well, what reality are we dealing with? All right. Look up here. I will put. That's one word. It's the word sheath in Hebrew. Sheath. Originally, it referred to the growth of weeds, thorns, briars, as if they were put in the field deliberately.

[16:14] So the sense came to mean to cause to be in a certain state or in a certain relation to. It's conceived of as putting or placing the state on something.

[16:28] Now, what does all that mean? Here it is. God is establishing a certain negative state to exist between two parties. You hear me? God is establishing a certain negative state to exist between two parties.

[16:44] I will put. I will place. I will establish. I will create this reality. Just as he has with his curses on the snake, on Eve and on Adam, God is behind these punishments, which serve as, and I want you to catch this carefully now, royal judgments, kingly indictments, official decrees from our sovereign God.

[17:16] So these are legal declarations, if you will, in the way of these curses, these sentences, against these people and against Satan and against this critter, the serpent itself.

[17:31] This is why you and I can speak of these curses as God's sentences being pronounced against criminals, criminals who transgressed his own law.

[17:46] So there's another way that we talk about this. Paul will deal with this in a number of places in the New Testament. We talk about this issue being a forensic issue.

[17:59] Now, whenever you hear the word forensic, what do you think of? Please do not tell me a TV show. What do you think of? Crime. It has to do with criminality, whether you're a forensic pathologist and you're studying the corpse so that you can understand better what happened to this corpse criminally and, you know, give input or whatever, or you're a forensic investigator.

[18:28] You're at this crime scene and you're trying to figure out all the different pieces that offer clues to help you figure it out. That's what we're dealing with here. This is a forensic issue.

[18:39] This is an issue of criminality and judgment on that criminality. Now, that's important for us because God is judging as well the nature of these people now, the change in their nature.

[18:56] And he's pronouncing judgment on Adam, Eve, the serpent, and on Satan. Now, let's look at the verse and ask this question. What is the state of that God is placing here?

[19:09] What is the state God is placing here? And as we see, I will put what? Inmity. I will put enmity.

[19:20] So I'll put this up here for us. Inmity. Now, what is that? Well, the word is avah. It's used three other times in the Old Testament and each time it means hostility or hatred between persons to include murder.

[19:42] And that's in Numbers 35, just one place you can go to. Now, here in our context, it means a state of deep-seated ill will.

[19:52] I'm going to put, I'm going to establish or place a state of deep-seated ill will between these two parties.

[20:06] One party is going to be made an enemy of the other party. So what we have is a state of war. This will be an ongoing, constant state of warfare between these parties.

[20:21] And then we need to take time to spell all of that out and understand what it means for us. So friends, this is a deep-seated hatred that sees this new state of existence as being characterized by animosity and the desire of murder.

[20:39] Killing is now going to characterize humans in this new spiritual sphere. Humans are going to be killing each other. There's also going to be spiritual warfare behind all of that killing and all of that murder.

[20:54] You're going to see just how bad it gets as we move through the next few chapters of Genesis. As we get into chapter 6, it's so bad that God has to do something so dramatic that it changes the face of the planet forever.

[21:09] This is huge to God. God is so, so serious about this. To better understand now the good. Say, Jeff, that just sounds all like bad news.

[21:22] We're just picking up where we left off. You said good news today. All right, listen now. To better understand the good of what God is promising in Genesis 3.15, you need to know that the word for seed in Genesis 3.15 is Zerah.

[21:39] It has two areas of meaning just as it does in English and just as it does in Greek. Seed can be understood collectively or plural as seeds or it can mean a single seed.

[21:58] In Genesis 3.15, it's used both ways. We're seeing it used as a plural to mean seeds collectively and we see it being used as seed.

[22:09] individual. Both ways. That's very important to helping us understand and interpret the verse itself. If you spoke Hebrew or you went and did a study in Hebrew, you would see this grammatically spelled out for you.

[22:24] So this is very, very important to help us understand God's activity. This part of God's curse helps us see the nature and flow of this now spiritual enmity, this spiritual, unseen spiritual conflict as it sweeps across the history of humanity.

[22:48] This is global. This is taking in all of us. This curse is affecting all of us deeply in a spiritual way.

[23:00] And we need to be able to pick up on that. We're talking about how the Lord will check that spiritual enmity and overcome that spiritual enmity for us.

[23:13] Now, did you hear me say that? God is going to check it and he's going to overcome it for us. Boy, we need to circle that one.

[23:24] For us. Now, how so? How so? Well, it's right there in Genesis 3.15. It's so easy to just bump right over the top of it.

[23:36] But we're not going to let that happen. How is God going to check this spiritual enmity that's affecting and sweeping across all of humanity and how is he going to overcome it?

[23:46] Well, God is creating a state of war. Look now. God is creating a state of war and here is how the verse breaks down. First of all, between you and the woman.

[23:59] The curse of warfare begins then with two, begins with two individuals, Satan and Eve as lifelong bitter enemies.

[24:10] It's very interesting that it's Satan and Eve. Adam's not being mentioned in this one right now. This is between Satan and the woman. Very interesting and there's a big reason for that.

[24:24] So this is the first part. The conflict then spreads and it picks up, number two, between your seed and her seed.

[24:37] This bitter hostility is going to be perpetuated through and between Satan's offspring and Eve's offspring. So now we have a plural idea.

[24:49] We start with individuals. Then we move to this plural issue between offspring. Now you may be thinking, Satan has offspring?

[25:00] Yeah, I see a ton of them sitting here that used to be his children. You're looking into the face of someone who used to be Satan's child. We're all born in that way so that he's our master.

[25:15] He's our father. I'll show you that in a minute. Thank God that we can be delivered from that. Amen. Right on cue. Perfect. All right. Now look, here's what happens next.

[25:27] Number three, the verse shifts. He shall bruise you on the head. Now we're back to the individual idea and you shall bruise him on the heel. So the warfare shifts back to refer to two individuals.

[25:41] He is Christ, shall bruise you, Satan, on the head. and you, Satan, shall bruise him, Jesus, on the heel.

[25:52] Now what are we talking about? While this enmity of war begins with Satan and Eve, it quickly progresses to include their offspring and then it climaxes in a life and death spiritual battle between Satan and Jesus.

[26:11] this is a battle we lost and can never, ever repair. All of the sophisticated weaponry that we might invent and try to bring to bear on the issue of our sin nature will never conquer what conquered us.

[26:29] We need a sin conqueror, don't we? And that's the point of Genesis 3.15. God has sent a sin conqueror to do battle on our behalf or for us.

[26:43] In the first battle, Satan got the upper hand, didn't he? He got the upper hand against God's children, Adam and Eve. All right?

[26:54] We'll give him on that one. He got the upper hand. He won that one. In John 8.44, we won't turn there. I'll just tell you because we've been there before. John 8.44, Jesus identified Satan as a, and here's the quote, murderer from the beginning.

[27:12] That's what he said. Satan is a murderer from the beginning. From the beginning is a reference to the garden to Adam and Eve. He murdered Adam and Eve and he murdered humanity as well because we're going to see all die in Adam and Eve.

[27:31] all of us have taken on the nature of Adam and Eve. What killed them has killed us spiritually. We are talking about a spiritual battle that God now is putting into force.

[27:45] It's going to sweep across all of humanity. No one will be immune. There's no shot, no immunity. We all take on a sin nature because of what's happening here.

[27:57] So this is a reference, a murderer from the beginning, a reference to Satan as a murderer of all of us dating all the way back to Adam and Eve.

[28:07] In fact, he told a bunch of Jews that were standing there at the time who fancied themselves as Abraham's offspring, which is another way of saying those who are in the covenant.

[28:19] They fancied themselves that way and he said, you are of your father, the devil. Boy, they didn't like that, did they? You are of your father, the devil.

[28:29] You have a human nature owned by Satan. You are corrupt and full of sin and you belong to him and you'll go be with him if you don't do something about that.

[28:42] What do we do about it? Well, hang on. We're going to get there. You and I are going to see, God willing, if we all have breath for life and stay with this, we're going to see this warfare, murder theme, theme, this motif, we're going to see it in, who's the first person to do murder in the Bible?

[29:05] Cain. We're going to see it with Cain and Abel. It's going to happen right away. That's coming next. Then we're going to see it progress to Lamech in Adam's line and Lamech is actually going to stand up.

[29:19] This is before we get out of chapter four. Lamech's going to stand up and he's going to brag. Right? Cain killed one. I killed two.

[29:31] Ha ha. Top that. And then he goes on for more. He's bragging to his wives about that. This is how bad it gets right away.

[29:44] Then we're going to see this warfare, murder motif going on in godless society before the flood. So bad that God said there is murder in their heart.

[29:55] There is only evil continually. That was a murderous spirit. People are killing each other right and left across the globe. And God says I'm going to take them out.

[30:07] I'm going to take them out. They can't live with each other. They're going to annihilate one another if I let this go. So God sends his judgment. We're also going to see it in God's people being killed by evil people and pagan armies.

[30:24] God's going to use some of these armies as judgment on his own people. And then we're going to see this warfare, murder motif in the many believers who are martyred for their faith.

[30:36] Well, who do you think are the people that are behind martyring God's people? Satan's kids. Satan's kids are fighting against God's kids.

[30:48] kids. And trying to take them out. But Satan has a very specific focus that he's going after. What happened when Jesus, it was reported to Herod that Messiah was born in Bethlehem.

[31:04] What did Herod do? He killed all the babies under two years old in that region so that Ramah was crying out, the people of Ramah, the women and mothers of Ramah, right?

[31:18] He tried to exterminate Messiah. Who do you think was behind that? Why would they want to do that? And what did God do? He led them into Egypt.

[31:30] He kept them safe, right? There has been this warfare going on. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I get so excited about this because I see so clearly in Scripture with you as you'll see what is going on here in the way of satanic attack against God's plan to deliver us that he promised us in 315.

[31:51] Satan wants to overthrow this promise of God. But what we find is that God's promise stands and that nothing can thwart what God says. Oh, we're so blessed by that.

[32:03] And the whole book of Job is the proof of that. Satan said, give me Job. Let me have at him. I'll get him to deny you. The whole book of Job is not about how to suffer well. It's about how God helps his saints persevere in trial and that God is greater than our sin.

[32:22] That's what it's about, friends. Beyond the individual battle between Satan and Eve who were once, and this is crazy, allied together against the truth and character of God, this great warfare now, this great warfare now will extend to a godly line of God's elected and protected people.

[32:47] In other words, what I'm saying to you is there's this godly lineage from which will come this promised one who will crush the head of the serpent. In other words, I promise this one will come, this one who will do this damage and undo this curse.

[33:06] He is coming and he will come from woman. not Adam, from woman. That's what he says. From the seed of woman, he will come.

[33:22] This is what he's saying here. It's like God is giving us this wonderful truth and we begin to see the soul-stirring reality of what God is promising humanity and of all things, through his curse on Satan.

[33:39] He's cursing Satan and in the midst of the curse he gives humanity this wonderful hope, this wonderful beautiful promise. Here's what God is saying. Satan, you used humans to deal a death blow to humanity.

[33:54] That's us. And now I will use a human to rescue them and to deal a death blow to you. From the seed of woman, I will bring my savior to rescue my chosen people.

[34:11] I will save them from your wretched hand. There's his promise. That's what he's telling us. But as with God's people, Satan is going to do this. He's also going to cause much suffering to God's promised deliverer.

[34:25] Much suffering. So much so that no human being has ever suffered like Jesus suffered. Satan is going to bruise him on the heel.

[34:35] that is a statement of suffering. That crushing involves the Lord Jesus as God's suffering servant.

[34:46] That's the whole book of Mark. The gospel of Mark is all about Jesus as God's suffering servant. Willingly going to the cross. Now listen, bearing our sins, suffering on our behalf, dying in our place while paying our penalty for our sins.

[35:11] That's the suffering that Jesus undertook for us. Isaiah 53, would you go there with me? Isaiah 53.

[35:24] Now we have looked at this before, just briefly, and I want to go back to it. Isaiah, 700 odd years before Jesus died on the cross, before Jesus was born and went to the cross, is now prophesying about this reality about Christ.

[35:51] So this whole thing is him prophesying that Jesus will come to bear this suffering for us. If you'll pick it up with me in verse 3, talking about Jesus, Isaiah says, he was despised and forsaken of men.

[36:12] Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised. And we did not esteem him, and that's true, isn't it?

[36:24] At that time, people did not esteem him, they crucified him. Verse 4, Surely our, you should underline our here, if you do that in your Bible, underline all the hours, surely our griefs he himself bore, our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed, crushed for our iniquities, the chastening of our peace fell upon him, and by his wounds we were healed.

[37:05] All of us like sheep have gone astray, that's the problem. Each of us has turned to his own way, that's the problem, but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

[37:19] He was oppressed, he was afflicted, he didn't open his mouth, he kept silent, in other words, he went to this judgment, he went to this suffering willingly and openly, he didn't resist it, he didn't fight it, he told Peter, put your sword back up, this is what I've got to do, this is what God sent me here to do, is to die on the cross for all of you.

[37:41] Pick it up with me in verse 10, Yahweh was pleased to crush him. Who was pleased to crush his own son? God, putting him to grief.

[37:54] If you would place his soul as a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.

[38:05] As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many and he will bear their iniquities.

[38:19] Justification is the forensic answer to sin. We're going to talk about that. If you're going to show up Wednesday night, you're going to hear a lot about justification on Wednesday night.

[38:30] So please come when we deal with this and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide for him a portion with the many. He will divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death.

[38:45] he was numbered with the transgressors. You see that? God treated his own son as a criminal. Yet, he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

[39:00] Jesus went to the cross as a criminal to free criminals from sin. To pay the price that God's judgment demands and God decreed against sin.

[39:11] I will put enmity. there will now be warfare. Jesus had to do something about that for us or we would die as victims in that war.

[39:22] Right? This is what Jesus is doing for us. Isaiah 53 describes this suffering on our behalf. Here is the promise of God to crush his own son in our place.

[39:38] To rescue us from eternal death under the crushing weight of our own sins. Now, what is it that God is promising you and I in Genesis 315 that the New Testament will make clear for us?

[39:58] Well, there are many places in the New Testament where this is made clear for us. My goodness, all through the Old Testament, God is setting up the scene for the New Covenant to come online, as it were, and show us the love of God in Christ.

[40:16] The people in the Old Testament looked forward to God's deliverer. The people of the New Testament now and us are looking back toward God's deliverer, aren't we?

[40:28] We look back toward the cross. That's what we're doing. Let me take you to just a couple of places. We're just going to go to one chapter to start with, and it's in Galatians. Would you go to Galatians with me, brothers and sisters?

[40:45] The question that we're answering is up here on the screen. What is God promising us in Genesis 3 15 that the New Testament will make clear to us? Remember I told you there's this godly lineage that the Lord is preserving.

[41:00] So through the woman, Eve, she's going to have an offspring. And from that offspring, Seth, God is going to preserve a godly line of people who will in faith believe in God and trust God for salvation.

[41:19] And that will be an unbroken line of people coming back to Seth, born of Eve. And God will raise up this one who will be the sin conqueror from that line.

[41:33] Now what does Satan want to do with that godly lineage? He wants to break it. He wants to cut it off and stop it. And so he's making every attempt to do that.

[41:44] And as you read now through the Old Testament and you see the different people who are born out in these lineages that the scripture spells out, look at those names and then go back and read the accounts of their lives and see what kind of trouble they had.

[41:59] See what kind of people God had to pick out and make part of that line so it would continue and you'll be amazed at some of the people he chose.

[42:10] Some of the people who stayed in that line. They didn't have great clean pretty lives like you might think. This is what's going on here.

[42:22] So I take you to Galatians 3 and I ask you to look with me at verses 6 through 8 to start with and notice what this has to do with what we're talking about. Just as now here's the man that we're going to see in chapter 12 of Genesis God formed this wonderful covenant with just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

[42:47] What did he believe God about? He believed God was going to save. He trusted that God is the Savior. That God would provide the substitute.

[43:01] Remember what happened between Abraham and his son Isaac? Remember when he went to sacrifice him and he told his son God will provide. What is it Jehovah Jireh?

[43:13] Is that God will provide? Yes, maybe he's helping me out with this. Alright. He believed God would provide and so he did didn't he? And he spared his son and what was that a picture of?

[43:26] I will provide the sacrifice. You don't have to sacrifice your son Abraham. I'm going to sacrifice mine. I'm going to give my son so your son can live.

[43:42] I didn't have to go to God and sacrifice my firstborn in the name of Molech or whatever other pagan god we see in the Bible that people threw their children into burning fires to appease the gods.

[44:00] My god doesn't desire my kids as a sacrifice. He provided his own. That's what he does. That's the love of God. That's Genesis 315.

[44:12] That's what we're seeing here. So, verse 7, so know that those who are of faith, that is the kind of faith that Abraham had looking to God, those are sons of Abraham.

[44:26] What does that mean? We're in the lineage. We've been brought in. We are part of the seeds. Many will be grafted in.

[44:38] And the scripture, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to whom?

[44:50] Abraham. Did Abraham hear the gospel? Yes. saying, all the nations will be blessed in you. I'm going to preserve that, God said.

[45:01] Now, if you drop down and look at verse 15 with me, or not 15, pick it up in 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to do them.

[45:23] Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous shall live by faith. However, the law is not of faith.

[45:35] Rather, he who does them shall live by them. If we try to live by the law, what do we discover? We can't do it. And so the law becomes a curse for us.

[45:47] The law is a way of reminding us that we are under the curse of death from sin. So no matter how hard we work, we can't do it. Failure to keep the law in just one instance brings God's judgment and condemnation.

[46:04] Who found that out? Adam and Eve. They had one prohibition and they blew it. And that one prohibition being fractured was enough to plunge them into condemnation from God.

[46:23] In other words, folks, when we talk about a curse, it's a divine judgment that brings the sentence of God's condemnation. A curse is a divine judgment bringing God's condemnation on the person who sins.

[46:40] That's what we're looking at here. Go down a little further with me. Verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How so?

[46:50] He became a curse for us. Do you see for us there? Please circle that. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

[47:01] In order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, that is faith and justification, or justification by faith, might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith.

[47:17] faith. We would receive the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith. Who is the object of our faith? Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ.

[47:30] What's interesting here for us, folks, is how God is accomplishing this through his son. How God is taking all of this and moving it forward from Abraham all the way through to where you and I sit here today, saved as part of those who have been grafted in to those wonderful people that Jesus purchased away from sin himself through his sacrifice for us.

[48:03] That's what redeemed is in verse 13. Redeemed is to purchase us away from sin, to pay the price that releases us from the debt, the sin debt.

[48:15] Jesus did that. He purchased us away from sin and he did it by becoming a curse for us. Jesus Christ himself took on the penalty of death that we all deserve and paid it in full.

[48:33] This is what we're seeing in Galatians. What does Paul say that God did for you and Jesus to rescue you from the curse of sin and death? He became a curse for you.

[48:44] Look down at verse 29 and see how he closes this up. And if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's what? Seed, offspring, heirs according to promise.

[49:01] What promise? Well, what do you think? God made a promise and he kept it and he makes it possible for us to be in the line of Abraham and share in the covenant of blessing.

[49:15] I will bless the nations in you, Abraham. Now go back to the garden. I will send one who will crush your head.

[49:28] And this is the one, isn't it? This is the Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the deliverer, the redeemer, the reconciler. This is who we look to.

[49:39] So here's the way that I said it. Here is God's own son giving his life a ransom for many. He becomes a curse for us so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith.

[49:58] So Jesus is reversing the curse that we all come under dating all the way back to the garden. But folks, look, don't stop there.

[50:09] We're not going to stop there. Marvel at the inexhaustible depths of God's love for his children by going to one other place with me.

[50:21] Go to go to where we went several sermons ago and I gave you all the bad news from this chapter. Romans 5. All I did was I put up all of the negative in Adam because I wanted you to wait until we got to today to show you how these sentences complete themselves in Christ.

[50:41] So we have this contrast between Adam and Jesus here in Romans chapter 5. We're going to pick it up in verse 12.

[50:54] Therefore, notice, just as through one man, that's Adam, sin entered into the world and death through sin.

[51:06] And so death did what? It spread to all men because all sin in Adam. In other words, God is counting it like we were standing there with them doing the same sin.

[51:21] That's the nature of sin that we inherit from Adam and Eve. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

[51:32] Now drop down to verse 15. The gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, Adam, the many died, all of us, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

[51:54] Friends, Jesus reversed the curse of death by forgiving us and cleansing us from sin. So by the grace of Jesus, he graced us to share in his own righteousness.

[52:07] There's a transition going on here. There's a trade going on here spiritually. Let's go a little further and you'll see it. Verse 16. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, Adam.

[52:23] Jesus' gift isn't like that. In what way? For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. That's right. But on the other hand, the gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

[52:39] Now I know that might sound kind of weird. Here's what he's saying. It took only one sin to condemn all of mankind. Just one. Now please think about that.

[52:52] Think of the power of sin, friends. It took one sin in the garden between Adam and Eve to condemn humanity forever. But the death of Jesus Christ frees all men from all sins by grace through faith in Christ.

[53:14] This is the comparison that he's making. It took one sin to kill everybody. Jesus traded one death to free everybody who would believe in him by grace through faith.

[53:29] So what's more powerful? The one sin that killed everybody or the one death that frees everybody? Which one's more powerful? Which one's more powerful?

[53:42] The death or the freedom? The death in sin or the freedom of Jesus by dying for us? His dying for us to give us freedom, right? That's what we inherit.

[53:54] That's what is imputed to us by grace through faith. That's what we're receiving from the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let all of this trip you up. Drive right into the nature of the comparison or contrast that he's making in each one of these.

[54:09] Look at verse 17. If by the transgression of the one Adam death reigned through that one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace, that is the undeserved favor of God and the gift of righteousness, that is a sinless perfection, they will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

[54:31] Adam's sin brought death. Jesus' death was his gift of righteousness to us. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid sin's penalty for you and for me.

[54:44] Did he pay it in part or in full? In full. Now we're left in a place where we have our sin atoned for, we have it paid, we have this wonderful status now with God where we're no longer being looked at as criminals before the Lord.

[55:05] But are we holy yet? Have we been made holy? No! So what now has to happen? God has to credit to us the righteous life of his son as if we lived it.

[55:20] Now people who want to race back, this is why this is important, they want to race back over here to the garden and say, well you know what, it's not fair that God holds us responsible for the sin of Adam and Eve as if we were standing in the garden committing that sin with them.

[55:35] That's not fair, I wasn't there. Alright, well then we're going to run right over here to this side and we're going to say, well you know what, you weren't there when Jesus died on the cross and rose again either, so you don't get the goody either.

[55:50] If God can't impute Adam and Eve's sin to you and to humanity then he can't impute his son's righteousness to you to cover it. You can't have it both ways.

[56:03] Which is it? And so what we say is thank God. We may not understand all of that transgression that's going on in the high mind of our God, but we can read it in scripture right here in Romans 5 and see that this contrast is being made.

[56:18] Just as through sin in Adam it came to all men and all men died, then through the one, the gracious gift of God now rescues men and delivers men and sets men righteous before God.

[56:34] That is, as if they had lived a sinless life. God imputes that to us. Talk about reversing the curse. I will give the one, and he will crush your head.

[56:51] This is Jesus crushing the head of death. The power of sin is death. Sin is powerful, no doubt, but what's the great power of sin over us?

[57:04] Death. It's death producing. That's the power. And Jesus is going to die to take that power away. This is an amazing reality and I'm not even through yet.

[57:17] verse 18. So then, as through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men.

[57:29] That is glorious. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be appointed righteous.

[57:43] righteous. There's your imputation. There's your crediting. What's he saying? As through one man's disobedience, all of us were appointed sinners.

[57:55] Now, even so, through Jesus Christ's obedience, all of us will be appointed righteous. That is, as we exercise saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[58:07] And we can only do that by the grace of God. All through this passage, he's telling us this is all by the gift of God's grace. And I'll share with you, I met with someone a couple weeks ago, last week, I think it was last week, not from our church, and this person was asking me with great pain, what do I have to do?

[58:42] Trying to think of how he put it. What do I have to do to deal with this guilt? And to have God in Christ?

[58:53] He actually said that. Save me. I'm miserable. I've been running from God for years. I've lost my marriage.

[59:05] And he went on and on and on and on. And this guy knew the Bible. He'd studied. And I realized after listening to him for a little while that I wasn't going to be able to tell him anything that he hadn't already read in scripture or heard in seminary classes or had other people share with him.

[59:29] How do I know that? Because I listened to him and he told me all of that in the first 30 minutes. I know all of it. But my life's a mess. But why are you here?

[59:42] Because I want to get my life right and I don't want to keep living like this because if I keep living like this I know what's going to happen to me. I know where I'm going to end up. Brother, I don't have anything new to tell you based on everything you've told me.

[59:55] but I will say this to you. The one thing that I haven't heard you doing is going before the Lord and I read him Psalm 32 and we read Psalm 51.

[60:09] The one thing that I have seen and heard now that you are not doing, that you are not at the place of doing is going to God and asking God for everything that you need to be freed.

[60:22] need. You think that you can bring something to God. When all you bring to God is your need, take your need to Jesus and beg God for what you need to have faith in Christ alone.

[60:41] Ask God for everything you need and he won't turn you away. Come with a contrite and a broken heart and ask God for the faith.

[60:51] ask God to shower you with the grace. Ask God to open your eyes to your need. Ask God to break your heart over your sin.

[61:03] You're heartbroken right now because you've made a mess of your life. You're not heartbroken because you've sinned against the Holy God. You need to ask God to break your heart over that. And that's what we all need, isn't it?

[61:17] All of us need to come before the Lord Jesus Christ begging the Lord to give us what we need to believe. Help my unbelief. I don't have anything.

[61:28] I can't even believe on you without you giving me life to do it. I'm so dead. There's nothing in me that reaches out to you.

[61:42] So I'm praying to you. will you make me alive that I will come to you and believe in you and trust you to forgive my sins.

[61:53] I don't want to waste my life and die and end up in a devil's hell. And that's all I knew to tell him. The first Adam failed God and failed humanity, didn't he?

[62:09] Adam failed. John MacArthur said this, the power of sin, which is death, can be broken. But the power of Christ, which is salvation, cannot be broken.

[62:23] That's the difference. We are blessed in that we receive a promise in Genesis 315 that God will break Satan's head. Thank God.

[62:36] But the power of Jesus in salvation cannot be broken. One can be reversed. The other cannot be reversed. You can't lose your salvation.

[62:51] In Genesis 315, God promised his people a second Adam who would be faithful to fulfill God's design for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[63:04] He tells us who it is. We don't have to guess. Now, folks, listen to this carefully. The cross was a death blow for Satan's war machine. No doubt about it. The cross took away the power and penalty of death over us.

[63:20] But the cross is not the final blow God will deliver a against Satan. Say, how do you know that? The last half of verse 15 tells us that the final battle is the deciding factor in the spiritual conflict.

[63:34] Go back to Genesis, if you would, and look at that with me. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

[63:47] We've been talking about that. Now, he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. Look, Satan is still around.

[63:58] At the cross, Jesus was wounded. He was made to suffer. And then he was raised to new life and triumph over sin. Did Jesus really die? Yes. But we understand that that death was not a permanent infliction on Jesus, was it?

[64:15] It wasn't something that killed Christ. And now there's no more Jesus. And so now where's the hope? No. God, as we will celebrate soon, raised him from the dead into new life.

[64:29] Jesus was the first fruit of a person who would be raised from the dead and never die again. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Did Lazarus die again?

[64:40] Yes. Jesus was the first to be raised from the dead, never to die again. And we follow him in that. Now this is what we're talking about here. This final battle is something that still needs to take place because Satan is still at war with God and God's children.

[64:58] Yes? He's still around. God's final death blow against Satan comes in the last days. The last place I'll take you before we finish out is Revelation.

[65:09] We have to see this now because this is the death blow. I'm going to crush his head. As much as the cross dealt a death blow to Satan's power over us in sin, here is where we see God doing his work in the final analysis.

[65:28] It's Revelation 12. We'll be in several chapters in Revelation to close this out. Revelation 12 verse 13.

[65:40] chapter 13. And when the dragon or that word could be translated serpent. And when the dragon or serpent saw that he was thrown down to earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

[65:55] But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place where she was nourished for a time and times and a half time from the presence of the serpent.

[66:11] I just want you to zero in on the fact that we're talking about God's judgment against Satan at this point. Verse 15. And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

[66:29] But the earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon or serpent poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her seed, offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the witness of Jesus.

[66:55] Revelation 20. Revelation chapter 20. Verse 1. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

[67:08] He laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan. There you go. And bound him for a thousand years. And he threw him into the abyss and he shut it and sealed it over him so that he would not deceive the nations any longer.

[67:27] You see, up to this time, he's continuing to deceive the nations, isn't he? Until the thousand years were finished. After these things, he must be released for a short time.

[67:39] So now we're talking about the millennial reign of Jesus. They're going to shut up Satan during the millennial reign. And at the end of the thousand year reign on earth of Christ, they're going to release him.

[67:49] Go a little bit further with me. Look at verse seven, if you would, of chapter 20. And when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war.

[68:11] The number of them is like the sand of the sea source. So these would be the enemies of God. There's so many of them. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

[68:26] Fire came down from heaven and devoured them. God is going to gain the victory over that great army himself. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also.

[68:42] And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And then finally in Revelation 21 beginning in verse one. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

[68:56] The first heaven and the first earth passed away. There is no longer any seed. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

[69:09] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men. He will dwell among them and they shall be his people and God himself will be among them.

[69:20] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things passed away.

[69:32] And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he said, Right, for these words are faithful and true.

[69:43] Then he said to me, They are done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

[69:56] He who overcomes will inherit these things and I will be his God and he will be my son. Amen.

[70:08] Back to Genesis 3. God brings all things to an end before he destroys earth and then makes a new heaven and new earth for us to dwell together with the Lord.

[70:23] So now we're ready to pick it up in verse 20 of Genesis 3. Now the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living. Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and he clothed them.

[70:37] Isn't that wonderful? Then Yahweh God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he send forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.

[70:51] Therefore, Yahweh God sent him out of the garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So God drove the man out and at the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turned every direction to guard the way of the tree of life.

[71:12] Genesis 3, 20 through 24 shows us more of God's love and God's protection. Even in the wake of his punishments, God is doing this.

[71:22] So the Lord God gives humanity hope beyond the sin and death of Adam and Eve. He doesn't leave us in that mire with no hope, imputing their sin to us and saying that's tough.

[71:36] See all later. No. Eve will be the first. That's what this is talking about. Eve will be the first of many more human beings. Even though death came to reign, there will be more life.

[71:52] Adam and Eve didn't drop stone cold dead before the Lord and now there's no more humanity. By God's grace, there will be more and she will be the mother of those people. Adam then, notice this, Adam names his wife.

[72:08] So his loving authority, his loving protection that was so terribly violated in the garden are still God's good design.

[72:19] That's what this means. Adam naming Eve shows his authority is still intact in this relationship, although now it will be a great struggle and conflict between them.

[72:32] It's still there. Eve's submission, her trust and her humble support are also still God's good design for her husband. So now look what God does.

[72:45] He makes them coverings for their shame and guilt at the expense of a living animal. He kills that animal for them and then from that animal he compassionately clothes them.

[72:59] You guys have heard this before. This is all a picture of the way God will deal with us in our sin through Christ and he will clothe us with the righteousness of Jesus so that we will not live in the shame and guilt of our sin.

[73:14] Amen. Then in the wisdom of the Godhead, here's what God does. He banishes Adam and Eve and all of humanity from the garden. The reason is very straightforward and very terrifying to me.

[73:28] Look what the text says, friends. Lest he send forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. forever in sin.

[73:40] That's the issue. In sin. God spared us that scenario. Even as he pledged his own son to fight to the death to radically remedy in us what sin had so ruined.

[73:59] That is an amazing reality. This is the last verse here that I'll give you. Therefore, oh, I was going to show you all that.

[74:09] I forgot to bring that up. I was so into it. This is what I was doing Romans. I wanted to show you all of the emphasis. That's good. It'll preach. I just don't have to say much.

[74:23] I didn't see my wife back there raising her hand and waving at me. Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Grace abounded all the more. Eternal life through Jesus.

[74:38] Here it is. He who indeed did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Boy, we don't deserve that.

[74:49] We do not deserve that. God's grace is greater than all our sins. More to come.

[75:01] Let's pray together. Father, there are many difficult things to understand in these passages that we've looked at.

[75:13] And we just understand that we will never fully grasp the great, great depths of the riches of these truths. Some of it is truly beyond us.

[75:26] Perhaps in heaven, this will all settle more on us when we are with you. But for now, I pray that you will help your people to adhere to your good design, to cling to what is good, to take great comfort and hope that you sent Jesus Christ to pay the price on the cross as our substitute that we deserve.

[75:52] Help us to take to heart the love, the love in this promise from Genesis 3.15, even as you're cursing Satan, you're giving us hope that you're going to send one to crush his head.

[76:09] And so you did that on the cross. You gave us hope in life as we look to the cross where you were tortured and punished to death for us.

[76:19] And then, God, the resurrection, as resurrection Sunday approaches, where we are receiving that resurrection life because of the goodness of your heart toward us.

[76:32] And we look forward to that day when you will take Satan and shut him up in your prison forever. And he will never come out again. The new heaven and the new earth where we will live in righteousness, where there will be no tears and no pain and no grief, no sin.

[76:51] Lord, we thank you for the hope that you put in us as we hope in Jesus. If there's anyone here this morning who is struggling with or doubting their salvation and doesn't have the certainty of that hope, I pray that you would help them see that what they need to do is come to you and ask you for what they need to be freed from sin.

[77:14] It's that straightforward. May you receive all of the honor and glory even as we come to sing now and close out our service and have fellowship together. We fellowship in Jesus' name because we love Him and we pray all of this for your glory.

[77:30] Amen.