May I please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's turn to the book of Genesis,
the first book in the Bible, and the third chapter, and we'll
read verses 14 and 15. The book of Genesis, chapter
3, and reading verses 14 and 15. And the Lord God said unto
the serpent, Because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the
field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Well, we have a record in God's
Word of those things which occurred at the beginning of time when
the earth was created and Adam and Eve were placed in that garden
which God had made the Garden of Eden, a beautiful place, and
we see how very quickly they were overcome through the subtlety
of the serpent and sin. Well, you may say, well of course
we know that, well we trust we all do know it. But I think it's
good just sometimes to remind ourselves of the details of such
an occasion. It was really the saddest day
in the history of the world, when man, Adam and Eve, sinned,
disobeyed God, and brought that curse into the world. But how wonderful, as we read
in this chapter also, Almighty God in his wonderful love to
mankind gave that glorious prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
would come and save his people from their sins. So this book
is really foundational to our Christian faith. to realise how
sin entered into the world and how there was that wonderful
prophecy of the Saviour coming. And so as we look at these words
in this chapter, we're told about the serpent, who was of course
the devil, and we're told was more subtle than any beast of
the field which the Lord God had made." And it's important
for us to realize how the devil came to Eve and how he tempted
her and we should not think that well of course that occurred
and that was a special occasion and that was for Adam and Eve
what it was but we should not forget the devil hasn't lost
any of his cunning any of his subtlety any of his skill and
he still today comes around and speaks to us and tempts us to
disobey the Word of God. That's just what he did on this
occasion. He got Eve to disobey the Word
of God. And that's what he continually
wants you and me to do today, to disobey the Word of God. And we should recognize that
he's on the prowl, looking for every opportunity to come into
our hearts and turn us away from the great truth of God from the
great promises of God from the directions of God and you see
how subtle he was because what he did in his subtlety was to
cast a doubt upon the Word of God now we should just recognise
that he still does this He wants to cast a doubt upon the Word
of God, the commands of God and the promises of God. The commands
of God, which directs us what to do and what not to do, and
the blessings which God has perhaps spoken to us, which the devil
tries to nullify. and tell us well of course that
didn't emanate from God and that was something that I did well
we should realize that he was a liar he is a liar and he always
will be down to the end of time and I believe it's very true
as we come nearer to the end of time the devil's very active
and very keen to destroy our faith, to destroy our beliefs,
and to turn us away from the things of God. And he does everything
that he can. and we should therefore be very
aware that we have a great adversary the scripture tells us who goes
about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and sometimes
on the other hand as an angel of light indicating to us that
those things which we're told were wrong that we're able to
accept that which is right and we see clearly in this chapter
how he operates and how he speaks very simply very cunningly and
yet you see how very quickly Eve fell and yet you see she
and Adam had been told very clearly in the previous chapter what
they should do what they could do and what they should not do. And so we should realize that
here we have directions from God and given us these words
of the history of those early days in the earth to realize
that the devil hasn't changed and he's still going about to
try and deceive us. So what did the devil say? He came and he said, yea, hath
God said, the first thing was to cast a doubt really on the
word of God. Hath God said. Often perhaps
the devil may come to us in our little lives. We may be relying
on his promise, relying on his words. The devil comes and he
says, Hath God said? Hath God said? And what does
that do? It casts a seed of doubt in our mind. And we think, well,
perhaps God hasn't said. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking
God said. Well, just remember this was
the temptation of Satan in his subtlety. Hath God said? Don't listen to such a temptation. Rely on what God has said. Sometimes you and I need to go
back in our lives and trace out the words that God has said and
see how they occurred. Sometimes they came to us when
we were least expecting them. And you can be sure the devil
would not speak such words. No, he would speak the opposite.
And so sometimes God comes and speaks to us a word of instruction,
a word of direction, a word of comfort. And in a situation that
we never expected, well, don't cast such words away. Realize
that it is God that speaks and God that has done. And the great
blessing is that God's words remain with us. The words of
man fade away. My friends, the blessing is that
when God speaks, those words are riveted into our hearts. And sometimes you can speak to
people who are old and perhaps memory is failing but if they
are true believers often when you speak about the things of
God it will revive their spirits and enable them to remember the
word upon which they did hope the promises of God which are
yea and amen Well, here the devil has come and asked this question
and said, Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree
of the garden? And he said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said? The question was, hath God said
ye shall eat, not eat, of every tree of the garden? The woman
knew what God had said. She said, We may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which
is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. So Eve was very
clear in her mind what God had said. She hadn't forgotten, God
had spoken, and there it was. And then we see The devil countermands
it. And he tells her, you shall not
surely die. Be aware, be very aware of the
devil countermanding the word of God. Don't listen to that
which perhaps you might want to hear. Perhaps God speaks a
word and it doesn't suit your program. It doesn't shoot your
lifestyle. It doesn't shoot your prospects. And you don't really want it
as such. And therefore, be aware you don't
cast it away, but lay hold of it as the Word of God. Because here we have the serpent,
you see, wanting to confound Eve and convince her that that which
God has spoken did not emanate from God. So just recognize that
the devil hasn't changed his technique, hasn't changed his
skill. And we see the tragic consequence
of Eve listening to such ill advice. And she goes on to say,
you shall not surely die, For God doth know that in the day
ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as God's, knowing good and evil. And again you see sometimes
the devil will give us encouragement to walk contrary to God. Contrary
to God. This was just what the devil
was doing to Eve here, encouraging her to walk contrary to God and
giving her a good reason. The logic was, for God does know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And then we see
how Eve, as it were, caved in. She'd said what God had said,
and now she listens to what the devil says. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her, and he did eat." See how easily Eve was
overtaken by the words of the devil. My friends, don't think
therefore that you and I are strong. Never kind of conclude
in your mind and say, well I would never do that. It's a very dangerous
statement to make. Because you and I, unless we're
kept by the power of God, can easily fall into such a snare
and make the same mistakes, different circumstances, different situations. And yet you see that we find
the effect is the same. And what was the effect? The
effect was that Adam and Eve disobeyed God. All my friends,
be aware. The devil is very active today
and he's trying to do that to you and to me. And so we see how easily Eve
took in the instructions given by a serpent because he filled
in the reasons why she should. Don't listen to the devil. And we're told, and the eyes
of them were both open, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons. Well, my friends, as I've said,
the most tragic day, the saddest day really in the history of
the world, when Adam and Eve brought sin into the world through
listening and obeying the advice of the devil. Don't be fooled
by him. His great desire is to overthrow
us, to overturn the Word of God, to pretend to us that it's not
important, that it's a bit irrelevant, And therefore we can please ourselves. We need to obey the Word of God. My friends, keep close to the
Word of God. Obey the Word of God. And God
knew, and God knows in your life and my life. We can never hide
anything from God. And that goes right through to
not only our actions or our words, but our very thoughts. God knows
everything about them. And then God came. And God called
Adam. Very simply, where art thou?
Adam heard. Adam heard, but he was afraid. He was afraid because he disobeyed
God. And you see, he couldn't bring
it back. He couldn't change it. He'd sinned. My friends, that's the same in
our lives today. Be very aware of Satan's temptation. Because when we listen to him,
when we take his advice, when we obey what the devil wants
us to do, you can't undo it. there it is done you can't blot
it out yourself thankfully God can and God does but my friends
beware you and I cannot sin lightly be very careful what you do and
what you say you see God examines our motives very closely we have
to be very careful there we are are we listening to the devil
or are we listening to the command of God well you see Adam and
Eve there they are before God and Adam said I heard thy voice
in the garden and was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself you see he gave himself away prior to sinning there was
no shame in nakedness and now they were together in that garden
of Eden but then when the light shone into their heart to show
them that was wrong they realised they were naked and then God
asked them a question who told thee that thou was naked? God
knows what questions to ask us He knows how to unravel The things
that we may think are not important. I commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat. And again, sometimes God will
remind us. Oh, my friends, it's a very sad
time when God reminds us. of the things that we've done,
which are wrong. God knows, God's very patient
and very gracious, but we're not allowed to sin lightly. We're not allowed to sin and
cast it aside as though it's of no importance. If we are one
of his children, God deals with us in love to our souls. And then you see, the immediate
response is to try and excuse themselves. That's the same with
us today. We may try and excuse ourselves. Adam said, the woman whom thou
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. He didn't take any responsibility
for it himself. He tried to place all the blame
upon Eve. And then the Lord didn't answer
him. The Lord said unto the woman,
what is this that thou hast done? And the woman then tried to pass
the blame. The serpent beguiled me, and
I did eat. You see, our nature tries to
not take any responsibility. We try to pass off these things
and blame someone else. Well, you and I stand before
God. You and I know what the commands
of God are. And so it's very easy, isn't
it, to try and blame other situations, circumstances, other people. My friend, God looks at the heart,
and you and I cannot make excuses to God. Excuses to God don't
stack up. God looks at our heart. And what
a blessing it is when God gives us a tender heart, the desire
to do His will, and not to listen to the devil, so that we may
be given grace to resist the devil. It's not easy. look at
the situation here here was this very attractive fruit it seemed quite a modest thing
to do to just take that fruit and eat it didn't seem too hard
didn't seem too bad didn't seem too wrong see the devil picks
on things often that appear to not have much wrong with them
we think we can justify ourselves but you see God looks at the
heart and he knows our motive and we have to be very careful
as we examine ourselves to examine our motives to see whether our
motive is purely for God's honor and for God's glory and so here
we have this woman saying the serpent beguiled me And I did
eat. Well, the Lord didn't answer
those questions. You see, they knew that they
disobeyed God. And my friends today, you and
I know when we disobey God. There's no point in trying to
make excuses. God looks in our heart. He knows
all about us. and therefore the Lord then addressed
Satan in the form of the serpent and he says, because thou hast
done this oh how sad because thou hast done this thou art
cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days
of thy life. And he tells Satan also, and
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. The wonder of the gospel is,
in this time of Adam and Eve's sin, God spoke to them graciously
of the remedy which would come about in due time. And he tells this situation,
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between Satan
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise thy heel. Now I know it's not
perhaps in very clear English, but here is a great and a wonderful
prophecy with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as we trace
it out and we follow through, we come to the time which we
have just remembered. And that is the birth of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was the seed of the woman. Mary was the privileged person
that God elected to bear the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here
we have this grand and wonderful statement. And this seed shall
bruise thy head. That means really that the seed
of the woman would indeed in time defeat Satan, would squash
the head of Satan. Now, as I've said, this is not
a very clear word, but it is a word which is written here,
and we can imagine, there was a sin. There had to be that sin
taken away. Man has sinned. And that sin
from our father Adam passed upon all mankind. My friends, it's
passed upon you and me. All of us are under the curse. that curse of sin. And unless
that curse is taken away, unless our sins are removed, we shall
never be found in heaven at last. And so we can imagine that from
this day, there were some 4,000 years before this prophecy was
fulfilled. And we can see, as we go through
the Old Testament, many times the people of God were looking
forward to that time when the Messiah, the Saviour, would come. And my friends, what faith was
needed. God gave faith to believe it
would come. And now, my friends, you and
I today, through the great and glorious grace of God, can look
back some 2,000 years to the fulfillment of this great and
wonderful promise that the seed of the woman would bruise Satan's
head, that Satan would be defeated. Oh, what a great and glorious
truth it was. We see, don't we, the amazing
love, the wonderful mercy of God. They sinned. Immediately,
more or less, was the remedy shown to them. What a great,
kind and gracious God we have. And now, we today, and I hope
we can, rejoice in the wonderful Truth that this
has been fulfilled. The seed of the woman went through
many, many generations. You can trace it out, thankfully.
In the Word of God we have a list of how that was fulfilled and
came down to Mary many years afterwards. It wasn't just haphazard. It was planned by Almighty God
in eternity past. this you see is the great God
that you and I have to do with the merciful God that you and
I have to do with the God who loves us we're privileged to
deal with what a mercy it is then to read such a verse as
this and it shall bruise thy head and now shall bruise his
heel that speaks about the sufferings that the Lord Jesus Christ had
to endure. It was put here in these words,
two simple phrases, but yet you see how relevant and how important. And of course they were fulfilled.
And of course the Lord Jesus Christ did suffer. Indeed, he
was bruised. He gave up, He gave His life
in order to redeem His people. To redeem them from all their
sins. And so as we read this account
this morning, as we begin this new year, as we go forth into
this new year, may we be very aware of the subtlety of our
great adversary, the devil. May we always be on the watch,
recognizing that what he intends to do is to destroy us, destroy
our faith, destroy our belief. And the question may often come
into our lives, hath God said, hath God said. Well it's here
for us to be encouraged by and directed by and instructed by
and not therefore turn aside from God's promises, from God's
word to us, but may we lay hold of it and lay it up Bless God
for it and not be turned away. Oh, what a mercy it is to realize
that we have this God who is long-suffering, this God who
is merciful. You know, in the Romans we read,
by one man, One man. Sin entered into the world and
death by sin. One man. What sin it was. And so death passed upon all
men. For all have sinned. Every one of us. I wonder if
you and I realize that because of our sin, death has come upon
us. And we need that glorious and
wonderful deliverance. What a wonderful blessing it
is, you know, in Galatians we read of God's mercy and God's
grace and favor and blessing in the fourth chapter of the
epistle of Paul to the Galatians. And the fourth verse we read
this great and wonderful truth. But when the fullness of the
time was come, that means a fulfilment of God's promises in his time. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Well, that's a great truth, isn't
it? What a wonderful blessing it is if we understand it and
we know it. God sent forth his Son, you see,
in the fullness of time, in God's time, 4,000 years. But it was
God's time, and it came to pass. The fulfillment of that promise,
God gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Oh, what a merciful, kind, and
gracious God we have. And how we should truly thank
God that he has not dealt with us as our sins deserve. What a mercy of God, therefore,
has opened our eyes. How many people today in the
world know nothing of these truths? Their eyes are blinded. But my
friends, although we are sinners indeed, to think that God has
had mercy upon us, to think that God has given us the evidence
of these great truths and enabled us To look out of ourselves. We're sinners. We're lost and
ruined in the fall. To look out of ourselves and
look up to the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it a wonderful verse, isn't
it? The 45th of Isaiah 22. Look unto me. Look unto me. Don't look at yourself, my friends.
It'll only sink you lower. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
for I am God, and there is none else. No, there's only one Saviour
of sinners, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and that One who
was so willing to come into this sinful world and to pay the price
to redeem us from all our sins. Well, it's a great Gospel, isn't
it? And as you and I go forth this
year, may we truly rejoice in the gospel. May we rejoice in
God's love, that love which was upon us in eternity past. It's impossible for us to really
understand that because we are time creatures. We don't understand
eternity and yet to think that eternity past, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit agreed to redeem our souls. We have to say, with a hymn writer,
what was there in me indeed that could merit esteem or give my
creator delight? Nothing at all. It was just because
it seemed good in the sight of Almighty God to redeem our souls
and so this morning I hope you and I can therefore realise the
enormity and the terribleness of sin and have the great and
glorious evidence in our own souls that the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. We don't look around, we don't
point fingers at others and say, well, they're worse than me.
We realise that we need to be saved. We need that blood of
Christ shed abroad in our hearts to cleanse us from all our sins. Well, what a blessing for you
and me today. If the blessed Spirit of God
has revealed these things unto us, and may they stay with us,
may we rejoice in what Christ has done. Rejoice in the love
of God the Father. That great text, for God so loved
the world, he sent his only beloved Son into the world, but whosoever
believeth should not perish but have eternal life. And the love of God the Son,
so willing to come and die on our behalf, shed his precious
blood upon that cross at Calvary. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. and the love of God the Holy
Spirit to reveal these great truths to you and me. It will
be a great blessing and inestimable favour if the Spirit of God then
comes and reveals this great love toward us. And we can then
go on our way rejoicing. Not because what we have done.
about what God has done. And realizing that although we've
sinned, we can't point fingers or say, well of course it was
all because of Adam, just like Adam tried to do and Eve tried
to do. But may we realize there's that word of condemnation came
to David many years ago through Nathan the prophet. when he said,
Thou art the man when the Holy Spirit convicts
us that we're the guilty sinners and we need salvation and what
a blessing it is when through the mercy of God we find that
salvation and can we rejoice greatly because of his grace
and they're so thankful for it rejoice in it and he come and
bless God for it and think of those wonderful words in the
Ephesians in the second chapter where the Apostle says for by
grace are you saved let me give the seventh verse first that
in the ages to come so we are now he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace and in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Well, I hope today you and I
can boast in what Christ has done. in His wonderful love to unworthy sinners and go on
our way rejoicing that through His love, grace and mercy we
have a good hope of eternal life and we realise the fulfilment
of these simple words written in this 15th verse And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Amen. Closing hymn in worship this
morning, hymn 498, the tune Kilmarnock, 8-5-6. Hymn 498, time, what an
empty vapour it is, and days how swift they are, swift as
an Indian arrow flies, or like a shooting star. Verse 4, yet
mighty God, how fleeting