the third chapter and we'll continue
our study on what happened in Eden's garden and if you're kind
of keeping up with these messages this would be the third one and
a brief series in the third chapter of Genesis, and God willing,
I'll have the fourth and the last one next Wednesday, and
then we'll move forward. I've just spent a good bit of
time in this third chapter because it is such a key portion of Scripture,
one that is worthy to be understood because all of the basic doctrines
of God's Word are to be found in Genesis chapter 3. And so
therefore we're spending a little extra time here. Let's ask God's blessing upon
the service. Lord, it is very good of You
to have us meet together tonight. Once again, to be under the sound
of the word of God, the gospel of your grace, and to be reminded
that you only do wondrous things, marvelous things, wonderful things. And indeed, among your great
and marvelous works, Lord, we especially think of and bless
you for the work of grace, that work of salvation, the work which
you ordained before you ever made this world. In fact, you
made the world in order to bring to pass your great and glorious
work of redemption and the reconciliation of your people through the death
of your only begotten Son. Lord, enable us to see the hand
of God in all that happens. May we understand there are no
such thing as accidents, There is no such thing as fate. There is no such thing as luck. There is God. Our God governing
all things. Our God ruling, guiding, directing. in the big events and the insignificant
things that happen every day. Lord, make us to know and rejoice
in the fact that you're directing everything to the end that you
have ordained. And all things in your creation,
all things have a purpose. And as we shall see this evening,
even the entrance of wickedness into the garden, even the deceitfulness of the
old serpent, these things also are under the
sovereign authority of our Lord. You have brought these things
to pass in order that from this point, some 4,000 years later,
that one whom we know to be the seed of the woman would enter
into this world. And in that body that you prepared
for your son, as a man, that He would take on the enemy of
our souls. And there at the cross of Calvary,
there would be the ultimate defeat of the old serpent. And our Lord
Jesus was the victor. And we thank You that we're triumphant
in Him. that in His death we died, and
in His resurrection we were raised, and in His ascension we ascended
with Him back to glory. We bless the name of our Savior.
May we see Him on every page of Holy Scripture. And we ask
that our hearts would be ravaged by his grace and his love. Give to each of us the peace
that passes understanding that all is well with you because
of the work, the wondrous work that only the God-man could do.
the work of bringing us back to God. We ask for the sick ones
of our congregation that you would administer encouragement
to them as needed. Lord, we remember the family
of Brother Jim Smallwood. We ask for Karen and Annie and
the rest of the family that you would Lord, be a strong consolation
to them. And for those in the family who
know our God through Christ Jesus, may they find peace and a measure
of joy, even in the midst of grief, that our brother Jim is
with the Lord Jesus Christ. which, as the apostle said, is
far better. Lord, prepare us for the day
when we shall also make our exodus from this world. Oh, to be found
in the Savior, robed in the garments of your salvation, ready to meet
God because of the glorious Savior. Now direct our thoughts to your
word. And may that which is spoken
this evening, may it resonate in the hearts of all of your
people. May it find a welcome lodging. And as we leave in a bit, we
ask that we would be enabled to go away rejoicing in the goodness
and the grace and the salvation of our Lord through the dear
Savior, Christ Jesus. In his name, I ask these things. Amen. Well, we're studying what
happened in Eden Garden. And as I think back on Genesis,
the first chapter, We see there the making of a world. I've mentioned to you that the
Lord only speaks of making the heaven and the earth, creating
the heaven and the earth, because the heaven is where God dwells
and the earth is where we're going to dwell. and one day will
go to dwell with the Lord in heaven. So he only mentions heaven
where he purposed salvation, and he mentions the earth, and
that's where he's going to work out salvation, as he's even doing
now in the hearts and the minds and in the lives of his people.
So in chapter 1, we see a perfect creation as it comes together. And then at the very end of chapter
one, God looked at everything that he had made and God said,
it's very good. Do you understand what all things
had to be before a holy God could accurately, and everything he
says is accurate, of course, before God could say, it's very
good. That meant everything was perfect. And then we'll get to the second,
chapter of the book of Genesis, and Genesis means the book of
beginnings, and here in the second chapter we see a perfect world. We see a perfect environment.
God goes into some detail as to how he made the man out of
the dust of the ground. Then he breathed in his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul. And then, of course,
toward the end of the second chapter, we find the making of
a woman. Adam's wife. And so what we have
in the second chapter would be the perfect conditions in which
our parents lived. It was a blessed paradise. And
in that it's a picture of the paradise of God to which we're
going. But it's going to be a better
paradise than even this one. And this was a blessed place
to dwell in. Because there was the man, no
sin. There was a woman, no sin. And they walked with God. Imagine that. And he had to be
the son of God, taking on a form before his incarnation, of course,
but so that they could see him. The invisible God dwelt with
a man and a woman in perfect Unity and in harmony. Oh, how
blessed was that? There was nothing in all of the
earth that dissatisfied God. Nothing at all. Perfect weather
for Adam and Eve, a perfect environment, perfect conditions. Back then,
creation, it didn't groan. You read in Romans chapter 8
how creation now groans, waiting for the redemption. It groans
because of man's own sinfulness. And because of the results of
sin, the effects of which are seen in nature and throughout
the earth. And so creation groans. The man
was made in the image of God. after the likeness of the body
that our Lord had prepared for his son, had ordained to be prepared
for his son, who would come into the world some 4,000 years after
this. All of God's earthly creation
was in perfect, perfect harmony. That was the dwelling place of
our parents. man and the woman being the head
of all creation. God gave them dominion over everything. And I could go on and on about
the beauties of the Garden of Eden. Think of a world of no sickness, no heartbreaking death, No sorrow. No digging of graves. No severing of the relationships
of families. And no interruption of fellowship
with God. What would it be like to walk
and speak with God without any sin, without any imperfection. What would that be like? Well,
we'll find out one day, won't we? And it'll be a better paradise
than this one because, you see, this one, though it was absolutely
glorious, Things are gonna quickly change, as we know in chapter
three. But when we get to that paradise
which is above, that will always be paradise. Nothing will ever enter in, Revelation
21 says, 21, 27 says, nothing will ever enter in that defileth. You see, here's what happened
in this garden in chapter three. There was a being who entered
into the garden and he defiled it. He defiled it. Something very devastating happens
in the third chapter. A terrible, terrible change comes
over This garden, and actually throughout creation, this paradise of life becomes
the seat of death. It becomes the seat of evil and
sorrow. And from being the location of
God's dwelling, It is now occupied by rulers of the darkness of
this world. And it's interesting, from Genesis
chapter three all the way through Revelation chapter 20, we read of the sad, sad story
of sinfulness and evil. My, what a change has been wrought
upon this earth, from paradise enjoyed to paradise lost. Yesterday, it was a paradise.
Today, it's a wilderness. Yesterday, nothing but life. Today, everything is dying. Death stalks the earth. Yesterday,
it was the neighbor of heaven. And the Lord came down and visited
with Adam and visited with Eve. Today, it's like the suburb of
hell, full of wickedness and evil. Yesterday, it was heaven
on earth. Today, it's a vile, despicable
habitation of the enemies of God. and a host of demons have
belched out of hell. The third chapter records the
manner by which this awful, awful change came about. The different
steps that led to it. Here we have an accurate account
of what happened. This is God's account. The evolutionists,
they say man started way down here as some kind of little scum
or something. And he's making his way up to
perfection to be a God Himself. No, that's not the way it is. God made man upright. And God walked with man, God
talked with man, God fellowshiped with man, God communed with man,
and man worshiped and honored and praised and blessed the name
of God with a perfect heart. But now man thinks nothing of
blaspheming his Creator. This is God's account. of the
origin of evil on this earth. Now I emphasize on this earth
because it is perfectly obvious from the very first verse of
the third chapter that evil was already in existence, though
it wasn't in existence on this earth, but it was already in
existence. God already had an enemy. In
fact, he already had many enemies. Lucifer is the main one, but
then one third of a host of angels, they fell with him by voluntary
transgression. and the God of heaven and earth
who fellowshiped with a man and a woman, he had enemies that
were, it was a multitude of enemies. And then the head of all of his
opposition dares to enter into the garden, into that perfect
paradise of God with this intent, I will ruin that which God has
done. I will bring an end to God's
purpose. God thinks he's going to be worshipped
and going to be adored. I will fix this situation because
I will bring about evil on this earth. You'll remember that it's written
in the book of Job that the morning stars sang together and all of
the sons of God shouted for joy at creation. That would be Lucifer
and all of the angels. All of the angels rejoiced in
the creation of God. But one of them fell. And then
a bunch of others fell with him. Because Lucifer, he desired that
position that God had ordained for his son. And that which was found in his
heart deep within him was pride. And he envied the position that
God had ordained for the Son of God. He wanted to be greater
than the Son of God. Just like the temptation that
he laid before Eve. God doth know that if you eat
of this forbidden fruit, you shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil. You will have dominion. You won't
have to answer to anybody. This was the evil that he had
committed. And then he found out that God
wouldn't tolerate that kind of behavior. And God kicked him
out of heaven. and along with him one-third
of the angels, and he casts them out into outer darkness. And
they dragged their chains in the darkness through all of these
years for six thousand years. The demons of hell, which rose
up against God, have been dragging their chains of bondage, in bondage
to God, doing as they think their pleasure. But here's what I want
you to see, that though the serpent entered into the garden through,
though Satan entered into the garden through the old serpent,
his presence in the garden was not an accident. He's there on purpose. Because God had ordained that
through this fall of a representative man, and therefore the fall of
all the human race, God would use this, God would turn things
around. And the devices of Satan, rather
than humiliating God, and bringing his purpose to ruin. Instead of that, what Satan did
worked to magnify the grace of God and the mercy of God and
bring to pass that which Satan absolutely despises, the salvation
of sinners through the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The devices of the evil one. God just reverses them. This
is not at all what Satan wanted. But to his utter amazement, all
of his efforts to ruin and frustrate the purpose of God in redemption,
all of these efforts failed. And what we need to understand
and realize and rejoice in is that God used even this serpent,
the old devil, he used him to accomplish his purpose even as
he uses everything. In other words, Satan was one
of the servants of God. Though an unwilling servant,
And though an unknowing servant, God used him. He used him. He used him to introduce evil and wickedness and sin into
this world. And then God would raise up the
seed of the woman who would crush the head of the old serpent and
save his people from their sins. Satan hated God. He hated the
Son of God. He hated the Spirit of God. And
he hated the man and the woman that God had made. And he set
himself to ruin everything that God had created. His goal is
to spoil God's magnificent creation. to destroy the man, to destroy
the woman, and put a stop to the very purpose
of God. Here's what he didn't know. You
can't stop the purpose of God. There is no frustrating the purpose
of God. Maybe your God can be frustrated. Maybe your God can become anxious. Maybe your God leans over the
banister of heaven saying, Oh my goodness, what has gone wrong
down there? But that's not the God of the
Bible. The God of the Bible rules over all. He even rules all the
powers of darkness, even the fiend of hell itself, and uses
Him as His unwilling servant to accomplish His purpose. You say you want God to use you,
I guarantee you He will, because He uses everybody. Now, what kind of a God is that?
Here's the kind of God He is. He says, for this purpose I raised
up Pharaoh to bring my people to a terrible
condition, to where they would cry out to me, and in their agony
I would hear them. I raised up Pharaoh to make my
power known, God says. And then when I finished with
him, I drowned him in the Red Sea and I sent him to hell. That's the God of the Bible. And he's using the serpent here.
Now in the Bible, the serpent, the old devil, He has many names,
as you know, and I'm not going to go back over all of this because
we've kind of gone through the fall itself, but Satan has many
names and one means he's a subtle and very wise and very crafty
creature. You'll notice how chapter three,
verse one begins, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made." Now, Eve was familiar
with the beasts of the field that God had made. Her husband,
I'm sure, told her how that God brought every animal before him,
and Adam gave names to every last one of them, and that would
include the serpent. And I'm sure that as they were
walking in the garden and of course the serpents, they were
harmless to men as were the lions and the tigers and everything
else. I'm sure Adam told Eve, now you
see that serpent right there? That is one wise creature right
there. And our Lord even alluded to
that when he told his preachers, his disciples, be ye as wise
as, what'd he say? Serpents, but harmless as doves. I'll tell you something that
kind of fascinated me, and I was thinking about this today, and
I'll give you something to think about. I'll just introduce it
to you. Satan chose to speak to Eve through
the wisest of animals. On the other hand, when God would
speak to Balaam, He spoke through one of the most stupidest animals,
an ass. Isn't that interesting? Satan
uses a very wise animal and God uses a stupid animal. We say
as dumb as a donkey, dumb as a jackass. And that's the animal
that God used to speak to Balaam. Ah, the serpent. The serpent. He's called Lucifer,
that means the shining one, the shining star. He's called Belial,
Belial, worthless or wicked. He's called the father of lies.
He's called the murderer. He murdered Eve. Essentially,
he murdered Adam. and he murdered all of our race.
He's Satan, the adversary, the accuser of the brethren, the
opposer of God, and the opposer of the people of God. He's called
the dragon. The dragon, he's a beast of ferocious
power. He breathes out the fires of
persecution upon the people of God. He's called the devil. He's
a liar. He twists the word of God. He's
called Beelzebub. He's the Lord of the house of
evil spirits. He's said to be the God of this
world. He's said to be in Revelation a bad and destructive, the minister
of death and destruction. He's called Apollyon, the power
of darkness. He's the destroyer. He's said
to be seven heads and seven horns upon which sits the heartless
church. Who do you think holds up the
harlot church? All of false religion. Satan. She sets upon the seven heads
and the ten horns of Satan. He's called the roaring lion. But not to worry, you who are
the people of God, I know he's a roaring lion. And the scripture
says he goes about seeking whom he may devour. But if you've
read Brother Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, you read Pilgrim's
Progress? I hope you have. As Pilgrim is
making his way toward the Celestial City, and he meets all of this
opposition all along the way, but still he must press on, and
he hears ahead of him the roaring of a lion. It scares him. But he knows that's the only
road, there's only one road to the promised land, to the celestial
city, only one road to heaven. And so Christian presses on,
and the roaring gets louder, and louder, and louder, and he's
shaking with fear. And then he sees the old lion. And then he looks. He's got a chain around his neck. He can only come so far. And
then he notices as the lion stretches out his paws, he has no claws. Then the lion roars again and
Christian looks and behold, then he says, he has no teeth either. Because our Lord Jesus, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, He has defeated the Lion who goes about
seeking whom He may devour. I'm telling you, He can roar
against you, and He will. But He can't hurt you. He can't
hurt you. He has no claws. He has no teeth. There's a chain around his neck,
and if you follow that chain, it goes all the way up to the
omnipotent hand of the Son of God who laid hold of him. And he holds him and just uses
him like a junkyard dog. That's what he does with Satan.
Well, Here in the third chapter, the
old devil is introduced to us. He seduces Eve and she falls. By the way, don't ever underestimate
the power of the devil. I know people love to study about
demons and witchcraft. In fact, in our local paper,
A couple of weeks ago, there was an article about somebody
locally opening up a witchcraft store, and you stay away from
that kind of stuff. You say, well, most of it's phony,
and they're just trying to make money. That's true, but it's
still associated with this awful lion from the pit of hell. Stay away from that. Stay away
from witchcraft. Stay away from psychics. Stay
away from fortune tellers. Because it's all under the umbrella
of that which is dark and evil and satanic. Word to the wise. Because listen, you don't want
to deal with the devil. Ever see any of these kooky preachers
on television? And it's a bunch of them. But
they'll, you know, they'll be preaching or whatever and they'll,
okay, old devil, get out of here. I'll give it to you right now.
They'll talk like that. He's already got them. Oh yeah,
he's already got them. Even Michael, who's the archangel,
who is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the messenger of
the covenant, he says in the book of Jude, when he and Satan
argued over the body of Moses, he said, the Lord rebuke you.
Even the son of God in his position as that representative of his
race, of his chosen race, that one who is our savior, even he
referred Satan to God. You don't want to deal with Him.
You're no match. I know you're born again of the
Spirit of God. You have the Spirit of life in
you. You have the grace of God in you. You're no match. There's only
one who is far more than a match for Him, and that's our God.
And I want you to understand, While we're no match for the
devil, he's no match for God. I mean, the Lord controls him
and whips him, if I may say it this way, without breaking out
of sweat. The Lord governs him and He uses
him like He uses everything to accomplish His purpose. We've looked last week or week
before last of Adam's fall, and of course in his fall we all
fell. I noticed that Adam did not deny his sin, but he didn't
confess it either. And though he admitted his sin,
he didn't seek mercy. And though he admitted his sin,
he deflected the blame. The woman thou gavest me, the
woman, you gave me. Ultimately, God, it's your fault.
If you hadn't given her to me, I wouldn't have done this. He's
guilty of blasphemy, blaming God. And then Eve, she blamed
the serpent. I know this, as long as we think
lightly of sin and try to shift the blame to someone or something
else, there won't be any mercy and there won't be any forgiveness.
Be like David. He said in Psalm 51, against
thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Wash me throughly. From mine
iniquity, Lord, cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. As we have read through these
first several verses, we know that the Lord questioned Adam,
and he questioned Eve, and he approached them in mercy. I love
verse eight, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, not in the heat of the day as
though in anger, and not at night either. He didn't approach them
at night. Oh, how fearful that would be.
They'd be more afraid than they were in the light. But in the
cool of the day, And he said, where art thou? And I don't think that the Lord
said it with a booming voice that shook all of creation that
would have scared them to death. But this is a Father who speaks
in mercy. Where are you now? Look what
you've done. Look what you've done. learned this, that it wasn't
Adam and Eve seeking the Lord, it's the Lord seeking Adam and
Eve. You see, the Son of Man has come
to seek and to save that which was lost. And I noticed this, and just
by way of interest, as I read this over and over again, trying
to get it in my mind and in my heart, I notice God asks questions
of Adam. He asks questions of Eve. But
He doesn't question the serpent at all. There's no question for
the serpent. Now, the serpent puts a question
to Eve in verse 1. God puts questions to Adam and
Eve in verses 9 through 13. Well, these He cares about. These
He loves with an everlasting love. These were two sinners
in whose stead the Savior would come, the seed of the woman,
as we shall shortly read, and bear their sins in His own body
on the tree." Good news for sinners. The Father has good news. The
Lord has good news for these too. But there's no good news
for this hellish devil. Later, God will kill animals
for Adam and Eve. But there's no sacrifice for
the old serpent. There's no mercy for him. There's
no forgiveness for him or for the one third of the angels that
fell with him. Why didn't all of the angels
fall? I can tell you that because many of the angels are called
elect angels. They're elected by God and God
kept them. God kept them. Look at verses 14 and 15 now.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent. Now, we're very familiar
with verse 15. And of course, I'm going to get
to that in just a couple of minutes. But these words really weren't
spoken to Adam and Eve. You'll notice in verse 14, the
Lord God said unto the serpent. Now, I don't have any doubt but
what? Adam and Eve heard what God said. They heard the words of God.
But the words were spoken directly to that serpent that had slithered
into the garden. The Lord God said unto the serpent,
because thou hast done this, you're cursed. Above all cattle,
above every beast of the field, upon your belly thou shalt go,
and thus 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." My, what a glorious, glorious
promise from God. God says, and I will. Don't you
love the I wills of God? You just go through that, that
would make a practically a lifelong study of the I wills of God,
what God says I will do. And he says, I will put enmity,
hostility between thee and the woman. I'll do it. Here's a divine determination. And he says, I will put enmity. The word put means appoint, fix,
and set. God has fixed things. He has
set things in this way that he's going to put enmity, hostility,
and hatred between two groups of people. He fixed it that way. He settled it that way before
he ever made this world. Because there are just two groups
of people. And these two groups of people
are diametrically opposed to one another. There's the righteous
and the wicked. The righteous were chosen unto
salvation in Christ Jesus, gifted to Him by the Father, and joined
to Him in everlasting grace. That's one group. And then there's another group,
the rest. The wicked. Another way of expressing
it is the sheep and the goats. May I ask of you, how long have
the sheep been sheep? So ever since they believed,
oh, you got to go back further than that. Ever since the Lord
Jesus died for them, you got to go back further than that.
Well, how far got to go back? You got to go back into eternity
past. That's how long the sheep have
been sheep. And there's the goats. How long
had the goats been goats? Well, ever since they decided
they wasn't gonna believe the gospel, you gotta go back further
than that. Ever since the Lord Jesus did
not die for them, you gotta go back further than that. How far
I gotta go back? You gotta go back before the
world began. When God made a difference, You
can say whatever you want, you can argue all you want, but God
set in motion before this world began this fact. They're the
people of God, the children of God, and the children of the
wicked one. It's the way it's always been. It's the same today. The same
today. Two seeds. And the children of God, we were
never children of the devil. I beg your pardon. We were never
children of the devil. We were lost children, straying
children, but we've always been God's children, predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. But
there's more here than just two groups of people. There's a specific
individual that is mentioned. And he is referred to as the
seed of the woman. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Born of a virgin. The woman's
seed, not seed of Adam. If he'd been born of the seed
of Adam, the seed of a man like all of us, well, he'd have been
a sinner. No, no, no, no. He's the seed
of the woman. And he who is perfect came out
of an imperfect woman. You've heard perhaps of the immaculate
conception. That's popish doctrine that Mary
was without sin. That is absolutely foreign to
the Word of God. She gave birth to one who was
sinless. because the Spirit of God came
upon her in power, and she conceived and bore a son." Watch this. And yet, the seed of the woman,
now watch it, it shall bruise thy head, it shall strike out
against you. Remember, God is talking to Satan. And he says, this seed of the
woman, he's coming after you. He's going on the offensive.
He's going to bruise your head. Bruise means crush or cause to
make a gaping hole. He's going to make a gaping hole
in your head. He's going to kill you. And lo and behold, the one who
is going to do this appears to be just to be a mere man. And he's born of a virgin, a
baby. The least likeliest of ones who
would take on this fiend of hell. A man, a man. And when he battles against Satan,
the angels of God didn't help him. It says they ministered to him,
but they didn't help him. They didn't give him strength.
He went to the battle by himself. And he's up to the task because
he's God and he's man. And he whipped the old serpent.
He gave him a gaping hole in his head. And in the process,
he got a gaping hole in his foot, in his heel. That's his crucifixion. And you see, Satan thought he
would ruin God's purpose. He would kill Jesus of Nazareth. The scripture says in Luke 22
and verses 2 and 3 that Satan entered into Judas. I'll take
care of this seed of the woman. I'll have him die the death of
a felon. It will ruin his name forever. He'll go down as a criminal. Oh, how God works His will. And our Lord Jesus dies, and
Satan says, I'm done with Him. Oh, you just wait. You just wait. Because by that death upon the
cross, he suddenly felt a blow to his head. The head stands
for power. It says in Hebrews chapter two,
he came to destroy him who had the power of death. Our Lord
went after him. The seed of the woman. The seed
of woman. Well, he's just a man. Who is
this man? We know his mother and his father
and his brothers and sisters. You mean he's gonna tangle with
the devil? And it's not gonna be much of
a match either. He's gonna whip him. Because
this one is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's never been into
a contest but what he didn't win it. And he struck out against this
old serpent and he crushed his head. He crushed his power. You see, and I'll give you this
real quick. We know something had to be done
about sin. Give you three things here, just
close it, just hang with me a little bit longer. Number one, we know
something had to be done about sin. God's hatred of sin is real. The scripture says Christ died
for our sins according to the scripture, because God said there
in Genesis chapter two, told Adam, said, in the day ye eat
thereof, you'll surely die. God's gonna get death for sin.
God killed his son. He got death. He got death. Something had to be done about
sin. But secondly, that's not all that happened at the cross
of Calvary. The mere drying up of the river
of sin wouldn't do. God's got to go to the source
of it. Where did it all start? This old serpent. You see, if man is to be saved,
he must not only be saved from sin, but he's got to be saved
from Satan. Our Lord Jesus, He died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. God's justice demanded death.
That's what He gave, death. But something's also got to be
done about the enemy of our souls, Satan. And the amazing thing is, our
God, He chose to encounter Satan, to do battle with Satan in the
apparent weakness of a man. After all, it was a man who got
us in this mess to begin with. Oh, behold a greater man. He
gets us out of it. because he goes right to the
source, boom, crushes his head. And the third thing is this,
the very thing that Satan sought to do resulted in his own demise. God used him as his unwilling
servant And that which appeared to be for a good bit, a triumph
for the old serpent, God made to be a triumph for the Son of
God. It's like Satan, he crafted this,
I've got everything schemed out, this wise, this wise serpent,
I've got it all planned out. And he just backfires on him. It's the exact opposite of the
result that he thought he would get. And I would liken it to this.
I'll give you an illustration just real quick. It's like in
the book of Esther. When Haman, he hated the Jews. And especially a man by the name
of Mordecai. He's the ringleader. Haman says,
I'm gonna get him. In fact, Haman said, build some
gallows over there at my house. I'll make sure he hangs on them.
He's got it all figured out. But Mordecai goes to Queen Esther. And he says, now, who knows but
what God raised you up for this moment in time. And he said,
furthermore, if you don't do what I tell you to do, God will
use somebody else. God's not without means. She
said, what do I need to do? He said, you need to go in and
talk with the king and tell him what's going on. Haman's going
to kill, he's going to kill all the Jews. He's going to kill
me. He's already got the gallows
built to kill me. He'd go in there and talk to
King Ahasuerus, and she did. And you know how the story turns
out. This man Haman, the king found out what he was up to,
and somebody said, you know, he built gallows over at his
house to kill Mordecai. And the king said, have him hang
till he's dead on the gallows he built for Mordecai. That's
how he died. And it's like the Lord Jesus,
and I forget what psalm is, Psalm 8, I think. I closed my Bible. I mean, just, would you open
with me? I think I can find, I think I
remember the reference here. Or maybe I don't. Well, I'll find it and give it
to you next Wednesday. But anyway, the scripture goes
like this. They digged a pit for me. And
then they fell into it themselves. And that's what Satan did. He
dug a pit. I'll ruin God's purpose. And
that pit he dug, he wound up falling in it himself. Because
that's what God does. And every enemy is marked for
doom. And our Lord Jesus, He took care
of our sin. He took care of the serpent.
And He made even the serpent to fulfill that part of His redemptive
will. He entered into the heart of
Judas. He's gonna sell out the Savior. It don't turn out at all like
the serpent thought it would turn out, because he frustrates
the plans of the enemy and brings to pass his own purpose. Well,
I'll quit. Let's bow our heads and be dismissed.
Father, we thank you for our great God and Savior, Christ
Jesus. Oh, how glorious He is. He bore our sins. He died and
put them away. He washed them all away. He redeemed
us. Like Peter said, we're redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. And he crushed the head of the
enemy, your enemy and of our enemy, the old serpent, Satan
himself. And he left a gaping hole in
his head. Oh God, thank you for using even
your enemies to fulfill your purpose and to fulfill your designs
for all of your children. Lord, we rejoice to know that
this is our God who does all things well. May we, your children,
rest easy. knowing that you're directing
all things to the end that you have determined. We ask these
things in the name of our Savior with thanksgiving and praise.
Amen.