I might say by way of introduction
that this is maybe the darkest chapter, part, and place in all
of the Scripture. man who is made in the image
of God, and woman that was taken out of man and made, has sinned
against God and has fallen. And they have been driven out
of the garden, and sentence is being passed upon each one of
them. Satan, the man and the woman. And it might be surprising that
our text today is spoken not to the man directly or to the
woman directly, but unto Satan himself, part of his curse. So look at verse 15 and Genesis
chapter 3. 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." That would
be the commencement of a perpetual warfare. But look at that that
said, "...it shall bruise thy head." That is, the seed of the
woman. Now, the outstanding theme of
the Scripture is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. and redemption
by and through Him. Both testaments, therefore, highly
exalt and lift up the work and the person of Messiah so that
all of the truth of the Scripture revolve around the redemption
of man out of his sin by and through Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. And the gospel is the declaration. It is the good news. We hear
it from this side. He hath conquered death. He hath
defeated the devil. He hath destroyed the works of
the devil. He hath done all of this in behalf
of his elect people, one from God. has come and has put on
flesh and has by the sacrifice of himself put away sin. Hebrews 9 and verse 26. Now, the promise of a Messiah
and of a Deliverer was a strong buoy of the faith of God's people
in and throughout the Old Testament. For example, Abraham rejoiced
to see the day of Christ and he saw it. John chapter 8 and
verse 56. Many trusted that a Redeemer
would come out of Israel. Luke chapter 24 and verse 21. Those who believed, those whom
God had given faith, waited for the consolation of Israel in
Luke chapter 2 and verse 25. They waited for the redemption
of Jerusalem. Luke 2 and verse 38. as Joseph
waited on the Kingdom of God in Luke chapter 23 and verse
51. You'll see it again in Mark chapter
15 and verse 43. And because of all, God did both
promise and foretell that from time to time and age unto age,
the coming of Messiah. These were the things that kept
alive the hope and the expectation of Christ. And they are foundational
in the preparation and the sending forth of Messiah into the world
to be our great Redeemer. God promised a Messiah. He promised a Redeemer and a
Deliverer. one who would defeat Satan and
save his people from their sin. And along the way, he often renewed
that promise and that prophecy unto his people. By that he kept
alive the expectation and the hope in them of one that would
come and deliver Israel, renewing the promise declared in several
ages and to several people along the way, confirming it in different
patriarch unto the people by the prophets of God. In every
age, it would seem, holding forth the one that would come from
God and would redeem His people from their sin. This is the promise
in Genesis 3 and verse 15, which is our text. This is the one
that the prophets spoke of, and we read about it from our Lord
in Luke 24 and 25. But before we leap off into this
ocean that has neither bank nor bottom, that is Christ's redemptive
work and His saving mission in the world, we want to speak of
two things that pertain very closely unto it. Number one,
the need of a Redeemer. Man, after the fall, could never
be saved. The entrance of sin and the fall
and the corruption of human nature and all turning away and going
their own way. Mankind had need of a Redeemer. One, to bear his sin and to save
him. And secondly, the sovereign purpose
of God in this great redemption is not to be forgotten or discounted. His will governed all things
concerning the coming of a Redeemer. All of the work of redemption
was not done after the fall or after the entrance of sin into
the world. It was not done after man fell. It was not after man became a
sinner that God purposed to redeem him. The scheme of redemption
was not an afterthought. It was not some kind of stopgap
last-ditch measure or emergency on the part of God. It was something
that did not catch God unaware, not something that forced Him
to alter His purpose and take a different route now that man
has fallen, not something that caused him to go from plan A
unto plan B. Because, you see, redemption
was purpose and design before the fall, yea, before the creation
and the foundation of the world. Even then, the Holy Three in
the Trinity were entered already into a covenant concerning the
design of redemption of the elect of God. The Father had chosen
a people in Christ, Ephesians 1.4. They had made them accepted
in the Beloved, Ephesians 1.6. He had appointed the Eternal
Son to be mediator of the covenant, surety of the covenant, high
priest, and in connection with Christ's suffering and with Christ's
death. In behalf of the elect, these
were foreordained to everlasting life and happy salvation in heaven. This was the sovereign purpose
of God from the beginning, to form between Himself and the
eternal Son and the blessed Holy Spirit, that Christ the Son would
assume flesh and in that flesh He would suffer, He would die,
He would redeem the elect who had also with the mass of mankind
fallen in Adam. Now someone might say unto us,
are there any scriptures that declare such a thing as this
for us to confirm it? Yes, in Titus chapter 1 and verse
1, Paul, an epistle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith
of God's elect, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot
lie, promised before the world began. There's that wonderful
verse. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, according
to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world. Then there's 1 Peter 1, verses
18 through 20, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb, without spot and without blemish, who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world and is manifest
in these last times. Proverbs 8, verse 23, some apply
that unto Christ. I was set up from ever, lasting
from the beginning. You have Revelation 13 and 8,
17 and 8. It talks about before the foundation
of the world. Now these texts, and of course
there are others, show that redemption was both planned, purposed, and
also decreed before the world, before the creation of man, and
therefore before the fall of man, and was promised before
the world ever began. And even in regard to those saved
in the gospel, or what we might call the New Testament time,
the promise was made and declared many centuries ago and confirmed
when given unto Abraham and by others. Salvation is by promise. 1 Timothy 4, verse 8. having
promised eternal life, which now is, and that which is to
come." 2 Timothy 1 and 1, according to the promise of life which
is in Christ Jesus. Romans 1 and verse 2, the gospel
of God which He promised through His prophets in the Holy Scripture
again and again. But all the redemptive promises
are encompassed in the great promise of God, the promise of
a Savior or Redeemer, in the person and work, the sum and
the substance of the promise. All promises of redemption, salvation,
deliverance from sin, and freedom from punishment are contained
in the promise of a Messiah to come into this world. We consider this promise of the
Savior, the Redeemer, and of our Lord. Here are three premises
that are attached unto that great promise. Number one, that upon
the first entrance of sin into mankind, God promised a Savior
and a Deliverer would arise to destroy man, or rather to destroy
the devil, and the work of sin. Secondly, that at the appointed
time said Savior did appear and finish the work that God had
sent him to do. Premise number three, that Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, the seed of the woman, the offspring of
the Virgin Mary's womb, was indeed the one and only promised Savior. This is Him. This is He of whom
the prophets spoke. Now, this study pertains to the
first in the three premises that we have just mentioned. That
upon the first entrance of sin into the world of mankind, God
promised a Savior and a Deliverer A seed of the woman would arise
on the scene and would conquer sin and would destroy the works
of the devil. And this is contained in our
text in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. The seed of the woman
shall bruise the head of the serpent, and the serpent shall
bruise thy heel. One, a temporary wound, and the
other, a fatal and a permanent one. Now these words were not
spoken directly, as we noted, to Adam and to Eve, but to the
serpent, yet it seems very, very clear there is more involved
than the woman and Satan and his seed and the enmity between
them. Surely the devil made use of
the serpent. Surely the Lord's Christ will
bruise Satan shortly under your feet, Paul said in Romans 16
and 20. And could he have had this passage
of the Scripture in his mind? As others have pointed out, Here
is the very first promise given for the relief of sin. Here is the very first revealing
of the light of the gospel upon the earth. Here is the first
revelation of the covenant of redemption. Here is the first
rising of gospel truth. upon the earth after the fall. Here's a ray of hope amid the
severe judgment passed against the players that were in Eden. For as God passed sinners, He
gave also a hint of remedy, a promise deliverer. There, mixed with
the pronouncement of the various curses imposed upon the three
for their part in the sin, is subjoined the promise of a future
redeemer or a savior. I found this argument of one
of the old-timers in theology to be very convincing, and that
is this. If this were not a promise of
a future Deliverer and a Redeemer, why then did God suspend the
execution of the sentence of death? If God does not hold forth
a promise to provide a Savior, what need was there to let the
guilty pair continue to live and to multiply and to propagate
themselves upon the earth? Now, let's pursue that point
a little bit further. Let's do so by contrasting the
case of man and the fall with that of the angels that sinned
and that fell. Man was created for earth, angels
for heaven. Man fell. They were but two in
number. The angels were many. The human family fell. in a human
head and the angels did not, nor was there any federal head
of them or over them. The human family fell in its
entirety. Every last one, part only, of
the angelic family fell. But I want to make a few points
in pursuing that along the way. Number one, the angels enjoyed,
if we might say so, a better estate or condition than man.
They had a higher habitation. That's what I mean. Secondly,
the employments of the two. Man dressed until the garden. The angels attended the very
throne of God in His very presence, the highest calling of a creature
that one can experience. Man was given the earth and the
angel did abide in heaven. Thirdly, we notice their nearness
to God. The angels enjoyed the immediate
and the full presence of God and that constantly, seeing Him
in all of His glory. Man enjoyed a lesser, perhaps,
manifestation of the presence of God in the earth and in the
garden and from time to time, like in the cool of the day. The angels no doubt had an excellent
intelligency about the many things of God, more able and acquainted
with the direct presence of the glory of God and the perfections
of Him who had created them. Now when they sinned respectively,
the angels were immediately cast down or consigned unto hell. All of those who left their first
estate, Jude verse 6, are, according to 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse
4, cast down to hell and reserved in chains of darkness unto the
judgment of the great day. In other words, there was no
promise of a remedy for the angels that sinned and fell. There was
no Redeemer provided for them. For Hebrews 2 and verse 16 said,
He took not hold of angel to give them help, but He took hold
of the seed of Abraham to give them help. God did not promise
the apostate angel, a Savior, to come and to deliver and to
restore them and to save them. None stood engaged to be a surety
or a redeemer of the angelic family. None assumed their nature
that He might also assume their sin and satisfy in their behalf
before God. There was no one to make reconciliation,
no one to be or to make a propitiation. no one to be their advocate before
God Almighty. But to fallen sinners of the
human family, God holds forth the promise of a Redeemer. That is, to sinners of Adam's
race, a Redeemer would come and work a work of redemption to
show that Satan will not successfully cause the entire race of man
to be swallowed up by the wiles of Satan. That though Satan had
brought man to sin and to lose his first estate in the garden
and make him subject to the judgment of God, yet Jehovah would be
propitious toward fallen man and provide him a redeemer. In fact, there are two acts of
kindness from God unto our guilty parents, Adam and Eve. Number
one, the holding forth unto them of a remedy for their condition. Number two, His clothing them
with animal skins after driving them out of the garden. And yet in both of these there
was a constant reminder that they were sinners in the sight
of God. By the need of a Savior there
was a witness of their sinful condition. By clothing them with
animal skin that they might be humble, that they might be reminded
of their sin. The need for artificial clothes,
is a testimony of the depravity of man, stripped naked of that
primal glory, made to have lost his original righteousness in
which God had bestowed him in the fall, and to emphasize to
Adam and to Eve that he had to wear the skins of animals, artificial
clothing now. But let's go back to our text,
which promises victory to mankind over the devil, by whose wiles
he fell into sin. Now the seed of the woman would
bruise the head of Satan. So let us see if we can find
Christ in this verse of the Scripture. Do we see here Him? Do we see
His incarnation? Do we see here His virgin birth? Do we see here anything about
His suffering and about His victory over Satan? For it would be par
A poor exegesis to limit the statement to people and to snakes
that crawl on the ground in this passage of Scripture. For though
we find this, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. Yet it goes further, and between
thy seed and her seed. Thus, as the Puritan put it,
two things are set forth here in these words of divine Scripture. A. The promise of a Savior to
deliver man from his misery and his enthrallment in sin. And B, a gracious hint of the
means unto that end. A gracious hint. The means to
that end are declared. It is here in verse 15. The seed
of the woman would bruise the head of that old serpent. Now let's see if we can find
the incarnation and even the virgin birth of Christ in this
tale. The word seed appears here twice
and is referred to by the pronoun it. The first reference to the
posterity of the woman, those born out are of the race. But in the latter reference,
if you look very closely, it is meant a single person, one
of her seed, is in view in this play. In other words, one special
offspring of the woman which God would raise up in a special
way to a special task and a special calling. And this is none other
than Messiah, the Christ, the Savior, the Son of God. Look at it closely. It shall
bruise thy head. Or more literally, he. It is
interesting that in the ASV it renders the word he right there
in the text. He shall bruise thy head. So did the Geneva Bible. the
forerunner of the King James. He shall break thine head. So also the New American Standard
Version. And the point that I'm making
is that it is a single one here, and it is a seed of the woman,
which may very well intimate the incarnation and the virgin
birth of our Christ. for reckoning of other progeny
are called the seed of the male or the seed of the father, the
seed of the woman. It is he, refers to him who is
made or born of a woman, Galatians 4 and verse 4. He is called the
seed of the woman for he was supernaturally conceived by the
Holy Spirit of God without a man by a creative act of the Spirit
of God in the womb of the chosen virgin Mary. Now, this doctrine
is more fully developed, more fully revealed later in the Scripture,
especially Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14. A virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel." We learn
in Matthew 1, 22 and 23, it confirms this to be a reference unto Christ. Then there came to be a settled
belief doctrine among the Jews that Messiah would come, a delivering
Savior, which was first promised in Genesis 3 and verse 15, as
soon as man fell, God promised a remedy. Now, does someone ask
then, why is this first promise of a Savior and of a Redeemer
not more clearly stated? Why is it not more fully open
and more fully declared, containing the whole promise of that One
that was to come in great clarity? Why not give all aspects of the
remedy here in this first promise? May I answer with an illustration? When the sun is first rising
in the morning, there is less light. Darkness is gradually
giving away unto daylight. And as the sun rises higher and
higher in the sky, there is more and more light until it is at
the fullness of its brightness, so with, if I may call it, the
dawn of redemption. It shines brighter and brighter
until the day star dawns, the sun of righteousness arises among
men, the revelation is increased more and more until Christ appears
in person and in the flesh to reveal the Father. However, in
the words of Genesis 3 and verse 15, this was not only the first
promise of a Savior from sin, but it was the first revealing,
the first dawning, the first light of gospel truth upon the
earth and on the sinner. Here is the first promise of
the revelation of the covenant of grace and of life and redemption. Here is the first promise and
revelation made as a surety for sinners who might be rescued
from their sin. To quote another, I think it
might be Jonathan Edwards, this was the first dawning of the
light of the gospel on earth. Certainly it was. For only after
sin entered is it necessary or possible to promise a Savior. Christ could only be promised,
could only come in connection with the fall of man into sin
and his rescue, even though he was appointed and ready to come
even before the fall, set up before the foundation of the
world, slain in the mine, and the decree of God before the
world, as in Revelation. Do you ever ask yourself this
question in meditating and contemplating upon the things of God? Why did
not Christ come immediately after the fall? Why did God not send
the Redeemer then and immediately? Why wait until the end of the
world? Hebrews 9.26, or the word is
the age, Why not when Adam fell? Or why not to that generation
in the days just prior under the flood? Or when Israel languished
in their Egyptian bondage? What a time for the heavenly
deliverer. Why not in the days of the Babylonian
captivity when Israel groaned inside in their misery? Well, the answer is, there was
a fullness of time for all things. Galatians 4 and verse 4, when
paganism had become fully developed and in place in the world, when
apostasy from God was widespread and broad, when the Jews had
long been in the school of Christ, when Satan had deceived the whole
world and it all lay in wickedness. when the wicked kingdom existed
here in this world. I found this quote. It's from
another man. Quote, it was the will of God
that his son should make his appearance in the world in the
time of the strongest monarchy, the Roman, which was Satan's
visible kingdom in the world, that by overcoming this he might
obtain the more complete triumph over Satan himself." Again, those
are the words of Jonathan Edward. Though Christ was promised as
soon as man fell, He came not actually for four thousand years. For Christ's promised coming
is the time of the gospel. He is manifest more clearly in
the gospel time than under the prophecy and the old economy. But the Word in Genesis 3 and
verse 15 establishes that he would be a man. a seed of the woman. Not an angel, but a God-man and
a promised seed that God would send into the world. Some think that Eve took Cain
to be this one in Genesis 4. If so, she was mistaken. Now, I'd like to close with one
more thought. on this point that we might trace
out. Not only was the promise of a
Savior the first dawning of the gospel light upon the earth,
But so soon did Christ then begin to engage Himself as a mediator
between God and the elect. Then He entered in His office
of intercessor as an advocate, for sinners began to be saved
and began to call upon the name of the Lord even in this early
period. They began to offer sacrifices
to God in faith, looking to what the sacrifice did typify. Sinners found grace, Genesis
6 and verse 8, like Noah. Now, we know there is no mercy
extended to any sinner apart from the person of Christ as
mediator, surety and intercessor and advocate of the new covenant. We know that none are reconciled
to God apart from His office and His work and His person,
because there is no other name given among men under heaven,
whereby we must be saved. None, none comes to the Father
except by and through Him. Thus, He functioned in the capacity
of a mediator before He became incarnate or died or ascended
to the right hand of God. In fact, we find Him acting an
intercessor while He were upon this earth and even while he
were up on the cross. Now, the Old Testament Scripture
recognized the need of a mediator, as Abraham interceded for his
nephew Lot. You have that in 1 Samuel 2.
And verse 25, they begged Moses to intercede for them in Israel. You go and hear from God in our
behalf. So a mediator was something that
was known also in the Old Testament. So we conclude by saying, as
soon as the fall occurred, God set in motion His purpose to
recover the elect by Jesus Christ. Soon as the fall occurred, God
promised one to come and destroy the work of Satan. And He renewed the promise in
Job, in Abraham, in Isaac, in the Psalms, in the prophet again
and again. God would send a deliverer. One would come from God. who
would save the people. Thank God for this and the promise
of eternal life, which has been fulfilled in the seed of the
woman appearing among the human family, full of grace and of
truth. So the glory is, even as sin
entered, is the work begun, the promise made by God, who cannot
lie, the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent. Give him a fatal and a deadly
wound and a deadly blow. Thank God. Here is the first
promise of a Redeemer to come into the world.