Please turn in your Bibles this
morning to the book of Genesis. The first
book. Someone called it the seed plot
of everything we find in the Word of God. Genesis chapter
3. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
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 you touch it,
lest ye die." Let me pause there to say simply that that tree
was simply a reminder to Adam and Eve that God had absolute
sovereignty over them. He said to them, simply because
He would, do not eat of this one tree. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 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. And the eyes of them both
were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed
fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice, of
the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked,
and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me She gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
The serpent beguile me, and I did eat. 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 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. Unto the woman
he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth
children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field. And in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out
of it was thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return." There is so much that could be
said just on these verses alone. So much that could be said about
why it all took place. So much that could be said about
the great effect that it had on all of our race. But this
morning, by the grace of God, I want us to focus in on one
verse, one statement by God. And these words are the words
that He spoke to the serpent. In verse 15, He says, "...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 gospel of God's grace in
Christ is called the everlasting gospel. But the gospel with its glad
tidings and with its good news, as far as time goes, it does
not begin with the patriarchs, it does not begin with the prophets
of old, It does not begin at Pentecost. It does not begin
with the apostles. It does not even begin when the
angels first heralded and announced the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, even as far as time
is concerned, The gospel begins with God Himself. Begins immediately after the
fall in the garden. And the amazing thing is that
as it begins with God and is spoken by God, it begins and
is a part of a curse. There is a curse being pronounced
on the earth. There is a curse being pronounced
against the man, against the woman, and especially against
the devil himself, the serpent. But you see, that's necessary
because In the midst of this curse, we find the gospel which
must deal with the curse. Deals with Christ, who the Bible
says was made a curse for His people. Sin brings a curse, as
we have just read. But the words that are found
here spoken by the Lord God in that 15th verse, for a long time they have been
called mostly by some theologians, but they have mostly been called
by them the Proto-Evangelium. And that simply means the first
gospel. The first gospel. The first proclamation
of the gospel. And what we find is that, as
I said, it always begins with God. It always comes out of God. God Himself, even at this hour
and in the midst of this awful state and situation concerning
man, in the midst of this fallen situation, He is the first to
herald the gospel. He is the first to proclaim good
news to fallen sinners. And you have to notice, if we
have any honesty about us at all, you have to notice how clearly
What we have read shows the error of such things as so-called man's
free will. You see, the will of innocent
man in a garden paradise has just risen up against God and
brought death and condemnation on the whole race, so much for
the glories of man's so-called free will. It was through this
free will that man sinned, and all in Adam, it says, died. By him sin entered into the world. foretold the fall and the spiritual
death of man that took place that day. He said, in the day
that you eat thereof, you'll surely die. The devil said, God
knows that in the day that you eat thereof, that you will not
die. And you see, if we're ever saved
by the grace of God, we're going to have to be brought from believing
Satan's lies to believe in God's truth. You read Romans 5 and
it says that not only did Adam die on that occasion, die spiritually,
but all in Adam died. Who told the truth? It was God
Himself. In the day that you eat of this
tree, you will surely die. But in spite of all this, in
spite of everything that has happened, the words of God do
not come forth as words of wrath, But they come forth as words
of mercy. You see, all that would ever
have had to have happened for all our whole race in Adam to
have perished eternally is for God to have kept quiet. It had
happened as he said that it would. All he had to do was just simply
in his great self-sufficiency, just have remained quiet. And what we find here is not
an act of vengeance, but it's a promise of grace. And they show who it is that
is the initiator in salvation. Here's Adam and Eve. Here's the
head of our whole race. Here's this representative man. All in him and him they've fallen
into utter doom and eternal ruin. But God does not say, As we probably
would say, I told you so. He doesn't say, I told you so. But He is the One who speaks
in the midst of this dire situation. He is the One who promises. And He is the One who blesses. And that is always the case. Because the only ones that are
present here to hear his words were Adam and Eve and the serpent. And the serpent would never repeat
such as this. He could not be found with words
of truth in his mouth. And the woman could not be trusted
because she had just been totally deceived. But here's our father
Adam, and though he is the one by whom sin entered in, he'll
be the one who records the words of God, and be the one by whom
grace is proclaimed. Reading this verse from Another
translation, he says, I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and hers, he will strike your
head, and you will strike his heel. Now there are about three
things that I want as quickly as I can to point out to you
in this text that I believe the Lord would have us to get some
understanding about. And the first one is what the
Lord God says to the serpent concerning what is called here
enmity. He says, there's going to be
some enmity between you and the woman. Now what is that? Well, enmity is hatred and variance. It isn't what we would like to
think of in this world of harmony that we hear so much about. It's
just like when Christ said, I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. There's something that's going
to take place on this earth already has taken place, and he says
this enmity has something to do with the serpent, the devil,
and the woman. He said, I'll put enmity between
you. You see, the woman has already
fallen into a forbidden friendship. She's made herself friendly with
the serpent. But that relationship and that
friendship is all based on deceit and lies. It's not one based
on truth. It's not one based on believing
God, who is the creator of both. But it's one that's based on
lies. And it has to be broken up. It has to be, as we say, totally
broken off. And so God, at this hour, in
the midst of this, He pronounces war. That's what He's talking
about. He's talking about war between
the woman and the serpent. He's talking about war, and yet
at the same time, he's talking about victory. Victory. And he will use this very one. If you notice, he doesn't say
Adam here, he says the woman. He'll use this one that the Scripture
describes as the weaker vessel. This one who has just been deceived,
he will be victorious over the devil using her even as a part
of that victory. Turn over to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 2, and look down
in verse 9, where the apostle Paul, in writing to Timothy,
gives instructions to men and women, young and old. But listen to what he says in
verse 9, "...in like manner also, that women adorn themselves in
modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided
hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh
women professing godliness with good works. Let the woman learn
in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then
Eve, and Adam was not deceived." I don't think there are many
people who understand that. Adam was not deceived. And he entered into what he did
knowing exactly what he was doing, knowing all about this disobedience,
but in that he is a type of Christ who for the love of his bride
enters into this thing, faces death for her behalf, that he
be not separated from her. And Adam was not deceived, but
the woman being deceived was in the transgression, Notwithstanding,
she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and
charity and holiness with sobriety." He's going to use the woman who
was deceived to bring about not only a great victory, over Satan,
but a great salvation to the praise and glory of His name. But the woman here and the enmity
has to do with that people, first of all, through whom Christ would
come. This woman is going to be promised
to bear a child. Now she'll think that the first
one she bears is that one spoken of, but he's just a devil. His name is Cain. But she will
be a part of what God does, and that people that will come out
of her will be a part of that way by which He brings forth
the Lord Jesus Christ. And even in that natural people,
that flow out of her, there's always been this enmity. There is to this day enmity between
Israel and the rest of the world. Why is that? Because they represent
the true Israel. They represent what is called
the Israel of God. The true circumcision. the elect of God, who are the
objects of God's salvation, and they themselves will, every one,
be found in the midst of this conflict, this war that's going
on, and that's what's being described in Revelation 12, this warfare
taking place between Satan, that old serpent it says, between
him and the woman's child, and the woman's people. He said there's
going to be enmity. And like I said, that word enmity
means hatred, and we could translate it any way we want to, we can
talk about things with relationship to salvation in this world in
the mildest manner we want to talk to, but it will not be true. There will be a conflict. Christ said, I've come to divide
mothers and fathers and children, brothers and sisters. In other words, where men and
women are on Christ and Him crucified, that brings about a division,
conflict, enmity. Because in and from this woman
and from her seed is this people who are the people of Christ. It says in Matthew 1, it says,
It begins with the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the
Son of David, the Son of Abraham. There's going to be a people
that are not only in conflict and virtually at war with this
world, but they will also be in conflict with and at war with
the devil himself. And he's not like you think.
He is not portrayed like the world would portray Him. He is as He was on this occasion,
the great deceiver. He uses His lies. He deceives
all He can. And His deception is so clever
that Christ said, if it were possible, He would even deceive
the elect of God. I'm glad it's not possible though.
But he has a people. In Matthew 1 again it says, "...and
Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus,
who is called Christ." It all goes back to this promise. To
this woman. To this people. To this church. And most especially as it pertains
to Christ, it continues on toward the church, the woman who is
the bride of Christ. What does he call those who stand
against her? Especially their head, the accuser
of the brethren. Not the complimenter of the brethren. You just mark it down, God, has
already told us that the devil and his people, they will have
nothing good, really good to say about the true Christ, nor
the true people of Christ. Picture Satan as going about
like a roaring lion. Seeking, it says, whom he may
devour. What does that mean? Devour with
his deceit. Devour with his lies. Devour
with his half-truths. Devour with his one-verse religions
taken out of context. He goes about seeking whom he
may devour. Listen to what he's called. He's
called the adversary. And so God is telling in this
first promise, this first gospel, that there will be a conflict
and a warfare because there's an adversary against the woman. This is what Peter says, "'Be
sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resists
steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are
accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.'" It's
going to be the same with every one of the Lord's true people.
It's not going to be easy. It's going to be conflict. It's
going to be enmity. It's not to say we don't try
to get along with everybody as much as humanly as possible,
but we automatically have a gospel which the Apostle called the
offense of the cross. Because it offends self-righteous
men and women who are trusting in their own goodness and their
own works, depending on what they do rather than what Christ
did, and therefore trying to go about to establish their own
righteousness. Therefore, they hate the righteousness
of God in Christ. There'll be enmity between Satan
and Christ. There'll be enmity between his
devils and his people and Christ. There'll be enmity between His
angels and His people and the people of Christ that was seen
at Christ's birth, it's seen in His earthly ministry, it was
seen in His trial, it is seen in His crucifixion, and it'll
be seen everywhere the gospel is preached and believed. Somebody said, well, why don't
we just all get along? We can if you believe the truth. I can't say, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. I cannot tell you about a God
except the one that I find in this book. I cannot describe
you or myself in any other way than what He describes us in
this book. And I cannot say that there is
any other way to be saved outside of the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ wherein all the grace of God is given.
And when that's said, when that's believed, when some preacher
comes along and makes a statement like I hear almost every day
of my life, and he looks over at me and says, ain't that right
preacher? And I have to say no. That's not really right. That's
not what that verse says. There's going to be enmity. And
then secondly, the next thing he has mentioned up here, he's
talking about the seeds that he speaks of. He said, I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. What is this seed? Well, it's
offspring. And just as we read Satan, who
is described as that old serpent, the devil, evidently he's got
a seed, doesn't he? No, they say, well, we're all
the Lord's people. Evidently not. As a matter of
fact, in John 6, Jesus said, as we have just read on Wednesday
evening, Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil. One of you is a devil. As a matter
of fact, in John chapter 8, looking at some very religious and moral
and learned individuals, Christ says this, He said, you are of
your father, the devil. And what's going to characterize
the offspring? The characteristics of the father.
You are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father will
you do." What did the devil want to do? What did Lucifer, that's
one name he's given by God, what did Lucifer want to do? What
did he say? He said, I'll be as the most
high. You see, that's really at the
root of all rebellion against God. It is to be your own God. The lust of your father you will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and a bowed knot in the truth." It always comes down to this.
It's got something to do with the truth. Christ who is the
truth. Because there is no truth in
him, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he
is a liar and the father of it." What characterizes the devil?
Is it pointed horns and a forked tail and a pitchfork in his hand,
a red suit? No, it's a lie. It's a lie. He's the father of a lie. He's
the father of a gospel which is no gospel. It's a lie. Call it what you want to, but
it's just a lie. Whenever Paul was confronted
by Elimus, the sorcerer, Paul said, O fool of all subtlety
and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways
of the Lord? It's called a sorcerer. Trying to make things that are
not. Trying to deceive people. The magician. The sorcerer. That's all these false preachers
are. Trying to hide a lie like you would stuff a sausage in
a thin skin of truth. That's all it is. It's got to
do with deceit. 1 John 3, chapter 8, "...he that
committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." Destroy the works of the devil.
Paul writing to Timothy again, he says this, Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly, the Spirit of God, speaking through the
apostle Paul and others of the Lord's apostles, through the
prophets of old. through Christ Himself. Now,
the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils." Oh, they might entertain the
truth for a while. Have a kind of mental fascination
with it. Talk about it as if it is some
kind of higher doctrine or some kind of an intellectual thing
alone. But he said they'll be deceived.
They'll be deceived. And they'll give heed to seducing
spirits. Seducing spirits. That is to
draw men and women, entice men and women away from the truth
as it is in Christ. And all who are such, they're
the serpent's seed. That's how they're manifest.
They abide not in the truth. They give heed to these seducing
spirits and they believe the doctrines of devils. I can give you three doctrines
of devils right now, right off my head. Here's a doctrine of
the devil, that God loves everybody. That's not what the Bible says.
Here's another one, that Christ died for everybody. It doesn't
matter that Christ Himself said, I lay down my life for the sheep.
Here's another one, that the Spirit of God is trying, desirous,
to save everybody. Does that sound like that to
you in just this verse alone? But there's another seed, called
her seed, the woman's seed, which is an amazing thing, because
actually, woman doesn't have a seed. You see, miraculously
and wisely created we are. That even in the natural things
that God has created, there are all these pictures and evidences
of salvation by His grace in a Savior He provides alone. The woman's seed? But woman doesn't
have a seed. It's not natural to even speak
in those terms of a woman having a seed. So what has to be here
is something that is supernatural, non-natural. Paul writing to
the Galatians, he says, But when the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law. Now, no woman has ever made a
child. No woman on this earth has ever made a child by herself. I don't care what all the homosexual
crowd tries to do, it always boils down to some things that
are necessary. Got to have the seed. But here's
one called the woman's seed. Isaiah says in chapter 7, "...therefore
the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel."
God with us. That's it. She's going to conceive
this virgin who has never known a man. She's going to conceive,
and she's going to give birth to a son, and she's going to
call His name, God with us. I wonder how many times over
the next week or so that first chapter of Luke will be read.
It will be read so many times. And part of that is simply It
says, "...then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man?" You're going to have a son, Mary. Wait
a minute now, I hate to tell you this, but I've never known
a man. I've never been in the natural
relationship that's necessary, the physical relationship that's
necessary to conceive a child. How can that be? You listen to
this. And the angel answered and said
unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, the Holy Spirit
of God shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest
shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God."
That holy thing that you're going to give birth to, that child
that will be in your womb and was in the very embryonic stage
at that instant, he'll be called the Son of God. He'll be called the Son of God. You see, He is the woman's seed. The real conflict, the real battle,
the real warfare, the real ones involved head to head in this
conflict is His seed and the woman's seed. Galatians 3, Paul says, "...Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not,
unto seeds, as of many, but as of one. And to thy seed which
is Christ." Did you hear that? Not only was the woman to have
this seed, Speaking of Christ, Abraham was a part of that lineage. He was promised to have a seed
in the singular, and there's the same one. Paul said, it's
Christ. It's Christ. You see, the conflict
is against Christ and the devil and his people. It involves the
seed of the woman. He says, "...wherefore then serveth
the law. It is added because of transgression
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." What's
going on from that day that God speaks this in the garden all
the way down to something like 2,000 years ago? What's going
on on this earth? The earth waits. The people of
God wait. for the seed, till he come. And at every juncture, at every
point, when the devil who doesn't know who he'll be, when he at
every point imagines that this might be the one, what does he
do? He tries to kill him. He tries to snuff out the lineage. That's one reason why the Jewish
nation, as we find it in the Bible, men and women have sought,
kings have tried to destroy it and bring an end to it on this
earth. Because that's the one, that's
the people through whom the seed was to come. And that's the people
that were to represent in a picture and a type, the true people of
God. But just mark this down. In the woman's seed are the seeds. That is, there's a people in
Christ. And not only does Christ go forth
in a battle and in a warfare, for His own glory, for the glory
of God, but also here is all the seeds in Him, the elect,
and as He goes forth in victory, they go forth in victory. What
He does, they do. When He overcomes, they overcome. When He is victorious, they are
victorious. They are all these believers
in Christ. They are His seed, His children,
His offspring, the children that the Father had given Him. They
are all His elect. They were all chosen in Him.
They were all given to Him. They are all represented by Him.
He is the woman's seed. as they'll be confronted by the
serpent seed. Well, the third thing has to
do with something he calls bruising. Bruising. It shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. You see, to Satan, concerning
Christ, He tells the serpent right then, He's going to bruise
your head. He's going to crush your head. And all of this speaks of the
death of Christ. You see, He at the same time
says, but you'll bruise His heel. You'll bruise His heel. But it's
when you bruise His heel, that He'll crush your head. You see, we fell in this humanity. And if we're saved, we're going
to have to be saved by one in this humanity. Isaiah records
these words concerning the Messiah. He said He was wounded. He was
wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we're healed." Why did God allow Satan to bruise the heel of the
woman's feet? Christ. Because the curse entered
because of sin. And the only way we can be saved
is for Him to be made a curse in our place." He said, you'll
bruise His heel. Your seed will bruise His heel.
That's exactly what happened. When Peter begins to talk about
what has happened there at Jerusalem in the death of Christ, he says
this, he said, it all happened by the determinate counsel and
foreordination of God. But He said, you by your wicked
hands have taken Him and slain Him. You bruised Him. But when you
bruised Him, it was really the Lord. Why? Because the devil
is God's devil. Because just like everything
else in creation, created things will do what God commands and
requires. He's done everything, created
everything for His glory. So when those people, when the
serpent and his seed, when they all on that day took the Son
of God in that perfect, glorious humanity, which is represented
in that heel, that heel, that humanity that touched the earth,
that walked on this earth, and they bruised Him, They did just what God determined
beforehand to be done. Because they were bruising Him.
And when God calls that to take place, He was being bruised for
the iniquities of His people. That wasn't a contingency plan
at the cross. That wasn't things going away,
God's purpose fallen? That was God's purpose. Then he tells Satan what the
woman sees, what Christ will do to him and his sins. He said, he'll bruise your head. And all this language is to show
that Though Christ was bruised, though He was put to death, God
raised Him from the dead. He rose victorious over death,
hell, and the grave. Why? Because He had put away
the sins of His people. He had already borne the divine
justice against the sins of His people in His own body on that
tree. He had already paid and satisfied
what was required for their sins, which was death. But he says to Satan, he's going
to crush your head. He's going to crush your head. That means strike the death wound
to you. This summer I was told by some
of the family there was a snake out in the yard. He's in all
the leaves. He's found him coiled up in a
bush. And so I'm running in the house
and got my gun and I'm trying to kill him. And I shot him. I knew I hit him. But he's still
going. I shot him again. He's still
going. I won't tell you how many times
I shot him. He's still going. Because I couldn't see his head.
But finally I saw his head. And when I hit him in his head,
that was the end of him. The head of the serpent is simply
symbolic of the power, the power that he has. Paul writes, for as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same flesh and blood, sin excluded. that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. You see, through his being bruised,
he is actually crushing to a certain and eternal death the devil himself. Satan's strength, His head lay
in His having the power of death. But Christ bruised His head by
taking away the sting of death." That's what He did for all His
people. Because He bore their sins, He took away the sting
of death. We're awful afraid a wasp or
some stinging bee comes around. But if we were sure that there
was no sting in it, we wouldn't be afraid, would we? Well, sin
on the behalf of all of God's believing people stung itself
to death on that cross outside of Jerusalem when it stung the
Savior. Turn over to Colossians 2, and
I'll try to hurry, but I want you to read this. So vitally
important. Colossians 2. Verse 14, Paul writes to these
Colossians, in telling them what Christ did, he says, the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross, and
having spoiled principalities and powers." What is it to spoil
someone in battle? It means to have victory over
them and take what they claim for their own. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, which is what? Everyone other
than his own power. Every authority except his own
power, which includes and is most centrally that of the devil. that old serpent, having small
principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."
What's that it? It's that cross He just made
reference to. He triumphed over them, was victorious
over them, and therefore left captivity captive through the
suffering and the dying of His own self on the cross." I like
that word, triumphing over Him in His cross. And because He
triumphed, because He bruised, crushed Satan's head on that
cross, Paul said all believers through
Christ will do the same thing. In Romans 16 he says, And the
God of peace shall brew Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Amen. The members of Christ's
body may be bruised on earth, But what does it matter if the
head of the body is in heaven? And He's given us the promise
that we shall bruise Satan under us shortly. Shortly. It was the devil that put it
into the heart of Judas to betray Christ. Who put it in the heart
of Peter to deny Him. In the heart of the chief priest
to prosecute Him. of the false witnesses to accuse
him, and of Pilate to condemn him, aiming in all this by destroying
the Savior to ruin the salvation. But on the contrary, it was by
that death that Christ destroyed him who had the power over death. Christ's heel was bruised when
He was pierced on that cross. But He made peace for every believer
through the blood of His cross, and He crushed the serpent's
head. I received an email this week
from Brother Lance Heller, who is a missionary we support Papua
New Guinea. Very rough, mountainous country. And in it he was telling about
a man in one of the villages, a man that he was quite affected
by, thankful for. But he was bitten by what he
called a death adder. And in six hours, he was dead. And so he got news recently when
he came into another village that one of the Lord's people
there had been bitten by a snake as he was traveling through the
jungle on a night without a light. And so when he got there, To
the village he was fearful of what news he might receive. But
after he'd been there just a little while, here comes the man walking
up. And he said, well I thought you'd
been bitten. He lifted his leg and he showed the fang marks.
But for some reason he didn't die. They took him immediately
to the closest medical source. But they didn't have any antivenom. But he lived. How can you explain
that? Was it a different kind? I don't
know. Or was it the Lord's mercies? I kind of think that's what it
was. Either way. When I read that,
I thought, you know, that's the way it is. That's the picture
in these two men. The first one being a type of
Christ. When that venom that is so typical
of our sin is injected in Him, it kills. But here's this other
man. He's bitten too. But he lives. The serpent bruised the heel
of our Savior. But when he did, God was just
using that as the means by which He would save us from our sins
and crush the enemy of our soul. Now, we may have a little conflict
with Him. He's still on a chain reserved,
though, for eternal darkness. He's already lost. But after
a while, God by His grace, will bring us to bruise Him under
our feet shortly." There we were in this state of sin. Paradise had become, you might
say, hell on earth. Rebellion against God. And so
God, even as He pronounces the curse, pronounces the first gospel. Now he had already showed it
in a type. He showed it in a type by what
he did for Adam and Eve. Covering them with the skins.
But he heralded it. He spoke it. He proclaimed it. First of all, himself. God help us to understand it. Believe it. Rest in it. It's good news. It's been for
a long time. And we can believe it because
God said it. May He deliver us from the deceitfulness
of the adversary, from the lies and the false doctrines and the
misrepresentations. Hold us fast to His Word. Father, this day we give thanks
and praise to You in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
thank You for Your perfect Word. We thank You that You've enabled
us to believe it, and to rest in it, and to find all our hope
and all our salvation in Christ and Him crucified, and Your purpose
of grace to us. We pray that you'd receive today
our thanks in His name. We ask it all in Christ. Amen.