There's a pretty familiar line
in the Declaration of Independence, 1776, that goes like this. We hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal. Well, the first problem is they
call men's opinions, truths. Something wrong with that. And
then they go to say that all men are created. That's wrong. There wasn't but
one man created. The rest of us are the fruits
of him. And then they say that all men
are created equal. Well, What does that do to the fact that the sovereign God
of this universe tells us clearly that he makes some vessels unto
honor and some unto dishonor. Now, like that or not, it's so. It's so. And I get accused sometimes
of canceling out the gospel instead of preaching it. This thing of
God's sovereignty does not contradict Romans 10, 13 that whosoever
calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What the
truth of God's sovereignty does is declares who it is that's
going to call upon the name of the Lord. We're in a religious
world that says everybody can But nobody much does. Well, where's
God at? God does, see? All right, Genesis, Genesis chapter
three is a most important chapter in God's word. I didn't say the
most important, I said a most important chapter in God's word. And what happened here is the
most significant thing that's ever happened in human history
except for the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation
of God's Son. The despised standard of Genesis
3, what was it? Obedience to a single command
that God gave. to Adam. It's a rebellion in the Garden
of Eden that led ultimately to the rejection of God's Son. It's
one story. And before I begin, I just want
to say I do not wish to debate with men of great intellect about
many non-essential issues in these early chapters of the Bible.
I somehow am confronted with that about every week. But my
interest is getting to and moving toward the Gospel of God concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ. That's where my hope is. That's
where your hope is. The Bible does this from the
beginning and all the way through. I love to discuss the Bible,
but I repeat, I'm not interested in any intellectual, so-called
extra-biblical revelation. If God didn't say it, I don't
need it. There's more in here than I'll
ever digest. And you too, by the way. And I'll just say this, I'm not
talking to anybody here, Did you know that great intellects,
for the most part, are so in love with themselves as to appear
smarter than other people. They don't realize that Satan
delights in urging them to major on non-essentials that makes
no difference whatsoever concerning salvation and ignore the glorious
gospel of Christ. I don't care how many thousands
or millions of years old the earth is. I don't care about
a lot of things that men think is so wonderful and so important
to make them look smart. No, no. All right, to Genesis
3. After Adam and Eve sinned, by
disobeying God. Verse 8 here says, And they, this is Adam and Eve,
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. Now Adam hadn't hid before, but
he does this day. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? God did not ask this
for himself. He knew where Adam was. But he's
asking Adam, do you know where you're at? Not physically, but do you know
where you're at now before God in light of what you've done.
And Adam said, I heard your voice coming in the garden, coming to fellowship as we always
did. And when I heard your voice, I was
afraid because I was naked. And I hid
myself. There was no shame in being naked
before he disobeyed God. But now he's afraid because he's
naked. And then the Lord goes on to
ask him, who told you he was naked? But he was naked, not
just physically. But he said, I'm afraid because
of what I've become. I'm naked in my own soul and
spirit. I can't fellowship with you like
this." So I ran and hid. Adam went on to blame the woman. Not a bad idea. But it didn't work. It didn't
work. He's the guilty party. Then the Lord speaks to Eve and
she blames the serpent. In Eve's defense, Paul said to
Timothy, 1 Timothy 2.14, Adam was not deceived, but the woman
was deceived. The Lord then turns to the serpent,
verse 14, 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." You corrupted yourself and was cast out of my favor.
Now you've shown yourself my enemy. also corrupting the man
that I've created and all his posterity." This is a point. All of Adam's
posterity is corrupted right there in the garden. And this
is a point of debate with a lot of religious folks that we were
all born with the privilege Adam had before
he fell? No. We were born with the corrupt,
sinful, fallen, rebellious nature of Adam after he fell. Now in verse 15 is where we're
going. A familiar verse. The serpent, representing Satan, God says to him, 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. What an important verse. God is saying from now on, There
is now unending conflict between you and my son and between my
elect people in my son and the rest of humanity. An old writer by the name of,
guess what, George Bush, Familiar name, but this man I'm
fixing to read from lived and wrote this volume I'm holding
in 1838, 186 years ago. And he defines these two companies,
the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Between thy seed and her seed.
That is, between thy posterity and her posterity, as seed is
often used for children. By the seed of the serpent is
to be understood all wicked men who are called serpents by Christ
himself, generation of vipers, children of their father the
devil, And as the seed of the woman is set in opposition to
these, it must necessarily follow, since Eve is the natural mother
both of good men and bad men, that it denotes a limited portion
of the human race, including first and chiefly the Lord Jesus
Christ, who in allusion to this promise is called by way of eminence
the seed. Galatians 3.16, who came to destroy
the works of the devil. And secondly, all the members
of Christ, His true people, in every age and country. These
constitute the spiritual body, here called the seed of the woman.
And they all bear the most implacable hatred to the wicked one. While
he, on the other hand, is actuated by an equally deadly
hostility against them and is incessantly plotting their injury
and ruin, the warfare between these contending parties now
commenced, which has ever since been kept up And we'll continue. He's talking about an enmity. Enmity. While we were all ruined in Adam,
God's people were rescued in Christ. 1 Corinthians 15, 22. For in Adam
all die. How many die? All that are in
Adam. Even so, in Christ shall all
be made alive. How many are made alive? All
that are in Christ. I'm taking my time. All that were chosen in Christ,
Ephesians 1-4, before the foundation of the world. So I'm saying God's
children were in Christ before they were in Adam. And there's still the conflict. Christ Jesus, in the unchanging
mind of God, in the certain purpose of God, was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. God in grace provided the remedy
before we ever had the problem. Isn't that wonderful? So it's too late for you to help
God with anything, especially your soul's salvation. So the crucifixion of Christ
was no surprise to God. the precious blood of Christ,
1 Peter 2.19, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. But back to our text, Genesis
3.15, 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." Now, I said the Lord is speaking to the serpent
here, representing Satan, and he says in the latter part of
the verse, it, the seed of the woman, Christ, shall bruise thy
head. Christ, the only one born of
a woman without a man, He shall bruise thy head. He
will conquer Satan. And thou, talking to Satan, shall
bruise his heel. A bruised heel is not a fatal
wound. Christ did die, actually, but
He rose again. But a bruised head is a fatal
wound. It is an absolute conquering.
Now Christ did that initially at Calvary, but it's ongoing. It's ongoing. Romans 16, 20,
Paul wrote to the church at Rome and said this, and the God of
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. On the cross, Christ was
conquered. He was not annihilated. Satan was conquered. He was not
annihilated, but he was conquered. And that's for our good. We don't trust God much now.
What would it be if we didn't have any trouble? You see? Now here's the statement I'm
getting to, Genesis 3.15. God says to the serpent, I will
put enmity between my Son, including all who are in Him, and you,
Satan, including all who are not in my Son." Now who does
it say, put the enmity? God says, I will put enmity. When did it cease? It hasn't. We see this enmity early in the
Scriptures and throughout the Scriptures. We see it in the
Old Testament, we see it in the New Testament, we see it in church
history. Rome persecuted the saints, the
Jews insisting on it. We see it today and we feel it
today. So let's just think about this
looking back earlier in Scripture. In Genesis chapter 4, the first
two children ever born, you know who they were, Cain and Abel. Cain slew Abel. Why? Because of God's election. of rebellion against God's authority
to do as He wills with whom He wills. All humanity has fallen. We're
all sinners. God owed none of us anything.
And you ought not fall out with a God who chose to save some. If He's trying to save everybody,
He's a miserable, miserable failure. But He promised us He's saving
His people. Matthew 1.21, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, meaning Savior. Why? For He shall save His people. Not to try to give Him a people,
but to save His people already given Him from eternity from
their sins. So, Adam was chosen in Christ
before God made the world. Cain was rejected in Adam and
God's not wrong either way. Cain is judged in his sin, Abel
is judged in Christ before he had any sin. And if you go back and read carefully
Genesis chapter 4, most fellows I know preach it wrong, but it
said God had respect to Abel and to his offering. Not because
of his offering. It's not something Abel did to
make God like him. No, no. God had respect to Abel
first and then to his offering. If
he hadn't respected Abel first through sovereign election, Abel
wouldn't have known what kind of offering to bring. But God
told him. God told him. That is election. Cain was left to his own intellectual
opinion. You don't want that. But Abel
was taught of God. You want that. That's election,
unconditional election. And that's why Cain slew Abel. A little later in history, Abraham,
he and his wife, Sarah, were childless. And Sarah had this
bright idea, go into my handmaid, Agar, and bear a child by him. And Abraham did. His name is
Ishmael. Well, in time, God miraculously
gave Abraham and Sarah a son named Isaac. Ishmael persecuted
Isaac. Why? Because Isaac was the natural
son of fallen man and woman. like any other young'un, left
to himself any sin. But not so with Isaac. Isaac
was a child of promise. He was chosen. He was born when Abraham and
Sarah both had one foot in the grave. It was impossible, and
yet God did it. And Ishmael hated Isaac, Simply
because Isaac was God's choice. That's election. That's election. You say, I don't believe in election.
You do if you're the one doing the electing. What I'm telling
you about this Bible is that God's the one does the electing.
And if you perish in your sin, it'll be just what you deserve. But if you have a place in God's
grace, it'll be what you didn't deserve. It'll be because of
His love for you and mercy to you. What am I saying? Everybody has
rights except God. That's how it is in today's world. That's the story in the secular
world. That's the story in the religious world. Everybody has
rights but God. And they'll tell you, don't tell
me God's the one who will decide if I'll be saved. That's my decision. Well that's strange, since God's
the one who got to do the saving, how is it your decision? Can't
be. Can't be. A little later, boy
y'all are quiet today, and I'm loud. A little later in history,
Isaac and Rebekah, well she was barren too, but the Lord gave
conception. And there's twins in her womb,
Esau and Jacob. And they fought. The Bible said
they struggled in their mother's womb before
they were ever born. Why? It's that enmity God put. Romans 9.11 says, for the children,
talk about Esau and Jacob, for the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It's nothing in man. All deserve
to perish, but it's the choice of God. So in Rebecca's womb,
the children struggled. Why? The enmity God put was working
even before they were born. Why the friction? Why the conflict? Because God said, Long before
these were even born, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Hated Esau for himself, for his
own sin, and he loved Jacob for Christ's sake. Satan hates it that God has the
final word. This is the truth of the Bible. And what men think of this is
the reason you didn't have trouble getting a seat today. The religious world hates it. Satan hates it that God has the
final word. Adam's race outside Christ hates
it that God has the final word. And the religious world included All around us in this very county,
I'm talking about preachers standing in the pulpits this morning,
deacons, teachers, singers, musicians, good church-going families hate
the God of this Bible because to be His child is not their
decision, it's His. And they'll tell you, I don't
hate God. They don't hate their God. The One they've created
in their minds that puts your will ahead of His will. But His will is done. He worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. They hate the
God of this Bible. Now I'm just telling you how
it is. You can go choose the church of your choice if you
want to. I'll tell you what they'll do. They'll have you all hyped
up. They'll have you shouting and
jumping benches over all sorts of emotional hogwash that does
not honor the Son of God. They hate the God of this Bible. That's why people sit in church
for 50 years and don't know diddly about this book. I know them, you know them, and
some of you are them. I've sat in church a half a century,
and you might confine John 3.16 to about it. But to study God's
gospel in His Son, that's what this is about. God is bringing
glory to Himself, and He's going to have it. He's going to have
it. Then, on over in Genesis, Jacob's
sons We just got to looking at this on several Wednesday nights
Joseph and his brothers Most of you know the story of Joseph
and this time the Lord threw the devil a curve Because Jacob loved Joseph And
he made it no secret. He didn't try to keep it secret
because the father loved Joseph. Everybody else tried to kill
him, including his own brothers. But the seed of the woman, the
lineage of Christ, wasn't in Joseph. It was in Judah. And God moves on. The religious world says Salvation
can't just be about God's choice. What about us? We can decide
for ourselves if we want to. Yeah, but you can't want to.
You can't want to. There's a nature in you, a sin
nature, that runs from God, not to Him. And if He doesn't take the initiative,
you'll die in your sins. That's the truth. John 6.44, no man can come unto
me, except the Father which sent me draw him. Not only won't come,
but can't come. There's nothing in this fallen
flesh that wants anything to do with the Holy God. He has to do it. sinful nature,
insist on salvation coming by something we do and not what
Christ has already done. And finally, get this, this is
where it really all started. We have this struggle, this enmity
God has put in our own flesh as individuals. That's the real
battle. Galatians 5.17, The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these
are the contrary one to the other. There's enmity. So that you could
not do the things you would. That's why Paul said in Romans
7, There's a fellow living in here that wants to do right,
knows to do right, intends to do right, and winds up doing
wrong. That was the Apostle Paul. He
ain't no better than he was. Yes, we do have victory in Christ,
but we're still here in these bodies of sinful flesh. fighting hell day by day. And instead of realizing that this
is an enmity God put for the molding and maturing of His children,
you listen to the devil who says, if you hadn't slowed down in
sorry, all this wouldn't be happening to you. But he's not the one
done it, God did it. Huh? We struggle in our own breasts. It's the enmity God put and we
thank Him for it. This enmity that God put way
back in Genesis 3.15 is still alive between the old man and
the new creation in Christ. I get around religious folk that claim to be on cloud nine
all the time. Well, that's not how Christ said
it would be for His children. This enmity is still here and
will be here for every child of God as long as we're in these
sin-cursed bodies. This is the right perspective
In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good courage, I've
overcome the world. Paul, yea, all that live God
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Peter, think it's
not strange, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials that
come your way as if it wasn't supposed to be. God ordained
it. He's not against us, He's for
us. When Jacob was in his deepest
storm, he said, all these things are against me. No, God said
it for you, bud. There's a better day. There's
a better day. I look at this religious world
and I'll give you this and I'm through because this is getting
pretty far out. I think about that rainbow trout.
in these mountain streams that I love. If the fish is dead, it can float downstream with no
resistance and shout, hallelujah, what a
great Christian I am. But if that trout is alive and
healthy, It will always be facing the
current. It will be facing upstream, moving
its tail just a little now and then to maintain position. That's what we as God's children
are to do. Not just quit like a dead fish
and float downstream, but maintain position, who we are in Christ. Nothing is happening to me that
he's unaware of. Nothing is happening to me for
no reason. He has his reasons. A living fish will never argue
If I float downstream, it's because I chose to float. No, it's because
he's dead. See the difference? And has no
will to do otherwise. That's what dead religious folk
do. About every church around is
full of dead people. They never lift a finger at the
whole position. They never realize that God's
in the unpleasant as well as in the pleasant. And I've seen
them. I've heard them testify. So have
you. Boy, God has been so good to
me this week. I've been so blessed. And then
I've heard them get up, I've had a rough week. Y'all pray
for me. Hey, it's both so. But God is God right in the middle
of it. That's what we need to get a
hold of. Paul said, here's when my direction
changed, when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me. That's
Galatians 1.15. And he would say, I was happy
persecuting Christians. Boy, I was having a time. I was really getting with it.
until God quickened me. And it's been different ever
since. And he said in Ephesians 1, 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the will of God. There's the secret. He didn't
say Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, because I'm the best
fellow I know for the job. No, he said by the will of God. And that's what it's all about.
is the will of God. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, But
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
unto salvation. You say, I don't like that. Well,
throw your Bible away. It's all in here. It's where
all these verses are coming from. So don't forget this morning,
child of God, this is God's doing. I will put enmity. And He did
it for our good, for our benefit. He did it to exercise our spiritual
lungs. Instead of just playing church and lay dying with religious
pneumonia, God knows what He's doing.