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  SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 22 1876
  by C.H. Spurgeon
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Volume 22 of Spurgeon's collected sermons, containing messages preached during
1876 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. These sermons showcase Spurgeon's powerful
biblical exposition, vivid illustrations, and passionate gospel proclamation
that drew thousands to hear the 'Prince of Preachers' during his Metropolitan
Tabernacle ministry.

  Chapters: 4

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. Spurgeons Sermons Volume 22 1876
    1. Christ the End of the Law
    2. Christ the Conqueror of Satan
    3. This document 

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  CHAPTER 0: SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 22 1876
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  CHAPTER 1: CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW
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A Sermon (No.1325) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, November 19th, 1876, by C.
H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "For Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." -- Romans 10:4. YOU
REMEMBER we spoke last Sabbath morning of "the days of the Son of man." Oh that
every Sabbath now might be a day of that kind in the most spiritual sense. I
hope that we shall endeavour to make each Lord's Day as it comes round a day of
the Lord, by thinking much of Jesus by rejoicing much in him, by labouring for
him, and by our growingly importunate prayer, that to him may the gathering of
the people be. We may not have very many Sabbaths together, death may soon part
us; but while we are able to meet as a Christian assembly, let us never forget
that Christ's presence is our main necessity, and let us pray for it and entreat
the Lord to vouchsafe that presence always in displays of light, life and love!
I become increasingly earnest that every preaching time should be a soul-saving
time. I can deeply sympathize with Paul when he said, "My heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved." We have had so much
preaching, but, comparatively speaking, so little believing in Jesus; and if
there be no believing in him, neither the law nor the gospel has answered its
end, and our labour has been utterly in vain. Some of you have heard, and heard,
and heard again, but you have not believed in Jesus. If the gospel had not come
to your hearing you could not have been guilty of refusing it. "Have they not
heard?" says the apostle. "Yes, verily:" but still "they have not all obeyed the
gospel." Up to this very moment there has been no hearing with the inner ear,
and no work of faith in the heart, in the case of many whom we love. Dear
friends, is it always to be so? How long is it to be so? Shall there not soon
come an end of this reception of the outward means and rejection of the inward
grace? Will not your soul soon close in with Christ for present salvation?
Break! Break, O heavenly day, upon the benighted ones, for our hearts are
breaking over them. The reason why many do not come to Christ is not because
they are not earnest, after a fashion, and thoughtful and desirous to be saved,
but because they cannot brook God's way of salvation. "They have a zeal for God,
but not according to knowledge," We do get them by our exhortation so far on the
way that they become desirous to obtain eternal life, but "they have not
submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Mark, "submitted themselves,"
for it needs submission. Proud man wants to save himself, he believes he can do
it, and he will not give over the task till he finds out his own helplessness by
unhappy failures. Salvation by grace, to be sued for in forma pauperis, to be
asked for as an undeserved boon from free, unmerited grace, this it is which the
carnal mind will not come to as long as it can help it: I beseech the Lord so to
work that some of you may not be able to help it. And oh, I have been praying
that, while this morning I am trying to set forth Christ as the end of the law,
God may bless it to some hearts, that they may see what Christ did, and may
perceive it to be a great deal better than anything they can do; may see what
Christ finished, and may become weary of what they themselves have laboured at
so long, and have not even well commenced at this day. Perhaps it may please the
Lord to enchant them with the perfection of the salvation that is in Christ
Jesus. As Bunyan would say, "It may, perhaps, set their mouths a watering after
it," and when a sacred appetite begins it will not be long before the feast is
enjoyed. It may be that when they see the raiment of wrought gold, which Jesus
so freely bestows on naked souls, they will throw away their own filthy rags
which now they hug so closely. I am going to speak about two things, this
morning, as the Spirit of God shall help me: and the first is, Christ in
connection with the law -- he is "the end of the law for righteousness"; and
secondly, ourselves in connection with Christ -- "to everyone that believeth
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness." I. First, then, CHRIST IN
CONNECTION WITH THE LAW. The law is that which, as sinners, we have above all
things cause to dread; for the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is
the law. Towards us the law darts forth devouring flames, for it condemns us,
and in solemn terms appoints us a place among the accursed, as it is written,
"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the
book of the law to do them." Yet, strange infatuation! like the fascination
which attracts the gnat to the candle which burns its wings, men by nature fly
to the law for salvation, and cannot be driven from it. The law can do nothing
else but reveal sin and pronounce condemnation upon the sinner, and yet we
cannot get men away from it, even though we show them how sweetly Jesus stands
between them and it. They are so enamoured of legal hope that they cling to it
when there is nothing to cling to; they prefer Sinai to Calvary, though Sinai
has nothing for them but thunders and trumpet warnings of coming judgment. O
that for awhile you would listen anxiously while I set forth Jesus my Lord, that
you may see the law in him. Now, what has our Lord to do with the law? He has
everything to do with it, for he is its end for the noblest object, namely, for
righteousness. He is the "end of the law." What does this mean? I think it
signifies three things: first, that Christ is the purpose and object of the law;
secondly, that he is the fulfillment of it; and thirdly, that he is the
termination of it. First, then, our Lord Jesus Christ is the purpose and object
of the law. It was given to lead us to him. The law is our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ, or rather our attendant to conduct us to the school of Jesus. The
law is the great net in which the fish are enclosed that they may be drawn out
of the element of sin. The law is the stormy wind which drives souls into the
harbour or refuge. The law is the sheriff's officer to shut men up in prison for
their sin, concluding them all under condemnation in order that they may look to
the free grace of God alone for deliverance. This is the object of the law: it
empties that grace may fill, and wounds that mercy may heal. It has never been
God's intention towards us, as fallen men, that the law should be regarded as a
way to salvation to us, for a way of salvation it can never be. Had man never
fallen, had his nature remained as God made it, the law would have been most
helpful to him to show him the way in which he should walk: and by keeping it he
would have lived, for "he that doeth these things shall live in them." But ever
since man has fallen the Lord has not proposed to him a way of salvation by
works, for he knows it to be impossible to a sinful creature. The law is already
broken; and whatever man can do he cannot repair the damage he has already done:
therefore he is out of court as to the hope of merit. The law demands
perfection, but man has already fallen short of it; and therefore let him do his
best. He cannot accomplish what is absolutely essential. The law is meant to
lead the sinner to faith in Christ, by showing the impossibility of any other
way. It is the black dog to fetch the sheep to the shepherd, the burning heat
which drives the traveller to the shadow of the great rock in a weary land.Look
how the law is adapted to this; for, first of all, it shows man his sin. Read
the ten commandments and tremble as you read them. Who can lay his own character
down side by side with the two tablets of divine precept without at once being
convinced that he has fallen far short of the standard? When the law comes home
to the soul it is like light in a dark room revealing the dust and the dirt
which else had been unperceived. It is the test which detects the presence of
the poison of sin in the soul. "I was alive without the law once," said the
apostle, "but when the commandment came sin revived and I died." Our comeliness
utterly fades away when the law blows upon it. Look at the commandments, I say,
and remember how sweeping they are, how spiritual, how far-reaching. They do not
merely touch the outward act, but dive into the inner motive and deal with the
heart, the mind, the soul. There is a deeper meaning in the commands than
appears upon their surface. Gaze into their depths and see how terrible is the
holiness which they require. As you understand what the law demands you will
perceive how far you are from fulfilling it, and how sin abounds where you
thought there was little or none of it. You thought yourself rich and increased
in goods and in no need of anything, but when the broken law visits you, your
spiritual bankruptcy and utter penury stare you in the face. A true balance
discovers short weight, and such is the first effect of the law upon the
conscience of man.The law also shows the result and mischief of sin. Look at the
types of the old Mosaic dispensation, and see how they were intended to lead men
to Christ by making them see their unclean condition and their need of such
cleansing as only he can give. Every type pointed to our Lord Jesus Christ. If
men were put apart because of disease or uncleanness, they were made to see how
sin separated them from God and from his people; and when they were brought back
and purified with mystic rites in which were scarlet wool and hyssop and the
like, they were made to see how they can only be restored by Jesus Christ, the
great High Priest. When the bird was killed that the leper might be clean, the
need of purification by the sacrifice of a life was set forth. Every morning and
evening a lamb died to tell of daily need of pardon, if God is to dwell with us.
We sometimes have fault found with us for speaking too much about blood; yet
under the old testament the blood seemed to be everything, and was not only
spoken of but actually presented to the eye. What does the apostle tell us in
the Hebrews? "Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law,
he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and
hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people saying, this is the
blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled
with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost
all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is
not remission." The blood was on the veil, and on the altar, on the hangings,
and on the floor of the tabernacle: no one could avoid seeing it. I resolve to
make my ministry of the same character, and more and more sprinkle it with the
blood of atonement. Now that abundance of the blood of old was meant to show
clearly that sin has so polluted us that without an atonement God is not to be
approached: we must come by the way of sacrifice or not at all. We are so
unacceptable in ourselves that unless the Lord sees us with the blood of Jesus
upon us he must away with us. The old law, with its emblems and figures, set
forth many truths as to men's selves and the coming Saviour, intending by every
one of them to preach Christ. If any stopped short of him, they missed the
intent and design of the law. Moses leads up to Joshua, and the law ends at
Jesus. Turning our thoughts back again to the moral rather than the ceremonial
law, it was intended to teach men their utter helplessness. It shows them how
short they fall of what they ought to be, and it also shows them, when they look
at it carefully, how utterly impossible it is for them to come up to the
standard. Such holiness as the law demands no man can reach of himself. "Thy
commandment is exceeding broad." If a man says that he can keep the law, it is
because he does not know what the law is. If he fancies that he can ever climb
to heaven up the quivering sides of Sinai, surely he can never have seen that
burning mount at all. Keep the law! Ah, my brethren, while we are yet talking
about it we are breaking it; while we are pretending that we can fulfil its
letter, we are violating its spirit, for pride as much breaks the law as lust or
murder. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." "How can he be
clean that is born of a woman?" No, soul, thou canst not help thyself in this
thing, for since only by perfection thou canst live by the law, and since that
perfection is impossible, thou canst not find help in the covenant of works. In
grace there is hope, but as a matter of debt there is none, for we do not merit
anything but wrath. The law tells us this, and the sooner we know it to be so
the better, for the sooner we shall fly to Christ.The law also shows us our
great need -- our need of cleansing, cleansing with the water and with the
blood. It discovers to us our filthiness, and this naturally leads us to feel
that we must be washed from it if we are ever to draw near to God. So the law
drives us to accept of Christ as the one only person who can cleanse us, and
make us fit to stand within the veil in the presence of the Most High. The law
is the surgeon's knife which cuts out the proud flesh that the wound may heal.
The law by itself only sweeps and raises the dust, but the gospel sprinkles
clean water upon the dust, and all is well in the chamber of the soul. The law
kills, the gospel makes alive; the law strips, and then Jesus Christ comes in
and robes the soul in beauty and glory. All the commandments, and all the types
direct us to Christ, if we will but heed their evident intent. They wean us from
self, they put us off from the false basis of self- righteousness, and bring us
to know that only in Christ can our help be found. So, first of all, Christ is
the end of the law, in that he is its great purpose.And now, secondly, he is the
law's fulfillment. It is impossible for any of us to be saved without
righteousness. The God of heaven and earth by immutable necessity demands
righteousness of all his creatures. Now, Christ has come to give to us the
righteousness which the law demands, but which it never bestows. In the chapter
before us we read of "the righteousness which is of faith," which is also called
"God's righteousness"; and we read of those who "shall not be ashamed" because
they are righteous by believing unto righteousness." What the law could not do
Jesus has done. He provides the righteousness which the law asks for but cannot
produce. What an amazing righteousness it must be which is as broad and deep and
long and high as the law itself. The commandment is exceeding broad, but the
righteousness of Christ is as broad as the commandment, and goes to the end of
it. Christ did not come to make the law milder, or to render it possible for our
cracked and battered obedience to be accepted as a sort of compromise. The law
is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked too much;
it is holy and just and good, and ought not to be altered in one jot or tittle,
nor can it be. Our Lord gives the law all it requires, not a part, for that
would be an admission that it might justly have been content with less at first.
The law claims complete obedience without one spot or speck, failure, or flaw,
and Christ has brought in such a righteousness as that, and gives it to his
people. The law demands that the righteousness should be without omission of
duty and without commission of sin, and the righteousness which Christ has
brought is just such an one that for its sake the great God accepts his people
and counts them to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The law will
not be content without spiritual obedience, mere outward compliances will not
satisfy. But our Lord's obedience was as deep as it was broad, for his zeal to
do the will of him that sent him consumed him. He says himself, "I delight to do
thy will, O my God, yea thy law is within my heart." Such righteousness he puts
upon all believers. "By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous";
righteous to the full, perfect in Christ. We rejoice to wear the costly robe of
fair white linen which Jesus has prepared, and we feel that we may stand arrayed
in it before the majesty of heaven without a trembling thought. This is
something to dwell upon, dear friends. Only as righteous ones can we be saved,
but Jesus Christ makes us righteous, and therefore we are saved. He is righteous
who believeth on him, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him
for righteousness. "There is therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus," because they are made righteous in Christ. Yea, the Holy Spirit
by the mouth of Paul challengeth all men, angels, and devils, to lay anything to
the charge of God's elect, since Christ hath died. O law, when thou demandest of
me a perfect righteousness, I, being a believer, present it to thee; for through
Christ Jesus faith is accounted unto me for righteousness. The righteousness of
Christ is mine, for I am one with him by faith, and this is the name wherewith
he shall be called -- "The Lord our righteousness." Jesus has thus fulfilled the
original demands of the law, but you know, brethren, that since we have broken
the law there are other demands. For the remission of past sins something more
is asked now than present and future obedience. Upon us, on account of our sins,
the curse has been pronounced, and a penalty has been incurred. It is written
that he "will by no means clear the guilty," but every transgression and
iniquity shall have its just punishment and reward. Here, then, let us admire
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law as to penalty. That curse and
penalty are awful things to think upon, but Christ has ended all their evil, and
thus discharged us from all the consequences of sin. As far as every believer is
concerned the law demands no penalty and utters no curse. The believer can point
to the Great Surety on the tree of Calvary, and say, "See there,oh law, there is
the vindication of divine justice which I offer to thee. Jesus pouring out his
heart's blood from his wounds and dying on my behalf is my answer to thy claims,
and I know that I shall be delivered from wrath through him." The claims of the
law both as broken and unbroken Christ has met: both the positive and the penal
demands are satisfied in him. This was a labour worthy of a God, and lo, the
incarnate God has achieved it. He has finished the transgression, made an end of
sins, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting
righteousness. All glory be to his name.Moreover, not only has the penalty been
paid, but Christ has put great and special honour upon the law in so doing. I
venture to say that if the whole human race had kept the law of God and not one
of them had violated it, the law would not stand in so splendid a position of
honour as it does today when the man Christ Jesus, who is also the Son of God,
has paid obeisance to it. God himself, incarnate, has in his life, and yet more
in his death, revealed the supremacy of law; he has shown that not even love nor
sovereignty can set aside justice. Who shall say a word against the law to which
the Lawgiver himself submits? Who shall now say that it is too severe when he
who made it submits himself to its penalties. Because he was found in fashion as
a man, and was our representative, the Lord demanded from his own Son perfect
obedience to the law, and the Son voluntarily bowed himself to it without a
single word, taking no exception to his task. "Yea, thy law is my delight,"
saith he, and he proved it to be so by paying homage to it even to the full. Oh
wondrous law under which even Emmanuel serves! Oh matchless law whose yoke even
the Son of God does not disdain to bear, but being resolved to save his chosen
was made under the law, lived under it and died under it, "obedient to death,
even the death of the cross."The law's stability also has been secured by
Christ. That alone can remain which is proved to be just, and Jesus has proved
the law to be so, magnifying it and making it honourable. He says, "Think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." I
shall have to show you how he has made an end of the law in another sense, but
as to the settlement of the eternal principles of right and wrong, Christ's life
and death have achieved this forever. "Yea, we established the law." said Paul,
"we do not make void the law through faith." The law is proved to be holy and
just by the very gospel of faith, for the gospel which faith believes in does
not alter or lower the law, but teaches us how it was to the uttermost
fulfilled. Now shall the law stand fast forever and ever, since even to save
elect man God will not alter it. He had a people, chosen, beloved, and ordained
to life, yet he would not save them at the expense of one principle of right.
They were sinful, and how could they be justified unless the law was suspended
or changed? Was, then, the law changed? It seemed as if it must be so, if man
was to be saved, but Jesus Christ came and showed us how the law could stand
firm as a rock, and yet the redeemed could be justly saved by infinite mercy. In
Christ we see both mercy and justice shining full orbed, and yet neither of them
in any degree eclipsing the other. The law has all it ever asked, as it ought to
have, and yet the Father of all mercies sees all his chosen saved as he
determined they should be through the death of his Son. Thus I have tried to
show you how Christ is the fulfillment of the law to its utmost end. May the
Holy Ghost bless the teaching.And now, thirdly, he is the end of the law in the
sense that he is the termination of it. He has terminated it in two senses.
First of all, his people are not under it as a covenant of life. "We are not
under the law, but under grace." The old covenant as it stood with father Adam
was "This do and thou shalt live": its command he did not keep, and consequently
he did not live, nor do we live in him, since in Adam all died. The old covenant
was broken, and we became condemned thereby, but now, having suffered death in
Christ, we are no more under it, but are dead to it. Brethren, at this present
moment, although we rejoice to do good works, we are not seeking life through
them, we are not hoping to obtain divine favour by our own goodness, nor even to
keep ourselves in the love of God by any merit of our own. Chosen, not for our
works, but according to the eternal will and good pleasure of God; called, not
of works, but by the Spirit of God, we desire to continue in this grace and
return no more to the bondage of the old covenant. Since we have put our trust
in an atonement provided and applied by grace through Christ Jesus, we are no
longer slaves but children, not working to be saved, but saved already, and
working because we are saved. Neither that which we do, nor even that which the
Spirit of God worketh in us is to us the ground and basis of the love of God
toward us, since he loved us from the first, because he would love us, unworthy
though we were; and he loves us still in Christ, and looks upon us not as we are
in ourselves, but as we are in him; washed in his blood and covered in his
righteousness. Ye are not under the law, Christ has taken you from the servile
bondage of a condemning covenant and made you to receive the adoption of
children, so that now ye cry, Abba, Father. Again, Christ is the terminator of
the law, for we are no longer under its curse. The law cannot curse a believer,
it does not know how to do it; it blesses him, yea, and he shall be blessed; for
as the law demands righteousness and looks at the believer in Christ, and sees
that Jesus has given him all the righteousness it demands, the law is bound to
pronounce him blessed. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile." Oh, the joy of being redeemed from the curse of
the law by Christ, who was "made a curse for us," as it is written, "Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree." Do ye, my brethren, understand the sweet
mystery of salvation? Have you ever seen Jesus standing in your place that you
may stand in his place? Christ accused and Christ condemned, and Christ led out
to die, and Christ smitten of the Father, even to the death, and then you
cleared, justified, delivered from the curse, because the curse has spent itself
on your Redeemer. You are admitted to enjoy the blessing because the
righteousness which was his is now transferred to you that you may be blessed of
the Lord world without end. Do let us triumph and rejoice in this evermore. Why
should we not? And yet some of God's people get under the law as to their
feelings, and begin to fear that because they are conscious of sin they are not
saved, whereas it is written, "he justifieth the ungodly." For myself, I love to
live near a sinner's Saviour. If my standing before the Lord depended upon what
I am in myself and what good works and righteousness I could bring, surely I
should have to condemn myself a thousand times a day. But to get away from that
and to say, "I have believed in Jesus Christ and therefore righteousness is
mine," this is peace, rest, joy, and the beginning of heaven! When one attains
to this experience, his love to Jesus Christ begins to flame up, and he feels
that if the Redeemer has delivered him from the curse of the law he will not
continue in sin, but he will endeavour to live in newness of life. We are not
our own, we are bought with a price, and we would therefore glorify God in our
bodies and in our spirits, which are the Lord's. Thus much upon Christ in
connection with the law.II. Now, secondly, OURSELVES IN CONNECTION WITH CHRIST
-- for "Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth." Now see the
point "to everyone that believeth," there the stress lies. Come, man, woman,
dost thou believe? No weightier question can be asked under heaven. "Dost thou
believe on the Son of God?" And what is it to believe? It is not merely to
accept a set of doctrines and to say that such and such a creed is yours, and
there and then to put it on the shelf and forget it. To believe is, to trust, to
confide, to depend upon, to rely upon, to rest in. Dost thou believe that Jesus
Christ rose from the dead? Dost thou believe that he stood in the sinner's stead
and suffered the just for the unjust? Dost thou believe that he is able to save
to the uttermost them that come unto God by him? And dost thou therefore lay the
whole weight and stress of thy soul's salvation upon him, yea, upon him alone?
Ah then, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to thee, and thou art
righteous. In the righteousness of God thou art clothed if thou believest. It is
of no use to bring forward anything else if you are not believing, for nothing
will avail. If faith be absent the essential thing is wanting: sacraments,
prayers, Bible reading, hearings of the gospel, you may heap them together, high
as the stars, into a mountain, huge as high Olympus, but they are all mere chaff
if faith be not there. It is thy believing or not believing which must settle
the matter. Dost thou look away from thyself to Jesus for righteousness? If thou
dost he is the end of the law to thee.Now observe that there is no question
raised about the previous character, for it is written, "Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." But, Lord, this man
before he believed was a persecutor and injurious, he raged and raved against
the saints and haled them to prison and sought their blood. Yes, beloved friend,
and that is the very man who wrote these words by the Holy Ghost, "Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." So if I address
one here this morning whose life has been defiled with every sin, and stained
with every transgression we can conceive of, yet I say unto such, remember "all
manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." If thou believest in
the Lord Jesus Christ thine iniquities are blotted out, for the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. This is the glory of the
gospel that it is a sinner's gospel; good news of blessing not for those without
sin, but for those who confess and forsake it. Jesus came into the world, not to
reward the sinless, but to seek and to save that which was lost; and he, being
lost and being far from God, who cometh nigh to God by Christ, and believeth in
him, will find that he is able to bestow righteousness upon the guilty. He is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, and therefore
to the poor harlot that believeth, to the drunkard of many years standing that
believeth, to the thief, the liar, and the scoffer who believeth, to those who
have aforetime rioted in sin, but now turn from it to trust in him. But I do not
know that I need mention such cases as these; to me the most wonderful fact is
that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to me, for I believe in him.
I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed to him until that day. Another thought arises from the
text, and that is, that there is nothing said by way of qualification as to the
strength of the faith. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth, whether he is Little Faith or Greatheart. Jesus protects the
rear rank as well as the vanguard. There is no difference between one believer
and another as to justification. So long as there is a connection between you
and Christ the righteousness of God is yours. The link may be very like a film,
a spider's line of trembling faith, but, if it runs all the way from the heart
to Christ, divine grace can and will flow along the most slender thread. It is
marvelous how fine the wire may be that will carry the electric flash. We may
want a cable to carry a message across the sea, but that is for the protection
of the wire, the wire which actually carries the message is a slender thing. If
thy faith be of the mustard-seed kind, if it be only such as tremblingly touches
the Saviour's garment's hem, if thou canst only say "Lord, I believe, help thou
mine unbelief," if it be but the faith of sinking Peter, or weeping Mary, yet if
it be faith in Christ, he will be the end of the law for righteousness to thee
as well as to the chief of the apostles.If this be so then, beloved friends, all
of us who believe are righteous. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ we have
obtained the righteousness which those who follow the works of the law know
nothing of. We are not completely sanctified, would God we were; we are not quit
of sin in our members, though we hate it; but still for all that, in the sight
of God, we are truly righteous and being qualified by faith we have peace with
God. Come, look up, ye believers that are burdened with a sense of sin. While
you chasten yourselves and mourn your sin, do not doubt your Saviour, nor
question his righteousness. You are black, but do not stop there, go on to say
as the spouse did, "I am black, but comely.""Though in ourselves deform'd we
are,And black as Kedar's tents appear,Yet, when we put Thy beauties on,Fair as
the courts of Solomon."Now, mark that the connection of our text assures us that
being righteous we are saved; for what does it say here, "If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." He who is justified is saved, or
what were the benefit of justification? Over thee, O believer, God hath
pronounced the verdict "saved," and none shall reverse it. You are saved from
sin and death and hell; you are saved even now, with a present salvation; "He
hath saved us and called us with a holy calling." Feel the transports of it at
this hour. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God."And now I have done when I have
said just this. If any one here thinks he can save himself, and that his own
righteousness will suffice before God, I would affectionately beg him not to
insult his Saviour. If your righteousness sufficeth, why did Christ come here to
work one out? Will you for a moment compare your righteousness with the
righteousness of Jesus Christ? What likeness is there between you and him? As
much as between an emmet and an archangel. Nay, not so much as that: as much as
between night and day, hell and heaven. Oh, if I had a righteousness of my own
that no one could find fault with, I would voluntarily fling it away to have the
righteousness of Christ, but as I have none of my own I do rejoice the more to
have my Lord's. When Mr. Whitefield first preached at Kingswood, near Bristol,
to the colliers, he could see when their hearts began to be touched by the
gutters of white made by the tears as they ran down their black cheeks. He saw
they were receiving the gospel, and he writes in his diary "as these poor
colliers had no righteousness of their own they therefore gloried in Him who
came to save publicans and sinners." Well, Mr. Whitefield, that is true of the
colliers, but it is equally true of many of us here, who may not have had black
faces, but we had black hearts. We can truly say that we also rejoice to cast
away our own righteousness and count it dross and dung that we may win Christ,
and be found in him. In him is our sole hope and only trust.Last of all, for any
of you to reject the righteousness of Christ must be to perish everlastingly,
because it cannot be that God will accept you or your pretended righteousness
when you have refused the real and divine righteousness which he sets before you
in his Son. If you could go up to the gates of heaven, and the angel were to say
to you, "What title have you to entrance here?" and you were to reply, "I have a
righteousness of my own," then for you to be admitted would be to decide that
your righteousness was on a par with that of Immanuel himself. Can that ever be?
Do you think that God will ever allow such a lie to be sanctioned? Will he let a
poor wretched sinner's counterfeit righteousness pass current side by side with
the fine gold of Christ's perfection? Why was the fountain filled with blood if
you need no washing? Is Christ a superfluity? Oh, it cannot be. You must have
Christ's righteousness or be unrighteous, and being unrighteous you will be
unsaved, and being unsaved you must remain lost forever and ever. What! has it
all come to this, then, that I am to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for
righteousness, and to be made just through faith? Yes, that is it: that is the
whole of it. What! trust Christ alone and then live as I like! You cannot live
in sin after you have trusted Jesus, for the act of faith brings with it a
change of nature and a renewal of your soul. The Spirit of God who leads you to
believe will also change your heart. You spoke of "living as you like," you will
like to live very differently from what you do now. The things you loved before
your conversion you will hate when you believe, and the things you hated you
will love. Now, you are trying to be good, and you make great failures, because
your heart is alienated from God; but when once you have received salvation
through the blood of Christ, your heart will love God, and then you will keep
his commandments, and they will be no longer grievous to you. A change of heart
is what you want, and you will never get it except through the covenant of
grace. There is not a word about conversion in the old covenant, we must look to
the new covenant for that, and here it is -- "Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and an new spirit
will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."
This is one of the greatest covenant promises, and the Holy Ghost preforms it in
the chosen. Oh that the Lord would sweetly persuade you to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that promise and all the other covenant engagements shall be
fulfilled to your soul. The Lord bless you! Spirit of God, send thy blessing on
these poor words of mine for Jesus' sake. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE
SERMON -- Romans 10.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 231, 535, 647.


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  CHAPTER 2: CHRIST THE CONQUEROR OF SATAN
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A Sermon (No.1326) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, November 26th, 1876, by C.
H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "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 thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." --
Genesis 3:16 THIS IS THE FIRST gospel sermon that was ever delivered upon the
surface of this earth. It was memorable discourse indeed, with Jehovah himself
for the preacher, and the whole human race and the prince of darkness for the
audience. It must be worthy of our heartiest attention. Is it not remarkable
that this great gospel promise should have been delivered so soon after the
transgression? As yet no sentence had been pronounced upon either of the two
human offenders, but the promise was given under the form of a sentence
pronounced upon the serpent Not yet had the woman been condemned to painful
travail, or the man to exhausting labour, or even the soil to the curse of thorn
and thistle. Truly "mercy rejoiceth against judgment." Before the Lord had said
"dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return," he was pleased to say that the
seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Let us rejoice, then, in the
swift mercy of God, which in the early watches of the night of sin came with
comfortable words unto us. These words were not directly spoken to Adam and Eve,
but they were directed distinctly to the serpent himself, and that by was of
punishment to him for what he had done. It was a day of cruel triumph to him
such joy as his dark mind is capable of had filled him, for had he indulged his
malice, and gratified his spite. He had in the worst sense destroyed a part of
God's works, he had introduce sin into the new world, he had stamped the human
race with his own image, and gained new forces to promote rebellion and to
multiply transgression, and therefore he felt that sort of gladness which a
fiend can know who bears a hell within him. But now God comes in, takes up the
quarrel personally, and causes him to be disgraced on the very battle-field upon
which he had gained a temporary success. He tells the dragon that he will
undertake to deal with him; this quarrel shall not be between the serpent and
man, but between God and the serpent. God saith, in solemn words, "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed," and he
promised that there shall rise in fulness of time a champion, who, though he
suffer, shall smite in a vital part the power of evil, and bruise the serpent's
head. This was the more, it seems to me, a comfortable message of mercy to Adam
and Eve, because they would feel sure that the tempter would be punished, and as
that punishment would involve blessing for them, the vengeance due to the
serpent would be the guarantee of mercy to themselves. Perhaps, however, by thus
obliquely giving the promise, the Lord meant to say, "Not for your sakes do I
this, O fallen man and woman, nor for the sake of your descendants; but for my
own name and honour's sake, that it be not profaned and blasphemed amongst the
fallen spirits. I undertake to repair the mischief which has been caused by the
tempter, that my name and my glory may not be diminished among the immortal
spirits who look down upon the scene." All this would be very humbling but yet
consolatory to our parents if they thought of it, seeing that mercy given for
God's sake is always to our troubled apprehension more sure than any favour
which could be promised to us for our own sake. The divine sovereignty and glory
afford us a stronger foundation of hope than merit, even if merit can be
supposed to exist. Now we must note concerning this first gospel sermon that on
it the earliest believers stayed themselves. This was all that Adam had by way
of revelation, and all that Abel had received. This one lone star shone in
Abel's sky; he looked up to it and he believed. By its light he spelt out
"sacrifice," and therefore he brought of the firstlings of his flock and laid
them on the altar, and proved in his own person how the seed of the serpent
hated the seed of the woman, for his brother slew him for his testimony.
Although Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied concerning the second advent,
yet he does not appear to have uttered anything new concerning the first coming,
so that still this one promise remained as man's sole word of hope. The torch
which flamed within the gates of Eden just before man was driven forth lit up
the world to all believers until the Lord was pleased to give more light, and to
renew and enlarge the revelation of his covenant, when he spake to his servant
Noah. Those hoary fathers who lived before the flood rejoiced in the mysterious
language of our text, and resting on it, they died in faith. Nor, brethren, must
you think it a slender revelation, for, if you attentively consider, it is
wonderfully full of meaning. If it had been on my heart to handle it doctrinally
this morning, I think I could have shown you that it contains all the gospel.
There lie within it, as an oak lies within an acorn, all the great truths which
make up the gospel of Christ. Observe that here is the grand mystery of
incarnation. Christ is that seed of the woman who is here spoken of; and there
is a hint not darkly given as to how that Incarnation would be effected. Jesus
was not shadowed of the Holy Ghost, and "the holy thing" which was born of her
was as to his humanity the seed of the woman only; as it is written, "Behold a
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel."
The promise plainly teaches that the deliverer would be born of a woman, and
carefully viewed, it also foreshadows the divine method of the Redeemer's
conception and birth. So also is the doctrine of the two seeds plainly taught
here -- "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her
seed." There was evidently to be in the world a seed of the woman on God's side
against the serpent, and a seed of the serpent that should always be upon the
evil side even as it is unto this day. The church of God and the synagogue of
Satan both exist. We see an Abel and a Cain, an Isaac and an Ishmael, a Jacob
and an Esau; those that are born after the flesh, being the children of their
father the devil, for his works they do, but those that are born again -- being
born after the Spirit, after the power of the life of Christ, are thus in Christ
Jesus the seed of the woman, and contend earnestly against the dragon and his
seed. Here, too, the great fact of the sufferings of Christ is clearly foretold
-- "Thou shalt bruise his heel." Within the compass of those words we find the
whole story of our Lord's sorrows from Bethlehem to Calvary. "It shall bruise
thy head": there is the breaking of Satan's regal power, there is the clearing
away of sin, there is the destruction of death by resurrection, there is the
leading of captivity captive in the ascension, there is the victory of truth in
the world through the descent of the Spirit, and there is the latter-day glory
in which Satan shall be bound, and there is, lastly, the casting of the evil one
and all his followers into the lake of fire. The conflict and the conquest are
both in the compass of these few fruitful words. They may not have been fully
understood by those who first heard them, but to us they are now full of light.
The text at first looks like a flint, hard and cold; but sparks fly from it
plentifully, for hidden fires of infinite love and grace lie concealed within.
Over this promise of a gracious God we ought to rejoice exceedingly. We do not
know what our first parents understood by it, but we may be certain that they
gathered a great amount of comfort from it They must have understood that they
were not then and there to be destroyed, because the Lord had spoken of a
"seed." They would argue that it must be needful that Eve should live if there
should be a seed from her. They understood, too, that if that seed was to
overcome the serpent and bruise his head, it must auger good to themselves: they
could not fail to see that there was some great, some mysterious benefit to be
conferred upon them by the victory which their seed would achieve over the
instigator of their ruin. They went on in faith upon this, and were comforted in
travail and in toil, and I doubt not both Adam and his wife in the faith thereof
entered into everlasting rest. This morning I intend to handle this text in
three ways. First, we shall notice its facts; secondly, we shall consider the
experience within the heart of each believer which tallies to those facts; and
then, thirdly, the encouragement which the text and its connection as a whole
afford to us.I. THE FACTS. The facts are four, and I call your earnest attention
to them. The first is Enmity was excited. The text begins, "I will put enmity
between thee and the woman." They had been very friendly; the woman and the
serpent had conversed together. She thought at the time that the serpent was her
friend; and she was so much his friend that she took his advice in the teeth of
God's precept, and was willing to believe bad things of the great Creator,
because this wicked, crafty serpent insinuated the same. Now, at the moment when
God spake, that friendship between the woman and the serpent had already in a
measure come to an end, for she had accused the serpent to God, and said, "The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." So far, so good. The friendship of sinners
does not last long; they have already begun to quarrel, and now the Lord comes
in and graciously takes advantage of the quarrel which had commenced, and says,
"I will carry this disagreement a great deal further, I will put enmity between
thee and the woman." Satan counted on man's descendants being his confederates,
but God would break up this covenant with hell, and raise up a seed which should
war against the Satanic power. This we have here God's first declaration that he
will set up a rival kingdom to oppose the tyranny of sin and Satan, that he will
create in the hearts of a chosen seed an enmity against evil, so that they shall
fight against it, and with many a struggle and pain shall overcome the prince of
darkness. The divine Spirit has abundantly achieved this plan and purpose of the
Lord, combating the fallen angel by a glorious man: making man to be Satan's foe
and conqueror. Henceforth the woman was to hate the evil one, and I do not doubt
that she did so. She had abundant cause for so doing, and as often as she
thought of him it would be with infinite regret that she could have listened to
his malicious and deceitful talk. The woman's seed has also evermore had enmity
against the evil one. I mean not the carnal seed, for Paul tells us, "They which
are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed." The carnal seed of the man
and the woman are not meant, but the spiritual seed, even Christ Jesus and those
who are in him. Wherever you meet these, they hate the serpent with a perfect
hatred. We would if we could destroy from our souls every work of Satan, and out
of this poor afflicted world of ours we would root up every evil which he has
planted. That seed of the woman, that glorious One, -- for he speaks not of
seeds as of many but of seed that is one, -- you know how he abhorred the devil
and all his devices. There was enmity between Christ and Satan, for he came to
destroy the works of the devil and to deliver those who are under bondage to
him. For that purpose was he born; for that purpose did he live; for that
purpose did he die; for that purpose he has gone into the glory, and for that
purpose he will come again, that everywhere he may find out his adversary and
utterly destroy him and his works form amongst the sons of men. This putting of
the enmity between the two seeds was the commencement of the plan of mercy, the
first act in the programme of grace. Of the woman's seed it was henceforth said,
"Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."Then comes the second
prophecy, which has also turned into a fact, namely the coming of the champion.
The seed of the woman by promise is to champion the cause, and oppose the
dragon. That seed is the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet Micah saith, "But thou,
Bethlehem Ephratah; though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out
of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up,
until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth." To none other than
the babe which was born in Bethlehem of the blessed Virgin can the words of the
prophecy refer. She it was who did conceive and bear a son, and it is concerning
her son that we sing, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace." On the memorable night at Bethlehem, when angels
sang in heaven, the seed of the woman appeared, and as soon as ever he saw the
light the old serpent, the devil, entered into the heart of Herod if possible to
slay him, but the Father preserved him, and suffered none to lay hands on him.
As soon as he publicly came forward upon the stage of action, thirty years
after, Satan met him foot to foot. You know the story of the temptation in the
wilderness, and how there the woman's seed fought with him who was a liar from
the beginning. The devil assailed him thrice with all the artillery of flattery,
malice, craft and falsehood, but the peerless champion stood unwounded, and
chased his foeman from the field. Then our Lord set up his kingdom, and called
one and another unto him, and carried the war into the enemy's country. In
divers places he cast out devils. He spake to the wicked and unclean spirit and
said, "I charge thee come out of him," and the demon was expelled. Legions of
devils flew before him: they sought to hide themselves in swine to escape from
the terror of his presence. "Art thou come to torment us before our time?" was
their cry when the wonder-working Christ dislodged them from the bodies which
they tormented. Yea, and he made his own disciples mighty against the evil one,
for in his name they cast out devils, till Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as
lightning fall from heaven." Then there came a second personal conflict, for I
take it that Gethsemane's sorrows were to a great degree caused by a personal
assault of Satan, for our Master said, "This is your hour, and the power of
darkness." He said also, "The Prince of this world cometh." What a struggle it
was. Though Satan had nothing in Christ, yet did he seek if possible to lead him
away from completing his great sacrifice, and there did our Master sweat as it
were great drops of blood, falling to the ground, in the agony which it cost him
to contend with the fiend. Then it was that our Champion began the last fight of
all and won it to the bruising of the serpent's head. Nor did he end till he had
spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly. "Now is the
hour of darkness past,Christ has assumed his reigning power;Behold the great
accuser castDown from his seat to reign no more."The conflict our glorious Lord
continues in his seed. We preach Christ crucified, and every sermon shakes the
gates of hell. We bring sinners to Jesus by the Spirit's power, and every
convert is a stone torn down from the wall of Satan's mighty castle. Yea, and
the day shall come when everywhere the evil one shall be overcome, and the words
of John in the Revelation shall be fulfilled. "And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole
world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." Thus
did the Lord God in the words of our text promise a champion who should be the
seed of the woman, between whom and Satan there should be war for ever and ever:
that champion has come, the man-child has been born, and thought the dragon is
wroth with the woman, and made war with the remnant of her seed which keep the
testimony of Jesus Christ, yet the battle is the Lord's, and the victory falleth
unto him whose name is Faithful and True, who in righteousness doth judge and
make war.The third fact which comes out in the text, though not quite in that
order, is that our Champion's heel should be bruised. Do you need that I explain
this? You know how all his life long his heel, that is, his lower part, his
human nature, was perpetually being made to suffer. He carried our sicknesses
and sorrows. But the bruising came mainly when both in body and in mind his
whole human nature was made to agonize; when his soul was exceeding sorrowful
even unto death, and his enemies pierced his hands and his feet, and he endured
the shame and pain of death by crucifixion. Look at your Master and your King
upon the cross, all disdained with blood and dust! There was his heel most
cruelly bruised. When they take down that precious body and wrap it in fair
white linen and in spices, and lay it in Joseph's tomb, they weep as they handle
the casket in which the Deity had dwelt, for there again Satan had bruised his
heel. It was not merely that God had bruised him, "though it pleased the Father
to bruise him," but the devil had let loose Herod, and Pilate, and Caiaphas, and
the Jews, and the Romans, all of them his tools, upon him whom he knew to be the
Christ, so that he was bruised of the old serpent. That is all, however! It is
only his heel, not his head, which is bruised! For lo, the Champion rises again;
the bruise was not mortal nor continual. Though he dies, yet still so brief is
the interval in which he slumbers in the tomb that his holy body hath not seen
corruption, and he comes forth perfect and lovely in his manhood, rising from
his grave as from a refreshing sleep after so long a day of unresting toil! Oh
the triumph of that hour! As Jacob only halted on his thigh when he overcame the
angel, so did Jesus only retain a scar in his heel, and that he bears to the
skies as his glory and beauty. Before the throne he looks like a lamb that has
been slain, but in the power of an endless life he liveth unto God.Then comes
the fourth fact, namely, that while his heel was being bruised, he was to bruise
the serpent's head. The figure represents the dragon as inflicting an injury
upon the champion's heel, but at the same moment the champion himself with that
heel crushes in the head of the serpent with fatal effect. By his sufferings
Christ has overthrown Satan, by the heel that was bruised he has trodden upon
the head which devised the bruising."Lo, by the sons of hell he dies;But as he
hangs twixt earth and skies,He gives their prince a fatal blow,And triumphs o'er
the powers belowThough Satan is not dead, my brethren, I was about to say, would
God he were, and though he is not converted, and never will be, nor will the
malice of his heart ever be driven from him, yet Christ has so far broken his
head that he has missed his mark altogether. He intended to make the human race
the captives of his power, but they are redeemed from his iron yoke. God has
delivered many of them, and the day shall come when he will cleanse the whole
earth from the serpent's slimy trail, so that the entire world shall be full of
the praises of God. He thought that this world would be the arena of his victory
over God and good, instead of which it is already the grandest theatre of divine
wisdom, love, grace, and power. Even heaven itself is not so resplendent with
mercy as the earth is, for here it is the Saviour poured out his blood, which
cannot be said even of the courts of paradise above. Moreover he thought, no
doubt, that when he had led our race astray and brought death upon them, he had
effectually marred the Lord's work. He rejoiced that they would all pass under
the cold seal of death, and that their bodies would rot in the sepulchre. Had he
not spoiled the handiwork of his great Lord? God may make man as a curious
creature with intertwisted veins and blood and nerves, and sinews and muscles,
and he may put into his nostrils the breath of life; but, "Ah," saith Satan, "I
have infused a poison into him which will make him return to the dust from which
he was taken." but now, behold, our Champion whose heel was bruised has risen
from the dead, and given us a pledge that all his followers shall rise form the
dead also. Thus is Satan foiled, for death shall not retain a bone, nor a piece
of a bone, of one of those who belonged to the woman's seed. At the trump of the
archangel from the earth and from the sea they shall arise, and this shall be
their shout, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Satan, knowing this, feels already that by the resurrection his head is broken.
Glory be to the Christ of God for this! In multitudes of other ways the devil
has been vanquished by our Lord Jesus, and so shall he ever be till he shall be
cast into the lake of fire.II. Let us now view OUR EXPERIENCE AS IT TALLIES WITH
THESE FACTS. Now, brothers and sisters, we were by nature, as many of us as have
been saved, the heirs of wrath even as others. It does not matter how godly our
parents were, the first birth brought us no spiritual life, for the promise is
not to them which are born of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will
of man, but only to those who are born of God, "That which is born of the flesh
is flesh"; you cannot make anything else and there it abides, and the flesh, or
carnal mind, abideth in death; "it is not reconciled to God, neither indeed can
be." He who is born into this world but once, and knows nothing of the new
birth, must place himself among the seed of the serpent, for only by
regeneration can we know ourselves to be the true seed. How does God deal with
us who are his called and chosen ones? He means to save us, and how does he work
to that end?The first thing he does is, he comes to us in mercy, and puts enmity
between us and the serpent. That is the very first work of grace. There was
peace between us and Satan once; when he tempted we yielded; whatever he taught
us we believed; we were his willing slaves. But perhaps you, my brethren, can
recollect when first of all you began to fell uneasy and dissatisfied; the
world's pleasures no longer pleased you; all the juice seemed to have been taken
out of the apple, and you had nothing at all. Then you suddenly perceived that
you were living in sin, and you were miserable about it, and though you could
not get rid of sin yet you hated it, and sighed over it, and cried, and groaned.
In your heart of hearts you remained no longer on the side of evil, for you
began to cry, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?" You were already from of old in the covenant of grace ordained to
be the woman's seed, and now the decree began to discover itself in life
bestowed upon you and working in you. The Lord in infinite mercy dropped the
divine life into your soul. You did not know it, but there it was, a spark of
the celestial fire, the living and incorruptible seed which abideth for ever.
You began to hate sin, and you groaned under it as under a galling yoke; more
and more it burdened you, you could not bear it. So it was with you: is it so
now? Is there still enmity between you and the serpent? Indeed you are more and
more the sworn enemies of evil, and you willingly acknowledge it.Then came the
champion: that is to say, "Christ was formed in you the hope of glory." You
heard of him and you understood the truth about him, and it seemed a wonderful
thing that he should be your substitute and stand in your room and place and
stead, and bear your sin and all its curse and punishment, and that he should
give his righteousness, yea, and his very self, to you that you might be saved.
Ah, then you saw how sin could be overthrown, did you not? As soon as your heart
understood Christ then you saw that what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, Christ was able to accomplish, and that the power of sin
and Satan under which you had been in bondage, and which you now loathed, could
and would be broken and destroyed because Christ had come into he world to
overcome it.Next, do you recollect how you were led to see the bruising of
Christ's heel and to stand in wonder and observe what the enmity of the serpent
had wrought in him? Did you no begin to feel the bruised heel yourself? Did not
sin torment you? Did not the very thought of it vex you? Did not your own heart
become a plague to you? Did not Satan begin to tempt you? Did he not inject
blasphemous thoughts, and urge you on to desperate measures; did he not teach
you to doubt the existence of God, and the mercy of God, and the possibility of
your salvation, and so on? This was his nibbling at your heel. He is at his old
tricks still. He worries whom he can't devour with a malicious joy. Did not your
worldly friends begin to annoy you? Did they not give you the cold shoulder
because they saw something about you so strange and foreign to their tastes? Did
they not impute your conduct to fanaticism, pride, obstinacy, bigotry, and the
like? Ah, this persecution is the serpent's seed beginning to discover the
woman's seed, and to carry on the old war. What does Paul say? "But as then he
that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now." True godliness is an unnatural and strange thing to them,
and they cannot away with it Though there are no stakes in Smithfield, nor racks
in the Tower, yet the enmity of the human heart towards Christ and his seed is
just the same, and very often shows itself in "trials of cruel mockings" which
to the tender hearts are very hard to bear. Well, this is your heel being
bruised in sympathy with the bruising of the heel of the glorious seed of the
woman.But, brethren, do you know something of the other fact, namely, that we
conquer, for the serpent's head is broken in us? How say you? Is not the power
and dominion of sin broken in you? Do you not feel that you cannot sin because
you are born of God? Some sins which were masters of you once, do not trouble
you now. I have known a man guilty of profane swearing, and from the moment of
his conversion he has never had any difficulty in the matter. We have known a
man snatched from drunkenness, and the cure by divine grace has been very
wonderful and complete. We have known persons delivered from unclean living, and
they have at once become chaste and pure, because Christ has smitten the old
dragon such blows that he could not have power over them in that respect. The
chosen seed sin and mourn it, but they are not slaves to sin; their heart goeth
not after it they have to say sometimes "the thing I do," but they are wretched
when it is so. They consent with their heart to the law of God that it is good,
and they sigh and cry that they may be helped to obey it, for they are no longer
under the slavery of sin; the serpent's reigning power and dominion is broken in
them. It is broken next in this way, that the guilt of sin is gone. The great
power of the serpent lies in unpardoned sin. He cries "l have make you guilty: I
brought you under the curse." No," say we, "we are delivered from the curse and
are now blessed, for it is written, Blessed is the man whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered.' We are no longer guilty, for who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Since Christ hath justified, who is he
that condemneth? Here is a swinging blow for the old dragon's head, such as he
never will recover.Oftentimes the Lord also grants us to know what it is to
overcome temptation, and so to break the dead of the fiend, Satan allures us
with many baits; he has studied our points well he knows the weakness of the
flesh: but many and many a time blessed be God, we have foiled him completely to
his eternal shame! The devil must have felt himself mean that day when he tried
to overthrow Job, dragged him down to a dunghill, robbed him of everything,
covered him with sores, and yet could not make him yield. Job conquered when he
cried, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him." A feeble man had vanquished
a devil who could raise the wind and blow down a house, and destroy the family
who were feasting in it. Devil as he is, and crowned prince of the power of the
air, yet the poor bereaved patriarch sitting on the dunghill covered with sores,
being one of the woman's seed, through the strength of the inner life won the
victory over him."Ye sons of God oppose his rage.Resist, and he'll be gone:Thus
did our dearest Lord engageAnd vanquish him alone."Moreover, dear brethren, we
have this hope that the very being of sin in us will be destroyed. The day will
come when we shall be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; and we shall
stand before the throne of God, having suffered no injury whatever from the fall
and from all the machinations of Satan, for are "they are without fault before
the throne of God." What triumph that will be! "The Lord will tread Satan under
your feet shortly." When he has made you perfect and free from all sin, as he
will do, you will have bruised the serpent's head indeed.And your resurrection,
too, when Satan shall see you come up from the grave like one that has been
perfumed in a bath of spices, when he shall see you arise in the image of
Christ, with the same body which was sown in corruption and weakness raised in
incorruption and power, then will he feel an infinite chagrin, and know that his
head is bruised by the woman's seed.I ought to add that every time any one of us
is made useful in saving souls we do as it were repeat the bruising of the
serpent's head. When you go, dear sister, among those poor children, and pick
them up from the gutters, where they are Satan's prey, where he finds the raw
material for thieves and criminals, and when through your means, by the grace of
God, the little wonderers become children of the living God, then you in your
measure bruise the old serpent's head, I pray you do not spare him. When we by
preaching the gospel turn sinners from the error of their ways, so that they
escape from the power of darkness, again we bruise the serpent's head. Whenever
in any shape of way you are blessed to the aiding of the cause of truth and
righteousness in the world, you, too, who were once beneath his power, and even
now have sometimes to suffer from his nibbling at your heel, you tread upon his
head. In all deliverances and victories you overcome, and prove the promise
true, -- "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the
dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love upon me,
therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high, because he hath known my
name."III. Let us speak awhile upon THE ENCOURAGEMENT which our text and the
context yields to us; for it seems to me to abound.I want you, brethren, to
exercise faith in the promise and be comforted. The text evidently encouraged
Adam very much. I do not think we have attached enough importance to the conduct
of Adam after the Lord had spoken to him. Notice the simple but conclusive proof
which he gave of his faith. Sometimes an action may be very small and
unimportant, and yet, as a straw shows which way the wind blows, it may display
at once, if it be thought over, the whole state of the man's mind. Adam acted in
faith upon what God had said, for we read, "And Adam called his wife's name Eve
(or Life); because she was the mother of all living" (verse 20). She was not a
mother at all, but as the life was to come through her by virtue of the promised
seed, Adam marks his full conviction of the truth of the promise though at the
time the woman had borne no children. There stood Adam, fresh from the awful
presence of God, what more could he say? He might have said with the Prophet,
"My flesh trembleth fro the fear of thee," but even then he turns round to his
fellow-culprit as she stands there trembling too, and he calls her Eve, mother
of the life that is yet to be. It was grandly spoken by Father Adam: it makes
him rise in our esteem. Had he been left to himself he would have murmured or at
least despaired, but no, his faith in the new promise gave him hope. He uttered
no word of repining against the condemnation to till with toil the unthankful
ground, nor on Eve's part was there a word of repining over the appointed
sorrows of motherhood; they each accept the well-deserved sentence with the
silence which denotes the perfection of their resignation; their only word is
full of simple faith. There was no child on whom to set their hopes, nor would
the true seed be born for an age, still Eve is to be the mother of all the
living, and he calls her so. Exercise like faith, my brother, on the far wider
revelation which God has given to you, and always extract the utmost comfort
from it. Make a point, whenever you receive a promise from God, to get all you
can out of it if you carry out that rule, it is wonderful what comfort you will
gain. Some go on the principle of getting as little as possible out of God's
word. I believe that such a plan is the proper way with a man's word; always
understand it at the minimum, because that is what he means; but God's word is
to be understood at the maximum, for he will do exceeding abundantly above what
you ask or even think. Notice by way of further encouragement that we may regard
our reception of Christ's righteousness as an installment of the final overthrow
of the devil. The twenty-first verse says, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did
the Lord God made coats of skins, and clothed them." A very condescending,
thoughtful, and instructive deed of divine love! God heard what Adam said to his
wife, and saw that he was a believer, and so he comes and gives him the type of
the perfect righteousness, which is the believer's portion -- he covered him
with lasting raiment. No more fig leaves, which were a mere mockery, but a close
fitting garment which had been procured through the death of a victim; the Lord
brings that and puts it on him, and Adam could no more say, "I am naked." How
could he, for God had clothed him. Now, beloved, let us take out of the promise
that is given us concerning our Lord's conquest over the devil this one item and
rejoice in it, for Christ has delivered us from the power of the serpent who
opened our eyes and told us we were naked, by covering us from head to foot with
a righteousness which adorns and protects us, so that we are comfortable in
heart, and beautiful in the sight of God, and are no more ashamed.Next, by way
of encouragement in pursuing the Christian life, I would say to young people,
expect to be assailed. If you have fallen into trouble through being a
Christian, be encouraged by it; do not at all regret of fear it, but rejoice ye
in that day, and leap for joy, for this is the constant token of the covenant.
There is enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent still,
and if you did not experience any of it you might begin to fear that you were on
the wrong side. Now that you smart under the sneer of sarcasm and oppression
rejoice and triumph, for now are ye partakers with the glorious seed of the
woman in the bruising of his heel.Still further encouragement comes from this.
Your suffering as a Christian is not brought upon you for your own sake; ye are
partners with the great seed of the woman, ye are confederates with Christ. You
must not think the devil cares much about you: the battle is against Christ in
you. When, if you were not in Christ, the devil would never trouble you. When
you were without Christ in the world you might have sinned as you like, your
relatives and workmates would not have been at all grieved with you, they would
rather have joined you in it; but now the serpent's seed hates Christ in you.
This exalts the sufferings of persecution to a position far above all common
afflictions. I have heard of a woman who was condemned to death in the Marian
days, and before her time came to be burned a child was born to her, and she
cried out in her sorrow. A wicked adversary, who stood by said, "how will you
bear to die for your religion if you make such ado?" "Ah," she said, "Now I
suffer in my own person as a woman, but then I shall not suffer, but Christ in
me." Nor were these idle words, for she bore her martyrdom with exemplary
patience, and rose in her chariot of fire in holy triumph to heaven. If Christ
be in you, nothing will dismay you, but you will overcome the world, the flesh,
and the devil by faith.Last of all, let us resist the devil always with this
belief that he has received a broken head. I am inclined to think that Luther's
way of laughing at the devil was a very good one, for he is worthy of shame and
everlasting contempt. Luther once threw and inkstand at his head when he was
tempting him very sorely, and though the act itself appears absurd enough, yet
it was a true type of what that greater reformer was all his life long, for the
books he wrote were truly a flinging of the inkstand at the head of the fiend.
That is what we have to do: we are to resist him by all means. Let us do this
bravely, and tell him to his teeth that we are not afraid of him. Tell him to
recollect his bruised head, which he tries to cover with a crown of pride, or
with a popish cowl, or with an infidel doctor's hood. We know him, and see the
deadly wound he bears. His power is gone; he is fighting a lost battle; he is
contending against omnipotence. He has set himself against the oath of the
Father; against the blood of the incarnate Son; against the eternal power and
Godhead of the blessed Spirit, all of which are engaged in the defence of the
seed of the woman in the day of battle. Therefore, brethren, be ye steadfast in
resisting the evil one being strong in faith, giving glory to God."Tis by thy
blood, immortal Lamb,Thine armies tread the tempter down;"tis by thy word and
powerful nameThey gain the battle and renown."Rejoice ye heavens; let every
starShine with new glories round the sky;Saints, while ye sing the heavenly
war,Raise your Deliverer's name on high."PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON
-- Genesis 3.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 335, 477, 322.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/spurgeons-sermons-volume-22-1876/
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