In this sermon, the speaker discusses the curse that Satan received from God after Adam and Eve's fall in the Garden of Eden. The curse includes enmity between Satan's seed and the seed of the woman. The speaker emphasizes Satan's strategy to prevent the emergence of the one who will defeat him, while God's strategy is to turn Satan's plan back on his head. The sermon also highlights the importance of the virgin birth and how Satan cannot defeat believers but can deceive them into defeating themselves.

Tonight, what we're going to talk about is a, get sort of a bird's-eye view of a portion of God's plan. Turn to Genesis chapter 3 beginning at verse 15. Now, we're all pretty familiar with the account with where Adam and Eve fell. I mean, even if you don't know the Bible, you probably know something about that, where the serpent or Satan tempts Eve and she's deceived, but then Adam deliberately rebels. When the fall happened, the Lord pronounced a series of curses. He first cursed Satan or the serpent. Next, he cursed the woman. Finally, he cursed Adam himself. Now, what we want to take a look at is a portion of this curse that Satan received at the hands of God. Genesis chapter 3 beginning at verse 15. Take a look there. It says, and I will put enmity, everybody know what enmity is? Hatred. I'll put hatred between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your heel, excuse me, he shall bruise your head. Now, when he says he shall bruise your head, he's making a singular reference to the woman's seed. He's saying a descendant of the woman is going to come and bruise your head. And when it talks about a bruise your head, it doesn't mean just like a bump on the head. It's talking about a death blow. However, it says, and you shall bruise his heel. So, basically, what God was promising Satan at that moment was his doom. God was promising Satan, there's going to come a descendant from the woman, and that woman is going to deliver a death blow to you, Satan, although you will hurt him. You will bruise his heel, not a death wound, but you will deliver some damage to him, but he will deliver a death blow to you. Now, one other thing you have to notice about this, who was present when the Lord pronounced this curse? Eve and Adam and Satan. Okay, everybody heard this, right? Adam, Eve, the whole population of the earth was present at that time when they heard this. Everybody heard this curse that was pronounced upon Satan. So, I want you to think, first off, what Satan would have thought about that, and secondly, what Eve would have thought about it. What Satan thinks immediately is, this is how I'm going to get wiped out. Is there anything I can do to stop this? Is there anything I can do to stop the seed of the woman from delivering this death blow to me? Now, on the one hand, you might say, well, Satan, there's nothing you can do to stop it. Logically, it's God's promise, it's going to come to pass, just forget about it. But we're not dealing with Satan necessarily as a logical being in this. Just like anybody else in that regard, I suppose he has an instinct for survival, and he will want to do whatever he can to preserve his own life. So, what will he do to prevent this death blow to his head? He will try to prevent the seed of the woman from emerging and being able to deliver it to him. Now, what would you think if you were Eve and you heard this? You'd think, wow, so there's going to come out some descendant from me. Let's see what happens. Now, I want you to go to Genesis chapter 4, verse 1. Now, Adam knew Eve, his wife, knew there is a biblical euphemism for having sexual relations. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Let me tell you more literally what she said in the Hebrew. I have gotten the man from the Lord. When Cain was born, what did Eve think? This is the seed of the woman. This is the guy. He's the guy. Cain is the man. He's the guy that the Lord promised. Hallelujah, Lord. You promised that my seed would deliver a death blow to Satan. And now I can see it. This is the guy. He's my seed. He's going to grow up. He's going to be the one to develop a death blow to Satan. Now, I don't know exactly how Satan knew this, but it seems intrinsic to his plan. Perhaps he knew it from his own personal experience. But he knew that there would have to be one characteristic of this person who delivered a death blow to him. After all, why couldn't Adam do it? If anybody could just step up to the plate and deliver the death blow to Satan, why couldn't Adam do it? Well, because the answer is, not anybody could do it. What did you have to have as a qualification in order to deliver this death blow to Satan? Anybody want to venture a guess? No sin. Adam was disqualified. If you had the spot of sin on you, if your holiness was diminished in any regard, you were unfit to deliver this death blow to Satan. Now, I don't know exactly how Satan guessed this, but I can suppose that he knew that because he was once a holy being who fell, that it would take a holy being to defeat him. Perhaps he just knew this intrinsically. He couldn't have another fallen creature defeat him. It would have to be someone who was holy as he was. Now, what's Satan's strategy against Cain? The man. The one of whom Eve said, I've gotten the man from the Lord. I'm gonna trip him up, Satan says. I'm going to disqualify him from being the one who can deliver that death blow to my head. Now, Satan didn't know for certain that Cain was not the one that the Lord was talking about, but he wasn't taking any chances. So, look what Satan does against Cain. Verse 2, Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now, Abel was the keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought the firstlings of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel in his offering, but he did not respect Cain in his offering, and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. So, the Lord said to Cain, why are you so angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Now, Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose against Abel, his brother, and killed him. At that moment, not only was Abel dead, but you know something died in the heart of Eve, too. She knew no way could this man be the seed that is going to deliver us from this stain of sin. Satan was there to entice people to sin and to disqualify Cain as the one who would defeat Satan. So, let's keep this in mind as we take a look at Satan's strategy now. Now, Cain goes on, and Adam and Eve have another son named Seth, and they have other sons and daughters, and they marry, and they multiply the earth. Now, how does Satan know who his potential destroyer is? Anybody got a clue who he would know who his potential destroyer is? It could be anybody. All he knows is that it's a descendant of Eve. That's all he knows about it. God has not narrowed the pool at all. So, what's Satan's strategy? He wants to corrupt the entire human race. Let's spread corruption as broad as he can, and that's what he does in the whole period between Adam and Noah. Take a look at Genesis chapter 6 verse 1. Now, it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Now, I'm not going to get into the whole debate on this passage here. I'm just going to tell you what I honestly believe from a careful study of Scripture, what it says. And this may sound frightening, or morbid, or terrible to some of you, but I think it's what the Bible teaches. That in this case here, in the book of Genesis, there was some kind of very strange, very bizarre sexual coupling between demonic beings, who are referred to as sons of God here, and human women. And the human women bore children, and these children were these, in some regard, freakish offspring, known as the giants, who ruled the land in that day, or who were well known on the earth in that day. Now, we could get into all the reasons why I believe this, or how this is possible, and so forth and so on. If you have questions about it, ask it later. We'll give time to talk about this and explain it more at the end. But what I want you to get at is that this is a very deliberate attempt by Satan to corrupt the gene pool. And I'll show you exactly what I mean by that. What's the remedy God has to use to fix this situation? He has to wipe out everybody, with the exception of one man and his immediate children. That man is Noah. And I want you to see what it says about Noah in Genesis chapter 6 verse 9. It says, this is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. What does that mean? Perfect in his generations. Now, it might be imposing a 20th century scientific understanding, but with our terminology today, you could translate the idea behind that, Noah was pure in his genetic makeup, perhaps in contrast to everybody else on the face of the earth, because of this co-mingling with demonic beings. Do you see what Satan's strategy was? He knows that the person who's going to defeat him is going to come from the sons of men and the daughters of men. And if there's any way he can defeat it, he says, listen, I can corrupt the whole human race genetically so that a fit deliverer cannot come from them. And that's exactly what he set out to do. And he almost succeeded. But before he completely corrupted the human race, God chose a man who was still perfect in his generations. In other words, pure in his genetic makeup. And that, as much as anything, is why God chose Noah and his immediate descendants to be preserved on that ark. And folks, that's why God had to wipe out the rest of the earth at that time. Some people think God was just in a bad mood or something like that. And why was his judgment so much more strict then? No, folks, this was for the absolute survival of the human race. And so this deliverer could come forth. What else is interesting about this? Jude, verse 6. Now, I'm going to read the whole verse and then I'm going to talk about the end part of these two verses first. Then I'll come back and talk about the beginning. It says, Who are the these? The angels mentioned in verse 6. What's the similarity between the angels and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah? Take a look at the end of verse 7. Having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh. Okay? Now, what did God do with those angels who did that? Verse 6. He set them in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. You know what I want you to think about? God saw what Satan tried to do in corrupting the genetic makeup in the days of Noah. And so that wouldn't happen again. What did God do? He imprisoned those guilty angels so that they could not do the same thing that they did before in the days of Noah. And probably, I would say, that angels or demonic spirits today are incapable of doing what they did in the days of Noah. Because God has imprisoned those angels. Now, even to this present day, there are weird associations with corrupt and profane sexuality and the occult and the demonic. But nothing exactly like what we read in Genesis chapter 6. And I believe it's for a specific purpose. Because God says, listen, if I allowed this to happen again in another, you know, 10 or 15 or 20 generations, I'd have to wipe out the earth again. Because the same corruption would come in again and again. That's why God imprisoned those angels. But what is God... I want you to see here, and this is the theme we're going to be looking at over and over again. What's Satan's strategy? To keep the one who's going to defeat him from emerging. What's God's strategy? To turn Satan's plan back on his head every time. Okay, let's turn back to a Genesis chapter 12 now and see how this continues on. Now, once Noah got on that boat and God destroyed the rest of the world, what did Satan then know about his conqueror? He's going to come from Noah. But then what happened after Noah's time? The population of the earth exploded again. And what was Satan stuck with? It could be anybody. Who knows who it's going to be? But then God did something that really helped Satan out here in Genesis chapter 12, beginning verse 1. Now, the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your kindred and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, you and I, just at a first reading of that, don't really understand all what that means. But as soon as God spoke it to Abraham, Satan knew exactly what it meant. What is one blessing that could extend to everybody on earth? The defeat of Satan. And in part, that's what God's talking about when he talks about this blessing coming to all of earth. And right there, Satan knew. And we find out, as we continue to study Scripture, that what God was talking about there is that this deliverer, this conqueror of Satan, is going to come from the family of Abraham. He's going to come from Abraham. Satan said, hot dog. They had a wonderful strategy station in hell right there, and they said, Abraham, this guy, focus on him. Because it's from him that my conqueror is going to come. Look what happened in the very same chapter beginning at verse 10. Now, there was a famine in the land, and Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai, his wife, indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say, this is his wife, and they will kill me, and they will let you live. Please say that you're my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you. So it was when Abraham came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. He treated Abraham well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, and male and female servants, female donkeys and camels. But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abraham's wife. And Pharaoh called to Abraham and said, what is this you've done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here's your wife, take her and go your way. So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. You see what Satan was trying to do right there? Because not only when the Lord raised up Abraham and pointed out to Abraham, was Abraham a marked man, who else was? His wife Sarai. Because I'll tell you one thing, Abraham wasn't going to produce this descendant all on his own. It was going to be through his wife. And so what does Satan say? Look, let's snatch his wife away from him. And so he tempts Abraham to give in to unbelief. He moves upon the heart of Pharaoh and upon the heart of the people in Egypt to take him and to try to bring him into the Pharaoh's concubine. But before Pharaoh can corrupt the womb of Sarah, God steps in and miraculously intervenes. Because I tell you, and I don't want to sound crass, but that womb is reserved for a very special purpose. To bring forth that deliverer, or the ancestor of that deliverer. God has a special calling for that. It doesn't matter how Satan focuses his attack, God's going to bring forth that plan. Well, what's interesting is, turn to Genesis chapter 20, same thing happens again. Except there's a time span between Genesis 12 and Genesis 20 of some 20-25 years. And what's going on in those 25 years or so, is that during that period of time, the promise for bringing that deliverer, the promise for bringing that descendant, is coming much, much closer. And as it comes very close now in Genesis chapter 20, we're not going to go through the whole chapter, but there's a very similar occurrence, except Abraham is among some Canaanite tribes, a guy named Abimelech, and the same thing kind of happens. Abraham says, say you're my sister, and she says you're his sister, and he goes into the harem of another man. But before this man can defile Sarah, God miraculously intervenes and brings back Sarah to Abraham. And you see God, again, protecting this womb, because it has a special purpose. And you see Satan trying to corrupt it, because he knows that this is a pivotal player in God's plan against him. Now, I want you to see a third one, Genesis chapter 26. Abraham and Sarah eventually had the child, right? And the name was Isaac. Now what does Satan know? Satan down there, and in the big chalkboard in Satan's headquarters. By the way, Satan's headquarters are not in hell. Do we all appreciate that? Satan will not be the ruler of hell. He does not run his business out of hell. He's going to be a prisoner in hell. He's going to be tortured in hell. But wherever Satan runs his business out of, he took a big blackboard up there, and he got together all of his lieutenants, and he had up there, the first name was Adam and Eve. And he scratched that one out. Then there was Cain. He scratched out Cain. Then there was Noah. And he couldn't really do anything with Noah. You know, he had this big plan between Cain and Noah, and it didn't work. God defeated it. And God saw it through with Noah. And then there was Abraham. And then he crosses out Abraham. And then what's the next name up there? Isaac. So what does he do here? Genesis chapter 26. Now there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, and Gerar. Verse 6. So Isaac dwelt in Gerar, and the men of the place asked him about his wife. And he said, She is my sister. For he was afraid to say, She is my wife, because he thought less the men of this place should kill me for Rebekah, for she is beautiful to behold. Well, the same thing happens. Verse 9. Then Abimelech called out Isaac and said, Quite obviously she is your wife. How could you say she's my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I said, lest I die in account of her. And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Again, putting the God-turning Satan strategy back upon himself. But again, we see the same strategy, don't we? Now, we have, going down here, Abraham. He's crossed out. Isaac. He's crossed out. Then Isaac has kids, right? Who are Jacob and Esau. Satan figures out which one of them inherits the promise of Abraham, right? And it is Jacob. Jacob's the next one on the list. Big circle around Jacob. Then God throws Satan a curve. Jacob has how many sons? Twelve. Which one is it? You know, there you go. You got all twelve sons. He knows that his conqueror is going to come from one of those twelve sons. Maybe it is one of those twelve sons. Maybe it's just a descendant of one of those twelve sons. But this line of the Messiah passes through one of those twelve. Which one is it? Satan doesn't know what to do. So, he attacks the whole family, but later, God plays his hand out and shows Satan which one it is. Turn to Genesis chapter 49. We're going to turn back to Genesis 38 in a minute, but just take a look at Genesis 49 here, verse 10. Here, Jacob is blessing his sons, and notice what he says about one of his sons, verse 10. Start at verse 8 here. He's talking about Judah. Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Interesting, what does the name Judah mean? Anybody know? Praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down. He lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the people. Now, again, you and I might not see it at first glance, but as soon as Jacob spoke those words, and as soon as Satan knew that they were inspired of the Lord, and as soon as Satan knew that they were inspired of the Lord, and as soon as Satan says, aha, and he goes down to his organizational chart, and he draws a big circle around Judah. Big circle. Judah's the one. The scepter will not depart from Judah. In other words, he's going to be the ruler, and as Satan has learned more about who this conqueror, who this deliverer is going to be, he knew it was going to be a ruler. Someone who would rule over God's people. And he knew that this prophecy about Shiloh, and that there would not be a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. Very interesting prophecy, saying that there would be someone from Judah ruling over Israel until Shiloh comes. Shiloh here is a prophetic reference to who? Jesus Christ. What was very interesting was, for thousands of years, there was somebody from the tribe of Judah in some sort of leadership capability over Israel, up until the years when Jesus was a young boy. And when Jesus was a young boy, the Romans stripped the Jews of any real political power. Before that, they were given a measure of self-rule among themselves, but the Romans stripped it, and they denied the Jews the right to execute their own criminals. Only Rome could do that now. And believe it or not, when Jesus was a young boy, there was a group of rabbis who went in mourning through the streets of Jerusalem, because they thought that this promise had been denied. They said, there is no longer a lawgiver from Judah over Israel, and Shiloh has not yet come. What they didn't know was that Jesus was a little boy at the time, and he had come. But anyway, that's secondary. Now Satan knows that it comes through Judah. Now, before this, maybe Satan had a hint, maybe he was just doing a broad attack strategy against all the sons of Jacob he could find. But I want to see what happens in Genesis chapter 38. It came to pass that, at that time, Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua, and he married her and went into her. So she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Ur. She conceived again, thank you, and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. And she conceived yet again, and bore a son, and called his name Shelah. He was a Chezeb when he bore him. Then Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and his name was Tamar. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him. Then Judah said to Onan, go into your brother's wife and marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother. In that day, and in that culture, if a woman died childless, and had no heirs, no one to provide for her in her old age, no one to pass on the family name, it was the responsibility of one of the brothers of her deceased husband to act as a surrogate father, and help that woman conceive a child. But the problem was, was that child would not be the legal descendant of the surviving brother, that child would legally be the descendant of the deceased brother. Okay, but it was his responsibility, so it's to provide for the woman. Going on here, verse 9, but Onan knew that the heir would not be his, and it came to pass when he went into his brother's wife, that he admitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, therefore he killed him also. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow into your father's house until my son Shelah has grown. Okay, so God's killed, struck down two of Judah's sons. Now there's one left, and he's starting to think, what's this woman putting in the coffee of these guys? The Lord's striking him down dead, and he has no intention of allowing his third son to die, and allowing his third son to fulfill the obligation to Tamar. And Tamar went in and dwelt in her father's house. Verse 12, now in the process of time, the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died, and Judah was comforted and went up to his sheep shearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hilrah the Adulamite. And it was told Tamar saying, look your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep. So she took off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given, and he was not, and she was not given to him as a wife. Now when Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face. However, prostitutes dressed in that day and age, that's how she dressed. And she went out soliciting for Judah. Now again, this is her father-in-law. Okay, verse 16. Then he turned to her by the way and said, please let me come into you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. So she said, what will you give me that you may come into me? He said, I will send you a young goat from the flock. And she said, will you give me a pledge till you send it? He said, what pledge shall I give you? And she said, your signet and your cord and the staff that's in your hand. Then he gave them to her, and went into her, and she conceived by him. So she rose and went away, and laid aside her veil, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend Edulamite to receive his pledge from the woman's hand, but he did not find her. Then he asked the men of that place, saying, where is the harlot who is openly by the roadside? And they said, there was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah and said, I could not find her. Also the men of the place said that there's no harlot in this place. Then Judah said, let them take her for himself, lest we be shamed, for I sent the young goat, you have not found her. Okay, what does Judah know? Nothing. He's just went out with a prostitute, and that's it. What does Tamar know? She knows that he has her father-in-law's child. He, she also has what? Her father-in-law's staff and signet ring. Okay, verse 24. And it came to pass about three months after that Judah was told, Tamar, your daughter-in-law has played the harlot. Furthermore, she's with child by harlotry. So Judah said, in that wonderfully self-righteous way that men can do, bring her out and let her be burned. When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law saying, by the man to whom these belong, I am with child. And she said, please determine who these, whose these are, the signet and cord and staff. Now, I have a lot of reason to question the morality of Tamar, but not her street smarts. She knows what she's doing here. And she was pressured into this. Why? Because Judah would not allow his third son to fulfill the proper duty towards her that he was supposed to. That's why she felt justified in doing what she did. Verse 26. So Judah acknowledged them and said, she has been more righteous than I because I did not give her to Shelah, my son, and he never knew her again. Okay, now, that's all things. She has children. Now, that's what I want you to realize. This is Judah. This is the guy through whom the line of the Messiah goes. Now, I'll tell you something else. You know who else it goes through? Tamar. Now, I bet Satan was thinking, aha, I've corrupted it. There's no way that God would allow his conquering Savior to come through such a terrible thing. But you know what? He did. I think Satan thought he won something here. Didn't matter to God. Because I'll tell you who else this line goes through. Later on, when the children of Israel come to the Promised Land, a couple spies are sent out and they meet up with someone named Rahab. And Rahab leaves her life of prostitution behind and ends up marrying one of the princes of the tribe of Judah. And the Messianic line goes right through a prostitute. Not a one-time prostitute like Tamar, but someone who was a working girl. That was her career until she left it behind and became part of Israel. Again, Satan might have thought he won something there. But you know what? Jesus Christ shows, even in his genealogy, how he identifies with sinners. So, those things did not corrupt the line of the Messiah as it came through, even though Satan was attacking. Now, we could talk a lot more about it, but let's come down to 2 Samuel now. 2 Samuel. There were many years that the line of the Messiah remained somewhat obscure. It was narrowed to Abraham, right? Then to Isaac. Then to Jacob. Then it broadened out to one of twelve sons, but God narrowed it again to Judah, right? But as the generations went on, there became thousands of descendants of Judah. Who was it going to be? Who could it be from the descendants of Judah? Well, as it turns out, God pointed that out and made it very clear in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Is that what I told you before? 2 Samuel 7. This is a great chapter. Wow. 2 Samuel 7. Now, it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house. This is King David, a descendant of Judah. And the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around. But the king said to Nathan the prophet, See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. Then Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that's in your heart, for the Lord is with you. Isn't that great? David's sitting there in his nice palace, and he looks out and he sees the tabernacle of God. That tabernacle was a tent. And that's where God's ark of the covenant was. That's where God's presence dwelt. And David said, It ain't right. I don't know if he used bad grammar like that, but he said, It's not right. Here I am in a beautiful building, in a beautiful palace, and God lives in a tent. David wasn't so foolish to think that God actually lived in the tabernacle in that sense. He knew that God could not be contained in any kind of building. But yet, that was the building that symbolized God's presence, and it just wasn't right that it be a tent while David lives in a palace. So David called Nathan the prophet, and he said, Nathan, doggone it, you know what I'm going to do? He said, I'm going to build God a proper house. What does Nathan say? You know what, David? Praise God. Go for it. But, notice here verse 4, But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, Would you build a house for me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places where I have walked with the children of Israel, I have never spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people of Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? It's neat. God sounds surprised. He sounds flattered. He says, David, you want to build me a house? I've been in a tent these hundreds of years, and nobody's ever thought to say, God, you should have a house, not just a tent. It's like God's, in an anthropomorphic, attributing human emotions to God, God's like surprised and saying, Oh, David, you're thinking of me in this way? God's flattered by this. And notice what he says here, verse eight. Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts. I took you from the sheep fold, from following the sheep to be ruler over my people, over Israel. Now I've been with you wherever you have gone and cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name like the name of the great men who are on the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more, nor shall the sons of wickedness suppress them any more as previously. Since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel and caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also, the Lord tells you that he will make you a house. David, you wanted to build me a house. God says, David, I'm going to build you a house. Let's see what he says by this verse 12. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chase him with the rod of men and the blows of the sons of men. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed it from before you. In your house, in your kingdom shall be established for ever before you. Your throne shall be established for ever. If you want to read a great passage, read David's thanksgiving to God in the rest of the chapter. But let me just put it to you plainly like this. David wanted to build God a house. God says, no, I'm going to build you a house. And this house is going to be an everlasting throne. David, through you the line of the Messiah goes. And David was like, really? He couldn't believe how great that would be. Now, what's very interesting about this, what just happened in Satan's headquarters? Whose name just popped up on the blackboard? David. Not that his name wasn't up on the blackboard before. Satan hated David for a long time. But now he put it up there in bold letters and circled it because he knew that through this man, his conqueror was going to come. Somebody tell me what happens in 2 Samuel 11 now, after God makes this great promise to David. What happens in 2 Samuel 11? David and Bathsheba. And Satan is rubbing his hands with glee. I've got him, I've tripped him up, I've thrown confusion into this line. God says that the sword will not depart from his line. I've got him. But you know what? He doesn't. And we'll see how. We'll see how. But you see, Satan's attack became focused more pointedly on David than ever before, as soon as God pointed out that he was the one through whom this line was going to come. Okay. David has sons, right? He has immediate sons. For example here, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 5. We're going to read a little verse talking about David's sons. 2 Samuel 5, verse 14. Well, take a look at verse 13. Start at verse 13. And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he'd come from Hebron. Also more sons and daughters were born to David. Now these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem. Okay, these are his sons. Shemua, Shobab, they don't make names like they used to, did they? Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elusha, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Elephelet. The secret to reading biblical names is just to read them confidently, so that people really think you know how you're pronouncing them. In any regard, what I want you to see by this is simply this. It was narrowed down to David, but then what happens? How many sons are here? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Instantly, it fans out to 11 sons again. Where is Satan going to focus his attack? Well, Satan is no dummy, because Satan is going to focus his attack on whoever gets the throne after David. And who gets the throne after David? Solomon. He's going to focus it on the royal line. Satan's no dummy. He knows that this conqueror is going to be a king, right? And kings just don't come from anywhere. You can't go right now and say, I want to go be the king of England and put in a job application for it. You've got to have a lineage for it. You've got to be an heir. So, Satan is going to focus on the heirs to David's throne. First on Solomon. Did he do a good number on Solomon? You bet Satan did a good number on Solomon. Then on Rehoboam, then going forth, so on and so on. You go down and you see all the descendants of David. Some of them are good, most of them are bad, because Satan's focusing his attack against them, because he hates them, because he knows from these guys my conqueror is going to come, and I'm focusing my attack against them. All the way down to one king named Jehoiakim. Now, this guy named Jehoiakim is mentioned here in Jeremiah chapter 36. I want you to see what the Lord says about Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 36. Now, I want you to understand in the midst of this a very important principle about Satan's strategy. Satan himself cannot defeat God's plan. He's unable to do it. You see, Satan can only win his victories by getting us to defeat God's plan. Not that we defeat it. I don't want to act as if we can actually overcome God's sovereign plan. But you see, God works in partnership with humans. And let me point it out this way. When an evil king from Moab wanted to curse the people of Israel, he called on a prophet named Balaam, and he said, curse these people for me. And Balaam said, what? I can't curse them because God has blessed them. God has blessed these people, I can't curse them. So, Balaam said, I'll give you a lot of money, curse them. Balaam says, okay, I'll prophesy, maybe it'll come out a curse. So, he prophesied over the people of Israel. And what does he prophesy? A blessing. And the king is furious. He goes, I'm paying you good money to curse these people. He says, what can I do? God's blessed them. So, he gives him more money. Do it again, he says. He prophesies again. Blessing or cursing? A blessing. The king's tearing out his hair. I'm paying you to curse these people. No good. One more time, I'll give you a lot of money, you better come up with a curse. But he prophesies rightly from the Lord, and he gives a beautiful prophecy of blessing on Israel. And the king is furious, and he goes, I've given you all this money, you haven't cursed the nation. And what does Balaam say? What can I do? God has blessed these people. But then Balaam says, wait a minute, king. I know how you can get them to be cursed. I can't curse them, but you can get them to curse themselves. Send down your beautiful young women to them, and entice them into sexual immorality, and to sacrifice unto your pagan gods. As they rebel against God in that way, God will judge them. And he will bring a curse upon them for their own actions. Now, do you see what I mean? Satan couldn't defeat God's plan for Israel, but he could get Israel to defeat it themselves. That's what Satan's trying to do. He couldn't just say, stop, to this whole plan, God bringing forth the Messiah. But he could corrupt the individuals in that messianic line, hoping that God would curse them so greatly, that somehow a line would be passed, or a line would be broken. That's exactly what happens here in Jeremiah 36, beginning at verse 30. Thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah, he shall have no one to sit on the throne of David. And his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity. And I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the doom that I have pronounced against them, but they did not heed. Folks, that's a blood curse. God says, he shall have no one to sit on the throne of David. There is not going to be one blood descendant of Jehoiakim who sits on the throne of David. I want you to think, we saw that chalkboard in the headquarters of hell, as the kings went down in Jerusalem, new names were circled when it got down to Jehoiakim, Satan put his attack against him, and Jehoiakim was so sinful and so corrupt that God pronounced this curse on him, and when God pronounced the curse, there was a big party at Satan's headquarters. Why? Because Satan says, I have won. This conqueror over me has to come through the royal line of David. And, he has to be a king who has a rightful right to rule. And now, all the descendants of the royal line of David do not have the rightful right to rule because God has cursed them. Satan says, yippee, I've won. I've solved the problem. And as far as Satan's concerned, he's won a big victory right there with Jehoiakim. Is everybody following what I'm trying to get at here? Well, I want you to see how God fixed this. Let me just state the problem one more time so we all understand it. If someone is a blood descendant of David through Jehoiakim, he cannot sit on the throne of Israel and fulfill the functions of the Messiah, right? But, if one is not descended through David, he cannot be a legal heir of the throne and fulfill the functions of the Messiah. So, catch 22. That's where we come in to the genealogies of Luke and the genealogies of Matthew. I won't ask you to turn to them because, as you look at them, you'll see they're just a bunch of names at face value. But, a few things to understand. First of all, understand that neither Luke's genealogy or Matthew's genealogy are complete. Generations are skipped over, as was a common practice. Okay, so let that assure you right there. Neither one of them have every name in the generations. They skipped over them. That was common practice back then. Now, each genealogy begins at Adam and continues through to David. Okay, so we have that Messianic line coming all the way through David. But, at David, the genealogy of Mary goes one place and the genealogy of Joseph goes another place. Remember all that list of sons we read of David in Jerusalem? What was the one that Satan focused his attention on? Solomon. Whose line went through Solomon? Joseph's. The legal heir. Joseph is the legal father. The legal father, not the blood father, but the legal father of Jesus. The line of Solomon went through Joseph. Mary's line? Mary was not a descendant of Solomon. She was a descendant of one of David's other sons, Nathan. So, it followed from David all together. Was Mary a part of that blood curse that was pronounced on Jehoiakim's line? Not at all. Was Joseph part of that blood curse? Did Joseph contribute any of the blood to Jesus Christ? Not at all. But he did contribute his legal standing as an heir to the throne. See, what I want you to get at here is that Mary is descended through Nathan. Joseph is descended through Solomon. God figured out a way around the blood curse to bring a blood descendant of David who still had a legal right to the throne through Solomon and Rehoboam and even Jehoiakim. Both Jesus' blood ancestry and his legal ancestry come through David. But the curse on Jehoiakim made it necessary that the two be split right there and that it all come down to different genealogies, one in Matthew, one in Luke. Let me just apply this in a few ways for you to take home and think about this as you go home. First of all, I want you to turn to Psalm chapter 7. These are just some principles to apply from what we've seen tonight. Psalm 7, verse 15. He has made a pit and dug it out, and he has fallen into the ditch which he has made. His trouble shall return on his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown. Take a look at Psalm 9, verse 15. The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made, in the net which they hid, their own foot is caught. Now take a look at Psalm 35, verse 7. For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit which they have dug without cause for my life. Let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, and let his net that he has hidden catch himself into that very destruction. Let him fall. Satan dug a pit, didn't he? He set a trap. And what did God do? He snared Satan in the very same trap that he laid. He snared him in it. Now, might I say that that's a principle for your own spiritual warfare? And when I'm praying in spiritual warfare, that's something I pray all the time. I pray all the time. Lord, I see Satan's strategy, I see his trap. Let him be caught up in his own trap. Let his own strategy come back upon his own head, just like it happened here. Another principle here that we see. Do you see here the absolute necessity of the virgin birth? How it had to happen that way? There's no other way that you could have gotten someone who was a legal heir, but not a blood heir, through Jehoiakim. Another third principle. Satan cannot defeat us, but he can try to get us to beat ourselves. And you know what, folks? That's true. People talk about Satan defeating them. You know what? Satan cannot defeat you. You're a child of God. Satan cannot defeat you. He cannot defeat you, but he can deceive you into defeating yourself. That's exactly what he tried to do here with this line of attack. Fourth point. God's judgments never defeat his plans. Who pronounced the curse upon Jehoiakim? God himself! Satan must have thought, God's shooting himself in the foot. Doesn't he know this? But even God's judgments never defeat his plans. God's plans stand sure. Final point, and I think we see this pretty plainly. The devil's smart, but God cannot be outsmarted. And God's going to accomplish his purpose in your life just as surely as he did right here. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you cannot be defeated, and that your plan is going to be accomplished. So we ask God that you open up our hearts big enough to receive the work that you're doing, and that you keep us, Lord, from defeating ourselves, and from following Satan's enticements to try to get us to do that. We want to glorify you in everything that we do. Father, give us those kind of hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.