The Seed of the Woman & The Serpent

I'd like to have you all turn with me to Genesis 3. This may be my last message in Genesis. Maybe there's one more. Genesis 3. I'd like to read verses 9-19. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel. To the woman He said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. And to Adam He said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return. We've been considering for a number of weeks before my family and I went on vacation, Genesis. Maybe one message out of Genesis 1. The rest have been out of Genesis 3. We've been doing so. We've been looking at this just simply because I know these early chapters of Genesis are under attack, but it just became very personal to me, very much in my face. It seemed like the Lord brought a number of providences into my own life where the seriousness of the attack on these early chapters of Genesis was made plain to me. We're told today you can't take these chapters seriously. It doesn't stand up to science. It doesn't stand up to the test of reality. But I would contend that statements like that are nothing but sheer ignorance. These people with high IQs, these people in the scientific community that make the kinds of statements they make are statements of ignorance. They might be couched in high language. They might be couched in the minds and coming from the mouths of men with many degrees and having gone to many of the higher places of education, but they are sheer ignorance. The reality is if we have eyes to see, the truth is that exactly the opposite is true. Any true observation of the facts, any true looking at the world through the lens of Genesis 3, and we find that nothing is more real, nothing stands up to the true scientific method, to the observation of facts. This is factual. This is the way things really are. Nothing comes to us exactly where we are in our exact predicament. Nothing's more relevant than this. This is a message from the living God about man, about how we got to where we are. Why is man the way he is? And this speaks to that reality and it deals with each of us in particular. It explains why things are. It explains the past. It explains history. It explains the present. It explains what's going to happen in the future. We see it all here. Man is hiding. They're the trees. We've got the same thing today. Man hides. Man has his trees today. Man has his hiding places. But what happens? The Gospel comes in. And what happens when the Gospel comes in? Man is forced to deal with who he is. Man is forced to bring us out of hiding and make us face ourselves and it makes us face God. It makes us face what's true. It makes us face our sin. It forces us face to face with God. And there's God. Adam, where are you? I mean, that's the reality. We live trying to hide, but God comes and God calls us out. God causes us to face Him. Adam, what have you done? Have you eaten this that I told you not to eat? And man has fallen. And where has it brought us to? It's driven us from Paradise. We're not in Paradise. And there is a longing and mankind has it. Man is looking for something and longing for something. And all you have to do is be a man or a woman to know that that's the reality. We're longing for something. We're looking for something. Something resonates within us that we were made for something higher. Something resonates within us that there's more. There's a fullness. There's something we're missing. Something we've lost. And the reality is that we've got it all here. Man has lost Paradise. And there's a flaming sword. And you may not be able to see that flaming sword, but we know we're on the outside. We feel it. Kicked out. Impossible to get back. And what do we have to contend with? We have to contend with thorns and thistles and the sweat of our brow. Children born through the groans of mothers. The world is full of... I was riding my bike yesterday through the cemeteries. I was just thinking, you look at all those stones. Every one of those people, they lived a life. They were alive like us. In a few short years, their bodies are moldering under the ground over there. What were their lives like? What did they do? Who were they? And they're gone. We're just a vapor. What's all this death? What's all this suffering? What is all of this about? This is the position in which we find ourselves. We find ourselves no different. Genesis 3 speaks to all of this. And then there's the devil. God comes into the garden on that day and He proclaims certain words over the devil. And it's those words that I want us to look at today. These words, because I'll tell you what you find in these words. You find how things are. These words spell out the truest, deepest history of the entire world. We study American history or world history. You study the wars. You study man's inventions. What is there? The Stone Age? The Iron Age? The Dark Ages? But you know what? There's history behind all of it. These words spoken over the devil, it permeates everything. All these ages, all these histories, behind it all, here's the history. These simple statements of Genesis 3, 14, and 15, they present us with a comprehensive worldview as to why things are the way they are. Let's read them again. 14 and 15. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, above all beasts of the field. Under your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Now let's notice this. The first thing to notice, it's fairly obvious, but notice this. The serpent is not asked anything. God dialogues with Adam. God dialogues with Eve. There's no dialogue with the devil. That's a one-way conversation. The devil isn't asked why he deceived the woman. Adam, I've got a question for you. Did you eat of the tree that I told you not to eat from? Yes, the woman. You gave her to Me. Eve, what is this you've done? Well, the serpent. But you know, God doesn't say a word to the serpent. Nothing. God looks to the serpent. No dialogue. The serpent is silent. Why? He can't roll the blame on anyone else. There's no excuse. And God begins to pronounce judgment on him first. Before the woman, before the man. Verse 14, the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. Now, if you're just asking questions, a number of questions ought to jump out at you. We read across these. We're very familiar. Genesis 3, yes, we all know. We know the account of the fall of man. But don't you find it interesting? These little things said that if you really think about them, like notice these words. Cursed are you above. Probably all your Bibles have that. Or more than. Cursed are you more than all livestock. More than all beasts. Did you notice that? What does that mean? What's that saying? The others are cursed also. Just the serpent is cursed more. That's what you have. It implies that the livestock and the beasts, well, they're under the curse. Only the serpent, he is cursed above them. He is cursed at a higher level. You think about this. Just think about those beasts. They come under the curse. One sin. One sin is enough to spread over the entire universe. Sin, it's not like if I had a rock here. I should have gotten a rock for illustration purposes. You drop it on the cold, hard floor. And what happens? Plunk. Sin's not like that. Sin is more like taking that rock in a perfectly still lake and you throw it in there. And it produces waves that go up. It affects the whole thing. That is the picture here. Sin. Sin. We know these words. The creation was subjected to futility. Listen to this, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope. That's God. God has caused the whole thing to come under this futility. It says that the creation is in this bondage of corruption. Yeah, you know, it commonly gets brought up. The second law of thermodynamics, this law of entropy. But the whole thing is breaking down. Our universe, after this sin, there's a decay that is set in. Just recently, Ruby and I, we were watching a nature documentary and Ruby was just making comment on how there's so much death. You can't watch nature movies, especially if you're looking at lions and hyenas. What are they constantly doing? They're shredding some zebra or crocodiles lurking there and this gazelle walks up. What's going to happen? Once in a while, they give you the thing where the gazelle barely gets away. But usually that's not it. The crocodiles are spinning and ripping legs off. And my wife is traumatized. But this is nature. The whole thing is subjected to futility. It wasn't that way. You can look at that and you can draw a line right back to Adam. That's what you can do. The whole thing. Futility. Bondage to corruption. The whole creation, the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. I find that to be a very interesting way that Paul says that. In the pains of childbirth. Because the pains of childbirth were one of the effects of the fall. That was the curse laid upon Eve. And yet, what happens is Paul takes that imagery and he projects it over the entire universe, the effect of this curse and these pains of childbirth. But now listen to this. Cursed are you more than the cattle, more than the livestock, more than the beasts. Cursed are you. Who? Who? You know, you recognize that there is this serpent and there's no question. You study Scripture thoroughly. There's no question. A serpent is a snake. But you've got the devil. We know the devil was there. We know this is the devil. This is Satan. When you get to Revelation, that ancient serpent is this dragon. It is the one called the devil. It is one called Satan. Who's being cursed? God cursing the animal? Isn't it interesting? It says specifically He's talking to the serpent and the serpent is being cursed more than not the other demons, but cursed more than the livestock, the cattle. Is it the snake? Is it the devil? Or is it both? You say, wait, the devil took possession of the serpent. I mean, wasn't the serpent just a dumb animal? Kind of like the pigs. You remember the legion? We want to go possess the pigs. Was it the pigs' fault that they all ran down and died in the water? You ever scratch your head about that one? Why'd the Lord let the demons go in there? And why'd the demons just kill the pigs? I mean, that doesn't make for a good place to inhabit if all of a sudden the pigs are dead. Now they have to wander around. The devil took possession of the serpent. Why curse the serpent? Seems like a raw deal, right? I mean, is that fair? But I'll tell you this, it's really not so different than what you find in other places. Do you remember there's a day where Jesus is walking along and He sees a fig tree? And you know, the Gospel writers even tell us it's not time for figs. And yet He goes up to the fig tree and He looks at it to see if there's any ripe figs on it and He curses the tree. We know He curses the tree because Peter says, Lord, look at the tree that you cursed. And what had happened to it? It withered up. I mean, I would say even more so. Here's a fig tree. It's off standing over there by itself doing what fig trees do. It wasn't even season for figs yet. And the Lord comes along and curses it and withers the thing away. What do you do with that? I think you do the same thing. Why did Jesus do that? I think these are living parables is what I think they are. You think about this. Not only did the serpent get cursed, but the ground got cursed too back there in Genesis 3. Had the ground done anything? These curses are meant to be living illustrations to us. And I think what we want to see here is the serpent was cursed above. The animal itself was cursed more than other animals. But it's meant to be a picture, a living picture for us. It's meant to make us think about something when we see this. These are signs. They speak to us truth. Now, look at v. 14. 3.14, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed, yes, above all the livestock and the beasts of the field, on your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. You see, the indication there is that this wasn't the case with the serpent prior to this. It's most certain that before this pronouncement, the serpent didn't go about on its belly licking the dust of the ground. You say, what did it do? The fact is we're not told. All we're told is what the result of the curse is. Now, you can speculate. Did it have legs before this? Maybe it did. You know how a cobra comes up to strike and they can stand high? Have you ever seen a king cobra? Maybe that was the way with all snakes prior to that. They went about up, off the ground with the head. Maybe they had wings. There's folklore. There's lots of myths about worldwide floods. Some of these things may be rooted in truth. We don't know for certain. But what I would say is this, before the curse, the serpent didn't go around licking the dust. This is a result of the curse. We know for certain. The posture of the serpent after the curse is this. Head in the dirt. And I would just say this, every time you see a snake from now on, and you see that head down there, that is a living parable. It can tell you what God has done to the devil. He has put his head in the dirt. Listen to this. You want to look past that serpent. You want to see the spiritual truth, the spiritual significance of the devil and his angels. Just listen. You get this imagery throughout Scripture. For behold, I created new heavens and a new earth. This is the eternal kingdom. What's going to be true there? The former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. And here's a description. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The lion shall eat straw. Now let's just stop right there. The lion shall eat straw. You know what's interesting? That if you look in another place in Isaiah concerning this eternal kingdom, it says this, no lion shall be there. In one picture, the lion's eating straw. In another picture, there's no lion at all. It's symbolism. That's not an inconsistency. It's not a conflict. What you're getting is a picture of the reality that if there is a lion, it's not lion-like anymore. It doesn't traumatize my wife anymore by ripping little gazelles apart. It's not lion-like. In fact, there's nothing there that's lion-like to the point where there is no lion in one picture. But listen, the lion shall eat straw like the ox and dust shall be the serpent's food. This is the eternal kingdom. The new heaven and the new earth. Dust shall be the serpent's food all through eternity. Dust. Let me tell you what that's a picture of. Degradation. You know where the devil and his angels are going to be? Down. Head in the dust. Full degradation. Lake of fire. It's being forced low. Listen and think about what is said concerning the devil and his angels as you move through Scripture. That Psalm 72. Glorious Psalm. Picture of the Lord Jesus Christ conquering the nations of the earth. May desert tribes bow down before Him and His enemies lick the dust. You see the picture. When you talk about eating the dust or licking the dust, it's degradation. It's being put down. His enemies are put down. And think when you go through the New Testament. Think about the kind of words that show up. I'll give you some examples. Revelation 12. A picture. Don't turn there. The great dragon was thrown down. The ancient serpent. There it is. The ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth. His angels were thrown down with Him. You remember how our Lord spoke to His disciples. He said to them, I saw Satan fall. It's all these pictures of down. Fallen down. I saw him fall. Thrown down. Or you know that text in Romans 16. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. And that's Christians. That's the Roman Christians. But you see Satan's position. It's a position under our feet. It's a position down. He's been thrown down. He's fallen. Or this. Luke 10.19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you. What's interesting is there are two passages in the Old Testament that are typically attributed to being the devil. Even though one of the passages, the one in Ezekiel, is speaking about the king of Tyre, and the one in Isaiah is speaking about the king of Babylon, most commentators believe these men are only puppets and God is speaking to Satan behind them. And you get a feel for why the commentators think that. Just listen to the things that are said. To the king of Tyre, you were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden. Probably not the king of Tyre. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. Sardis, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, emerald, carbuncle. Crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were the anointed guardian cherub. Again, probably not the king of Tyre. I placed you. You were on the mountain, the holy mountain of God. In the midst of stones of fire, you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned. So I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub. From the midst of the stones of fire, your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. Listen to this, I cast you to the ground. That is so familiar language when it comes to the devil. I cast you down. I put you down to the ground. That's where the dust is. I put your head down there. I dropped you down. You are fallen. Or, you have the Isaiah account. This is to the king of Babylon. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on the high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. And God says this to him, How you are fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn. How you are cut down to the ground. Again, it's the same kind of terminology. Cut down to the ground. Down. Now, Genesis 3.15. Brethren, I just want to say this. The devil is a formidable enemy. But you better remember this. The words, when you see a snake, think, that snake got like that because of its association and affiliation with the devil. And what God wants you to see is what God has done to the devil by Christ. Christ has defeated him. Christ has destroyed him. Christ has put his head there. And if you are one of the people of God, it's under your feet, our feet, brethren. We now are in a position where He flees from us. We are now in a position where we can do battle with Him. All that armor of God, we're going to get to it in Ephesians 6. You have been given armor of God to do everything to stand against Him. And it's not just that we stand. The gates of hell will not prevail against us. They give way before us. We now carry about a Gospel that's the power of God to bring people out of His stronghold. He gives way before us. Oh, He'll seek to terrorize us. He'll seek to discourage us. He'll seek to tempt us. But you remember, He that is with us is greater than he that's in the world. And that curse, every time you see a snake and you see its head on the ground, you can remember the true snake, the true serpent, that ancient serpent. Remember where his head is. Remember where it ought to be. You remember that day when Joshua came into the land of Canaan and they conquered all those kings? Do you remember what Joshua had all the heads of Israel do? Come out and put their feet on the neck of those guys. That's exactly the imagery. Our feet are on His head. So, now watch this. Genesis 3.15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head. You shall bruise His heel. Now, don't spiritualize only the last part. Don't say, well, I know the last part here deals with Christ and the devil. I know that He shall bruise your head. That's Christ bruising the devil's head. You shall bruise His heel. That's Christ having to die. That's Christ having to suffer. And the devil was involved in that. That's reality. That's what that means. That's what that's talking about. That's what that's pointing to. But what you don't want to do is take 3.15 and somehow start by, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and you start thinking too much about the snake and too much about women, and women being afraid of snakes. You want to spiritualize the whole thing. Again, I would say this, you see men and women afraid of snakes. You see men chopping the heads off snakes. Typically, there's not a whole lot of people that like snakes. Some people like reptiles and they may have them. There are odd people in the world. But by and large, people despise snakes. They run from snakes. Snakes bite them. Snakes constrict upon them. Most snakes that aren't venomous, they'll still bite you. But again, what you want to see behind all of this is the spiritual reality. Listen to this. In fact, turn to this. Look at Revelation 12. Because this portrays to us the woman and her offspring. The devil is very much set forth here. This is that great cosmic battle. This is the end of our Bibles where this spiritual fray that's introduced to us in Genesis 3, we see all the fullness of it. We see the reality of it here. Chapter 12, verse 1, a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun. Here's the woman, by the way. This is the woman who has the offspring. And again, it's very much to be spiritualized. Who is this woman? Well, you can see her here. A great sign appeared in heaven. A woman. She's clothed with the sun. She's bright. Beautiful. With the moon under her feet. And on her head a crown of twelve stars. It's a picture of royalty. Twelve. There were twelve of the apostles. There were twelve tribes in the Old Testament. She was pregnant. Okay, she's pregnant with her offspring. Who are her offspring? She's crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. Again, you have that imagery from Genesis. The birth pains. Agony of giving birth. Notice verse 4, the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth. You can see the dragon is against the offspring of the woman. He is against the woman. He is against the offspring. She was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. Now somebody says, well, that's Mary. No, it's not Mary. Because this woman has other offspring. Look at verse 17. The dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring. Christ is an offspring of the woman. As we saw in Genesis 3, the woman, there is going to be an offspring who's going to do damage to the serpent's head. But there's more offspring. Who are those offspring? The rest of her offspring are those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. You see, the woman is the progenitor of the godly line of the people of God, including Christ Himself, but the rest of us as well. This woman gives birth to all the godly offspring. But the devil has his own offspring. And that's not demons. I mean, let's be clear. When you are moving through the Scriptures, who are the people who are called children of the devil? Who are the people that are the offspring? Who is looked at and said, the devil is your father? Who is looked at in Scripture and they're called snakes? Vipers. You remember John the Baptist called some people vipers. Jesus called some people by that name. And by the way, Jesus looked at the same people and said, God is not your father. The devil is your father. You see, we're not talking demons when we talk about the seed of the serpent. We're talking about men. You have the seed of the woman. You have the seed of the devil. That's the reality. Brethren, what I'm talking about is history. What I'm talking about is reality. What I'm talking about is this is not myth. This is not fable. Look out here. We may not see it. Brethren, there's a battle. And they are against each other. There is an enmity. You know, sometimes we get kind of bent out of shape because we knew people. You know, you can put names on them, right? You know the names. People who have gone out from this place. You recognize in Scripture there were antichrists that were within the realm of the church. John speaking to 1 John. And they went out from us because they weren't of us. You do know that there's a parable that talks about the fact that there is seed being sown and some are wheat and some are tares. And you know who the tares are said to be? The children of the evil one. You see, we say, oh, but that's... you know, fill in the blank. You know the names. Men and women. You say, but we know them. We were friends with them. Brethren, that doesn't take away from the fact that they're offspring of the serpent. Oh, we hope some will be reclaimed and prove not to be that. That is our hope. That is a hope behind discipline. But you know in the life of our church, we see this battle. Let me tell you something. It's not just like all the seed of the woman are in these walls, and then we go out there and the seed of the serpent is out there and we're contending with each other. Do you know one of the devil's favorite places to sow the tares? Right here. And they're here now. And we have both. They're both. Paul said to Elymas, the magician on Cyprus, you son of the devil. When's the last time you called somebody that face-to-face? Anybody called anybody that face-to-face recently? You'd say that's strong language. I mean, even this truth. This is evident. Who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil? Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. You find somebody claiming to be a Christian but they don't practice righteousness. You really have to recognize Jesus and John the Baptist, they really did go around calling people vipers and calling people children of the devil. And so did Paul. We have warrant to doing that. I mean, if you bear the attributes and characteristics of your father, let's say it how it is. You say that's strong language. That's harsh language. Well, yeah, it was back then too. Just as strong. Just as harsh. But you see these children, these offspring of the woman, these offspring of the devil, I mean, there it is. There it is. And that's reality. And I don't care if you're in the Stone Ages or the Iron Ages or the Dark Ages. We've got to contend with this. This is the reality. You read your Bibles. You read them from beginning to end. You don't get lost in the details. Keep your eyes on this reality. Keep your eyes on the big story. What is it you see? I mean, Esther. What do you see? Esther, Mordecai. Offspring of the woman. But you've got offspring of the serpent. There's Haman. He ends up on his own gallows. Brethren, this is the reality. And this is right from the very beginning. What does John in 1 John call Cain? He's of the evil one. And he murdered his brother right there. Seed of the woman. Seed of the serpent. That's the way it is. Two seeds. Two offsprings. You can watch it all worked out. You see the conflict. It starts with Cain and Abel. Cain, full of hate, full of murder, full of enmity. Brethren, what's the message here? What's the position confronting us? Whether you like it or not, this is the reality. Man has a devil problem. This isn't from some late night horror movie. This is from the truth of God's Word. We don't just have a sin problem, we have a devil problem. If you can't see it, it's right here in these words. God looks at that serpent and He says, Your offspring, they're here. And we know this. We know that we all start out that way. All you have to do is think about Ephesians 2. There's a prince of power in the air and we're following him. It's the Spirit that's at work and all the sons of disobedience among whom we all once walked. And it's only God, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us that any of us get pulled out of that situation. Satan has children. This is not some horror movie. This is the truth with which we are confronted. The devil is real. He's called the God of this world. There's a place where the Lord says the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me. In John 1, John says the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. I mean, all you have to do is look around. You say, why are things the way they are? Why does greed run our government? Why do we do this? Why are there wars and rumors of war? Why are our prisons full? Why do people do what they do? There's only one adequate answer and it's the work of the devil. And that's the truth of Scripture. Man is under the control and the power of the devil. And that explains history and why things are the way they are. Adam and Eve ate of that fruit and as a result, they put themselves in all their posterity under the dominion and control of the devil. Listen to how the Lord puts it. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace. You can see that. A palace. And there's a strong man. There's your devil. There's that ancient serpent. And he's guarding his palace. And we're his goods. We're inside the palace. That's the picture. The whole human race. A strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace. His goods are safe. We're the goods. But, and this is the but of the Gospel, when one's stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. The whole human race, like slaves locked up in a palace, guarded. The devil guards his children. And you know what Scripture says. He keeps their eyes blinded. He blinds the eyes of unbelievers so they can't see the light in the Gospel. They can't see the glory of it. They can't see the beauty of Christ. They can't see the preciousness of Christ, the need of Christ, the hope that's found in Christ. He keeps their eyes blinded to it. And you know what? While you're in this palace, you can do lots of things. You can run. You can play. It's a wide place. Have you ever heard about the Broadway? Lots of room in there. That's his place. That's his palace. But he guards it. Oh, you can have religion in there. You can have sex. You can have all sorts of things. You've got the tavern over here and you've got the chapel or the cathedral over here. You can have it all. But you just try to get out. You're not coming out. You're helpless. Because he's a strong man and he's stronger than you. There's no getting out. It's a vanity fair in there. You can love yourself. You can love money. You can be greedy. Whatever you want. But you're not getting out. You know what? You're not getting out unless somebody comes and they scale that wall or they knock that wall down and they grab that strong man and they tear his weapons away and they bind him up and put him down and take you out. That's the only way you're getting out. You are helpless and you are hopeless otherwise. That's what has to happen. That's the reality. The spoil is us. And this is real. This is history. This is truth. One of the tragedies facing man today is that he is in this condition, but the men and women of today, they have no conception of this. This is laughable to people. Oh, the devil. Yeah, right. They picture Halloween, some horned head and pointed tail. It's a joke to people. But this is no joke. Because I'll tell you what, if you don't get out of that palace, you're going to hell. And he means to damn you. What a father! What a father! Your offspring! This is the kind of father he is. He damns all of his children. He wants them to be deceived and to be tortured and to die. He wants them in the lake of fire. He's a horrible father. Man never faces his ultimate problem. They don't realize this is true that the God of this world is doing this. He's blinding their eyes. The light of the Gospel. The glory of Christ. It's just hidden. The problem facing every one of us is how to escape this. How do you get out of the dominion of the devil? How do you escape his clutches? Break free from the power of darkness? And the dilemma here in all of this is man can do nothing. We're helpless. We're like Adam and Eve. They're shivering, hiding in the trees, naked, not knowing what to do, thrust out of the garden, misery, wretchedness. But thank God, it's not the end of the story. And God announces the fact that Satan is going to eat dirt. That is the picture. Christ's enemies are going to eat dirt. You see, that is the real pronouncement right from the beginning. Devil. We can all look at the snake. You see that snake with his head down there. That is a picture of down. Cast down. Down to the earth. Down under the feet. Down to lick up dirt. That's Satan's lot. His time is short. Short before what? Total degradation. That's it. And these offspring have been at enmity and exchanging blow after blow after blow. And I'll tell you, one's going to prove to be champion. And it's not the snake. Brethren, we need to see this for what it is. The Bible is not a book that tells us what we must do to put things right. That is not the message here. It doesn't just tell us do this, do that, do the other thing. It's not primarily a book that is asking us to do anything. I'll tell you what it is. The Bible beginning right here in Genesis 3 is a book that announces what God has done and what God will do. Notice those critical words. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. God is acting. I will. This is the beauty of the Gospel. God meets man right at his utter hopelessness. God brought the Good News to Adam and Eve that day. I mean, here's Adam. Self-imposed misery. Devil-imposed. It's the living God that introduces the Gospel. Look at man. Look at man when he starts trying to figure it out. Man never devises a way out. Man's ways are just all the more offspring of serpent kind of stuff. If God didn't break in with His purposes and plans to do man good, what would we say? There'd be nothing to say. I'd say this, go be a Catholic. Do your best. Go be a Mormon. Go be a Jehovah's Witnesses. Try Seventh-day Adventism. Go try Islam. Go try Hinduism or Buddhism. You see, that's what children of the serpent come up with. Because in all of that, it's the devil saying, save yourself. Get out of my palace yourself. Actually, it's not that at all. It's stay right here in my palace and be religious. Do this thing. There's a way that seems right to man, but you know the end of it's death. I tell you, we need one to kick those doors in and come in and rescue us. Many of us here, we know that reality. Going along in our darkness, we were happy as offspring of the serpent. We liked His ways. We liked His pay. We liked our sin. We drank it like water. And the Lord Jesus Christ came in, busted those doors down, and shined the light in our eyes. And for the first time, we saw. Literally, there have been times where I almost feel like I'm going to hyperventilate when I actually think about where I was, how lost I was, how much I loved it, how blind I was to it. And the fact is, I wasn't even looking for a way out. And if the Lord wouldn't have done anything, I would have just gladly marched right on to hell like the rest of us, thinking we thought we weren't going that way. The idea that we were locked up in Satan's palace, that was ridiculous. I would have laughed you to scorn if you had told me that. I'm free. I've got my life right where I want it. I'm in control. It was God that broke into the tragedy of Eden and spoke hope to man. It's always God. It's always God that breaks in. Always. The seed of the woman. I mean, there's desperate times. Elijah's thinking, I'm the only one. And you know what God does? He comes in and He says, 7,000, they're offspring of the woman. And they're there. Even when times are dark. When you look at Scripture, I think about the kings. The northern kingdom, all the kings there were offspring of the serpent. In the southern kingdom, there's this vying back and forth. Offspring of the serpent, offspring of the woman. Back and forth they go. You feel this vying in Scripture. And here comes the Son, the offspring with the rod of iron to rule the nations. And the devil's right there ready to receive Him. What? How? You see, the Bible talks that way. The devil. But you know, if you lived back then, it wasn't the devil. It was Herod. It's people. You read in Scripture that Satan is going to throw some of the brethren in prison for ten days. It's not the devil. It's not his demons leading people across. It's their puppets. You see the Roman soldier leading the Christians into prison. But it's the devil. He's behind all of it. Herod. Herod wants to kill all the children in Bethlehem. And oh, he did. Two years old and younger. He's there. That's what Haman was trying to do. Haman was trying to wipe out the Messianic line. Children of the serpent. Children of the woman. And it goes on today. That's the reality that we're faced with. Well, Lord bless you, brethren. I've got to get to the airport. We're just about done here, brethren. You know those seasons of darkness? And God would send His prophets and tell His people, it's not hopeless. He's coming. Hold on. God's purposes of redemption are certain. He's going to send the Deliverer. And here He comes. He's the head defiler. He's going to bruise your head under our feet. The head defiler. That's Christ. He defiles the head of the serpent. The devil destroyer Himself. He's the ultimate seed. When the fullness of time had come, we know what Scripture says, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. But they were against Him. Pilate, Herod, Pharisees, Sadducees, the scribes, there was the cross, the people crying out, crucify Him, the enmity of the seed of the serpent. And they conquered Christ, right? He died. He was dead. Are we so sure in three days time that grave would be empty? And it is empty to this day. What really happened? Doesn't Hebrews 2 tell us? 1 John tells us the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. There in Hebrews it says, through death He destroyed the one who had power of death. That is the devil. In Colossians 2, He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in the cross. Christ hung dying on that cross. Yeah, His heel was being bruised. It was necessary. But as they were, He's on that cross. You can hear the skull bones in the serpent cracking. The devil was so quick. You ever wonder, why is he encouraging Judas? He entered Judas. There's a seed of the serpent. He enters Judas to all the more prompt and cause the very thing to happen which would be the crushing of the head of the serpent. It's just like Satan is so full of hatred. He so badly wanted to bruise that heel that he was willing to do it even though it would cost him his own head. The devil received that mortal wound. This is the message. The Lord Jesus Christ sent Paul forward to turn people from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. This is it. I mean, this is the message. This is the reality. This is the history. By nature, man belongs to the devil. That's the explanation for why the world is like it is. There are a lot of demons out there. Every single lost person, you can be certain, there's probably one or more demons and they're watching and they're guarding. They keep. You know what it says? You sit under the Gospel preaching and what happens when you walk out? They snatch up the seed. They're cunning. They're moving. They're powerful. That's the explanation for why the world lives as it does. That's why people laugh. That's why when we go out... Have you ever thought about this? You're going up to somebody's door. You're taking them the words of life. If these people will receive this, they'll have their sins forgiven. They will live in paradise with God forever. They laugh at you. They mock. Probably the worst thing of all, they're just indifferent. They yawn. I'm cooking my meal. Almost like what? You brought them something worthless and cheap? You brought them the greatest treasure imaginable. But this is why they're like that. This is why they don't care. They don't see. Their eyes are blinded. This is why they mock. They laugh. They scorn. They ridicule about the blood of Christ, the death of Christ, just the name of Christ. They blaspheme that name. If you die like that, you're going to go exactly where the devil himself is going. But we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, even if you've got any ability to cry, it's because He was first. He gave it to you. But if you find yourself locked in that palace and you find that God gives you a voice to cry for a way out, oh, He'll hear you. He'll come. You trust that that Christ, that destroyer of the head of the devil, you trust in Him. He'll come and He'll take you out of there. And I'll tell you what Scripture says. Scripture says if you resist the devil, he will flee from you. You know what the Lord Jesus Christ does? He saves us so fully. He brings us into a position where you're so delivered. You're given new life. You're given new strength. You're given new armor. And you're enabled to resist the devil and for the first time in your life, you'll see him flee from you. And you know why? Because he cannot withstand the name, the person, the blood, the power of the Christ who now rules you. Father, we so desire to see more of the captive set free. Lord, give us a season of revival. Give us a season of freeing of the captives. Lord, for Your name's sake, show us, put on display before Your people that we might rejoice and be able to all the more proclaim the power, the works of our living God, our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God in all Your triune power and glory. We pray, crush the head of the serpent all the more. Crush his head under the feet of these brethren shortly. Please, Lord, for Your name's sake, put Yourself on display. Show us that He that is with us is greater than he that's in the world. Show us, Lord. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.