Regent Chapel
The Messiah is coming - Genesis 3:14-15
If I was to ask you what your least favourite animal or creature was or is, I wonder what you would say. For lots of people it will be spiders and I must admit I'm not a huge fan of spiders, I don't get totally freaked by them, I don't massively enjoy them. My auntie has a phobia of birds, she absolutely hates anything bird like and I think it's particularly the feathers, she just totally freaks out, if a bird came near her she just totally freaks. For me there are two creatures that I really, really don't like, one is rats and the second are snakes, I absolutely hate and detest rats and I hate and detest snakes, they just absolutely make my skin crawl, just looking at them, those pictures just absolutely genuinely just freaked me out, it's horrible. A few weeks ago I was putting some of the rubbish out in the bin, in the car park, in the green bin and as I dropped a black bin bag in a rat jumped out and it absolutely freaked me out, I was kind of running around crying like a baby, genuinely just, oh it was horrible, absolutely horrible, I just detest rats and if you know me really well you know I had a rat in my flat many years ago and I've never really recovered from that horrible experience, but although rats can bite you if they're cornered and they obviously do and can carry diseases, most rats are actually completely harmless unless you actually try and corner them, they won't attack you, they'll leave you alone, in fact they'll just kind of run away and they'll scamper away as quick as they can if you go anywhere near them snakes on the other hand are a whole nother level, snakes are much more dangerous, they absolutely repulse me and to me they just look pure evil, they're just the embodiment of evil, it's difficult to describe how much I really hate them, but it's not just in my mind, it's not just a phobia thing, it's not just a kind of an irrational phobia, because snakes really can be incredibly dangerous, snakes really really can be incredibly dangerous, we only have one snake in this country, the ada, the wife of a friend of mine who lives in North Devon, for years ago she was bitten by an ada when she was with her family in the boroughs by the beach and although she did receive treatment and didn't die, she's been left seriously seriously ill and that was probably 10-15 years ago and she's still really ill on a daily basis, about 140,000 people apparently around the world die every year from snake bites and another 400,000 are left with life changing disabilities and of course that's after all the antidotes and treatments that are now available, you can see how dangerous snakes really are, a snake bite really can be and often is a death sentence, snakes can be incredibly dangerous and are in my opinion, might not all share this but utterly repulsive, they just make my skin crawl and although some strange people, and you might be one of those strange people this morning, although some people do like snakes, I think most people are at the least very wary of them and that's because of something, believe it or not, you might not realize this, you might not have thought about it but that's because of something that happened way back at the beginning of time, at some point after, just after God had created Adam and Eve, at some stage between the seventh day of creation and the first sin of Adam in Genesis chapter 3, Satan rebelled in heaven against God, at some point between the seventh day of creation and the first sin of Adam, at some point there satan rebelled against God, Satan was created by God, he was the chief of the angels, he was an amazing being and yet he decided to rebel against God and try and remove God as being in charge of the universe and the contest was always going to be completely one-sided because Satan is a created being and God is God and he's the all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, eternal God and so Satan as a result was cast out of heaven by God, cast out of heaven along with all the angels, the Bible kind of indicates would be a third of the angels rebelled along with Satan and they were cast out of heaven and those angels are sometimes in the Bible referred to as demons or as evil spirits and then in Genesis chapter 3 we read about Satan appearing to Eve, he had, it seems taken over and indwelt and kind of lived in this real snake, this real snake appears to Eve and Satan has taken over this snake and it might seem strange to us the idea of a talking snake but it clearly wasn't to Adam's wife, she entered into a conversation with this snake and Satan or the devil who's also called the great deceiver through this snake deceived Eve who in turn led her husband astray and they disobeyed God's command and they sinned and they ate from the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and as they did so sin entered into the world and everything was ruined and utterly messed up in that moment, it ruined everything, Paul says this in Romans 5, sin entered the world through one man that's Adam he's talking about, sin entered the world through one man and death through sin and in this way death came to all people because all sinned, everything went wrong in that instant, everything was messed up and was ruined in that instant and we've all been living with the consequences of sin, of the power of sin and of the power to your sin ever since we're living with it right now, we're living with it every day and our world is now in a terrible mess even just evidenced by the vote in Parliament on Friday, our world is in a terrible mess with every kind of sin not only taking place but actually being celebrated and enjoyed and kind of reveled in. Well God judged Adam and Eve, they were separated from God and no longer had the relationship with him that they and we in turn were created to have, they eventually faced physical death as well. God also cursed the earth that he'd made, a curse is the opposite to a blessing, God had blessed it, now he cursed it but as he did so he also cursed the snake but as he cursed the snake he promised the solution to the problem of sin and he promised a solution to the problem of Satan. So we're going to read from Genesis 3 where this little event takes place, just a few verses but actually you're probably one of the most momentous events in the history of the world. Genesis 3, if you've got a Bible handy, we're going to read just two verses verse 14 and 15, if you haven't that's fine, you can just listen as I read the verses out this morning. So Genesis 3 verse 14 and this is in the context, Adam and Eve have just sinned, Satan has just deceived Eve, his letter, husband, Australia, sinned, sin has entered into the world and death through sin and in verse 14 we read this, so the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals, you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head and you'll strike his heel. As soon as sin entered into the world through the disobedience of the very first man Adam, God in his love immediately stepped in to provide an amazing phenomenal solution, he promised that he was going to deal with Satan and that he was going to deal with sin, look at verse 14, so the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all the wild animals, you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life, God cursed the snake and all subsequent snakes in order to demonstrate in picture form that Satan would one day be dealt with once and for all. Every time we look at a snake it's now intended to be a picture of Satan's defeat, because just the snakes have to crawl on their bellies so Satan will one day be brought down and punished. The Bible uses the picture of a person or of a nation sometimes in repeated places throughout the Bible eating dust as a symbol of their total humiliation and of their total defeat, it's a kind of phrase and expression the Bible uses and even today if someone is described as eating dust it has the idea of defeat, you might be a fan of westerns and in the good old western they'll be told to eat dust and it was a kind of way of expressing you're down on the ground, you're eating dust, you've been defeated, I've beaten you and it's this idea of your face being planted in the dirt with someone's head on your face and you're eating dust, it's humiliation, it's defeat and that's what God said to the snake that had been taken over by Satan when he deceived Eve, he would eat dust all the days of his life. This was a real snake but it became a picture of Satan and we now see Satan's evil and defeat whenever we look at snakes, I hate even looking at them, they just make me shiver but actually when we look at snakes the point of this passage is that when we look at snakes we're meant to see God's judgment and punishment not of snakes but of Satan and his solution to the problem for our sin. Every snake we see is a living picture of God's judgment and his punishment of Satan for what he's done in rebelling against God and bringing sin into the world. As soon as sin entered the world and ruined everything God in love in amazing love stepped in and he promised to deal with Satan and he promised to deal with sin and he promised to deal with death and every snake we see is a picture of just that as we see them crawling on their bellies and eating dust. But God's curse on the snake which was in reality a curse on Satan himself goes much further than him just being humiliated and defeated at some point in the future as he can eat dust. God continues with his use of picture language and symbolism and he says this and I will put enmity between you and the woman between your offspring and hers. Now enmity simply means hostility or open opposition. So God says that between Satan and Eve he's going to put enmity, he's going to put hostility and opposition and there's going to be hostility and opposition between the Eve's offspring and Satan's offspring or the snake's offspring and this continues today in picture form as snakes and humans are hostile towards each other and that hostility is meant to be an ongoing picture of the war between God and Satan. Now some weird people you might be one of them some weird people do like snakes and if you can bear them then I respect you but even those who like snakes know that they have to be very careful because most snakes have the potential to kill, they have the potential to do real real harm, they're incredibly dangerous. So just as when we look at snakes today we're meant to be reminded that God promised to totally defeat and humiliate Satan. We're also meant to look at snakes and see another spiritual picture which is that Satan and those who follow him are at war with God and those who follow him. There's an ongoing battle between God on the one hand and those who love him and follow him and Satan and those who by rejecting God end up following Satan even if they don't realize that they're doing that. But then God continues and says this about Eve's offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. No longer is God talking about Eve's offspring in general which is all human beings because we've all descended from Eve. Now he's talking about a very specific offspring, a very specific person that's going to descend from Eve. This male descendant of Eve is going to crush the serpent's head by stamping on it and destroying the serpent's head but in doing so he's going to be bitten on the heel and he's going to receive a mortal wound. And this male descendant of Eve's is none other than the Messiah, Jesus. As soon as sin enters into the world, God steps in to promise and provide a solution to sin. The very first promise that Jesus is coming takes place immediately after sin and death entered into the world. That's how much God loves us. He immediately provides a solution to Satan. He provides a solution to sin and to death. And as the Old Testament continues, we get more and more promises from God that he's going to send the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus Messiah, or Christ mean the same thing. Messiah is a Hebrew word. Christ is a Greek word. They both mean God's chosen King, God's special one. And the Old Testament is full of these promises and over the next two Sundays, Joel and then in two weeks' time, Jason Matthew who's the pastor through it, Hortley Spring, Bethany Church, Hortley Spring, he's going to be coming as well and they're going to be looking at some of the other, perhaps even better known, promises of the Messiah that this Messiah is coming. And 4,000 years later, God began to fulfill his promise to deal with Satan as in love. He sent his one and only son to be our Savior. The angel appeared to Joseph who was engaged to Mary and said these words, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife." Because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you ought to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. God very specifically refers to Jesus in Genesis 3 as the offspring of the woman and it's the first hint of the virgin birth. Eve's offspring here is the Lord Jesus himself, the Messiah, the Christ and Jesus is God the son, become a man through this miracle of the virgin birth. Jesus didn't have a human father. He was miraculously conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and he was born to Mary, a descendant of Eve's. And as God the son became a human being and was given the name Jesus, he was Emmanuel, which means God with us. God come to save us from our sin. God come to save us from the penalty and the power of our sin. And there was great enmity and hostility and open warfare between Jesus and Satan. We see this when Satan, as soon as he hears that Jesus has been born, he has through, Herod he has all the boys aged to and under murdered, slaughtered, put to death in an attempt to try and kill Jesus. We see it when he tempted Jesus in the desert and tried to get him to move away from his mission. We see it when the crowd tried to throw Jesus off the cliff. We eventually see it when Jesus was tried and condemned to death. But what Satan didn't understand was that what he thought was his greatest victory in seeing Jesus put to death, it was actually Satan's own destruction. God says in Genesis 3 that Eve's offspring Jesus is going to cross Satan and he uses the picture of a man stamping on the head of a snake to destroy it as a picture of what will happen to Satan. And that's what happened when Jesus died and when Jesus rose again. Through Jesus' death and resurrection, he totally defeated Satan, he totally defeated sin and death and hell. Speaking about Jesus, Hebrews 2, 14 to 15 says this, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death." That is the devil. "And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Satan's deception in the Garden of Eden and Adam's sin brought death into the world. And since then, every single human being has been held in slavery because of their fear of death. Probably the number one fear that people admit to if they're really honest is death. And Jesus came to destroy the power of death and to free those who are held captive by their fear of death. Jesus come and he's done the equivalent of stamping down on the head of the serpent, of the serpent, of the snake. And as he died as he rose again, he's destroyed all of the work of Satan. Jesus died in our place and received the punishment that we deserved so that we can have our sins forgiven so that we can be made right and have eternal life. As Jesus did that, he did it for you and for me. And as Jesus died, he destroyed the work of Satan. Paul says this, "Christ Jesus who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. But in destroying Satan and all that Satan has done in stamping down on the snake's head, Jesus received the equivalent of a deadly snake bite on his heel. Defeating and destroying Satan cost Jesus his life. Jesus' victory over Satan and sin and death and hell came at the cost of his own life as he was crucified on the cross. And that death was the most terrible and horrendous death imaginable. As not only was Jesus nailed naked to a cross of wood in the most barbaric form of execution that humanity has ever invented, far more important than that, as he was hanging there on the cross, Jesus actually became your sin and my sin. The Bible says he who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. Jesus actually took all your sin and became all your sin. He never became a sinner. He remained perfect and sinless, but he became your sin. And God the Father poured out all his anger and righteous wrath at your sin onto Jesus. As he did so, by doing that, Jesus defeated Satan. He defeated his demons, the angels that had rebelled with Satan at the beginning of time. Paul says this in Colossians 2, "God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authorities." He's talking about Satan and demons here. "God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority with the cross he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless." Jesus crushed the snake's head as he died on the cross. And Satan is now defeated along with every single demonic force, an unclean evil spirit that exists in this world today. And when we put our faith and trust in him, when we put our faith and trust in Jesus and surrender our lives to him, his victory becomes our victory. His defeat of Satan and his defeat of death becomes our defeat of Satan and our defeat of death, because we are now in Christ. And what Jesus has done is now applied to us. It's our victory. Satan was defeated at the cross, but we won't see that. And we don't see that complete victory until Jesus comes again to rule and to reign for all eternity. When Jesus died on the cross, it was a little bit like D-Day. Once the allied soldiers were ashore on D-Day, by the end of that first day, the Second World War was over. Once the soldiers were on the shore. But V-E Day, victory in Europe didn't take place for another year. Hitler knew he was defeated on D-Day, but he spent his remaining days on earth trying to cause as much destruction as he possibly could, lashing out in all kinds of evil and all kinds of horrendous evil, unspeakable evil. And that's just what Satan is doing. He knows he's been defeated. He knows that Jesus has crushed his head, but the complete fulfillment of that won't take place until the end of time. We live in this in-between time. It's what's sometimes called the now and the not yet. It's kind of partial fulfillment, but we won't see the full complete fulfillment until the future. We won't see that complete fulfillment until Jesus returns. We live in the now and the not yet. Paul says this in Romans 16, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Using this same snake imagery and crushing the snake imagery, Paul says that Satan will be soon crushed under our feet. And that's because if we're trusted in Jesus then, his victory is our victory. And if we look at the book of Revelation, we read about Satan's final destiny. Chapter 12 verse 9 says this, "That ancient snake called the devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray, he was hurled to the earth and his angels with him." And then in chapter 20 verses 1 and 2, we read this, "And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He sees the dragon, that ancient snake who is the devil or Satan and bound him for a thousand years." Satan will be bound for a thousand years as Jesus reigns on this earth. And then at the end of the thousand years the Bible says that Satan is cast into the lake of fire for all eternity once and for all doubt with. You know, there's a lot of kind of misconception about Satan that somehow hell is his domain and he's there kind of, you know, fanning the flames and all the rest of it. That's complete nonsense. Satan will himself be thrown into hell and it will be his place of punishment along with all those who refuse Jesus. Revelation 20 says, "The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever." That will be the equivalent for us of the E day when what began at the cross will be completed as Jesus throws Satan into hell, the lake of fire for all eternity. And then Jesus will create, the Bible says, a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more sin, no more suffering, no more dying, no more pain because Satan will be absent, he will be being punished for all eternity in what the Bible calls the lake of fire or hell. Jesus has already defeated Satan. He did that at the cross when he stamped down on the snake's head, on Satan's head, but we won't see the complete fulfillment of that until Jesus casts Satan finally into hell on that final day. But even though Satan is now in his final death throes and is lashing out at God's people and I guess lots of us here this morning can testify to that through all sorts of problems in our lives and the problems we see in this world that Satan lashes out and tries to cause all kinds of problems. Just like Hitler did between D-Day and V-E-Day, we are secure from Satan's attacks upon us. We are secure. Satan can lash out, but we are secure because of Jesus. The apostle John writes these words speaking about those who trusted in Jesus. The one who was born of God, that's Jesus, keeps them safe and the evil one cannot harm them. The one who was born of God is Jesus, the Messiah, that one that God first promised way back in Genesis 3, the offspring of the woman, the one born of God by the virgin birth and those who keep safe from Satan, the evil one, are those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus. So this morning, if you have put your trust in Jesus, if you have trusted in Jesus, then his victory over Satan is your victory. Jesus' victory over Satan is my victory, not because of anything I've done, but because I've put my faith and trust in Jesus. And although Satan might try all kinds of things in his remaining days, you are totally secure in the hands of Jesus. Satan cannot snatch you out of Jesus' hands. Your salvation, your victory over Satan, your victory over sin and death and hell are secure because of Jesus. Satan can and will lash out at you and me and he will cause us all kinds of problems, but our eternal destiny is now secure because of Jesus. But of course, this is only true for those who've trusted in Jesus. If you haven't trusted in Jesus, if this morning you haven't put your faith and trust in Jesus, then this isn't true for you. In Genesis 3, when God refers to the offspring of the snake, he's describing those who reject Jesus and refuse to surrender their lives to him. And in doing so, by default, they instead align themselves with Satan. They probably don't realize they're doing that, but by default, by rejecting Jesus, they're aligning themselves instead with Satan. And they are then those who choose to oppose and reject God throughout history. This is how the apostle Paul describes those who've yet to trust in Jesus. He's writing here to people who have trusted in Jesus and he describes their situation before trusting in Jesus. He says this, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. The ruler of the kingdom of the air is one of the ways the Bible refers to Satan." So Paul is saying, "These people here who are Christians, before they trusted in Jesus, they used to follow the ruler of the kingdom of the air. They used to follow Satan. He calls in the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. We were, like the rest, we were by nature, objects of wrath." Those who reject Jesus are physically alive, Paul says here, but they're spiritually dead because of their sins as they follow the ways of Satan. Paul refers to him here as the ruler of the kingdom of the air. They're separated from God and they're facing God's wrath because of their sins. And unless they turn away from their sin and trust in Jesus, they will face the wrath of God in what the Bible calls hell or the lake of fire for all eternity along with Satan himself. There are only two types of people in this world, those who've surrendered their lives to Jesus and those who have rejected Jesus. Those who've surrendered their lives to Jesus received the victory that Jesus won over Satan and over sin and death and hell when he crushed Satan at the cross, when he died and rose again. Those who reject Jesus are described by God in Genesis 3 as the offspring of the snake. They are aligned with Satan rather than with Jesus, even if they don't realize it. And they will face the same destiny as the snake. They will face the same destiny as Satan, which according to the Bible means spending eternity in what the Bible calls the lake of fire or hell. So how can a person move from being aligned with Satan to being aligned with Jesus? How can we be moved from being aligned with the... How can we go from being the offspring of the snake to being aligned with the offspring of the woman, Jesus himself? How do we move from being aligned with Satan to being sharing in Jesus' victory? Well, if that's you this morning, if that's something that you want to do, if you know that you are aligned with the snake, aligned with Satan rather than aligned with Jesus, then you need to accept that like Adam and Eve, you've sinned against God. You need to accept and confess that you have lived your way rather than God's way and say sorry to God for doing that. You need to repent of your sin and to repent means to turn away from how you used to live, to turn away from your sin and turn instead towards Jesus and thank him for dying for you on the cross. Doesn't mean that you'll never sin again, but it does mean that you've changed direction and you're trying to live God's way rather than the way that you used to live. It's not enough just to believe about Jesus, Satan and Satan the demons believe in Jesus. It says in James chapter 2 verse 19, you believe that there's one God, good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. It's not enough just to believe about God and Jesus, you need to put your faith and your trust in him and what he's done by dying on the cross and rising again and surrender your life to him. There needs to be a decisive break with your past where you turn away from all you know that is wrong and turn instead to God, that's what repentance is. And that can be costly because Satan doesn't want us doing that. He will do all he can to try and prevent us from following Jesus and living for him. Following Jesus can be very costly, but if you put your faith in Jesus, then you will be safe and secure in his hands, not just for now, but for all eternity. And the victory over Satan, the victory over sin and death and hell that Jesus won at the cross will also be your victory. And if that's a step that you would like to take this morning, then why not come and chat with me afterwards? I would be delighted to help you explore that more. As soon as sin and death entered into this world, in great love, God stepped in, and he promised the solution, he immediately promised that he would send his one and only son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the offspring of the woman. And he came, he did exactly what he said he would do. He came and he died and he rose again. And as he did so, he crushed Satan once and for all. And if we trusted in Jesus, then his victory is our victory. Satan and death and sin and hell have all been defeated by Jesus. And it's Jesus that now commands our destiny, not Satan. We live in that in-between time where Satan knows he's been defeated, but he'll try and cause as much havoc as possible. But one day we'll live in a world where Jesus rules and reigns forever, and where there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, because Satan and sin and death will have been cast into hell forever. Let's pray. Eternal God, we come before you this morning and we acknowledge our sin. We acknowledge that like Adam and Eve, we have sinned against you. We've lived, tried to live our way rather than your way. But we thank you that just immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, you stepped in to promise a solution and provide a solution. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you came in fulfillment of that great promise. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you lived and died and rose again, conquering sin and death and hell. Thank you that you destroyed the work of the evil one. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have won the victory. Thank you that if we know you, your victory is our victory. We thank you that we are safe and secure for all eternity in your hands, sealed by your spirit. Father, we worship you this morning. We thank you that we are yours, that we belong to you. We thank you that Jesus commands our destiny. And we thank you that no matter what Satan will try and do to us in the remaining days of our lives, we know that we are secure in your hands and the evil one cannot harm us. We thank you that we are safe in your hands forever. We worship you. We thank you that it's because we are in Christ. It's because of all that Jesus has done that all this is true for us. And we worship you this morning and we give you thanks in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.