The Fallout Part 2

Thank you, brother, for leading us this morning and the saints for singing. I invite you to grab your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 3 this morning. Genesis chapter 3, entitled this morning's message, the fallout part 2. And last time we were together, we began to look at the human response to sin, what instinctively happens when we are aware that we've transgressed the law of God.

That was painful, frankly. I was experiencing the lasting effects of that this week that you can see right here in Scripture, the need to come to God with our sin and immediately recognize who we are without qualification, without blame shifting, without excuse, and find that there is just a resistance that lurks within us to such things. And yet, of course, that was what our first parents needed to do, and the Lord was seeking to draw them out.

And so, we'll continue this morning in Genesis chapter 3, looking particularly at verses 14 and 15 this morning. And Genesis has been such a thrill for me because we're able to draw doctrine out of these first chapters. It is no surprise to you, it's something that's well documented, that the church in our nation has been in steady decline in terms of doctrinal and biblical literacy.

Now, we have a church, by and large, that is less biblically informed, less doctrinally equipped. That has taken place in kind of a dumbing down of doctrine and theology over the years, over the generations. Certainly, exposition of Scripture has fallen somewhat on hard times.

And so, what tends to happen then is God's people settle for generalities, maybe some general ideas of doctrine, but are not clear on exactly what they believe and why they believe it. And so, Genesis has been a joy for us, Genesis, because we're going back and anchoring key fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith right out of the pages of Scripture. We're informing our doctrine from Scripture.

And this morning is just like these other passages and studies that we've done, we would expect nothing less. And so, this morning, we're going to see God begin now to address what just took place. He's going to address the fallout.

And in this, we're going to see the very first promise of the gospel. You'd ask people, what is the gospel? You get a lot of different answers, in fact. Even in evangelicalism, you get a lot of different answers on what the gospel is.

And I think if you were to ask someone, okay, so tell me the gospel, where does the gospel first appear in the Bible? They might say, well, it appears in Matthew or Mark or Luke or John, and they refer to the gospels that tell of Jesus. In fact, Mark's gospel begins saying, this is the beginning of the gospel concerning the Son of God. And perhaps maybe there are those who would say, you know what? Actually, I have my biblical thinking cap on.

In fact, the promise of the gospel came prior to the gospels. I remember it being spoken of in the prophets. Now, the prophets were testifying that there would be one who would come, one who would save His people from their sins.

There was one who was ultimately being pointed to, and so there was a promise of the gospel in the prophets, and that was certainly true. That is not the first mention of the gospel. The first mention of the gospel in Scripture takes place right here in Genesis chapter 3, and it is against the backdrop of man's failure.

It's God's immediate response to man's failure. And so let's begin reading this morning in verse 14 as God comes and begins to address what has just taken place in the garden. He said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing.

In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. 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. The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living, and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." God begins to address the fallout of what has just taken place here with Satan, with the serpent, and with Adam and Eve.

And what we begin to see in these next verses is really the doctrinal underpinning for why things are the way they are right now on the earth. Paul will say in Romans 8, we'll look at this next week in more detail, that the creation is groaning right now. Now the creation has been subjected to futility.

Death is reigning and ruling. There is corruption and contamination and defilement and degradation. God's beautiful, glorious creation that we are enjoying has now been sullied and tarnished.

And yet here, very specifically, God begins to address the culprits. And so if you were to kind of put yourself in the bare feet of Adam and Eve, they weren't wearing shoes yet or sandals. They had no clothing, just some thick leaves that they'd been hiding behind.

What they've just experienced would be no less than a traumatizing experience. I mean, I think that's an appropriate use of the word here. They've just gone from being perfectly innocent to now knowing guilt and shame.

They'd been unashamed in their nakedness, now they're humiliated. They would have suddenly known in their own hearts, evil inclinations, evil desires. They would have had selfishness and distrust instantly enter into what was previously blissful marital harmony.

And the text doesn't record, but I don't know how you have Adam and Eve pointing fingers there and blame shifting and not have certain intense fellowship already beginning between the couple. I mean, surely in their hearts at that time, it would have been tempted to at the very least despair, hopelessness, probably angry, probably self-pitying. All of the things that you know experientially from sin would have been flooding over them, and yet it would have been against the contrast of never, ever, ever having experienced those previously.

And so it just would have been compounded. The misery would have been compounded. And so if you remember, the very last thing that was stated was the woman saying, the serpent deceived me and I ate, verse 13.

And then we read that as those words come off of Eve's lips, God turns to the serpent and it begins to address the serpent. And so this is a full display of God's authority and his goodness. As God addresses the fallout here, the very first thing we see is that the serpent is cursed.

Point number one this morning, verse 14, the serpent is cursed. The Lord God said to the serpent. So if we think for just a moment kind of the sequence of how things happen in the garden, the serpent comes and in an act of defiance against God, seeks to tempt Eve.

It's an outward sin. Eve follows up by taking of the fruit and eating. She takes the bait and she's overcome by her sinful desires.

And so she sins now. Outward sin number two. She hands it to Adam.

Adam takes the fruit, then he eats. Now we have outward sin number three. Okay.

So in terms of sequence, we have Satan, then Eve, then Adam sinning in the garden. When God comes to address the couple, he starts with Adam. It's not insignificant.

Why does he begin with Adam? Well, Adam bears primary responsibility here. Adam is the head of the household, we could say. It always cracks me up when you're talking to a young man who's aspiring to marriage.

He's so excited to be the head of the household. And we say, you know what? That's great. Probably what you're thinking is a little different than you're going to bear primary responsibility for all that takes place in your family.

You're probably just thinking, hey, nobody gets to boss me around anymore. And that sounds really cool. God comes to Adam first.

He comes to Adam first. He confronts Adam because he is the leader. He is the one who's been commissioned by God.

He was the one who was given charge over the garden to work it and to keep it. He was the one who was commanded not to eat of the fruit, the tree of knowledge and good and of evil. Adam was created first.

Eve wasn't even there when God instructed Adam. And so Adam is held accountable. And in fact, as we saw a couple of weeks ago in Romans 5, it was in Adam that the human race fell into condemnation.

And so if you're paying attention, here's how it works. Satan sins, Eve sins, Adam sins, God confronts Adam, he confronts Eve, and now is the first time he speaks to the serpent. Why? Well, because Satan now is not being given an opportunity to repent as Adam and Eve were.

He's not given an opportunity to reconcile the relationship as Adam and Eve were. The first words God speaks to the serpent are cursed. Cursed are you.

God pronounces a curse on the serpent. One commentator says he does not interrogate the serpent as he has done with the man and the woman because in the animal itself there is no sense of sin and because to the devil he would hold out no hope of pardon. And yet, the Lord calls the serpent to account and he does it in the hearing of the man and the woman.

And so immediately when we read this, we say, okay, as the Lord God speaks to the serpent, is he talking to the physical reality of a snake here or is he talking to this fallen angel known as Satan? John Calvin writes, readers endued with sound judgment will easily perceive that the language is of mixed character. For God so addresses the serpent that the last clause belongs to the man. And Calvin says it should be easily perceived with anyone who's endued with sound judgment.

There's a double reference here. God is speaking to the serpent. Genesis 3 records it as a serpent.

We know that this is an animal that is empowered by Satan. And he begins by saying because you have done this. Now, animals, of course, don't have a cognitive moral reasoning in the same way that humanity does.

They don't have a moral law to which they are to abide. They are creatures of instinct. And yet, this animal is in fact cursed.

The animal's cursed. Here's a part of us that immediately stops and thinks, well, that doesn't sound very fair. It's not really the snake's fault.

Snake can't be held morally accountable. And yet we see here that the fallout of sin doesn't just affect the one who's sinning, it affects others as well. And so, the snake really through no ultimate fault of its own is brought along in this curse that has a double reference both of the snake itself and Satan.

And God says his very first words 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. Cursed are you.

And I want you to just think for a minute. In kids, perhaps, you've heard of someone pronouncing a curse. What does it mean to curse something? A curse is to make a statement, okay, and it comes from a powerful source.

If you think fairy tales, it's usually some kind of like a magical fairy or something that pronounces the curse, maybe like a wicked stepmother that has special powers or something. But it's a powerful being, in this case, a deity, namely God, who makes a statement, and in that statement invokes harm or injury. God is pronouncing a curse.

He is pronouncing now a consequence. And when God does this, I want you to understand that God is not unjust. Scriptures say he's righteous altogether.

He's not being unfair. He's not capricious or impulsive. He's not stepping outside of his prerogative.

It's not as if he's kind of emotional in the moment. He's impulsive and like a human speaks something and then realizes, okay, I need to walk it back because I said that in anger and I didn't really think it through. Now, this is the God who does all things well, the God who dwells in unapproachable light, and he curses the serpent.

He pronounces a curse. And what is the curse? Well, this curse is going to be, it says, above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field. Now, it's interesting because you say, well, does that mean all of the animals were cursed? Well, God did not directly curse the entire animal kingdom, but the whole animal kingdom is going to be caught up in the same groaning of creation, same consequences and fallout of Adam and Eve's sin.

So, all animals experience, they reel from the effects of sin entering into the world and the ground being cursed and death coming about, but God doesn't pronounce a particular curse on other animals. Rather, here it is simply singling out that you uniquely, unlike all of the livestock and all the beasts of the field, you uniquely are going to be cursed. You're going to be cursed.

And this curse involves humiliation for the serpent. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. Okay? The idea here is you're going to be slithering around.

And so, the question becomes, well, and if you think of children's storybook Bibles for just a minute, right? You have probably a flood of images that come into your mind. I know I have far too many, many that I would like to forget. But sometimes you'll have the serpent standing, as it were, next to Eve.

Kind of has arms and legs, looks like a big lizard. Right? And then the picture is maybe when it gets cursed, like, you know, the arms and legs come in and now it's down on its belly and it's going to slither around. It's one view.

Possible. I don't, I'm not necessarily convinced of that. Other times you see the snake and it's up in the tree.

So, it's kind of a creative way of getting around it. Maybe it's a tree-dwelling snake. Now, after the curse, it's on the ground.

I don't know. What I can tell you is that there is a rabbinic legend that the serpent before the temptation was an upright creature. I don't think the text is conclusive.

I think it's simply iterating the reality that a serpent will be on the ground at all times and that that will be seen as a position of humiliation. It'll be a position of humiliation. And dust is not the diet per se.

That's somewhat figurative. It's not as if snakes live off of eating dirt. I mean, they eat bugs.

They eat small rodents. Those are the kinds of things that they ingest. But it is also true that snakes, as they're going down into holes and slithering around on the ground, do get dirt in their mouths.

It's a sign of degradation and humiliation. And in fact, this degradation is going to abide. In Isaiah chapter 11 verse 8, where Isaiah is speaking of the future kingdom, it's describing that one day, snakes will no longer be scary.

There won't be poisonous snakes. It says, the nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. So, all of that which makes snakes dangerous to humans will be done away with in the millennial kingdom.

They'll now be harmless. And yet, they're still going to be down in holes and slithering around on the ground. And so, the picture here is all the days of your life, God says.

From now on, serpents will always be on the ground, always slithering, and always a position of humiliation. And so, this is then to serve as a perpetual reminder for all of us of the consequences of sin. 1 Pastor writes, every time you see a snake slithering around, it is a sign of the humiliation of Satan.

It is a reminder of the divine judgment on him for tempting Adam and Eve into sin. So, certainly, it's pronounced upon the physical creature now that snakes slither around by God's design, and they always will perpetually. And of course, that's also pointing to the greater reality of Satan's demise and Satan's humiliation.

And so, this scene here is God calling to account Satan. He's cursing the serpent. And I want you to just picture this for a minute, because it's not just the serpent by himself, but he's there with Adam, and he's there right now with Eve, because God is going to speak to both Eve and the serpent in just a moment.

I want you to think about this for a minute. As parents, sometimes, we have a child who sins, and what do we do? We say, we're going to kind of cover your sin. We're going to be gracious.

We're going to go privately address this. We're going to go to a place where we can privately talk through what happened. And then other times, it was a group effort, right? And so, in those moments, we say, okay, everybody line up.

Everybody come together. We need to have a discussion. And the consequences are going to serve as warnings and reminders for everyone.

So, we're all going to eavesdrop here on the conversation. I want you to understand here that it is significant that God pulls the serpent in front of him, and he calls the serpent to account in the hearing of Adam and Eve, right in front of them. Why? Calvin, I think, rightly notes that God did this in order that the man and the woman will know that their fall not only provoked his wrath, but also displeased him because he loved them, and he held their salvation dear and precious.

See, they're seeing God first address the serpent, and there's no grace, there's no mercy, there's simply a curse that is pronounced. It reveals that God is an authority, that he is in the position of sovereign control, that he's the ultimate moral judge that has the right to judge. It would have been sobering for Adam and Eve to hear this first consequence.

I mean, you're thinking, okay, what's going to come next for me? And yet, at the same time to realize God's mercy and care for them as he's going to ultimately promise grace to them, which is something that the serpent does not receive. And so, here we see the sovereignty of God. We see his moral nature on display as he pronounces a curse on his enemy, Satan, and the serpent.

Both the physical and the spiritual realities here are both cursed. The physical snakes will slither around as a sign forever, and then the ultimate reality of Satan being put to a low position under God's feet. And we see that next in our second point as God graciously addresses the fallout.

Not only is the serpent cursed, but verse 15, the seed is promised. Verse 15, the seed is promised. When you and I read verse 15, you are to see this as a verse about salvation, a verse about God remedying the situation that man has found himself in, of which he is not able to get out.

And this verse testifies that God is the only one who is able to rescue us from our spiritually desperate situations. He says in verse 15, still speaking to the serpent, 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.

And that is a cryptic statement. And it's just an unusual statement. Satan has just scored a victory in the garden.

Now, he just successfully architected a brilliant scheme. He laid out the bait. Eve took the bait.

She fell into sin. Adam followed her. The whole human race transgressed.

In one sense, mission accomplished. He gained a victory that day. And yet that victory will be short-lived.

God begins by saying, I will put enmity between you and the woman. I'm going to put animosity between you two. Now, there are some of those that would read Genesis 3 and think this is either mythological or perhaps non-spiritual, and they would just say, so this is why most women hate snakes.

There's probably a few, I'm not going to ask for hands, in the congregation this morning who really like snakes. You might need to get your head checked. Snakes are scary, right? We don't generally like snakes.

So, the thought here is that maybe what's happening is God is just saying that women are going to be afraid of snakes perpetually, and that is the curse. In one sense, I think that certainly may be true that snakes are not generally viewed as cuddly creatures. You know, you might want to get like a pet bunny or something like that, or maybe a cat perhaps, or a puppy.

People don't generally cuddle with snakes. I mean, it's just a different vibe. And so, I think that's true, but more significantly here is the spiritual reality.

There's always this double reality running through the passage. I want you to think about what Eve is experiencing. She's just fallen into temptation.

She's believed the lie, and in that she departed from fellowship with God and formed really an alliance with Satan. And so, when God comes and he says, I will put enmity, I'm going to put separation between you serpent and the woman, we need to see this right here as an indication of God's redemption, God's mercy to Eve. Eve, you have failed.

You've started to form essentially a new alliance against me with Satan, but I want you to understand she's actually mine. And so, it's not going to be even Satan against God, but God and Eve against Satan. There will be enmity between you, Satan, and the woman.

Eve has failed, and yet he's letting her know that she's not lost. She's not given over. Although she is temporarily rebelled, she won't remain in that state of rebellion.

And so, rather than the serpent now being the one with whom she has fellowship, she's now going to have enmity between her and the serpent. The concept here is not fleshed out in detail, but it is later in Scripture. In fact, later in Scripture, we're going to learn that humanity falls into two camps.

There are two lines spiritually speaking, sons of the evil one and sons of God, those who are under the prince of the power of the air or the ruler of this world, and those who are a part of the kingdom of God's beloved son. And so, one of the tremendous realities of the Bible is that there's no such thing, spiritually speaking, as dual citizenship. You either belong to one kingdom or the other.

And so, when God says, I'm taking Eve because she's mine, and there's now going to be enmity between the serpent and Eve. She's being clearly transferred into his kingdom, leaving behind her old citizenship. That's the idea.

And this animosity will extend beyond Eve and Satan, the text goes on and says, in between your offspring and her offspring, between your offspring and her offspring. Okay, this is a word rich with significance. Really, the most literal rendering of this word is seed.

A seed would be the reproductive mechanism that plant life uses to reproduce. It's used figuratively of the propagation of human life as well. The Greek translation of the Old Testament uses the word spermatos, kind of here our word for sperm.

It's this idea of the seed of reproduction. It's used for progeny, that which propagates life, future descendants. And so, the Lord says, there's going to be enmity.

There's going to be animosity. There's going to be a separation, a divide between your offspring and her offspring. You think, okay, so what does this mean? Does this mean that the snake is going to have babies, and Adam and Eve are going to have babies, and they're going to be scared of each other as well? It means a lot more than that.

It's not just the animal here. And yet, if it involves Satan as well, we're immediately presented with the question, well, who are Satan's offspring? Satan's not a biological reality in the same way that humans and animals are. We've established that Satan is a fallen angel.

Demons are not said to be Satan's offspring. He doesn't procreate additional demons. God created angels.

They fell, and they don't continue to reproduce. In fact, Mark 12, verse 25, Jesus, in speaking of marriage in heaven, says that when they raise from the dead, they will neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. So, angels don't pair off as male and female and make more angels.

Rather, God created them by His own action without an intermediate or secondary action as normal procreation takes place. And so, although it's true that most people don't love snakes, and Adam and Eve's kids probably were freaked out by them, both because snakes are kind of gross, and they knew what mom and dad had experienced, it's more significant what is being stated here. See, the deeper significance is that Satan's offspring are not those which Satan has reproduced, but rather they're humans, human souls that belong to him.

Jesus would say in Matthew 13, verse 38, that the field is the world. He's speaking of the parable of the wheat and the tares, and he says, the good seed is the sons of the kingdom, and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. They're sons of the kingdom of the beloved son, and then those who are sons of the evil one.

Jesus would say to the religious leaders in John 8, verse 44, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. 1 John 5, verse 19 says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says that Satan is the God of this world, and he's blinded the minds of unbelievers, and he keeps them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

John would say in 1 John 3, verse 8, that whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, and so Satan, rightly, could be called a spiritual father of sorts, a spiritual father of sorts, one who provides leadership and direction. A people who follow after his likeness and his similarities. There's a family resemblance, if you will.

And so, what is being pronounced here in Genesis 3.15 is that there will be two lines of people who will be at odds, those who belong to God and those who belong to Satan. And you belong to one family or the other. As you sit here today, as you hear the sound of my voice, you belong to one family or the other.

It's unique citizenship. Two offsprings. Jesus would say like this in John 15, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world and I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. So, right here, what we're seeing is that the greatest division on earth is not a division that occurs based upon things that are somewhat superficial like skin color or socioeconomic status or language or national origin or even religion to a degree, but rather the division here that's promised by God that there are people of two different kingdoms, those of whom Jesus would say are of their father, the devil, and then those who've been rescued out of that domain and transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son.

And so we are at enmity. Now, what that doesn't mean, of course, for God's people is that we're part of some jihad or that we're trying to vanquish our enemies through show of force or through power or through politics. Paul would say in Ephesians chapter 6 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

It's a spiritual battle that takes place. It's spiritual enmity. And Satan is attacking God's people.

There's enmity between the offspring, both the offspring as well as Satan himself. Ephesians 6 says that he's shooting not little nerf darts, but flaming arrows against God's people. And so the relationship between God's people personified here is Eve's offspring.

I mean, Eve is being redeemed by God here, that her offspring will be at animosity with Satan's offspring, namely the children of this world, and there will no longer be between Satan and the redeemed line a peaceful, supportive relationship. See, Satan hates God, and yet God here mercifully rescues our first parents out of Satan's grasp. Isn't that amazing? And the relationship now is characterized by hostility.

And so you and I are in the midst of a battle. It's a spiritual battle. Well, the song of church arise, there's that line.

Our call to war is to love the captive soul, but to rage against the captor. What does that mean? It means that we understand that we've been rescued, and so we have compassion on those who are still in the domain of darkness. And yet in this passage, there's even more taking place.

God says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. Now the word offspring, seed, is an interesting word because it's not declined between the plural and the singular. Be like if someone said, could you bring your sheep to church tonight? By that, they could mean bring your one sheep to church or bring 500 sheep to church.

Either way, it's the same phrase, bring your sheep to church. There's flexibility in the word. And so it is the same in the Hebrew language.

It's the same in English that if you were to say offspring, it's not clear whether we're talking about plural or singular. If I said, tell me about your offspring and you had multiple children and you just spoke of one of them, it'd be totally appropriate. If I said, tell me about your offspring, and then you told me about all of your children, that would be appropriate.

And so certainly we know here that this idea of offspring is going to involve many because it's talking about Satan's offspring. That would be the sons of the evil one. It's plural.

And you look at the details because the pronoun switches in the end of verse 15 and it becomes singular. 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.

And so now this word that could be declined, plural or singular, offspring or seed, has a single referent. And when God makes this promise, although it is veiled, although it is just the very first pronouncement, this is the first message of God's salvation. Now, the word salvation doesn't appear in this passage.

In fact, the primary word group for salvation in the Old Testament doesn't appear until the book of Exodus when God saves his people out of Egypt. The word gospel is not in this verse. The word grace is not in this verse.

But the concepts certainly are. See, for the second point, I said that there is a seed who is promised. We could have rightly said salvation is promised.

We could have rightly said a Savior is promised. That's the seed. Say, how are you getting that out of he will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel? Well, several reasons.

The idea of bruising a heel means that Satan would inflict a wound upon this singular offspring. And then this offspring, this singular offspring would crush Satan's head. I've had surgery on my Achilles tendon.

I've had issues with my heels. I can tell you a wound on the heel is painful, but it is not fatal. If you get your head crushed, it is a fatal blow.

And so, right here, what God is promising to Adam and Eve is out of your very loins, I'm going to produce an offspring, a seed that is going to come from you, and he, singular, although attacked by Satan, in fact, we could say bruised on the heel, will ultimately conquer this enemy. He will crush this enemy. This is the very first mention of the gospel in Scripture.

Theologians call it the Proto-Eugelion, the first mention of the gospel. Eugelion, that's just the Greek word for the gospel. Proto, first.

This is the first mention of the gospel. This is good news. God is announcing here.

And if you think of the language of Abraham, Abraham's going to have an offspring, a seed. God's picking up the language of Genesis 3.15. We know that seed of Abraham would ultimately be Christ in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In fact, Paul would say in Galatians 3.16, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

It does not say into offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one. And to your offspring, who is Christ? Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. I mean, do you understand the timing here is so remarkable? Adam and Eve have just transgressed.

And this is fresh. They had enough time to quickly throw some fig leaves on and duck for cover in the bushes. The Lord comes seeking them out.

He comes calling to them. He comes drawing them out, which although accountability also shows mercy. He questions them, giving them an opportunity to repent.

They begin to blame shift and deny their sin. And now God, in his mercy, takes Satan, that culprit, and he curses him right in front of Adam and Eve. And then he promises, by the way, I'm going to deal with Satan.

I'm cursing him right now. He's going to be humiliated. But one day, I'm going to crush his head.

And out of your own very loins, there will come a seed for you to trust in. This is the messianic line. Now, interestingly enough, you trace out Scripture, this begins to make sense of the entire storyline of the Bible.

Satan has been trying to snuff out this seed and this line. Just think for a minute. Exodus chapter one, God's people are in Egypt.

They're becoming powerful. And what does Pharaoh decide to do? According to Exodus 1.22, he commanded his people, every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. What's happening there? Among other things, that is a satanic incited genocide, infanticide of Hebrew boys to attempt to snuff out the messianic line.

Later in the Old Testament, Esther chapter three, Haman and Esther. Haman thinks of this idea to exterminate the Jews. King Ahasuerus takes that and sends instructions to all of the provinces.

And what are the instructions? Destroy, kill, and annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children in one day. What's happening? That is a satanic informed plot to attempt to vanquish the Messiah's line. Matthew chapter two in the New Testament, it's now Herod becoming furious and ordering that all of the baby boys, two years and younger in Bethlehem, be put to death in an attempt to do what? To vanquish the line of the Messiah.

And so we see Gentiles attempting to exterminate Jews throughout history prior to Christ. And then Jesus comes and Satan's strategy pivots from the Gentiles killing Jesus to His own people. Matthew chapter 12, the Pharisees went out and conspired against Jesus how to destroy Him.

Luke chapter four, they rose up against Jesus as the synagogue was filled with wrath. They wanted to bring Him to the brow of the hill so they could throw Him down and off of a cliff to kill Him. John 5.18, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him.

And eventually Judas, the betrayer, according to John 13, was entered into by Satan as he might deliver over Jesus to be crucified. See, Satan has been seeking to disrupt this pronouncement that God makes to vanquish the messianic line, to snuff it out before the Messiah could be born. And that snake would come and eventually be successful.

And inciting in Judas's heart and the hearts of the people, the angry rebellion and the mob that would ultimately put Jesus to death on the cross. And what felt like a victory for just a moment for Satan as he bruised Jesus' heel on the cross was actually the very accomplishment of the crushing of his own head. Paul put it this way in Colossians chapter two, that God canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, nailing it to the cross, and He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him.

The writer of Hebrews would say that Jesus through death, Hebrews 2.14, destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. And so, this was not merely they each bruise each other, but rather Satan bruising Jesus' heel, helping to accomplish the very purpose and plan of God and Jesus being crucified. When Jesus rose from the grave through death, He crushed the serpent's head.

What does the Bible say then? He destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. So, when you come to Genesis chapter three, it's light on the details of the emotional state of Adam and Eve after they sinned, and yet we can easily surmise where they were at. God comes to them in their guilt and their shame, and He immediately, He doesn't make them wait days or weeks or months or years, He immediately comes to them.

He says, I'm going to fix what you just messed up. I'm going to curse the serpent, and then you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to provide salvation. There will be an offspring that comes, and he is going to be the very demise of Satan, and he is going to be salvation for you.

This is the very first mention of the gospel. And this helps you understand why it was such a tremendous gift when God sent Jesus to the earth, not to judge the earth, but to rescue. Remember what they said, He shall call His name Jesus, for He will, what? He will save His people from their sins.

Uncommentator writes, this gospel was first preached in the scene of man's condemnation under God's curse of death. The first promise of was spoken in a courtroom setting where man stood guilty before God. The problem, therefore, that brought the first gospel message was mankind's alienation from God because of sin.

The child to be born, the appointed offspring from the woman would come to deliver us from God's judgment on our sin, and only then lead us into higher realms of life. For this reason, as the angel told Joseph, you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. See, God comes in, He immediately takes up this quarrel that took place, and He promises grace and salvation.

Paul, in writing to the church at Rome, would end his letter by saying this, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Let's pray.

Father, thank you that you didn't leave our first parents at Owallo in despair, but you immediately offered them the promise of what was to come. Lord, we have so much more revelation than they did then. They didn't understand yet the details of a Jewish carpenter who would be God incarnate, nailed to a cross, the hands of Romans.

All of that was not yet revealed to them, and yet they trusted in this promise, and in that they were saved by His atoning death. Lord, I thank you that you've provided a way of salvation for us. Thank you, Lord, that you have offered the gospel to people who are undeserving, and Lord, that you made a remedy that gives you glory and praise and honor.

Lord, for all of us who are in Christ, we just say thank you that you've pulled us out of the darkness that we were in, or that you removed the blinders, and we escaped the one with whom we once were captive to do His will. Lord, we love you so much. We praise you for these things.

Amen.