The Long-Expected Serpent Bruiser - Brandon Scalf

All right, everyone, grab your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, and we will be looking primarily at verse 15.

Genesis chapter 3, and the title of this morning's message is

A Long -Expectant Serpent Bruiser. The Long -Expected

Serpent Bruiser. And so if you would, please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy infallible and all -sufficient

Word. And we will begin reading for the sake of context in verse 13.

This is the Word of God. Then Yahweh God said to the woman,

What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

And Yahweh God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you more than any of the cattle and more than every beast of the field.

On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Amen? Amen. Go ahead and have a seat and fix your eyes back on verse 15.

As we enter into this season of Advent, we are reminded of the anticipation that the people in Israel would have felt prior to the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

And what's beautiful about that is we are also reminded that this is a time unlike any other time.

The time before the coming of Jesus is one that is literally offering us a glimpse into God's eternal and unfolding plan of redemption.

It is a season where we get to see how meticulous and how beautiful and how intricate

God's plan of redemption really is.

And so in many ways, though we celebrate, it's not just a celebration, but a pausing to consider our great

God and to remind us of the hope that was, and the hope that is, and the hope that ultimately will be.

And so I have entitled this series, Come, Thou Long -Expecting

Jesus. And the reason that I picked that title is not just because it's a beautiful song, but because Jesus coming on the scene, as it were, is not something that just came to be.

It's not something that we even look back on and appreciate or now see in a way we've never saw before, although there are certainly elements of that.

But rather the coming of Jesus is something that has been talked about literally since the first book of the

Bible. The gospel right here is preached before you even get to a pulpit.

God is preaching, but we'll get to that here in a moment. Here we will see in Genesis chapter 3, the fulfillment of God's promises as they are whispered in the shadows of Eden.

The promises of a Savior, the promises to undo what had just happened. But more than that, what you need to understand about Advent is it's also in many ways a declaration of eternal war.

The birth of Christ was not just an isolated incident that was garbed in sentimentality.

It was the climactive and divine invasion of heaven into the very strongholds of sin and darkness.

In Genesis chapter 3 here, it's not just saying, hey, this is going to happen. It's God saying,

I am going to put an end to you. I'm going to put an end to you,

Satan. I'm going to put an end to you, sin, once and finally and forever.

So as we consider the Advent season, which really is the Christmas season, we need to understand that when we talk about Jesus, for example, being laid in a manger in swaddling clothes, it's not just this thing where, for instance, we get wrapped up in how beautiful and cute this little baby is and that someday he's going to come and carry lambs and he's going to be really nice and he's going to tell people how to live rightly and all of these sorts of things and be an example of what self -sacrifice looks like, though some of that is true.

The reality is this manger, God placing this baby here through the

Virgin Mary, was something that God did to make the serpent tremble.

It's something that God did to make the comrades of the devil tremble.

When the angels announced peace on earth in the Gospels, it wasn't just an announcement.

It was an announcement meant to cause the kingdom of hell to shake, to anticipate in fear of what was to come.

Here we see a thunderous pronouncement that the serpent bruiser or crusher, depending on your translation, has come to fulfill the promises of God and to do away with Satan, sin, death, and hell.

So look with me at Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. This is really the beginning of what has been called the

Proto -Evangelium or Proto -Evangelion depending on who you listen to and how they say it.

I suppose that the old adage is true, if you speak fast enough nobody will question you when you start to say

Greek words. But the reality is it just means the first gospel.

The first gospel. What's happening here in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 is what we have as a people understood to be the first preaching of the gospel.

And the gospel preacher in this moment is God himself and he is preaching first and mostly to the serpent and secondarily he is preaching it to and for the benefit of Adam and Eve and all of his posterity.

But notice here he's speaking specifically to the serpent.

He's promising an end of his day. He's promising an end of his deception.

He's promising an end to his very influence through the person and work of the

Lord Jesus Christ even if he is not mentioned by name. So in many ways this is not a conversation but a divine proclamation of divine truth.

He's promising judgment on the serpent. He's declaring triumph for the son, for the seed.

And embedded in these very words is the unfolding drama of redemptive history.

And so the first thing that I want you to see as we look at this text is the conflict. The conflict.

Look with me at verse 15 it says, and I, that's God speaking of course, will put enmity between you and the woman.

On this day, at this hour, the gospel has begun to be proclaimed.

As a matter of fact, speaking of this verse, Matthew Henry once said, here was the dawning of the very gospel itself.

No sooner was the wound given than the remedy was provided and revealed.

In other words, what he is saying here is as soon as sin entered the world, as soon as Adam engaged in the sin that he did, as soon as Eve began to eat the fruit,

God stood up and says, I'm going to deal with that. And I'm going to send my son to do it.

He doesn't let us linger. He doesn't let us languish. He lets us experience the consequences of our sin, but he immediately gets involved in the mess.

You see, just prior to this, there had been a grateful, a great grateful. God had made man and woman in his image, and they were to be vice regents of his glory to the rest of the world, and they were to live in perfect harmony, without shame, without sin.

They had one rule, they had one rule, and that rule was not don't eat of this tree, though that was the rule, right?

But the rule was, listen to God, listen to God. Now, all the time as a pastor, especially by children, so children, listen here, listen here, all right?

I'm always asked, I'm always asked, why in the world, or why did

God punish Adam and Eve, and now all of us, because they ate a piece of fruit?

That seems nonsensical, right? That seems crazy, that seems weird, like, you know,

I don't even get in very much trouble if I eat something that I'm told not to eat. Like I might get said, hey, what,

I told you not to eat that, why'd you eat that? Maybe a little time out, or something, I don't know, right? But the whole world doesn't explode, right?

But here, it seems to. So why? Well, it's not about the fruit, it's not about the fruit.

This fruit doesn't have some sort of magic power in it, that when they eat it, they never, like, that's how some people read the

Genesis story, is that there's this piece of fruit that they eat, and all of a sudden they know sin exists, because there's like, it's like some sort of, like,

Disney fairy tale story. But that's not the case. The case is, they unlocked their ability to discern sin, because they sinned.

And they sinned in doing what? Not listening to God, desiring to be like God, and to be

God. And by the way, friends, that is the backbone of every false religion that exists in the world.

In Genesis chapter 3, verse 5, the serpent lies to the woman, and she believed it, because she loved the truth, that he was, or the, he believed, she believed, rather, the things that he was saying.

And that is this, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.

All they had to do was bask in the glory of God, trust

God, and they would have everything they would ever need apart from sin.

And yet they believed the lie that they could be like God. Don't be too hard on them, because you would do the same thing given the same opportunity.

That's why we need help. What I find most interesting about this is, yes, is certainly the truth of the gospel and all these sorts of things, but also how quick he also meets them in their sin.

They're naked. And he says, who told you you were naked? And that he winds up actually fashioning for them their clothes.

See how messy this God gets. How close he gets to us that we might not be damned forever.

So here we see the promise of this conflict initiated by the triune

God of the Bible. Now, he says here that he will put enmity between you and the woman speaking to the serpent.

The Hebrew word here that is used for enmity signifies a continual or perpetual hostility.

Something that starts then and continues on. Something that is not going to, apart from a divine stamp of destruction, stop.

It's not a natural animosity. It is a sovereignly decreed animosity.

Do you have a God big enough for that reality? God himself declares war between the serpent and the woman.

And the reality is, much in the same way, we left to ourselves are not neutral.

And we are not on the right side of this conflict or hostility.

We are allies of the serpent, the devil himself.

We can see that especially since we've been walking through as a church. I always want to connect you back to other things we've been studying, right?

Ephesians chapter 2 is we are what? Dead in our transgressions and sins. And not only that, but we are influenced and under the power of the prince of the power of the air.

Speaking of the serpent. But here God intervenes and he plants a holy hatred for sin in his elect.

The woman representing the one, the serpent representing the other.

When God saves a person, they're caught up into this very conflict right here.

The one that exists between the woman and the seed. Between God's elect and those who are still under the curse.

Another thing that this means is that it is a conflict, since it is enduring, that is going to, as I've already said, span generations.

Span, in many ways, the rest of the known world.

And so this is no ordinary feud. It is a cosmic clash between light and darkness, heaven and hell, culminating in the work of our heavenly redeemer.

And when you think about this, it really helps you understand the conflicts that exist in the world, right?

What would you say are the two religions most in clash with one another or with the world, depending on its time in history?

Of course, Christianity, right? Islam. Islam's the other one.

And Islam is a religion based off of an assumption that, essentially,

Christians had adopted the wrong brother as their figurehead after Abraham had his son, his first son and his second son, right?

They believe the first son is the son of promise, right?

Because he's the first son, not the second son. And so this battle has raged on and on and on and on and on.

And as you actually look into Islam, they even differentiate within themselves between the proper line and the not -so -proper line.

This is a battle that is going to continue to rage on and on and on until the

Lord Jesus returns, to put an end to it finally. But it will be lessened, the kingdom of God will grow, and darkness will be pushed back because we have a savior who does not lose.

You might be saying, well, how do I know that if you're not on God's side, you're on Satan's side?

If you're not on the woman's side, you're on the serpent's side. Well, Jesus makes this case in John 8, verse 44. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Wherever he speaks is a lie.

He speaks from his own nature for he's a liar and the father of lies.

So you see here, we need to understand that there was this conflict that existed before we showed up since day one.

And Jesus coming thrusts us into that very reality.

Let me ask you a question, Heritage. Are you at enmity with this serpent?

Are you at enmity with your sin? Or have you aligned yourself with his rebellion, with his lies that you can be

God or think like God or see the things God sees?

Or do you hide your eyes from this conflict?

Because the reality is only those born again by the spirit of God, by the grace of God, for the glory of God, enter into this conflict on the side of the seed.

You are in one of two camps. You are in one of two armies.

You are in one of two people groups. And only two.

There are the covenant people of God and there are the not covenant people of God. Those under the serpent and those under the

Savior. And how you treat them is an indicator as to whether or not you're on the

Savior's side or not. If you're at war with the serpent and you're at war with his people and you're at war with your sin.

That's the litmus test. The second thing that I want you to see, very quickly spelled out here, is the combatants.

We've seen the conflict. Now let's look, if we're thinking about battle, let's look at the combatants.

Continuing on in verse 15, he says, And I will put enmity, this hostility, this perpetual hostility, between your seed and her seed.

Now this is a grand, grand truth. One that I've already hinted at in many ways.

But let's pause. One of the things that, you know, we may not consider as we read this story, is the fact that it's talking about the woman's seed.

This is the only time in the Bible where it speaks of the woman. Speaking of the woman having a seed, usually it's the men, because men have seed, women do not.

And so even here, I want you to see how beautiful and rich the Bible is, right? Even here, there is this picture of this divine

Christ, this virgin having birth, right? Because it's God's seed in many ways, right?

There's no man to give her the seed, so she's got the seed. So here, it's already beginning to flower.

It's already beginning to come apart and show this reality of this coming one, who would come through a virgin.

Come through this woman, apart from no human man, but God himself. And what this is addressing here, when it's talking about the seeds and not the seeds, is it's really talking about the way in which people are saved.

It's through this seed. So, a question that we might seek to answer, and we will, in the course of this sermon is, how are or how were

Old Testament saints saved? Well, they were always saved through Jesus Christ, through the woman's seed.

The serpent's seed includes all who reject God's authority, from Cain to the Pharisees to even modern -day rebellers.

They bear their father's mark, and the seed manifests in every form of idolatry, false religion, and hostility to Christ.

But the seed spoken about here, of the woman's seed, is one of her lineage, reckoned through the seed to come.

This miraculous birth of this person, this man, this God -man, is one that bypasses human fatherhood.

The second Adam who comes to reverse the curse. You see here,

God is pronouncing this curse upon the serpent, and he's doing that because the first Adam had set us all on fire, and Jesus Christ, the seed who would come, is the second

Adam. This is the entire point of the book of Romans, who has come to do what

Adam could not do in the garden. This is why one of the greatest songs that we sing this time of year is that God has come to remove the curse as far as that curse is found.

There is not an area that sin did not touch because of Adam's rebellion.

And there is not an area of that sin -touched world that God's grace, through Jesus Christ, will not cure.

This is why Isaiah 714 says, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a son. Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name

Emmanuel. This is pointing to that very reality, which is why John Gill says this,

The Messiah, the eminent seed of the woman, should bruise the head of the old serpent, the devil, that is, destroy him and all his principalities and powers, break and confound all his schemes, and ruin all his works, crush the whole empire, strip him of his authority and sovereignty, and particularly of his power over death and his tyranny over the bodies and souls of men, all which was done by Christ when he became the incarnate and suffered and died.

It was great. Baptists can preach, amen? The third thing that I want you to see is the climax.

The climax, particularly the climax of hostility. We've seen, right, the conflict that exists.

We've seen the combatants, the woman and the serpent.

And now let's see the climax of hostility. It's building. This thing is absolutely building.

And really, this is the meat of the text itself. The meat of the text itself.

He goes on and says, he, speaking of the seed of the woman, he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.

Now, this is most certainly speaking of the reality that the serpent has a strike, and that strike will hurt.

It will hurt Christ and his earthly life, and it will hurt everyone underneath his serpentry.

The bruising of the heel here, which is an interesting way to put it, right, because when we hear this text preached sometimes, or we read books about it, or I think even some translations render this crush.

But the word here is bruise. The word here is bruise, and it's important to maintain this language because it's an idiom that existed prior to this moment in the

Hebrew culture. And crush is good, crush is right, and most certainly the devil will be crushed.

But the idea here is actually that there is this attack that has been happening or will happen against Christ.

On the cross, Satan attacked and seemingly seemed to triumph, yet the strike that he gave, the bruising that he gave, that was not final.

It was not final. It implies a temporary injury for Christ, but a mortal flaw, or rather a mortal blow for Satan.

You see here, this is the same word. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. There's a play on words.

So if you say bruise on the one hand and crush on the other, you're not picking up on that Hebrew play on words.

So we want to be really hardcore, and we want to say crush, because he does crush him.

But what the author is trying to do, very poetically, is to say this.

What he's going to do is going to hurt. He's going to bruise the seed.

And yet, and yet, it will not be a final blow, right?

The serpent will bite at the heel, and the seed will what?

Bruise you on the head. Stamp you out on the ground where you have been put.

That's what it says. The crushing of this head, the bruising of this head, is one that is decisive.

The language actually used here recalls an executioner's blow, utterly destroying the serpent's power.

Of course, we can see that being fulfilled in Jesus Christ on the cross in Colossians 2, verse 15, when it says that he has disarmed the rulers and authorities, making a public display of them, having triumphed over them in him.

Christ's death and resurrection deliver the fatal strike. And at the cross, the serpent's fangs are shattered, broken, and scattered.

His grip on God's people has been loosened, and his ability to hold them fast, as it were, is broken forever.

His venom still exists, but he has no bite. And why is that?

The seed, the promise, the animosity. Children, would you look at me?

Maybe this will help it make sense. Have you ever seen a show with a cowboy on it? I assume you have because you're from Oklahoma, and there's a church down the street called

Will Rogers Church, so it's probably a safe bet. Why don't you imagine this cowboy, maybe you've seen this happen in a show before.

He's walking through the desert, and a venomous snake jumps out at him, tries to bite him, and actually gets him.

And the snake bites the heel of this person on the boot, and it might have got some fangs in there, it might have hurt a little bit, but the cowboy stops.

He picks up a shovel, and he hits it in the head, and he kills it so that he doesn't hurt anyone else.

That's what Jesus has promised to do here. That's what he did on the cross.

He bore the sting of death, the sting of the serpent, and yet in so doing, annihilated it, killed it.

For you, if you trust in him. And so we all, as a church, we must trust in Christ's victory.

Though Satan may assail us, as Martin Luther would say in his hymn, his defeat is sure.

So we can resist him. This is another thing, right? We are sinners, but because Christ, the seed has come, and done what he has done, right?

We can resist him. We can stand firm in Christ's triumph.

Now, to be sure, this is the Advent season, and so we're looking forward, and we have to, in some respects, try to suspend, if we can, which we can't, right?

Suspend knowing how the story ends, because we should be reading the story and going, how is this going to play out?

How is this going to work? How in the world, right? And this is what they were trying to figure out, the entirety of the Old Testament. And then when

Jesus comes along, clicks. The Old Testament was always promising.

Jesus was always expected, and yet there was confusion about how he would go about doing what it was he promised to do.

And yet with Christ, it's clear. So the fourth thing that I want you to see here is the covenant.

The covenant. Or a better way to put this, if you're a good, you know,

Baptist covenant theologian of sorts, is to say the promised covenant. The promised covenant.

This is not a covenant itself. It is the promise of a covenant that is going to be actualized in space and time, the covenant of grace, which is the new covenant, the covenant in Jesus Christ's blood that he purchased for his people.

But the promise is there. The scaffolding, as it were, is there.

The covenant is this. I will deal with your sin problem.

I will resolve this conflict, and I will do it through this new Adam, the covenant head.

We see that in Romans chapter 5 verse 19. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were appointed sinners, speaking of Adam here, even so through the obedience of the one, speaking of Jesus, the many will be appointed righteous.

In other words, Jesus' heel would be bruised because he willingly submitted to the Father's will, drinking the full cup of his divine wrath, and in so doing inaugurated this covenant promise, the promise of Jeremiah 31 and following.

What a beautiful reality. This covenant is one brought by the new covenant head.

This covenant is one. It's beautiful. With someone who cannot, will not, does not fail.

And every promise he makes is sure and true, and there is never danger of falling into the same mess that we got ourselves into in the very garden itself.

So how were the old people in the Old Testament saved? By believing the promises of God.

By having faith in this serpent bruiser, the one whom would come to deal with the conflict and to deal with the sin issue and Satan himself.

So how did Jesus bruise? Well, of course, we got to go to the New Testament to figure this out, although there is certainly things throughout the

Old Testament that hint at this, specifically Isaiah 65, others like that. He doesn't just bruise

Satan and his enemies by showing up as a king and destroying every single magistrate that exists, although the

Jews really wanted that to happen in the past, and people really want it to happen now.

But the reality is Jesus came to help us deal with the biggest enemy,

Satan and ourselves. Everything else, peripheral. Peripheral.

So as we look at the New Testament, and this is not exhaustive, but it's something that we need to consider as we begin Advent, and as we look at this text,

Jesus bruised, or you could say crushed, if that helps you here, bruised

Satan in these ways as well as ourselves. The first is that he bruised demonic oppression.

He crushed demonic oppression. Now, I know that sounds really strange to some of you, and that sounds really strange to Reformed ears, and that's a problem, because there are two sort of pendulums, and we don't want to fall into either of those.

The first one is, and I don't think anybody in heritage is going to be guilty of falling onto this side of the fence, is to say that demonic oppression is everything, that the demonic realm is everything, that everything in the world is governed by Satan and his demons, and everything is...

No, okay, that's correct. I mean, okay, whatever, right? The reality is, Satan doesn't need to bother many of us because we do bad all by ourselves, okay?

While at the same time, and Reformed people are bad at this, we just say, yeah, there's no such thing as the demonic realm.

We don't think about it. We don't give it any credence, but the reality is it's there. We know this because the

Bible tells us. Acts 10 .38 says, You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how

God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and hearing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with them.

God was with Jesus, who cast demons out of people who were oppressed by the devil.

And in 1 John 4 .4, picking up on this theme and understanding, the apostle John says,

You are from God, little children, speaking to the new covenant people, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

So though there is this demonic oppressor, namely Satan, there is a Christ, the greater

Adam, the true and second Adam, who has come, and he's powerful, more powerful than he who has control over the world, namely the one who oppresses it.

And so Jesus comes to bruise this oppression that happens. No longer in Christ are people going to be possessed or oppressed.

Secondly, he bruises the demonic captivity. In 2

Timothy 2, verse 25 and 26, Paul says to Timothy, while telling him how to help govern the church, he is to do so with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps

God may give them repentance, leading to the full knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

Those who are not in Christ, those who forsake the truth, those who will not hear and repent, those people are not people who are living a neutral life.

Those are people that are held captive by the chains of Satan, and they are under the serpent's rule and reign.

And Jesus came to break those chains. Jesus came to break those chains and to plunder

Satan's property. And there's an interesting story in the

Gospels where Jesus is casting out demons and he's releasing men and women from the captivity of the chains that they've experienced by demonic oppression.

And of course, the scribes and Pharisees had something to say about that, right? And they said, you do this by basically the power of Satan.

Like, this is weird, man. Like, you did that because Satan allowed you to do that. And what did Jesus say?

It's not possible. It's not possible logically, but also biblically. But here's some logic for you.

He says what? He says, a house divided against itself cannot stand. You know, if I'm casting out demons on behalf of the one who sent the demon, we're either

A, not on the same team, or tomorrow, like, you don't have to worry about us because tomorrow this whole thing's gonna fall down. Like, you can only move forward in unity.

That's the only way a mission works. And then he tells a story, like, only

Jesus can, right? And he says, imagine a strong man.

The only way you're gonna be able to break into his house and steal his stuff is if you tie him up, you duct tape his mouth shut, and you put him in a drawer.

That's the Brandon Scalf version, the BSB, all right? So it's just a generalization of what he's saying, right?

It's not word for word. And he says, I'm doing that. I'm plundering the strong man's house.

He's come to mess up everything that Satan was doing, and he has come to free those who have been oppressed and those who have been held under chains.

And how does he do that? By setting up a kingdom that, yes, but also, and foremostly, by preaching the gospel.

Luke 10, verses 17 through 19 says, Now the 70 returned with joy to Jesus, saying,

Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I was watching

Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.

This is what happens when Jesus sent his disciples out. This doesn't mean go grab snakes and scorpions and pray they don't kill you because they will kill you, right?

It's not promising that if Christians, if they love Jesus enough and they're preaching his gospel, that they're going to stand against venom.

It's saying that when God sends his people out to proclaim his message, it will work. Not only that, but Jesus came as the serpent bruiser, serpent crusher, to free us from demonic lies and deception.

We believe lies. I mean, that is the enemy's greatest strategy against us, to tell us lies because we love the lies that he tells.

Satan is the father of lies. We saw that in John 8, verse 44.

When you see Revelation 12, 9, it makes it even clearer. It says, and the great dragon was thrown down.

A direct allusion to Genesis 3 here, speaking of this serpent, this great dragon.

Unless you think, oh, well, he's saying dragon, not serpent. A lot of eisegesis is going on there. Ah, hold on, there's a comma, right?

And it goes, comma, the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan. So who is this serpent?

Well, I've told you the whole sermon, but now it's made evidently and exegetically clear that it is the devil himself.

And what does he do? According to Revelation 12, it says he deceives the whole world.

He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And in Revelation chapter 19, speaking,

I believe, of Jesus' plundering of the house, Jesus says that Satan was bound for 1 ,000 years to do what?

Bound for 1 ,000 years, how? Or for what purpose?

For what purpose, that's the question. Sorry. The purpose was so that he could not deceive the nations any longer.

So Satan has not been bound in every single way that a serpent could be bound, but so that he cannot deceive the nations, so that the gospel might go forth and regenerate hearts might be born, and that the

Christ would have his people flood the earth with his message. And that's how you change hearts.

You change hearts, you change countries, you change churches, you change families, by regeneration, not by behavior modification.

Now, do behaviors oftentimes be modified? Yes and amen. And if we can be a part of that behavior modification at large, say, in our country, let us do what we can, while realizing that at the end of the day, even if we were to have some sort of, you know, let's say,

Christian nation, which I would love and want, don't hear what I'm saying, right? Or civil sphere here in Oklahoma or whatever.

Like, unless the gospel is penetrating hearts and doing its work, it's only a couple generations from not existing anymore.

How do I know that? Look at America. The problem is the heart.

And so Jesus came to deal with Satan's sin and his influence over the heart. And hearts love to be deceived by the words that drip with honey from Satan's mouth.

False honey. Stevia instead of that good sugar. But it is real.

We love to be deceived. And we love to be deceived. The good news is Jesus Christ offers truth, and despite of these deceptions and despite these lies.

In John chapter 8, right before 44 and 31, Jesus was saying to the

Jews who had believed in him, and he says, If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

So the serpent bruiser has come to set us free. And he sets us free by the truth of the gospel and by himself.

John chapter 14 verse 6 says, Jesus said to him, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no one comes to the

Father, i .e. no one is saved, no one is reconciled but through me. Jesus is the antithesis of everything that the serpent is.

You see how there can be no cohabitation, no co -high fives, nothing. It's the eternal conflict that everybody is caught up in.

Not only that, but the serpent bruiser frees us from demonic sin and temptation.

Verse John 3a says, The one who does sin is of the devil because the devil sins from the beginning.

The Son of God was manifested for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. And he gets rid of the accusations against us.

The devil is always accusing us. This is why we need Romans chapter 8. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, right?

Because the sin problem has been dealt with by the seed. And oftentimes when we get caught up in sin and we fall on our face, we navel gaze too long.

On the one hand, sin needs to be taken seriously. Sin needs to be slayed. There's no doubt about that.

And praise God, He gives us the power to slay it. And yet, we don't move on by convincing ourselves in this life that we have atoned enough for our own sin to be forgiven, but rather to trust in the seed who promised the covenant that He accomplished so that we might have

His merit understanding that there is no condemnation for us.

Not yesterday, not today, and not tomorrow because it's been paid for already.

But if the devil can convince you that you're not saved, if he can convince you that you do not love

Jesus and don't care about His commands, if he can convince you that you are trash and hated by God and not believing that there's condemnation, then he has you.

And he's deterred your eyes against the heavenly seed. And when your gaze gets off of him, you fall further.

Also, the serpent bruiser removes demonic devouring.

1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8 says, Be of sober spirit to be watchful. Your adversary, right?

This conflict still making itself known. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

You see, Satan in sin is always looking for a place to camp out.

Which is why in Ephesians, if you remember, in Ephesians chapter 3, it talks about how we need to have Christ dwelling richly in our hearts.

The reason for that is because if He's not, something else is going to dwell richly. But the riches are

Kmart riches. Unless you love Kmart, in which case, inject something in there that is worse.

I mean, they have popcorn in Target, like clothes. Like that makes sense, for instance, in like Atwood's or something like that, but clothes, anyway.

But he seeks to devour. Children, look at me here. Just a minute, a second. Let me chat with you for a second. Do you understand that the sin and the things that we commit, like it's always right there close to us.

And it can devour us if we let it. Unless we lean into Christ, we lean into almost like a tiger.

That's the imagery going on here that Peter is wanting people to understand. That sin is like a tiger and he's hungry.

Like there's a reason when you go to the zoo, tigers are behind a cage. Because if they get loose, they can really hurt you.

What he's saying is there is no cage for sin. It's just kind of coming around and around and around.

The only cage, if you want to put that tiger, that sin tiger in the cage, you've got to do what?

Lean into Christ. You have to believe Christ. You have to trust Christ. And you have to walk in his truth in the most, and this is not an exhaustive list, but the most important one, especially for those of us who are continuing to age, which is all of us, another way that he does this, bruising and crushing the serpent is by crushing death.

Death. The thing that seemingly comes for us all. There is a day coming when all of us will breathe our last breath on this earth, but the good news is it is not final.

John chapter 10, 10 says this about life.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly.

You see, where there was death spiritually and where there is death physically, Christ reverses that and gives us life.

He gives us life now and he gives us life to come. First Corinthians chapter 15, which we will actually go to, tells us how this actually happens in the eschaton.

First Corinthians chapter 5 tells us how the serpent will defeat the final enemy.

First Corinthians chapter 15.

Pay attention to this. Verse 20, this is after the resurrection. But now

Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by a man came death, speaking of Adam here, of course, by a man, the second

Adam, also came the resurrection of the dead. So Adam killed everybody.

Jesus revives everyone in him. Verse 22, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all who will be made alive.

For each is in his own order. Christ, the firstfruits, after those who are Christ at his coming.

Then comes the end. The end of what? Let's keep reading.

When he hands over the kingdom to the

God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and all power. So the end is the end of Christ's reign.

Wait, Christ's gonna quit reigning? Well, he gives his kingdom back to the Father. 25, for he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be abolished is death. The last enemy to be demolished or abolished rather is death.

Verse 27, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says all things are put in subjection, it is evident, what?

That he is expected, accepted. It is evident that he is accepted who all things in subjection to him.

There is a typo in my Bible. And when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him so that God may be all in all.

Do you see this picture here? Jesus Christ is, in fact, now ruling and reigning from heaven.

We know that because of the Bible, book of Ephesians, we walked through that. And he is slowly, over time, having every enemy put underneath his feet until that is done, he reigns.

And when that is done, he will come back in the flesh and he will do what? Defeat the last enemy, which is death.

There will be no death anymore. That is the last and final horrible enemy.

He gave it a death blow at the cross and he will finish it off when he comes back.

And then it says he will give that kingdom back to the father. And the father will say, well done.

Well done, good and faithful servant. A lot of theologians talk about this as a

Trinitarian love gifting back and forth throughout all eternity. Now, you gotta be careful with that, right, because you can start parsing the members of the

Trinity out in a way that's not biblical, but this is what's happening. The father gives a people to Jesus Christ, to the serpent bruiser, because of the covenant promise that he has made in Genesis chapter 3.

He saves them by the power of his spirit. And when their work... He saves them by virtue of what he did on the cross, his perfect work and his perfect life, his active and passive obedience, and then applies that to his people.

And then he does that over and over and over, defeating enemies through his leadership, through his kingship, through his saviorship.

And when every enemy has finally been dealt its final blow, he will come back to deal with the last one, death.

And then he will give it to the father and say, look what I did for you.

It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Jesus does not lose anyone.

The plan of the serpent, or the plan of God through the serpent bruiser will stand.

It will stand because Jesus bled and died for it, which is why in John chapter 10, verse 11, it says,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And through all of this work that he would do, he removed the power and influence over Satan.

Matthew Henry again says of this passage, Christ's baffled Satan's temptations rescued souls out of his hands, cast him out of the bodies of people, dispossessed the strong man armed and divided his spoil.

By his death, he gave a fatal and incurable blow to the devil's kingdom, a wound to the head of the beast that can never be healed.

As his gospel gets ground, Satan falls, Luke chapter 10, verse 18, and is bound, Revelation 20, verse 2.

In case you thought my interpretation was weird, I at least agree with Matthew Henry. By his grace, he treads

Satan under his people's feet, Romans 16, 20, and will surely cast him into the lake of fire, which is in Revelation chapter 20, verse 10.

And the devil's perpetual overthrow will be the complete and everlasting joy and glory of the chosen remnant.

What he's getting at here, friends, is this seed here has undone everything that the serpent sought to do to create and to promote.

And he does so in such a way as to put himself on display that we might see glory in it and find joy in it.

And that's what Advent is all about. Advent is all about the joy of the coming incarnate one in the flesh.

And so fifthly and finally, my last point is the centrality or the certainty, rather, of final triumph.

The certainty of final triumph. You see here this has been promised.

You see here as we look back using our eyes that has been accomplished. And yet there's still future accomplishment to be had.

And we can have confidence, one, because God promised, God does, and God did, which means he will.

Our God is great. Our God is amazing. And in Revelation chapter 12, verse 9, as we already spoke about it,

God speaks about this devil, the serpent. And here in Genesis chapter 3, it guarantees the serpent's destruction.

And when you get to Revelation 20, it shows the fulfillment. When Satan is cast into the lake of fire, silence forever, and Christ's kingdom fully and finally advances, and the gates of hell have been proven to not prevail against Christ's church.

Revelation 20, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophets are also, and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

Christ's triumph is certain. And not only that, but it glorifies

God. Redemption displays, redemption through the seed displays God's justice, his mercy, his sovereignty, and his brilliance, which is why

Ephesians 1, 6 says, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he graciously bestowed on us in the beloved.

He does this for the good of his people. He does this, the exaltation of the seed.

Now you might be saying, when I look outside the world, I don't see triumph. I do. Do you?

Do you see triumph when you think about the way in which the world is going, because you should. The war has been won, though there are many battles to fight.

And though evil, hardship, weirdness, tarries,

Christ's salvific work, the growing of his church and kingdom, are all happening in tandem, and they are happening beautifully, wonderfully, and advancing without anyone's permission.

It's beautiful. I want you to think about it this way, and I know

I use a lot of military things as of late, but I suppose it's been on my mind.

When allied forces stormed Normandy, I'm gonna assume you know the history about this because I'm running out of time.

The war was far from over. But in that moment, the outcome was sealed.

That's like the seed's cross. The devil, sin, and so on, were dealt decisive blows.

Doom is certain. And yet, there was a continual battle that must be fought until the return of Christ.

And if you don't think that, you don't think the conflict still rages, you're not reading your Bible. And it's good for us that we are afflicted, that we might learn

His statutes, and that we might see our alliance and need for Christ. Guess what? If we could make everything better by ourselves without the gospel, we don't need

Jesus. But alas, we have Him. So as we stand at the threshold of this

Advent season, let us gaze into the beauty and wonder of God's redemptive plan, foreshadowed in the

Old Testament as we look to this Christ. You see here in Genesis 3, verse 15 alone, there's so much here about what

Christ is going to do and who He is to be. We see the gospel here in seed form, like a little seed that is going to expand over time.

A singular shaft of light, as it were, piercing through the darkness, the promising of a coming

Redeemer, the serpent bruiser, the serpent bruiser who was not a reaction to man's fall, but the revelation of God's eternal purpose.

When we come to Advent, you need to realize that this is a story that is huge.

It is a story that is bigger than you think it is. And history, all of it, is caught up in God's plan of redemption and the story

He wants to tell through Christ, through His saving of people.

And that's why Advent is so beautiful, and that's why we pause everything that we're doing every single year to gaze at this

Savior, to gaze at this promised seed and His coming. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank

You. We thank You for this text. We thank You that we didn't have to get too far into the

Bible before Your plan was revealed to us to send the seed, the serpent bruiser, for our good.

I ask in this moment now that You would help us to see Christ more clearly, love Him more deeply, and put our hands to work for Him more faithfully.

And I ask, Lord, that You would help us to realize what team we are on and that You would give us an ordained hatred of sin, an ordained confrontational spirit with sin, and the darkness that it comes from.

Lord, we ask You to help us to rest in our salvation and to see Christ. And we ask this in His name.