His Prophesied Advent

Turn to the book of Genesis. Make your way to chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3, and we're only going to read one verse this morning, verse 15. This comes in the greater context of the the fall of man and God's proclamation of judgment on the fall, beginning with his judgment of the serpent himself, which is the devil.

It says in verse 15, 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. I will put enmity between you and her.

Amen. Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word. I pray now that as I seek an exposition of your Word and the message which I have prepared, Lord, I pray that you would keep me from error. As I know that I am fallible and capable of error and I want to be kept from it for the sake of your people and for the sake of my conscience for the sake of your name.

And I pray, Lord, also that when this message goes out, that it would go out and that it would be used of you to draw your people closer, but also, Lord, if there are those here today who do not know you, that it would be used of you to convert hearts, to show, Lord, the absolute necessity of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, the work of Christ.

We pray it in his name and for his sake. Amen. Please be seated. Well, over the past several months, in fact, I don't even remember when we began, but we started a series celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

We looked at the history, we looked at the heroes, and we looked at the heritage which came out of that watershed moment in 1517, 500 years ago, when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the castle church door there in Fittenberg, Germany.

We transitioned from that into a study of the 1646 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and we said that Confession of Faith is purely Reformed and yet at the same time Baptistic, and that it demonstrated a close connection to what we still at this church teach even to today.

And so far we have taken that article one article, or taken that confession one article at the time, examining many fundamental aspects of the faith, including the nature of God as a Trinity, the providence of God both over the whole world and individually in the lives of the believer, the free gift of sovereign grace and how salvation is not of works, but is in fact the gift of God, and the nature of Holy Scripture.

So over the last several months we have done a lot to dig into the various aspects of theological truth. And if you look at the Confession of Faith, the 1646 Confession, you will note that from article nine all the way to article 21, it gives a focus to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

This is by far the longest section of the confession, the most intensive section of the confession, and rightfully so, because Jesus is the focus of Scripture and Jesus should be the focus of our theology.

In fact, Charles Spurgeon once said, he said, if a man comes into the pulpit and he doesn't preach Jesus, he should leave and go and find what he should preach on, and that is Jesus. He should go and study until he has something worth saying.

As if we're not preaching about Jesus Christ, then we don't have anything worth saying. So rather than looking at each of these articles, article 9 through 21 of the Confession individually, what I'm going to do over the next several weeks is I'm going to do a short series of sermons simply entitled Jesus the Christ.

That's the title of the short series, and I think it's appropriate because this is going to lead us into the Advent season. Today is not the first Sunday of Advent. Next Sunday will be, but this will be in a sense our first sermon in the season because this sermon is going to lead us into that focus.

And over the next several weeks, we're going to look at five different aspects of the Lord Jesus Christ's life and ministry. We're going to look at his prophesied Advent, that's today. We're going to look at his pre-incarnate appearances, that's going to be next week.

We're going to look at his promised accomplishment. We're going to look at his predestined arrival, and we're going to look at his perfect actions. And so that is the focus of the next several weeks. We're going to make much of Jesus.

And honestly, that should always be our goal, is to make much of Jesus. Now, one might think if you're beginning a sermon series on Jesus Christ that you would have to begin by going to the New Testament.

I mean, it would make sense that you don't even see the name of Jesus or the person of Jesus Christ as he is described to us as Jesus of Nazareth until you get to the book of Matthew. But as you may have noted, we began this morning not in the book of Matthew or any of the other New Testament books.

We began this morning in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. And this is because even though the name of Jesus is not mentioned until the New Testament, the entire Bible is actually about Jesus.

The entire Bible, from Genesis all the way to Revelation, is focused on him. And I remember vividly, many years ago, I was in a conversation with a larger group of people and there was a man who was a Jewish man who lived in Israel, still lives in Israel today.

And I remember someone saying that Jesus is in the Old Testament and mentioned in the Old Testament in prophecies, signs, and types. And he absolutely repudiated that. He said, no, that is not true. Such a statement is impossible.

Jesus is not mentioned in the Old Testament. But the reality is, even though he was confident, he was wrong. You can be confident and be wrong. I meet people all the time who are very certain in their error.

And so he was. No matter where you cut the Bible, it will bleed the blood of Jesus Christ. It is a book which is thoroughly and entirely focused upon him. So the question then becomes, well, why did I begin where I did this morning?

At a cursory glance, it may seem like the passage that I read, Genesis 3 .15, is too obscure to ever be considered a reference to Jesus Christ. Certainly too obscure to ever be considered a prophetic announcement, especially an announcement about something as important as the coming Messiah.

I mean, God is talking to a snake. He is announcing that the snake is going to be destroyed by the offspring of the woman and the snake is going to hurt the offspring of a woman. And so it seems like that's really just too obscure.

It's not clear enough. And some have taken that point. And some have said that this passage has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. This passage has nothing to do with the coming of a Messiah or the promise of an atonement or the promise of a coming Savior.

This is simply a naturalistic verse. In fact, let me explain this to you in a natural sense. If you read verse 15, God is cursing the serpent. And for those of you who are not familiar with Scripture, just very quickly, because I don't like to just go into a passage without context.

In Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth. He creates the world. And He creates everything in the world. And He creates man and woman. In Genesis 2, we get an expounded explanation of how God created man and woman.

That He actually created man first. And He created man with a responsibility. He created man with a responsibility of taking care of the earth that He had created, particularly the garden that He had been placed in.

And Adam has this great responsibility of naming the animals. So Adam is created not only as a man, but he's created as an intelligent man. He can understand things. He can look at the animals and say, well, that is this and this is that.

And he can identify different types of species. And he can, in a taxonomic sort of way, sort of separate the animals out and say, this animal is this type and this animal is this kind and all of that.

But then he looks around and he notices that he's the only one like him. He is alone. There's no great ape that is appealing to him as a bride. So God says, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

And so God puts Adam to sleep. He provides the first bit of anesthesia and allows the first surgery to happen. And so God creates a surgical procedure wherein he takes a part of Adam, his rib, and he builds out of that rib a much better version of Adam, much more beautiful at least.

And now Adam has a helper suitable for him. Not just like him, but his complement in every way. Different than him, but they complement one another. And God gives the command. He says, I've given you this land to live in and I've given you all things to eat, but I'm going to give you a command.

Don't eat of this one tree. This tree has fruit that will be appealing, but don't eat it. Because when you do, you will know the difference between good and evil. People often think that that's a magical thing.

Like the fruit itself had some kind of a magic spell that when you eat it, it's sort of like the Disney princess who's asleep and her eyes wake up. I've often taken more of a simple view of that because Adam and Eve knew good and evil in the sense of understanding the concept prior to the fall.

Because when Eve spoke to the serpent and the serpent said, eat of this, what did she say? No, God said don't do that. He said not even to touch it, which means she understood what? At least the concept of do and don't do.

Of right and wrong. But she chooses to eat, she chooses to share. He eats and together they realize what shame is. They realize what it means to be separated from God. In the moment that they eat of it, they have an experience of knowledge that they didn't have before.

A knowledge of good and evil. A knowledge of their own sin. And so what do they do? They cover it. They cover their sin. They cover themselves physically because they feel shame. For whatever reason, they realize their nakedness was something that wasn't to be on display.

And so they sew fig leaves together. They cover themselves up. And they hide from the voice of God. And God comes to them. And he says to them, what have you done? Have you eaten of the tree? What did Adam say?

He blamed God. A lot of people think he blamed Eve. He didn't. If you read the text, it says, The woman that thou hast given to me, it's your fault, you gave her to me. And she tempted me. And what does Eve do?

She says, no, it's the serpent who tempted me. And so God then brings judgment on all of the players involved. He brings judgment on the serpent. He brings judgment on the woman. He brings judgment on the man.

And actually, he brings judgment upon the whole world because of this sin. And in verse 14, he begins to speak to the serpent. He says, because you've done this curse to you of all the livestock and above all the beasts of the field, on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

And so we take this verse 14 and we say, this is a physical curse on the animal that Satan had used in this situation. I don't know what snakes were like prior to the fall. But I do believe they were different.

Because the situation they're in now, where they lay on their stomach and they crawl on the ground on their stomach, is a product of the fall according to verse 14. Some people believe they actually had limbs prior to the fall.

I don't know that that's something that can be proven or disproven. Some people believe that the snake had a capacity to walk upright in a sense of lifting itself up and being higher up to where it wasn't face down on the ground always.

Or chest down on the ground always. But whatever the reason was, whatever the situation was, there's a physical attack or a physical rather judgment on the serpent and there's this physical result. And then we get to verse 15, and some people say, well verse 15 is a continuation of that physical.

It's a continuation of the natural. And it says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between her offspring and your offspring. And people say, well right there is the reason why everybody hates snakes.

And I gotta tell you, as hard as it is for me to understand, not everybody hates snakes. I do. I find them the most revolting of God's creatures. I could preach an entire sermon. But I've seen people who wear snakes on their shoulders as it were like a pet.

That's not a pet. It's a captive. It will eat you if given the opportunity. It's not a pet. But people look at this passage, verse 15, and they say, well this is the reason why there is so much fear between snakes and man.

And that is true in general. As I said, there are some people who I don't understand who love and adore snakes and handle them and play with them. But for the most part, human beings have a real issue with snakes.

And generally when somebody sees a snake, they run. And generally when snakes see people, they run. Unless it's a moccasin. For some reason, they just are usually ornery. But most snakes, even rattlesnakes, dangerous vipers, will run the other way if given an exit.

And so will men. And there are very few animals that have the universal fear that men have of snakes. And if a snake attacks a man, it's usually by striking him on the foot. Or somewhere near the foot.

Which is why some people say this verse talks about the heel. Bruising the heel. Likewise, if men defend themselves against snakes, usually it's by stomping the snake on the head. Thus it says, the crushing of the head.

In fact, I do like, I prefer the translation, crush the head. This, in a sense, is bruising. But it can be translated either way. But as I said, some people look at this and they say, well this is simply the natural translation of what's happened here.

This is simply the natural explanation of the battle that's continued to go on between man and beast. Yet, theologically speaking, I believe, and I'm going to seek to bear out an argument today, that there is much more to this passage than simply an explanation of the natural enmity between snakes and men.

Because, who is the snake in this passage? According to the passage, who is the serpent? Well, it actually doesn't say. It says the serpent. But, it's not the only passage in the Bible. Very quickly, go to the other end of scripture.

Go to Revelation chapter 12 and verse 9. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 9. And as I hear your Bible pages turning, I won't start without you. So, I'll give you a second to get there. When I asked who the serpent is, you all said the devil.

Do you know why? Because the Bible tells us that. Just not in that passage. It tells us that in other passages. In Revelation 12 and verse 9 is one of those passages. It says, and the great dragon was thrown down.

This is a picture of something that's happening in the future. It says, the great dragon was thrown down and that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.

So, who is the great dragon? According to Revelation chapter 12, he is the same as the ancient serpent. He is, in fact, the devil himself. People ask all the time, and I get, and I understand we want to be scientific.

We don't want to be anti-scientific. We don't want to be opposed to what we can see and smell and hear and touch and feel. And people say, well, I don't believe in Adam and Eve and the story of Adam and Eve because the serpent talked.

And serpent don't have voice boxes. Serpents don't have the mouth and the throat necessary to form words. And the response is, this was no ordinary serpent. I know, on a scientific level, snakes can't talk.

I know, on a scientific level, neither can donkeys, by the way. And, you know, you go over to Numbers and there's the story of Balaam, who, the Bible says, God spoke through the animal. Right? In this sense, we know this is not a scientific explanation.

We're not saying that this one snake in all the history of snakes was born with the ability to articulate language. But this serpent was the embodiment of Satan himself. This serpent is the embodiment of God's enemy.

And now to get into the history of who God's enemy is, but God's enemy is an angelic enemy. And so this angelic enemy has the ability to enter into this form and conversate in this form. In John chapter 8 verse 44, Jesus talking to the Pharisees, he says, you are of your father the devil.

Your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.

What was the first lie told in the Bible? On the day that you eat of it you shall be as God. In fact the first lie in scripture was the question, hath God really said? It was creating doubt because Eve said, no, on the day we eat of it we shall die.

And what did Satan say? Hath God said? Hath God really said that? Satan is a liar, he's the father of lies and he was there in the garden with Adam and Eve bringing in his deception. And so when God brings the judgment on the serpent it is not just physical.

There is more to this serpent than just serpent's receiving of natural judgment. In fact I believe the whole statement is filled with redemptive significance. He says 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.

The key word in this passage is the word offspring. There have been many attempts to interpret this word. As I said some interpret it very generalized approach and they assume that the offspring of the serpent is evil humanity and the offspring of the woman is righteous humanity and there's always a battle between righteousness and wickedness and that's a very simple approach but I believe and I'm going to make the argument that the proper understanding of the offspring of the woman here is a specific offspring one specific offspring because it changes he says in verse 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head.

It's in the singular he shall bruise your head not they or them not offsprings in general or offsprings in plural but there's one who is going to crush your head. This is not a generic promise about a general people who might stomp on the heads of snakes.

This is a specific promise about one man who would come and crush the head of the serpent. That's why this passage is sometimes referred to as the proto evangelium which is latin for the first mention of the gospel or the earliest mention of the gospel.

You see up until this point in scripture all man has experienced is failure shame and judgment. But in the midst of failure shame and judgment there is a ray of hope. A seed is coming an offspring is coming and he will crush the head of the serpent.

Now if this was the only mention of this in the whole bible if this was the only mention of offspring it might be easy to overlook it. In fact if this was the only place where it was mentioned i would argue that it would not have ever received the title of the proto evangelium.

But this concept of the seed continues on as a theme throughout the bible. I want to take you on a little tour down through scripture to show you a few points. It says here that the offspring is going to crush the head of the serpent.

Who is the offspring. Go with me to genesis chapter twelve. Brother mike came earlier and we read it in our call to worship. In genesis chapter twelve we have something called the abrahamic covenant. This is the opening of god demonstrating that he is going to take out of humanity be a people for himself.

He has created adam and eve. They have had many children. One of those descendants was named noah. Noah had shem ham. And i will make of you a great nation. And i will bless you. And i will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you i will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you. You know what. The families of the world shall be blessed because it's not that abraham is going to be the blessing but that abraham is going to be the patriarch through whom the blessing comes.

There's a seed there's an offspring that's coming. Jump over to genesis 22. Genesis chapter 22 verse 17. A reiteration of god's promise to abram. I will surely bless you and i your offspring. Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

Now someone might say wait a second pastor. This passage is talking about an. It does not say and to off springs plural referring to many it but referring to one. And to your offspring who is what christ.

Now you can argue with me all day long. But at this point you'd be arguing with paul because paul and by the way paul is speaking under the inspiration of god the holy spirit. And he says when in genesis 22 when abram received the promise to his offspring there was one in mind.

And he even makes the point. It's such a small argument. He said he didn't say off springs. He didn't say plural. He said singular. This isn't my argument. And if it were you might accuse me of being a grammar nazi.

But this is paul. And he says when god made the promise i really gotta do something about this. When god made the promise he didn't make the promise to abraham. And everybody who was his descendant. He made a promise to abraham about an offspring.

Singular. Who is christ beloved. The offspring or the seed that's mentioned in genesis 315. Reiterated in genesis 12. Reiterated in genesis 22 is christ the seed the offspring is him. And there are many other references prophecies to the coming of jesus christ throughout the old testament.

Genesis 1815 moses talks about jesus. He says there's coming a prophet like me who you is righteousness. And we have a promise that whosoever believeth in him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

God's grace is the underlying reality of all of human experience. It is the reason for our hope. Grace. Grace. God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within grace. Grace. God's grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Let's pray father in heaven. I thank you for your word. I thank you for the opportunity to have talked this morning about jesus and how your plan for him to come began not in bethlehem but in eden and father.

We pray that today for those who know and love christ that their their trust in him has been encouraged and challenged to grow. And for those who know not him would reach out this morning with a hand of faith and receive the gift that comes in trusting in him alone.

And we pray it in jesus name and for his sake. Amen.