12.11.22 - Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-15

Open your Bibles to the book of Genesis.  •This morning we’ll be considering 2:15-17 and 3:1-15.  •We are beginning a three week Advent series as we meditate on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  •And today we will begin at the Beginning.  I believe that to appreciate the first Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must first appreciate the need of mankind for a Savior.  •Until we understand our need for Him, the birth of Jesus Christ is not that exciting.  •We must first understand the ruin of man through sin before we can behold the glory of our Redeemer and truly rejoice and celebrate His taking on flesh and coming to earth to save us.  •Before we can celebrate the Good News of a Savior born unto us, we must first understand the bad news of the Fall of Man.  •Therefore, Christmas points us back to the beginning where the story of man and his misery began.  Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world with a purpose: To save sinners.  •“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15) •Christ was born into the world with a mission: To save unworthy and wretched sinners like us.  •And that means that Christmas reminds us first that we are sinners in Adam and need saving by Christ.  Our text this morning ends with what many call the “Protoevangelion.” •That is, the first declaration of the Gospel.  •Genesis 3:15 is the first announcement of Good News to sinners.  •It is the first message of the Redeemer who would one day come to save God’s People from their sins.  •To the Serpent, God said, “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.” (Genesis 3:15) At Christmas, we are celebrating the birth of the Serpent Crusher, Jesus Christ.  •We’re celebrating the Savior, born of a woman, who has come to save us from sin and the wrath of God that we have put ourselves under in Adam.  •Christmas reminds us of the wickedness of sin, the fallenness of man, and the grace of God given to us in the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, who HAS COME and crushed the head of the Serpent, the Devil, and freed us from our sin, shame, and damnation by bearing the curse for us in our place.  •At Christmas, we are celebrating the grace of God given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Promised Seed.  So, with that said, we will walk through these two portions of Genesis.  •As we go, we will see: 1. The Federal Head (Adam) 2. The Tempter and His Tempting 3. The Fall of Man 4. The Results of the Fall 5. The Promised Seed •May God bless us this morning as we look to His Word.  If you would, and are able, please stand with me for the reading of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.  Genesis 2:15-17 [15] The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 3:1-15 [1] Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”    [2] And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,  [3] but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”  [4] But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  [5] For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  [6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  [7] Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. [8] And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  [9] But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  [10] And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”  [11] He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  [12] The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  [13] Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” [14] The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. [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.” (PRAY) Our Heavenly Father,  We thank you for your Word. It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.  There is glory, wisdom, and truth for us to behold in your Word.  Grant us eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to understand, hearts to believe, and hands to obey your Word.  Help us to hear your voice in the Word this morning. Speak to us, Lord.  Grant us a sight of our Lord Jesus Christ that we might lay hold of Him by faith once again.  Sanctify us in your truth. Your Word is truth.  We ask these things in Jesus’ Name and for His sake. Amen.  1.) We begin by considering the time before the Fall.  •God has created all things in the span of six days. And all was very good.  •And He has created man on the sixth day, and given man dominion over the created world.  •Everything belonged to Adam, under God. He could do as he pleased. He was provided for in the Garden of Eden, living in perfection and perfect communion with God every single day. •And at some point after Adam’s creation, God came to him and made a covenant with him.  In Genesis 2:15-17 we read of the institution of what we call the Covenant of Works.  •The Bible does not here explicitly call it a covenant. But all the features of a covenant are definitely present. [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” •God sovereignly imposed terms on the man. God commanded Adam: “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” •And God threatened Adam with punishment, should he disobey: “You will surely die.” •And where there are threats, blessings are implied: If Adam perpetually and perfectly obeyed God’s command, Adam would never die.  So here we see that God imposed an agreement/covenant between Himself and Adam:  •If Adam eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die. He will be cursed by God.  •But if Adam obeys, God will bless him with eternal life.  •In summary, God has said, “Obey me and live. Disobey me and die.”  •This is the Covenant of Works.  •Adam will gain the blessing of eternal life by perpetual and perfect obedience to God. A blessing is promised by God if Adam’s works, his obedience, is perfect to God.  •Eternal life is promised for perfect works.  Adam represented all mankind in this covenant.  •God chose him to be the covenant representative or Federal Head of the Covenant of Works.  •Adam represented all who would come from him in this covenant. That is, he represented all mankind. He represented us in this covenant with God.  •If Adam keeps covenant with God, he and all who are “in him,” his posterity, mankind, will receive eternal life.  Now, God did not have to make this covenant with Adam. God was actually very kind to to do this.  •Adam was already morally obligated to do whatever God commanded him.  •God is God. And Adam is His creation.  •But God voluntarily and graciously added a conditional blessing for obedience: Eternal life.  •Adam, though created innocent and righteous, was not sealed in righteousness. There was a possibility that he could sin. But if he perpetually and perfectly obeyed God, he would live forever in righteousness.  •Adam and his posterity would never die so long as he continued to obey God and keep covenant with him.  But God also threatened Adam, “…in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” •This phrase expressed the certainty of the fact that Adam would die. It does not express the immediacy of that death. And we know that because Adam did eat and DID NOT immediately die.  •God was gracious to him and delayed punishment.  •We should understand this phrase to say, “If you eat, know for a certainty that the curse of death will come.” In this threat of death, I believe there was a threefold death threatened to Adam: 1. Spiritual Death: Adam and his posterity would become sinners.  •Adam and all whom he represented would experience separation from God.  •Adam and all whom he represented would come under the guilt and power of sin and be rendered spiritually dead in sin.  2. Temporal Death: Adam would physically die someday.  •The moment that Adam broke the covenant, he would begin the process of decaying and dying (slowly but surely).  •And all who would come from him would have to suffer the same fate of death.  3. Eternal Death: Adam and his descendants would become liable to the eternal of wrath of God, the Second Death, eternal death.  •Damnation, eternal punishment and separation from the blessing of God, would hang over Adam and all his posterity if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God threatened death for disobedience.  •And it was a terrifying threat to be taken seriously.  •If Adam broke the covenant, everything would fall apart and the world and mankind would be plunged into misery.  Now, why the tree? Why the prohibition of eating? •I’m not exactly sure. This is what theologians call a “positive commandment.”  •That is, there was nothing intrinsically moral about not eating from that tree. After all, God gave every other tree for Adam to eat from.  •But God sovereignly chose to give a commandment. And once the command was given, it became morally binding.  •God had put Adam on a probation of sorts. A test. And Adam must obey.  •God is God, and so God gave a command that was to be obeyed by His creature, Adam.  •God had given Adam dominion over everything, but in issuing this one command and imposing a covenant on Adam, God asserted that He was still above Adam.  •And now Adam’s job was to recognize his place under God and, in faith, submit to God and obey Him in love.  •This was a test of obedience and faith: Obedience, recognizing that God is God. And faith, recognizing that God knows best and is wiser than man.  Again, Adam represented himself and all who would come from him. •That is every human being born of natural generation.  •Brothers and sisters, everything rides on Adam’s obedience. Everything rides on the Federal Head, the covenant representative of mankind.  •Everything rides on Adam’s keeping the covenant.  •Eternal life or eternal death. That is what is at stake here in the Covenant of Works.  •Perfection with God forever. Or death and separation from God’s blessing.  •And it all depends on Adam’s obedience to God.  2.) Now the scene changes.  •God has created the woman, Eve, and given her to Adam as a wife.  •Apparently, Adam, as the representative of the covenant has acted as a prophet and told Eve about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and how they are not to eat of it under pain of death.  •NOTE: Eve would die, too, if she ate. God’s command and threat applied to both of them. But her disobedience could not condemn mankind. Adam is the Federal Head, not Eve.  And now we come to the Tempter and his tempting in the Garden of Eden.  •Now, it’s good to note that at this point, the Word of God doesn’t exactly tell us all the “hows” or “whys” that we we would like to know.  •It simply tells us the “whats.”  •There are questions about Satan and his fall from heaven, the possession of a snake, why God would foreordain these things, how sinless man came to sin, and many other things, but we will not worry with them today.  •We will simply focus on WHAT happened in the Garden and rest knowing that God foreordained it and all things for His glory.  •WHAT happened is our chief concern, for it has to do with every single one of us and the miserable situation mankind finds itself in.  Genesis 3:1 begins by saying, [1] Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.  •This serpent is Satan (the Devil). Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 both refer to Satan as “the ancient serpent.” •Apparently, Satan, the great enemy of God, a fallen angel, the hater of all that good, the father of lies, has possessed a serpent in the Garden. •And, through this serpent, Satan begins to speak to the woman, Eve.  And he begins to tempt her to disobey the command of the LORD: He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”    [2] And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,  [3] but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”  [4] But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  [5] For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Satan tempted our first mother, Eve.  •Let’s consider how he tempted her, for his ways have not changed. They are effective still.  •As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  •So, let’s briefly consider how he tempted Eve so that we might be on guard against his lies.  1. Satan questioned the Word of God: “Did God actually say…?” •Satan questioned the Word of God to Eve, and in doing so, tempted her to question what God had said.  •This is incredibly crafty and smart. It’s evil, but it’s smart. Satan is not stupid; he is wicked.  •“Hath God said? Did God really say?” This is the beginning of temptation. This is the road to sin.  And this is what Satan tempts all of us to ask in our hearts: •Did God really say that Christ is the only way of salvation? •Did God really say that I must forgive those who hurt me and refuse to take revenge? •Did God really say that sexual activity is to be bound in the context of marriage between one man and one woman? •Did God really say that His Word is inerrant and infallible? •Did God really say that I will have to suffer for His sake and deny myself in this fallen world? Satan tempts us to question God’s Word. •He tempts us to question what God has plainly said.  •And, in doing so, he tempts us to question the authority of God Himself.  •Christian, be on guard. Look always to the Word. Submit yourself to what God has said. 2. Satan twisted the Word of God: “Did God actually say ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” •God DID NOT say that. Eve affirms as much.  •But this is what Satan does: He twists the Word of God until it says the opposite of what God has said.  •And, in doing so, he tempts us to believe that God is unreasonable and His Word is not good.  •Satan seeks to confuse us by twisting the Word and putting words into God’s holy mouth.  Dear Christian, stick tightly to the text.  •Commit yourself to knowing what God truly said and you will be on guard against Satan’s twisting of Scripture.  3. Satan called God a liar: “You will not surely die.” •Satan blatantly contradicts God here.  •He tells Eve that God will not do what God explicitly said that He would do. •He minimizes, really completely discounts, the threat of punishment that God gave.  And he continues to do this today. •He tells us, “God wouldn’t send anyone to Hell.” •Or he tells us, “God won’t discipline you for your sin.” •He tempts us to believe that we can disobey God with no fear of retribution or discipline or any pain whatsoever.  •He tells us that God doesn’t really mean what He said. And this goes further than threats of punishment.  •Satan is in the business of getting us to call God a liar and deny His truth.  •He wants us to flatly reject what God has plainly said, whether that be with regard to promises of blessing, salvation, help and grace; or with threats of punishment and discipline.  •He tempts us to disbelieve the words our Creator.  4. Satan called God’s goodness into question: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…” •Satan basically says, “God doesn’t want you to eat that fruit because He wants to withhold something good from you.” •Satan casts a shadow on the goodness and kindness of God. He lies about God’s character. •He tempts us to believe that God is arbitrary and gives commandments that are not for our good.  •He tempts us to believe that God does not care about us and does not want what is best for us.  •He tempts us to believe is withholding good things from us and doesn’t want us to flourish.  •In summary: He tempts us to believe that God is not good and does not love us. 5. Satan lied and declared that disobeying God will benefit the sinner: “…you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” •Satan tells Eve that if she disobeys God, if she will sin against God and break His commandment, then there will be great gain for her.  •He’s already called God’s goodness into question. It’s not a far leap to then tempt her to believe that listening to him instead of God will benefit her in some way.  He continues to do this today.  •He tells us that there is lasting pleasure in sin.  •He tells us that disobeying God is the way to get ahead.  •He tells us that refusing to listen to God will be good for us because God doesn’t know what He is talking about.  Brothers and sisters, Satan’s temptation remain basically the same in all ages.  •He uses the same playbook through the centuries.  •He is liar who challenges the Word of God at every point.  •He is a liar who calls into question the character and goodness of God.  •He is a liar who tells us that disobeying God will benefit us.  •He is a liar who calls God a liar.  •He is liar who deceives us into leaving our station below God to attempt to usurp His authority.  •Truly, he is a liar and the father of lies.  Hear me: If you question God’s Word, twist God’s Word, disbelieve God’s Word, question God’s character, and believe that sin will benefit you, you will sin.  •If you believe the shallow lies of the Devil, you will rebel against your Maker.  •Resist him! Cling to the Word of God! Cling to the knowledge that God is good! Cling to the authority of God over you!  •Resist the Devil and he will flee from you! •Don’t fall prey to his lies. They haven’t changed.  •He is liar and seeks your destruction.  •Resist him and stick tightly to the Lord and God will give you victory over the temptation.  3.) Adam and Eve should’ve resisted the Devil.  •Adam especially, who was charged with keeping the Garden of Eden, should’ve cast the serpent out right then and there.  •But that is not what happened. And so we come to the Fall of Man: [6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.  Eve ate first. And she condemned herself.  •But her eating did not ruin mankind. Adam was the Federal Head, not Eve.  •So there was still a glimmer of hope, even after she ate.  •But that hope was gone almost immediately.  •She was deceived by the serpent and ate. But Adam is never said to have been deceived. He simply ate.  •Everything was riding on Adam’s keeping the covenant.  •But he failed.  Adam rebelled against the LORD. •This is much more than simply eating a piece of fruit.  •This is treason against the Most High God.  •The true King, God, had given a command, just one command, and man broke it.  •God had been infinitely kind to make a covenant with Adam and promise him eternal life upon perpetual obedience, and Adam spat in the face of God and decided to obey the serpent instead.  •God had given him much more than he needed to live. He had given him a perfect garden with many trees with delicious fruit to eat. And that was not enough for Adam.  •God had given him dominion over everything and kept only one thing back from him. And that was not good enough for Adam.  Adam refused to believe God’s promise.  •He refused to believe God’s threat of death.  •Adam refused to believe God’s goodness and faithfulness and authority.  •When he ate the fruit, Adam effectively called God a wicked liar with no right over him.  This is much more than eating, brothers and sisters.  •This is wickedness.  •This is treason.  •This is hostility toward God.  •This is rebellion.  •This is sin! •And, really, this is what all sin is.  But Adam sinned. He believed the lie of the Devil.  •He bowed down to the serpent instead of crushing him by faith in God.  •He gave up his throne as the earthly king.  •He failed his posterity.  •HE BROKE THE COVENANT.  4.) And, contrary to what the serpent had said, God indeed kept His promise to curse.  •And now we come to the results of the Fall.  •You know, at Christmas we celebrate “peace on earth.” And that is because by the sin of Adam, peace was removed from earth and all it’s inhabitants.  •The curse of Genesis 2:17 has come upon mankind.  •The curse of death has come. God’s wrath has come.  The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… •Sin and death came into the world through Adam.  •Sin and death spread to all men who came from Adam because, in Adam, because he was our Federal Head, we sinned in him.  •He represented us and failed and became a damnable sinner. And so, because we come from him, because he represented us, we share in his nature. And we also share in his curse.  •He is our first father. And in him, we share his guilt, his sin, and his sinful nature.  •Adam’s covenant breaking killed and damned us all.  Now, some may say, “But I didn’t ask for Adam to represent me. I didn’t consent to this.” •Well, God didn’t ask you, did He? He is not in the business of asking for permission. He is God.  •And so, as God, He appointed one man, Adam, to represent all of us in the Covenant of Works.  •Furthermore, you will like Federal Headship. Just wait. For a new Head and a New Covenant will come. And all who are in the New Head will be saved from the curse of the first covenant.  Adam’s sin brought sin to all men, for all sinned in Adam.  •We are now born into sin. Born sinners with hearts bent away from God.  •We are born enemies of God and under His wrath. We are born hostile to God and enslaved to sin.  •We are born under a broken covenant.  •We are born under a curse of death and Hell.  Alienation from God now exists.  •We read in vv8-10 of how Adam and Eve attempted to hide themselves from God. They are no longer friends. God is still holy, but they have become unholy. God is still righteous, but they have become sinners.  •And there is a separation now between them.  There is now a fear of judgment in mankind.  •In v10, Adam says “I WAS AFRAID.”  •Afraid of who? AFRAID OF GOD! There is now the recognition of nakedness.  •That is, guilt and shame belong to mankind now.  •In Genesis 2:25, the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed.  •But now they are naked and ashamed and hiding.  There is now distance from God. Separation from Him.  •And this is symbolized in the fig leaves they used to cover themselves.  •There was once nothing separating man from God. But now there is something literally separating their naked bodies from God’s presence.  •There is now a barrier between man and God, and sin is the reason it exists.  And man must now be cast away from the presence of God.  •We read at the end of Genesis 3 that God “drove out the man” from the Garden of Eden.  •Damnation, eternal separation from the blessing of God’s immediate presence belongs to mankind.  Death must now occur for us.  •As the Apostle says, “In Adam all die.” •And personal sins now happen.  •Our nature has been changed since the fall. We are now conceive and born as SINNERS. And this is what leads us to commit all of our person and actual sins.  •We are born guilty under Adam’s broken covenant, but then we grow up to commit sins ourselves.  •We have hearts bent away from God.  •There is now wrath upon wrath for mankind.  He awaits all under this broken covenant.  •Not only physical death, but spiritual death, too.  •All stand condemned and Hell-bound in Adam for his sin and our own sins on top of it all.  Every misery we’ve ever seen in the world, or will ever see, stems from Adam’s breaking the Covenant of Works in the Garden.  •We were plunged into ruin.  •God’s good creation was ruined by the Fall. Man, beast, and the world were all affected.  •As Charles Spurgeon said, “They had struck a match and set the world on fire with sin.” Merry Christmas! This is the situation we are in:  •A sinful representative before God, a broken covenant, born sinners, person sin compounded on it, death and damnation belong to us.  •And none of us can renew the Covenant of Works with God. That was a one-time deal.  •God alone can impose covenants on man. We cannot impose covenants upon Him.  •And so, left on our own, we are hopeless, helpless, worthless, dead, and damned.  5.) Are you ready now for some Good News? •Are you ready now to hear what God has done? •Are you ready now to hear the hope of Christmas? God could’ve left mankind to suffer all of these curses with no hope.  •But He did not.  •No sooner had man fallen into sin, did God then make a promise of hope.  •After confronting the man and the woman, God began to give out curses. And He began with the serpent.  •And in His curse toward the serpent, we see our hope: [14] The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. [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.” Our focus is on v15, for there our hope lies.  •The Gospel is preached here in seed form.  •There are not many details. But there is a promise of hope for sinners in Adam.  There will be enmity between the offspring/seed of the serpent and the seed/offspring of the woman.  •This verse has reference to God’s children and the Devil’s children engaged in a history long struggle against one another.  •But this verse finds it’s ultimate reference in the Lord Jesus Christ.  •Notice the language at the end of v15: “HE shall bruise YOUR head, and YOU shall bruise HIS heel.” •There will be a line of godly people and another line of the wicked.  •But it will all culminate in ONE specific Seed of the woman. And He will one day come and crush the head of the serpent, Satan.  God promised that one day, at some point in the future, a man would be born of woman (a descendent of Eve). •And this Seed will bruise, or crush, the head of the serpent.  •What does that mean? It means that One Man will come someday to set things right.  And this promised Seed will indeed be born of the woman, won’t He? •Not of man. No. He will have no earthly father.  •He will be born of a virgin.  •Here the virgin birth of the God-Man is hinted at for the first time in Scripture.  •He will be born of a woman.  And this Seed will do defeat the serpent. He will what Adam should’ve done.  •A Second Adam, the Last Adam, will be born into the world.  •He will be born of a woman. That is, He will be truly human, like Adam.  •He will be a true human, like us, who will undo the curse for human beings.  A new Federal Head will come.  •There will be a new representative before God who will perfectly obey God, perfectly keep covenant with God, and will overcome the temptation of the serpent.  •And this means that a New Covenant will be made.  •A covenant that will save sinners from the one that the first Adam broke.  •A Covenant of Grace, and not of works.  •Grace for those who receive the Federal Head by faith.  •There will be salvation for those who come under the headship of the promised Seed.  Everything will ride on the New Adam’s obedience.  •But catch here in v15 that God promises that this One will be VICTORIOUS.  •This One will set things rights. This One will save us from the curse.  •This One will crush the head of the serpent.  Brothers and sisters, this One is Jesus Christ.  •Born of a woman. The true Son of God.  •Jesus is the Seed of Eve. Jesus is the promised One.  •He came into the world, He took on human flesh, and was born in order to save us from the curse of the broken covenant in Adam.  •He came into the world to destroy the works of the Devil.  •He came to conquer Satan by overcoming his temptations and remaining faithful to God for all who will enter His New Covenant in Christ.  BUT IT WILL COME AT A PRICE! •The Serpent Crusher, the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ will have His heel bruised by the serpent.  •He will be hurt. The serpent will bite Him. He is truly human. And He will die. •This is a reference to the Cross. By the devices of Satan, the Son of God will be crucified and die. The serpent will strike His heel.    •But it will only be a temporary death, mind you. For He will rise from the grave.  •And in the striking of the serpent, in the death of the Promised One, the serpent will be crushed forever.  •The serpent will be undone by the death of the Savior.  The Lord Jesus Christ would come.  •The Messiah, the Redeemer, the Savior would come.  •And He would conquer sin, Satan, and death.  •He would reverse the curse by going to a Cross to make atonement for sinners.  •He would reverse the curse by bearing it on the tree in the place of all who would believe on Him.  •And, in doing so, He would institute that New Covenant, offering salvation from the first covenant for all who will believe on Him.  And by all this, the Kingdom of the Messiah will tread down the kingdom of the Serpent.  •The Seed of the woman will overthrow all Satan’s lies and bring more and more sinners to salvation.  •And, one day, He will once and for all, at the end of history, send the Serpent to the Lake of Fire to be tortured day and night forever and ever.  •The Promised Seed will indeed utterly crush the head of the serpent.  Brothers and sisters, no soon had man broken the Covenant of Works, than God promised salvation.  •Behold, our merciful God! •Behold, the promise of our Savior, Jesus Christ! •Behold, the hope for sinners: The Seed of the woman who will set all things right! 6.) I hope Christmas is becoming clearer to you. •Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Serpent Crusher.  •We are celebrating that God has kept His promise to send the Redeemer.  •We are celebrating that the true and better Adam has come.  •We are celebrating that the curse has been reversed for all who believe on Christ. And that one Day, the curse will be purged entirely from this world.  •As the great Christmas hymn says, “No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow, Far as the curse is found.” The First Adam ate of a tree and condemned us all.  •But the Last Adam took on flesh and came to earth to be hanged on a tree to redeem us from the curse.  •The First Adam rebelled and damned us. But the Last Adam obeyed and saved us.  •The First Adam bowed down to the serpent. But the Last Adam crushed the head of the serpent.  •The First Adam, the sinner, failed. But the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, is victorious.  At Christmas we are celebrating the birth of the One who came to redeem us.  •We are celebrating that He has come into the world.  •We are celebrating that God Himself has taken flesh, become a man, and has done for us what no other man could do.  •We are celebrating that a baby was born to save us from our sins. That the God-Man has come to redeem us from the Fall.  And, brothers and sisters, HE HAS DONE IT! •Hebrews 2:14 says, “Since therefore the children share n flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…” •The Lord Jesus took on flesh, becoming like us, that by His death He would destroy the Devil.  •He did it. The serpent is defeated. The serpent’s head has been crushed in principle by the Cross.  •And now we await the consummation of that crushing.  1 John 3:8 says,  •“…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” •He has truly done it.  The Promised Seed has come.  •He has been born.  •He has lived and died and was raised.  •And the serpent has been crushed under His feet.  •God has done it! •God is faithful to His promises! •We are saved! And so, I command you this morning with the authority of the Word of God: REJOICE! •The Savior has come! •He has accomplished His mission.  •There is a New Covenant, a new creation, and eternal life for all who believe on the New Adam, Jesus Christ.  •You who love and trust Him, rejoice! •Celebrate Him this season, for He has done it! And if you do not yet know Him, take the words of this sermon to heart: •You are in Adam and under a broken covenant.  •But even today, the Lord Jesus offers you Himself as your representative before God.  •And God promises to take away your sin for Christ’s sake, put you under Christ’s headship, and judge you according to Christ’s perfect Covenant keeping.  •Today, God offers you salvation if you will only trust in the Serpent Crusher, Jesus Christ! •Believe that God has done it, and that He has done it for you, and He will save you from your sins.  May God grant all of us to see Christ, trust Him, cherish Him, and rejoice that He has come and we are saved.  •Amen.