Genesis 3:14-24 Jesus is Savior

The Plan From the Foundation of the World

Introduction

Welcome back to BASH; it is good to see everyone tonight.

If you have been with us, then you know we have been going through the first few chapters of Genesis and looking at the overall theme summarized by the acronym G.M.J.R.

God is Holy, Man is Sinner, Jesus is Savior, and Response Required

Now this doesn’t only summarize the first few chapters of Genesis; it summarizes the whole Bible

God willing, as we progress forward from Genesis to Isaiah and on to the NT, we will see that that is the case

But we are in Genesis and we start there for this simple fact, and I may have said this a couple of weeks ago, but I’ll say it again: you tell me what you believe about the first 3 chapters of Genesis, and I’ll tell you what you believe about the rest of the Bible

It is that crucial...

PRAYER

Quick Review

Two weeks ago; God is Holy as Creator

He is completely other, separate to himself and independent, he doesn’t need you or me or anything you see in order to exist or to find joy

His role as Creator of the universe shows us this truth

Then last week, Allen showed us from and 3 that Man is Sinner

Not just that Man sins, or that some men are sinners; no, but that all people everywhere are sinners, every person, from the moment they are born.

It is who we are; our father Adam willingly and knowingly rebelled against God, and so do we. Which, if you understand God’s holiness at all, and the seriousness of your sin, should leave you feeling hopeless and helpless.

But tonight we look at what is called the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And it is good news because

Before we read our text tonight, I want to read you another Scripture just so that we start with the right viewpoint on this:

Ephesians 1:3–6 CSB

3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

There is much we can glean from that, but there are just two things I want you to hold in your mind as we move forward tonight

1) v.4 “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world”

2) v.5 “through Jesus Christ…according to the good pleasure of his will”

Here is the point: God was not surprised when Adam and Eve sinned

God didn’t have to develop a “Plan B” and just start figuring out as he went how to fix this mess that Adam made

No, it says that before he ever created the world, before all things were created good, before anything existed outside of himself, he planned salvation through Jesus Christ.

And he did according to the good pleasure of his will...

I say all that because I want you to see that God is not reactive; he is sovereign, in creation, in salvation, and in all things…and that is great news for all those who trust in him for the forgiveness of their sins BECAUSE it means that they can rest fully assured in the salvation that God promises to them through faith, because he planned it from the beginning

Now, to bring us up to speed from last week: God has created everything, placed man to rule over, and man has sinned against God. That is our setting.

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So God addresses all 3 parties involved in this event: the serpent (Satan), Woman, and Man

And remember, this is not just some interesting story. This is God’s revealed truth about how things came to be the way they are. That means its really important.

So if God chose to put it in his Bible, then we need to pay attention and try to understand the significance of what is going on here.

Notice in v. 14 that God starts by addressing the serpent, Satan; not man or woman.

Why would he do that? Because he is infinitely wise, so he goes to the very root of sin, where sin has its source; Satan.

But we have to clarify, Satan did not make Adam and Eve sin; they were responsible for their sin and you are responsible for your sin.

You cannot say “the Devil made me do it;” you know why? Because he doesn’t have that kind of power. He can’t make you do anything, he can only tempt you.

But the reason he is addressed first here is because he is the author of sin; he committed the very first sin by trying to usurp God’s authority before man was even created.

Now, he has increased his transgression, his guilt by seducing mankind to participate in his sin.

He was already guilty; but his role in tempting man to sin resulted in the curse of verse 14.

If you remember last week, in verses 8-13, the serpent is not addressed; God does not give him an opportunity to confess his wrongdoing…God moves directly to the curse upon him as an instrument of the devil

This was partly because Satan is so wicked that he had no capacity for confession anyway and partly because God justly was not willing to grant him repentance. Still yet there is another part of the reason; the prompting of Satan resulted in God’s blessing on creation to become a curse.

So then the serpent is cursed more than all other animals because he enticed others to sin; let that be a lesson to us; our condemnation for sin is great enough—how much more so will it be if we entice others to sin?...

But so that you see that you are responsible for your own sin, let me tell you a quick story

I was at a church to preach one time and I sat through Sunday school where they were discussing , and one woman asked, “why did God not warn Adam and Eve about the serpent?”

And I thought to myself, “He did!”

Genesis 1:28 CSB

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Genes

Do you see it? Satan came in the form of a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve, but they had been told to “RULE OVER EVERY CREATURE THAT CRAWLS ON THE EARTH.”

God also told them the one thing that they were not to do: eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. My point: they were well informed.

So when the serpent came up and started telling his lies, they should have been ready to say, “now you listen, here’s where you’re wrong.” But they didn’t, and so they brought on a curse which Allen began to tell us about last week, and which we see play out here...

Now then, I told you guys that our theme tonight is Jesus is Savior and you are probably wondering where Jesus is in this text. We are fixing to see in verse 15.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

The first thing you see is hostility between the serpent and the woman and the serpent and the woman’s offspring.

This plays out practically; mankind doesn’t get along well with snakes. Thats a part of the curse of the fall.

But remember, the serpent is the embodiment of Satan; so the other aspect of this is hostility between mankind and Satan on earth.

As it is said in , our fight is not against flesh, but against powers of darkness and evil spiritual forces, that is, against the kingdom of Satan

he still slithers around this fallen world enticing people just like you toward sin through money, lust, worldly success, drugs, pride, and hate…and if you share in the devil’s sin, then you will share in his punishment, eternally...

But the most intriguing part is this; “He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Lets work backwards on that; the serpent strikes man’s heel, meaning Satan will afflict man, but man will strike the serpent’s head, or crush the serpent’s head, meaning man will conquer Satan and come out victorious over him and his kingdom...

Sounds pretty cool. But we already said that no amount of working or willing from man can restore him to his position of dominion.

He had that chance. He should have ruled over the serpent and rebuked him. Instead, he said “this serpent makes a good point, lets listen to him and do what he says.”

So then man obeyed, submitted to the serpent, and in doing so he took the dominion bestowed upon him by God and gave it to Satan. Because whatever you obey has dominion over you...

Now then, the question of the ages is this; how can man be restored? How can he be placed back to the place of dominion he once had? How can he rule over Satan?

Think of it this way: say you have the latest and greatest iPhone and you let me borrow it.

I take it and bust the screen, drop it in water, just wreck it. Now you need your phone back, so I replace the screen, dry it out, and get it to where it will turn back on. The screen light doesn’t work the same, it runs super slow, barely sends a text, drops calls, on and on.

Would that be acceptable to you? No. Why? Because it doesn’t do what it is designed to do, it can’t. The only acceptable thing would be for it to be truly restored, or to have a brand new one just like the original, in perfect condition.

It’s the same with us. We were created good, designed to function exactly as we were intended. But sin corrupted that, doomed us, and made us unacceptable.

So then the only way a man can crush the head of the serpent is if he is one who is like us in every way, yet unblemished by sin. That is, one who represents us perfectly from before the fall.

In this way, verse 15 really tells us two things with one statement.

The first is the promise from God that restoration will come, or rather, redemption. Verse 15 promises that mankind will be restored to his position of dominion over the earth and Satan…that is the meaning of the collective noun “offspring;”

But the second thing it tells us is how that will come to pass; it is through the “offspring of woman’

This was written in a patriarchal society