Untitled Sermon (64)

This has been the most bizarre, chaotic year I have ever witnessed. Right out of the gate and so far through the whole year. beginning with the coronavirus people experienced fear. Fear of sickness fear of hunger, fear of death.

And so we began to isolate ourselves and you began to see the vision take place. Everybody has a very intense opinion where the responses have been emotional. So person a doesn't agree with person B , so person B calls person a an idiot in person hey returns with no you're the idiot.

Intensely emotional, and there is absolutely no reasoning with emotional responses. Because no matter how hard you try to reason at the end of the day the person's response is going to be well that's just the way I feel.

So before a man who died in the restraints and in the custody of law enforcement, people were divided and were intense with that division. Anger only grew frustration only grew hatred only grew, and testimony that people have not been in the word of God during this pandemic.

And then the events in Minnesota do take place and when the video is released it caused outrage. In my opinion, rightfully so. People should be mad at acts of injustice. The response of some word two peacefully protest in the response of others have been to protest but also cause anarchy.

And we have awakened a sleeping giant a sleeping giant that I have warned from this pulpit. I have talked about critical race theory and intersectionality from this pulpit.

I explained how it comes from Marxism and how it recognizes one group as the oppressor and it is the job of the majority to rise up against that oppressor.

In this case white people. I have shared with you all that there were even pastors who were telling white people that they must repent of their whiteness. I warned everybody that this was creeping into most of our ministries and it was in most of our seminaries.

The seed of revolution , the seed of a racial war and revolution was planted along time ago. And I seen the capabilities if we didn't crush this teaching.

I watched it gain to the point where I have even expressed concern with my family members just five to six months ago or I stated there won't be an economic downfall and we will watch mob mentality take place.

Never could I have imagined that I would see it worldwide. But the writing was on the wall along time ago. And people who really know their history well and people who really know their theology seen the dangers. i was not the only one giving off warnings there were plenty others.

During this time of the coronavirus and mass mob mentality, i did not freak out. I'm frustrated, I'm frustrated because so many people are not using their heads but their emotions. And when you mix emotion with anger and hatred the result is an irrational person.

So my attempt to reason with some people has fallen on deaf ears. I do not want any of you to be mistaken, what we are witnessing is sin unrestrained. We have been witnessing the restraints coming off for a while now.

We have elected leaders who are wicked we have people who are employed by the state who are wicked, and then you have citizens who are wicked. And now we have a clash of unrestrained sin taking place.

Folks, I want you all to know that man said is not completely unrestrained. Mankind is capable of so much worse and what we're seeing now. And if sin continues to go unrestrained we will witness what man is capable of.

It is ugly out there and I mourn for our country. It is ugly out there and I mourn for this world. And if you are paying attention you will realize that we are a people they truly do not know what they want.

Out of fear of a sickness we granted states more power then they should ever have. We were OK with a totalitarian style of leadership in certain parts of the US.

We didn't have to experience that here, not like other places, but generally speaking we encouraged a totalitarianism from these elected officials in law enforcement under these elected officials.

And in one swift move, that all changed. And the same ones who demanded this type of enforcement are the same ones who are burning it down. This is sin unrestrained where people do not care for their society or people do not care for their fellow neighbor. All they want is to see this all burn down.

Why? The truth of the matter is because they hate God and they are followers of Satan whether they admit it or not. They have believed his lies and they hate the image of God. Not only do they hate the image of God and want to see us image bearers destroyed, but they hate living in a country there still has people proclaiming one nation under God.

They hate living in a country this proclaims in God we trust. They hate living in a country for God's people still have the freedom to proclaim God's truth. And so the tactic is to destroy it at all costs.

It is my belief This is why communism is on the rise because ultimately communism grants religious power, a divine reference to the state. In a communist state has no room for a group of people that reminds them that they are not sovereign but God is.

forget the fact that historically speaking and factually speaking, God's people have been the best citizens the world has ever seen. They don't care about that. Will we blindly follow their authority is all they care about. And God's people will not blindly follow any man's authority.

We will respect people in positions of authority but we will remind them that their positions falls under the lordship of Jesus and that they are accountable to him. And as long as we are here reminding these people that they are accountable before God it is us they do not want.

the world has spoken, and they have proclaimed we do not want your Christ and we do not want you Christians. and without even knowing it, these people blindly and faithfully follow Satan. Today we are going to remind ourselves of hope within the reality of the evil that surrounds us.

Lets look at the first half of this verse and focus on that first then we will look at the second half.

Romans 16:20 NASB95

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

What we're looking at is kind of in the middle of what began last week. So what we have is a warning, a promise and a blessing. Last week I preached on the warning today we will look at the promise and the blessing.

The first thing we notice is the god of peace. This is not the first time Paul has declared God has the god of peace. And the other context it is about hostile sinners having peace with God but here he is picking up the Hebrew notion of peace.

You should know that our idea of peace is taken from ancient Greek culture and so we share similar ideas of peace with the Greek culture. We do not share the same idea according to Hebrew culture.

In our culture and in ancient Greek culture, peace was a negative statement. Now that may have your attention, how is peace negative? I do not mean negative as in bummer but negative as in the absence of something.

In our case it would be the absence of war. That is the common understanding if we were to mix our culture with our Christian faith we would say that it is the absence of war and the absence of evil. But in Hebrew culture it was not negative it was positive.

So to have peace meant to be made whole that you were being made complete. It is positive because what was not completed is now completed. What was not there is now there it is something that is added.

So realistically you can be in the mist of wartime and still be at peace. Because peace was not based on the events surrounding you it was based on you. Idea is that you will never have peace if you are not made whole.

That the absence of war and the absence of wickedness will not bring you peace. Only being made complete will bring you peace and so Paul's image is a Hebrew image and we know that according to Paul he believes the completion is found in Christ.

So he is the god of peace and this is the only way to have peace because in Christ is the only way to be made complete or to be made whole.

He moves on to say will soon crush Satan under your feet. And this folks is the promise of God that he will soon crush Saint under our feet. This is in light of the false features that he just mentioned but it's also in light of all the evil things that Christians experience.

There were multiple things in this letter that were pointed out such as being persecuted and also living this life where you are prone to giving in to temptations where you are tempted to send all the time. And Paul let out this cry oh wretched man that I am.

We looked at the life of Paul and we see that life as a Christian does not always happiness. We shouldn't mislead people in declaring that wife will always be happy, that's not the case. We will mourn for the sins that we commit and we will mourn for the sins we see others commit.

But Paul gives the promise and declares that the god of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet. It is important to note that it is God doing the crushing but this verse echoes a very important verse and so we have to look at that closer and get a better understanding of the world we live in and our own fallen nature.

So let's read Genesis 3 together it won't be an expository sermon on Genesis 3 but there will be a lot said.

Genesis 3:1–5 NASB95

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Understand something here. The moment that the serpent who is Satan is talking to Eve Eve had true free will. Adam had true free will. They had a better opportunity to resist Satan than any one of us would have ever had.

The will we have now is not the same will Adam and Eve have. In sin we have a corrupt will that needs to be redeemed by Jesus. So of course you have the freedom to go left or right but sin will incline you in the direction you want to go. And after Salvation the Holy Spirit inclines us where we need to go.

It is not the same as when Adam and Eve had it and if you think it is then you do not understand the fall of man and the sinfulness of man. And so in a time and place were mankind, Adam and Eve, had a much greater ability to resist Satan than any of us ever had.

But what did Satan do, he asked a question. Indeed has God said? You see under the free will that we see Adam and Eve have it still only took a simple question to get the ball rolling. This is before the corruption of sin, how much easier do you think it is for him with the corruption of sin?

And so Eve explains the commands that God gave and satan says you surely will not die. For God knows that in the day that you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

So here is how it's played out, Satan asked a question creating doubt. Then he makes the statement that is a flat out why surely you will not die. Then he tells them a motive for why God does not want them to eat and inclines them to the thought that if they do eat they will be like God.

Genesis 3:6–7 NASB95

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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Now Eve desires to be like God and suddenly this fruit looks good to her. It was a delight to her eyes because of the capabilities behind eating that fruit. So she took and she eat as she gave some to her husband who was with her.

All this was done under Adam's watchful eye. He was the Gardner and he was meant to take care of that land and take care of his bride by protecting her. God declared that man should have Dominion over the land and over the creatures and his role was to protect that land and he did not do it.

He allowed his wife to be tempted she ate then he ate. Then their eyes were open, open to sin. and they seen that they were naked and that's a way of communicating to us that they realized they were exposed.

And so they covered themselves and we move on.

Genesis 3:8–9 NASB95

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. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

I've always liked verse 8 because it is such a neat verse in the Hebrew. Adam and Eve heard the sound of Yahweh, in my translation it is Lord with every letter capitalized. so they heard the sound of yahweh walking In the garden and then the text says this in the cool of the day.

In the cool of the day and What is interesting is that it is two Hebrew words in that phrase. Roo-ach and yome.

Yome means day but roo-ach is often translated as wind. It is also translated as breath and it is also translated as spirit. In Genesis 1 where we see that the spirit of God was hovering over the waters Genesis 1 used the exact same Hebrew word.

So if we are consistent with our Hebrew this means they heard the sound of Yahweh walking in the spirit in the garden during the day. This is exactly how I think weird to understand this verse.

So what happens after they hear God coming? They did what sinners do best they attempted to hide from God. Understand this people that sinners hide from God. The first moment God shows up on the scene after the fall, the fallen are trying to hide themselves. And what did God do?

He called out two men, then Yahweh elohim called to the man and said to him where are you? Did the all knowing God not know where Adam was? of course he knew where Adam was. God is now asking man where are you because now man is lossed.

The first thing I want you all to take a very special note of. The first scene of God interacting with sinners is that the sinners we're trying to hide from God and it is God who goes seeking 1st and it is God who asks first.

And this formula continues throughout the entirety of the scriptures. You have to understand this. It is laid out for us right from the beginning. God seeks after man man does not seek after God. It was God who sought out Abraham while he was still an Idol worshipper.

It was God who called out Moses from the burning Bush. It was God who called out Jacob at Bethel. It was Jesus who sought out the apostles while they were fishing and then he gave them the stern words you have not chosen me but I have chosen you.

It is the Good Shepherd who goes after the sheep not the sheep going after the Shepherd. It was God who sought after the Apostle Paul.

This is the biblical image and it is throughout the entirty of scripture. Further we have it stayed in the psalms and enrolments which is another way of saying in both the old and New Testament, both before the cross and after the cross, that no one seeks after God not even one.

That is scripture. And the reason why it is important for you to take this special note is because you will never fully grasp the gospel message if we can't get the basics of the beginning then it all begins with God and he is the initiator and he's the one that condescends to us to deliver to us the message that we could not possibly comprehend on her own.

And right from the beginning right here in this chapter that we're looking at God was the one who sought after her man and asked where are you? And that is so important for us to know because this question is still being asked by God to this very day. Where are you?

And if you sit in this sanctuary with the full assurance that you have Salvation the only reason why you do is because God first whispered into your ear where are you.

Genesis 3:10–13 NASB95

He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

They knew they were guilty. In this moment that they were pleading their case before God it is because they know they deserve death. They know because God was honest with them right from the gecko. you will die if you eat from this tree.

Until you see the blame game begin and Adam point the finger at his wife it her fault. She made me do it, she made me do it and God you were the one that gave her to me anyway so. Now God knows what happened they are before the judge.

Now verse 14 and 15 are the critical verses we have to go over to tie it back into the section we're looking at in Romans and so we will read these two verses together and that will end our time in Genesis 3 so let's look at these last two verses out of this chapter that we will be looking at.

Genesis 3:14–15 NASB95

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all 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.”

Here is the critical part, Scott says that he will put enmity between the woman and the serpent. But not just enmity between the woman serpent but between her seed and his seed.

And the seed of the woman will bruise you on the head, The Hebrew word for bruised also means crushed which is what Paul used back in Romans.

This seat of the woman will crush the serpent's head, serpent will bruise the heel or the seed of the woman but the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. Then we get to the writings of Paul and Paul does not only proclaim Jesus born of a Virgin but he also proclaims Jesus born of a woman.

Meaning the seed of the woman. And basic human anatomy reminds us that women do not have seeds another testimony to the miraculous conception of Jesus.

And immediately after chapter three we see the battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent except we call them Cain and Abel in the next chapter.

And just like the formula for God seeking after hit man there is another formula we constantly see and that is this constant battle between the seed the woman in the seed of the serpent. We have Israel and Egypt, we have Daniel and nebuchadnezzar. You have Jesus and the Pharisees.

And what did Jesus call the Pharisees? He called them brood of Vipers literally the sons of snakes. He told him that they are of their father the devil. Genesis 3 set up redemptive history. We see mankind before the corruption and mankind after the corruption.

We see the curse of the man woman and serpent but we also see the promise. Genesis 3 is one of those amazing chapters because it's the beginning of the story of redemption, it is where we first read about the Redeemer to come, Jesus himself.

Here we have a promise but the serpent will be crushed and that is the reminder that Paul gives. He is reminding us of this promise because this promise has not yet been fulfilled. So as a reminder we have the warning that there will be these false teachers these agents of the devil beasts seeds of serpents.

It echoes a reminder that we will always have this battle. That the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman are always at enmity. In the reminder that these sons of serpents are just wasting their time because satan's head will be crushed.

God will crush his head under our feet. That is the promise.

And then here is the blessing, look back in Romans chapter 16 and verse 20 and we will read the second half of that verse the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Grace is unmerited favor. This means favor you can never earn favor you never deserved.

Paul makes it clear that if it can be earned by your works it is no longer grace. So in light the pressures that Christians face Paul pronounce is a blessing grace the grace of our Lord Jesus be with this church in Rome.

A warning a promise and a blessing. And so those three things we must focus on in this ministry. We are being warned. There are false teachers out there that want to lead you in a direction away from God. And they will come with smooth speeches.

Be on guard do not fall for it and do not for a minute think that you are immune to this. I cannot tell you how many times a dynamic preacher has had people's heads bobbin while they were saying nonsense.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard the words Amen to heresy. Do not think that you are immune to the warnings that Paul has given. And he is speaking to a church that is known for their faithfulness and he has to remind this church that has a reputation for their faithfulness be on guard.

And you have to be on guard because of your faithfulness. He then reminds this Church of the promise but the promise forces us to look back at something bigger. And so while there is this warning and this future promise in between there is the reality oh the seeds of the serpent.

That wicked things will happen around us that evil things will happen around this and it's because of us. Our very presence entices evil. As long as the people of God are here as long as the seed of the woman continues to go the seed of the serpent will have enmity. That is hostility.

And they will commit wicked acts of aggression just to attack the seed of the woman. And so folks I know right now it is a crazy and chaotic time and that may have some people kind of worried and wanting to shelter in an bunker down but you have to understand this is the way it has always been.

The people of God has always felt hostility , always. Don't think so? Do you think it's worse now? They ripped the flesh off our savior. They drove nails into his hands and into his feet. wow the sovereign plan of God the actions were wicked, evil man was committing evil acts against the creator of all creation.

It has always been this way for God's people, we just had it so blessed and we have just been so privileged in this land that we took it for granted. That we abused God's grace. But we are not to fear because the promise is God will crush this evil. And he will place it all under our feet.

What we see now is not the end this is not the end. There is no end for Christians. But while it is chaotic we will one day see the fatal blow that God will give Satan and we will rejoice.

In the meantime Paul declares a blessing and watch the grace of the Lord Jesus with this church and I declare the same blessing upon you all I want the grace of the Lord Jesus upon you all. I never want us to go through the things that our brothers and sisters before us had to go through.

And so I will pronounce a blessing and I will pronounce many blessings while we live in this world of chaos wild bear our sons and daughters of serpents all around us. But we have all people should be least surprised when we see sinful acts taking place.

The hearts are wicked and are made of stone. We will need all the grace we can get now and what our culture needs is the message of grace which is the gospel message.