Part 5
the old serpent has worked in us.
In Him His believing people shall shortly bruise Satan under their
feet. We will consider the whole passage and draw from it seven
lessons. As there are so many, I cannot dwell upon any one of them
at length, but must give you hints of the wealth of meaning which
lies within the words of these most instructive verses. With regard
to our Archenemy, we may here learn much.
First, notice THE INSTRUCTIVE FORM UNDER WHICH
SATAN APPEARS. The text begins, "The Lord God said unto the
serpent." Under the serpent form he beguiled the woman and under
that form he was condemned. He is a serpent, still. He can go about
among the weak and defenseless as a roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour, but he is most at home as the embodiment of a
serpent. The serpent was most subtle and so is the Evil One most
cunning. You think you understand the ways of Satan but you are
mistaken. You have been tempted by him these 30 years and you
believe your experience can unravel all his plots.
Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, he has been engaged in the work of
tempting men for nearly 6,000 years and he is not only much older,
but he is far more acute and more sagacious than you are. His ways
are not easily found out and though we are not ignorant of his
devices, we know not which device he will next use. If we have
successfully escaped his nets for 40 years, the skillful fowler may
even yet entangle us. We have need each day to cry, "Lead us not
into temptation; but deliver us from the Evil One." John writes of
him in the Revelation as "that old serpent, called the Devil and
Satan, which deceives the whole world." He is more cunning than
the wisest–how soon he entangled Solomon! He is stronger than
the strongest–how fatally he overthrew Samson!
Yes, and men after God's own heart, like David, have been led
into most grievous sins by his seductions. We do not know where
he now lurks, or from what quarter he will next shoot his arrows,
but we may rest assured that he is always plotting mischief against
the people of God and he is working to effect their pollution. We
may wisely enter into Paul's anxiety when he wrote to the
Corinthians, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from
the simplicity that is in Christ." From the evil machinations of the
Subtle One, may the Lord deliver us!
A serpent is very insinuating. It can enter where another creature
could not. Ever so small an opening makes room for a serpent and
it winds itself in without noise. Satan is very insinuating and as he
entered Paradise, so can he penetrate into the most secret and
sacred places. He creeps into the Church, watch though we may.
He creeps into houses though sanctified by devotion. Have you
never found him intruding into your closet during your prayers?
There may seem to be no loophole and yet there he is, where he is
least expected. Has he not wound himself into your families? Has
he not crops in your hearts? How can we keep him out? We watch
against his attacks from without but, behold, he has found a lodging
place within! Subtle and insinuating is Satan–he is a serpent,
indeed!
And how venomous! What poison one fang of the old serpent will
throw into our moral system! Look around and see how many have
been poisoned with the desire for strong drink, with lust, with
avarice, with pride, with anger, with unbelief. Fiery serpents are
among us and many die of their venom. If we tolerate the least sin,
it is a burning drop in the veins of the soul! One touch of the fangs
of this serpent will work immeasurable sorrow, even if the soul is
saved from death. It is only the power of God that keeps us from
being destroyed by this viper! Had he his will, he is a spirit so
malignant that no heir of Heaven would survive! O God, keep Your
own! Deliver us from the Evil One!
In all probability the reptile called the serpent was a nobler
creature before the Fall than now. The words of our text, so far as
they literally concern the serpent, threaten that a change would be
worked in him. It has been a sort of speculative opinion that the
creature either had wings, or was able to move without creeping
upon the earth as it now does. Of that we know nothing. But
assuredly the serpent is a hated thing with which manhood is at
war–and its form and habit typify all that is mean and cunning.
There is nothing noble, nothing brave, nothing true about the idea
of a serpent.
Satan was among the first-born of the morning, a swift and
shining servant of God, but he transgressed against his Sovereign
and fell. And now he is nothing but a serpent–malignant, base,
cunning, and a liar. He is fitly figured by "the wily snake." "He was
a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). He goes out
to deceive the nations (Rev. 20:8). He works signs and lying
wonders (2 Thess. 2:9). He lays snares, and takes men captive (2
Tim. 2:26).
Keep before your minds the form of a serpent and remember that
after this manner Satan will attack you. Only let me soften your
fears with the sight of another serpent–the serpent of brass lifted
upon a pole brought life to those whom evil serpents had injured. It
seems to me a wonder of condescending Grace that our Lord Jesus
could allow Himself to be symbolized by a form which had been
assumed by the great enemy of souls! Yes, there was the bronze
serpent lifted high upon a pole and they that looked, though bitten
by fiery serpents, lived! Even thus is Jesus on the Cross the sure
remedy for sin of every kind. Look out with all your eyes of
caution for the old serpent, the devil. But at the same time look up
with all your eyes of faith to Him who was made a curse for us that
we might live.
II. So much for the first lesson, now for the second. Observe THE
MEMORABLE FACT AS TO SATAN'S CONDITION. "The Lord
God said unto the serpent, Because you have done this, you are
cursed" and that curse was made emphatic and superlative. He with
whom we have to contend has the curse of God upon him even
now! God has blessed His people, but he has cursed their great
enemy! The curse of God blights and blasts, even as in the case of
the fruitless fig tree, which, beneath the sentence of the Lord Jesus,
withered away.
The curse of God has fallen upon that foul spirit who represents
evil–it could not justly be otherwise. This is his shame and your
strength. The next time you are fighting with Apollyon, here is a
keen shaft to hurl at him. Tell him he is accursed of God and what
has he to do with those whom the Lord has blessed? He whom God
blesses is blessed, but he whom God curses is cursed, indeed. Upon
all the power of sin and error, yes, upon Satan himself, who is the
ringleader in evil things, the curse of God abides and this is
prophetic of their overthrow. The truth shall conquer, holiness shall
overcome. Falsehood and wrong bear the brand of Cain upon their
brow and they shall wither from the root.
Satan was cursed with reference to us. Our fall has brought him
no gain, but an increase of Divine displeasure, of disappointment
and envy. He was under God's wrath before, but now the Lord says
concerning him, "You are cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field." Though there comes pain and groaning upon all
the lower creation through man's sin, there shall come upon the old
serpent a far more exceeding measure of the curse because he has
dared to lead into revolt the race of man. Who will willingly be the
slave of a tyrant whom the Lord has cursed? Not only Satan, but
every form of sin is under the curse. The Tempter would make you
think that some shapes of sin are blessed, but this is false.
All sin has a curse attached to it. Keep far from it. Is it false
doctrine? It is accursed! Is it living in wantonness and carnal
pleasure? It is accursed! Touch it not! You cannot do wrong without
defiling yourself with that which God has cursed. You may imagine
that you will gain many good things by yielding a little to sin, but
this is a lie of the Adversary–evil is loss and ruin. The curse which
God pronounced on the serpent is pronounced on the whole of his
seed and everything that is impure, untruthful and unholy lies under
the ban of God. Brethren, if for Christ's sake we should suffer
poverty, or reproach, or slander, or even death, there would be a
blessing in it all! But if by means of doing evil we should rise to
wealth, honor and ease, we should find in all our gains a burning
curse! Who prizes gold with the curse upon it? It is cankered, and
will eat into the soul. God knows what is cursed and what is
blessed–and we may well believe His declaration that evil is
meaner than the brutes and more sensual than the wild beasts of the
field.
All this is a call to escape from the ways of sin. Tremble lest you
be found under the curse! Hasten to flee to Him who can turn the
curse into a blessing, even Jesus, who bore our sins in His own
body on the Cross and so bore away the curse from all Believers.
The memorable fact that Satan and the power of evil are under the
curse should hearten us in our conflict with spiritual wickedness.
We can overcome them, for the curse of the Lord has gone forth
against them.
III. For a third lesson, note THE REMARKABLE
PROSTRATION which fell upon the serpent–"Upon your belly
shall you go." So does the serpent move and so does evil labor to
make progress. Satan moves always as a fallen one–not with the
dignity of holiness, but groveling low. God has put upon his every
movement the indication that he is no longer great and wise. The
movements of the Prince of Darkness are base and sensual–"Upon
your belly shall you go." His seed also take to the same posture in
going. I have seen the foes of the Truth of God contending against
the faith of God's people and I have marked their policies, their
plots and their plans–and I have said to myself, "Verily, it is
written, Upon your belly shall you go."
Beings engaged in evil designs have no other way of going but
with tricks, devices, concealments and double meanings. When
men deny the Scriptures and the Truth of God, they always go to
work in an underhand, mean and serpentine style–"Upon your belly
shall you go." If guilty man begins to plot for his own advantage,
scheme for his own glory and aim at perverting the Truth of God,
you will notice that he never takes a bold, open, manly stand. No,
he dodges, he conceals, he twists and shifts–"Upon your belly shall
you go." Sin is a mean and despicable thing. The greatest potentate
of evil was here doomed to cringe and crawl and his seed have
never forgotten their father's posture. All the objects of the powers
of evil are groveling.
What do they seek after? When men forsake the way of holiness,
they rush after polluted and idle amusements. What is there in the
world's pleasure which is ennobling? Carnal mirth is still a
groveling thing–"Upon your belly shall you go." A professing man
gives up the separated way, enters upon modern society and he no
longer walks with God. What is his general course? Within a short
time we find him careless of all religion and tolerant of
licentiousness. It is ever so–"Upon your belly shall you go." If you
give way to evil, you shall go down, down, down till your god is
your belly and you glory in your shame! If a man would be great,
let him serve God! If a man would rise to the angels, yes, rise to
God, let him obey the commands of his Maker. But if he wishes to
degrade himself below the adder, which "glides obscure through
bush and brake," his easy method is to follow Satan and rebel
against the Most High.
IV. Observe, in the fourth place, THE PERPETUAL
DEGRADATION put upon the serpent–"And dust shall you eat all
the days of your life." Satan is now to live a defeated life, for such
is the force of the expression, "His enemies shall lick the dust." It
signifies that they are utterly defeated. So Satan, all his life long,
exists as a conquered and chained enemy–his power is broken and
he knows it. He is defeated as to the whole of his great scheme and
he is to be defeated in the details of it all the days of his life!
When he met our Lord in the wilderness, he crept upon his belly
with serpentine temptations. But our Lord, by His holiness, made
him eat dust! How often was he, in our Lord's lifetime, made to
feel that his conqueror had come! He cringed before Him and
implored that he might not be tormented before his time. When he
saw the Lord Jesus upon the Cross, having planned, as he thought,
to crush Him by death, he began to dread defeat. When he heard
Him cry, "It is finished," and felt His iron heel upon his head, he
knew, to his eternal horror, that he had only fashioned for Christ an
opportunity of redeeming mankind! What a mouthful of dust he
had to eat in that day! None more wretched in the universe than
Satan, whose works the bleeding Savior had destroyed!
It was a day of bitter defeat for the enemy when our Lord rose
from the dead. The old serpent had watched the pale corpse, but
when he saw it live and when the angel rolled away the stone and
Jesus, the Christ, came forth to die no more, I guarantee you the
serpent ate dust that day! And when the Apostles stood forth–men
whom Satan despised, humble fishermen–and the Holy Spirit came
down upon them, again it was fulfilled, "Dust shall you eat." When
the nations were converted, the idols were broken and the Truth of
God mightily prevailed, then did Satan remember the words, "Dust
shall you eat all the days of your life."
He has more humiliation yet to come. Arise, and preach Christ
and win souls and the great enemy of souls shall find his power
diminished, his name abhorred and again he shall lick the dust!
Forever, dust shall be the serpent's meat, for what he does gain
always disappoints him. He thought he had obtained a great
advantage when he won the woman to disobedience–but he had
made a rod for his own back since her Seed would become his
eternal antagonist! The Fall of man led up to the Incarnation and
the Atonement–and by these Satan is thrown down. By man has
come the Resurrection and so the defeat of Death, who was first-
born of Hell. The victory of the devil in Eden is blotted out by the
victory of Jesus at Calvary!
If Satan ever knows pleasure at all, it is of the foulest and most
unsatisfactory kind–dust is his meat. There is nothing satisfying in
the pleasures of rebellion. He remains a disappointed, restless
being. The most cunning error which he invents and sustains by
philosophy is no more than dust. His whole cause, for which he has
labored these thousands of years with a horrible perseverance–his
whole cause, I say–will dissolve into dust and will be blown away
as smoke! Still does he feed himself upon dust. Let those who are
servants of Satan know assuredly that as they are living in sin, they
will have to eat at their father's table and learn the emptiness of all
the pleasures of sin–and the worthlessness of all the treasures of
evil.
Everything that sin can bring you is just so much dust–foul
eating, insufficient, clogging, killing. Though you hoard up wealth,
gold is nothing but dust to a dying man. Though you gain all
earthly honor, it, too, dissolves in dust. This is the misery of that
great spirit who is called the Prince of Darkness, that he must eat
dust all his days! But what misery it must be to be only some poor
subject in that unhallowed kingdom and still to be doomed to the
same loathsome fare! "Dust shall you eat all the days of your life."
Note that right well–and may God deliver you from such feeding!
Let us, in the next place, think upon THE CEASELESS WAR
with which God threatens the serpent–"I will put enmity between
you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed." Satan
reckoned upon an easy conquest and had apparently gained it–but
he would find his Victim become his antagonist and at length his
conqueror. Satan can never know peace–he seeks rest and finds
none. When he talked to that woman with his guileful words of
flattery, he thought he had made a friend of her. The charming
creature in whom God had embodied the perfection of beauty–had
he not seduced her from obedience to the great King? Had he not
used her as the instrument to make her husband a traitor to his
God?
They were great friends–those two. She felt, in the moment that
she took the fruit, that she owed much to the serpent for giving her
the gentle hint whereby she was led to find the opening of her eyes
and the uplifting of her nature to be as God. How grievously was
she deceived! Nor was the serpent to find himself advantaged. The
league was broken and the Deceiver and his victim were at enmity.
God declares most solemnly, "I will put enmity between you and
the woman." God will see that there is no peace. There is a war to
be waged between Satan and the woman's Seed so long as the
world stands. Sometimes it looks as if there was going to be peace,
for the world flatters the Church and the Church seeks to conform
herself to the world.
As before Noah's flood the sons of God and the daughters of men
were joined in unhallowed alliance, so again and again there have
been attempts at truce. But peace there cannot be! Today Satan
tempts the ministers of Christ to soften down the Gospel, adapt it to
the age and make it popular. And he also labors to throw down the
division between the Church and the world. "Fill up the gulf!" he
says. "Cover it over like an old sewer and forget that it ever
existed!" Thus he speaks like the sinner in the Proverbs–"Cast in
your lot among us, let us all have one purse." But mark this, all you
that hear me–though all the pulpits should be captured and though
it should seem that the very elect were deceived, yet God will not
leave Himself without witnesses but will find, somewhere or other,
some chosen ones of the Seed of the woman to carry on the holy
war even to the end. Jehovah has laid His hand upon His Throne
and He has sworn to have war with evil from generation to
generation.
See how it was in Israel when the high priest of God, even Eli,
winked at sin when his own sons, as priests, committed iniquity at
the tabernacle door and all Israel was thus made to do evil. Would
not the lamp of Truth go out? Would not the worship of the Lord be
utterly abhorred? Ah, no–a little child was brought by his mother
into the tabernacle to be the servant of the Lord and in him the
Lord found a champion! In the night did God call Samuel and he
answered, "Here am I." This Samuel stood before the Lord and
gave forth prophecies which made both the ears of him that heard
them to tingle–and the Lord was again great in Israel.
Do not tremble for the ark of the Lord! God will not suffer the old
serpent to spread his slime over all things. Satan's throne shall
always be opposed. This enmity is to be kept up by God Himself.
He said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her Seed." See here the Church of God
announced in this verse! You have not only the Gospel here, but the
Church, also! Christ, the Seed of the woman, is the Head–and all
who are in Christ are His body–He and they are the one Seed. In
these words the Lord set up the Church which continues to this
day–a seed which is opposed to Satan and to evil–a seed which will
remain, by the power of the Spirit of God, waging constant war
with the powers of evil.
Do we belong to that seed? In this seed there is a deep-seated
hatred to everything that is false and evil. God will see that this
seed shall never yield to the power of evil, for still it shall stand
true, "I will put enmity between you and the woman." As long as
there is false doctrine, there shall be a protesting reformer. As long
as there is any form of wickedness extant, there shall be a witness
born from on high to contend with it. This seed is born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of the Spirit of God who
dwells in the true seed of the woman. And this seed shall be valiant
for the Lord of Hosts till the last enemy shall be destroyed.
Which side are you on, my Friend, this morning? I put the
question very pointedly to everyone here–Are you born from
above? That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit–and only this last is the true seed of the
woman.
VI. Sixthly, observe that we see in the text THE LIMITED
ACHIEVEMENT of the old serpent. What will he accomplish by
all his schemes? "You shall bruise His heel." That is all. This is
after the serpent's manner. Satan is "an adder in the path, that bites
the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." If he dares
not attack you openly, he will assail you from behind. He is as a
snake in the grass, biting at the heel of the traveler. The result of
Satan's 6,000 years of cunning and enmity is that he has bruised the
heel of his Victim. That bruised heel is painful enough.
Behold our Lord in His human Nature sorely bruised. He was
betrayed, bound, accused, buffeted, scourged, spit upon. He was
nailed to the Cross. He hung there in thirst and fever and darkness
and desertion. They pierced His hands and His feet. And last, they
cut his heart open and there flowed from it both blood and water.
Satan by death bruised the heel of the woman's Seed. It is a sad
business, but when our Lord thought of the Resurrection, the
salvation of His chosen and the conquest of the world, it seemed to
Him to be a light thing–"He endured the Cross, despising the
shame."
Behold the Seed of the woman as further comprehending all the
Lord's believing people! Satan has bruised their heel to the utmost
of his power. Through the long persecutions he has been assailing
the heel of the Church. Many of the saints the devil cast into prison
and others he caused to be tortured for Christ's sake. But their souls
were not conquered! He could only bruise their heel–their spirit
soared out of his reach. And you, today, when tempted and tried,
and cast down, may be comforted because your Head is not hurt,
for Jesus reigns in Heaven! The waters are black and they cover the
body, but our Head is above the billows and the body is safe.
The serpent's bruises stay in the heel and spread no further. The
suffering of the Church, however great, is but a light affliction, not
worthy to be compared with the far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. Thank God the enemy can only bruise your heel!
The cause of God and Truth in the world may, by Satan's subtle
power, be for a while sadly bruised as to the heel of its progress,
but it cannot be wounded in the heart of its Truth. The kingdom
advances painfully because of the bruised heel, but it fails not–even
when lame it takes the prey. Some doctrine which, possibly, may
have been stated in a questionable manner is more fully studied,
more carefully made known and so even the heel-bruise works for
good. Though the Church of God may be under a cloud for a time,
yet she will break out with all the greater splendor before long.
"You shall bruise His heel."
Make the best you can of it, Satan, it does not come to much! All
that you are at your greatest is but a heel-nibbler and nothing more.
You are not allowed to poison the heel, but only to bruise it.
Though the man of God walks limpingly a while and suffers where
the fangs have been, yet, leaning on his Beloved, he comes up from
the wilderness without fail–and forgetting the bruises of his heel–
he rejoices in the triumphs of his glorious Head!
VII. Now we come to the seventh lesson. We have marked the
limited triumph of Satan and we now observe HIS FINAL DOOM.
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed
and her Seed; it shall bruise your head." Here is the end of the great
conflict. Satan, who heads the powers of evil in the world, is to
fight it out with all his cunning and strength–and he is so far to
succeed as to bruise the heel of the champion with whom he fights–
but in the end the Seed of the woman is to bruise his head.
This was accomplished when the Lord Jesus died and by dying
honored the Law, put away sin, slew death and defeated Hell.
When the great Substitute drank the cup of wrath to its utmost
dregs for every believing soul. When He unhinged the gate of the
sepulcher and carried it away, as Samson carried the gates of Gaza–
post, and bar, and all. When He opened the doorways of Heaven
and led captivity captive, then indeed, the head of the dragon was
broken. What can Satan now do? Is not the accuser of the Brethren
cast down? He is still doing his little best in bitterness and malice,
but the Christ has crushed him! Yes, the very Christ who "was
despised and rejected of men." The Man of the thorn crown and the
marred visage. The Man of bleeding shoulders and pierced hands
and feet. The Man who was born of a virgin. The Seed of the
woman has broken the power of the enemy!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! He has cast down the Prince of Darkness
from his high places! Did He not, Himself, say, "I beheld Satan as
lightning fall from Heaven"? He has bruised the serpent's head!
This is done in all Believers, also, and shall be done yet more
effectually. Brothers and Sisters, in that day when the Holy Spirit
led us to trust in the Lord Jesus, we bruised the serpent's head!
Satan had been accustomed to command and we to obey–and thus
sin had dominion over us. But as soon as ever we believed in
Christ, that dominion was ended and Dagon fell before the ark of
the Lord! I see the serpent rise above me. This great python, with
opened jaws, gapes upon me as though he would swallow me up
whole. But I am not afraid! O serpent, I have bruised your head in
Christ Jesus my Lord, for I, too, am of the Seed of the woman! The
serpent cannot lift himself against the chosen Seed. What can he do
with a broken head? He knows that God has decreed that every
Believer shall triumph over him. It is written, "God shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly." Hallelujah!
Once again. This bruise upon the head of the Evil One is a mortal
stroke. If he had been bruised upon the tail, or upon the neck he
might have survived. But the Lord shall utterly slay the kingdom of
evil and crush out its power. Reigning evil shall cease and Divine
Grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life. There
shall be a new Heaven and a new earth wherein dwells
righteousness. Christ Himself, the Seed of the woman, shall come a
second time and He shall reign on earth among His ancients
gloriously. Then shall He ride forth prosperously, because of truth
and righteousness–and His right hand shall exalt His people. His
foot shall tread down their enemy. May you and I be among the
happy throng that shall salute the Seed of the woman in His Second
Advent! May we reign with Him in that day! By the Seed of the
woman is Paradise restored to us and all the mischief of the Fall is
undone, for He restores that which He took not away.
And now, my Hearer, which side are you on? Do any of you think
that you shall not surely die? You talk like your father–and you are
his children! Do any of you say God is a hard Governor? Has He
said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden"? You
are like your own father in this, also. And do you move in snaky,
cunning ways? Are you given to craft and policy? Dare you tell a
lie and then forge another to prop up the first? You are of your
father the devil, for you do his works! Are you opposed to God and
truth and righteousness? And do you cry out for what is called
"liberty," that is, licentiousness and permission to indulge your own
passions? Then you are on the evil side! Do you aspire to know
good and evil? Young man, would you go into evil haunts to see
vice and learn its ways? Do you long to see "life," as they call it?
Are you familiar with the sensual and the profane? Ah, then you are
listening to that old deceiver who allures you into his deadly nets! I
pray you, escape from his seductions!
Is it well with you? Do you look to Jesus, the Seed of the woman?
Are you trusting in Him to break the power of the enemy? Do you
wish the power of sin to be broken in yourself? Do you desire to
have the very head of it crushed to powder? Do you pine to be free
from sin and holy as God is holy? Are you trusting in Jesus to have
this same thing worked in you? Ah, then you are on the conquering
side! Victory shall be yours through the blood of the Lamb!
Thus have we found much Gospel in the wonderful sentence
pronounced upon that old serpent, the devil. But yet we have only
skimmed the surface. To the eternal God be glory, world without
end. Amen. PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE
SERMON–Genesis 3.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN
BOOK"–917, 470, 477.
Ge 3:15 • Christ the Conqueror of Satan
ERMON 1326
Christ The Conqueror Of Satan
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall
bruise His heel."
Genesis 3:15
THIS is the first Gospel sermon that was ever delivered upon the
surface of this earth! It was a memorable discourse, indeed, with
Jehovah, Himself, for the preacher and the whole human race and
the Prince of Darkness for the audience. It must be worthy of our
heartiest attention. Is it not remarkable that this great Gospel
promise should have been delivered so soon after the
transgression? As yet no sentence had been pronounced upon either
of the two human offenders, but the promise was given under the
form of a sentence pronounced upon the serpent. Not yet had the
woman been condemned to painful travail, or the man to
exhausting labor, or even the soil to the curse of thorn and thistle.
Truly "mercy rejoices against judgment." Before the Lord had
said, "Dust you are and unto dust you shall return," He was pleased
to say that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head!
Let us rejoice, then, in the swift mercy of God, which in the early
watches of the night of sin came with comfortable words to us.
These words were not directly spoken to Adam and Eve, but they
were directed distinctly to the serpent, himself, and that by way of
punishment to him for what he had done. It was a day of cruel
triumph to him–such joy as his dark mind is capable of had filled
him, for he had indulged his malice and gratified his spite.
He had, in the worst sense, destroyed a part of God's works. He
had introduced sin into the new world. He had stamped the human
race with his own image and gained new forces to promote
rebellion and to multiply transgression and, therefore, he felt that
sort of gladness which a fiend can know who bears a Hell within
himself. But now God comes in, takes up the quarrel personally,
and causes him to be disgraced on the very battlefield upon which
he had gained a temporary success. He tells the dragon that He will
undertake to deal with him–this quarrel shall not be between the
serpent and man, but between God and the serpent!
God said, in solemn words, "I will put enmity between you and
the woman, between your seed and her seed," and He promises that
there shall rise, in fullness of time a Champion, who, though He
suffers, shall smite in a vital part the power of evil and bruise the
serpent's head. This was all the more, it seems to me, a comfortable
message of mercy to Adam and Eve, because they would feel sure
that the tempter would be punished. Perhaps, however, by thus
obliquely giving the promise, the Lord meant to say, "Not for your
sakes do I do this, O fallen man and woman, nor for the sake of
your descendants, but for My own name and honor's sake, that it be
not profaned and blasphemed among the fallen spirits. I undertake
to repair the mischief which has been caused by the tempter, that
My name and My Glory may not be diminished among the
immortal spirits who look down upon the scene."
All this would be very humbling, but yet consolatory to our
parents if they thought of it, seeing that mercy given for God's sake
is always, to our troubled apprehension, more sure than any favor
which could be promised to us for our own sakes. Divine
Sovereignty and Glory afford us a stronger foundation of hope than
merit, even if merit can be supposed to exist.
Now we must note concerning this first Gospel sermon that on it
the earliest Believers stayed themselves. This was all that Adam
had by way of Revelation, and all that Abel had received. This one
lone star shone in Abel's sky. He looked up to it and he believed.
By its light he spelt out, "sacrifice," and therefore he brought of the
firstlings of his flock and laid them upon the altar. He proved, in his
own person how the seed of the serpent hated the seed of the
woman, for his brother slew him for his testimony.
Although Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied concerning
the Second Advent, yet he does not appear to have uttered anything
new concerning the first coming, so that, still this one promise
remained as man's sole word of hope. The torch which flamed
within the gates of Eden, just before man was driven forth, lit up
the world to all Believers until the Lord was pleased to give more
light and to renew and enlarge the Revelation of His Covenant,
when He spoke to His servant, Noah. Those hoary fathers who
lived before the flood rejoiced in the mysterious language of our
text and resting on it, they died in faith.
Nor, Brothers and Sisters, must you think it a slender Revelation,
for, if you attentively consider, it is wonderfully full of meaning. If
it had been on my heart to handle it doctrinally, this morning, I
think I could have shown you that it contains all the Gospel. There
lies within it, as an oak lies within an acorn, all the great Truths of
God which make up the Gospel of Christ. Observe that here is the
grand mystery of the Incarnation. Christ is that Seed of the woman
who is here spoken of and there is a hint, not darkly, given as to
how that Incarnation would be effected. Jesus was not born after
the ordinary manner of the sons of men.
Mary was overshadowed of the Holy Spirit and, "the Holy
Thing," which was born of her, was, as to His humanity, the Seed
of the woman. As it is written, "Behold a virgin shall conceive and
bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel." The promise
plainly teaches that the Deliverer would be born of a woman and,
carefully viewed, it also foreshadows the Divine method of the
Redeemer's conception and birth. So, also, is the doctrine of the
two seeds plainly taught here–"I will put enmity between you and
the woman, between your seed and her Seed." There was evidently
to be in the world a Seed of the woman on God's side against the
serpent, and a seed of the serpent that should always be upon the
evil side even as it is to this day.
The Church of God and the synagogue of Satan both exist. We
see an Abel and a Cain, an Isaac and an Ishmael, a Jacob and an
Esau. Those that are born after the flesh, being the children of their
father, the devil, for his works they do, but those that are born
again–being born after the Spirit, after the power of the life of
Christ–are thus in Christ Jesus the Seed of the woman and contend
earnestly against the dragon and his seed. Here, too, the great fact
of the sufferings of Christ is clearly foretold–"You shall bruise His
heel." Within the compass of those words we find the whole story
of our Lord's sorrows from Bethlehem to Calvary.
"He shall bruise your head"–there is the breaking of Satan's regal
power! There is the clearing away of sin. There is the destruction of
death by Resurrection. There is the leading of captivity captive in
the ascension. There is the victory of Truth in the world through the
descent of the Spirit. And there is the latter-day Glory in which
Satan shall be bound. And there is, lastly, the casting of the Evil
One and all his followers into the Lake of Fire. The conflict and the
conquest are both in the compass of these few fruitful words. They
may not have been fully understood by those who first heard them,
but to us they are now full of light.
The text, at first, looks like a flint, hard and cold. But sparks fly
from it plentifully, for hidden fires of infinite Love and Grace lie
concealed within. Over this promise of a gracious God we ought to
exceedingly rejoice. We do not know what our first parents
understood by it, but we may be certain that they gathered a great
amount of comfort from it. They must have understood that they
were not, then and there, to be destroyed, because the Lord had
spoken of a "Seed." They would argue that it must be necessary
that Eve should live if there should be a Seed from her.
They understood, too, that if that Seed was to overcome the
serpent and bruise his head, it must promise good to themselves.
They could not fail to see that there was some great, some
mysterious benefit to be conferred upon them by the victory which
their Seed would achieve over the instigator of their ruin. They
went on in faith upon this, and were comforted in travail and in
toil–and I doubt not both Adam and his wife, in the faith thereof–
entered into everlasting rest.
This morning I intend to handle this text in three ways. First, we
shall notice its facts. Secondly, we shall consider the experience
within the heart of each Believer which tallies to those facts. And
then, thirdly, the encouragement which the text and its connection,
as a whole, afford to us.
THE FACTS. The facts are four and I call your earnest attention
to them. The first is enmity was excited. The text begins, "I will put
enmity between you and the woman." They had been very friendly.
The woman and the serpent had conversed together. She thought, at
the time, that the serpent was her friend and she was so much his
friend that she took his advice in the teeth of God's precept and was
willing to believe bad things of the great Creator because this
wicked, crafty serpent insinuated the same!
Now, at the moment when God spoke, that friendship between the
woman and the serpent had already, in a measure, come to an end
for she had accused the serpent to God, and said, "The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat." So far, so good. The friendship of
sinners does not last long. They have already begun to quarrel and
now the Lord comes in and graciously takes advantage of the
quarrel which had commenced, and says, "I will carry this
disagreement a great deal further, I will put enmity between you
and the woman." Satan counted on man's descendants being his
confederates, but God would break up this covenant with Hell and
raise up a seed which should war against the Satanic power!
Thus we have, here, God's first declaration that He will set up a
rival kingdom to oppose the tyranny of sin and Satan. That He will
create in the hearts of a chosen seed an enmity against evil so that
they shall fight against it and, with many a struggle and pain, shall
overcome the Prince of Darkness. The Divine Spirit has abundantly
achieved this plan and purpose of the Lord, combating the fallen
angel by a glorious Man–making man to be Satan's foe and
conqueror. Henceforth the woman was to hate the Evil One and, I
do not doubt but what she did so. She had abundant cause for so
doing and as often as she thought of him, it would be with infinite
regret that she could have listened to his malicious and deceitful
talk.
The woman's seed has also evermore had enmity against the Evil
One. I mean not the carnal seed, for Paul tells us, "They which are
the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed." The carnal seed
of the man and the woman are not meant, but the spiritual seed,
even Christ Jesus and those who are in Him. Wherever you meet
these, they hate the serpent with a perfect hatred. We would, if we
could, destroy from our souls every work of Satan and out of this
poor afflicted world of ours we would root up every evil which he
has planted. That Seed of the woman, that glorious One–for He
speaks not of seeds as of many but of Seed that is One–you know
how He abhorred the devil and all his devices.
There was enmity between Christ and Satan, for He came to
destroy the works of the devil and to deliver those who are under
bondage to him. For that purpose was He born! For that purpose
did He live! For that purpose did He die! For that purpose He has
gone into Glory and, for that purpose, He will come again, that
everywhere He may find out His adversary and utterly destroy him
and his works from among the sons of men. This putting of the
enmity between the two seeds was the commencement of the plan
of mercy, the first act in the program of Grace. Of the woman's
Seed it was from now on said, "You love righteousness and hate
wickedness: therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the
oil of gladness above Your fellows."
Then comes the second prophecy, which has also turned into a
fact, namely the coming of the Champion. The Seed of the woman
by promise is to champion the cause and oppose the dragon. That
Seed is the Lord Jesus Christ! The Prophet Micah said, "But you,
Bethlehem Ephratah; though you are little among the thousands of
Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth unto Me that is to be
Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting. Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she
which travails has brought forth." To none other than the Babe
which was born in Bethlehem of the blessed Virgin can the words
of prophecy refer! She it was who did conceive and bear a Son, and
it is concerning her Son that we sing, "Unto us a Child is born, unto
us a Son is given: and His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace."
On the memorable night at Bethlehem, when angels sang in
Heaven, the Seed of the woman appeared! And as soon as ever He
saw the light the old serpent, the devil, entered into the heart of
Herod, if possible to slay Him, but the Father preserved Him and
suffered none to lay hands on Him. As soon as He publicly came
forward upon the stage of action, 30 years later, Satan met Him
face to face. You know the story of the temptation in the
wilderness, and how, there, the woman's Seed fought with him who
was a liar from the beginning. The devil assailed Him thrice with
all the artillery of flattery, malice, craft and falsehood–but the
peerless Champion stood unwounded and chased His foe from the
field.
Then our Lord set up His kingdom and called one and another
unto Him, and carried the war into the enemy's country. In many
places He cast out devils. He spoke to the wicked and unclean
spirits and said, "I charge you come out of him," and the demon
was expelled. Legions of devils flew before Him–they sought to
hide themselves in swine to escape from the terror of His Presence.
"Are You come to torment us before our time?" was their cry when
the wonder-working Christ dislodged them from the bodies which
they tormented!
Yes, and He made His own disciples mighty against the Evil One,
for in His name they cast out devils, till Jesus said, "I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from Heaven." Then there came a second personal
conflict, for I take it that Gethsemane's sorrows were, to a great
degree, caused by a personal assault of Satan, for our Master said,
"This is your hour, and the power of darkness." He said, also, "The
Prince of this world comes." What a struggle it was! Though Satan
had nothing in Christ, yet did he seek, if possible, to lead Him
away from completing His great Sacrifice. And there did our
Master sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground
in the agony which it cost Him to contend with the fiend!
Then it was that our Champion began the last fight of all and won
it to the bruising of the serpent's head. Nor did He end till He had
spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them
openly–
"Now is the hour of darkness past,
Christ has assumed
His reigning power.
Behold the great accuser cast
Down from his seat to reign no more."
Our glorious Lord continues the conflict in His seed. We preach
Christ Crucified and every sermon shakes the gates of Hell! We
bring sinners to Jesus by the Spirit's power and every convert is a
stone torn down from the wall of Satan's mighty castle! Yes, and
the day shall come when the Evil One shall be overcome
everywhere, and the words of John in Revelation shall be
fulfilled–"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he
was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
"And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, Now is come
salvation; and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power
of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
accused them before our God day and night." Thus did the Lord
God, in the words of our text, promise a Champion who should be
the Seed of the woman, between whom and Satan there should be
war forever and ever–that Champion has come, the Man-Child has
been born and though the dragon is angry with the woman and
makes war with the remnant of her seed which keep the testimony
of Jesus Christ, yet the battle is the Lord's, and the victory falls
unto Him whose name is Faithful and True, who in righteousness
does judge and make war.
The third fact which comes out in the text, though not quite in
that order, is that our Champion's heel should be bruised. Do you
need that I explain this? You know how all His life long His heel,
that is, His lower part, His Human Nature, was perpetually being
made to suffer. He carried our sicknesses and sorrows. But the
bruising came mainly when both in body and in mind His whole
Human Nature was made to agonize. When His soul was
exceedingly sorrowful even unto death and His enemies pierced
His hands and His feet–and He endured the shame and pain of
death by crucifixion.
Look at your Master and your King upon the Cross, all stained
with blood and dust! There was His heel most cruelly bruised!
When they take down that precious body and wrap it in fair white
linen and in spices, and lay it in Joseph's tomb, they weep as they
handle that casket in which the Deity had dwelt, for there, again,
Satan had bruised His heel. It was not merely that God had bruised
Him, "though it pleased the Father to bruise Him." But the devil
had let loose Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas, the Jews and the Romans, all
of them his tools, upon Him whom he knew to be the Christ, so that
He was bruised of the old serpent.
That is all, however! It is only His heel, not His head which is
bruised! For lo, the Champion rises again! The bruise was not
mortal nor continual. Though He dies, yet so brief is the interval in
which He slumbers in the tomb that His holy body does not see
corruption and He comes forth perfect and lovely in His manhood,
rising from His grave as from a refreshing sleep after a long day of
toil! Oh the triumph of that hour! As Jacob only halted on his thigh
when he overcame the Angel, so did Jesus only retain a scar on His
heel, and that He bears to the skies as His glory and beauty! Before
the Throne He looks like a lamb that has been slain, but in the
power of an endless life He lives unto God.
Then comes the fourth fact, namely, that while His heel was being
bruised, He was to bruise the serpent's head. The figure represents
the dragon as inflicting an injury upon the champion's heel, but at
the same moment the Champion, Himself, with that heel, crushes
the head of the serpent with fatal effect. By His sufferings, Christ
has overthrown Satan. By the heel that was bruised, He has trod
upon the head which devised the bruising–
"Lo, by the sons of Hell He dies;
But as He hangs 'twixt earth and skies,
He gives their prince a fatal blow,
And triumphs o'er the powers below."
Though Satan is not dead, my Brothers and Sisters–I was about to
say, would God He were–and though he is not converted, and never
will be, nor will the malice of his heart ever be driven from him,
yet Christ has so far broken his head that he has missed his mark
altogether!
He intended to make the human race the captives of his power,
but they are redeemed from his iron yoke. God has delivered many
of them and the day shall come when He will cleanse the whole
earth from the serpent's slimy trail, so that the entire world shall be
full of the praises of God. Satan thought that this world would be
the arena of his victory over God and good–instead of which it is
already the grandest theater of Divine wisdom, love, Grace, and
power! Even Heaven itself is not so resplendent with mercy as the
earth is, for here it is the Savior poured out His blood, which
cannot be said even of the courts of Paradise above!
Moreover Satan thought, no doubt, that when he had led our race
astray and brought death upon them, he had effectually marred the
Lord's work. He rejoiced that they would all pass under the cold
seal of death and that their bodies would rot in the sepulcher. Had
he not spoiled the handiwork of his great Lord? God may make
man as a curious creature with intertwisted veins and blood, nerves,
sinews and muscles, and He may put into his nostrils the breath of
life, but, "Ah," said Satan, "I have infused a poison into him which
will make him return to the dust from which he was taken."
But now, behold, our Champion, whose heel was bruised, has
risen from the dead and given us a pledge that all His followers
shall rise from the dead also! Thus is Satan foiled, for death shall
not retain a bone, nor a piece of a bone, of one of those who
belonged to the woman's seed! At the trump of the archangel, from
the earth and from the sea they shall arise and this shall be their
shout, "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your
victory?" Satan, knowing this, feels already that by the
Resurrection, his head is broken. Glory be to the Christ of God for
this! In multitudes of other ways the devil has been vanquished by
our Lord Jesus and so shall he ever be till he shall be cast into the
Lake of Fire.
II. Let us now view OUR EXPERIENCE AS IT TALLIES WITH
THESE FACTS. Now, Brothers and Sisters, we were by nature, as
many of us as have been saved, the heirs of wrath even as others. It
does not matter how godly our parents were–the first birth brought
us no spiritual life for the promise is not to them which are born of
blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man–but only to
those who are born of God. "That which is born of the flesh is
flesh." You cannot make it anything else and there it abides–the
flesh, or carnal mind, abides in death. "It is not reconciled to God,
neither, indeed, can be."
He who is born into this world but once, and knows nothing of
the new birth, must place himself among the seed of the serpent,
for only by regeneration can we know ourselves to be the true seed.
How does God deal with us who are His called and chosen ones?
He means to save us, and how does He work to that end? The first
thing He does is, He comes to us in mercy and puts enmity between
us and the serpent. That is the very first work of Grace. There was
peace between us and Satan once–when he tempted, we yielded–
whatever he taught us we believed. We were his willing slaves.
But perhaps you, my Brethren, can remember when first of all
you begin to feel uneasy and dissatisfied. The world's pleasures no
longer pleased you. All the juice seemed to have been taken out of
the apple and you had nothing left but the hard core which you
could not feed upon at all. Then you suddenly perceived that you
were living in sin and you were miserable about it! And though you
could not get rid of sin, yet you hated it and sighed over it. And you
cried and groaned. In your heart of hearts you remained no longer
on the side of evil, for you began to cry, "O wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
You were already, from of old, in the Covenant of Grace ordained
to be the woman's seed–and now the decree began to manifest
itself in life bestowed upon you and working in you. The Lord, in
infinite mercy, dropped the Divine Life into your soul. You did not
know it, but there it was, a spark of the celestial fire, the living and
incorruptible seed which abides forever. You began to hate sin and
you groaned under it as under a "tilling yoke." More and more it
burdened you, you could not bear it, you hated the very thought of
it! So it was with you–is it so now? Is there still enmity between
you and the serpent? Indeed, you are more and more the sworn
enemies of evil and you willingly acknowledge it!
Then came the Champion–that is to say, "Christ was formed in
you the hope of glory." You heard of Him and you understood the
truth about Him. And it seemed a wonderful thing that He should
be your Substitute and stand in your place and bear your sin and all
its curse and punishment. It seemed unbelievable that He should
give His righteousness, yes, and His very self to you that you might
be saved! Ah, then you saw how sin could be overthrown, did you
not? As soon as your heart understood Christ, then you saw that
what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
Christ was able to accomplish–and that the power of sin and Satan
under which you had been in bondage and which you now loathed–
could and would be broken and destroyed because Christ had come
into the world to overcome it.
Next, do you remember how you were led to see the bruising of
Christ's heel and to stand in wonder and observe what the enmity
of the serpent had worked in Him? Did you not begin to feel the
bruised heel, yourself? Did not sin torment you? Did not the very
thought of it vex you? Did not your own heart become a plague to
you? Did not Satan begin to tempt you? Did he not inject
blasphemous thoughts and urge you on to desperate measures? Did
he not teach you to doubt the existence of God and the mercy of
God, and the possibility of your salvation, and so on? This was his
nibbling at your heel!
He is still at his old tricks. He worries whom he can't devour with
a malicious joy. Did not your worldly friends begin to annoy you?
Did they not give you the cold shoulder because they saw
something about you so strange and foreign to their tastes? Did
they not impute your conduct to fanaticism, pride, obstinacy,
bigotry and the like? Ah, this persecution is the serpent's seed
beginning to discover the woman's seed and to carry on the old
war! What does Paul say? "But as then he that was born after the
flesh persecuted Him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is
now." True godliness is an unnatural and strange thing to them and
they cannot stand it! Though there are no stakes in Smithfield, nor
racks in the Tower, yet the enmity of the human heart towards
Christ and His seed is just the same, and very often shows itself in
"trials of cruel mocking" which to tender hearts are very hard to
bear.
Well, this is your heel being bruised in sympathy with the
bruising of the heel of the glorious Seed of the woman! But,
Brothers and Sisters, do you know something of the other fact,
namely, that we conquer, for the serpent's head is broken in us?
How say you? Is not the power and dominion of sin broken in you?
Do you not feel that you cannot sin because you are born of God?
Isn't it so that some sins which were masters of you, once, do not
trouble you, now? I have known a man guilty of profane swearing,
but from the moment of his conversion he has never had any
difficulty in the matter. We have known a man snatched from
drunkenness and the cure, by Divine Grace, has been very
wonderful and complete.
We have known persons delivered from unclean living and they
have at once become chaste and pure because Christ has smitten
the old dragon such blows that he could not have power over them
in that respect. The chosen seed will sin and mourn it, but they are
not slaves to sin–their heart goes not after it. They have to say,
sometimes, "the thing I would not, that I do," but they are wretched
when it is so. They consent with their heart to the Law of God, that
it is good, and they sigh and cry that they may be helped to obey it,
for they are no longer under the slavery of sin–the serpent's
reigning power and dominion is broken in them.
It is broken, next, in this way, that the guilt of sin is gone. The
great power of the serpent lies in unpardoned sin. He cries, "I have
made you guilty! I brought you under the curse." "No," we say,
"we are delivered from the curse and are now blessed, for it is
written, 'Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, and
whose sin is covered.' We are no longer guilty, for who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Since Christ has justified,
who is he that condemns?" Here is a swinging blow for the old
dragon's head, from such he will never recover!
Oftentimes the Lord also grants us to know what it is to overcome
temptation and so to break the head of the fiend. Satan allures us
with many baits. He has studied our points well. He knows the
weakness of the flesh, but many and many a time, blessed be God,
we have foiled him completely to his eternal shame! The devil
must have felt himself mean that day when he tried to overthrow
Job. He dragged him down to a dunghill, robbed him of everything,
covered him with sores and yet could not make him yield!
Job conquered when he cried, "Though He slay me, yet will I
trust in Him." A feeble man had vanquished a devil who could raise
the wind and blow down a house! He was allowed to destroy a
family who were feasting in it. Devil as he is, and crowned Prince
of the power of the air, yet the poor bereaved Patriarch, sitting on
the dunghill and covered with sores, being one of the woman's seed
and through the strength of the inner life won the victory over
him!–
"You Sons of God oppose his rage,
Resist, and he'll be gone!
Thus did our dearest Lord engage
Moreover, dear Brothers and Sisters, we have this hope that the
very stain of sin in us will be destroyed. The day will come when
we shall be without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing–and we shall
stand before the Throne of God, having suffered no injury whatever
from the Fall and from all the machinations of Satan, for, "they are
without fault before the Throne of God."
What triumph that will be! "The Lord will tread Satan under your
feet shortly." When He has made you perfect and free from all sin,
as He will do, you will have bruised the serpent's head, indeed!
And your resurrection, too, when Satan shall see you come up from
the grave like one that has been perfumed in a bath of spices–when
he shall see you arise in the image of Christ, with the same body
which was sown in corruption and weakness raised in incorruption
and power–then will he feel an infinite chagrin and know that his
head is bruised by the woman's Seed!
I ought to add that every time any one of us is made useful in
saving souls we do, as it were, repeat the bruising of the serpent's
head. When you go, dear Sister, among those poor children and
pick them up from the gutters, where they are Satan's prey–where
he finds the raw material for thieves and criminals–and when,
through your means, by the Grace of God, the little wanderers
become children of the living God, then you, in your measure
bruise the old serpent's head! I pray you do not spare him!
When we, by preaching the Gospel, turn sinners from the error of
their ways, so that they escape from the power of darkness, again
we bruise the serpent's head! Whenever, in any shape or form, you
are blessed to the aiding of the cause of truth and righteousness in
the world, you, too, who were once beneath his power and even
now have sometimes to suffer from his nibbling at your heel, you
tread upon his head! In all deliverances and victories you overcome
and prove the promise true–"You shall tread upon the lion and
adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet.
Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I
will set him on high, because he has known My name." III. Let us
speak awhile upon THE ENCOURAGEMENT which our text and
the context yields to us, for it seems to me,to abound. I want you,
Brethren, to exercise faith in the promise and be comforted. The
text evidently encouraged Adam very much. I do not think we have
attached enough importance to the conduct of Adam after the Lord
had spoken to him. Notice the simple but conclusive proof which
he gave of his faith. Sometimes an action may be very small and
unimportant, and yet, as a straw shows which way the wind blows,
it may display at once, if it is thought over, the whole state of the
man's mind.
Adam acted in faith upon what God said, for we read, "And
Adam called his wife's name Eve (or Life) because she was the
mother of all living" (Gen 3:20). She was not a mother at all, but as
the life was to come through her by virtue of the promised Seed,
Adam marks his full conviction of the truth of the promise, though
at the time, the woman had borne no children! There stood Adam,
fresh from the awful Presence of God, what more could He say? He
might have said with the Prophet, "My flesh trembles for the fear
of You," but even then he turns round to his fellow culprit as she
stands there trembling, too, and he calls her Eve, mother of the life
that is yet to be!
It was grandly spoken by father Adam! It makes him rise in our
esteem. Had he been left to himself, he would have murmured, or
at least despaired, but no, his faith in the new promise gave him
hope! He uttered no word of repining against the condemnation to
till with toil the unthankful ground, nor on Eve's part was there a
word of repining over the appointed sorrows of motherhood–they
each accepted the well-deserved sentence with the silence which
denotes the perfection of their resignation–their only word is full of
simple faith. There was no child on whom to set their hopes, nor
would the true Seed be born for many an age. Still Eve is to be the
mother of all living and Adam calls her so.
Exercise like faith, my Brothers and Sisters, on the far wider
Revelation which God has given to you and always extract the
utmost comfort from it! Make a point, whenever you receive a
promise from God, to get all you can out of it. If you carry out that
rule, it is wonderful what comfort you will gain! Some go on the
principle of getting as little as possible out of God's Word. I believe
that such a plan is the proper way with a man's word–always
understand it at the minimum, because that is what he means–but
God's Word is to be understood at the maximum, for He will do
exceedingly abundantly above what you ask or even think!
Notice by way of further encouragement that we may regard our
reception of Christ's righteousness as an installment of the final
overthrow of the devil. The 21 st verse says, "Unto Adam, also, and
to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skinsand clothed them."
A very condescending, thoughtful and instructive deed of Divine
Love! God heard what Adam said to his wife, and so He comes and
gives Him the type of the perfect righteousness, which is the
Believer's portion–He covered him with lasting raiment. No more
fig leaves, which were a mere mockery, but a close-fitting garment
which had been procured through the death of a victim.
The Lord brings that and puts it on him and Adam could no more
say, "I am naked." How could he, for God had clothed him! Now,
Beloved, let us take out of the promise that is given us concerning
our Lord's conquest over the devil this one item and rejoice in it!
Christ has delivered us from the power of the serpent, who opened
our eyes and told us we were naked, by covering us from head to
foot with a righteousness which adorns and protects us so that we