season with this Sunday as we celebrate it in
our church. And since we have five Sundays during
this season of the year, we're going to be following
a particular theme that will take us five weeks.
It will be the study of Christmas in the Pentateuch,
looking at each of the five books of Moses and
finding there Something to deal with the Christmas
theme. Today we do so in the book of Genesis.
For after all, the first promise of Christmas
was not when the angel announced his birth to
the shepherds, nor when Gabriel foretold to Mary
that she was chosen by God to bear the Savior.
The first promise of Christmas was neither when
Micah, the prophet of old, To find the first
promise of Christmas, we need to go back to the
book of beginnings, the book of Genesis. And
I invite you to do that with me as we turn to
Genesis chapter 3. Here in these chapters of
Genesis is recorded, a world untainted by sin,
man and woman created in the image of God, innocent
and in fellowship with their Creator. Here we
find a world in which all was perfect, where
man ruled by God's appointment, and where everything
was provided. and only one thing was forbidden.
Here we find recorded the coming of the tempter,
the temptation to disbelieve and to disobey the
Creator. Here we find the choice made to eat
the forbidden fruit. Here we find the fall from
the glory of innocence, to the shame of guilt,
the loss of fellowship with the Creator, and
the entrance of death as the penalty of sin.
Beginning in the third chapter of Genesis and
the eighth verse, we have an account of the confrontation
of the fallen creatures by the Holy Creator in
the garden called Eden. The language does suggest,
at least, that God appeared in human form to
His creatures, that this was a theophany, and
that it was not unusual, for it was God's custom,
apparently, to come in the cool of the day and
to meet with them. The three participants in
the fall are here in the garden. God begins by
asking questions. Indeed, that's all that God
does at first, one question after another. We
need to understand that the questions were not
occasioned by God's ignorance, as though God
didn't already know the answers to the questions
He posed. But the questions were intended to
bring an acknowledgment from these creatures.
regarding their disobedience. The text that is
before us in this chapter indicates a perpetual
struggle that would take place from that point
on between the offspring of the snake, or Satan,
and the offspring of Eve. A struggle that would
conclude only in the far distant by an act of
suffering. That brings us to the 15th verse of
this chapter, where we find what is called the
Prot Evangelium, which means the first promise
of the good news about a Redeemer. God, in verse
15, is speaking to the snake. You will notice
He addresses the snake, or Satan. Then He addresses
the woman, in verse 16. And in verse 17, He addresses
Adam. In speaking to the snake, he says, 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. And so we find the first promise
of the Redeemer. Perhaps you have been to plays.
and waited with anticipation and excitement for
the curtain to be raised. As you sat there, there
was some kind of prelude perhaps, where the minutes
ticked away until the hour when it was to begin.
And the first thing that happened was that the
curtain was lifted. And then the drama began
to unfold. What we have in Genesis 3 .15 is the
beginning of the lifting of the curtain. The
drama of the ages begins at this point to unfold,
and it unfolds throughout the entire Word of
God. But here the curtain on the drama of redemption
begins to raise so that we can get a glimpse,
however brief, of what is going to take place
in the drama to come. From here... and other
places in the Scriptures, we understand this
truth, that God promised salvation to the race
of Adam. You say, well, that's a very ordinary
statement. Not at all. In fact, it is a very
provocative statement. It is even a radical statement.
God promised salvation to the race of Adam. Think
about it with me. The statement begins with the
word God. Nothing is more out of place or radical
in our world today than those three letters put
in that order. God, the infinite, personal, supreme
being, the creator of all. It is a radical statement
to begin any statement with the word God in our
world. God promised. Here we're saying that God
took an action. That God spoke. That God did
something. God is not simply a force. He is not
simply a being who began it all and then went
off somewhere else to look after other things.
But God is a God who is involved with the human
race and this world in which we live. God promised
salvation. Now there is an irritating word to
the world. For the word salvation implies that
man needs something. That man is incomplete.
Indeed, that man is helpless and cannot do something
for himself. The Bible says God promised salvation.
God promised a rescue. God promised to do something
that man could not do for himself. God promised
salvation to the race of Adam. That phrase indicates
the common ancestry of all of us, that we are
all the descendants of one couple whose sinful
nature and condemnation we have also inherited.
The race of Adam. Adam who is a fantasy and a
legend to the world, a figment of imagination
of religious people, an idea to the world, but
an Adam whom the Bible declares to have been
a real, literal, historical person. God promised
salvation to the race of Adam. And we see that
salvation beginning to unfold as early as Genesis
3, verse 15. There are a couple of facts about
this salvation that we want to notice this morning.
First of all, the salvation that God promised
would come through the seed. You will notice
that there are two seeds that are spoken of in
this verse. There is your seed, God speaking
to the serpent. and her seed. Well, there's only
one her there. That was Eve. There are two seeds
that are spoken of here, the serpent's seed and
the woman's seed. God says, I will put enmity
between you. The word enmity is related to our
word enemy. God says there's going to be an enemy
relationship. There is going to be hostility
between the seeds of the snake, the seed of the
woman. Now that means much more than the fact
that most of us hate snakes. There are a few
people who love reptiles. They are beyond my
understanding. I do not understand them. I don't
know what makes them tick. There is only one
good snake and you know what kind that is. But
this verse means far more than the fact that
human beings and snakes are not going to very
often live on the same turf in friendly terms.
There is a spiritual meaning behind this. The
seed of the serpent who is indwelt here by Satan
refers to the family of the devil. That is fallen
humanity. You see, when Adam fell, the allegiance,
the identity of mankind was transferred by this
disobedience from him as the head of the human
race to Satan, who is now the spiritual head
of fallen humanity. When God speaks here about
the seed of the serpent, it's more than baby
snakes. He is talking about fallen humanity that
would come from this generation on and be spiritually
now, spiritually related to the serpent, the
deceiver, to Satan. The woman seed is not identified
here clearly. But obviously it refers to a family,
and it refers to a person. God identifies the
person as He. He shall bruise. You shall bruise
Him on the heel. We're going to talk about who
this seed is. as we progress. Let me say a word
about this hostility between the two families.
The Bible indicates that this hostility, this
sense of warfare and enemy relationship is going
to intensify as the age comes to its close. I
believe that is indicated to us in Revelation
chapter 12 in a text we don't have time to look
at this morning. but I invite you to examine
it on your own. And you will find there that
in the last days there will be an intense hatred
between the two families that are suggested here
in Genesis 3 .15. Now, who is this seed of the
woman? Well, I said it refers to a family, and
I believe it does. It is the family of the righteous.
Those who become rightly related to God. But
it focuses even more on one particular person.
I believe we have a clue to the answer to that
in Galatians, the New Testament, chapter 4 and
verse 4. We're speaking from God's perspective.
It says, when the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth His Son. What are the next words?
Born of a what? Born of a woman. Now who is that?
Well, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with
me to the Gospel of Luke and look in chapter
1 of this Gospel. We have the identity of the
seed of the woman, the one born of a woman. As
Galatians 4 .4 says it, the identity is revealed
here in Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 30,
where the angel Gabriel speaks to Mary and says,
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God, and behold, you will conceive in your
womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
The name Jesus in the Greek or Joshua or Jehoshua
in the Hebrew means Jehovah saves. You will name
him the Lord saves, this one who is about to
be conceived in your womb and who is to be born
of you. You say, well, how do you really know
that this is the fulfillment? of what was said
in Genesis 3 .15. Well, I want you to turn over
a page or two to Luke chapter 3 and notice the
ancestral line of Jesus Christ that is given
to us in this chapter. It begins in verse 23
of Luke chapter 3, and it says, Jesus himself
was about 30 years of age, being supposedly the
son of Joseph. Now, we understand why Luke phrases
it that way. He says, the son of Eli, the son
of Mahat, and he goes on through a whole lineage.
And notice the very last verse in the chapter,
the son of Enoch, the son of Seth, the son of
Adam, the son of God. And so we find here the
lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ traced all of
the way back to Adam and to Eve. Now what is
the significance of that? It is just this, that
he thus is proven by lineage, by genealogy, to
be the fulfillment of the promise to Adam and
Eve. that there would come from the seed of the
woman one who would redeem them. The Lord Jesus
Christ is that seed of the woman. Now did Satan
understand what God was saying to him in the
garden that day? Indeed, he did. He understood
what God was saying, and it was his attempt.
from that point on, over and over again, to cut
off the possibility of this seed being born.
I believe that we see it in what happened in
those days before the flood, when the sons of
God and the daughters of men intermarried. I've
shared with you before my understanding of what
that text is saying, that there was the interjection,
of demonic seed into the human family by the
intermarriage of fallen angels with women. You
say, well, how can that be? What does that mean?
Well, it raises a lot of questions we don't have
time to deal with this morning. We've talked
about it before. But I believe that the result
of that intermarriage of fallen angels and women
was producing a pollution of the human race which
Satan intended to be a block to the possibility
of the seed of the woman being born as the Redeemer.
And that is why God, among other reasons, felt
it was absolutely necessary to destroy all of
the human race, save Noah and his family at that
occasion. There needed to be a new beginning,
a new beginning of the human race, and that's
what happened with Noah and his family. We see
Satan attempting to cut off the possibility of
the seed being born when the sons of Israel were
nearly destroyed in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh
attempted to destroy the nation, we see it again
when Haman, was attempting to destroy all the
Jews in Persia. We see it in the New Testament
record when Herod tried to kill all the baby
boys in Bethlehem. Satan, you see, was behind
the scenes there attempting to cut off the seed
of the woman. But he was born. His life was preserved
in that occasion, as you know the story. And
I think we see Satan's attempt yet once again
in the premature murder of Christ by the people
of Nazareth. when they were going to push him
over the hill for what they thought was blasphemy
in his reading of the Scriptures in the synagogue.
And we see it yet again, and not once but twice,
there was a storm on the Sea of Galilee that
was of supernatural origin that threatened to
sink the boat with Jesus and the disciples. Again
and again, Satan sought to cut off the birth
of this seed of the woman. And when he couldn't
prevent it, he sought to kill the seed of the
woman. prematurely, so that this promise could
not be fulfilled. But he failed. And salvation
was provided. It could only be provided through
the seed of the woman. And it seems clear from
the Scriptures that Adam and Eve both believed
what God said to them at this point. They understood
enough of God's promise here that they believed
God. and were saved. They were forgiven of their
disobedience and transgression. And as a result
of that, God slew an animal, as you know, and
used the skin of that animal to give them clothing,
not merely to cover their physical nakedness,
but symbolically to give them covering in His
sight. Adam and Eve can be met in heaven, I believe.
Our great, great, great, great times, who knows
how many grandparents believed God's promise
regarding the seed of the woman and are today
in heaven. The salvation that God promised for
the race of Adam had to come through the seed
of the woman. Thus it was necessary for Jesus
to be born. You say, well, couldn't God have
created a body for Jesus and He'd simply come
and indwelt that body without going through all
of this Bethlehem thing? Well, God could have
done it that way. Jesus could have come that
way, but He could not have been our Savior. He
certainly could have come into the world through
that means, God creating a special body for Him
But he could not be qualified to fulfill the
promise of Genesis 3 .15. He had to be born the
seed of the woman. And he was born of the Virgin
Mary and fulfilled that qualification. A true
physical descendant of Adam and Eve. And the
genealogy traces him all the way back. to Adam,
the fulfillment of God's promise. So salvation
would come through the seed, but we learn something
else in Genesis chapter 3, to go back there now,
and that is that salvation would come through
suffering. Salvation would come through suffering.
Suffering is the result of sin. question the
existence of God because there is suffering in
the world. They especially question the suffering
of what we call innocent people. And it is difficult
for us to see the suffering of children. They're
starving to death. Or the suffering of innocent
civilians caught in a cruel war. That is not
easy to understand. But we can understand this,
that every incident of suffering in the history
of the world has been occasioned because of the
disobedience of Grandfather Adam. Suffering,
you see, is the result of sin. It is a prelude
to sin's ultimate penalty, which is death. Suffering
exists. In the animal kingdom, suffering exists
in the human kingdom because of sin. God said
that childbirth would be accompanied by travail,
by pain, and that is true. And there's also the
pain of the husband who has to stand there and
watch and do the counting and the coaching. I
always told my wife her suffering was nothing
like what I endured. No, I didn't tell her quite
that way. In fact, I didn't even tell her that.
There is suffering in the birth of a child. There
is suffering in the toil of work. God said to
Adam, from now on you are going to toil at the
ground. Thorns and thistles are going to come
up along with the seed you're going to sow. It's
with the sweat of your brow that you're going
to have food from now. There is suffering coming,
Adam, because of your disobedience. Have you
ever considered the fact that God drove Adam
and Eve out of the garden, out of his own mercy?
You know, shortly after this, God drove them
out of the garden. and put a prevention there,
an angel with a sword, to prevent them coming
back into the Garden of Eden. Some people interpret
that as a rather cruel thing for God to do. No,
no, it was an act of mercy, and I'll tell you
why. Because suffering has now entered the human
race, and God doesn't want man to eat of the
tree of life and live forever now. You see, as
much as death is the penalty of sin, you can
also understand it to be an act of mercy in ceasing
physical suffering in the world. God did not
want man to be in the garden where he had access
to that tree and would live in his physical body
forever because it was a body that was now going
to degenerate and be affected by sin and by suffering.
In a very literal sense, death was an act of
mercy. Physical death was an act of mercy on
the part of God toward his fallen, suffering
creature. Sin brings suffering. Sin brings death
as a penalty. And because of that, sin could
only be broken and conquered and forgiven. Salvation
could only come through suffering and death.
Regarding the seed, you will notice that God
says, He shall bruise you on the head, you shall
bruise him on the heel. Let's take the last statement
first. You, Satan, the serpent, you shall bruise
him on the heel. Speaking of the suffering of
the seed of the woman at the hands of the serpent.
He is talking here about the suffering of the
cross, the suffering that the seed of the woman
would endure because of sin. But he says, he
shall bruise you on the head. There's a whole
lot of difference between those two wounds. The
one is painful. The other is fatal. And God says
to the serpent, He, the seed of the woman, this
race of people that you have now conquered and
who must give allegiance to you, Satan, nonetheless
there will come a seed of the woman who will
crush your head, who will destroy you. Again,
speaking of the suffering and death of Jesus
Christ, through which... Satan would be disarmed
and the works of the devil would be destroyed.
You say, what has this got to do with Christmas?
Well, it's got a lot to do with Christmas. It's
the reason for it in the first place. The seed
had to come in this miraculous way in order for
the seed to suffer, to be bruised on the heel,
so that in turn he might Crush the head of the
serpent. And it's interesting, we see suffering
suggested even in the events around the birth
of Christ. You remember when the wise men came
from the east, they brought three gifts, and
one of those gifts was the gift of myrrh. An
odd gift, a very expensive gift, a valuable gift,
but an odd gift to give a baby because it was
used in that day in embalming. And so even in
the gift that was given to Jesus celebrating
his birth, there was the suggestion of death
that was coming. We see it too when Mary and
Joseph brought the baby into the temple to be
dedicated. And Simeon, this old man who has waited
for the salvation of God and who has been promised
by God that he would not die until his eyes had
seen. The salvation that God had promised. And
he meets them there. And instantly he recognizes
the uniqueness of this baby. And he takes the
baby in his arms and begins to sing to God and
to praise God. He says, now I'm ready to die.
But he also said to Mary, as he began to depart
from them, and a sword shall pierce your soul
too. It says that Mary stored these things up
in her heart. Later she told them to Luke, and
he recorded them for us by the inspiration of
God's Spirit. Undoubtedly, Mary was wondering,
what does that mean, a sword will pierce my soul?
Of course, we understand that as she stood there
at the cross, beheld her son crucified, that
a sword of indescribable suffering pierced her
soul. By the cruel suffering and sacrificial
death of the seed of the woman, he provided salvation
and deliverance for Adam's lost race. And just
as that animal's skin, an animal who had to suffer
and die, whose blood had to be shed as an atonement
for Adam and Eve, and whose skin was then taken
as a covering for their shame, just as that skin
covered their shame, so our shame of our sin
is removed by the sacrifice of the seed and the
covering we receive of His righteousness. so
that we can be in fellowship with God. The first
promise of Christmas is found hidden in this
verse, where we have the very heart of the Christmas
story. The drama will unfold. There are many
events and people who must yet take their part
on the stage of history after this. But here
in Genesis 3 verse 15 is the first promise of
the Redeemer, the coming of the Savior to save
humanity. Here begins a scarlet thread that runs
throughout the Scriptures leading to the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a wonderful
story. It's the story of His love. And it's a
story that you are a part of because he came
for your sake. As the angel said, for unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior
who is Christ the Lord. Have you understood that?
Have you believed that? That unto you a Savior
is born? You say, oh, I'm a religious person.
I have belonged to church ever since I was born.
I was sprinkled in church. I was confirmed. I
went through all of the things we're supposed
to do as babies. You know what? That doesn't
save us. That doesn't make us right with God.
It's not necessarily wrong to do those things.
I'm not knocking them, but we mustn't understand
that those things somehow convey salvation to
us. Salvation comes when we receive and believe
the promise of God regarding His Son, Jesus Christ.
I read a story that tickled me just a few days
ago. It was about a Baptist evangelist down in
the South who was preaching away, and he got
his message mixed up. He was exhorting the crowd
to become Baptists. And there was one dear lady
who was there who was a Methodist. And she let
him know that she was a Methodist. And he said,
Lady, how come you're a Methodist? And she said,
Well, I suppose it was because my grandfather
was a Methodist and my father was a Methodist.
And that irritated this Baptist evangelist. So
he said, Well, Lady, what would you be if I told
you that your grandfather was a fool and your
father was a fool? She said, then I suppose I'd
be a Baptist. But listen, the point isn't whether
we're Baptists or we're Methodists or whatever
we wear as our title. The important thing is
that we understand that God has given His Son,
the seed of the woman, to be our Redeemer. With
our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I wonder
if there's someone here who would today receive
God's wonderful Christmas gift, the Lord Jesus
Christ, a gift that brings with him forgiveness
of sins and eternal life. As many as received
him, to them he gave the right to become the
children of God. You see, dear friend, you are
in one family or the other. One family or the
other, either in Satan's family or God's family.
Today you can be born into God's family by trusting
his promise regarding Jesus as your sin sacrifice.
Right where you're seated, will you do that?
Acknowledge to God your sin and receive him.
Placing your faith alone in Christ. It's not
the words that you say in your hearts. It's the
attitude of faith. It's the open door. It's the
repentance, the turning away from what you've
trusted in the past to trust in him alone. If
that's your heart decision today, would you indicate
so by lifting your hand and saying, Pastor, today
I understand God's promise given back there in
the Garden of Eden and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Today I am trusting him alone as my Savior. Would
you lift your hand indicating that to be your
decision, your faith and your trust today? The
prayer of your heart. Is there someone? Let's
stand together, please. With our heads bowed,
let's sing that chorus that we sang just before
the message, For God so loved the world. For
God so loved the world, He gave His only Son.
To die on Calvary's tree. From sin to set me
free. Someday he's coming back. What glory that
will be. Wonderful his love to me. Father, how
glad we are that the son that you sent was also
the seed of the woman who was promised as our
Redeemer. And we thank you for giving your son
on the cross of Calvary. We thank you that he
accepted the bruise on the heel, as it were,
the suffering, the cruel suffering of the cross.
so that he might crush the head of Satan and
be the Savior for the lost race of Adam. Thank
you for the promise of the Redeemer. Lord, this
Christmas season, may our hearts be filled with
the joy of what the season is really, truly,
actually all about. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
God bless you.