to you. Genesis 3, 14 through 19, hear the word of the living Lord. 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. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children. Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. Then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In toil, you will eat of it. All the days of your life, both thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you. And you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Almighty God and merciful Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we ask now for your Holy Spirit to strengthen us to receive what you have in Your holy and written revealed Word. Lord, as we consider how short we have fallen, as we consider the glory and the presence and the paradise that was lost, and the consequences of sin, may none of us leave unchanged. May none of us leave here with anything less than a sincere treasuring and trust in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the only King, the only Savior, the only Messiah. We ask God that by your Spirit you might bring us low if we need to be brought low. In humiliation to be those who repent quickly of our sins, confess our sins. Maybe some here today for the first time coming face to face with who you are. God, as we consider Christmas among curses, be glorified and pleased. And may your people be edified and refreshed and encouraged. May sinners be convicted and brought to repentance. In all this we ask and pray in the precious and powerful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all God's people said. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters in Christ, we consider today, in tuning with our Genesis sermon series, the curses. As we mentioned last week, curses on Christmas. Very fitting. Some people come to church wanting a happy-go-lucky sermon. You come to Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church and we talk about curses on Christmas. Merry Christmas. But the truth is, the more that I have thought through how fitting it is that Genesis 3.14-19 would be sovereignly, this was not planned out as if we decided we're going to land it right here. That's not how it worked out. When the pastoral assistants and Trevor and I looked over the schedule and laid out the sermon series for Genesis 1, 2, and 3, we simply wanted to take the written Word of God and make it digestible so that as we went through, we actually grasped the true meaning of every passage of Scripture. We weren't skipping over things. We weren't disconnecting portions of Scripture. And as I have dwelled on this more and more, there could hardly be a better text of Scripture than the one before us today. And that is all praise be to God, not something that we planned or conceived in our own minds. Today, with the Lord's help, friends, we will see that because God spoke hope in judgment, we can joyfully rely on the promised son. My prayer for each and every one of you today is that you would be able to say, yes, I, me personally, not my mom, my dad, my spouse, my sister, someone else I love, someone else I'm sitting next to here today, that me personally, that you can say in your heart of hearts, yes, I'm joyfully relying on the promised son, Jesus Christ, and the hope that was given by the Lord even amidst this severe judgment. Three parts to today's sermon. First, we'll look at curses and judgment. It is vital and absolutely critical for every single person to know that Genesis 3 describes a condition that we are in now today. And it's critical for you and me to look at this to understand what's going on, to not be lulled into this sense of passivity. I know what it says. I know how it affects me. I bet you don't, as much as you think it does. And so as we approach this text of Genesis 3, 14 through 19, and sit under its authority, and look afresh at what it says concerning the curses, the judgment from the Lord, I do pray that you are struck at the core of who you are, with both a sense of awe at who God is, being such a gracious Redeemer, and also with a sense of sober-mindedness you realize how fallen, how rebellious, humanity truly is. So we'll look at curses and judgment, understanding those. Then we'll look at hope and judgment. What has the Lord done? What has he given to us? What kind of glimmer of hope is there amidst so many judgments, condemnations, curses? And then we'll personalize this a bit and talk about you. What must you do to be saved? And are you, in fact, a child of the devil? Or one of the offspring of the woman? So let's look now at curses and judgment, hope and judgment, and you. Remembering that because God spoke hope and judgment, we can, we must joyfully rely on the promised son. First, curses and judgment. There's bulletin notes if you'd like to follow along there. They'll also be on the screen as well. Let's note the curses and let's note first that the Lord directs his attention to the serpent. He goes to the source, as it were, the original scripture twister, that ancient foe, the one who came and ever so subtly twisted God's word and doubted God's goodness. Perhaps in the woman's mind doubts upon God and what He was truly like. And so the Lord directs His attention to the serpent, who He silences and He declares over the serpent in Genesis 3.14, this declaration, this curse, because you have done this. Done what? You have deceived the woman. Because you have twisted My Word. Because you have rebelled against My authority, and you have doubted My goodness, and put this in those who bear My image. Because you have led the way in this, cursed are you more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field." Now some there may wonder, all cattle? I did not realize that a serpent was a cattle. Remember what we said a number of weeks back though, that this is referring to different categories of large groups of species of animals. We're referring here not to cattle as we think of like livestock or a cow, we're thinking of all those who dwell on the earth as land animals. And comprehensively, What we have here is all cattle, all beasts of the field, every single animal on the earth. You are more cursed than everyone. It's comprehensive in nature. In the ancient world, this phrase all cattle would have included all animals of a certain kind and not just a select few as we might be tempted to view it as today. So what we see is the serpent is directly cursed, and what is he cursed with? He's cursed with permanent humiliation. Look what it says, on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. Now if you read some commentaries, you will see this is why people hate serpents, and they're against snakes. And there's this natural revulsion that we have towards the animal that is a serpent. Now, there might be something to that. Certainly, as you trace through history, you do see that this is the case. People are terrified of beasts, these serpents, because of how poisonous they are, because of how deadly they can be, venomous they can be. But there's something, obviously, much more that is going on here than simply the pronouncement of a curse upon a serpent. We have already seen that Satan, the devil, is that ancient foe who came in and used as the vessel for undermining God's word, the serpent. was more crafty Genesis 3 one tells us then any beast in the field which the Lord God made and so for his purposes the evil one the blasphemer the father of lies as the scripture puts it concerning Satan the arch enemy of the Lord the ancient foe of God and his people this one is given this pronouncement this judgment this curse as well and it is a Guarantee that you will be humiliated. You'll be cast down in the dust. To eat dust is not literally what serpents do, but they are down in the dust, they are often kicked, and they often do, as they go in for a kill, they often do consume some of the ground, some of the dust on the earth. But we obviously realize from this, this is a permanent humiliation that the Lord is bestowing, not simply upon the serpent, but upon Satan himself. And that's not all, also unending conflict. Unending conflict would be the case. Verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. Enmity, hostility between the seed that is the offspring of the woman and the seed, the offspring of the serpent. Now, serpents can reproduce. But the devil, Satan, cannot reproduce. There's nothing in the scriptures that would lead us to believe that angels can reproduce, that evil spirits, demons, and Lucifer himself, the devil, can reproduce. We have nothing in scripture to think that, and so something else is going on here. There's a different kind of seed, a spiritual seed, a spiritual offspring here. But notice that it's not only permanent humiliation, and you see this in different passages as well throughout the scriptures when the Lord speaks of enemies of Israel being humiliated, even Israel herself being humiliated, cast in the dust because she's rejected God's rule. You have an ending conflict between the offspring of the woman, the serpent is given in this curse, and also certain defeat. We'll get into this more, God willing, in a little bit. But notice for now it says this, "...he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." Your translation might say there, strike you on the head, or crush you on the head, in a footnote you might have there. All three are good translations, but the idea here is there's going to be a wound, an injury that you may incur upon the offspring of the woman, but the wound that you incur there on your enemy will not be as great as the injury that you undergo. When you crush a serpent's head, and that is often how they are destroyed, that is how they die. If any of you have experienced that, I remember a few years ago my grandparents were telling me that a serpent in their home got up and a snake was in the kind of ceiling downstairs. My grandpa had to go and get a hoe and smash the serpent's head. And that's the way you deal with these serpents. You kill them by crushing their head with a blunt object. So we're talking here about the death, the certain defeat of the serpent and, you know, to be the personification of evil, namely, Satan himself. The curse and the judgment of the serpent, a direct curse, permanent humiliation, unending conflict and certain defeat. But then we move on to the woman. Notice next, the woman in verse 16, the Lord says this, to the woman, he, that is the Lord God said this, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. But what's going on here? There's one that's obvious, maybe one that's less obvious, but pain with children is one of the consequences of the curse of the fall. Notice, though, that this is not a direct curse in the sense that the Lord uses that language, but it is certainly a judgment. It is certainly something negative, and so when we think about this, the pain of childbirth, but also notice this as well, in pain you will bring forth children. Sometimes we associate this simply with the physical pain of giving birth to a child, which is accurate and is part of the condition that women find themselves in to become mothers. But the pain that is also listed here is bringing forth one's children. Alan P. Ross notes, there's no reason to limit this to childbearing. It also includes child-rearing and observing one's children in a fallen world, in a sinful condition, being led astray. And so some of you know exactly what that is like. You have a loved one, a child, who's off in sin, in a fallen world, and your heart breaks for them even more than their own heart breaks for themselves. They think everything's great in life. but you see the destruction that they are headed towards, mothers, and you do bear that in a uniquely painful way. Yes, you husbands bear that in a uniquely painful way as well, and you share that, but know that here, this judgment, as it were, is placed upon the mother, your pain in childbirth, and also your pain in bringing forth children. Now, there are many commentators who have said much is very helpful concerning what this could be. But I think it is important to realize that there are many different aspects to this. Andrew Willett puts it this way, the reformer. Herein are signified many sorrows that women endure in the conception of their children as faintings, loathing of food, longing for strange foods, grief, ache, diffidence, peril of miscarriage, and such like. He goes on to say this, moreover, whereas women should have brought forth without pain, now their travail is full of labor, and as much as many have miscarried in the birth of their children as Rachel did. And it is well observed by Aristotle that no other creature brings forth her young with such difficulty as women, human women, do. This is evident in a demonstration of the punishment that was laid upon them in Genesis 3. And so if any of you are here today and you're a woman who's longed for a child and the Lord has not yet opened up your womb, you know that pain, you know that grief. If you're here today and you are vexed and troubled by the pains that you've had, maybe while burying children or vexed by the sorrow and the struggle of raising children. We know throughout human history, many women died giving birth to their children. all a result of this judgment laid out in Genesis 3. And so we have here the woman told by the Lord she would have pain with children, not just childbearing, childrearing as well, but also a desire to dominate. And yet, she would be dominated. Where do we get that from? Well, look at Genesis 3, 16, in the second half of that, get your desire will be for your husband, and He will rule over you." This word, desire, is also found in Genesis 4-7, referring to Cain. If you flip over there, here's what it says in Genesis 4-7. Remember, this is after Adam and Eve have been cast out of the garden, and they have two sons, initially, Adam and Eve. And the Lord offers this warning to Cain, after Cain is angry because the Lord has rejected his offering, because it was not done in faith. The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? And then here in verse 7, If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it. The same word desire is used back here in Genesis 3 in verse 16. It's used one other time in scripture in the Song of Solomon to refer there to the desire for the love between a husband and a wife. And yet it is much further removed from the direct context of Genesis 4-7 before us. Additionally, if this were a good desire, one wonders why it would be placed in the midst of these curses, in the midst of this judgment. And an added reason to realize this is not some good desire the woman has for her husband is not only because it's in the context of judgments, not only because the very next chapter has the same word used in a negative way, but also because when you look back at Genesis 1 and 2, reproducing, being fruitful and multiplying, is a good thing. They stood in the garden and they were naked and unashamed. There's no reason to think that lawful, biblical sexual relationships and covenant marriage are a bad thing in Scripture. They're a good thing. They're a blessed thing. And only here do you have this word, desire. So the ESV, the English Standard Version, actually puts this as, your desire will be contrary to your husband. You will be against your husband. You will oppose him. And so what's going on here? Ladies who've been called to be wives or those of you women who desire to be wives or will be one day. How should you understand yourself in light of this passage? Well, a couple comments on this. Your desire, this longing, this aching to rule your husband, to dominate him is something that you will face in your life because of the curse. You will want to manipulate him, to have him serve at your beck and call. You'll want him to be under your thumb, as it were, for all your days. Your desire will be for your husband, and yet he will rule over you. Now, some have said, see, this shows that there's no sense in which a man is head of his wife. That was all part of the curse, all part of the fall. That will not stand to reason in light of the rest of scripture in light of this text before us as well. The Hebrew word mashal, rule over you, can be taken in a negative or positive way. Here, it could be taken both ways. There could be a good rule, a good sense in which a husband would love his wife, care for her, and yet be the head. a God-honoring head who would protect his wife and do what Adam should have done in the beginning and stomp on the serpent's head and drive that serpent away from the garden and subdue and take dominion over that beast who was lying about God and His Word. There's a protective nature of rule that is a good thing that we do not cast off, that we embrace. Genesis 1 and 2 clearly embraces when it tells us Adam was created first, Adam was given the instructions from the Lord, and Adam was given Eve as a helpmate. The rest of Scripture confirms this. But then there is obviously, as we know, as a result of sin, a wicked kind of rule. An oppressive tyranny that sadly, and tragically, far too many husbands have given themselves to in a post-Genesis 3 world. A kind of tyranny that says, do whatever I say, even if it goes against God's Word. A kind of tyranny The men have in their hearts, it says, I'm not accountable to anyone else. No elders of a church can tell me what to do. Certainly, the word of God, this book, that can't tell me what to do and how I should treat my wife and my family. There's no room for correction for these men who rule as tyrants. And yet, a part of the curse for you, sisters in the Lord, were called to be wives, desire to be wives or will someday be in that situation to be a wife recognize this you will desire to control your husband and yet he will rule over you Lord willing that will be a rule that will not be oppressive and a tyrant's rule a loving, kind, God-honoring rule sadly as we know in a Genesis 3 world that is often a wicked rule And ladies, just so you know, in pastoral ministry, I have seen time and time again women who are plagued throughout their lives by this desire to dominate men, even former men who were once their husbands. Men who don't think about them at all anymore. There are still women who will come to pastors all across this country, all across the world, and be fixated on this one man, this ex-husband. He still continues to rule and control their lives. And it's a very sad thing to witness. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. You will have pain, multiplied pain in childbearing and childrearing. Then we come to the man in obeying his wife's voice, we see that Adam disobeyed God, which led to the following, lifelong struggle, frustration, and sorrow and work, as well as death. Look with me in your Bible at Genesis 3, 17. Then to Adam, he said, notice what he says, because you have listened to the voice of your wife, And you have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it." Just pause there for a moment. Notice how many times it is reinforced, Who did you listen to? And who did you not listen to? You have, Because you listened to the voice of your wife. Two references there. You listened to the voice of your wife. And disobeyed me. You ate from the tree. But then notice, Which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat. It's as if the Lord is saying, here's what I said, here's what you did. Here's the voice you listened to, the lie, and not mine. He doesn't say the same thing to Eve. Notice that. There's none of that in the text. It's important. He goes on to say this, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Now, what's important to recognize is that work in and of itself is not a curse. It's not a part of the curse. We've already seen this in Genesis 1 and 2, where the Lord actually commands and desires that Adam would subdue the earth, take dominion. That's something that those who bear God's image do. Men and women are called to work. It's a good thing. It's a pre-Genesis 3 command and call. And yet, now in Genesis 3, because of sin, work, and particularly work for the man, involves struggle that would not have involved had man not fall. It involves frustration, working long hours for very little fruit, very little to show for your work. I can recall my very first job at Dominick's. I was a utility clerk, which is a glorified way I used to say for a slave, basically do whatever they want you to do for very little pay. No, it wasn't quite that. But as a utility clerk, I was a bagger. I would push carts, go out in the snow, and push carts in, and bag people's groceries, and clean the bathrooms, all these kinds of things. And we were told this, though very few of us paid attention. We were just 15 years old or so. And my friends and I got this job because we had a friend whose mom worked for Dominick's. And so we had an in there, as it were. We got this job. We watched the tutorial videos. And we knew that we had to pay union dues, but we didn't realize how much that would sting or bite after we went to collect our first paychecks for the first few months. I'll never forget working 20 hours, longest I'd ever worked in like a job that I was hired to do. And I went and collected that paycheck for 63 cents. Why? The union dues. They had to take $250 out of our first paycheck, but they had to give us something. I'll never forget my friend Bud looking at that, ripping it up, throwing it out, and quitting on the spot. but very little to show for the fruit of his labor. It's just one example, I'm sure some of you can relate to that. You work hard in your garden, you go away for a weekend, you pick all the weeds out and you come back after that weekend and they're back and there's more back and they're everywhere and they're swallowing up your plants. There are many such examples. By the sweat of your face, you will eat bread. It will not be like this garden, filled with fruit, take your fill, enjoy, given from the Lord, no, you will not have that. There's this sense, even a hint of banishment, that is already present here. Because if they were to remain in the garden, I'm sure Adam and Eve could be thinking, I can go to that tree, I can go to that tree, what are you talking about here? No, there's a sense in which they already know, it's already alluded to, this is something outside of the garden, you will not have this garden. You cannot be in this paradise. With all this fruit, you now will have to work in such a manner that you will struggle. It will be frustrating. And it will lead to difficulty beyond what you can imagine. And the truth is, yes, we live in a very wealthy, the most wealthy country the world has ever seen. We are blessed by the common grace of God all around us. Most of us have never gone without a meal, ever, in our lives. And most people in this country never have. But that is not the norm. That is the exception to the vast majority of human history. Many died of famine, starvation. Not just one or two or a few hundred or a few settlements, millions upon millions of people die throughout human history due to famine. Not enough food in the land. The Genesis 3 curse has taken an effect, and it has taken an effect in many people's lives, disrupting their lives. And even if we are able to somewhat avoid the frustration, the struggle, and the sorrow in work. Even if you're here and you say, I enjoy my job, there's still elements of your job that you find difficult or that are a drag to you at times. And sometimes, and some of you have faced this, you are unemployed unexpectedly. You lose your job. You lose your pension. Things don't go as you were planning. The last part of the curse directed towards the ground, but also towards the man here, is death. And notice what a description it is. Because you were taken from the ground, you will return to the ground. You are dust. And to dust, you shall return. Most of us, when we are describing who we are to people, don't say, hi, I'm Brandon. I'm dust. We just don't. That's not our description. We want to start off with something strong, but it is a good thing for you and me to realize we are dust. And to dust we will return. This is a condemnation not only for Adam, but also for Eve. He is the head, the representative of the human race here. And she came out of his side. And so it obviously applies to her as well. Curses and judgment. But we don't only see curses and judgment here, we also see hope and judgment. Let's look now at hope and judgment. The Lord promised conflict, leading to the deceiver's total destruction. Total destruction. Genesis 3.15 has been called the Proto-Ewangelion, the first gospel, the first time a sermon was preached, the first time good news was heralded from the voice of the living God. to sinners who are lost and hopeless and helpless? Here's that first gospel, the glimpse of the gospel seen in Genesis 3.15, the Lord says, to the serpent 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. Now we don't have a full-fledged, and that seed is Jesus Christ. the Son of God, who'd be born of the Virgin Mary. You don't have all of that in this one verse. It is progressively revealed over time. But now as we look at that text, in light of God's progressive revelation, His plan through redemptive history, unfolding in promise after promise, covenant after covenant, we do see this very clearly, and the New Testament authors and the Old Testament authors affirm, that this is the first gospel. He shall bruise you on the head. There is one coming who will bruise you, not your offspring, notice. Many commentators have picked up on that, it's important. To the serpent, to Satan himself, this one from the woman will bruise you, will crush you and strike you, Satan, on your head. You will be destroyed and humiliated and defeated completely. even if you bruise Him on the heel. Many commentators have noted how gloriously there is a reversal here that the Lord uses. Consider Eve for a moment. Eve listened to the voice of the serpent, the voice of Satan. And yet here is a glimmer of hope gospel hope for this woman because she hears that from her offspring, one of her seed, one of her children is going to come and take out that great deceiver who has destroyed all these good things that she had. I love the way Matthew Henry puts this. This is in your bulletin notes. Matthew Henry says this, no sooner was the wound given then the remedy was provided and revealed. As soon as these judgments went forth, the Lord also issued forth hope. One would come who would bruise this serpent, this deceiver, this evil one, this liar, and crush his head, even as his heel would be bruised. We know that And taking on flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ came, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, as we just affirmed, in the Apostles' Creed. But we also know that He was led to Calvary. We know that throughout His life He did suffer. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus cried out to God and was heard because He was righteous. Jesus cries out to God, His Father, the Son of God, Jesus, the Messiah. That promised seed comes. Knowing that His heel will be bruised, it will be painful, He will suffer. But He knows that through His suffering, the head of the deceiver will be crushed once and for all. So what we have here is this glorious first gospel, the deceiver's total defeat. But that's not all that we have. We also have here the announcement of the Lord of the promised seed. the promised seed of the woman. Now, throughout history, there's been a few interpretations of this. Some have taken that to be there's gonna be a battle between good and evil, that every human being is an offspring of the woman. After all, we're all made in God's image. And not everyone who came from Eve is truly a born-again Christian, someone who has peace with God and will inherit eternal life. But there's a sense in which all of us are daughters, sons of Eve. just like C.S. Lewis speaks of in Chronicles of Narnia. Well, others have taken this to mean, no, we should view this as not just a physical lineage from the woman, but a spiritual lineage of and from the woman. In other words, those who are in Christ and those who are following the devil. So Ephesians 2 picks up on this language, the prince of darkness, you think about Ephesians 2, you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following, here it is, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working the sons of disobedience. You see in scripture this enslavement that the accuser has over all humanity. Hebrews 2 calls him this one who holds the power of death over human beings. Why? How can he hold the power of death? Because he's the accuser. He can say, look what they've done. They deserve death. They deserve condemnation. Punish them. Bring justice. And yet, what is announced here is the promisee, the offspring of the woman who finally and fully is fulfilled in Christ. but is also is fulfilled in his church. How is that so? Well, every true believer knows that we are still in a battle in a fallen world. We still find ourselves in our old sinful flesh drawn towards things that we've forsaken, that we've repented of, that we confessed and said, Lord, that is sin. That deserves condemnation. That was foolish, forgive me. And yet gloriously the Lord, in sending his son, Jesus Christ, the promised seed, the offspring of the woman, also shows us that Jesus is the representative is coming and he finally will crush the serpent's head but also the Church of Christ will crush the head of the serpent. Look in your Bible if you would with me at Romans 16 verse 20. Romans 16 verse 20 is one of those verses that is wonderful especially when you read it in light of Genesis 3. might be tempted to pass it over but here's what Roman 1620 says if you're using a church Bible to look that up that can be found on page 1024 1025 excuse me Roman 1620 in his benediction as it were the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The serpent, that great deceiver, who lied, manipulated God's Word, at the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ came, and though the serpent bit his heel, as it were, and Jesus did die, And he really suffered. He did not stay dead. But he was risen from the dead. As the Scriptures tell us, he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father and now intercedes for all who call upon him in faith. And this church in Rome, this beaten down, in some ways, divided church in Rome, who experienced persecution and had questions, no doubt, this church in Rome, found themselves with a glorious declaration that we can cling to as well, that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under the feet of his church. For what the Lord is doing there is he is doing what G.K. Beale calls a redemptive reversal, a redemptive reversal where the curse is reversed. And this takes place, friends, at a macro level as well, not just individual Christians, not just individual churches, crushing the serpent's head, as it were, but also the glorious reversal of the curse that the Lord has told us of in the book of Revelation. At the very end, the very last book of the Bible in Revelation 21, here's what we read concerning what God will do. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is among men, and he will dwell among them. They shall be His people and God Himself will be among them. The first thing that should come to our minds as we think about Genesis 3 is there was a banishment. That's right. Now, there's a glorious reconciliation of the Lord's presence dwelling once again with men. Revelation 21 goes on saying this, the Lord tells us, They shall be His people. And God Himself will be among them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things have passed away. He who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. He said, right, these words are faithful and true. He said to me, it is done. I'm the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. Genesis tells us what was lost. And Revelation tells us what the Lord is gloriously repairing. Revelation 22.3 literally puts it this way in such stark contrast. It says, there will no longer be any curse. There will be no more curse anymore. What Genesis 3.15 is, is a messianic. That is a promised passage for us to hold on to that points us to Christ. It points us to the confidence we should have as those who are in Christ. Yes, we have a real enemy. Yes, we should not treat him lightly. Yes, we should not fear him irrationally. He is a foe who is guaranteed to be defeated. He is a foe who is defeated by the offspring of the woman. How humiliating is that? There is a small baby. who's going to come and gonna crush your head, you great deceiver. You puffed up one with pride. What Christmas declares, friends, as we see Jesus in the cradles, we consider Him there, is that this came to pass. Galatians 4 tells us, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. born under the law so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. See, Jesus came at the perfect time in God's perfect plan of redemption as that promised offspring. And Jesus came when he did and accomplished what he did in the manner he did to fulfill what God had promised right here in Genesis 3.15. hope, and judgment. And that brings us to our final portion of the sermon today. Very briefly, you. This is not something out there that is theoretical or hypothetical, friends. This is not something that your spouse can believe for you, your child can believe in your behalf, a mother, a father, a loved one who's really close with the Lord. This is a personal message. It's a message that you and I have to deal with, and so what should you do? You've heard of the curses and judgment. You've heard of this hope and judgment that is held out. What should you then do? How can you be saved? First, humbly admit your true condition. Humbly admit your true condition. Genesis 3 describes what is. Even if you don't like it, even if you put it out of mind and sight, you will return to the dust. I've watched powerful men, vivacious women, full of life, be reduced to nothing at the end of their life. All of us, from the moment that we are born, as Martin Lloyd-Jones would put it, begin to die. You enter this world and you begin to die. You're on the track, you're headed for the grave. Don't be lulled into the deception and the illusion that so many are under, that that won't happen to me. It will. You will face your Creator and your King and the Judge. So humbly admit your true condition, fallen, rebellion, that spread not only from Adam and Eve, but now spills out into your own heart and from your own heart. You know yourself to be a rebel, one who has rejected God's rule and reign, one who has cast off his blessings, one who has tried to take credit for things that is not yours to take credit for. You know yourself to be prideful, to have no place for God, to think only of yourself. Humbly admit your true condition as a sinner, as a rebel, as one bound for death and enslaved to death. Second, grasp clearly your and every sinner's only hope. There's only one hope. There's not multiple ways to God. There's not multiple ways up the hill, up the mountain that are all going to the same destination, all these clever little lies that so many tell themselves. There's not multiple ways to God. Grasp clearly your and every sinner's only hope. It's here. It's in the hope of the Messiah, the promised seed. It's right here before you. Let no man, no woman, no boy, no girl today say that they never heard the Gospel message. They never heard of the salvation found in Christ. You've heard it. God has made you for Himself in His glory. You are a sinner. You need a Savior. And Jesus is that only Savior. And third and finally, gladly receive the grace of God in Christ. Gladly receive the grace of God in Christ. Cry out to this God who has created you and say, yes, I am a sinner. Yes, you are the Savior. Thank you for this grace. Thank you for this undeserved favor you have given to a sinner like me. Thank you for this first gospel message you declared to Adam and Eve. And thank you so much, Lord, for all of your word that you have given me that testifies to the goodness you have given to me and your Son, Jesus Christ the righteous. Humbly admit your true condition, you're a sinner. Grasp clearly your and every single sinner's true need. And gladly receive the grace of God in Christ. It is a free gift, Paul says over and over again in Romans 5. Free gift, free gift, free gift. He goes back and back to that again and again and again. Because he wants you to know you could never earn it, you aren't worthy of it, and yet God gives it. The creator who you've offended, The God who made you for himself offers you this gift of reconciliation with himself, of peace with himself. Yes, you will face conflict in this life, but when you die and return to the dust, you can be sure of this. While the Bible says it is appointed for man, every man to die once, then comes judgment. That judgment will not be met with further judgment in the second death, but rather with eternal life and hope forevermore that is found in Christ alone. Let's pray. Almighty God and merciful Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we thank you for your goodness to sinners like us. We marvel that you would be so kind to the undeserving, to those who trespass against your commandments, that you would put here grace upon grace before us, that you would be committed to this great reversal of the curse, to put all things right, to make all things new, to the praise of your glory, but also for our eternal good. God, I pray and ask that each one of us today and throughout the next few days and weeks would treasure the Lord Jesus Christ, would marvel at your goodness, But recognize, God, that all of this is a gift, something that you have given so graciously and freely. As we walk in a fallen world, riddled with curses and sins, as we battle against our own sinful nature, may we stare at Christ, may we seek you, Lord. Help us by your spirit to do this more faithfully, more fully each and every day as we await your return and the promise and final culmination of your kingdom. All this we pray and ask in the precious and powerful name of King Jesus.