December 4, 2022 / Expectant / The Curse, the Cure and the Conquest

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor

of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life

we're searching for. I am so glad that you are here today. If you're glad to be here today, say

amen. Yeah, a lot of you are, some of you aren't. I'm not really sure. If you have your Bibles this

morning, please take them and turn to Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three, verse 15,

as we dive into a new message series called Expectant that will be leading us up to Christmas.

We're going to have a great time in that. Today's title is called The Curse and the Cure and the

Conquest. We're going to be looking at the very first biblical prophecy about Christ coming.

Surprisingly, this prophecy comes from God himself in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three,

verse 15. As we begin to get into this series, let me just say a few things about the graphic

that you will have on the screen in front of you. This graphic was put together after we spent some

time in the text that we'll be reading and studying through the course of December. The

Expectant theme is a big theme that overrides everything, but I want you to know what's behind

the pictures on the graphic because our graphic artists did a phenomenal job. In fact, one of our

teachers said, you know, this will preach. The graphic itself will preach, but I want you to see

the images and what they mean. On the bottom line, you see the images of the fall. You see in the

middle of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil that God forbade Adam and Eve from eating from,

and they in fact did eat from that, which brought about the curse, the curse of sin. You'll also see

two images on the bottom, one of fire, one of stones, which denote the sacrifice, the blood

sacrifice that was initiated there in the garden when God clothed Adam and Eve with garments of

skin. If you go to the top, you'll look also at the prophetic statement of the Christ that would

come and what he did. On the left is the cradle, on the right is the cross, and you'll see in the

middle, the future of Christ, and that is as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You'll see a sword,

you'll see the scepter, and all this points to an expectant heart for what God has given us as an

answer to the curse of sin. I love this graphic, and you'll see it over and over without the

descriptions around it, so you'll kind of know exactly what that means. I'll bring that up later

in the message as well. This is chapter three, verse 15. Let's stand together as we read one

verse, one verse and one prophecy that God gave from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden.

Now, if I could set the scene just a little bit, the Garden of Eden at this point, of the giving of

this prophecy is not a wonderful place. It's a wonderful place in the sense that God has created

that, but it's already dark because of sin. The serpent has come in, tempted Eve, you know the

story. She gives in to the son. She and Adam eat of the fruit of the tree that God has forbidden

them to eat from, and all of a sudden, separation takes place. Sin separates them, and they are

hiding from God. So everything at the moment of the speaking of this prophecy is dark, it's negative.

Ultimately, they're banished from the Garden of Eden, and they need some answers. Now, the timing

of this prophecy is very, very important, and I'll share more about that in just a moment, but

here's what God said as he curses the serpent. He first curses the serpent in verse 14, where he

says, you're going to go on your belly, thus you will eat all the days of your life, and then in

verse 15, the prophecy. Here's what it 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. I want to say it again, read it one more time. And I will put enmity between you and this

woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him

on the heel. Vow together with me. Father, in Jesus' name, I come and I ask you that you would

give us direction, Holy Spirit, to illuminate this text for us as we look ahead to all that you're

going to fulfill in the person of Jesus Christ. And Father, today as we look at this prophecy,

I ask that you not only help us see what it means literally, but also to help us know what it means

personally. Father, become personal to us in a very real way through your Messiah and the sacrifice

he made. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said amen. Please be seated if you would.

Well, I'm going to give you some bad news today. You know, the bad news I'm going to give you is

necessary for you to understand the good news that God's given you. This is the very first

proclamation of good news in the Bible, but it's also the first proclamation of just how bad the

bad news is. And as we walk through this prophecy, we're going to see both of those things. Now,

I've got to have kind of a mental image in my mind when I try to create the details of a certain

context. And I'm going to try to create the context of this particular verse in prophecy with a war

image, a battle image. How many of you watch war movies or have watched war movies in your lifetime?

A lot of hands go up. My dad was a Navy officer, and by the time that I was born, he was out of the

Navy, but he loved the Navy. And we would watch at night black and white movies that depicted

warships and aircraft carriers and planes landing there and great battles, the Battle of the Midway,

all those different kinds of battles, classic movies, classic war movies. And so I grew up

seeing those regularly. When Saving Private Ryan came out, the war movie a few years ago,

that came out that dealt with the storming of the beaches of Normandy, it caught my attention. And

then as that movie played, as you watch that movie, it was incredibly accurate to the details,

according to veterans that were actually on the beaches of Normandy. It was the most accurate

depiction of war that they could remember ever seen. And of course, the whole story of the Battle

of Normandy and the storming of the beaches of Omaha and Utah and so forth was because the Allied

forces wanted to liberate Europe from the clutches of Nazi Germany. So the Nazi war machine was

running over Europe, about to destroy France. And that's when the Allied troops stormed the

Battle of Normandy and the beaches of Normandy. And I want you to get that battle scene in your

mind for just a moment. If you saw the movie, you know there's a 24 minute clip of that battle on

the beach. And at the end of that battle, the beaches are littered with blood and bodies and

guns and broken machines and ships that have have sunk just off the shallows there. All kinds of

smoke and haze and anguish and crying and all kinds of weary survivors very barely pulling

through. And that's the scenario that I want to have in my mind when I think about the darkness

of the curse of sin. It doesn't make for a real popular message, but it makes for a real accurate

portrayal of how badly we needed a savior and how badly we need a rescuer from the ravages of sin

in our lives. So as you look at this prophecy, I want you to look at it with the perspective of

the war zone that we created when we sinned. The prophecy breaks down into three different

principles, one by one. First of all, the curse brings conflict. So God is speaking to the serpent

in Genesis 3. He tells the serpent, I'm going to curse you. You're going to be on your belly all

the days of your life. You'll always be in enmity. But he didn't say this in verse 15, and I will put

enmity between you and the woman. Now God is giving us a reason for the pronouncement of the

curse and all that's about to occur. As a matter of fact, when you read verse 15, you can read the

whole history of the world. I really believe that. Just the three lines of verse 15 will tell you

everything about the history of the world that you absolutely need to know. And right at the

beginning, we see that the curse and sin bring about conflict in life. Recently, I was having a

conversation with a young man that visited with us over Thanksgiving, and he was a relative of one

of our friends. And so he had come into our house and we had conversations with him for the first

time. He knew I was a pastor, a preacher, and he asked me, what do you do when you stand up every

week? Do you give TED Talks or do you come up with this information on your own? And I said, well,

I have a book that I preach out of. He goes, what's that called? And I said, it was called the

Bible. He said, well, what's the Bible about? I said, well, it's actually 66 books. And he goes,

oh, wait, whoa, 66 books. Where are the 66 books? I had to help him, held up a Bible. That's how

little he knew about the Bible. It was an incredibly interesting conversation as I helped him

understand why we have hope and who Christ is and what the Bible message is. But in that conversation,

he says, so tell me, how do you stand in front of a congregation and explain that you believe in a

good God who allowed all the atrocities and all the heartbreak and all the wickedness on the planet?

How do you answer that? I looked at him in the eyes and I said, I answer it this way. It's all

about the free will of man. You demand a choice. You wanted a choice. You got a choice. And your

choice brought the curse and the consequences of sin. And that's why we have conflict. And that's

why we have difficulty. And that's why we're separated from each other and from God,

because of sin and because of sin, conflict entered into the world. And as the prophecy

opens up here in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, this word enmity is there. The enmity only

means hostility and it means war. Read Genesis chapter three and you'll see that God gives us

the reason for all this enmity and the reason for all this heartbreak and pain. And it's still true

today, just as it was then. He said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you. He

said to the man, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and done this disobedient act.

That's what brought the curse on you. Because of our sin, conflict entered into the world. And

everything you see today in the way of conflict and bad news and darkness and difficulty and

hardship and anger and hatred and wickedness and racism and everything else that you see today,

it's because of our choice of sin. Alexander McLaren, the commentator of the Bible said this,

posing the question, is this what God meant man to be? Of course, it's a rhetorical question. God

never created us to be in wickedness and sin and separation. He created us to have fellowship,

to have harmony, to be aligned with God, but we make our own choices. And here, the prophecy that

God gives us from the beginning starts right there. I'll put enmity between you and the woman.

Now scripture defines why we have problems. And it says the location of those problems of the heart.

Jeremiah 17, nine says it like this, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately

wicked. Who can understand it? Sometimes I have to remind myself when I see news headlines,

that's why those things are happening. I don't blame God. I don't blame organizations. I don't

blame culture. I blame the individual, the wicked heart of every individual. And most of us realize

this world is in cosmic conflict with God and cosmic conflict with each other. We cannot get

along. We cannot do things well. It's a dark, dark picture. And we see so much of it today in so many

different ways in real time. The heart is desperately sick. The world is desperately sick

and conflict happens because of sin. You know, it's because of sin that we have conflict over God,

where the creator is denied and creation is giving us the advice. Or conflict over truth,

where we're encouraged to have our own truth and disregard of what God's truth really is.

We have conflict over sin, where people do what's right in their own eyes instead of doing what's

best for everyone or what's best according to God. And then there's that internal conflict where our

feelings and our perceptions are waging war with reality. And sometimes it's so dark and we're so

confused, we don't know the right way about anything. But let's place our blame where it belongs,

on us. It's on mankind. And one of the most liberating things we can do is to own up to that

and say, I need a cure. I need forgiveness because my sin has created this catastrophe.

One of the most basic principles of counseling is that when people come in for counseling or

an individual comes in for counseling, is to help them own their responsibility. Helping them come

to the place of saying, I did this. This is where the prophecy of Christ really begins

by pointing to the responsibility of sin and creating the conflict, the curse-bring conflict.

Secondly, this prophecy reminds us that the cure is Christ. Notice verse 15, second line.

It says, and between your seed and her seed, in the Old Testament, the word seed always

refers to genealogy. It always refers to the line that will come out of the individuals

that are being addressed. And it actually answers the question, who's going to come?

Who's going to come and rescue us is the question. And with that statement of ongoing enmity

and war, the conflict and curse of sin, where the statement of who's going to rescue us comes to

the surface, this is where the answer is going to be found. Between your seed and her seed. But the

prophecy states this, that the descendants or the offspring of the serpent will always wage war

against the descendants of Eve. You can with that create those two lines of individuals, two lines

of people, two lines of thought all the way through human history. Two streams, if you will. During

the work of Satan, who is the serpent of old or during the work of the seed of the woman.

So let's just examine that a little deeper. The seed of the serpent, first of all, can only be

the evil angels, the demonic world, and wicked men who would follow those ideas, later called

serpents by Jesus. In other words, everyone who tried to undermine God, everyone who tried to

undermine Christ. Early on in the ministry of Jesus, he called them out, some of those evil,

wicked people that are of the seed of Satan. Remember Jesus' baptism, Matthew chapter three,

verse seven or so, Jesus was about to be baptized by John the Baptist, just to be fulfilling all

righteousness. If you remember that great, great scene. At that same time, there were those that

were false religious leaders who were there also in line to be baptized. Their idea was to

usurp the ministry of John the Baptist, somehow interrupt Jesus in doing so. So Jesus addresses

them by name. And here's what he says to them. You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from

the wrath that come, the seed of Satan. Later on, Jesus in John chapter eight is dealing with

those that are questioning his authority. And he says this to them, you are of your father,

the devil. You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and

does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks

from his own nature for he's a liar and the father of lies. And all these verses help us to find the

seed of Satan. That is that enmity with the seed of the woman. And you can say it's not just

demonic, but evil people who make this up, who make this group up, motivated by war, destruction,

temptation, deception, lying. Everything they do is an attempt to get you away from the God who

loves you. So the seed of Satan. Then the seed of the woman is the second part of this line.

That would be those that have followed God from each day of Israel and then from Israel's day to

the church. And more specifically, most specifically it refers to the person of Jesus Christ.

Because later on in this same verse it says, he shall bruise you on the head. So this is the first

of many prophecies that we find in the Bible, but the first one that God gave us that answers the

question, who is our deliverer? Now I love about prophecies this. Prophecies always offer hope

in darkness. Hope in darkness. Anybody need hope in darkness? When I'm in darkness, I want hope.

I want light. I need hope. I need light. When you sing the Christmas songs and carols,

you notice none of them are real dampers. They're all encouraging. Joy to the world. The Lord has

come. Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel. We can go on and on and talk about the lyrics and the melodies of

Christmas carols and Christmas music. And it's all uplifting. It's all encouraging because they're

pointing to hope, the fact that we have a cure for the curse of sin. There's light for the darkness.

It's all around our lives and scripture points to who that is. One of my favorite prophecies of

scripture about the Messiah is Isaiah chapter nine verse six. Most of you know this verse,

but most of you may not know that the first five verses of Isaiah chapter nine are dark verses

having to do with war and neglected responsibilities and bloody boots in the battlefield and so forth.

And then in great contrast to all this darkness is Isaiah chapter nine verse six. I want us to read

it together. Not loud. I'm going to put it on the screen right here. Are you ready? Say it with me.

For a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us and the government will rest on his

shoulders. At his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of

peace. Those are incredibly powerful words. Even more powerful if you're in darkness and you need

light. If you're in bondage and you need rescue. These words to Israel were so powerful to them

because they knew that there was only one answer to the dilemma of sin and conflict that they were

in and that would be God's Messiah. New Testament passages that show the fulfillment of these

Old Testament prophecies point to the fact that this Messiah was the seed of the woman.

Look at what it says in Galatians chapter four. For whom when the fullness of time came, God sent

his son born of a woman, born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law

so that we might receive adoption as sons. It all points to Christ. It all points to expecting a

Messiah to come and here in Genesis three verse 15, God announced the cure who would come

thousands of years after this announcement. You know what I love about this prophecy?

Besides the fact that God is the one that gave us this prophecy, it's when it was given. Go back

to the battle scene. Go back to the Garden of Eden. The fact that Adam and Eve are being banished

from the Garden, they're separated from God. Their futile attempt to cover their sin has not been

accepted by God. So he gives them the garments of skin. Think about all of that darkness. At that

moment with just Adam and with just Eve, God said, even though you've said, even though you've

separated yourself from me, even though you've walked into darkness, I have a solution for you

and consequently for all of the world and the Messiah that's to come. I love the fact that God

did not abandon Adam and Eve in the Garden. I love the fact that he did not destroy them immediately.

I love the fact that he does not abandon us in our sin, that he does not destroy us immediately. I

love the fact that that Messiah that is prophesied is for all of us as a whole and all of us as

individuals. It's huge. It's huge. So from the very beginning, God's prophecy was, I'm going to

fix this. I'm going to fix your problem and the problem of sin. I'm going to send a Messiah.

And that's why we have hope. That's why we are expectant because God has promised that he would

solve this. The struggle of sin and conflict has always been accompanied by the hope and expectation

that God will one day bring us victory through the coming Messiah. So hundreds and thousands of years

of the history of Israel, they all look to that hope. And then when Christ came and fulfilled that

hope, then it was for us to be able to see the Messiah has come. Now we look back at that Messiah

and see that God truly fulfilled his word. But the third part of that prophecy is probably the most

encouraging. Now that we've identified the Messiah, it is that the conquest is certain.

I want you to notice that third line. He shall bruise you on the head and you will bruise him

on the heel. The word he is important there because it says the seed of the woman would be

a he, the Messiah would come and he would be a he who fulfills this prophecy. And that a battle

would be consummated and that the seed of the serpent will bruise him in the heel in the battle

and that ultimately the Messiah will bruise the serpent on the head. Now you say this is a little

bit obscure, it's a little bit general, but the reality is one is a mortal wound, one is not.

In other words, the Messiah would not be finally put to death in any way, shape or form, but that

Satan would be. Now this is all about battle, it's all about a war and part of the prophecy is who

will win the war. Satan will bruise Christ on the heel, but Christ will bruise him in the head.

Now I want you to go to the cross for just a few moments. At the cross it seemed like all the bowels

of hell were unleashed in that few moments, those few hours where Christ in the garden of Gethsemane

made the decision to go on to the cross. What an incredible scene where he said, Father not my will,

but your will be done. Then the betrayal, then the army soldiers came and then Jesus was scourged,

he was falsely accused, three trials that were illegal, literally illegal, and yet later on

he was nailed to the cross. And I want you to realize this, that the seed of the serpent was

hard at work during those days. Evil men, demonic forces, lies, scheming, corrupt government officials,

wicked religious leaders all worked together in order to condemn Christ to be crucified and put

to death. But you need to remember that they were also scheming to keep you from God, because to

keep Christ from the cross is to keep you without salvation, keep me without hope. And so all the

seed of Satan was at work in that moment on the cross, because Satan wanted us condemned, he wanted

us to be imprisoned in our sin and our curse, he wanted us to be in bondage, and that's why they

attacked Jesus so viciously, they bruised him on the heel. But this wound would not be a final wound

with him, because we know the story of the cross. Jesus Christ died physically on the cross, was

buried, but he rose again from the dead on the third day, satisfying the price of redeeming mankind.

In other words, he overcame death, and he overcame sin, but more specifically, he overcame your death,

and he overcame your sin, and he overcame your separation. In other words, God's original

prophecy was coming to pass to take care of you. I love this picture, I love the expectancy that I

have in my heart, because I know God has taken care of all this through Jesus Christ, who crushes the

head of the serpent. A few weeks ago, I was reading in Hebrews chapter two about what Christ did for

us. The book of Hebrews is a great book about the high priest, Jesus Christ himself, and his work as

a high priest, as one who atones for us, who goes in between ourselves and God. And in Hebrews 2,

14 and 15, we read some incredible lines that have so much to do with this. Therefore, since the

children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the saying that through

death, he might render powerless, render powerless, him who had the power of death, that would be the

seed of Satan, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to

slavery all their lives. What an incredible promise. Christ on the cross would completely

undo what Satan did in the garden, and what man fell into in the garden, to completely

undo that through the person of Jesus Christ on the cross. God himself gave the very first gospel

message in Genesis chapter three, verse 15. The very first prophecy of a messiah is right there,

and he created an expectancy that this messiah alone would fulfill it. I want to go back to

the chart for just a moment. As you go back to that chart, go to that upper part right there.

Born of a virgin, laid in a cradle, and then one day crucified on the cross,

and in the coming days returning in his second coming as the king of kings and lord of lords,

with a crown, with a sword, and the scepter to rule over all. I mean, we're talking about one

verse of a prophecy fulfilling all of the history of mankind and our expectancy for all of that to

take place. Now, if you take a jet flight over the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you're going to

find all the things we've talked about in Genesis chapter one, two, and three, you're going to see

the curse of sin all through the Old Testament, where people are saying, how long, oh Lord, when

will you send our rescuer? When will you send the messiah? And then of course, the gospel, the good

news is Jesus has come, therefore the manger and then the cross. But if you go all the way to the

end of the Bible, the book of Revelation, you get into a real book of war. I mean, you talk about

war, the book of Revelation is a book about war, and it also is a book about victory. I want to

read just one verse, and all the symbolism of the book of Revelation and all of the incredible,

amazing truths there. There is one that is crystal clear that no one could misunderstand.

Revelation chapter 17, verse 14 speaks of a final victory, it speaks of a final act. It says this,

Revelation 17:14

these will wage war against the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them because, why? He is Lord of

lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are the called and the chosen and the faithful.

Man, I love that passage right there. I have this feeling, this belief, I believe that

the last days are going to be a great fourth quarter to a football game in life in general.

You know, the whole idea of who's going to win and how's the victory going to come about. Now,

we already know how it's going to win because we read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. We know

who wins, we know who's the victor, we know it's the Lord Jesus Christ. But this world we'll be

looking on as all this unfolds in these final days, and you and I need to be able to have the

expectancy and the confidence that Jesus Christ will win the day. I so wish sometimes we could

just take a reality pill and expose the forces of light and darkness and good and evil. If we could

take a reality pill and really see what's going on, you would see incredible opposition to the

good news of the gospel, to the work of Christ himself, incredible attempts to keep our people

and populations around the world away from God, away from truth. People pinned down like in a war

zone, unable to move, pulverized by fear and by separation and by deception, everything else.

I so wish you could see that because to see that is to see the brilliance of the light of a Messiah

that will sweep all that away by his second coming. And I'm looking forward to that day and I hope

that you are too. In Saving Private Ryan, the great thing about the movie for me was that the whole

movie was built around the idea that five army rangers were going to go looking for one man

Private Ryan so that he could be brought back safely to his family. And the whole story unfolds

with that in mind. Private Ryan had no idea they were searching for him. Had no idea what had

happened back home. Had no idea that he was going to be rescued. He was just in the battle, just in

the war, just in the darkness, death all around him. Had no idea. The strength of the movie for me

was that it was not just about the many he would be liberated, but the one. And the strength for me

of the prophecy is not just that all the population of the world would be liberated if they would put

their faith in Christ. It was about the one, the Adam and the Eve. And in a very real way,

in a very real way, all the Messiah is going to do and has done is about the one that is you.

It's incredibly important for you to take biblical prophecy about a Messiah that came

personally. Because Jesus Christ, though he came because God so loved the world,

he came because God so loved you. It's important not to take Jesus and just put him on a Christmas

card. Just put him on a carol. It's important that you put him on the throne room of your life

because he's the King of Kings, the Lord of Lord, who's come for you from the beginning. That was

his plan. And today I wonder if you see him that way. And today I ask you, can you, would you,

will you see him that way as your Messiah, as your conqueror, as your rescuer has come from you.

Through all the war zones, through all the darkness, he's come for you.

It's just a moment. We're closing prayers. We always do. I want to give three invitations to

you today, first of all. It's a great time to make a decision to put your faith in Jesus Christ.

We talk about Jesus. We preach about Jesus. We're passionate about Jesus Christ. But you know,

Jesus Christ wants to be in your heart, not just in your head. He wants to be in your life. And the

only way he'll do that is if you invite him by faith to be your Lord, to be your Savior, to forgive

you of your sin, to take care of the curse of sin for you. And every time a person does that,

they receive eternal life. Once and for all, it's theirs from that moment on.

Jesus said, truly, truly, he who believes in me has eternal life. That's actually a past tense

statement. Believe in Christ, it's yours. It's yours forever. But you must personally respond

to a God who personally responds to you. So that's the first invitation. Come to the decision

station. Talk to somebody there at one of these tables at the back that we've lit up. Secondly,

I invite you to come to guest reception room where I can meet you and welcome you. I'm going to

invite you to come to guest reception room where I can meet you and welcome you if you're a guest.

Just give me a couple of minutes to talk about why we think God is doing something special here

and how we'd love to have you be involved with that. Thirdly, I invite you to invite others with you.

This week as you leave, you'll be able to see something that you can pick up that's an invite

to others around you. My encouragement is grab one of those, reach somebody out, reach out to

somebody that you know you know you know you know you know. We're going to invite you to come to

the meeting next week. Bring them with you next week. Would you stand with me as we have a word

of prayer? Father, I'm so extremely grateful for a prophecy made at that moment in the garden

that extends through the entire history of our world. I thank you Lord Jesus that you are the

one who will come again one day. Jesus will be riding a white horse. Lord, he will be coming in

victory. Father, I thank you so much that we will be with him. Lord, I pray for every person in this

room today to consider the invitation to allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of their

lives. There's no more important decision that can ever possibly make them this one. Today we

give this day to you. Thank you for being our Savior. Give us an expectancy of knowing you and

walking with you in Jesus name. Amen.