Genesis 3:14-15 - ”What a Snake!” - Who Are We Series

good

morning our Old Testament reading today

is from Genesis

3: 14 and

15 the Lord God said to the serpent

because you have done this cursed are

you above all livestock and above all

Beasts of the field on your belly you

shall go and dust you shall eat all the

days of your

life I will put emity between you and

the woman and between your Offspring and

her Offspring he shall bruise your head

and you shall bruise his

heel our new testament reading is from

Colossians chapter

2: 6-

15 therefore as you received Christ

Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and

built up in him and established in the

faith just as you were taught abounding

in

Thanksgiving see to it that no one takes

you captive by philosophy and empty

deceit according to human tradition

according to the elemental spirits of

the world and not according to Christ

for in him the whole fullness of deity

dwells bodily and you have been filled

in him who is the head of all Rule and

Authority in him also you were

circumcised with a circumcision made

without hands by putting off the body of

the flesh by the circumcision of Christ

having been buried with him in baptism

in which you were also raised with him

through faith in the powerful working of

God who raised him from the dead and you

who were dead in your trespasses and in

the uncircumcision of your flesh God

Made Alive together with him having

forgiven us all our trespasses by

cancelling the record of our debt that

stood against us with its legal

demands this he set aside nailing it to

the Cross he disarmed the rulers and

authorities and put them to open Shame

by triumphing over them in him this is

the word of the Lord thanks be to

God oh it's always a joy to speak speak

about the

serpent

not um unfortunately it has been my

experience n Wright once said that every

time you speak on this particular

individual there's something happens in

the atmosphere and so I've been praying

a lot for protection um he doesn't have

power but he's real and he does like to

shake the pot as it

were so here we go Mr Snake

well I was sitting there thinking how do

I how do I tackle a sermon like this um

and and it I I saw a you know sometimes

this what happens when you're preacher

you're not really sure how to handle it

I was thinking do I do the problem of

evil or whatever and all of a sudden I

noticed this uh documentary on it on

Netflix I'd heard about this C have you

heard of the ordinary men anybody heard

about

this it's one of the most

disturbing documentaries I ever saw why

was it so disturbing I mean it wasn't

because it was violent and it certainly

wasn't because they showed a lot of

things you didn't want to see it was

disturbing because the story is about a

bunch of

Germans and they were not Nazis they

weren't in the SS they didn't have any

affiliation to any of that stuff they

just happened to live in a part of

Germany and they worked as

policemen now it turned out they didn't

really want to go fight the war so they

found out a way to get around it they

went in and signed up for the guard or

the police that would go in behind the

Army units when they would come over

into Russia Poland and what have you and

they're thinking oh they would just keep

order in these new cities they were in

for a massive

surprise when they arrived in Poland

their first day their Commander came out

in tears and he threw up in front of

them now why this beloved commander who

they all trusted said unfortunately our

job is

changed we have to now go and take Jews

out into the woods and shoot

them into pits they had no idea they had

never been trained for this they weren't

Nazis they weren't anti-sites they just

were good

Germans and he offered them the

opportunity he said you can step away if

you don't want I will not there will be

no

condemnation and out of the 300 that

stood there five walked

away

five so they took out 1700 women and

children and old people and shot them in

a pit that

day none of them by the way had killed a

person

before by the end of the war this

company was responsible they think for

over

300,000 deaths

not one was a

Nazi they were just

Germans and they did

this that's disturbing

eh boy it makes you

think how can people do

that how can Humanity wake up one day

get a job they don't even really believe

in and then go off and do that and

300,000

people babies

H I bring that story up my friends

because this is the seriousness of what

we're about to learn this is the evil

that was Unleashed by the serpent this

is what this is all about our

section and this is what makes the

gospel even more profound cuz when you

hear it in light of that

if you can't walk away so thankful and

ready to worship I don't know what

else let's

pray Heavenly Father we thank you for

your amazing Amazing Grace we thank you

for your love to

us it is stunning when we watch

something like that that you care for us

human beings but you

do we pray your spirit will open our

eyes and our ears that you'll give me

words that

are pleasing unto you and that you will

get all the glory in jesus' name

amen the section I'm about to read is

two

verses probably the most profound two

verses of the formation of evil that the

whole Bible has I hate to break it to

you guys but the Bible doesn't exactly

tell us exactly why evil happen

it just lets us know when it

happened it doesn't wouldn't it be nice

if we could say to somebody well this is

exactly how it is cuz then if we could

though the problem is being idolatrous

we would try and Conquer it

ourselves but it sits out there as a

mystery so let me remind you what's gone

on so far creation is good everything's

wonderful humanity is created it's

wonderful everything's in order The Good

The Good the good has happened and then

chapter 3 comes and the serp tricks the

lady into eating and taking autonomy so

she can be

God and all of a sudden everything falls

apart all the good has been sucked out

this is a Chaos Agent out to destroy the

order and how does he do it he doesn't

have the power in and of himself and I'm

going to say this a few times the

serpent the devil the Satan whatever

term is used is not God's equal

he's our

equal if God wants to wipe out the

serpent the devil whatever he can do it

tomorrow you know why because God is the

one God the alone

God and that's something churches

especially some more like woohoo

churches get mixed up am don't I don't

okay some Churches give the devil way

more power than he should

have that's called dualism and it's a

heresy

the devil was a created being and he is

not out there with boxing gloves versus

God he's out there as we're going to

find out with boxing gloves against

us and that's the

truth why do I say that because all the

other creation stories have these gods

in fight good God versus bad God I

always in contest Our God just creates

doesn't he there's no other gods and

then he creates this thing called The

Serpent and he shows up and he gives

this temptation but he's created as part

of creation he even says he's just part

of the animal kingdom he says the

creation

story so here he

is and then we get the

curse and the curse is as defined of why

we see this kind of evil as you'll ever

get if we listen

closely the Lord God said to the serp

because you have done this because he's

tricked them because he lied because he

said they would not die because he said

they could be God if they took

Authority remember

that

cursed are you this word cursed means to

uh it it's more damned than cursed it's

not a it's not a a it's not like a witch

putting a curse on somebody it's it's a

condemnation to the fact that damned

means the the presence of me is no

longer with

you damned are you above all livestock

above all Beasts of the fields on your

belly you should go you see he locates

them not in the spiritual world but in

the physical world do you see that he's

more cursed than the livestock and the

Beast of the field you see that he

locates him within creation doesn't he

this isn't some great entity that's out

there fighting God in the heavens this

is somebody stuck in this world

on your belly you shall go what does

that mean does that mean he used to have

legs I I say that somewhat in just I

remember my son uh was in his uh

Christian School class and they asked

them to draw what the serpent would look

like before the fall and they had all

these legs these snakes with

legs that's not what it means at

all what happens have you ever seen a

snake anybody been around

snakes no maybe I should have brought a

couple in here

um but what you know if you've watched

them at all is when a snake is going to

attack he comes up and he stands doesn't

he right so anytime a snake

stands he's going to have power he's

going to have authority and it's

intimidation what God has said is you're

no longer going to have that kind of

power and authority or intimidation you

are going to be docile cuz when a snake

because on his belly he's

DOA that's what that

means he's not going to be the Scrapper

he used to be oh don't think he won't

get us but he's not going to have the

power he had this little do off and this

way it's told is to belittle this being

by the way that's why it's told like

this on your belly you shall go and dust

you shall eat all the days of your lives

again do you think this is God's this is

your new macaroni and cheese this is

what you're

eating cuz I've heard it said that way

and it's

not why does it say dust you eat well

this one we know for sure CU it's in

other creation stories anytime someone

who's no longer living by the power of

the gods or the presence of the Gods it

says they eat dust and what eating dust

means is what who eats dust eventually

dead

people you

see what this means is whatever's going

on this serpent now because he brought

death in he's going to live

death even though he's alive that's a

theological concept you have to get too

when it says this person is dead doesn't

mean they're necessarily physically

dead what he's saying is this entity

this serpent will no longer ever have

life all he's bound to even though he

breathes is death that's what it means

doile and

death This is not a fight between the

serpent and God this is the serpent

sitting there getting told what he's

getting by a much greater

Creator I will put emnity between you

and the woman now here's the key about

the

evil poor woman good thing we guys avoid

this

right unfortunately

not the woman is being used as his

interlocker it's interesting but only

because she represents

the foundation of life for all Humanity

because right afterwards he says and

between your

Offspring and his

offspring and what this means now is

this enity this battle is now between

chaos and

Humanity Humanity made in God's image

and Chaos wanting to destroy it that's

what that means it will constantly be

there and the reason it has The

Offspring is to say that this battle is

never going to stop

stop there's now going to be a battle an

ugliness and evil in humanity that

you're are going to see again and again

this will never end this is as

theologically clear as I'm going to get

on

evil is that because of this there will

be a fight and I hope by the end you'll

believe

me and then it says he shall and I'm

sorry this is a bad interpretation he

uses the wrong word others use the one

he shall bruise your head said no he

shall strike your

head strike does not mean destroy it

means cause

pain and you shall strike his heel so

there will be

constant in these two enity between

humanity and this chaos this evil will

be constantly going at each other

constantly hurting each other neither

winning that's the sense you get in the

creation story nobody wins

there's a lot of reasons I need to say

that because some people saywell The

Offspring who says here that's going to

bruise his head is Jesus he doesn't mean

that at

all The Offspring here is in the plural

not the

singular what he's talking about is that

humanity and this chaos is in constant

conflict and by the time you end Chapter

3 of Genesis there isn't a hope thank

God for the New Testament

if you're just reading the Genesis

account it just sounds like now chaos

and Humanity are going to be in constant

conflict so we should have moments where

the humanity wins and sometimes the

chaos

wins and then it

ends so what how did we get

here well what did he

say you can be like God

you can be like

God that's the power of the

devil telling us you can be like God and

we love

it we love to be told that we're that

important we love ourselves being told

that we are the most important thing in

the world and if you don't believe me

what happens in the last election if

somebody actually d to say h to somebody

I wonder if we really should abort all

these

children people went oh yeah that's well

you know thank you for that

right my body my

choice you can be like

God I'd love you to go outside sometime

and go up to the homosexual person and

say you know what the Bible says it's

between a man and a woman see how that

goes you can be like God it's about you

it's about your

choice and as soon as we go down that

trail he's

winning because that's what he

does we no longer worship God we never

become image Bears of God we become

image Bears of our own

wisdom and we tell God you can stay

around as long as you fit my box

DJ Bon Hoffer once said that he was

shocked that these Christians that were

in his church in Germany all of a sudden

when Hitler showed up that they didn't

once question whether they should look

at

scripture for their Direction but mine

comp was now being handed out and that

was the main book they looked to for

wisdom you can be like

God you see the truth is folks we have

to understand the world before we can

understand evil and the number one truth

in the creation story is there is one

true God and there's no other

gods not

one there's no other power like God

there's no other thing out there some

big

Black Chasm that's he's going I don't

know if I'm going to beat

this he sees chaos at the beginning

deals with it starts great good good

good good and this little beast comes

and Causes Chaos it's not his fight to

to

lose he just says yep because of this

boom there's one God in the heavens and

earth and guess who the one God is

not

us and the biggest lie we hear every

day is that you can be like God every

day we hear this and we wonder why chaos

keeps

raining the Israel it said here oh

Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one

do you remember

that why were they saying that cuz

that's the truth there's one

God what was the first commandment

anybody remember the first of the Ten

Commandments come on there's got to be

some reformer

here it doesn't say anything but except

worshiping that God that's it that's the

number one commandment everything else

comes after one

God and then the New Testament Writers

come and do they

change no they just add in Jesus into

the godhead listen to this Paul yet for

us there is one God the father from whom

all things and for whom we exist and one

Lord Jesus Christ through whom all

things and through whom we exist so now

the New Testament writers go yeah there

is one God and now he's Jesus you see

it but they don't change and Paul never

wants none of the New Testament writers

ever give the serpent any power as just

opposed to

God oh but they give him power just

opposed to

humanity because that's where the

fight's

at one God Jesus

Christ n wrri said it this way God is

the one who satisfies the passion for

justice the longing for spirituality the

hunger for relationship the yearning for

beauty and God the true God is the God

we see in Jesus of Nazareth Israel's

Messiah the world's true

God that's the truth

correct so that's the truth and that's

what we're supposed to Bear the image

what happens then when we decide we're

God

do you see the

problem CU that's where the fight is

that very inclination that you and I

have and we all get it by the way so

none of us can sit here pure is that

it's about me anybody else done

that you guys are

lying if you don't believe me go walk

down a junior high school where they

have lost all

filters and they say

me

amen so who's our

enemy you ready for

this

me and

you we tend to like to blame the devil

don't we didn't the son of Sam said the

devil made me do it remember that the

Bible doesn't get us off the hook at

all the Bible makes it very clear that

the reason we're in the situation we're

in is because we lack the the

Temptation and in so much as we give

over to

it we become

destroyed now there's one text that

Jesus says about the serpent that's

often misunderstood

it's this one right here and he said to

them to the disciples I beheld Satan as

lightning fall from Heaven do you

remember that

verse now most people think that God was

fighting the devil in the heavens and

then he threw them down right but I'm

going to argue with you that if you

actually look at the where it came from

this text this has nothing to do with

God fighting the devil it has to do with

human beings and Devil

fighting so he came came from this text

one way he went back to Isaiah and he's

quoting Isaiah and Isaiah has a prophecy

against a guy named the Bri Morning Star

who was the King of Babylon okay and the

king of Babylon is being rebuked by

Isaiah and he's quoting Jesus this exact

text why is he quoting this text and

applying it to Satan well let's look at

that

text it says how you have fallen from

Heaven oh that sounds familiar doesn't

it but he's not talking about Satan here

he's talking about the king of Babylon

you see that so maybe there's a metaphor

going on here morning Stars son of the

Dawn how you are cut down to the ground

you laid the Nations low you said in

your heart I will descend to the heavens

you said in your heart I will be like

God I will exalt my throne above the

stars of God I will sit on the mountain

of assembly in the far north I will

Ascend above the heights of the

clouds does that sound

familiar and then he says

this I will make myself like the most

high that sound

familiar Genesis

3 and then it says you shall be brought

down to shaol to the depths of the pit

why is Jesus talking to the Pharisees

saying I've seen you oh Satan fall from

the sky cuz he's quoting this anyone who

thinks they're like God or are better

than God I've seen what happens to

you who would climb up to the mountains

and go above the sky just like our

friend The Babylon and it is all he

applies to Satan because it's the Satan

that tells the king of Babylon that he

can be like God and greater and Satan

gets destroyed every time he gets thrown

out of Sky because he can never be

that do you see that does it make

sense this was not about Satan and God

having a fight in heaven and him

throwing him out this is about a human

being and human beings and Jesus has

seen how they fall when they try and be

like

God and it happens again and again and

again

Pharaoh The Exodus destroyed

destroyed Augustus Caesar destroyed

Caligula destroyed all of them wanted to

be gods did you notice that what about

our

lifetime Adolf

Hitler he was going to live for a

thousand years in reign and he didn't

need God what happened to

him he bought into the Temptation that

he could be like God and eventually you

got a bunch of German cops

killing thousands of

people you want to be afraid of the

serpent here I'm going to give you a

reason to be afraid of the serpent he

convinces people they can be like God

and once one person believes they can be

like God then there's no other room for

their

godhead and so what do they do with

those who are below

them they destroy

them and once that person believes they

can be be like God oh do they strike oh

does a serpent strike then and starts to

dehumanize this is the reality of the

Satan he once he connects his teeth into

a human being and convinces them they

can be all powerful whether it's in a

family unit or in a national thing they

will destroy the people around

them and you will see that little strike

again

but here's our other

problem for some of us we were raised

that human beings are only Evil all the

evil all the time but they were made in

God's image in the first two chapters

right they do

good so how what does it say that our

Offspring will strike

him what of the very same Regent that

those men region where those men killed

all those men came from they killed all

those people came are you ready for this

both Mozart and

Beethoven what I'm going to try and tell

you is Humanity still does bring order

Humanity still is in God's image and he

strikes at the chaos when he does

good there is a battle too it's not just

humans being evil all the time it's

humans giving into this temptation but

also humans bearing God's image and it's

a constant struggle 911 PL hit the

building the serpent won

but policemen and firemen ran up there

to save

them true

Humanity in a

war there is good isn't

there do not be under any illusion those

five guys out of all of them said

no it's not always Evil all the time

there's a battle going on but that

battle will never

end if you believe Genesis

3 and it's because

folks behind all our Idols is the

serpent and we are Idol worshippers

ultimately idolatry is huge in the

Bible dominant in our personal lives and

Irrelevant in our mistaken

estimations every time we put something

and make it like God we give ourselves a

little more to

that

H if it ended in chapter 3 right here it

would be a very depressing

book but I got some good

news the theologians call it Christus

Victor somebody

won and it wasn't you and it wasn't me

and how does he win nobody ever pays

attention he could have come down do we

all agree that Jesus was God can we all

agree with

that he could have come down and

gone and destroyed all evil here's the

reason he didn't we'd all be

dead so what does he do to beat him you

ever thought about this remember it's

not God's enemy ultimately I mean he's

God's enemy in the of he hates God but

he's not really his

equal so where does the fight have to

happen if it really is humanity and evil

constantly at fighting constantly

hurting one another where does a fight

have to happen has to happen between a

human a human being and this

chaos and ladies and gentlemen that's

why Jesus became

human because he had to become human to

defeat our

enemy as God it wouldn't have worked he

had to beat our enemy and how does he do

it he does it exactly the way I'm saying

the opposite way I'm

saying that the serpent gains power he

refused to take godship even though he

was God as a thing he was going to carry

he emptied himself as

what a

slave he does the exact opposite of Adam

and the devil doesn't have a moment's

chance to defeat him all those Four

Temptations in Luke's gospel are all you

can be like God just serve me and he

says no no no I'm going to serve

God how does he beat him by being

human and Satan has nothing if he can't

get you to convince yourself that you

are

God the writer of Hebrews said this

basically exactly this since therefore

the children share in Flesh and Blood he

himself self likewise took of the same

thing Flesh and Blood Being Human that

though death he through death he might

destroy the one who has the power of

death that is the devil he became human

to defeat the Devil by giving up his

life in trust to

God by not being being God he said I'm

not going to take advantage of it he did

what we were supposed to do and he was

like God but he never took it for

Advantage and Satan never had a

chance you see the serpent only has that

lie my

friends everything you see around the

serpent destroys people after people

because he convinces them that they are

all that matters have you heard a world

going around that says it's My

Truth anybody heard that that's a

slithery serpent comment if I've ever

heard

one you whatever's in you is truth have

you heard

that you can do whatever you

want Jesus came in and said I can't do

anything I want cuz I serve

him I'm not going to go for my passions

cuz I serve him and he defeated

him Jesus defeated Satan and Geth enemy

on the cross not by directly confronting

the

devil but by fulfilling the Destin me to

which he had been

called The Great Battle that was ever

won was accomplished by the apparent

death of the Victor without even a word

or rebuke to his

adversary the devil

loses when we give up the fight of being

God he's already lost

promise

you you don't want the devil in your

life be

humble stop trying to be God cuz that's

all he's

got and that's how Jesus beat

him the greatest irony of all is when

the one who thought he' won the most the

devil on the cross was the day he lost

everything and the Reas he can do that

because there is only one true God and

he wasn't worried about having to fight

Satan any other

way I love this quote by Stanley haras

only the one true God can take the risk

of ruling by relying on the power of

humility and

love because there's nothing else that

he needs to fight and what did he do you

guys did he get a sword fight with the

devil

nope he he carried his

cross and he beat

him and now do you get why he can say to

us die to yourself why is he saying

that because it's in worshiping yourself

that you give the devil a

shot why does he say carry a cross my

friends because it's in carrying your

gold and your Idols that the devil gets

a

shot well that's good I've given you the

Theology of at all but what about

today we know Satan's been defeated but

we also know there's still guys that

will go out and shoot 300,000

Jews we still live in a world as you

guys know of great evil what people will

do so what do we do with

that the cross has happened why did

these things keep

happening we live in the KN

yet Jesus has won but we're now stuck in

in between and now we have a choice the

way we're going to

walk and the whole Epistles and all of

Revelation is begging us to walk with

Jesus and not get caught back into the

serpent the dragon as Revelation calls

him now we have a choice on how we're

going to

live remember you are not fighting

fighting for victory but from

victory for Jesus Christ has already

defeated Satan so if you're free

fighting from Victory you're still

fighting and what does that fight mean

that means you are you going to renew

your

mind are you going to walk with the Lord

are you going to stop trying to be like

God are you stop re running your family

and being in charge of everything stop

having to be in control of everything

are you willing to lay down and stop

thinking you've got it

all easy said than

done especially when you know you're

right and my wife will tell you because

I'm right a lot on time

and in fact what's weird is when you're

really really right and I'm not really

really right most

times but when you're really really

right it's really hard to

say

okay anybody else find that

hard what I do when I'm really right as

I

go

right but the truth is to just let go

and stop worshiping yourself and he

doesn't have

anything you don't have to run around

and say get behind me

Satan you need to go and say I'm not

going to worship myself and he has

nothing

nothing for us then today

and James is writing to his church we

need to enter this world together if we

want victory in

humility as people who are not trying to

be like God and be in control but serve

and worship the true God and we've

already

won listen to James in his very powerful

text anyone who chooses to be a friend

of the world becomes an enemy of God or

do you think scripture says what without

reason that he jealously Longs for the

spirit he has caused to dwell in us but

he gives us more grace he's so good that

is why scripture says God opposes the

proud but shows favor to the

humble submit yourselves then to God and

resist the devil what did it just say he

opposes the proud and gives grace to the

humble and then right after that he

talks about resisting the devil you

notice that

and he will flee from you the humble

ones he flees

from come near to God and he will come

near to you wash your hands you Sinners

and purify your hearts you double-minded

grieve mourn and wail change your

laughter to mourning and your joy to

Gloom humble yourselves before the Lord

and He will lift you

up spiritual warfare is real and it's

not between God and Satan it's between

us and the remnant of The

Serpent and the way to beat him

according to

James is

humility and letting

go now I know and you know you can't do

that out of yourself I know

that I got some really good

news God has given his very presence in

us the Holy

Spirit if it was just up to us we would

be caught into the loop of

Genesis and the only way we're going to

empty ourselves and stop being God is

let the true God in in the Holy Spirit

welcome him in and embrace him and be

led by

him I want you guys to know I'm

absolutely convinced that I don't know

all the right politics that are going on

but the devil is having a Heyday right

now cuz he's got a bunch of people who

are worshiping politics

they

are and I don't really care if he write

or wrong I think he's just loving that

you hate the other

guy and that you think you're God and

you've got it figured out and then they

become the

devil that's what I'm convinced

of I think we could be an incredible

church if we witness to something

different if we really made Jesus Christ

Our

King and we have him on the throne

only then yes we will love those

people who frankly we might think are

right out to

lunch because God loves

them Charles Spurgeon says it was the

mighty power of the Holy Spirit dwelling

in him by which Jesus overcame the

world and that same quiet power if it

dwells in us will make us win the same

Victory by

faith so do we want to

win we had enough sick of the

fight pray that the Holy Spirit comes

and stops and takes your little

claws that wants to

strike and puts him

away pray the Lord can help you to die

to

self pray the Lord will help you to

carry your

cross because I promise you the Satan

will run away cuz he's got nothing

left I'll end with the good

news we are in a world where these

things happen but Revelation ends with

an incredible

truth that old serpent gets thrown in

the Lake of Fire

and is destroyed

forever I promise you this

ends let's live in this truth now and

live in Christ's Victory and he will

never win here at Mount View

Church let's pray

Heavenly

Father we thank you for your amazing

Amazing

Grace we thank you that you have poured

yourself upon Sinners Like

Us Idol worshippers people who so

often want to be like God wanting Our

Truth to Reign Over Your

Revelation wanting our wisdom to be

greater than yours first of all we in

the church confess this to you and say

have mercy on us

sinners we pray for a world right now

where people are being destroyed by that

lie of the serpent who are killing each

other in

wars in the inner

city with

drugs we ask you to deliver them to open

the eyes and we pray father

that your good and order will take

over remind us that we worship the King

Jesus Christ Alone that you are the only

one we have Fidelity

to and make us a people

father who when others see us they'll be

shocked and say hey they've been with

Jesus we praise

you amen am