The Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 9, 2024
Genesis 3:8-15
Amazing Truths About Our Amazing God—
The Devil Does His Worst, Yet Jesus Always Wins!
8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.” (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Sometimes it makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Every single time we gather together in God’s Name— every single time!— we are assured of the victory that Jesus has won for us. (Pointing to the cross) Whether it’s in the Scripture lessons we hear or in the hymns that we sing, whether it is in the sermon that is preached or the prayers that are offered up to heaven, one of the common themes that we hear week after week after week is that Jesus’ victory is our victory purely by grace through faith in Him! (Pointing to the cross)
And yet, when we look around in the world we see wars and famines, hatred and envy. And yet, when we look around in our country we see divisions and distrust that seem to be only getting worse. And yet, when we look around in our own lives we see failures and disappointments, heartbreaks and weakness. And yet, when we look around at the Christian church at large and sometimes when we look at our own congregation we see the effects of apathy and disillusionment. Sometimes it makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
All of that wonder and all of that uncertainty fades away in the light of the amazing truth that our amazing God proclaims to us today! The amazing truth that we want to wrap our arms around and hold as tightly as we possibly can is this: The Devil Does His Worst, Yet Jesus Always Wins!
The precedent for that amazing truth was established when the devil rebelled— against the Almighty!— and lost! Scripture gives us the impression that the devil’s rebellion was motivated by discontent and by pride. It seems as though the devil was not content with the rank that the Lord God had assigned to him among the heavenly angels and so he started a war in heaven. (See Jude 9; 1 Timothy 3:6; Proverbs 16:18)
Since Satan lost his war against the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, he sought to seek revenge by attacking that which the Lord loved the most— the crown of His Creation, Adam and Eve. On the surface it seemed as though the devil was victorious. He successfully deceived Eve into thinking that it was in her own best interest to disobey the one command God had given and eat from the forbidden tree. Then Satan convinced Eve to convince Adam to also rebel against God. She gave him some of the forbidden fruit and he ate it too!
Our sermon text for today gives us an opportunity see the results of what can happen when the devil does his worst. Look at verses eight and nine of our text. We’re told, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’”
I find this portion of Scripture fascinating. How often did the “LORD God walk in the garden in the cool of the day”? Was this something that Adam and Eve enjoyed on a regular basis? While Scripture does not address these questions, it does reveal the result of what Adam and Eve had done. What was once a beautiful and pleasant experience, what was once a wonderful expression of the loving fellowship Adam and Eve had enjoyed with their loving Creator, instantly became overwhelmed by fear— so much fear!— that they foolishly tried to hide— from God!
The devil had certainly done his worst in an attempt to hurt God. He had deceived God’s children, he had deceived the crown of God’s Creation, into rebelling against the Lord. What the devil did not anticipate was God’s reaction. While the Lord God had every right to simply destroy Adam and Eve, while the Lord God had every reason to turn His back on Adam and Eve and let them perish for all of eternity, what did the Lord God do? He went looking for His children! In an expression of His amazing grace and deep mercy He called out to Adam, “Where are you?” Since God obviously knew exactly where Adam and Eve were, since God obviously knew exactly why Adam and Eve were trying to hide from Him, it’s obvious that this simple rhetorical question reveals the powerful concern that God has for His children!
Have you ever tried to “hide” from God? Has the devil ever tried his worst to convince you to do something that your Lord has told you not to do, or to refuse to do something your Lord has told you that He wants you to do and as a result you try to “hide”? Maybe you tried to “hide” from God by letting your Bible gather dust because you don’t want to hear what God has to say to you. Maybe you tried to “hide” from God by avoiding church because gathering together in God’s house is a powerful reminder to you of how far you have wandered away from God. Thankfully, just as God’s grace and God’s mercy led Him to both look for His beloved children and call out to them, “Where are you?” so also the Lord God does the same for His children today— including you and me! We’ll come back to this thought in just a few minutes.
Look at the next portion of our text, verses ten through thirteen. Here we see how Satan’s worst brings out the worst in sinful human beings. How did Adam respond to God’s rhetorical question, “Where are you?” ? Adam said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” While Adam was ready to admit that he was afraid, he did not want to confess why he was afraid. He claimed that the reason he was afraid was because he was naked. That was an excuse not a confession. He was afraid because now for the very first time he was ashamed of his nakedness.
In an effort to lead Adam to confess his sin of rebelling against God, the Lord asked him, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Now did Adam accept responsibility for the sin he had committed? Not at all! Look at verse twelve, “The woman you put here with me— she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” This is a clear powerful example of how the devil’s worst brings out the worst in a sinful human being. We can almost see Adam putting up his hands and saying to God, “It’s not my fault! I’m the victim here! If it weren’t for that woman— the woman You gave me!— I would not be in this situation. It’s Eve’s fault— not mine!”
No matter how much Adam tries to put the blame on Eve and on God, the bottom line is found in his admission, “…and I ate it.” What led up to Adam eating the forbidden fruit and who joined him in this rebellion is not the issue— at least, not yet. Adam was not forced to eat the forbidden fruit. Adam chose to eat the forbidden fruit. That is why he was filled with fear and shame. Perhaps he was remembering the warning God had given to him, “For when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
Adam’s attempt to blame both Eve and God for his problems led the Lord God to turn to Eve and say, “What is this you have done?” Once again we see how the devil’s worst brings out the worst in a now sinful Eve. She also tries to play the blame game, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” In effect Eve is also blaming God for her troubles, isn’t she. In effect Eve was also saying, “It’s not my fault! The serpent that You created deceived me!” Notice how Eve was also led to confess her sinful action, “…and I ate.” Eve chose to ignore what her Lord had commanded her. Eve chose to listen to the serpent. Eve chose to put her own desires ahead of everything else— “…and I ate.”
“It’s not my fault! I’m the victim here! If so-and-so had not done this, if so-and-so had not said that I would not have reacted the way I did!” Have you ever heard someone say something like that? Have you ever said something like that? Satan’s “worst” has not gotten “better” over the course of time. If anything Satan’s “worst” has only gotten “worser”! Whether it’s the devil himself or his allies in the unbelieving world or his ally that lives inside of us, our old sinful nature, Satan is always trying to seek revenge against the Lord by getting us to rebel against our God. He uses our friends to try to pressure us into doing things that we know are wrong. He uses the lure of the Internet to try and get us to look at things that we know are sinful. He uses the pleasures and the treasures that this world offers to us to try and convince us that we have an “excuse” for not going to church— “It’s too boring!”, that we have an “excuse” for not reading our Bible— “It’s too hard to understand!” or, “It’s been ‘edited’ so many times by so many different people that we can’t trust what it says!” And when we get called out for our sinful ways, when the Lord God uses a family member or a friend, a fellow member of our church or a pastor to say to us, “Where are you?” or, “What are you doing?” or “What were you thinking?” we are tempted to follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve, refuse to accept responsibility for our own actions and try to put the blame on someone else. God did not accept Eve’s excuses. God did not accept Adam’s excuses. And God does not accept our excuses.
Thankfully our text doesn’t end there. Look at verse fourteen. We read, “So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.’” It’s worth noting that while Adam and Eve and the serpent were all judged by God— only the serpent was “cursed.” We sinful human beings are both answerable to God and responsible to God for our sins. But the serpent, the instrument of the devil’s deception, the tool that Satan used to do his worst will bear the stigma of its role in the fall of human beings until the very end of time. The speculation that the serpent once walked upright or at least walked like other animals is beside the point. The point is that a “curse” rests on this animal, a “curse” that is still seen in the revulsion that most people feel toward snakes. Perhaps that is why the term “eat dust” carries the connotation of suffering and defeat.
All of that, my friends, leads up to the amazing truth proclaimed in the closing verse of our text. Still speaking to the serpent God give this promise, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15 is commonly known as the first Gospel Promise. Think about it. Adam and Eve were the ones who sinned. Adam and Eve were the ones who rebelled against their Creator and chose to break the one commandment He had given to them. Adam and Eve were the ones who brought sin and death down upon the entire human race. But there was nothing that Adam and Eve could do to “fix” what they had destroyed. That’s why the Lord God promised to “fix” it for them!
By the grace of God you and I understand the promise that God made way back in the Garden of Eden. The “enmity” that Satan has felt toward God ever since he lost his rebellion against God, the “enmity” that Satan redirected against all of God’s Creation— especially the crown of God’s Creation— God was going to put that same “enmity” between the “offspring” of the woman and the forces of Satan. In other words, there has been and there will be a fierce spiritual battle raging between believers and unbelievers— until the very end of time.
The apex of this battle, however, would take place between one “offspring of the woman” and Satan. In this epic battle He, this one “offspring of the woman” would “crush” Satan’s head. This epic battle began shortly after Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Satan used Herod to try and kill the Christ-Child by sending his soldiers to Bethlehem with the order to “Kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16). This battle intensified some thirty years later when Satan tempted Jesus for forty days in the desert. (See Luke 4:12) This battle intensified even more when Satan used the apostle Peter to try to convince Jesus that He needed to avoid going to Jerusalem where Jesus said that He would “suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law,” and where He “must be killed” (Mattherw 16:21). This battle then culminated right there on the cross of Calvary’s hill. (Pointing to the cross)
There on the cross Satan did his absolute worst. There on the cross it appeared as though Satan had won. But when Jesus proclaimed from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Satan’s “head” was “crushed.” When the living Christ descended into hell, when the living Christ walked right into Satan’s headquarters to proclaim His victory, there was nothing Satan could do. He had lost. And when Jesus physically rose from the dead on the third day just as He promised He would, He proved to the world, He proved to you and to me, that while the devil does his worst— Jesus always wins!
This is the amazing truth that we want to wrap our arms around and hold as tightly as we possibly can! Yes, the devil still does his worst. Yes, the devil’s worst can easily bring pain and hardship into our lives. Yes, there are times when it appears as though the devil is winning! But no matter what the devil does, no matter how hard the devil tries, this cross (Pointing to the cross) not only guarantees to us that Jesus always wins, but this cross guarantees to us that through faith in Jesus we always win!
To God be the glory!
Amen