Christ the Conqueror of Satan

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, November 26th, 1876, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel."–Genesis 3:16

THIS IS THE FIRST gospel sermon that was ever delivered upon the
surface of this earth. It was memorable discourse indeed, with Jehovah
himself for the preacher, and the whole human race and the prince of
darkness for the audience. It must be worthy of our heartiest
attention.

Is it not remarkable that this great gospel promise should have been
delivered so soon after the transgression? As yet no sentence had been
pronounced upon either of the two human offenders, but the promise was
given under the form of a sentence pronounced upon the serpent Not yet
had the woman been condemned to painful travail, or the man to
exhausting labour, or even the soil to the curse of thorn and thistle.
Truly "mercy rejoiceth against judgment." Before the Lord had said
"dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return," he was pleased to say
that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Let us
rejoice, then, in the swift mercy of God, which in the early watches of
the night of sin came with comfortable words unto us.

These words were not directly spoken to Adam and Eve, but they were
directed distinctly to the serpent himself, and that by was of
punishment to him for what he had done. It was a day of cruel triumph
to him such joy as his dark mind is capable of had filled him, for had
he indulged his malice, and gratified his spite. He had in the worst
sense destroyed a part of God's works, he had introduce sin into the
new world, he had stamped the human race with his own image, and gained
new forces to promote rebellion and to multiply transgression, and
therefore he felt that sort of gladness which a fiend can know who
bears a hell within him. But now God comes in, takes up the quarrel
personally, and causes him to be disgraced on the very battle-field
upon which he had gained a temporary success. He tells the dragon that
he will undertake to deal with him; this quarrel shall not be between
the serpent and man, but between God and the serpent. God saith, in
solemn words, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between
thy seed and her seed," and he promised that there shall rise in
fulness of time a champion, who, though he suffer, shall smite in a
vital part the power of evil, and bruise the serpent's head. This was
the more, it seems to me, a comfortable message of mercy to Adam and
Eve, because they would feel sure that the tempter would be punished,
and as that punishment would involve blessing for them, the vengeance
due to the serpent would be the guarantee of mercy to themselves.
Perhaps, however, by thus obliquely giving the promise, the Lord meant
to say, "Not for your sakes do I this, O fallen man and woman, nor for
the sake of your descendants; but for my own name and honour's sake,
that it be not profaned and blasphemed amongst the fallen spirits. I
undertake to repair the mischief which has been caused by the tempter,
that my name and my glory may not be diminished among the immortal
spirits who look down upon the scene." All this would be very humbling
but yet consolatory to our parents if they thought of it, seeing that
mercy given for God's sake is always to our troubled apprehension more
sure than any favour which could be promised to us for our own sake.
The divine sovereignty and glory afford us a stronger foundation of
hope than merit, even if merit can be supposed to exist.

Now we must note concerning this first gospel sermon that on it the
earliest believers stayed themselves. This was all that Adam had by way
of revelation, and all that Abel had received. This one lone star shone
in Abel's sky; he looked up to it and he believed. By its light he
spelt out "sacrifice," and therefore he brought of the firstlings of
his flock and laid them on the altar, and proved in his own person how
the seed of the serpent hated the seed of the woman, for his brother
slew him for his testimony. Although Enoch the seventh from Adam
prophesied concerning the second advent, yet he does not appear to have
uttered anything new concerning the first coming, so that still this
one promise remained as man's sole word of hope. The torch which flamed
within the gates of Eden just before man was driven forth lit up the
world to all believers until the Lord was pleased to give more light,
and to renew and enlarge the revelation of his covenant, when he spake
to his servant Noah. Those hoary fathers who lived before the flood
rejoiced in the mysterious language of our text, and resting on it,
they died in faith. Nor, brethren, must you think it a slender
revelation, for, if you attentively consider, it is wonderfully full of
meaning. If it had been on my heart to handle it doctrinally this
morning, I think I could have shown you that it contains all the
gospel. There lie within it, as an oak lies within an acorn, all the
great truths which make up the gospel of Christ. Observe that here is
the grand mystery of incarnation. Christ is that seed of the woman who
is here spoken of; and there is a hint not darkly given as to how that
Incarnation would be effected. Jesus was not shadowed of the Holy
Ghost, and "the holy thing" which was born of her was as to his
humanity the seed of the woman only; as it is written, "Behold a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel."
The promise plainly teaches that the deliverer would be born of a
woman, and carefully viewed, it also foreshadows the divine method of
the Redeemer's conception and birth. So also is the doctrine of the two
seeds plainly taught here–"I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, between thy seed and her seed." There was evidently to be in the
world a seed of the woman on God's side against the serpent, and a seed
of the serpent that should always be upon the evil side even as it is
unto this day. The church of God and the synagogue of Satan both exist.
We see an Abel and a Cain, an Isaac and an Ishmael, a Jacob and an
Esau; those that are born after the flesh, being the children of their
father the devil, for his works they do, but those that are born
again–being born after the Spirit, after the power of the life of
Christ, are thus in Christ Jesus the seed of the woman, and contend
earnestly against the dragon and his seed. Here, too, the great fact of
the sufferings of Christ is clearly foretold–"Thou shalt bruise his
heel." Within the compass of those words we find the whole story of our
Lord's sorrows from Bethlehem to Calvary. "It shall bruise thy head":
there is the breaking of Satan's regal power, there is the clearing
away of sin, there is the destruction of death by resurrection, there
is the leading of captivity captive in the ascension, there is the
victory of truth in the world through the descent of the Spirit, and
there is the latter-day glory in which Satan shall be bound, and there
is, lastly, the casting of the evil one and all his followers into the
lake of fire. The conflict and the conquest are both in the compass of
these few fruitful words. They may not have been fully understood by
those who first heard them, but to us they are now full of light. The
text at first looks like a flint, hard and cold; but sparks fly from it
plentifully, for hidden fires of infinite love and grace lie concealed
within. Over this promise of a gracious God we ought to rejoice
exceedingly.

We do not know what our first parents understood by it, but we may be
certain that they gathered a great amount of comfort from it They must
have understood that they were not then and there to be destroyed,
because the Lord had spoken of a "seed." They would argue that it must
be needful that Eve should live if there should be a seed from her.
They understood, too, that if that seed was to overcome the serpent and
bruise his head, it must auger good to themselves: they could not fail
to see that there was some great, some mysterious benefit to be
conferred upon them by the victory which their seed would achieve over
the instigator of their ruin. They went on in faith upon this, and were
comforted in travail and in toil, and I doubt not both Adam and his
wife in the faith thereof entered into everlasting rest.

This morning I intend to handle this text in three ways. First, we
shall notice its facts; secondly, we shall consider the experience
within the heart of each believer which tallies to those facts; and
then, thirdly, the encouragement which the text and its connection as a
whole afford to us.

I. THE FACTS. The facts are four, and I call your earnest attention to
them. The first is Enmity was excited. The text begins, "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman." They had been very friendly; the
woman and the serpent had conversed together. She thought at the time
that the serpent was her friend; and she was so much his friend that
she took his advice in the teeth of God's precept, and was willing to
believe bad things of the great Creator, because this wicked, crafty
serpent insinuated the same. Now, at the moment when God spake, that
friendship between the woman and the serpent had already in a measure
come to an end, for she had accused the serpent to God, and said, "The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." So far, so good. The friendship of
sinners does not last long; they have already begun to quarrel, and now
the Lord comes in and graciously takes advantage of the quarrel which
had commenced, and says, "I will carry this disagreement a great deal
further, I will put enmity between thee and the woman." Satan counted
on man's descendants being his confederates, but God would break up
this covenant with hell, and raise up a seed which should war against
the Satanic power. This we have here God's first declaration that he
will set up a rival kingdom to oppose the tyranny of sin and Satan,
that he will create in the hearts of a chosen seed an enmity against
evil, so that they shall fight against it, and with many a struggle and
pain shall overcome the prince of darkness. The divine Spirit has
abundantly achieved this plan and purpose of the Lord, combating the
fallen angel by a glorious man: making man to be Satan's foe and
conqueror. Henceforth the woman was to hate the evil one, and I do not
doubt that she did so. She had abundant cause for so doing, and as
often as she thought of him it would be with infinite regret that she
could have listened to his malicious and deceitful talk. The woman's
seed has also evermore had enmity against the evil one. I mean not the
carnal seed, for Paul tells us, "They which are the children of the
flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the
promise are counted for the seed." The carnal seed of the man and the
woman are not meant, but the spiritual seed, even Christ Jesus and
those who are in him. Wherever you meet these, they hate the serpent
with a perfect hatred. We would if we could destroy from our souls
every work of Satan, and out of this poor afflicted world of ours we
would root up every evil which he has planted. That seed of the woman,
that glorious One,–for he speaks not of seeds as of many but of seed
that is one,–you know how he abhorred the devil and all his devices.
There was enmity between Christ and Satan, for he came to destroy the
works of the devil and to deliver those who are under bondage to him.
For that purpose was he born; for that purpose did he live; for that
purpose did he die; for that purpose he has gone into the glory, and
for that purpose he will come again, that everywhere he may find out
his adversary and utterly destroy him and his works form amongst the
sons of men. This putting of the enmity between the two seeds was the
commencement of the plan of mercy, the first act in the programme of
grace. Of the woman's seed it was henceforth said, "Thou lovest
righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."

Then comes the second prophecy, which has also turned into a fact,
namely the coming of the champion. The seed of the woman by promise is
to champion the cause, and oppose the dragon. That seed is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The prophet Micah saith, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah;
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee
shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give
them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth."
To none other than the babe which was born in Bethlehem of the blessed
Virgin can the words of the prophecy refer. She it was who did conceive
and bear a son, and it is concerning her son that we sing, "Unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace." On the memorable night at Bethlehem, when angels sang
in heaven, the seed of the woman appeared, and as soon as ever he saw
the light the old serpent, the devil, entered into the heart of Herod
if possible to slay him, but the Father preserved him, and suffered
none to lay hands on him. As soon as he publicly came forward upon the
stage of action, thirty years after, Satan met him foot to foot. You
know the story of the temptation in the wilderness, and how there the
woman's seed fought with him who was a liar from the beginning. The
devil assailed him thrice with all the artillery of flattery, malice,
craft and falsehood, but the peerless champion stood unwounded, and
chased his foeman from the field. Then our Lord set up his kingdom, and
called one and another unto him, and carried the war into the enemy's
country. In divers places he cast out devils. He spake to the wicked
and unclean spirit and said, "I charge thee come out of him," and the
demon was expelled. Legions of devils flew before him: they sought to
hide themselves in swine to escape from the terror of his presence.
"Art thou come to torment us before our time?" was their cry when the
wonder-working Christ dislodged them from the bodies which they
tormented. Yea, and he made his own disciples mighty against the evil
one, for in his name they cast out devils, till Jesus said, "I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Then there came a second personal
conflict, for I take it that Gethsemane's sorrows were to a great
degree caused by a personal assault of Satan, for our Master said,
"This is your hour, and the power of darkness." He said also, "The
Prince of this world cometh." What a struggle it was. Though Satan had
nothing in Christ, yet did he seek if possible to lead him away from
completing his great sacrifice, and there did our Master sweat as it
were great drops of blood, falling to the ground, in the agony which it
cost him to contend with the fiend. Then it was that our Champion began
the last fight of all and won it to the bruising of the serpent's head.
Nor did he end till he had spoiled principalities and powers and made a
show of them openly.

"Now is the hour of darkness past,

Christ has assumed his reigning power;

Behold the great accuser cast

Down from his seat to reign no more."

The conflict our glorious Lord continues in his seed. We preach Christ
crucified, and every sermon shakes the gates of hell. We bring sinners
to Jesus by the Spirit's power, and every convert is a stone torn down
from the wall of Satan's mighty castle. Yea, and the day shall come
when everywhere the evil one shall be overcome, and the words of John
in the Revelation shall be fulfilled. "And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast
out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come
salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of
his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused
them before our God day and night." Thus did the Lord God in the words
of our text promise a champion who should be the seed of the woman,
between whom and Satan there should be war for ever and ever: that
champion has come, the man-child has been born, and thought the dragon
is wroth with the woman, and made war with the remnant of her seed
which keep the testimony of Jesus Christ, yet the battle is the Lord's,
and the victory falleth unto him whose name is Faithful and True, who
in righteousness doth judge and make war.

The third fact which comes out in the text, though not quite in that
order, is that our Champion's heel should be bruised. Do you need that
I explain this? You know how all his life long his heel, that is, his
lower part, his human nature, was perpetually being made to suffer. He
carried our sicknesses and sorrows. But the bruising came mainly when
both in body and in mind his whole human nature was made to agonize;
when his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death, and his enemies
pierced his hands and his feet, and he endured the shame and pain of
death by crucifixion. Look at your Master and your King upon the cross,
all disdained with blood and dust! There was his heel most cruelly
bruised. When they take down that precious body and wrap it in fair
white linen and in spices, and lay it in Joseph's tomb, they weep as
they handle the casket in which the Deity had dwelt, for there again
Satan had bruised his heel. It was not merely that God had bruised him,
"though it pleased the Father to bruise him," but the devil had let
loose Herod, and Pilate, and Caiaphas, and the Jews, and the Romans,
all of them his tools, upon him whom he knew to be the Christ, so that
he was bruised of the old serpent. That is all, however! It is only his
heel, not his head, which is bruised! For lo, the Champion rises again;
the bruise was not mortal nor continual. Though he dies, yet still so
brief is the interval in which he slumbers in the tomb that his holy
body hath not seen corruption, and he comes forth perfect and lovely in
his manhood, rising from his grave as from a refreshing sleep after so
long a day of unresting toil! Oh the triumph of that hour! As Jacob
only halted on his thigh when he overcame the angel, so did Jesus only
retain a scar in his heel, and that he bears to the skies as his glory
and beauty. Before the throne he looks like a lamb that has been slain,
but in the power of an endless life he liveth unto God.

Then comes the fourth fact, namely, that while his heel was being
bruised, he was to bruise the serpent's head. The figure represents the
dragon as inflicting an injury upon the champion's heel, but at the
same moment the champion himself with that heel crushes in the head of
the serpent with fatal effect. By his sufferings Christ has overthrown
Satan, by the heel that was bruised he has trodden upon the head which
devised the bruising.

"Lo, by the sons of hell he dies;

But as he hangs twixt earth and skies,

He gives their prince a fatal blow,

And triumphs o'er the powers below

Though Satan is not dead, my brethren, I was about to say, would God he
were, and though he is not converted, and never will be, nor will the
malice of his heart ever be driven from him, yet Christ has so far
broken his head that he has missed his mark altogether. He intended to
make the human race the captives of his power, but they are redeemed
from his iron yoke. God has delivered many of them, and the day shall
come when he will cleanse the whole earth from the serpent's slimy
trail, so that the entire world shall be full of the praises of God. He
thought that this world would be the arena of his victory over God and
good, instead of which it is already the grandest theatre of divine
wisdom, love, grace, and power. Even heaven itself is not so
resplendent with mercy as the earth is, for here it is the Saviour
poured out his blood, which cannot be said even of the courts of
paradise above. Moreover he thought, no doubt, that when he had led our
race astray and brought death upon them, he had effectually marred the
Lord's work. He rejoiced that they would all pass under the cold seal
of death, and that their bodies would rot in the sepulchre. Had he not
spoiled the handiwork of his great Lord? God may make man as a curious
creature with intertwisted veins and blood and nerves, and sinews and
muscles, and he may put into his nostrils the breath of life; but,
"Ah," saith Satan, "I have infused a poison into him which will make
him return to the dust from which he was taken." but now, behold, our
Champion whose heel was bruised has risen from the dead, and given us a
pledge that all his followers shall rise form the dead also. Thus is
Satan foiled, for death shall not retain a bone, nor a piece of a bone,
of one of those who belonged to the woman's seed. At the trump of the
archangel from the earth and from the sea they shall arise, and this
shall be their shout, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory?" Satan, knowing this, feels already that by the
resurrection his head is broken. Glory be to the Christ of God for
this!

In multitudes of other ways the devil has been vanquished by our Lord
Jesus, and so shall he ever be till he shall be cast into the lake of
fire.

II. Let us now view OUR EXPERIENCE AS IT TALLIES WITH THESE FACTS. Now,
brothers and sisters, we were by nature, as many of us as have been
saved, the heirs of wrath even as others. It does not matter how godly
our parents were, the first birth brought us no spiritual life, for the
promise is not to them which are born of blood, or of the will of the
flesh, or of the will of man, but only to those who are born of God,
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh"; you cannot make anything
else and there it abides, and the flesh, or carnal mind, abideth in
death; "it is not reconciled to God, neither indeed can be." He who is
born into this world but once, and knows nothing of the new birth, must
place himself among the seed of the serpent, for only by regeneration
can we know ourselves to be the true seed. How does God deal with us
who are his called and chosen ones? He means to save us, and how does
he work to that end?

The first thing he does is, he comes to us in mercy, and puts enmity
between us and the serpent. That is the very first work of grace. There
was peace between us and Satan once; when he tempted we yielded;
whatever he taught us we believed; we were his willing slaves. But
perhaps you, my brethren, can recollect when first of all you began to
fell uneasy and dissatisfied; the world's pleasures no longer pleased
you; all the juice seemed to have been taken out of the apple, and you
had nothing at all. Then you suddenly perceived that you were living in
sin, and you were miserable about it, and though you could not get rid
of sin yet you hated it, and sighed over it, and cried, and groaned. In
your heart of hearts you remained no longer on the side of evil, for
you began to cry, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?" You were already from of old in the covenant
of grace ordained to be the woman's seed, and now the decree began to
discover itself in life bestowed upon you and working in you. The Lord
in infinite mercy dropped the divine life into your soul. You did not
know it, but there it was, a spark of the celestial fire, the living
and incorruptible seed which abideth for ever. You began to hate sin,
and you groaned under it as under a galling yoke; more and more it
burdened you, you could not bear it. So it was with you: is it so now?
Is there still enmity between you and the serpent? Indeed you are more
and more the sworn enemies of evil, and you willingly acknowledge it.

Then came the champion: that is to say, "Christ was formed in you the
hope of glory." You heard of him and you understood the truth about
him, and it seemed a wonderful thing that he should be your substitute
and stand in your room and place and stead, and bear your sin and all
its curse and punishment, and that he should give his righteousness,
yea, and his very self, to you that you might be saved. Ah, then you
saw how sin could be overthrown, did you not? As soon as your heart
understood Christ then you saw that what the law could not do, in that
it was weak through the flesh, Christ was able to accomplish, and that
the power of sin and Satan under which you had been in bondage, and
which you now loathed, could and would be broken and destroyed because
Christ had come into he world to overcome it.

Next, do you recollect how you were led to see the bruising of Christ's
heel and to stand in wonder and observe what the enmity of the serpent
had wrought in him? Did you no begin to feel the bruised heel yourself?
Did not sin torment you? Did not the very thought of it vex you? Did
not your own heart become a plague to you? Did not Satan begin to tempt
you? Did he not inject blasphemous thoughts, and urge you on to
desperate measures; did he not teach you to doubt the existence of God,
and the mercy of God, and the possibility of your salvation, and so on?
This was his nibbling at your heel. He is at his old tricks still. He
worries whom he can't devour with a malicious joy. Did not your worldly
friends begin to annoy you? Did they not give you the cold shoulder
because they saw something about you so strange and foreign to their
tastes? Did they not impute your conduct to fanaticism, pride,
obstinacy, bigotry, and the like? Ah, this persecution is the serpent's
seed beginning to discover the woman's seed, and to carry on the old
war. What does Paul say? "But as then he that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." True
godliness is an unnatural and strange thing to them, and they cannot
away with it Though there are no stakes in Smithfield, nor racks in the
Tower, yet the enmity of the human heart towards Christ and his seed is
just the same, and very often shows itself in "trials of cruel
mockings" which to the tender hearts are very hard to bear. Well, this
is your heel being bruised in sympathy with the bruising of the heel of
the glorious seed of the woman.

But, brethren, do you know something of the other fact, namely, that we
conquer, for the serpent's head is broken in us? How say you? Is not
the power and dominion of sin broken in you? Do you not feel that you
cannot sin because you are born of God? Some sins which were masters of
you once, do not trouble you now. I have known a man guilty of profane
swearing, and from the moment of his conversion he has never had any
difficulty in the matter. We have known a man snatched from
drunkenness, and the cure by divine grace has been very wonderful and
complete. We have known persons delivered from unclean living, and they
have at once become chaste and pure, because Christ has smitten the old
dragon such blows that he could not have power over them in that
respect. The chosen seed sin and mourn it, but they are not slaves to
sin; their heart goeth not after it they have to say sometimes "the
thing I do," but they are wretched when it is so. They consent with
their heart to the law of God that it is good, and they sigh and cry
that they may be helped to obey it, for they are no longer under the
slavery of sin; the serpent's reigning power and dominion is broken in
them.

It is broken next in this way, that the guilt of sin is gone. The great
power of the serpent lies in unpardoned sin. He cries "l have make you
guilty: I brought you under the curse." No," say we, "we are delivered
from the curse and are now blessed, for it is written, Blessed is the
man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' We are no
longer guilty, for who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Since Christ hath justified, who is he that condemneth? Here is a
swinging blow for the old dragon's head, such as he never will recover.

Oftentimes the Lord also grants us to know what it is to overcome
temptation, and so to break the dead of the fiend, Satan allures us
with many baits; he has studied our points well he knows the weakness
of the flesh: but many and many a time blessed be God, we have foiled
him completely to his eternal shame! The devil must have felt himself
mean that day when he tried to overthrow Job, dragged him down to a
dunghill, robbed him of everything, covered him with sores, and yet
could not make him yield. Job conquered when he cried, "Though he slay
me yet will I trust in him." A feeble man had vanquished a devil who
could raise the wind and blow down a house, and destroy the family who
were feasting in it. Devil as he is, and crowned prince of the power of
the air, yet the poor bereaved patriarch sitting on the dunghill
covered with sores, being one of the woman's seed, through the strength
of the inner life won the victory over him.

"Ye sons of God oppose his rage.

Resist, and he'll be gone:

Thus did our dearest Lord engage

And vanquish him alone."

Moreover, dear brethren, we have this hope that the very being of sin
in us will be destroyed. The day will come when we shall be without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing; and we shall stand before the throne
of God, having suffered no injury whatever from the fall and from all
the machinations of Satan, for are "they are without fault before the
throne of God." What triumph that will be! "The Lord will tread Satan
under your feet shortly." When he has made you perfect and free from
all sin, as he will do, you will have bruised the serpent's head
indeed.

And your resurrection, too, when Satan shall see you come up from the
grave like one that has been perfumed in a bath of spices, when he
shall see you arise in the image of Christ, with the same body which
was sown in corruption and weakness raised in incorruption and power,
then will he feel an infinite chagrin, and know that his head is
bruised by the woman's seed.

I ought to add that every time any one of us is made useful in saving
souls we do as it were repeat the bruising of the serpent's head. When
you go, dear sister, among those poor children, and pick them up from
the gutters, where they are Satan's prey, where he finds the raw
material for thieves and criminals, and when through your means, by the
grace of God, the little wonderers become children of the living God,
then you in your measure bruise the old serpent's head, I pray you do
not spare him. When we by preaching the gospel turn sinners from the
error of their ways, so that they escape from the power of darkness,
again we bruise the serpent's head. Whenever in any shape of way you
are blessed to the aiding of the cause of truth and righteousness in
the world, you, too, who were once beneath his power, and even now have
sometimes to suffer from his nibbling at your heel, you tread upon his
head. In all deliverances and victories you overcome, and prove the
promise true,–"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young
lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set
his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high,
because he hath known my name."

III. Let us speak awhile upon THE ENCOURAGEMENT which our text and the
context yields to us; for it seems to me to abound.

I want you, brethren, to exercise faith in the promise and be
comforted. The text evidently encouraged Adam very much. I do not think
we have attached enough importance to the conduct of Adam after the
Lord had spoken to him. Notice the simple but conclusive proof which he
gave of his faith. Sometimes an action may be very small and
unimportant, and yet, as a straw shows which way the wind blows, it may
display at once, if it be thought over, the whole state of the man's
mind. Adam acted in faith upon what God had said, for we read, "And
Adam called his wife's name Eve (or Life); because she was the mother
of all living" (verse 20). She was not a mother at all, but as the life
was to come through her by virtue of the promised seed, Adam marks his
full conviction of the truth of the promise though at the time the
woman had borne no children. There stood Adam, fresh from the awful
presence of God, what more could he say? He might have said with the
Prophet, "My flesh trembleth fro the fear of thee," but even then he
turns round to his fellow-culprit as she stands there trembling too,
and he calls her Eve, mother of the life that is yet to be. It was
grandly spoken by Father Adam: it makes him rise in our esteem. Had he
been left to himself he would have murmured or at least despaired, but
no, his faith in the new promise gave him hope. He uttered no word of
repining against the condemnation to till with toil the unthankful
ground, nor on Eve's part was there a word of repining over the
appointed sorrows of motherhood; they each accept the well-deserved
sentence with the silence which denotes the perfection of their
resignation; their only word is full of simple faith. There was no
child on whom to set their hopes, nor would the true seed be born for
an age, still Eve is to be the mother of all the living, and he calls
her so. Exercise like faith, my brother, on the far wider revelation
which God has given to you, and always extract the utmost comfort from
it. Make a point, whenever you receive a promise from God, to get all
you can out of it if you carry out that rule, it is wonderful what
comfort you will gain. Some go on the principle of getting as little as
possible out of God's word. I believe that such a plan is the proper
way with a man's word; always understand it at the minimum, because
that is what he means; but God's word is to be understood at the
maximum, for he will do exceeding abundantly above what you ask or even
think.

Notice by way of further encouragement that we may regard our reception
of Christ's righteousness as an installment of the final overthrow of
the devil. The twenty-first verse says, "Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God made coats of skins, and clothed them." A very
condescending, thoughtful, and instructive deed of divine love! God
heard what Adam said to his wife, and saw that he was a believer, and
so he comes and gives him the type of the perfect righteousness, which
is the believer's portion–he covered him with lasting raiment. No more
fig leaves, which were a mere mockery, but a close fitting garment
which had been procured through the death of a victim; the Lord brings
that and puts it on him, and Adam could no more say, "I am naked." How
could he, for God had clothed him. Now, beloved, let us take out of the
promise that is given us concerning our Lord's conquest over the devil
this one item and rejoice in it, for Christ has delivered us from the
power of the serpent who opened our eyes and told us we were naked, by
covering us from head to foot with a righteousness which adorns and
protects us, so that we are comfortable in heart, and beautiful in the
sight of God, and are no more ashamed.

Next, by way of encouragement in pursuing the Christian life, I would
say to young people, expect to be assailed. If you have fallen into
trouble through being a Christian, be encouraged by it; do not at all
regret of fear it, but rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy, for
this is the constant token of the covenant. There is enmity between the
seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent still, and if you did not
experience any of it you might begin to fear that you were on the wrong
side. Now that you smart under the sneer of sarcasm and oppression
rejoice and triumph, for now are ye partakers with the glorious seed of
the woman in the bruising of his heel.

Still further encouragement comes from this. Your suffering as a
Christian is not brought upon you for your own sake; ye are partners
with the great seed of the woman, ye are confederates with Christ. You
must not think the devil cares much about you: the battle is against
Christ in you. When, if you were not in Christ, the devil would never
trouble you. When you were without Christ in the world you might have
sinned as you like, your relatives and workmates would not have been at
all grieved with you, they would rather have joined you in it; but now
the serpent's seed hates Christ in you. This exalts the sufferings of
persecution to a position far above all common afflictions. I have
heard of a woman who was condemned to death in the Marian days, and
before her time came to be burned a child was born to her, and she
cried out in her sorrow. A wicked adversary, who stood by said, "how
will you bear to die for your religion if you make such ado?" "Ah," she
said, "Now I suffer in my own person as a woman, but then I shall not
suffer, but Christ in me." Nor were these idle words, for she bore her
martyrdom with exemplary patience, and rose in her chariot of fire in
holy triumph to heaven. If Christ be in you, nothing will dismay you,
but you will overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil by faith.

Last of all, let us resist the devil always with this belief that he
has received a broken head. I am inclined to think that Luther's way of
laughing at the devil was a very good one, for he is worthy of shame
and everlasting contempt. Luther once threw and inkstand at his head
when he was tempting him very sorely, and though the act itself appears
absurd enough, yet it was a true type of what that greater reformer was
all his life long, for the books he wrote were truly a flinging of the
inkstand at the head of the fiend. That is what we have to do: we are
to resist him by all means. Let us do this bravely, and tell him to his
teeth that we are not afraid of him. Tell him to recollect his bruised
head, which he tries to cover with a crown of pride, or with a popish
cowl, or with an infidel doctor's hood. We know him, and see the deadly
wound he bears. His power is gone; he is fighting a lost battle; he is
contending against omnipotence. He has set himself against the oath of
the Father; against the blood of the incarnate Son; against the eternal
power and Godhead of the blessed Spirit, all of which are engaged in
the defence of the seed of the woman in the day of battle. Therefore,
brethren, be ye steadfast in resisting the evil one being strong in
faith, giving glory to God.

"Tis by thy blood, immortal Lamb,

Thine armies tread the tempter down;

"tis by thy word and powerful name

They gain the battle and renown.

"Rejoice ye heavens; let every star

Shine with new glories round the sky;

Saints, while ye sing the heavenly war,

Raise your Deliverer's name on high."

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Genesis 3.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–335, 477, 322.
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Christ the Overcomer of the World